During class today, I did bring up the observation in New York City where there are large piles of garbage cans. In a city that attracts a lot of tourists throughout the world, the garbage pile damages the reputation of NYC. This is a concern. I personally not have a picture of it, but I did find a news article: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140218/williamsburg/new-yorkers-raise-stink-over-mountains-of-trash-piling-up-after-snowstorms

The news articles also mentioned that the garbage trucks focus more on snow removal during snowstorms. Focusing on snow removal is actually a good thing but mountains of trash leaves nothing but complaints from New Yorkers. First, it smells. Especially in the summer. Second, my concern is that this can be a health risk. And third, as Prof. McGuire brought up, this can attract rats, which then rip off the garbage bags and cause the sidewalks and streets to be littered with trash.

Here is another link: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/24565851/sanitation-dept-promises-to-finally-haul-away-piles-of-garbage-from-upper-east-side

Thankfully, NYC Sanitation Department is taking action. We all know that safety is our #1 priority but we should also factor in our health too at a similar level as safety.

At an annual shareholders meeting, Tim Cook purportedly told the NCPPR to “get out of the stock” if they opposed Apple’s sustainability efforts so much.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/03/at-apple-shareholders-meeting-tim-cook-tells-off-climate-change-deniers/

Not that I’m a diehard Apple fan, but I did enjoy seeing this.

Here’s an article from today’s NY Times.

How will people react when they see their gas prices rise by $.09 per gallon? The health benefits from sulfur reduction in gas is apparent, but this will cost oil companies billions of dollars on new equipment to clean sulfur out of gasoline. This is a huge health and environmental achievement, but will the majority of the population see it this way?

Recently, we have been discussing our connection to food and the natural environment. All of us spend a lot of time, perhaps too much time, consuming and creating data on the internet and over phone networks. While data production and consumption doesn’t directly gobble up trees or burn coal, it does require a lot of hardware… and lots of electricity. Take a look at the link to the slideshow and New York Times article describing what goes on in a modern data center. Large data centers consume as much power as a decent sized town.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2219188/Inside-Google-pictures-gives-look-8-vast-data-centres.html

We all are aware that trains are among the most sustainable present-day motorized transportation these days. Amtrak has its own page about how it commits to sustainability: http://blog.amtrak.com/2014/01/amtrak-commits-sustainability/

It has received a sustainability score of 85, which is a B. Yes, the sustainability score has a very similar scale as academic grading. As a matter of fact, it remains one of the more environmentally friendly form of transportation, where only 2,435 BTUs are used, compared with 2,826 BTUs per airliner and 3,538 BTUs per car.

Here is a link to the 2012 sustainability report:  http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/883/945/Amtrak%202012%20Environment%20and%20Sustainability%20Summary_Final.pdf

No Impact Man (the movie) came out in 2009. I was curious about what he is up to these days and how many of his sustainable living practices he continues. The most recent article I found was this 2012 NYTimes piece

There is also this no impact project website where you can sign up to do a no impact week.

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/campaigns-moral-sustainability-effective-economic?view=classic

Going along with the our readings and the papers we are writing, this article actually shows that appealing to people’s sense of morality rather than their wallet motivated more action.

The first article below discusses how back in 2010 the Obama administration passed a law requiring all stock production cars to obtain a fuel economy of 35.5 MPG or better.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/01/AR2010040101412.html

This article is an auto blog from last year with the latest in average fuel economy numbers for new cars at 24.9 MPG. Ten below the requirement with only three years left to achieve it.

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/09/12/average-new-car-fuel-economy-record-24-9-mpg/

I found this article online when I was doing research for my semester project and I thought it did a good job of at least touching on each of the three areas – planet, people, profit – associated with the Triple Bottom Line.

Planet – No more plastic bags!

People – Pay $0.10 per recycled paper bag; city plan to hand out 1 million reusable bags in low income areas

Profit – Disincentive to defy bag ban ($500 fine for not complying with the new law)

Bloom Energy “Click Here”

Bloom Energy Servers are highly efficient fuel cells which can convert natural gas, biogas, and other compatible fuels into electricity. Rather than electricity being distributed from one main source such as a coal power plant, around 100 homes or small businesses, and perhaps individual homes in the future, would each have their own individual source of power generation. This increases efficiency by removing all power line transmission losses (since all electricity is produced on site), and the fuel cells themselves are also more efficient than any power plant. The total efficiency ends up being about 50% compared to as much as half of this for a typical power plant. In my opinion, due to the great increase in efficiency and the capability to produce power from cleaner sources, Bloom Energy Servers would make a good stop-gap solution to our energy problems until something such as nuclear fusion comes along and solves everything.

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/leveling_appalachia_the_legacy_of_mountaintop_removal_mining/2198/

I watched this video of this documentary of mining in Appalachia. It shows the consequences of mining. Since the mid-1990s, the coal industry used mountaintop removal mining to extract coal. This resulted in over one million acres of forests being destroyed and nearly 2,000 miles of streams. In 2007, an energy company known as AT Massey Energy applied for permits for mining…6,450 acres of Coal River Mountain in Raleigh County, WV. This mining not only destroys the mountains, but also destroys the beautiful scenery, with polluted air contributing to this mess. Locals have been trying their best to join together protest against mining. 7 episodes of flash flooding due to violently fast downstream water and heavy rains have caused damages to tens of thousands of homes. When mining happens, top of mountains explode. What used to be a beautiful landscape now looks dead.

Effects on drinking water: There have even been local concerns about the effects of drinking water. A water sample was taken and it turned out to be acidic, with the pH level of 4.86. Color of water appears black.

Unfortunately, the US Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 did not work out well as mountains were unable to be protected and full-scale mountaintop-removing coal mining were allowed.

Coal cut companies turned out to not care about the environment and the community. They only care about money.

This mining practice is not only contributing to the climate change, but also affecting the lives of future generations.

Great field trip today to Jacobsburg State Park Environmental Education Center!

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2014/02/18/why-youve-never-measured-your-carbon-footprint

Multiple carbon footprint calculators exist but the results differ greatly. However, new calculators more similar to the Nike FuelBand might change that.

When you read articles describing potential future scenarios with widespread use of electric cars and renewable energy sources, one of the primary obstacles to this seemingly better world is our current battery technology. The world is waiting for a Big Battery Breakthrough that will make these greener alternatives to fossil fuels a no-brainer from economic and convenience standpoints. We’ve had big breakthroughs in the past (steam power, powered flight, penicillin, radio communication) that radically shifted the economy and the way we live our lives. What will a Big Battery Breakthrough look like?

Here are some possibilities:

http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2014/01/organic-mega-flow-battery-promises-breakthrough-for-renewable-energy?utm_source=harvardalumnigazette&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hag_january2014

http://theenergycollective.com/lougrinzo/316306/hydrogen-vaporware-vs-big-battery-breakthrough

Young people (people in my age group and slightly younger) are known to stay up late at night. Not only that it can have potential health-related consequences, it appears unsustainable. Do you know why? The more you are awake during darkness, the more artificial light you will need and the more energy would be used. Since I like to go to bed early and get up early, there are times when I hardly see complete darkness, like in June.

On a piece of paper I get every year about recycling information at my house, not only that it shows the information on when recycling is collected and which recyclables are collected on what day, it reminds people that the town government gets paid whenever people recycle, while our tax dollars pay for garbage collection. As a result, in order to reduce taxes, an increasing number of people have been paying attention to recycling.