Frankly Green

Ship of Plastic Bottles to Send Eco-Message

Trek across Pacific will be atop 10,000 empties and dome with shower
Link to Article

SAN FRANCISCO - You've heard of a ship in a bottle. How about a ship made of plastic bottles? That would be the Plastiki, designed to sail the Pacific on an 11,000-mile voyage highlighting the dangers of living in a throwaway world.

"Waste is fundamentally a design flaw. We wanted to design a vessel that would epitomize waste being used as a resource," said expedition leader David de Rothschild.

The boat is named in honor of the 1947 Kon-Tiki raft sailed across the Pacific by explorer Thor Heyerdahl, an ocean adventure that inspired de Rothschild.

There's a bit more of a tie-in. One of the Plastiki team members is Josian Heyerdahl, the explorer's granddaughter.

GrayisGreen.org - The National Senior Conservation Corps

I had the good fortune of meeting Robert E. Lane when my friend Robert Lane (no "E" and no relation to the former) introduced us. They met by chance and by virtue of sharing the same name. When I first met Robert E. Lane, he had the idea for GrayisGreen.org and now, through his efforts and the efforts of others, it has come to reality.

Below is a description of the National Senior Conservation Corps. I love the energy and attitude that they, and their entire generation for that matter, bring to tackling tough problems (and they have tackled a few!).

So congratulations Robert E. Lane and thank you Robert Lane for the introduction.

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GrayisGreen.org is a product of the elderly residents of Whitney Center, a retirement home in Hamden, Connecticut. While the generation born in the 1930s may be called seniors, we elderly were born in the 1910s and 1920s. With one exception, ours is an honorable history. We grew up in – and survived – the depression, defeated Fascism, Nazism, and Japanese imperialism, created the United Nations, held steady in the Cold War and, along with our children, defeated the tyrannical Communist system. We have been called the “Civic Generation” because, more than earlier and later generations, we took an interest in public affairs, turned out to vote, organized civic groups to fight for civil rights, civil liberties, and the relief of illness and poverty.

Women of Influence on Hope to Action

The Hope to Action team is excited to announce our new website, featuring Women of Influence, a community blog of female leaders from across the country who are taking action for a greener planet.

Read exclusive entries by activists Kerry Kennedy, Laurie David, and First Lady of San Francisco, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.  Be inspired by the personal perspectives of members Lisa Bennett, Sharon Kedar and Christine Gardener.

Each one of these women represents the growing movement of Hope to Action.  We serve as a meeting ground and action center for all women and organizations who share the belief that each of us has a vital role to play in shaping our country's green, clean energy future.

Be inspired and take action today!

Making Hybrids Even Greener

November 5, 2008
San Francisco Journal
By Felicity Barringer

Link to Article at NYT.com

Thanks to my father for sending this article!

SAN FRANCISCO — The fig tree and the philodendron are the first things that meet the eye in the repair bay of Luscious Garage. Then the two Toyota Priuses come into focus — one with a slightly dented rear door, the other on a lift with two tires off and rusty brake rotors exposed. Then comes the eerie sense that something is missing: grime.

“You could eat off her floor,” said Sara Bernard, the customer in need of brake repair.

The only hybrid specialty garage run by a woman has opened in the Bay Area, which has more Priuses — 70,000 as of 2006 — than most states. And while its owner, Carolyn Coquillette, has a preoccupation with cleanliness that may not be unique in a mechanic’s shop, her ubiquitous recycling containers (for paper, plastic, rubber, metal and oil) and the solar panels on her roof set Luscious apart. So does its specialty: giving hybrid owners the option of going fully electric.

Just Say No to Bottled Water - Turn on the Tap

Here is an excellent site created by David Wilk. David has been a writer, editor, publisher, book distributor and web marketer and has been an environmental activist for many years. 

One day, after reading Charles Fishman's brilliant article "Message in a Bottle" on Fast Company magazine's website, he realized that the issue of bottled water carries the essence of almost all the problems we face in modern society. And because clean drinking water is so basic to our lives, these issues and concerns affect everyone and should be relatively easy to address. So on impulse, he made the decision to dedicate a significant portion of his time and effort to helping people better understand the consequences of drinking bottled water. And Turn to Tap was born.

Meltdown: A Global Warming Travelogue

Since 1999, Gary Braasch has traveled the world to see where and how climate change has affected people.

Braasch says photos best illustrate what is already happening, but can lead the discussion on where we are going. He quotes a Chinese proverb: If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going."

Link to Slide show of photos

For a long time -- the first 15 years that we knew about global warming and did nothing -- there were no pictures. That was one of the reasons for inaction.

Climate change was still "theoretical," the word that people in power use to dismiss anything for which pictures do not exist. It is the reason we don't see shots of coffins coming back from Iraq; it's the reason the only prison abuse we really know about was at Abu Ghraib. Without pictures, no uproar; not in a visual age.

But now the pictures have started to come, and they will not cease.

Friedman: Bailout (and Buildup)

Another great piece by Thomas Friedman!

Link to Article

“Is the economic crisis going to be the end of green?” asks David Rothkopf, energy consultant and author of “Superclass.” “Or, could green be the way to end the economic crisis?”

It has to be the latter. We can’t afford a financial bailout that also isn’t a green buildup — a buildup of a new clean energy industry that strengthens America and helps the planet.

But how do we do that without any policy to affect the price signal for gasoline and carbon?

Here are some ideas: First, Washington could impose a national renewable energy standard that would require every utility in the country to produce 20 percent of its power from clean, non-CO2-emitting, energy sources — wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, biomass — by 2025. About half the states already have these in place, but they are all different. It would create a huge domestic pull for renewable energy if we had a uniform national mandate.

John Whitmore: What Next? Flying Saucers?

My father sent me this article with the following comment: This piece is by Sir John Whitmore who drove for Ford in England in the 60's and with whom I raced at Goodwood.  We had adjacent lockers, and Sir John commented that perhaps, as in environmentalist, he shouldn't really be racing.  I thought this might be some useful food for your website.

Thanks, Dad!

Link to Article

John Whitmore has seen the future. It has neither wheels nor wings, and it is being realized in a laboratory in West Sussex

The motor industry is deluding itself, and kidding us, by showcasing luxury hybrid 4x4s and limousines, or electric sports cars whose carbon footprint is still far larger that of a small diesel hatchback. While they make a positive environmental statement and the investment in new technology is valuable, the vehicles themselves are of little use. They may be a stopgap, but they have no long term future. It is time to move on. Let us take a big leap.

Solar-Powered Undertaker 'Nuts' No Longer

CNN's Deborah Feyerick reports on a family-owned business benefitting from solar power.

Link to Video

Converting Gas-Powered Cars to Electric

    * Switching his truck to an electric engine saved one man about $700        in four months
    * As gas prices rose, sales tripled for one conversion parts dealer
    * Some converters are fed up with spending money on gas, foreign oil
    * Others like the environmental bonus of going electric

By Curt Merrill
CNN

Link to Article

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Larry Horsley loves that he doesn't buy much gas, even though he drives his '95 Chevy S-10 back and forth to work each day.

Horsley, a self-described do-it-yourselfer, simply plugs his truck into an electric wall outlet in his Douglasville, Georgia, garage and charges it overnight, instead of buying gasoline refined from mostly imported oil.