SalvaEco

We're so happy to have all of you here to beta test the Green Options portal. My name is Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, and I'm the Senior Editor and Content Director for Green Options. I'm in charge of the blog, the wiki, the news center and the discussion forums; I'm also responsible for any writing that you see around the site. If you run across issues with any of these site elements, please feel free to send me a private message, or to leave a message on the Beta discussion forum.

This month thousands of people in Indonesia have been showing their opposition to nuclear power with a massive protest yesterday in the Kudus regency against government plans to build Indonesia’s first new nuclear power plant in the nearby Jepara regency.

Earlier this month, Greenpeace joined thousands of Japara’s residents, community leaders, artists and celebrities in in a protest against the same proposal.

The plans seem unfathomably crazy especially since Indonesia has plenty of opportunities for renewable energy. They will be using old and questionable technology to build the reactors that will require 4,000 litres of water per minute on the edge of a dormant volcano!

Let’s hope President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono realises what a stupid plan this is and bins it in favour of a clean energy strategy that so many people are clearly calling out for.

Now as if the plans in Indonesia aren’t worrying enough – check out what Thailand just announced today!

What do you do when you’ve got a problem like communicating the need for renewable, efficient energy to hundreds of millions of people? Harness the web, of course.

SmartPower, a nonprofit marketing organization that promotes clean energy, used YouTube to form the Clean Energy Challenge. The aim was to create an ad for SmartPower around the belief that “clean energy is real. It’s here. And it’s working.”

After reviewing 150 submissions (not a ton, but not bad for such a wonky topic whose actors have virtually no chance of finding a mate on national TV), the $10,000 winner has been chosen. But in the true style of any reality show, the final results are drawn out over several days. The top 10 ads were posted on June 10th and for every day until the 18th one ad will be removed, finally leaving the “last ad standing” on Monday.

The winner will be announced via webcast at 5:00PM on June 18th and all finalists voted off are highlighted on the SmartPower Blog.

Do you have a car on your block that always seems to be parked in the same spot? It collects dust on dry weeks, and disguises itself under a mountain of snow in the winter. Well if you said yes, this vehicle is the victim of what I call “owners neglect." If this black diamond urban ski mountain is your car, its ok, there is now a solution to this situation that is growing rapidly in urban/semi-urban areas.

Many of us own a car for the convenience of using it a couple times a week: to go to the grocery, to go to a concert across town, to get to a dentist appointment early in the morning, or to get out of town for a weekend. Wouldn’t it be easy if you could walk a block and pick up a shared car whenever you need it, and never worry about the upkeep?. This concept is called a car-sharing or car co-op program. You pay a monthly fee, based on your expected use, to employ the service. With the service, the company maintains and services the vehicles, fills ‘em up, takes care of insurance, clean them out, and reserves a parking spot for you when you’re done. This saves you lots of time, money, stress, and reduces the number of bills you have to pay. Here is why it’s important, the car is useful to you on the days you need it, and it is useful to others in the alternate time slots. In some cites these car-sharing programs are even employing fleets of hybrids only. And it is still affordable!

Image courtesy of the Wakarusa Music Festival

More and more buzz is being generated in the music industry about artists greening up concerts and venues greening their practices. I was able to see some of this first hand while spending four days at the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival in Lawrence, KS, this past weekend.

Lured by the temptation of such acts as Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Son Volt, Yonder Mountain String Band, Widespread Panic, and my personal favorite, the John Butler Trio, my husband and I set out for an extended weekend of camping and concerts approximately 45 minutes west of Kansas City at Clinton Lake State Park. We were pleased to find multiple efforts at sustainability from the moment we got to the venue.

When driving into the park, after receiving our wristbands from festival organizers, volunteers handed us two plastic bags: a clear bag for trash and a green bag for recyclables. Dubbed "Recycalusa" Wakarusa's recycling efforts extended to glass, aluminum, cardboard, and plastic. Wakarusa even urged festival-goers to bring canned beverages, not bottled, because the market for glass recycling was far smaller in Lawrence than for aluminum. There was a Recycalusa booth where festival-goers could take their green bags, sort their recycling, and win prizes such as band merch.

Editor's Note: Today, Chris Baskind editor at Lighter Footstep writes on the importance of keeping dryer sheets at bay from our pets.

Well-meaning pet owners are using dryer sheets to control pet hair. Is this such a good idea?

 

We love our pets — and they love us. Which is the main reason dog and cat dander seems to get everywhere: on the sofa, your clothes, and your carpet. Your furry companion loves to sit wherever you do.

There's a tip making the rounds these days: use a dryer sheet to repel pet fur. And it seems to work. Dryer sheets cut down on static, which is what makes fur cling to fabric surfaces. Some owners even use dryer sheets directly on their animals to reduce the static buildup which accompanies thunderstorms and alarms jittery pets.

But is this safe?

First, hats off to Bounce for their truly generous support of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. As part of their Bounce Everywhere campaign, they've donated $10,000 to the ASPCA. It's part of a bid to promote dryer sheet usage by pet owners that goes by the slogan, "Share the love, not the hair!"

Dryer sheets repel static and smell so darn good because they're full of chemicals. Formulas vary from product to product, but your favorite fabric softener or dryer sheet (not necessarily Bounce) might contain such unpleasant substances as benzyl acetate, camphor, or even chloroform.

Image Source: EnergyStar
I had the chance to learn more about evaluating home energy efficiency at a seminar about energy rating for homes. This is particulary valuable here in the State of Michigan because Michigan is in the bottom 5 states for energy efficiency in home construction. According to the EPA, only Hawaii is worse than Michigan. There is new legislation being introduced in the state to address some of these issues (which I will be writing about shortly), but, at present, the state requirements are very lax, and saying that a house meets the building code for energy doesn't mean all that much.

Production homebuilders would rather save a few hundred dollars so that they can keep their costs low and sell homes at the lowest price they can. They are unconcerned about the operating cost of the home, and many homebuyers are following them and only asking about the seling price. The cost of this negligence arrives in high energy bills for these homes, which buyers must deal with year after year.

But, there are some federal incentives that encourage the building of more efficient homes. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 includes a $2000 credit (not just a deduction) for home builders for the construction of a home that meets energy efficiency targets. (The deadline on the Energy Act is presently January 1, 2008, but it is expected to be extended by Congress very shortly.) "Home builders are eligible for a $2,000 tax credit for a new energy efficient home that achieves 50 percent energy savings for heating and cooling over the 2004 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and supplements. At least 1/5 of the energy savings must come from building envelope improvements." — (EnergyStar link)

Don’t Buy Gifts, Spend Time TogetherSunday is Father's Day, and just like Mother's Day, it originated out of the horrors of war. The first known Father's Day was celebrated in 1839, when 123 fathers lost their lives defending the outpost in the Battle of Iransop. The modern American celebration of Father's Day began in 1908, when 361 men were killed in a mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia. Father's Day is celebrated around the world (on different days) to honor and commemorate the importance of male figures in family life.

Traditionally in this country, gifts are given by children to their fathers, but does Dad really need another Jerry Garcia silk tie? According the The Green Guide, more than half of dads say they've never received a "good" gift, and the average cost of a Father's Day gift is $89.00. There are plenty of green, eco gifts available to buy Dad. Instead of supporting the overconsumerism in this country spawned by holidays, how about showing Dad you love him with a truly sustainable gift. These gifts don't require you to buy Dad anything, but to spend time with him.

Don’t Buy Gifts, Spend Time TogetherSunday is Father's Day, and just like Mother's Day, it originated out of the horrors of war. The first known Father's Day was celebrated in 1839, when 123 fathers lost their lives defending the outpost in the Battle of Iransop. The modern American celebration of Father's Day began in 1908, when 361 men were killed in a mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia. Father's Day is celebrated around the world (on different days) to honor and commemorate the importance of male figures in family life.

Traditionally in this country, gifts are given by children to their fathers, but does Dad really need another Jerry Garcia silk tie? According the The Green Guide, more than half of dads say they've never received a "good" gift, and the average cost of a Father's Day gift is $89.00. There are plenty of green, eco gifts available to buy Dad. Instead of supporting the overconsumerism in this country spawned by holidays, how about showing Dad you love him with a truly sustainable gift. These gifts don't require you to buy Dad anything, but to spend time with him.