The Best And Worst Of Each State

Lately I have been doing a lot of research on single-use bag reform and various renewable energy initiatives for work. I love trying to be an overachiever, so I have been doing a lot of work outside of the office, but an unintended result of that is I have been finding it difficult to find the time to really dive into a blog post.

Luckily, one of my readers submitted a link to me last night and I figured that this would be a fantastic opportunity for me to not do any outside research OR write original material!

A round of applause for procrastination, please.

The charts below come from the Mother Nature Network and outline each states most positive environmental statistic along with its most negative. You can click each picture to make them bigger, but I personally find the Texas statistics the most hilarious.

There is something ironic about a state having both the largest presence of clean wind power along with the most carbon dioxide emissions, but it is what it is.

It is probably safe to say that you shouldn't write any term papers on the correlations between these two charts, but if you do, pick Utah and title your paper "Breast Feeding Is Destroying Green Jobs."

You'll get an A just for creativity.

Short Comment Friday: Bike Path Edition

Welcome to Short Comment Friday!!! This is a new segment spawned purely out of laziness, because lets face it, I'm on vacation in Florida and the 80°F weather has destroyed any ounce of productivity I may have had before I went to the beach.

While I have been down here on Sanibel Island, I have fallen in love with bike riding all over again. This island has bike paths all over the island that allow you travel quicker than you would be able to in a car.

Long story short, I wish all areas were like this.

Now I'm off to have a staring contest with this guy!

How Large Of An Environmental Footprint Do Renewables Have?

This morning I was sitting on the train and got into a conversation with a completely random person about alternative energy which I know is shocking to hear because it is a rare occasion for me to want to talk about this stuff...wait.

This person was asking me that if we are sacrificing so much land and resources to construct a wind turbine or solar energy field, are we really making a difference or if we are just trading one evil for another.

I can understand where this person was coming from, but I believe that this is a less complicated issue than they were making it out to be.  This is mainly because even though we are dedicating land and certain natural resources to the construction of an alternative energy infrastructure, these are mainly a one time "cost."  When it comes to coal or other non-renewable energy sources, these are ongoing "costs" to the environment through a constant emission of pollution.

The best analogy I can come up with is when you are taking off a bandaid:

• Investing resources towards clean energy is kind of like ripping off a bandaid quickly.  It may 'hurt' in the short run, but in the long run you will feel a lot better.
• Continuing with our current system of energy production is kind of like keeping a dirty bandaid on forever and you develop sepsis.  Yay!!!

In all seriousness, clean energy is clearly the way to go, and when you compare clean energy's costs vs. benefits against coal's costs vs. benefits, it is a no-brainer.

Don't Live Or Die On Election Results

Judging by commentary on Twitter as well as overhearing conversations on the train today, apparently there was an election yesterday – and here I was thinking that John Stewart and Steven Colbert were just giving away free entertainment this past Saturday.

Seeing that most people treat elections like a sporting event by being really opinionated the morning after a win (or loss) and then becoming less animated about the results a day or two later, I’m not going to waste my time talking about this too much.

Republicans:
Congrats, I guess.

Democrats:
Sorry for your luck.  Just think of this as another reason that it may be better to be color-blind*.

*That and solving a Rubik's cubes is a snap!

No matter what your political affiliation is, here are some positive (or potentially positive) environmental things that came out of the elections yesterday:

• Proposition 23 in California was defeated despite the heavy amount of funding from out of state sources.

• 25 of the 42 Democrats who voted against the climate bill lost their seats.

The Democrats losing their seats is loosely positive because one way to view it is that these seats will be filled with people that are more open-minded towards environmental issues, but another way to look at this is that these seats are potentially filled with people that are going to be no different.

Only time will tell.

One thing is for sure though; any progress on the environmental front will have to be a cooperative effort from both sides. The best way that this can happen is when politicians from both sides begin to see the economic benefits of pursuing alternative energy and sustainable practices - which is exactly how our government is supposed to work in the first place.

Weekly Review - October 29, 2010

Every Friday, I will review the big developments that happened during the week so that you can stay current and (attempt to) sound smart when talking to others.

Range Anxiety

• The What - This is a term that has been thrown around for a while now, but it has been popping up more and more in the coverage of electric cars.

• Why You Care - Even though people don’t typically drive more than 40 miles on a daily basis, the fear that your car could run out of power while driving is a legitimate fear that could damage the sales of these cars. Like the first iPhone, battery capacity will improve over time, but initial purchases need to take place to provide the developers with capital they can reinvest into development.

Naval Biofuel

• The What - Not a day went by this week without Sustainabili-City’s twitter account being inundated with headlines referring to the Navy testing out a Command Boat that runs on a 50% mix of algae-based biofuel.

• Why You Care - Whenever the military begins purchasing a new technology ($424/gallon of algae-biofuel), new markets begin to emerge as the developers enjoy a new source of funding. Think cell-phones or the internet.

Wind Declining

• The What - In a report released by AWEA, the wind energy industry is slowing down to levels previously recorded in 2007. This is most evident when considering that Vestas laid off 3,000 workers this past week.

• Why You Care - Damnit. Oscillations happen all the time in new (and old) industries as they try to discover the efficient level of operation and growth, but this definitely is a punch in the balls.

Environmentally Friendly Halloween Costumes

• The What - If you are like 80% of people, you have waited until the last moment to figure out what you are going to be for Halloween.

• Why You Care - Face it. Halloween is the most enjoyable holiday of the year and you should never pass up an opportunity to celebrate with friends. With these last minute ideas, you can create a great costume out of things you potentially already have saving you from spending a lot of money on something that you will potentially only wear once.

My Favorite