2009 May 24 « Greenstandard's Blog

Archive for May 24th, 2009

24 May

Google’s Power Meter smart-grid service

Posted by greenstandards in Green Products, go green. Tagged: energy efficiency. Leave a Comment

Google has signed on smart-meter manufacturer Itron and eight utilities to offer Google’s Power Meter Web service for monitoring home energy use.
Power Meter reads a home’s electricity meter and gives the consumer a detailed readout of usage. The idea is that a better understanding of electricity usage–presented via daily trends and data on individual appliances–will [...]

24 May

Eco-Green Chemicals And Steam Cleaners Can Do More! by: Tom Husnik

Posted by greenstandards in Green Tips, Health, go green. Tagged: green cleaning. Leave a Comment

Now, steam cleaners can do more. Not only can steam cleaners sanitize and disinfect surfaces, but they can also be used to clean tile & grout, spot clean carpets, eliminate allergens, and more. All of these capabilities are possible without the use of harmful chemicals often associated with intense cleaning.
Tile & grout steam cleaners [...]

TreeHugger

Here Comes the Glowing ARTIKCAR!
Image: Bicycle Design Bicycle Design is always trawling up remarkable cycle oddities. This one, the work of UK artist Ben Wilson, is modeled off the kids toys Ben remembers from youth. Though more art than daily mule, ARTIKCAR is steered by leaning the body. It was conceived for a parade masterminded by Walk the Plank, a UK "creative force of artists,.. […]
Put the $ in Sustainability with Design Competition (and maybe save the Earth)
Credit: The 2009 winner, a plan to use existing infrastructure to create clean energy. Courtesy metropolismag.com. Open your mind to the three-legged stool of sustainability. Stool is better than pillar, because a house with two pillars can still stand. But take away the environment, economy or society from the three-legged stool, and you end up on your butt […]
Christmas Bird Count: Is that Two Turtle Doves or One?
Barred owl photo by Glenn Tepke for Audubon Society It's time for the 110th Christmas Bird Count, the annual holiday tradition when tens of thousands of volunteers, from Alaska to Antarctica, look and listen for birds, counting populations for researchers. The National Audubon Society organizes the CBC, tracking species from mid-December to January 5 fo […]
It's Definitely Christmas Morning! Giant Solar Christmas Trees and Incredible New Snowflake-Shaped Solar Cells
Image via The Phoenix Sun Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Friday to those who don't! And for everyone - check out these awesome solar power creations. Brisbane doesn't mess around when it comes to their Christmas tree. The tree stands nearly 70 feet high and is constructed with 16,000 lights. Oh my! But the kicker is that it is […]
Designed for NIMBYs, Palm Tree Hides Solar and Wind Power
Images via Coroflot Cell phone towers disguised as trees rarely fool anyone. The uniformly shaped and spaced branches with their lego-like sheen usually just don't pull off the trick very well. But what about solar towers disguised as palm trees. This design by Matthew Seibert could make even the most NIMBY-minded people consider adding solar power to t […]
Bill O'Reilly Disses Solar, Solar Chief Hits Back
Credit: bbjee via Flickr. You may have heard about the hot deal made between SunEdison and the Irvine, California, school district. They're putting up panels at 21 sites, and expect to save $17 million in energy costs over 20 years. It wasn't long after news of the agreement broke that conservative talker Bill O'Reilly said solar power was too […]
European Soil Becoming More Resistant to Antibiotics
Image credit: plindberg/Flickr Outbreaks of MRSA, swine flu, and other diseases point directly to a need to improve the conditions under which we produce food, and an increased scrutiny of what we add back to the environment. In Europe, a continent-wide campaign to reduce the number of antibiotics released into the environment is underway with the goal of re […]
Permaculture is Not About Returning to the Caves: Bill Wilson Inteview (Video)
Image credit: Peak Moment It's funny how often you hear people, even within the environmental movement, deriding the back-to-the-land phenomenon. Transition Towns have been dismissed by some as a rebranding of self-sufficient hippydom, for example, and my post on volunteerism and permaculture had some commenters sneering at voluntary serfdom. And yet, a […]
Maine Sculptor's 'Beautiful and Discomforting' Take on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Photos of "Gyre" at the Center of Maine Contemporary Art by Anna Hepler via Flickr. Recycled-plastic boats have been all the rage this year, but though sculptor Anna Hepler was inspired by the same massive area of marine debris that led would-be ocean adventurer David de Rothschild to start building
1000 Awesome Things to Celebrate
Image from 1000 Awesome Things In the midst of the holiday celebrations it's nice to remind yourself of the pleasures to be had from small things. 1000 Awesome Things to Celebrate is just a pause for a moment , a time to smile when you recognise some of life's little joys again. Things like sleeping in your own bed after a long trip, being able to […]

The Daily Green

Today's Arctic Circle Comic Strip
Read Today's Comic and a 30-Day Archive of Past Comics!
The Bizarre Sea Creatures of Antarctica
Check out these 12 indescribably strange creatures recently dragged up from the Southern Ocean by research scientists.
Meet the Sexy New Star Bringing Green Mainstream
Learn from the latest green guru of design, food and lifestyle, Evette Rios.
High Honey Prices, Black Market "Yellow Gold" and the Facts About Stevia
See why some sweeteners are not so sweet.
No, My Dog Is Not Destroying the Environment
How the authors of Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living get it wrong.
The 10 Best Used Cars for Your Money
The Toyota is the best pick if you're buying new ... but what about a reliable, efficient used car? Here is your answer.Also see Most Fuel Efficient Cars and SUVs of 2009.
The 7 Most Affordable Fuel Efficient Cars of 2010
There are only 7 cars that both get better than 30 mpg and cost less than $20,000. Here they are. See all 2010 cars and SUVs with better than 30 mpg and watch TDG discuss fuel-efficient cars on ABC News Now.
12 Outrageous Holiday Decorations
Subways crowded with Santas, locomotives lit up with holiday lights and other incredibly festive public transportation options.
The East Coast Snowstorm, as Seen from Space
NASA captured this shot of the snowstorm that blanketed the U.S. East Coast in December 2009.
Winter Solstice 2009 Is Today
It's the shortest day of the year, and the official start to winter. The good news: From here on out, every day is longer.

Climate Progress

Two Christmas Climate Cartoons
Right wing bullies Build-A-Bear into removing videos about manmade climate change
The anti-science crowd is all for “teaching” our kids about dirty energy (see “Let’s Learn About Coal”: Industry front group distributes coloring book on the “advantages” of coal). But when it comes to climate science, their motto seems to be “We don’t need no education,” as Think Progress reports. Until recently, the Build-A-B […]
Australian weather bureau: “Central Pacific Ocean surface temperatures are now at their warmest level since the El Niño of 1997-98″
That’s the the 7-day (12/14-12/20) sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly map from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (ABM). Their El Niño-Southern Oscillation report finds: Pacific Ocean temperatures remain at levels typical of a mature El Niño…. As a result, central Pacific Ocean surface temperatures are now at their warmest level since t […]
Greener De-icing
Residents dig their cars out of the snow in Annandale, VA, on December 19, 2009. The runoff from deicers used to clear ice and snow from roadways and sidewalks can damage water supplies and ecosystems. This excerpted CAP guest post was first published here. The winter season means holidays, vacations, and family time, but it also [...]
The Truth About Climate Science
NRC panel of advocates for dead-end hydrogen cars, chaired by a former ExxonMobil executive, trashes plug-in hybrids in deeply flawed report, Part 1
[Please Digg this post by clicking here.] In a staggering lapse of judgment, the National Research Council let its panel of hydrogen advocates publish a deeply flawed report trashing plug-in hybrids. Last week, the NRC’s “Committee on Assessment of Resource Needs for Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technologies,” which is stacked with hydrogen car e […]
The non-blizzard of 2009 and why the anti-science disinformers try to shout down any talk of a link between climate change and extreme weather
Our story so far. The anti-science crowd pushed the nonsensical meme that a big snowstorm in winter is somehow counter-indicative of human-caused climate change. I then discussed the actual science, which makes clear that is, in fact, nonsense, and, if anything, such a storm is consistent with climate science, though you “can’t make a direct associat […]
AGU stunner: Aircraft Vapor Trails Responsible for 15-20% of Arctic Warming
Nature (subs. req’d) reports on an analysis presented by Stanford’s Mark Jacobson to the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting last week: The first analysis of emissions from commercial airline flights shows that they are responsible for 4–8% of surface global warming since surface air temperature records began in 1850 — equivalent to […]
113 Wisconsin scientists write to Senators Kohl and Fiengold urging ‘aye’ votes on bipartisan climate and clean energy legislation
This is a guest post by Peter Gray of the Environmental Law and Policy Center, “the Midwest’s leading public interest environmental legal advocacy and eco-business innovation organization.” This month, 113 Wisconsin scientists joined together to urge Wisconsin’s senators to enact strong federal policies to combat climate change. A letter signed b […]
Lessons Learned from Copenhagen
President Barack Obama leaves the podium after addressing the High Level Plenary meeting on Climate Change in Copenhagen on Friday, December 18, 2009. This post is by CAP’s Rebecca Lefton, Andrew Light, and [...]

Care 2

18 Tips for Living Within Your Means
By Marc and Angel Hack Life, DivineCaroline Live a comfortable life, not a wasteful one. Do not spend to impress others. Do not live life trying to fool yourself into thinking wealth is measured in material objects. Manage your money wisely so your money does not manage you. Always live well below your means. 1. Redefine your [...]
Certified Frustration-Free Packaging from Amazon
Anyone who reads my columns knows I am the last person to suggest heading out and buying gifts for the holiday season. Having said that, you’ll also note that I realize that people are people and some take longer to come around than others. So let’s say you are thinking of buying goodies for your [...]
Homemade Picture Frames
We play a lot of music here. Not only are we avid listeners, my son is an accomplished musician who is always honing his craft by listening to other musicians. Before the invention of iTunes, the only option for purchasing new music was to buy CDs in plastic cases. While some of [...]
Start an Eco Tour In Your Neighborhood and Share Your Ideas
This past Sunday I was lucky enough to catch the East Side Eco Tour, an open house of sorts where visitors get the chance to tour “10 forward thinking homes” in my local area. The idea, set up by Farm Feliz, a local organization thats mission is “homegrown action for a better neighborhood” is [...]
Waste Less This Gift-Giving Season
With the holiday season upon us (or so the circulars tell me) I thought I’d devote today’s column to gift giving. Let’s face it folks, for a lot of us, its not going to be the big present year that we were hoping for. The economy is in the gutter, year-end bonuses have [...]
Can the Answer Be This Simple?
Of course it isn’t. The answers to the environmental problems at hand are much larger than a simple one minute and forty four second video can present. Having said that, every avalanche starts with a snowflake right? So we need to start somewhere and if you ask me, the first step is [...]
This Black Friday Send Corporate America a Message and Just Say No
This coming Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is a bleak day in the United States known as Black Friday. I sadly felt compelled to write about it last year, and this year am hitting it ahead of the curve and hopefully with a piece of advice. Black Friday, as many of you may know, is the [...]
10 Ways to Use Chopsticks
I am almost embarrassed to mention that one of my kitchen drawers is dedicated to disposable chopsticks. Let me explain: the collection was fodder for a fabulous reuse project that I made with many, many school kids. Handmade knitting needles was the project. While I still knit with the handmade knitting needles, I don’t need [...]
A Year’s Worth of Trash at the Museum of Trash
It’s not everyday that a guy like me has something of his installed in a museum. It’s an even rarer occasion when a guy like me has a year’s worth of his trash installed in a museum. But come Saturday, that’s exactly what will be happening at The Museum of Trash in Hartford, Ct. For those [...]
Have a Lonesome Glove? Give it Some Love!
Have you recently pulled the cold weather clothes out of hibernation? Are the stray gloves looking for mates? Much like socks, gloves have a tendency to lose their other halves. The environmental group Green Thing has launched a venture that pairs up single gloves and sells them to new owners. Matched [...]

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Eco-Green Chemicals And Steam Cleaners Can Do More! by: Tom Husnik

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Archive for May 24th, 2009

Google’s Power Meter smart-grid service

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