Making a Clean Getaway

Perusing the most recent copy of The Economist, I read several articles about technologies that could make transportation cleaner. Like the global recession we are in right now, we are all aware of global warming. With much emphasis on cleaning up our act and reducing carbon emissions, companies are revamping existing models to make them "green" worthy.

In Shifting gears, it speaks of making airplane engines more efficient. To reach the goal of 50% less emissions by 2020, manufacturers are developing new ways of energy transference that may improve efficiency by that landmark, or greater.

Recharged is an article about using older lead-acid batteries with a modern infusion of technology to again make them viable in the energy storage market. They must compete with newer, lighter, and more resilient nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries that pack a longer punch.

The last is a story of how used coffee grounds are being used to create bio-diesel. The article states that coffee grounds may be better than some existing sources of bio-diesel for several reasons, one being that the source wouldn't have to be grown explicitly for energy creation. Sounds like my cup of c.

One more thing, can anyone tell me what twitter is about? Is this just another form of information overload?

Save the Amazon: Grow a backyard garden

There are myriad data and stats thrown around all the time about the rate at which the Amazon rain forest is shrinking, due to land being consumed for crops and animals. So many feet per second, acres per year, football fields per day, and such. It's all very disheartening to hear about a large wonderful ecosystem like the Amazon being desecrated for the sake of soy and beef. I'm not much of a numbers guy so I won't add a digit to the orgy. But what I will do is offer a solution. And in this solution can also be found answers to many of our other societal shortcomings that become more apparent daily.

You will often hear proponents of organic foods say, "eat local." This means to consume food that has been grown within a predetermined range of let's say 5 to 10 to 100 miles. Some will argue the exact distance from farm to table, but the point is the closer the food was grown to where it is eaten, the better. Reasons for this are aplenty: it supports local economy/farmers; it's fresher; due to freshness, it tastes better; the foods ripen on the plant/vine; less chemicals are needed to produce nutritious foods; it has traveled less and therefore spent less fuel; it promotes healthy land development; ad infinitum. Another major reason is that is puts less strain on ecosystems/economies in far away lands, like the Amazon. You can trust that a tomato grown 7 miles from your doorstep has done less damage than one that has traveled hundreds or even thousands of miles.

But what about the beauty of a vine-ripened tomato that was grown 7 feet from your door? A sprig of rosemary clipped minutes before being added to a dish? An onion so fresh, clods of dirt still stick to its roots? Apart from the philosophical aspect of growing your own food, the practical benefits are endless.

No need to run to the store to pick up a bottle of thyme that was dried months (or years) ago in a farm where pesticides and fungicides and chemical bathes called fertilizer were used to "make" it grow. Forget tasteless lettuce, grown hydroponically in a hothouse thousands of miles away in the winter, apples that have sat "ripening" in a warehouse for months, or oranges with waxes and chemicals to make the fruit orange and plump.

You can have the best of all these plants right in your back yard. Unbeatable freshness, minus the enigma of where it actually came from. As a matter of fact, do you know where your food comes from? Honestly, I must admit that I too am not aware, which further proves the point that I don't know what has been done to it, and how it has affected its place of origin. For all I know the soy beans I pop in my mouth could have sprouted in the same place where mammoth trees once stood.

Another reason to grow your own food, is that it will lessen our dependence on fuels like oil. If you organically grow your own potato, for instance, there is little if any oil consumed in the process. On the other hand, if you purchased a potato that was mass produced in Idaho, petroleum based chemicals used as fertilizers and pesticides, gas used to plant and harvest, energy used to transport, separate, and ship, you have run up quite a high energy bill for a single potato. Growing your own foodstuff will greatly reduce our need for resources.

All it takes is a seed, in your mind or in the ground. It starts somewhere. And where you end up may be miles or steps from where you expected.

P.S I "borrowed" the above picture from www.photographersdirect.com, if you couldn't tell. I hope this frees me from liability.

Oil: The New Luxury Good

With oil at $130+, people are bracing themselves for a rough time for the remainder of the year. With the summer approaching, a large travel season, people will most likely be opting for fun nearer to home. Big box retailers as well as mom and pop shops are already feeling the heat, and its not from the sun. With rising costs of raw materials and less consumer spending, producers are being pinched on both ends. How can you, the consumer, survive with this "new" luxury good on the market?

For one, you can treat it as a luxury good and consume less of it. In tough times, people often reduce or stop altogether their consumption of luxury goods, and with oil at such unconscionable levels, we could almost consider it a luxury good. Although oil or gas demand is relatively inelastic, which means its demand is stable through changes in price, you can make a choice to set your cut-off point. When will you make decisions to use less gas or find alternative ways to get energy? When gas is $4.50/gal, $5, $10? There are numerous ways from simple changes to drastic measures that you can take to lessen consumption.

Another thing we can do is to be aware that we are consumers. The large and mighty corporation, with all their power, to a large degree are swayed and make decisions based on individual consumers as a whole. The price of oil will continue to rise as world demands grows. This will lead companies to finding cheaper methods of doing business. If we realize our power and support companies that comply with our beliefs, we can alter the marketplace from the bottom up. We can support companies that choose to make the hard decisions now, as opposed to later or never. This is our privilege, or some might even say our responsibility, as consumers.

Hard decisions would imply finding viable sources of energy to support their business now. It is something that I feel is inevitable anyhow, so they may as well start ASAP, and we may as well support them. In the short run, they can free themselves from the rise in oil price. In the long run, they will be the companies that win, and in turn so shall we. By supporting these companies I mean purchasing their competitive products. When there is a choice, choose their stuff, as opposed to another brand.

For example, Patagonia is an outdoor performance wear company. They are very conscious about their business practices. They try to keep their production line, as "clean" as possible. They are very concerned with supporting the environment and take many steps to be socially responsible.

To take it even further, support could mean purchasing stock or advocating for the particular company. Innovest is a firm that does market research on companies that are environmentally as well as financially sound.