Progressive Wednesday

Agua might be the answer.

We’ve written a great deal about alternative energy. Why? Three reasons:

1. The economics behind alternative energy have the ability to boost our economy.
2. Global warming is real, and burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change.
3. Our dependency on oil keeps us in relationships with countries we’d be better off avoiding.

So, in light of all that, here’s another possible solution to the problem that is our need for energy:

Ever sit by the ocean, and watch a buoy or a seagull bob up and down without end? The energy it takes to move all that water up and down is massive. Prevailing winds, temperature differentials, strong weather and even the rotation of the Earth all contribute to the never-ending crash of waves against the shore, and viewed from a certain perspective, that’s a lot of energy going to waste.

The World Energy Council has estimated that approximately 2 terawatts (2 million megawatts), about double current world electricity production, could be produced from the oceans via wave power.

Wave power might just the future of energy production. The oceans are a gift we’ve been blessed with, and we haven’t fully realized their grandeur and the ways they might save our days.

Saving the Planet (from the Comfort of Our Homes): Switch

Editor’s Note: This Wednesday topic first appeared on March 7, 2007. To read our introduction to “Saving the Planet (from the Comfort of Our Homes),” just click here.

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Each year the average American household uses about 9,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That averages out to about 750 kW-h per month. The cost per kW-h ranges throughout the country from just under 6 cents to almost 15 cents. 57 percent of this energy comes from coal plants and, according to powerscorecard.org:

Coal power plants are responsible for 93 percent of the sulfur dioxide and 80 percent of the nitrogen oxide emissions generated by the electric utility industry.

Few people know that they can get every watt from clean, renewable energy. Many utility companies offer renewable energy to their customers, and there are other national programs, like Utility Green Pricing and Renewable Energy Certificates, for those who buy from a company that doesn't. To see if your utility company offers renewable power, click here.

The cost of buying green power ranges from 3/4 of a penny to about three cents per kW-h, with most programs at about 1 cent per kW-h. For the average American that means about an extra $7/month. That's about the price of a movie or half of a pizza. This is the only thing we've asked you to do that does not immediately benefit you financially. But if you do only one thing, do this.

Why? The baby girl in the picture is my daughter. Do it for her. Do it for the polar bears who have just been added to the endangered species list. Do it for the people of New Orleans who were shown with unprecedented violence what effect the warming of the Gulf can have on their lives. And do it for the coral reefs, 16 percent dead in a single year, bleached by the warmer waters. Do it for my children and yours, for me and for you. Do it because it's right.

Geeks getting green, cell-phone style.

Okay, let me start by saying that Eric and I are geeks. And we’re geeks not because we dig Star Wars and poetry, respectively. No, we’re geeks because, in case you haven’t noticed (which seems impossible), we run a website. And geeks, therefore, are good (thank you first-order logic!), so we mean no disrespect with the title of this entry.

(Now please excuse what seems like a non sequitur.)

My cell phone is my fiftieth love and the bane of my existence, it’s my connection to the world beyond my own borders and an annoying beeping machine-thing that boggles my stupid mind when I try to figure how on earth it works. But I suppose I dig it more than I want to ditch it. Right before I go to the land of snoozes and dream of penguins riding around on chocolate ponies, I plug in my aforementioned phone. It recharges. It fills with energy generated, most likely, from the burning of fossil fuels. But in a galaxy not that far away (in other words, our galaxy), we’ve got a brand-spanking new reason to cheer: the first solar cell phone.

A company called HiTech Wealth is starting to crank these suckers out, but… only in China. This will change soon, though. Here’s the skinny:

The [solar] panels trickle-charge the battery in any amount of light, including indoors (or even by candlelight), and the battery life is 2.5 times longer than it would be without the panels. An hour of direct sunlight will give users 40 extra minutes of talk time.

While this first model is pretty exciting, HiTech Wealth will be releasing six more solar phones within the year and has promised 30 solar models before 2009.

So the gadget-loving geeks amongst us won’t be the only ones getting even greener. You can read more about the product by clicking this sentence.

Oh, and in case you’re thinking of making a cell phone switch any time soon, please consider donating your old phone to Cell Phones for Soldiers (for those of you in the Western New York area, we thought we’d let you know that Jim Kelly is a big supporter of this organization).

Liquid Coal: As dirty as it sounds

Proponents and lobbyists for the myriad energy industries have been engaged in a perpetual “steel cage– wrestling match since the 1970s or earlier, bloodying each other up (Hey, can you run cars on energy lobbyist's blood?) so much that nobody seems to be making any significant headway. Well, now there's some fresh meat in the energy cage: liquid coal. This is from the New York Times:

Prodded by intense lobbying from the coal industry, lawmakers from coal states are proposing that taxpayers guarantee billions of dollars in construction loans for coal-to-liquid production plants, guarantee minimum prices for the new fuel, and guarantee big government purchases for the next 25 years.

Problems ooze from every pore of this piece of legislation. The argument that liquid coal is a clean burning fuel is absurd. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, if liquefied coal replaced gasoline as the main source of energy in the country our greenhouse gas emissions would increase 119%. That's unacceptable to me; I hope it is to you too.

It also follows that any long-term decrease in the price of fuel would be offset by the increase in tax revenue spent on subsidies. According to the Denver Post, the government would:

spend $35 billion over the next decade to build coal-fired generating plants. Given these long-standing financial incentives, cooperatives have had little reason to make meaningful investments in alternative energy sources.

I have great difficulty sending a red nickel of taxpayer money to energy companies at all. But when that money would be used to fund a project that would, say, end the world, I have an even bigger problem with it.

Liquid coal has a lot of friends, however, and on both sides of the isle. Members of the House, Senate, and even Presidential candidates are pushing to get this through. There are a lot of states that mine coal, and they would to get a piece of the pie; the pie tastes like coal.

This is a bit urgent, as liquid coal subsidies might be added to a bill to combat global warming at the last minute after being defeated in committee. So call or write your Senator or Representative today and tell them to vote “no– if this amendment is attached. You can get their contact info here.

The government already subsidizes obesity when it gives money to big farms to grow corn. Let's not subsidize the destruction of our environment too.

Photo credit goes here

9 Lives in Dog Years: Report

This one’s a no-brainer. Report animal abuse. That’s it, short and sweet. This topic has gotten a lot more press lately because of the dog-fighting case involving quarterback Michael Vick, but it has been around as long as animals and humans have lived on the same planets. That’s either 6,000 years or tens of thousands of years, depending on whom you ask.

To make it easy for you, Pet-Abuse.com provides a 24-hour service for you to anonymously report any pet abuse that you have witnessed, as well as learn what to look for and what to do about it.

This is about more than just the animal. Studies have shown that most serial killers started out being cruel to animals when they were children. So, if you see it, report it. Society will thank you tomorrow. The animal will thank you today. Well, not really. But he would if he could talk.

Go fly a hybrid kite!

After reading a recent article in Business 2.0, I learned that I was shocked that 90% of all goods sent overseas are hauled by “50,000 diesel-powered containerships.”

But a Germany company is about to set-sail a ship with a creative hitch:

A giant kite [will be attached] that files 1,000 feet above the bow, connected to an automated telescoping mast. Wind power won’t displace the ship’s giant diesel engines, but it will take a load off, slashing fuel consumption by as much as 30 percent.

These kites are designed by SkySails, and they hope to expand the use of their kites to “oil tankers, fish trawlers, and big yachts.” The company “[aims] to reduce fuel consumption of modern shipping by the utilization of environmentally friendly, free-of-charge wind energy.”

It seems to us that wind energy is a place where American companies could start increasing jobs on our shores. Someone needs to build these kites. Someone needs to build wind turbines. Why not us? Why not now?

While you try to answer those only somewhat rhetorical questions, you can see this sail in action in the video below. (Since the company is German, you know, the dialogue is also in German. We really don’t know what they’re saying. We’ll assume it’s good stuff.)

Corn, from Ascorbates to Zein: Install

I've been going on and on about how bad corn is for our economy, our bodies, our land, our air, our water, and even our politics. Hopefully it isn't all starting to taste like corn-fed chicken by now, but in case it is, I'll offer up a good thing that corn can be used for: heating your house.

Corn stoves and furnaces are becoming increasingly popular because they are cheap to run, clean burning, and über-efficient. Unlike with ethanol, the energy you save with a corn stove vastly outweighs the energy used to make that small amount of corn. In term of dollars and cents, a corn furnace can save you over $1,000 bucks a year, depending on where you live. But does it get hot enough? Well, they're controlled by a thermostat, just like any other modern heater, and if you turn it up high enough it'll get as cozy as a sauna.

I'm not just getting this information from the endless loop of internet articles with as much credibility as an Exxon-Mobile representative talking about the effects of fossil fuels on global warming. Our photo editor, James B. Robinson, swears by his corn stove. And he doesn't exactly live in Texas. Try Lake Placid. My wife and I honeymooned there. It's cold.

Here's a good site with lots of information on corn stoves and furnaces, how much they cost, where you can get them, how much you'll save, where you can get the corn– ¦ the whole nine yards acres. If we are going to contribute to the endless cycle of overproduction begets over-subsidization begets overproduction, we should at least do so in the smallest, most energy-efficient, and most progressive way.

Oh, I almost forgot. Installing that corn stove will get you a tax rebate, if that pushes you off the fence and into the corn field.