The Last Frost

Sorry about the extremely slow site over the last couple of days, my hosting provider had a major network meltdown that took a bit too long to fix. I almost moved the site to another host, but now I feel like the worst is over, and the site is running faster than it did before as a result of their fixes. 

So, hopefully that won't happen again and now I get back to making the world a better place to live. 

New York City Home Depot and perhaps other locations, are selling 4-packs of 100watt or 60watt equivalent compact fluorescent light bulbs for under $10 bucks. I bought two packs and used all 8 bulbs in my apartment and they work great. I'm going to head back tomorrow for more. $10 dollars for 4 bulbs is a great deal, I bought a couple CFL's about a month ago and spent $15 dollars on each of them.

Here are some reasons you should pick some up.

• They last longer than regular bulbs.
• The modern versions don't flicker when turning on like they used to.
• The quality of light is almost indistinguishable from traditional incandescents, and I'm sensitive to fluorescent lights… due to too many hours spent in cubicles.
• They save a lot of energy which means less greenhouse gasses pumped into the atmosphere.
• Plants like 'em!
• They save you money… they say up to $77 bucks a year per bulb… not half bad if it's true.

It's good to know that we have found another potential solution for the storage of excess atmospheric CO2. But do we really want to go down the road of filtering C02 out from emissions and sequestering them at the bottom of the sea? This is the kind of bright, sweep the dirt under the rug kind of thinking that I think gets us as a species into trouble. 

Wouldn't the more intelligent thing be to transition our energy reliance over to a fuel that doesn't create the nasty stuff in the first place? Then we wouldn't have to worry about whether the liquid CO2 could escape from the sea floor, or what effect it might have on ocean life. Hydrogen baby, that's the future, not ideas like this that severly lack in the forsight department. 

Deep-Sea Sediments Could Store CO2 Safely » [News Blaze]

If you're concerned about the impact your jetting around the world is having on the environment, check this out. For a little under $20USD you can have a tree planted for every flight you take. You can choose the type of tree, and can even visit the planting site which is in the UK. It may not immediately offset the CO2 you spew, although over the lifetime of the tree… it may offset more. 

Air passengers can offset CO2 at Treeflights » [Cheapflights.co.uk]

Mazda has recently unveiled a duel-fuel RX-8 that runs off Hydrogen as well as regular gas. Here's what the program manager from Mazda had to say:

“A hydrogen rotary engine only emits water. It is not as efficient as a fuel cell, but structurally it is closer to the petrol engine, hence its manufacturing cost is lower and it has fewer durability issues”

Mazda shows off hydrogen powered RX-8 » [Mazda News]

A scientist has managed to use enzymes rather than expensive platinum as a catalyst for converting H2 gas into electricity, the only byproduct being water. Still in it's infancy, but if this technology develops it could mean much cheaper fuel cells in the future, removing a huge barrier in the path of a true hydrogen economy.

Enzymes may hold answer to harnessing hydrogen power » [ABC News]

Take this with a grain of salt, as with any prediction of the future, we just don't know. Aside from that though, this is great news. Climate scientists have lowered their predictions of the intensity of global warming over the next 100 years. It's just a slight lowering but it's lower none-the-less.

Climate panel lowers global warming forecast » [Stuff.co.nz]

If signed into law, a bill proposed by Gov. Schwarzenegger will make California the first state in the union to cap greenhouse emissions. The cap will be acheived through granting industries carbon credits that can be traded for the 'right' to pollute. The cap will be on the number of carbon credits issued.

Republicans in the legistlature voiced opinions that climate change should be fought on the national level rather than the state level. Shit now; if the Federal Government has it's thumbs are up stuck up it's ass, then what's wrong with states stepping up where they fail? Katrina should have proved to the Nation that the Federal government sucks at solving state level problems. Maybe it's time smaller state governments show us what a little progressive thinking can accomplish. 

Calif. to cap greenhouse gas emissions » [Seattle PI]