Alex Krogh-Grabbe

From What’s Next Network, a story about this innovation of putting wind turbines far, far offshore by making them float in the water, tethered to the ocean floor, rather than on trusses. It would be a lot cheaper, and enable their deployment at farther distances from shore, which would be A)less aesthetically objectionable (silly nimbies) and B)more productive of energy. I think this is the future of large-scale offshore wind energy.

Another introduction of wind turbines: windcrofting, from Eco Street Blog.

Here are a few that I’ve had kicking around for a week or two, waiting to be blogged. Here they are:

Singapore has a car tax of about $10,000 per car, which is there to combat their traffic congestion problems, and which goes toward their highly efficient mass transit system. Good thinking, south Asian brethren!

A couple useful clarifications about hybrid cars.

Changemakers has a contest with $5000 prizes to come up with ways to provide affordable housing. I’m interested in how to make affordable sustainable housing, so this is part of that.

A links page to government sites with recommendations for things we can do to fight climate change.

Two sites, Eco-Labels and Greener Choices related to Consumer Guide that provide info on more environmentally friendly products.

A blog post about planning and building cool cities (instead of the heat islands we have now).

Here’s this week’s post from WorldChanging.

US PIRG has a study about six simple steps to cutting our greenhouse gas emissions. In a nutshell, they are:

1. Drive less (and making driving less plausible)
2. Make cleaner cars (->40 mpg standards)
3. Increase percentage of biofuel, and more availability (+10%)
4. Use less electricity (-10%)
5. Get more electricity from renewable sources (->20%)
6. Don’t increase emissions in other areas

Simple? Perhaps. Possible? Certainly.

I want to live here. More at WorldChanging.

My last post is even more relevant if you take a look at this Joel Makower post on WorldChanging. Seems water crises aren’t just for those in poverty anymore….enough for the whole family….

There was a great post on Lifehacker about using water collected from a rain barrel to flush your toilet, rather than the clean drinking water that is normally used. The comment thread is really good too.

So what about this: wouldn’t it be cool to have a house with two sets of water pipes, one for clean, one for grey water? Or maybe just a house that saves all its grey water to use later. Perhaps in a tank near the top of the house, pumped up there by the solar panels or wind turbines on the roof? And the grey water could be reused for a lot of things, and sould have to be overflowed into the sewer system sometimes. Or it could be used to water the lawn or something. Sprinklers shooting off of the roof? I think that would be cool.

Green Geek has a post which asserts that by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables (or at least buying them organic) and eating more of the 12 least contaminated, we can reduce our pesticide exposure by 90%.

12 Most contaminated: apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red rasberries, spinach, and strawberries.

12 Least contaminated: asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, kiwis, mangos, onions, papayas, pineapples, and peas.

There’s a great post on DeSmogBlog about how we communicate about climate change. There was a study done (pdf) by a UK research institute recently, in which they examined different ways of doing so. Basically (paired down from DeSmogBlog’s summary) the gist is that a lot of how we talk is alarmist, and that doesn’t do any good in terms of getting people to want to change. Then there’s the “20 things you can do” style, and while that’s a lot better, it’s a little out of sync with the scope of the problem. What we need to do, they concluded, is to empower the individual to make the necessary small changes.

I think this is a great clarification of a confusing issue.