Passing on this urgent call to action from Cathy Zoi:

Dear ken winston,

Join us, and send a message about how crucial it is to reduce harmful carbon dioxide pollution. That you expect the EPA to (more…)

by Ken Winston Caine

A company selling high-efficiency woodstoves in northern New Mexico is advertising that burning firewood is carbon-neutral.

In other words, they are suggesting that it’s a clean, green-energy form of heating.

True science used to mislead
In the radio commercial, they say that the carbon released when the wood is burned is equal to the carbon that would be released if the tree naturally decayed after it died. And that it is equal to the amount of carbon that the tree removed from the atmosphere during its life. That much is good science, I believe.

But does that make wood-burning “carbon neutral?”

I don’t think so. Here’s why:

Man burns up natural balance sheet
Most hardwood trees have lifespans measured in the hundreds of years. Some live thousands of years. And then, when they die (usually due to pestilence or disease or periods of extreme climate change) they decay very very slowly.

So, the amount of carbon a tree releases needs to be measured against the number of years of its life and decay. Per year, the tree emits very little carbon on that basis. When you burn the tree, on the other hand, you release all the carbon at once. And then what do you do? (more…)

Here’s the challenge, in 3 minutes, with a beat to it.

by Ken Winston Caine

The U.S. CAN become 100% energy independent in 10 years and REBUILD THE ECONOMY at the same time, using existing clean-energy technologies.

I’ll show you a longer video in a moment that gives the specifics.

The video may make it seem simple. It’s not. To do this would require the type of will and vision and excitement and investment of the land-a-man-on-the-moon-in-10 years Apollo Project initiated by President Kennedy.

It will require the type of will and vision and excitement and investment of the interstate freeway system project spearheaded by President Eisenhower (which took a bit longer than 10 years — about 25 for the four major east-west arteries to be complete from coast to coast. But one section of I-70, through the particularly beautiful and delicate Glenwood Canyon in the Colorado Rockies wasn’t completed until shortly after I left my assignment as a reporter up there in the early ’90s).

Creating a nationwide clean-energy production and distribution system and economy is a huge undertaking.

The biggest challenge?

Political.

Because the fossil-fuel-based energy monopolies and their related support industries wield tremendous pressure and will not simply smile, nod and agree to be replaced.

And all those people whose jobs are dependent upon the fossil-fuel energy economy must be absolutely sure in the assurance that they will be retrained and transitioned to good, sustainable new-economy jobs and financially assisted in the process. And that must be part of any 10-year plan if the transformation is to win the public support it needs in order to get moving.

Shifting to a clean energy economy will require a sustained public and governmental mandate.

How can this be accomplished with existing clean technologies? Here’s a 27-minute video that spells out, plainly, step by step, how the U.S. can become 100% energy independent in 10 years using existing wind and solar technologies, and by moving to zero-emission technologies for cars. (The video embedded above is a teaser only.)

NOTE: Skip forward to 2:20 to get past the courtesy greetings and acknowledgments and into the exciting stuff.

Here is more about each of the challenges involved in converting to a clean energy economy in 10 years: (more…)

by ken winston caine

Towns and cities could cut electricity use significantly — simply and painlessly.

Almost overnight.

All they have to do is to commit to quit trying to light up the night as though it is day.

Turn off, or turn down, street lighting, building lighting and after-hours electric signs on businesses. (This was decreed by President Nixon as national policy during the first oil embargo in 1973, alongside more drastic measures such as gas rationing and a national 55 mph speed limit.)

Cutting street lighting has been shown to CUT crime. (More on that in a moment.)

Bring back the night.

Bring back the stars.

If cities would turn off just every other streetlight, on alternating sides of the street, immediately they would cut streetlighting energy use in half. And cut the cost of streetlighting in half.

Why is no one thinking like this at a time when greenhouse gasses produced by coal-and-other-carbon-fuel-fired power plants are destroying the planet’s equilibrium and by extension, our current and future quality of life … and simultaneously, world-wide, we are facing an energy shortage?

Instead, power companies are calling for more power plants and, at the same time, (more…)

by ken winston caine

See the November 2007 Fast Company piece on Kansan “Johnathan Goodwin [who] can:

• “get 100 mpg out of a Lincoln Continental,

• “cut emissions by 80%, and

• “double the horsepower.

“Does the car business have the guts to follow him?” asks Fast Company in headline type.

His bio-diesel/hydrogen/electric hybrid Hummer gets 60 mpg, has double the horsepower of a stock model, and “does zero to 60 in five seconds.”

Goodwin transforms noxious polluting, gas-hog muscle cars into super-powerful clean green machines using current technology and readily available Detroit parts.

He charges $25,000 per vehicle to manage the metamorphosis. His clientele is mainly celebreties and industry titans — the ultra-rich.

Detroit IS paying attention. But how long ’til this super-low-emission, renewable-energy, power-doubling, fuel-stingy technology is available to the rest of us?

Click this link to read Fast Company’s fascinating article on this fascinating young innovator: (more…)

by ken winston caine

It is possible that bottled water is making you fat . . . and that it causes cancer.

Really.

The plastic bottles of designer water that you see people carrying everywhere are NOT good for you…

Packaging water in small plastic bottles has staggering environmental costs — both in the manufacturing process and in the waste-stream created when the bottles are used and tossed in the trash. You’re beginning to read a lot about that aspect of the $15 billion bottled-water obsession.

What you’re not hearing about — yet — are the little-known, but severe, personal health costs — the long-term damage you can suffer from consuming foods and liquids packaged and stored in plastic or plastic-lined containers.

It may take mainstream health and media another 10 years to get onto this. But you shouldn’t wait. You should get onto it now.

Writer Charles Fishman’s fascinating and exceptional piece of in-depth health-and-business investigative journalism in this month’s Fast Company details exactly how the plastic bottled water craze is hurting you and the planet.

Click that link and read the article.

Should you stop drinking water?

Should you stop carrying water with you?

No.

No, no, no, no, no…

The solution is simple: (more…)

by Robert Middleton

(Editor’s note: The following comes from Robert Middleton’s always helpful, always useful weekly More Clients newsletter, and is shared with his encouragement.)

Have you been listening recently to the media, opinion makers,
politicians and your friends lately?

What is currently the hottest issue on the planet?

Global Warming / Climate change.

Just last week Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, backed
major legislation to cut back greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by
2020. But if you’ve been tuning in, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Every time you turn on the news, open a paper, magazine or blog
there’s another story about the planet heating up, and what it means
to you. I made up a quick list of things that have caught my
attention recently:

- Al Gore’s must-see movie: An Inconvenient Truth
- The rise in popularity of hybrid vehicles
- Biodeisel and ethanol as alternate fuels
- Vacation spots affected by global warming (Via Magazine)
- A major segment on CBS about global warming
- Record high temperatures across the globe
- Increasing frequency and intensity of hurricanes
- More homes being converted to solar energy

The verdict is in: Climate change is real and humans are the cause.
we’re pumping way too much C02 and other greenhouse gases into
the atmosphere. No credible scientist disagrees.

So why the heck am I talking about this in More Clients? Good
question!

Here’s what I’ve been thinking: Since global warming is real and will
potentially have horrific consequences (think Katrina) shouldn’t we be
doing something about it?

And I’m not talking here about daily conservation efforts — buying
that hybrid car, cutting back on your heating bills and recycling.
Sure, you need to do all of those things, but what if you could make
a bigger impact as an Independent Professional?

I’ve always liked to think of Independent Professionals as catalysts for
change. Change in the lives of (more…)

Not available in the U.S. yet, but a hot new Honda Accord (popular in Britain since February 2004) got 77 miles-per-gallon in a 419-mile real-world driving test and has set world speed records in its class.

(That’s 77 U.S. miles per gallon, calculated from the 92 mpg it got with Imperial gallons. … Would someone please check my math on this? I’m finding it hard to believe that European Accords get 77 mpg and U.S. ones don’t get 40.)

This spunky, full-size Accord goes from standing stop to 54 mph in a quarter mile. It looks just like the one in your neighbor’s driveway.

Oh. Did I mention that it runs on high-energy, low-polluting “clean diesel”? That’s (more…)

Had no idea global warming could be so funny.

Here’s about four minutes of video of President Bush (or rather, comedian Will Ferrell playing “W”) vamping about global warming.

Haven’t seen the Al Gore film? Catch the Bush film. It’s (more…)