L Prize: LED Bulb Competition

On the NPR show, Science Friday, it dedicated a whole show to the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prizes (L Prize) Competition and how Phillips Electronics is the first company to enter.  The guest speaker for this show was Jim Brodrick, Lighting Program Manager for the Building Technologies Program (with DOE).  Brodrick [...]

Manure to Electricity

There is concrete evidence that climate change is mainly due to anthropogenic actions. We are emerging into a world where consumers are becoming more concerned on where their food is coming from and the impacts that food production has on the environment.  Recently, cattle farmers are targeted in terms of rearing practices and amount of [...]

Africa Makes a Stand

African nations boycotted the UN climate talks in Barcelona, Spain because they accused the rich nations of having inadequate promises to combat climate change.  Although these nations agreed to resume work on the UN climate talks, this has showed that African nations are united and are willing to stand their ground—protecting their citizens, where these [...]

A City’s Quest for a “Green Boulevard”

Just yesterday I was looking through the Green American Fall newsletter, and read an article about Hasselt, Belgium (4th largest city in Belgium) reclaiming its streets from traffic nightmare roads.  In the mid-1990s this city was very similar to many US cities, with a massive suburban sprawl and urban businesses experiencing great deterioration.  There was [...]

“The Global Deal”, A Need for Change

Nicholas Stern’s, “The Global Deal” argues that we are facing the two greatest problems of our time, overcoming poverty and combating climate change. Therefore, it is essential that we find ways to increase the living standard across all nations while at the same time discovering ways to make living on this earth more sustainable over [...]

Sustainable Development-An Oxymoron?

The idea that a country is developed or underdeveloped is a relatively new concept; although it does have connotations of longstanding terms like ‘savages’ and ‘backwards’. During President Truman’s inaugural address, after World War II, he coined this concept and thus stating to the world that certain cultures were deficient and defective. This implied that [...]

Issues of Environment Are Aspects of Peace

Although a majority of us were surprised by President Obama receiving the Nobel Peace prize, he has claimed that by his acceptance there is the goal for all nations to come together–not only in terms of disarming nuclear weapons but also the need to focus on combating climate change. He states that it is essential [...]