Monday, December 29, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Make Your Personal Computing Carbon Neutral: 12 Easy Steps
Make Your Personal Computing Carbon Neutral: 12 Easy Steps
December 16, 2008
In August 2008, Dell met a carbon-neutral goal in this company’s efforts to be the “greenest” technology company in the world within one year. While this news may tickle some environmentalists, others may not be satisfied with this milestone. Although Dell continues to work to fulfill a pledge to operate efficiently and to maximize their investment in green power and responsibly offset remaining impacts, many other computer companies and computer owners need to meet these goals — and more — to lessen the impact of computer use on the environment.
What can you do to make a positive impact on the environment as you use your desktop or laptop computer? Dell implemented an aggressive global energy-efficiency campaign and increased purchases of green power, verified emission reductions and renewable energy certificates. You may not need to spend the amount of money that Dell did in their quest, but you can follow their example through the following twelve tips:
1. Calculate Your Carbon Footprint: First, you need to learn about the impact you have on the environment. You can use the Carbon Footprint Calculator or the Nature Conservancy Calculator among many other online tools to determine your individual or household’s carbon usage. Once you know your impact, you can work to offset your impact in many areas, including your computer use.
2. Buy Carbon Neutral: If you need to buy or replace a computer, support carbon-neutral companies. While the manufacturing process can’t be perfectly carbon neutral, the company can purchase carbon offset credits to cover the environmental costs of manufacturing and transportation. Dell isn’t the only company that has put forth efforts to go green. PC World, according to this news story, also is jumping on the carbon-neutral bandwagon.
3. Buy Energy Star Computers and Peripherals: If you can’t get your hands on a carbon-neutral computer, at least buy one that has the Energy Star approval. The federal government currently gives its ENERGY STAR label to office equipment such as computers, printers and other office equipment that are 85-percent energy efficient. These machines waste no more than fifteen percent of their power through heat.
4. Combine Resources: If you need a fax, printer, scanner and copier, you can purchase an all-in-one printer that can handle all those jobs for less energy and money. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACE) states that multifunction devices that have earned the ENERGY STAR certification can reduce energy costs by almost 40 percent relative to non-compliant equipment, for an estimated $260 savings in electricity costs over its lifetime. You also can use EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) to determine the environmentally-friendly computer products you need to use.
5. Power Manage Your Computer: Different computer monitors use vastly different amounts of electricity, but many new computers have power management settings that help users save money and lower environmental impacts. According to the Canadian ENERGY STAR site, the most important of these features is the power management capability that places the computer and monitor in sleep mode when not in use. While in this mode, computers consume up to 90 percent less electricity than when fully operational. This is a mandatory feature for computers to meet ENERGY STAR technical specifications.
6. Purchase Green Supplies: While larger stores like Office Depot often carry “green” office supplies, you can try new places like The Green Office as well. Becoming carbon neutral is a learning experience, and often smaller stores can provide great ideas for carbon offset programs.
7. Less is More: When you use less paper, ink and other office supplies, you help to lower your carbon footprint. The Daily Green offers a ton of ideas about how to reduce paper usage. The California Integrated Waste Management Board offers just as many ideas on how to reduce office waste in general. If it’s absolutely necessary to print a lot of materials, look into ink cartridge recycling programs such as the one offered by Print Country.
8. Get a Professional Energy Audit and Track Energy Use: The Australian government has issued a document that helps small- and medium-size businesses reduce greenhouse gas emissions. You can use their advice to convince your boss to conduct an audit, or you can learn more about how to apply a professional or DIY audit to your home for your home office. Audits can help you quickly determine how and where to save money and the environment. Another tip — try ENERGY STAR for small business to learn how to reduce costs and waste.
9. Lower the Thermostat: This is a very simple tip, and anyone can do it…computers don’t like hot environments anyway, and you can always layer your clothes to keep warm. If you lower the temperature on your thermostat by just two degrees, you can save up to four percent on your energy bill and prevent approximately 500 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Live Earth offers many other simple tips for you to cut emissions around the house so you can offset your computer use.
10. Offset Your Impact Elsewhere: There are many ways to offset your impact on the environment, including that trip to purchase your computer, the electricity you’ll use to run the computer and all the peripherals and further purchases for supplies. You can follow the lead of a Swiss Web site that plans to plant trees in the Amazon forest; you can search for renewable energy to learn if you can tap into this resource; and, you can offset your computer use by making less trips in your car, by buying local, and by implementing many of the other tips offered by MarketWatch.
11. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Repair: Computers offer a unique opportunity for computer users to reduce the number of computers used, to offer old computers for schools and libraries to reuse, to learn more about eWaste recycling (see below), and to repair problems rather than to run out and purchase yet another computer. Planet Green offers some other ideas along this line of thinking.
12. eWaste Watch: eWaste, or the tossing of electrical or technical equipment into the local landfill, has become a local problem that ends up in China. Thanks to this dilemma, more Web sites are available to teach you how to eliminate your eWaste. Try Computer Take Back, eRecycle, Basel Action Network or eWaste.com among many other sites. You also can find local eWaste companies through a search at the National Recycling Coalition.
Finally, (as a bonus 13th tip), it helps if you become active in your carbon-neutral quest. Climate Savers Smart Computing site can help you with that endeavor. Learn, act, share and become savvy with this site’s tools. After all, it’s about time that someone shared that carbon-neutral spotlight with Dell. Might as well be you.
December 16, 2008
In August 2008, Dell met a carbon-neutral goal in this company’s efforts to be the “greenest” technology company in the world within one year. While this news may tickle some environmentalists, others may not be satisfied with this milestone. Although Dell continues to work to fulfill a pledge to operate efficiently and to maximize their investment in green power and responsibly offset remaining impacts, many other computer companies and computer owners need to meet these goals — and more — to lessen the impact of computer use on the environment.
What can you do to make a positive impact on the environment as you use your desktop or laptop computer? Dell implemented an aggressive global energy-efficiency campaign and increased purchases of green power, verified emission reductions and renewable energy certificates. You may not need to spend the amount of money that Dell did in their quest, but you can follow their example through the following twelve tips:
1. Calculate Your Carbon Footprint: First, you need to learn about the impact you have on the environment. You can use the Carbon Footprint Calculator or the Nature Conservancy Calculator among many other online tools to determine your individual or household’s carbon usage. Once you know your impact, you can work to offset your impact in many areas, including your computer use.
2. Buy Carbon Neutral: If you need to buy or replace a computer, support carbon-neutral companies. While the manufacturing process can’t be perfectly carbon neutral, the company can purchase carbon offset credits to cover the environmental costs of manufacturing and transportation. Dell isn’t the only company that has put forth efforts to go green. PC World, according to this news story, also is jumping on the carbon-neutral bandwagon.
3. Buy Energy Star Computers and Peripherals: If you can’t get your hands on a carbon-neutral computer, at least buy one that has the Energy Star approval. The federal government currently gives its ENERGY STAR label to office equipment such as computers, printers and other office equipment that are 85-percent energy efficient. These machines waste no more than fifteen percent of their power through heat.
4. Combine Resources: If you need a fax, printer, scanner and copier, you can purchase an all-in-one printer that can handle all those jobs for less energy and money. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACE) states that multifunction devices that have earned the ENERGY STAR certification can reduce energy costs by almost 40 percent relative to non-compliant equipment, for an estimated $260 savings in electricity costs over its lifetime. You also can use EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) to determine the environmentally-friendly computer products you need to use.
5. Power Manage Your Computer: Different computer monitors use vastly different amounts of electricity, but many new computers have power management settings that help users save money and lower environmental impacts. According to the Canadian ENERGY STAR site, the most important of these features is the power management capability that places the computer and monitor in sleep mode when not in use. While in this mode, computers consume up to 90 percent less electricity than when fully operational. This is a mandatory feature for computers to meet ENERGY STAR technical specifications.
6. Purchase Green Supplies: While larger stores like Office Depot often carry “green” office supplies, you can try new places like The Green Office as well. Becoming carbon neutral is a learning experience, and often smaller stores can provide great ideas for carbon offset programs.
7. Less is More: When you use less paper, ink and other office supplies, you help to lower your carbon footprint. The Daily Green offers a ton of ideas about how to reduce paper usage. The California Integrated Waste Management Board offers just as many ideas on how to reduce office waste in general. If it’s absolutely necessary to print a lot of materials, look into ink cartridge recycling programs such as the one offered by Print Country.
8. Get a Professional Energy Audit and Track Energy Use: The Australian government has issued a document that helps small- and medium-size businesses reduce greenhouse gas emissions. You can use their advice to convince your boss to conduct an audit, or you can learn more about how to apply a professional or DIY audit to your home for your home office. Audits can help you quickly determine how and where to save money and the environment. Another tip — try ENERGY STAR for small business to learn how to reduce costs and waste.
9. Lower the Thermostat: This is a very simple tip, and anyone can do it…computers don’t like hot environments anyway, and you can always layer your clothes to keep warm. If you lower the temperature on your thermostat by just two degrees, you can save up to four percent on your energy bill and prevent approximately 500 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Live Earth offers many other simple tips for you to cut emissions around the house so you can offset your computer use.
10. Offset Your Impact Elsewhere: There are many ways to offset your impact on the environment, including that trip to purchase your computer, the electricity you’ll use to run the computer and all the peripherals and further purchases for supplies. You can follow the lead of a Swiss Web site that plans to plant trees in the Amazon forest; you can search for renewable energy to learn if you can tap into this resource; and, you can offset your computer use by making less trips in your car, by buying local, and by implementing many of the other tips offered by MarketWatch.
11. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Repair: Computers offer a unique opportunity for computer users to reduce the number of computers used, to offer old computers for schools and libraries to reuse, to learn more about eWaste recycling (see below), and to repair problems rather than to run out and purchase yet another computer. Planet Green offers some other ideas along this line of thinking.
12. eWaste Watch: eWaste, or the tossing of electrical or technical equipment into the local landfill, has become a local problem that ends up in China. Thanks to this dilemma, more Web sites are available to teach you how to eliminate your eWaste. Try Computer Take Back, eRecycle, Basel Action Network or eWaste.com among many other sites. You also can find local eWaste companies through a search at the National Recycling Coalition.
Finally, (as a bonus 13th tip), it helps if you become active in your carbon-neutral quest. Climate Savers Smart Computing site can help you with that endeavor. Learn, act, share and become savvy with this site’s tools. After all, it’s about time that someone shared that carbon-neutral spotlight with Dell. Might as well be you.
Where have the bailout billions gone?
Where have the bailout billions gone?
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/...
Image...
A new U.S. investigative panel is demanding answers from the U.S. Treasury about how the agency has spent money from the 700-billion-dollar bailout fund.
The Congressional Oversight Panel, a four-person board authorized by Congress and led by consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School, is charged with finding out what Treasury has done with the billions it has already spent.
"We are here to ask the questions that we believe all Americans have a right to ask: who got the money, what have they done with it, how has it helped the country and how has it helped ordinary people?" the panel says in its first report, which lays out its work.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/...
Image...
A new U.S. investigative panel is demanding answers from the U.S. Treasury about how the agency has spent money from the 700-billion-dollar bailout fund.
The Congressional Oversight Panel, a four-person board authorized by Congress and led by consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School, is charged with finding out what Treasury has done with the billions it has already spent.
"We are here to ask the questions that we believe all Americans have a right to ask: who got the money, what have they done with it, how has it helped the country and how has it helped ordinary people?" the panel says in its first report, which lays out its work.
Greece Riots Continue
Greece Riots Continue
Alexandros Grigoropoulos' shooting in Athens, Greece on December 6 unleashed a wave of riots by students and anarchists. These demonstrations were further sparked by anger at high youth unemployment, low wages, inadequate police and justice systems and unpopular economic measures by the government. Rioting flared up again Saturday just after midnight. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in and around the neighborhood where 15-year-old Grigoropoulos was killed by police one week earlier, clashing with police, using rocks, sticks, flares and laser beams. The unrest has caused 200 million Euros ($265.3 million) of damage in Athens alone. Police have detained 432 people, most have been released without charges filed against them.
Monday, December 8, 2008
http://current.com/items/89603966/happy_xmas_war_is_over.htm
http://current.com/items/89603966/happy_xmas_war_is_over.htm
I Met The Walrus
In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview. This was in the midst of Lennon's "bed-in" phase, during which John and Yoko were staying in hotel beds in an effort to promote peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries traditional pen sketches by James Braithwaite with digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit, and timeless message.
In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview. This was in the midst of Lennon's "bed-in" phase, during which John and Yoko were staying in hotel beds in an effort to promote peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries traditional pen sketches by James Braithwaite with digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit, and timeless message.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
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