Energy Quiz

How well do you know America's Energy? I just took the We Campaign's America's Future quiz and was surprised at what I learned about the power and potential of renewable energy. You can take the take the quiz from the We Campaign.

Florida Approves Largest Solar Power Plant in the U.S.

Florida's Public Service Commission has approved plans to build the largest commercial solar power plant in the United States. SunPower has been selected to build the largest solar photovoltaic power plant in the United States, a 25-megawatt power plant in DeSoto County, Florida and is expected to go on-line in 2009. According to Treehugger, SunPower will install the highest efficiency solar panels on the market as well as the SunPower Tracker system, which tilts toward the sun as it moves across the sky. Two other facilites were also given the green light, one at Martin County and one at the Kennedy Space Center. Red Green and Blue also has some additioinal information on the plan as well as other renewable energy devleopments in the United States.

Dead Baby Penguins Washing Ashore

Hundreds of dead baby penguins have been washing ashore off the coast of Rio de Janeiro over the past two months. The penguins are being swept away from the icy shores of Antarctica and washing up dead on the beaches of Rio. According to Michael Astor with the Associated Press, there have been more penguins (approximately 400) this year than any other year. One of the reported causes could be overfishing which causes the penguins to swim further from shore to eat and in turn they get caught up in the strong ocean currents. The article also states possible causes could be pollution as well as ocean current changes because of more cyclones due to climate change. Most of the penguins that are washing ashore are babies that have recently left the nest and are not strong enough to out swim the strong ocean currents.

Ghost Flights

British PM Gordon Brown blasted airlines that were operating Ghost Flights without any passengers in order to secure terminal slots at the busy Heathrow Airport. BMI Airline has denied the claims that they are planning on operating empty or near empty flights in order to secure the terminal slots. British Airways was caught last year doing almost the same thing with it's flights from Britain to North America. There was a flight a day traveling from Britain to the U.S. or Canada with only the pilots and cargo. With skyrocketing fuel costs, you would think the airlines would stop absurd practices that waste them money and not to mention harm the environment. No wonder we are starting to have to pay for any checked baggage with some airlines.

Green Tip: Greening Your Office

There is a good article on Chelsea GREEN about Greening Your Office. The article is taken from a book titled Greening Your Office From Cupboard to Corporation: an A-Z Guide and is available here. I am not sure how good the book is, but the article is worth a read.

Challenge From Al Gore

At a speech on July 17th, Al Gore made an Environmental Challenge that is being compared to the challenge that John F. Kennedy made in reference to the moon. Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years. According to the New York Times, "Gore's approach, which would require abandoning old-fashioned, coal-fired power plants, goes beyond what even the most audacious scientists and entrepreneurs have proposed, as a means, he said, of jolting the world out of old ways of thinking." I have posted video of the speech below and there also a transcript available.