Media Spotlight: Climate Change

Ironically, given that it affects everyone, climate change has become one of the most polarizing issues of our time. The conflicts range from what it is, what to call it, who’s fault it is and how to fix it. In this article, originally published in the Washington Post, Maxwell Boykoff talks about how politicians have begun changing the language that deals with this issue to suit their own purposes. He notably questions the Obama administration for moving away from the terms “global warming” and “climate change” in favor of “clean energy” and “energy independence”.

But it’s not only politicians who are responsible for misleading or misinforming the public. As Lynn Peeples explains in this Huffington Post blog post, your local meteorologist might be going out of his way to downplay the effects of climate change on your every day life.

Someone not shying away from linking global warming to extreme weather events is James Hansen. He and two of his colleagues at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies have released a report that links global warming directly to Texas’ current drought. This Inside Climate News article has all the details.

Outside the U.S. efforts are continuing to raise awareness of climate change and it’s effect. The Gambia recently held a media training seminar to educate journalists on their role in helping to communicate the facts and implications of climate change to the general public. Read more about it here.

In the video below, Jamal Saghir, Director of the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Department, Africa Region, talks about the importance of developing infrastructure on the continent within the context of climate change and its impacts.

Compact Fluorescent Lighting

You can save more than $50 dollars per light fixture by installing compact fluorescent lights instead of regular incandescent bulbs. The use of these lightbulbs is one of the easiest energy saving measures that you can take to make your home more energy efficient.
These bulbs are slightly more expensive to purchase but they more than pay for themselves in the amounts that you save. Not to mention that these bulbs last ten times longer than regular incandescent bulbs.

You can save yourself time because you won’t have to change your lights as often and you can save yourself up to 20 percent on your energy bill. Help yourself and help the planet!

(Open) Round Table: Energy Efficiency & The Alliance For Affordable Energy

Four of the Alliance's founders with former NOLA mayor Marc Morial

We celebrated our founders this past Saturday at a 25th anniversary Gala. While everyone was having a good time, we decided to take a minute and ask people what energy efficiency and the Alliance’s mission mean to them. Here’s what some of our guests had to say. 

Lela Claude Neff: There’s the obvious, that they’re helping the environment. Also I’m real into the idea of taking back the power of energy to the people on an economic level, even more so than an environmental one. I like the original mission of the Alliance which was to get back the power company, power to the people.

Marvin Neff: I think its important to stop just using energy as if its your right to have this energy, that it’s something that I can just waste because I can afford it, because in truth, we can’t afford it.

Anonymous: Energy efficiency to  means a $50 or less bill every month.

Anonymous: A lower gas bill for my car or my long distance transportation.

Sandra Jenkins (Board member): It means that people that don’t really sit down and think about all of the intricacies and all the issues that really are important for us to have clean energy, affordable energy for everyone, that we are an organization that can speak for those people. And for people that are aware, we are someone that they can come into and join in the forces of fighting for affordable energy

Andrew Polmer: In New Orleans we see a lot of homes that have been improved since Katrina, we can see how much energy is being saved now in homes that were formerly flooded and now they have better insulation and better windows, more efficient appliances, so we’re doing a lot better than we were. The Alliance’s work has gone a long way toward educating people as to what’s needed and we hope that they will continue for many years.

Jeff Baldwin: The Alliance 4 Affordable Energy is frankly even more about the affordable than about the energy, meaning that the Alliance was founded by Gary to protect people who couldn’t protect themselves, not just to make people energy aware and smart. And Gary reached out to people in the community and came out of an era of politics that were about defending people who couldn’t defend themselves. That’s what the Alliance is to me.

Julianna Padgett (Board President):It means that we are being smart in the ways that we take care of ourselves and the world.

Friday Fav: Lynne Cherry & Young Voices For The Planet

Lynn Cherry is behind the series of short films Young Voices for the Planet. She’s an author and illustrator and the kids she’s made films about are young, inspired and determined to do their part in securing the future of the planet that they will inherit. We’ve chosen to feature the video below because of how poignantly it captures the importance of youth in this global, trans-generational fight against the devastating effects of climate change.

Lynn’s film series is our Friday Fav because it reminds us that our kids have a voice and the right to a healthy planet.

Population Growth, Climate Change & Empowering Women

The world’s population hit seven billion not too long ago and as the population grows, so does the human impact on the environment. In this video interview with linktv Suzanne Ehlers, the president & CEO of Population Action International (PAI) speaks about the relationships between population growth and climate change and how empowering women is an important part of dealing with the world’s most pressing challenges.

Media Spotlight: Clean Energy

The Louisiana Public Service Commission adopted a Renewable Energy Pilot Program in the middle of 2010  to test out the feasibility of having a renewable portfolio standard in place that would oblige utilities to source a fixed percentage of their power from renewable energy sources. With the pressure to shift towards renewable energy comes innovation about new ways to produce fuel. In her article, originally published in Louisiana Weekly and reproduced here on the Huffington Post’s blog, Susan Buchanan reveals the plans of one Colorado based company to use wood waste and other plant material to make green gasoline. What Buchanan doesn’t discuss in her article is the finite amount of waste product that’s available for this conversion and what happens when once that supply is exhausted.

Renewable Energy in India

Overseas the contrast continues between developed and developing countries when it comes to clean energy. As Bloomberg  reports, in 2011, India doubled its renewable energy generation going from 10.2 GW to over 22 GW. Although the industry faces challenges to its continued growth, the $4.2 billion dollars invested last year is a positive indicator. In Germany, however, the government is warning that continuing subsides to the renewable energy industry is not economically feasible. Business Week covered recent comments by the German Economy Minister, Philipp Roesler, who believes that Germany’s clean energy industry needs to face the free market.

Be Smart Energy TIps: LED Mardi Gras Lights

The Mardi Gras season is upon us and as you go about getting ready for the parties and parades, consider using LED lights to decorate instead of their traditional counterparts.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that using LED lights for 12 hours a day for 40 days, can save 90 percent or more energy when compared to the traditional lights. LED’s last longer and and while they are just as bright, they run much cooler, reducing the risk of fire.

Light up your Mardi Gras celebrations with safer, cooler and more energy efficient decorations.  The planet will thank you!

Have more tips on how to save energy during the festivities ? Share them in the comments section!

Friday Fav: Life In A Day

On July 24, 2010, thousands of people all over the world uploaded videos to YouTube as part of “Life In A Day”, a cinematic experiment driven by critically acclaimed director, Ridley Scott. After it’s cinematic release, the film is now available free of charge on YouTube. You can watch the film in its entirety here.

Life In A Day makes our Friday Fav because it serves as a poignant reminder of how interconnected we all are, across continents and cultures, across races and religions. That commonality is why energy efficiency and the drive towards environmentally responsible energy policies is so important. Our actions here have impacts on people and lives half way across the world.

One planet.

One future.

Ours.

Flashback: The Louisiana Green Corps

 

The Alliance was one of the founding organizations of the Louisiana Green Corps. Together with Arc of Greater New Orleans,  the Old City Building Center, Mary Queen of Vietnam CDC, and the Sierra Club, LGC set out to help empower young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, by teaching them life skills, helping them develop strong and positive work ethics and all the while teaching them to be environmentally cautious and responsible.

The video above features members of the Corps’ first class.

Media Spotlight: Biofuels

Odds are when you think of renewable energy sources, zebras don’t have a lot to do with it.  But right here in New Orleans, Dr. David A. Mullin, a professor of molecular biology at Tulane, is researching ways to make biofuel cost effective. And as this New York Times article explains, zebras and other herbivores, might just be the key.

Biofuels have run into a number of problems lately. Reuters reports that German aircraft carrier Lufthansa had to put an end to its trial use of biofuel mixed fuel because it used up its stock of certified biofuel and no other reliable supplies are available. The Financial Times also ran a story this week on the stall in the biofuel industry’s growth.

Biofuels have also often been controversial because of the fact that they convert food products into fuel. Ethanol in particular, which is made from corn, has been accused of driving up the cost of corn and other associated agricultural products. Until recently, the U.S. government had subsidized the biofuel industry. The Voice of America report below explains that although the subsidy is a thing of the past, food prices won’t necessarily drop as a result.