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The Power Of Small Changes

February 2, 2009 in agriculture, analysis, green building by nils | 2 comments

Kale

We get a lot of kale in our CSA box of veggies (image by terren in Virginia, CC 2.0 license)

There's a perception that green is more expensive and less convenient, and, truth to say, that's sometimes true. It is more expensive to buy your groceries at Whole Foods. And putting solar panels on your roof doesn't really save you money for many years, if at all, (although it's still less than buying a new car).

But on the other hand, we know that there are lots of green things you can do that actually save money - replacing your incandescent lights with compact fluorescents is one familiar example. And if you're building a house, putting in lots more insulation than is required by code can save a huge amount of both money and energy, while making your home more comfortable.

Sometimes it's small changes that can flip this perception. I have a recent example from my own life that brought this home to me (so to speak):

Biofuels Are Sustainable and Economical, Say German Researchers

December 15, 2008 in energy efficiency by nils | Add your comment

Ablaze

Blaze (image by Nicholas T, CC 2.0 license)

Oh Snap! Now some German scientists have (in effect) taken a swing at Stanford professor Mark Z. Jacobson, who concluded in a recent paper that biofuels are a bad policy direction (see summary post here).

In their paper Sustainable global energy supply based on lignocellulosic biomass from afforestation of degraded areas, Prof. Jürgen O. Metzger from Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg in Germany and Prof. Aloys Huettermann from the University of Goettingen in Germany say that growing and using biofuels for all the earth's energy needs is not only possible without jeopardizing the global food supply, but also economically feasible.

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Encourage Obama To Name a Secretary Of Food

December 11, 2008 in agriculture, carbon mitigation, economy by nils | Add your comment

Kale

Beatiful kale,not from a factory farm (photo by terren in Virginia, CC 2.0 licensed)

Nicholas Kristof in his NY Times op-ed today urges Obama to appoint a Secretary of Food:

A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat.

The interests of big agriculture - the "factory farmers" - are really opposed to the interests of people. The "food" they raise wastes energy, causes huge environment damage, makes us unhealthy, and even leads to antibiotic resistant diseases.

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