Doc gets into trouble because of his fat ride

a Beverly Hills cosmetic doctor has gotten into a lard of trouble because of the unique way he was fueling his SUV.

Dr. Craig Alan Bittner was using turning the fat that he got form the liposuction he performed into biodiesel (or as he calls it lipodiesel)


Doc Bittner says that he received permeation form his clients to use their fat ass's to power his car but it doesn't seem to matter because it is against Cali law to use human medical waste for fuel.

instead of facing charges for this and other things (he's a little shady it seems) the doc has skipped town and is living in Columbia.

Obama's Green Team

Over the weekend Obama announced the people who will be on his cabinet in positions dealing with the environment or has the media has tag them Obama's Green Team (which to me for some reason sounds like a great name for a kids show...what can't you see Obama and a team of super-heroes/Power ranger types fighting pollution monsters? Obama's Green Team GO!)

anyways the people Barrack Obama has chosen to be on his Green Team are

Steven Chu will be the Secretary of Energy

Steven Chu is currently the a Professor at University of California, Berkeley teaching Physics and Molecular and Cellular Biology. Chu is also the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

in 1997 Steven Chu won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on laser cooling and the trapping of atoms.

Nancy Sutley will be the chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Nancy Sutley is currently Deputy Mayor for Energy and Environment of LA and was on the board of directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Sutley worked in Clinton's EPA.

For Carol Browner Obama has created a new position which will over see climate, energy and environmental policies in the post that will be called the climate czar.

Carol Browner was the EPA administrator for Bill Clinton when he was the prez and is noted for being the longest serving administrator in the Environmental Protection Agency serving a full 8 years.

and speaking of the EPA, the new head of the EPA will be Lisa P. Jackson.

Lisa Jackson is currently the chief of staff for Jon S. Corzine the Governor of New Jersey and was the e New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Lisa Jackson grew up in the 9th ward in New Orleans and has quoted saying

"My family escaped with their lives, but everything else -- their homes and possessions, even the family Bible -- was lost," Jackson said. "We were among the lucky ones."

"The shameful failures of government that the world witnessed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have given me a special appreciation for the importance of public service,"

Lisa Jackson will be the first African-American to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

rock it

it has been found out that when a a type of rock called peridotite comes into contact with carbon dioxide, it will turn the green house gas into solid minerals like calcite.

peridotite is a common rock that is found under the earth's crust. sadly it is expected to cost to much to mine for this rock, but some periodotite can be found on or near the earth's surface in some places such as Oman, Papua New Guinea, Caledonia, California and the coast of the Adriatic Sea.

This car is full of air

Zero Pollution Motors in a deal with Indian car company Tata is planning on bring a car that is ran on air to the American market.

the car is a hybrid that runs on compressed air in two ways. either by a tank of compressed air or a fueled motor that compresses outside air.

on the tank the car can reach top speeds of 35 mph for about 60 miles.

Using the motor gives the car the speed of 106 mph for 800 miles.

The motor can be fueled by multiple sources of fuel such as gas, diesel, biodiesel, vegetable oil, or ethanol.

so on nonhighway driving you can drive without giving off any emissions.

Zero Pollution Motors is hoping to have the car on the road by 2011 and are aiming to have a car plant in most states.

expected price for the car will be $40,000

Greener farms will bring healthier people and economy

The New York Times has an article that talks about if farmers where to go back to the way they used the farm a long time ago (ie farming multiple crops and animals) things will be better for the environment as well as for economy and will also produce healthier people.

the article is a bit long (9 pages) but in short it says.

The current system of farming uses way to much fossil-fuels (in fact 19% of America's fossil fuel usage comes from farm/live stock)

by going back to the traditional farms we would greatly reduce the amount of fossil fuels needed to run them, by both the fact that they don't need to use gas to transport grain to animals but also by the fact that the animals on the farm create fertilizers (so farmers don't have to use chemical fertilizers)

and the rotating of crops will lead to less need for the use of pesticides (many which are made of oil) as well as prevent land from eroding.

and if the food distribution system is more localized we wouldn't use as much gas in transporting our food across the nation (or around the world)

going back to the traditional farm would also mean we would need a lot of new farmers. or in other words this will create a lot of new green jobs.

the article also ask for more healthier foods giving to kids at school as well as having gardens in every school.

and food stamps and WIC should be more geared to people eating healthier (by giving more credit when people eat healthy)

going green with a coca and smile

coca-cola is adding 120 hybrid delivery trucks to it's fleets across American. Which is apart of the 4300 trucks that Coca-Cola is putting out around world.

at speeds lower then 30 miles an hour the trucks use no gas.

these trucks are expected to be over 30% more fuel efficient then the non-hybrid Coca delivery trucks.

Food From the hood

Food from the Hood is a student group turned business that was started by a group of students that attend Crenshaw High School.

the group was formed to turn a weeded area near the school football field into a garden. The group donates some of the food to the need and also sells a number of products such as salad dressing.

half the profits they make go to scholar ships for the kids in the program.

this program helps teach teens business and urban gardening.

so if you are looking for dressing then you might want to buy some form these kids. Not only do you get a good product but you also get to do some good

man made photosynthesis

professor Daniel G. Nocera of MIT and Matthew Kanan have found a way for humans to do something plants do naturally. to create energy from the sun's rays and water.

what the scientist have found is a way to split water apart so you have oxgen and hydrogen.

They dissolved cobalt and phosphate in water and then zapped it with electricity through an electrode. The cobalt and phosphate form a thin-film catalyst around the electrode that then use electrons from the electrode to split the oxygen from water. The oxygen bubbles to the surface, leaving a proton behind.

A few inches away, another catalyst, platinum, helps that bare proton become hydrogen.

this process could be a cheaper way to power fuel cell batteries.

Reef In Peace

Eternal reefs is a company selling man made reefs that they place into the sea.

by man made I think I should also state it's made of man.

the company takes the ashes of people (or animals) and turn them into short of coral reef balls (or half balls) and then drops them to the bottom of the ocean.

the ideal is that these reef balls are not only underwater tombs/urns but well also serve as an environment for sea life.

solar or else

Germany as a country has been a world leader when it comes to using alternative energy.

The German government has many programs in place that make it easy (and to expense) for people to switch over to things like solar energy.

but recently the German town of Marburg may have step the line by not giving people the choice to switch to solar but instead demanding it.

if people don't get solar panels for their homes and business they will face a $1,500 fine.

many people in Marburg are upset about this. The people don't seem to have a problem with going solar but the problem is that they don't like the ideal of being forced to go solar.

giving the cost of solar one may not be able to afford it.

now when a government really wants it citizens to do their part to save the earth, they are bound to have a bad policy here or there. the thing is that before this city (and Germany as a whole) was using a plan that seems to be working by making it cost effective for people to go solar, but not by forcing them.

fallows cali's lead in energy effecency

Salon has an article talking about how if America had more energy efficiency in buildings, appliances and factories we could cut down on the amount of energy this country uses to such a great extent that we wouldn't need to build any new coal planets in the near future (by 2030)

the study looked at how Cali's energy consumption has stayed study while the rest of the nation energy use as gone up 60%. The reason California has had a large push to make sure the buildings in the state are much more energy efficient.

the american eletric grid can handle eletric cars

one of the fears that people bring up when talking about switching to plug in electric cars is that it will be to much for the eletric grid to handle.

but that doesn't seem to be a realistic problem. utility companies say that they will be able to handle the switch over if it's gradual.

and since everyone will not be able to go out and get an plug in electric as soon as they hit the market. everything will be all good.

they point to the fact that they handled the increased power that plasma TV used (and it seems that Plasma screens use up more eletricity then it would take for a eletric car)

swedesh guy's wood powered car

a 78 year old man in sweden has decide to fuel his car using wood gas instead of oil.

during world war 2 Sweden used wood gas due to oil shortages.

Tore Blomqvist grew up during this time period and so the ideal wasn't to far out for him to switch to wood.

he is now only playing about 1/7th the price of gas.

ok this might not really be riding clean but it's an intersting alternative to gas

McCain wants to give a tax break for those who buy electric car

Today (July 18) McCain says there should be an electric car tax credit of around $5000.

Sounds nice but if this tax credit is in acted I just hope it is done better then the one that was made for hybrid cars that is no longer around because the tax credit credit got smaller and smaller every year.

also if the ideal for the credit is to make so eletric cars are in the same price range as normal cars it really should be about $10,000. But I guess $5000 is much better then nothing.



and for those who wonder here are things Obama says he wants to do in terms of energy.

Green For All

I would like to point out green for all a group based in oakland, CA which is trying to open up the green collar job market to the poor.

what green for all tries to do is increase public awarness about the ideal that green jobs can help the poor and help the environment.

get leaders (such as politicans, business owners, activist, etc) together to talk about how green jobs can help the economy, as well as how to get things in action.

help local governments and community groups that are trying to get green jobs in their area

and just be an online place for people to talk and share ideals (and tips)

if you want more info or want to see how you can help out check out greenforall.org

garbage power

Ottawa Canada is planing on building a waste-to-energy facility that will turn trash into gas by heating with a really high degree of heat.

solar-gas-break battery triple hybrid cars

toyota is planning on adding solar panels to a future model of their Prius cars

even thought they don't think the addition of solar panels will really save much gas...but at the current price of gas every penny counts.

light weight hybrid buses

Fisher Body (a brand that was once part of GM and now the name of a new company) is now going to be focusing on making buses that use a new typed of uni-body stainless steel body that make the buses much lighter.

these lighter buses combined with using hybrid technology (batteries that are recharge by breaking like those found in Prius cars) and a diesel engine is expect to the buses 3x more fuel efficient.

solar energy tax credit may no longer see the light of day

currently there is a tax credit on the books that allow people to save $2,000 and business 30% off the price of solar energy panels.

this tax credit could in at the end of the year.

the move to extend the tax credit is being blocked in the senate.

get in contact with your local senator and state rep and tell them you want them to pass the Energy Independence and Tax Relief Act of 2008

GM trying to Volt to the finish line

has GM bit of more then it can show with saying they would have the volt out by 2010.

it seems like the car company has made a big goal for it self when it says that it would have a plug in car that can go 40 miles on one charge.


The people are at GM are racing to get the car to the market but have fallen a bit behind as statested in this article in the atlantic.

but the people at GM are hopeful that they can reach their goal.

I think this is an interesting article that goes into GM quest to reach it goal, so far and it's failure with electric cars in the past.

though I think the article is incorrect about one thing with GM's electric car released in the 90's. they say it was a failure in the market but my understanding the car was released in such a limited market and had it's plug pulled shortly after launch that I wouldn't say it's a market failure since it didn't have much chance to be in the market.

there was a movie released a few years ago about it, where a number of the owners of the cars talked about how they liked it but GM only offered them a lease and they couldn't buy the car out right. when the lease was over many of the owners wanted to keep the car but GM refused and took their cars (and sent them to get crushed)

that's not a failure of the market that was a failure on GM's part to see that in the 90's there was a market for an electric car (even if it was a niche at the time)

Hopefully GM will be wiser on how they deal with the Volt.

Atlantic City Convention Center goes solar

the state of New Jersy and Pepco (their local engery company) has worked out a deal that would put 290,000 square feet solar panels on the Atlantic City convention center.

Doing this is expected to save $4.4 million dollars over the next 20years.

it will also mean that 1/4th of the convention center will come from those solar panels.


I hope other cities see this and follow suit.

Toyota hybrids can't be made fast enough

Toyota is facing a problem due to the high demand for their hybrid cars...they can't make enough batteries for their cars to match the demand for them.

because of this, Toyota is looking to expand it's facilities to produce batteries as well as funding more research to make better batteries for their cars.

Shai Agassi breaks down what needs to be done to get everyone into an electric car

Shai Agassi CEO of Project Better Place talks about how easy it will be for a country to buid the infrastructure that will make it possible for everyone to drive electric cars instead of gas powered cars and how any country can do it.



the vidoe is a little over 20 mins long

Honda leaving them in the dust...er.. I mean...water vapors

Honda is planning on release a super limted edition car that only emmits water.

the car will be the first hydrogen powered fuel cell car made for the direct market.

Honda plans on only making 200 cars in the next 3 years and lease them for $600 a month.

Get on the bus

Americans use public transportation and ride bikes less then our European counter parts. We also and opt to use our cars much more then them.



But I wonder why, do they have better transportation systems then us in the U.S or is it because of their higher gas prices.



I haven’t really looked into Europe’s transportation systems but being from Michigan, it’s not to hard to top my local transportation system (we have buses and that’s it) and even place that do have different forms of public transportation there is the issue of how well they are funded.



If we really want to help save the planet, cut back on emissions, save money on gas, it time for us to start stepping to the plate and let someone else do the driving. Not only should we start using public transportation more we should write our local politicians and tell them to fund the systems more.



And I am no exception, I could use the bus more (or period.) and if tell our politicans to better fund public transportation.

get your car to drive on 100 miles per gallon

a company called A123 Systems are selling a conversion kit (for $10,000) that will turn your hybrid Pirus into a plug-in hybrid car.

this upgrade will now allow you to get up to 100 mpg.

Solar engery going mainstream

Rueters has an article up talking about how Solar engery maybe in a spot to go mainstream.

they state a number of facters.

the price of engergy is going up so the cost of going solar energy is going to be on par (or lower) then just staying with are current modes of getting energy.

if Obama wins the election, he say he will get America to get at least 25% of it's energy from solar by the 2025. McCain says he will go green but since there isn't as much info on how he is more of a wildcard on the issue of solar right now.

the price of silicon is expected to go down and if it does the price of making solar panels will go down.

but there is also now solar panels being made without silicon, and that could mean even cheaper solar panals.


if enough of these things line up then we will see a huge tipping toward solar power in the next few years.

How recycle your own paper

All the right the junk you need to make recycled paper is:



A blender or food processor

Fiberglass screen (like window or door screen)

Picture frame (or wooden frame)

Plastic tub or basin (has to be big enough to stick the frame in)

Liquid starch

teaspoon

Staples/tacks

Fabric in a square (felt or flannel)

sponge

Cookie sheets

And of course paper



Now you can use pretty much any type of paper or paper product. Such as magazines, newspaper, computer paper, cards, paper bags, tissue paper (I’m hopping your recycling the kind that you stuck in presents and not the ones you used to blow your knows), cardboard, etc.



If using cardboard you may have to soak in warm water before starting.



Also the quality of your new paper depends on the old paper you are using. Cards make heavier paper, where as using tissue paper will give you finer paper.



1. The first thing you do is rip up your paper into tiny little bits.

2. stick those pieces of paper into the blender until the blender is half way full. Then fill the rest of the blender with warm water.

3. turn blender on at a slow speed and then slowly jack up the speed until the paper is now a smooth and well blended pulp. Should take about half a minute. If you notice any flakes then keep on blending.

4. Now take whatever kind of fiberglass frame you are using and place it on top of the picture (wooden) frame. Then staple them together. Make sure they are tight as hell and you have your mold

5. Fill half the tub with water and then dump the pulp from the blinder. The more pulp you use the thicker the paper. You use more then one blenders worth of pulp.

6. Stir it up

7. Add 2 teaspoons of liquid starch and mix it into the pulp

8. Place the mold into the tub. Keep it straight while it sinks down into the pulp.

9. Gently shake the tube until the pulp is evenly on the screen.

10. slowly lift the mold out of the water. Let the water drip from the pulp in the mold. If there is to much pulp on the mold, get rid of some. If to little add some more.

11. When the mold stops dripping, place the mold onto the fabric.

12. Now stick the fabric over the paper

13. Gently use the sponge to get rid of the rest of the water in the pulp in the mold.

14. Slowly lift the mold away from the fabric. The paper should now be on the fabric. If not you either moved the mold to fast or didn’t get rid of enough water. Fix this and then try it again.

15. If there are any bubbles or loose edges you can press them out.

16. Place the fabric on a cookie sheet

17. If you want to make more then one piece of paper. Repeat steps 8 to 16 (unless your tub is out of pulp then start back at one) and stack the fabric over the last piece of paper you did.

18. Press the stack to get rid of any more water that may be in the paper.

19. lay out the paper to dry.

20. when dry peel the paper form the fabric.


Now ya got paper.



Now this might be a bit ghetto and you might not be able to use this paper for school or business. But for your personal use it should be alright.

fly slower and save on millions of dollars on fuel

SAS, a Scandinavian airline has found away to both cut down on emissions and save $12 million dollars in gas cost.

How they do it, you ask?

simple they are no flying slower.

SAS has reduced their flight speed from 860 kph to 780kph.

wait should I toast this issue?

Canadian Geographic June 2008 issue is going to be the first magazine in North America to be printed on wheat.

actually this magazine is only going to be 20% wheat the other 80% is recycled pulp and fiber.

Now if you are worried about the use of wheat causing the price of food to go up, you don't have to worry. The process they are using uses wheat straw and not the grain.

soapy fueled cars?

Stone Soap of company in Sylvan Lake, Mi has invented a new way to get biofuel.

instead of mixing food with alchol to get biofuel they have came up with a way to compined planet and animal waste with natural gas to great biofuel.

since it uses waste product this gets rid of the problems of high food prices caused by biofuel.

They say the price of there hybrid gas should be $1 less then normal biofuel.

Tasmanian devil sickened into endangerment

The Tasmanian Devil has been placed on the endangeredment list because there population has drop severely due to a plague of cancer.

Selsam Turbines

a small company in California has created a new spin on making wind turbines.

Selsam's wind turbines run on the ideal that instead of making one big turbine you can use a lot of little turbines to create energy.


by going with this ideal Doug Selsam has made a turbine that could fit on one's home.

if this really works we can all use wind power to power are homes (or at least cut down on the electric bill)


wind-works.org is currently putting up post about them testing the Selsam Super Twin Turbines out

Solar village

Donggwang, South Korea is a small town where that is run 100% by solar engergy.

that right everyone has solar panels on there house.

Ok Donggwang maybe a small village of 40 homes but shows what can happen if the people and the goverment (south Korea payed for 70% of the cost to put up the panels) get in and do something.

a BOLD face truth about pollution

new research coming out of the Univeristy of London has shown that one of the factors in boldness is pollution.

it seems that carcinogens and toxins in air pollution can stop hair from growing.

Inventors that can keep it going you could win $10 million

The X prize group is now holding a contest looking for someone that can build a car that can get 100 mpg (or what would be the equivalent to a gallon)



The car most be able to be build in mass production.



Some time in 2010 the automotive X prize group will hold a 10 stage race to find the winner.



If they are able to find a team that actually can do this, this will be great. Even if the car runs on gas, a car this fuel-efficient would not only be great on the environment but also on our pockets.

Majora Carter on Tavis Smiley

Majora Carter was on Tavis Smiley show Thursday.

The site for Tavis Smiley's PBS show has not only the transcript of the interview but you can either listen to the audio or watch a video of it.

For those who don't know Majora Carter is the founder and head of Sustainable South Bronx, a group which not only runs programs to improve the environment but they also great jobs in south Bronx.

SSBX is a template for how the green movement can create jobs for those in need as well as save the earth.

the isetta makes an electrifying return?

BMW may bring back it's isetta brand name for an up coming eletric car.

which will be powered by rechargeable lead batteries.

please don't eat the biofeul

earlier I talked about the problem we are currently facing with the rising price of food which some say is party due to farmers growing things used for biofeul instead of food.


besides tower farming and not expecting a magic bullet to solve are problems another that could help solve this problem is to focus a bit more on crops that aren't eating by people to use for biofuel.

Things like switchgrass and algea for example.

I haven't looked at switchgrass much but I like algea for a number of reasons.

for example you wouldn't have to use farm land to grow it. you can get algea from lakes (and other bodies of water) or grow it indoors. this leaves land to farm food.

give a hoot don't...do drugs

I just saw a PSA which should a car stopping by a lake and dumping a lot of junk on the ground.

at first it seemed like PSA telling you not to litter but it wasn't it was an anti-drug PSA telling you not to do meth by saying meth makers get rid of their evidence by littering.

I thought it was odd way to try to get people not to do drugs. Instead of talking about the bad effects of drugs on your body or tolls it can have on your loved ones, they went for it is bad for the environment.

maybe this recent green movement is reaching more people because I don't ever remember a say no to drug PSA mixed with a be green PSA.

The current problems with the hunt for alternative energy

There has been a lot of talk about finding alternative sources of energy to use instead of oil.



Which is great and is something I want to happen. But I see a big obstacle block that stands in the way right now that makes it unlikely.



One of the biggest problems is the fact that there are to many people that think that we will find one magic bullet. One thing that we can use to completely get us off of oil.



Maybe it’s because we are talking about replacing one thing (oil) that makes people think we can replace it with another thing instead of things. Maybe it’s because some industries (like the corn lobby when it comes to ethanol) strongly push there product as the one thing that can save us. Maybe it’s because does that don’t want the use of alternative energy (i.e. the oil industry) send out people to say this to try to discourage people from backing alternative energy.



Ok I am sure it’s a mix of all of these and we have to get people to understand that it is going to take a mix of different things to get us off of the oil monster.

farms going up not out

well with the number of food riots going on in the world it is clear that we might be facing a food crisis due to the fact that we aren't producing enough food to keep up with world demand.

or to be truthful since we are already in state of crisis for much of the world...when the people that are likely to be reading this blog face similar crisis.

some might think it's hopeless because to farm more food we will need more land...and as we have more and more people in the world (along with cities and suburbs) there's going to be a point where we don't have enough land.

the is where The Vertical Farm Project comes in.

which basic ideal is that they are trying to find away to create cheap indoor farms that can be many stories (think skyscraper farms in the middle of cities)

environmental linkage

environmental links

Toxic Link Dump

non-environmental links

some green links

the title says it all, links that are dealing with a green world

hi welcome to green brotha

HI welcome to green brotha before I begin I'm just living a few post for me to add links to later.


put before I add links I should say what this site is about.

I've had some concern about the state of earth since I was a kid (thanks captian planet) and with a the news about the the shape of the world to day I figured this blog could be a great spot for me to talk about things we can do and new tech that is out (or could be coming out) that can help us turn things around.