Here we are in a new year and each of us has his or her own path to follow. But as we go down that path we find that we converge at several spots along the way. Fighting pollution and conservation are examples of those points where we can act to make a difference.

For instance, recycling things like aluminum, glass, and plastics, really recycling...not just once in a while...will reduce the impact on our trash and reduce the use of energy at the same time...
As an example, here is the deal on Aluminum...it is the most prevalent metal on earth...much more than iron for instance...but it takes a great deal of energy to make aluminum from scratch because it is found in a variety of rocks rather than a near pure state. We find that recycling generates high quality aluminum without all of the energy use...less then half actually...and lots less carbon release. That is a win-win... and its only one example.

So...you recycle glass, cans, plastics, aluminum on a regular basis and your land fill or waste management program gets a break, the environment gets a break, and the energy consumed is reduced...giving us all a break.

Simple actions like this make a world of difference... for us and future generations.

Kyoto to Copenhagen... Any improvement?

Copenhagen is a beautiful city...one that was well prepared to accept the international delegates for the recent conference on Global Warming that had hoped to replace the Kyoto Protocols that have been modestly ...hell, poorly protecting our planet. So, did the world realize that our pollution was a problem and that we must act now to keep the impact of Humankind on the state or our planet from changing the face of the Earth?

The problem that Kyoto tried to address was climate change, and more specifically, the speed at which the earth appears to be warming up. The term Global Warming has become a battle cry... on one side is the group that feels man has made a mess of things and that we have caused the earth to warm at an alarming rate...melting ice and placing us on a road that will destroy our world...or at least make it damn near unbearable in most places... then there are those who feel this climatic shift is part of a natural cycle and that it is not really Global Warming, just a cycle and that the arguments presented by its proponents are not supported by scientific evidence at all. Remember, the US did not support the Kyoto Protocols.

So now we move to Copenhagen 2009... and again, but with much more animation, ask the same questions. The answers were not, however, quick to come...and there are many world wide who feel we have again failed.

The two largest polluters are China and the United States...followed by India and others... but these two super economies feel that they have to take their time to slow their carbon dumping in order to protect their populations from the impact on employment, especially in this recessionary time.

HEY....LISTEN UP!

There is only one Earth and we are polluting it past its capacity to survive. We don't have time to delay here. Kyoto did not work...and not it is questionable if Copenhagen has any chance of succeeding.

Now there were some promises. President Obama committed billions of dollars to third world nations to help them cope, and there was an 18% reduction here and later on a 25% reduction there... but not now and not fully committed. From my perspective I would say "Forget global warming...it pollution that we need to address"... things like air and water pollution must be corrected if we are going to effectively manage this part of Earth's history.

So what can we do? Simple... this is a Republic.... Talk to your representatives...tell them what you think must happen... we need to make real strides in correcting our environment or our Grand Children will not know Snow... forget the Northern and Southern Ice Caps...they won't even know snow.

OK...so what do you think...

WAUSAU, Wis. (Sept. 27) -- Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with ugly, smelly and potentially deadly blue-green algae, bloomed by drought and fertilizer runoffs from farm fields, that's killed dozens of dogs and sickened many people.

Aquatic biologists say it's a problem that falls somewhere between a human health concern and a nuisance, but will eventually lead to more human poisoning. State officials are telling people who live on algae-covered lakes to close their windows, stop taking walks along the picturesque shorelines and keep their dogs from drinking the rank water.

The shame here is that our farmers who are causing this could make changes to their processes that would yield real improvements here.. improvements that must be made or this tragic condition will extract a price that we are not going to like... including birth defects and potentially life shortening illness... even death...from the toxic reaction to these algaes.

The blue-green algae pictured here is proliferating throughout the North Central States...but is just as likely in other regions, especially as we see changes in our weather patterns. We need to appreciate that our actions will cause reactions. And we need to take steps to correct these issues... correct them through process change that eliminates the run off and prevents this from happening all together.

Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster Than Thought!

A Look At The Antarctic

• Antarctica is a continent about 1 ½ times bigger than the United States and is surrounded by water.
• It is Earth’s Southernmost landmass, overlying the South Pole.
• About 90% of the ice on Earth is located in Antarctica. These are large, thick ice sheets that normally move at Glacial speeds
• Sea Ice Surrounding Antarctica roughly doubles the continent’s size during its winter.
• The highest peak on the continent is the Vinson Massif at 16,077 feet which is about 600 miles from the South Pole.
• Temperatures at the South Pole reach 140 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
• Antarctica has penguins but no polar bears...and scientific research centers from nations all over the world.
• Together, all of the Glaciers in West Antarctica are loosing 114 billion tons of ice per year because of the rapid melting reported…this is much greater then the new snow fall that would replace it.
• It is also more than equivalent to the current mass loss from the whole of the Greenland Ice Sheet!

The oceans are getting bluer...due to a loss of Oxygen rich plankton, and deeper due to the Polar meltdown... we have little time to reverse this effect.

How big is a WATT? or...more important...a MegaWatt?

The United States has achieved a 25Megawatt of wind generated power...but what does that mean?

Is that a day...an hour...a week or month...even a year? Well when we talk about power generation we are talking about an hourly output, So when we say that we generate 25-Megawatts we mean that we have an average hourly output of that level ... averaged over the year...which accounts for high and low speed revolutions on the wind generators.

Now with that aside...what is a Watt? Simply stated in basic electrical terms a Watt is the energy needed to do work...and it is the result of Volts generated multiplied by the current flow reported in Amphere hours (or amps). If we are generating 25-Megawatts we have 113636.36 Amps at 220 average volts.

Well, we are getting closer...but is there a visual we can create? Yes...lets talk light bulbs...say 100 Watt incandescent light bulbs... if you have 25,000,000 watts and we devide it by 100 we would find out just howmany bulbs we could illuminate with this power source...

So 25000000/100 equals 250000 light bulbs glowing brightly...

Electricity consumption by 107 million U.S. households in 2001 totaled 1,140 billion kWh so you can see that 25Megawatts is not that powerful a source...

At 25GW+ we are number one wind generator, but...

The United States passed Germany in 2008, becoming the world’s number one in wind power installations, according to a report by the Global Wind Energy Council, while global wind capacity rose 28.8%.

“The 120 GW of global wind capacity in place at the end of 2008 will produce 260 TWh and save 158 million tons of CO2 every year,” said Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the GWEC.

Wind power installations in the U.S. added 8.4GW of capacity, bringing the country’s total to 25GW, passing Germany, which previously held the record at just under 24GW, said the GWEC.
25GW is more than enough power to keep the lights on in five million houses.

The Global Wind Energy Council is forum for the wind energy industry.

This increased capacity came before President Obama, who has promised to boost renewable energy production, even stepped foot in the White House.

The report also notes that the wind projects finished last year, added 35,000 new jobs to the U.S. economy. This brings the national total to 85,000 in that industry.

So...is being number one important enough, or do we need to do more? First off, wind is a meaningful source of energy...but it has mechanical issues that result in lost power in both low wind and high wind...too slow or too high to manage the torque on the systems. These issues need to be overcome using engineering and materials that will provide longlife turbines.

If 25GW produces the energy for 5 million homes then our goal should be closer to 2500GW...and the power for entire regions. Next step...making it happen!