Electric Cars: The More You Know The More You May Want to Plug In

Slowly but surely green technology is finding its way into place where it could never go. With the cast iron grip of the oil companies loosening as fossil fuel supplies dry up, energy saving ideas such as electric cars seem to be gaining acceptance at a much faster rate than ever before.

In this fine article on the Mother Earth News Blog, you can find out a lot of good info and who knows…you may even find yourself humming along  sooner than you think.

http://tinyurl.com/4oyqta2

It’s Called Blowing Where The Wind Is

If you believe that a big part of our sustainable future lies in harnessing the power of the wind, you’re not alone.  In fact, just recently, a company called Deepwater Wind Energy has made a very interesting proposal to the US government.

Personally, I don’t think you can ever get enough wind power. And this one will be the largest renewable energy project ever proposed for the North East US.

http://www.earthtechling.com/2010/12/giant-offshore-wind-proposal-in-atlantic/

Thanks Earth Techling for the story.

http://www.earthtechling.com

Hmmm Hmmm. The Future of Vroom Vroom.

Cool bikes that run on batteries...Energizer bunny, eat your heart out.

I saw a number of tweets this week that were linking to a company called Brammo. Evidently they have come up with a battery that has some pretty amazing power and longevity. In fact, they’re featuring this technology on  motorcycle they call the Empulse and Enertia, which can go up to 100 miles per hour and has a 100 mile charge life. This is pretty amazing stuff, and I assume, only the tip of the Brammo iceberg.

If you’re at all interested in the future of non-fossil fuel powered travel, then you should, by all means, check out these folks. I think they are really onto something.

http://www.brammo.com/empulse/

Social Media Campaign for Our Green Directory

2011 is the year we really want to put Our Green Directory on the map. So in January we’re starting a social media campaign to help us do just that. Fortunately one of the partners (Terry Lewis(, has all kinds of skills in that area.

I guess it’s a good idea when you consider that FaceBook alone has 500 million users. That’s a country the size of Canada, the US and Mexico.

It Pays To Be Leeding The Way

Building Green.com is one of the best web sites I have come across on the subject of Leeds building.

Leeds building has quietly crept into the psyche of builders and developers all over the world. And just recently a study was done demonstrating just how worthwhile the Leeds Building investment can be.

This is the lead paragraph from a very interesting article on Leeds building that Building Green.com buildinggreen.com has one their blog site. If you’re interested in Leed standards or even just mildly curious. this is a good site to bookmark and visit.

“Dutch economist Nils Kok has published the most comprehensive statistical analysis to date on the relative value of green and conventional buildings. The results show that U.S. buildings labeled under the LEED or Energy Star programs charge 3% higher rent, have greater occupancy rates, and sell for 13% more than comparable properties. “Labeled buildings have effective rents [rent multiplied by occupancy rate] that are almost 8% higher than those of otherwise identical nearby non-rated buildings,” the study reports…”

http://bit.ly/cf0i3o

National Geographic. The Gold Standard In Conservation Information

National Geographic is one of those institutions that seems to have been around forever. And regardless of their original motives, they have grown into  one of the most powerful pro-conservationist organizations in the world.

They tell amazing stories of the people and creatures that populate our planet and they have done more to inform the world of the fragility of the ecosystem that connects us all to each other and the earth.
Through their highly rated TV specials, IMAX movies, video sales and to a lesser extent, their monthly magazines, they are able to reach millions and millions of people around the world with what is a very positive message. They are truly an important part of the solution.

Their web site, like everything else they do, is strictly first class. Simple, elegant and straightforward and one of the sites I actually enjoy visiting on a regular basis.
Because it makes me feel more connected to the world at large.

For anyone who wants to stay informed about the world and all the truly important things that are going on it it, this site is a weekly must-visit.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com

Long Term Strategies Re The Gulf Oil Spill, Wall Street Stupidity Not Withstanding

The Gulf Oil spill is pretty much yesterday’s news now. Unfortunately the devastating effects of this ludicrous corporate blunder (BP, in case you forgot), will be with us for some time to come, as the people of the Gulf region try to put their lives back together.

I understand that there is a fund set up to compensate these people for the hardship that they are enduring. And that always seems to get a lot of play. BP runs corporate messages telling everybody who cares to listen that they will be there till every last drop of oil is cleaned and that’s all well and good too.

But the simple fact remains that the entire Gulf Region including the Mississippi Delta has been almost completely destroyed, along with the livlihoods off a great many of the people who live there.

The article linked here will help shed a great deal of light on what’s really needed in the Gulf region right now.

The first three paragraphs, are a little disturbing in that they very succinctly point out the abject ignorance of the certain members of the American financial establishment regarding some pretty basic environmental economics. But the rest of this article The Nature Conservancy’s blog, Cool Green Science, makes a hell of a lot of sense.

http://blog.nature.org/2010/11/gulf-mexico-conservation-economics-jobs/

Is Our Future For The Birds?

A Murmuration of Starlings...stars of an amazing video.

I was just cruising through my tweets when I came upon a very interesting and mesmerizing video.

It’s a viral ad for a book called Macrowikinomics–Rebooting Business And The World by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, the title of which is kind of self explanatory. A lot of people out there are taking a good hard look at our world and what we need to do to get things back on track.

The video itself is fascinating and one of the YouTube comments sums it up quote nicely. It’s from someone who signed, justorace.

“This video consolidates the one single theme that we, as humans, are faced with the capacity & enormous opportunity to connect and make changes and dynamically over come any political agenda and better yet to make the changes that we need to survive for another millennium!”

The video and the thesis presented by the video’s narrator are well worth paying attention to. For those of us who are making some sort of effort to change the world for the better, and more importantly for those who are looking for a place to start.

Being in advertising, I’ve developed a bit of an immunity to persuasion. But I think I’m going to go out and buy this book.

View the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLLz5Cdrjo8

Find out more about the book at http://www.macrowikinomics.com/

Thanks to Context Creative for hipping me to this info.

National Geographic. The Gold Standard In Conservation Information

National Geographic is one of those institutions that seems to have been around forever. And regardless of their original motives, they have grown into  one of the most powerful pro-conservationist organizations in the world.

They tell amazing stories of the people and creatures that populate our planet and they have done more to inform the world of the fragility of the ecosystem that connects us all to each other and the earth.

Through their highly rated TV specials, IMAX movies, video sales and to a lesser extent, their monthly magazines, they are able to reach millions and millions of people around the world with what is a very positive message. They are truly an important part of the solution.

Their web site, like everything else they do, is strictly first class. Simple, elegant and straightforward and one of the sites I actually enjoy visiting on a regular basis. Because it makes me feel more connected to the world at large.

For anyone who wants to stay informed about the world and all the truly important things that are going on it it, this site is a weekly must-visit.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com

The Answer My Friend Is Blowin’ In The Wind (Bob Dylan)

Wind energy today is a booming worldwide industry.

This technology has truly come of age, with higher quality, more reliable machinery and a greater understanding of how and where wind power can be practically applied–from the independent home to a grid-connected utility-wide perspective.

Heightened concerns about our environment mean that this resurgence of interest in wind–a natural and widespread power source–is here to stay.

Wind Power is the completely revised and expanded edition of Paul Gipe’s definitive 1993 book, Wind Power for Home and Business. In addition to expanded sections on gauging wind resources and siting wind turbines, this edition includes new examples and case studies of successful wind systems, international sources for new and used equipment, and hundreds of color photographs and illustrations.

Over the course of his career, Paul Gipe has been a proponent, participant, observer, and critic of the wind industry. His experience with wind power has given rise to two previous books on the subject, Wind Energy Basics and Wind Power for Home and Business, which have sold over 50,000 copies. Wind Power for Home and Business has become a staple for both homeowners and professionals interested in the subject, and now, with energy prices soaring, interest in wind power is hitting an all-time high.

(Adapted from the Amazon.com synopsis, where you can purchase this fine book) http://amzn.to/a9sIzv

You can find out more about this amazing book at http://bit.ly/9ks3np

All The (Green) News That’s Fit to Print (Post)

One of my principal sources for ideas for this blog come from twitter. I have three twitters that I keep going. These include:
http://twitter.com/OurGreenDirctry
http://twitter.com/BuyGreenTO

These two are for tweets related directed to Our Green Directory.

But I have another personal Twitter account (http://twitter.com/JMsJournal) that for some reason also manages to attract fair number of green organizations. Not sure why because most of the tweets I do from this location have to do with sports and entertainment.

Anyway, one of the most interesting green sites on personal twitter is called Green Energy News.

This  site is kind of, but not exclusively geared towards people who are interested in investing in green technology or products and covers off a number of popular areas of the green business world.

I’d encourage you to check out the site and follow them on Twitter. You can find them at:

http://www.renewable-energy-news.info