EnerMeter

From Alex Steffen at WorldChanging:

When We Talk Zero, We Sound Crazy. When Bill Gates Does It, Bankers Pick Up the Phone.

On Friday, the world's most successful businessperson and most powerful philanthropist did something outstandingly bold, that went almost unremarked: Bill Gates announced that his top priority is getting the world to zero climate emissions.

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And Friday, Gates predicted extraordinary climate action: zero. Not small steps, not incremental progress, not doing less bad: zero. In fact, he stood in front of a slide with nothing but the planet Earth and the number zero. That moment was the most important thing that has happened at TED.

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We have a backyard bird feeder here in Santa Cruz, California,  and have had for several years.

So far this year on only two days have I seen any goldfinches. A couple of months ago there were two, and then again last week one day there were three.

Last year there were often 10 or more goldfinches hanging on the thistle sack. It was a rare day when there were none. It is very lonely looking at that sack this year.

The house finches are here along with a variety of their brethren, but I am starting to get a bad feeling about the goldfinches.

Yet another wingnut email. This one is somewhat plausible, but wrong none the less. I have no idea what Lowell’s comment about the environmentalist when he forwarded it on means , but the most likely outcome for “all that power” is that it stays in the ground.

Thanks to the environmentalist,  How do we get rid of all that power?

Lowell M

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Read the whole report especially the end. This is real eye opener.
Subject: FW: Bakken Oil --More than the rest of the World combined

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Cap and trade is the target of this wingnut email. One of my “conservative” friends keeps sending inflammatory emails. The one today appears to be designed to scare ordinary folks into thinking that Obama will steal your house, and maybe your firstborn child. No mention that you already need to meet various requirements to get financing.

HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH YET.  THIS IS WHAT HOPE AND CHANGE IS ALL ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: FW: A License To Sell Your House per Obama

I looked this up....it is currently in the Bill!!!!!!

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This radical idea comes from John Michael Greer on his blog in a piece titled: Facing the Deindustrial Age

Thus it's one thing to try to find some way to power today's industrial system with renewable sources while leaving intact the structures of everyday life that give our civilization its extravagant appetite for energy. It's quite another thing, and much closer to the realm of the possible, to use renewable energy to meet the far more modest energy requirements of an agrarian society. Especially in North America, restating the question in this way opens up immense possibilities. Very few people who live on this continent, for instance, have noticed that it's only our energy-wasting lifestyles that keep us dependent on imported oil -- with all the unwelcome economic and political consequences that brings. Even 35 years after its own Hubbert peak, the United States is still one of the largest producers of oil on Earth. If the average American used only as much energy per year as the average European, America would be exporting oil, not importing it. Only our insistence on clinging to the dysfunctional lifestyles of an age that is passing away keeps such an obviously constructive goal off the table in discussions of national energy policy.

I will repeat the money line for emphasis: If the average American used only as much energy per year as the average European, America would be exporting oil, not importing it.

Of course, cutting consumption is not the only thing we should be doing. We should be adding renewable energy sources as fast as they can be manufactured until only the most basic transportation needs are powered by oil. If we limit the use of fossil fuels to powering airplanes, we probably have enough to last quite a long time.

From the November 2009 Scientific American Magazine. Download the Full Paper from paper by Jacobson and Delucchi.

Key Concepts
Supplies of wind and solar energy on accessible land dwarf the energy consumed by people around the globe.

The authors’ plan calls for 3.8 million large wind turbines, 90,000 solar plants, and numerous geothermal, tidal and rooftop photovoltaic installations worldwide.

The cost of generating and transmitting power would be less than the projected cost per kilowatt-hour for fossil-fuel and nuclear power.

Shortages of a few specialty materials, along with lack of political will, loom as the greatest obstacles.

In December leaders from around the world will meet in Copenhagen to try to agree on cutting back greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come. The most effective step to implement that goal would be a massive shift away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy sources. If leaders can have confidence that such a transformation is possible, they might commit to an historic agreement. We think they can.

From The Official Google Blog

Google PowerMeter's first device partner

Today, we're very excited to announce we have secured our first official device partner. (That means having a smart meter installed by your utility is no longer a prerequisite for using Google PowerMeter!) For the last several months, a few hundred Google employees have been testing a number of in-home electricity monitoring devices. Those of us lucky enough to have one of these devices installed in our homes experienced first-hand how access to high-resolution energy use information drives meaningful behavior change (PDF). So we set out to make that data easier for everyone to access and understand by sending the collected data to our Google PowerMeter software.

The TED 5000 from Energy Inc. is an energy monitor that measures electricity usage in real-time (TED stands for "The Energy Detective"). As of today, we're pleased to announce that anyone in North America can purchase and install the TED 5000 and see personal home energy data using our free software tool, Google PowerMeter, from anywhere you can access the web including through iGoogle for mobile phones. (If you already have a TED 5000, you can download a free firmware upgrade to enable this functionality.)
Combined with Google PowerMeter, the TED 5000 device can help you understand your electricity usage to save energy and money. Energy Inc. is just our first device partner and if you are working for a company that manufactures energy monitors, we'd like to hear from you. Stay tuned for more!
Posted by Tom Sly, New Business Development & Charles Spirakis, Software Engineer

And from the TED website:

Did you know that most households pay thousands of dollars a year for electricity? Thousands! The Energy Detective (TED) can easily help you save 10-20% on your electric bill - hundreds of dollars - and the more you save, the more you help your neighbors, the community, and protect our environment.
How exactly does TED help? It's really a simple concept - If you can measure it, you can manage it.

Prices range from $199 to about $500, depending on what is being measured.

The dream of personal rapid transit picks up speed from boston.com

But there’s one system that, according to its proponents, combines the pluses of both options, while largely jettisoning the minuses. Called personal rapid transit, or PRT, it consists of small, light, electric vehicles, known as “pod cars,” which hold just a few passengers and run along a network of elevated tracks. The pod cars are driverless and automated: Passengers select their destination and the vehicle goes directly there, bypassing all other stations. Advocates say these systems could help ease a multitude of problems: global warming, dependence on foreign oil, congestion, and diminishing available land. They would also free commuters to safely engage in the activities they often do anyway while behind the wheel.

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Interest in the United States is also on the rise. A 2007 report for the New Jersey Department of Transit concluded that “PRT has the potential to help the State address certain transportation needs in a cost-effective, environmentally-responsible, traveler-responsive manner.” San Jose recently issued a “request for proposals” with the aim of building a PRT system in the vicinity of the airport. The city council of Mountain View, Calif., where Google’s headquarters are located, is also considering the idea, as are officials in Santa Cruz, Calif., and Ithaca, N.Y. And in the Boston area, a small group of transit advocates is promoting the construction of a PRT system linking local universities.

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Former Massachusetts secretary of transportation Fred Salvucci, who now teaches at MIT, says, “We have a lot of low-density suburbs that are very difficult to serve with traditional rapid transit.” Although he believes the political will and funding will be all but impossible to muster in the near term, he says, “The automobile is totally unsustainable. Personal rapid transit ought to be on the table.”

For more information: PRT Strategies

Exotic palm tree forest image

Described by the photographer as: “View on vast exotic Asian tropical palm tree forests from the slope of a hill, with banana tree leaves in the foreground”

FeaturePics has been offering a “free for blog use” license for a long time, but you might not have found those free images.

Now the images that carry this type of license should show up in a Google search because they have been submitted to Google with that designation. Just search using FeaturePics.com and “Free for Blog Use” as search attributes. Of course, you can use other search attributes as well to narrow the search.

Once you have found the image to meet your needs, it could not be easier. Just follow the “Blog this for free” link, copy the supplied code, and paste it into your page.

I wonder what is going on with Google?