Understanding Green Energy

   Global Green Energy is hard at work right now on a number of local (Washington State area) projects. Next week we will post some pictures of some of the jobs we've been doing. In the meantime, we have been pondering the "global" in our name.
    Have you been to the United Nations website lately?
    Their new slogan is "Welcome to the United Nations. It's your world." And they have dedicated this year, 2011, Year of the Forests. So apparently GGEC isn't the only organization thinking about the global necessity of the forests, and what we as individuals can do to preserve them.
    This 7-minute video is a beautiful look at the relationship between human beings and forests. It was made for the launch of Year of the Forests.

http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/videos.shtml
 

Of Forests and Men


    "Someday there will be a 1000-year Forest Plan. If talking about 1000 years seems unimaginably long, we should remember that the Department of Energy and the whole nuclear establishment are planning for a repository of spent but thoroughly dangerous radioactive material to be placed underground at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and it will need to be overseen and guarded for at least 10,000 years. They have assured us that they will look after it for all that time." from Back on Fire, a collection of essays by Gary Snyder.

    It is worth noting that since this was written, the current administration has ruled out use of the Yucca Mountain site. This has generated a flurry of panic from states with spent nuclear rods who do not wish to store them at home.(1)

    Not everyone understands the difference between "clean energy" and "dirty energy". When you google "Clean energy" the first links that come up are for GE and Siemen's renewable energy divisions. They use words like "sustainable", and "green", and are -in GE's case- actively hunting for fresh new ideas that they can transform into innovative technology. These innovations would use less of our non-renewable resources, one hopes, and improve life on the planet for future generations. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists website,"No single solution can meet our society's future energy needs. The answer lies instead in a family of diverse energy technologies that share a common thread: they do not deplete our natural resources or destroy our environment. Renewable energy technologies tap into natural cycles and systems, turning the ever-present energy around us into usable forms. "
    According to Unicef's Renewables Info page, "Fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas), are usually referred to as "dirty" energy sources because of the damage they do to our environment, and our planet in general. Fossil fuels, when burn[t] release harmful greenhouse gases, mostly in form of carbon dioxide (CO2) which accelerate the climate change impact. Unlike renewable energy sources which can in certain situations cause some environmental damage, fossil fuel burning always causes environmental damage." (3)
    While nuclear energy was not included in the Unicef definition, nuclear energy is generally considered to be harmful to the environment (even if handled properly, there is still no safe place or "disposal" for the radioactive waste generated) and it is therefore, "dirty".

GGEC is dedicated to finding local, sustainable, long-term solutions to your energy needs. For us, it is all about clean, green energy.

For more info on working for a world free from nuclear power and nuclear weapons:
http://www.beyondnuclear.org/

For more info on the closing of Yucca Mountain:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/07/AR2009030701666.html

(1) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/nyregion/16nuke.html

(2) http://www.renewables-info.com/energy_definitions/clean_energy_definition.html

(3) http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/

Fresh Water

   Drinkable water is fast becoming a not-easily-renewable resource. Around
the world, we dirty our water much faster than we can clean it. And in
many arid places potable water is THE big survival issue. Water isn't
completely non-renewable, but it isn't the abundant fount that people
have been undervaluing for the last couple thousand years. In fact, it's
becoming more valuable than gold. Which is why it is also quickly
becoming a privately-owned commodity.
    Here in the US, much of the bottled water that people purchase comes
from a city or town municipal supply that has been sold to a private
company, then bottled and resold. In other words, bottled water is
largely from someone else's tap. The pesticides and fertilizers
agribusinesses use to grow "perfect" crops for large markets around the
country are leaching into the groundwater, resulting in unsafe drinking
water for nearby towns.
    If you have not already seen the documentary BlueGold:World Water Wars,
we recommend that you do. It is available on the website below for
purchase, but can also be ordered via Netflix.
http://www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com/

    Energy and water issues go hand-in-hand. We use energy to clean our
drinking water. And in many cases we use water to generate energy
(hydroelectric dams, the cooling processes of thermonuclear power, even
the corn grown for ethanol requires a great deal of water). According to
the article from Treehugger.com linked below:
    "Plug your iPhone into the wall, and about half a liter of water must
flow through kilometers of pipes, pumps, and the heat exchangers of a
power plant. That's a lot of money and machinery just so you can get a
6-watt-hour charge for your flashy little phone. "

This article also contains a pretty cool interactive map of the world,
depicting the hot spots where water and energy are inextricably -and
disastrously- linked.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/interactive-map-shows-worldwide-water-and-energy-tug-o-war.php

    This is a different kind of symbiosis -the parasitic kind- in which we
suck at the water of the planet through drinking, polluting, and
generating electricity, until our host is dry. And obviously it would
behoove us to change this pattern since we have no back-up host.
We can change things by not buying bottled water, by not putting
fertilizers and pesticides on our crops or not buying foods that come
from agribusinesses that do. We can put solar panels on our homes and
businesses, easing the burden on the water-generated supply until enough
of us get wise and we stop using those resources. Global Green Energy
can even install a solar hot water system for you, which heats your
water without you having to tap into the standard grid-tied electrical
supply to heat your water! Because if water is the new gold, we should
be treating it that way.

    To learn more about how we can make a difference in remote regions of
the world, here are two nonprofits -- Abundant Water and Solar Cookers International-- with creative, immediate, solution-oriented approaches:
http://abundantwater.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/AW-Info-sheet.pdf
and
http://www.solarcookers.org/basics/water.html

The Heart of the Matter/ a Love Letter to You

Whatever you think about your body, no matter how critical you are about its appearance, you want it to run right. It is your mode of transportation during your lifetime. To continue the car/body analogy, if you have been using the wrong gasoline in your car, you can damage your engine. There are a lot of things our there right now that add up to "the wrong gasoline" --eating foods with pesticides and fertilizers in them, drinking out of disposable plastic water bottles, lying on beds or wearing clothing that is covered in fire retardants, breathing carbon monoxide fumes-- and these aren't even the toxins you've inherited. We have been exponentially increasing our toxic load for about the last hundred and fifty years.
We can think of the body as a microcosm, a miniature reflection of earth. Both are in large part made up of water. Both are complex systems reliant on a diversity of flora and fauna to function properly, and both are suffering from massive pollution.

According to many sources, including the articles below, our bodies have become mini toxic waste dumps. In order to protect ourselves, we need to be armed with knowledge so that we can make informed decisions and learn how to detoxify our bodies.
There are many great suggestions listed, but it is also important to think about how we can decrease the bombardment on our bodies from even part of those 80,000 toxic chemicals which we have been exposed to since the beginning of the industrial revolution, according to Dr. Mark Hyman's article listed below. How, aside from being an informed consumer, can we being to chip away at a problem this large? One way to cut down on our toxic exposure (and therefore the exposure of future generations) is to use less energy or, when that is not possible, to use cleaner energy.
Global Green Energy is dedicated to both the microcosm and the macrocosm. We are concerned about the health of the globe, your health, and also about the health of future generations. Every solar panel we install is a Valentine.
Please read the links below, perhaps they will answer questions you have had already about your health.
Wishing you a happy, healthy Valentine's Day from all of us at Global Green Energy!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/is-there-toxic-waste-in-y_b_460720.html

To learn more about your body's toxic load:
http://www.campaignfortruth.com/Eclub/250303/toxicload.htm

A favorite book about the politics of food is Long Life Now: Strategies For Staying Alive, by Lee Hitchcox
http://www.amazon.com/Long-Life-Now-Strategies-Staying/dp/0890877637

For a more academic approach, we suggest The Omnivore's Dilemma or In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, both by Michael Pollan.

Can You Breathe?

Air quality is one of those things people don't think about every day. And yet it affects each and every one of us. As you drive to work, or travel across Washington State, look around. Those of us in western Washington (as opposed to the arid east) live in the Pacific Northwest Rain Forest. It's true. Try to imagine it. A landscape covered with multi-storied tree layers and a forest floor. It's hard to imagine unless you are visiting one of our beautiful designated parks. As you may have heard before, trees are our lungs. They breathe in the carbon dioxide we breathe out, and they transform our carbon dioxide, giving off oxygen. This is what is known as a symbiotic relationship (specifically, a mutualistic symbiotic relationship), one in which we exist because they exist. We cannot breathe without the trees. We have saved little bits and pieces of our Pacific Northwest Rain Forest, but I think you will agree with me that the landscape you see daily is nothing like rain forest.
Our air quality today is poor and getting worse. It contains a lot of particulation (molecules that don't get cleaned out of the symbiotic cycle). These can come from many sources: emissions from cars, the burning of coal, the refining of oil, even hair spray with CFLs (Chloroflourocarbons).
What does this have to do with GGEC? There are no emissions from generating energy by using solar panels to catch the sun's light. Unless you purchase solar modules manufactured overseas. We use locally produced solar modules 100% of the time. This is one reason why solar power is referred to as "sustainable". It does not increase our already poor air quality (particularly when produced locally). It does not detract from the mutualistic relationship we have with the flora. When you turn on your electricity in your home or office - when you turn on a light or power up your computer, or turn on the heat- you are pulling energy from somewhere. If it isn't from solar, your electricity is most likely generated by coal, natural gas, or petroleum. All of which contribute to our poor air quality. Which is something we at Global Green Energy are trying to change. For the benefit of every breathing life form here on planet Earth.

Here's a useful link for those of us living in Washington State:
http://www.350.org/seattlecenter
If you tend to be a social networker, you can also find them on Facebook.
This is the Washington State chapter of the international organization 350.org, co-founded by Bill McKibben. 350 Washington State is all about grassroots action within the international campaign to return our air to a safe, breathable level of carbons.
350 refers to the ppm (parts per million) in the highest level of carbon safe for us to have in our atmosphere. We are currently exceeding 350 (I think I heard 388 recently), so it's important to find ways to reduce our CO2 output, on a local level, on a state level, and on a global level. Which is why solar power is such a marvelous idea! Unlike coal and oil, the production of solar power generates no CO2. And by putting solar panels on your home or business, you will be actively NOT using coal or oil or natural gas to heat or run your home. Yes, you can make a difference!

What is "Going Green"?

Welcome to the new Global Green Energy blog!

Today we're going to talk about what it means to be green. Kermit the Frog sings, "It's Not Easy Bein' Green", and while it sometimes seems that way, it's actually easier and less expensive than you may think.

It's all about choices. Because we live in a consumer culture, part of being green is learning to make sustainable purchase choices. In general, something is more sustainable - less harmful to the environment - when it is bought locally, recycled, and can be continuously supplied for future generations.Green is also about learning how to live with what we have, not always having the biggest, the newest and the best. It's about understanding that one person's choices are ripples that effect us all. That's why so much emphasis is placed on recycling, reducing and reusing. Those are important ways to be green. We can choose to use products - from toothpaste to plastic forks, to foods - that don't contain toxic chemicals, use recycled materials and can be recycled.

We at GGEC strive to make the smallest footprint possible in all areas of our company. How do we stay sustainable in the office? We use recycled paper products, we use energy-efficient light bulbs. We print on both sides of the page and use non-toxic cleaning methods and supplies. Our furniture is recycled. When our office needed to be painted, we painted with no-VOC paint. We source our supplies locally. We are a local business, interested in making a global difference.

Here's a guide to going green.
http://www.treehugger.com/gogreen.php
 As you can see, green is a way of life. Little changes that lead to radical improvements in your health, the health of your loved ones, and the health of the planet.