Collecting Ambient Energy

Ambient Energy Generator Technology -  A few more of the many ways to produce electricity without burning things.  The planet and universe is full of them.

Single Use Plastic Bags Banned in Hawaii

http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/how-hawaii-plastic-bag-ban-came-about.html?campaign=sailthru

Here in Houston, they are 'studying' a ban on plastic bags, giving all the plastic manufacturers time to fight it.  I believe that imposing a charge on the bags would be a much better way to go in this town.  I'm sure there's be an uproar about jobs, rights, the Constitution and socialism if they were to outright ban them.

Buildings from Rubble

Ancient technique of Gabion baskets filled with loose stone or rubble used to build Earthquake resistant homes out of the rubble in Haiti.

http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/5782/53/

Builders in the U.S. are pretty good at making concrete rubble.  It should be put to use.

Germany Sets New Renewable Energy Record

Germany Sets New Renewable Energy Record:
Producing 20.8 percent of it's energy from renewables. And Germany is not a particularly sunny or windy place.
"So how Germany did it? In one word: Policy. In a report published earlier this year, Deutsche Bank provided some of the ingredients of the German successful recipe: Setting ambitious but attainable binding renewable energy and climate targets, integrating these targets into energy policies and linking the targets to comprehensive energy policy targets, creating incentives (feed-in tariffs for example) to minimize investor risks and drive costs down, and balancing constructive regulatory policy with flexibility by introducing policy incentives that can also be adjusted to reflect changing market conditions (for example, reducing solar feed-in tariff when solar costs are going down). It’s not surprising that the verdict of Deutsche Bank was: “We believe that Germany exhibits best in class climate and renewable energy policy structures.”

Germany’s push for renewable energy was motivated by a desire among politicians to act against climate change and reduce the country’s carbon footprint. Then, the growth of the renewable sector brought other incentives like energy security and job creation. Renewable energy garnered widespread political and public support." http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/09/generating-gloomy-news-germany-setting-new-record-renewable-energy-usage/?dhiti=1

Compost: the Safest Dog Waste Disposal System | Sierra Club Green Home

 If you are as disturbed as I am by the thought of landfills filled with little plastic bags of dog poop, check out instructions for a DIY dog waste composter in my article for Sierra Club Green Home.

Compost: the Safest Dog Waste Disposal System | Sierra Club Green Home:

'via Blog this'

Texas man Terry Lebleu invents drought master, machine that makes water out of air

Texas man Terry Lebleu invents drought master, machine that makes water out of air

54% of energy generated in the U.S. from Burning Dirty Coal, Petroleum, and Gas is lost.

We drill and spill and burn and pollute to get the energy and don't even use half of the energy that was generated.  

Charts of Energy and Consumption:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/04/chart-us-energy-use-reveals-oil-coal.php?campaign=weekly_nl

In addition,  the US currently uses about 19.7 million barrels of oil a day, 71% of which goes to transportation via cars, trucks, buses, airplanes. So, the longer we rely on the internal-combustion engine to fuel vehicles rather than electric cars, bikes and public transportation, the longer we stay dependent on drilling for those rapidly diminishing fossil fuels, which means more risky wells in deep water areas of the ocean and the inevitable occurrence of another disaster like the BP Deepwater Horizon spill.