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Endorsements for this Idea
Nonprofits and bloggers can formally endorse an idea they support. 12 current endorsements:
- The Unknown Candidate
- Backstage w/ Supak
- EcoLabs
- Focus the Nation
- Amoration
- Green Dads
- From the Sole
- Sustainable Food
- WebEcoist - Offbeat Environmentalism
- Why Not?
- 1Sky
- evoasis
We've missed many opportunities to make the grid greener. Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the White House in the 1970's!!
One of Ronald Reagan's first actions after being elected President, in 1980, was to remove the solar panels.
If we want to make the grid green, we should start by enlisting the participation of President Obama.
Please sign my petition to Restore Solar Panels to the White House.
Thanks!
<http://globalwarming.change.org/actions/view/restore_solar_panels_to_the_white_house>
Suggested by Toni Seger on 06/12/2009 @ 02:04PM PT
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Here's a green, off the grid idea...
My idea is simple: we stop mowing our lawns, let the land return to nature, and make it a fashion statement.
Why do we spend so much effort, time, money, and carbon dioxide to keep our grass short? Who decided that was beautiful? Think of all the chemicals people poor on their yards to kill weeds and the amount of water wasted to keep them marginally green during the hot summer. Think of all the fossil fuels burned in non-hybird lawn mowers, weed whackers, and tractors. Think of all local wildlife that are losing their habitat to development and these “green” lawns. And why? Mostly because short grass is supposedly better looking than natural prairie and wildflowers.
We need to change the way people think… about their lawns.
Small engines can be extreme polluters. The EPA states that ‘using a commercial chainsaw—powered by a two-stroke engine—for two hours produces the same amount of smog-forming hydrocarbon emissions as driving ten 1995 cars about 250 miles each.’ Think of how many people are mowing there yards! Mowing lawns is a major cause of air pollution and CO2! Look into it!
But even worse than the air pollution is the biggest problem caused by mowing, it keeps nature from growing. People have long realized that cutting down the Amazon Rainforest is bad, but they have yet to extend that same sense of responsibility to the area in which they live. For example, the prairie lands of Midwestern America. When Farmland is abandoned near the Amazon Rainforest, the forest takes over. The same would happen with our yards. We could restore the grasslands, let forests begin to take over are yards and give up trying to fight back nature. But no! We have to cut, and weed, and spray with chemicals! And then waste water in vain efforts to keep our grass marginally green during the summer! All to keep nature at bay!
If we stopped mowing our lawns, in time grass lands and forests would begin to take over millions of acres of currently mowed lawns. This is good both for fighting Climate Change and helping to restore local ecosystems. The return of natural habitats even if they are close to houses will help local wildlife by giving them more space to live in, as well as assisting in future species migrations due to climate change. Most importantly, it will send a message to the next generation… that instead of trying to dominate nature by mowing it down and spraying it with chemicals to kill anything that isn’t grass, we should instead be living in harmony with it, and learning from it.
Yes, in theory, it’s a great idea if people stop mowing their lawns, but how do we instigate this change on a wide enough level? Mowing lawns is so ingrained within our culture that surly it will be hard to get people to change? Wrong!
We can instigate this on a wide enough level, and that’s where the second part of my idea comes in. We make it the new fashion. First, we spread the idea among the Eco-conscious, and then we harness press and the TV. What is needed is to get gardening magazines and designers on board, and to put TV shows like “extreme home makeover” on to a more ‘natural’ philosophy. Some celebrities should get in on it too. The power of Fashion should not be underestimated: where I live in England it has been engrained in people’s heads that they should reuse plastic bags because frankly, if you ask for a bag, they look at you funny and you feel the need to give some excuse as to why you are destroying the environment. Why do many people spend a lot of time and money to mow their lawns? True, some people enjoy it, but mostly because they think the neighbours will think they’re being lazy and negligent. But what if their neighbours thought they were being virtuous, fashionable, and green? Honestly, it is time for our world to discover the wonders of a new type of lawn care… caring for the Environment. Don’t mow your lawn. Let’s start a movement. : )
Suggested by Jacob Hartnell on 05/19/2009 @ 08:21AM PT
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James Flaherty
P.O. Box 98
Guilford, CT 06437
(203) 458-3101
March 29, 2009
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
What if, during the next two years, we can raise 1 to 2 trillion dollars apart from the Treasury and apart from Wall Street and then use the money to establish a new profitable national alternative energy infrastructure, and while doing this, create 15 million jobs? Would this help our country and our people? There is a relatively simple way to accomplish these goals, which is not to say it will be easy. Nevertheless, the people of our country need the work and there is a way to do it.
The United States needs a new backbone. The United States needs to begin creating real wealth on a monumental scale and it needs to be doing this right now! The credit crisis has reduced the economy to it's essential minimum and continues reducing it in an absolute sense.
We cannot allow the economy to shrink further. We need to produce positive growth right now and in a very big way!
We need to find investment money somewhere other than the frozen financial community and preferably from somewhere other than the federal treasury, which is already stretched too far.
We need to find a parallel financial source and system that will create a positive economic cycle to jump-start and then maintain a minimal level of economic growth. Rather than simply waiting for the normal financial system to come back on line, we need to act forcefully to create a new, positive and powerful business base apart from the moribund system that is holding economic growth back. This has never been done before, but there is no reason it can't be done, beginning right now!
In the next 24 months, (and the following 24 months), we can raise 1 to 2 trillions of dollars, in $10.00 to $10,000.00 amounts by selling United States Energy Bonds that pay 5 or 6 percent interest per year, to our citizens and others.
People all across our country would invest and save their money in a bond that pays more than the 3%, which is what most banks now pay. U.S. Energy Bonds that finance a new alternative energy infrastructure for our country and employ millions of people, while doing it, will be seen as a very patriotic way to invest money and help the country.
The bond money would be loaned (not given), at 5 or 6 or 7 percent to alternative energy businesses to start, build, and improve the businesses that are creating AE equipment, systems, high mpx vehicles, solar heating systems, selling conservation services or manufacturing the machinery for generation facilities.
The significance of helping all these businesses is that the market for alternative energy products and services would mature very quickly, establishing itself as the dominant provider for energy solutions of all types, replacing the older geo-carbon based solutions. This will happen quickly as economies of scale are realized, as the volume of business increases.
The bond money would be loaned long term to consumers at 5 or 6 or 7 percent to allow them to buy the new solar heating systems and the solar electric systems and the high mpx vehicles, et c.
The key to success for consumers is that money would be loaned so that it costs less per month to buy the new alternative energy product, system or vehicle than it does to continue with the old way. For instance, the monthly car payment and the cost of buying fuel for the new vehicle is less than what the consumer is paying presently. The monthly cost of repaying a home improvement loan to insulate the house is less than the monthly cost of the energy at present.
The bond money would also be loaned to municipalities and businesses at 5 or 6 or 7 percent to finance very large wind and solar generation, storage, and transmission facilities. The loans would be repaid with the money received for the energy that is produced and sold. Amortized over twenty or thirty years, the loans can be easily repaid, while earning their stakeholders or shareholders a good return.. These types of facilities will earn several times their cost from the power they sell over that time span.
This will help towns and cities establish the 8,000 to 10,000 alternative energy generation facilities we need to build across the U.S. They will provide the necessary base load and storage facilities that our national energy system will require. We must build these facilities if we ever intend to develop a viable non-carbon based energy system. Anyone, who says otherwise, simply does not understand the scale and the scope of the problem facing our country. Anyone, who says otherwise, simply does not know what they are talking about!
In these ways we can generate millions and millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of economic activity, and that is to say nothing of becoming the world's leader in producing and exporting alternative energy systems.
In these ways, the people of the United States can solve some of the worst problems now confronting our nation.
To move forward, you, Mr. President, would need to set up a United States Energy Bond agency to begin raising the needed funds. The agency should oversee the raising and the loaning of the funds.
A comprehensive energy infrastructure development plan, that makes certain that the funds are being loaned to the most productive areas and projects first, is also needed. The agency should look for the greatest amount of energy gained at the lowest cost and the greatest number of jobs created for each loan made.
Conservation would be the first area to make these loans. Low temperature solar heating for air and water, which represents about a quarter of the total energy use in the U.S. would be the second area to make the loans. Giving low interest, long term loans to all parties, home and business owners, manufacturing, and installation companies would break the logjam that is presently blocking an enormous amount of potential solar energy development. Three quarters of the energy needed for low temp heating can be provided with low tech, inexpensive, off the shelf designs, that are well tested and of proven reliability.
The same loan methods would be used for manufacturers of high mpx vehicles, solar electric generation equipment, battery systems, industrial power generation facilities, storage and chemical conversion developers and all the other businesses and responsible parties who will be needed to create this new segment of our economy.
One important principal must be adhered to, to succeed. The emphasis and the priority must be on low tech and mid tech development and deployment. Time is of the essence! The United States needs to create a new alternative energy infrastructure on a monumental, industrial size scale, never before attempted. High tech development will certainly need to be pursued, but the priority must be deployment, not research. In a fashion similar to the building of the transcontinental railroad, or the provisioning of the Second World War effort, or the program to send men to the moon, quantity and distance must be the key first goals of the effort. Elegance and best efficiencies will come once the system is substantially in place and wide scale competition comes into play.
Right now, and especially in light of the economic problems confronting us, the country needs to focus at least one half of the available resources on building the thousands of large alternative power generation facilities that are needed near our major population centers across the country. This will provide the enormous increase in our electric generation capacity, we will soon need to power our transportation infrastructure and it will do it quickly! It will also create millions of jobs, quickly.
In the short and the long run, this is the most efficient way to tackle the development of a new, national alternative energy infrastructure, because it will quickly create the necessary anchor points that will be needed for a practical and workable alternative energy system. Wide spread electricity generation by alternative means is the lynchpin and the key to our success in redeveloping our national energy production and use. To ignore this fact, is to continue dancing around the central problem in creating a new alternative infrastructure. On the other hand, embracing this challenge will guarantee our success on the several levels: economic, environmental and in the reliable production of the energy we need.
Time is of the essence! United States Energy Bonds are the key tool to use, to help ourselves overcome the major challenges we face, right now!
If the funds are made available, the creativity and the drive of the American people will quickly turn the tide on these problems, but you Mr. President, must first clear the road and then lead the way. The results will be very gratifying
Thank you for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
James Flaherty
Suggested by James Flaherty on 03/28/2009 @ 11:18PM PT
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The difference between change and transformation is that transformation takes the future in a whole new direction. Change just re-arranges things. Making the grid green has the potential to be transformational if it is done wisely.
If we just replace our aging power transmission infrastructure with fresh concrete and the latest digital systems, that is change not transformation. If we replace the old infrastructure with a system that supports distributed power generation and management down to the level of the individual home--smart right down to the appliances, that lays the foundation for transformation. With the right kind of smart grid, everyone can become power producer-conservers.
If we are really smart, we will recognize that transformation opens even bigger opportunities. For instance, it is possible to transmit internet signals over power transmission lines. Not only could we create a new way of producing, metering and sharing power in this country, we could piggy back other things on that infrastructure including a national broadband internet system. We can get these kinds of multiple benefits from our actions if we take the time to think outside the box.
Think transformationally, think creatively.
Suggested by Michael Kelly on 02/12/2009 @ 10:29AM PT
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The technology is available to be off the grid and energy self suffficient. We lose energy in transmission. I have worked to advance solutions for total energy independence. It is time to start producing and marketing the products nationally as well as exporting on a global scale.
It is time for a change in the mindset as we have entered the 21st century and changed a suppressive administration. I understand many people fear losing control over industries which have dominated living for far, too long. To these people I say there are new opportunities along with improvements in overall quality of life. Let us work together to create opportunities through technnologies we can build on!
John Kenney
Suggested by John Kenney on 02/10/2009 @ 11:39AM PT
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To reduce pollution and start an ecologically safely sustainable industrial production, the United States of America (U.S.A.) should soon install hydrokinetic, pontoon and/or barge paddle wheel boat electricity generating systems, on many of the United States of America's rivers. Using Florida Bay seashell sand for agriculture fertilizer in U.S.A. river drainages, perhaps may help also. Humanity needs to outlaw fossil fuel combustion within an immediately forthcoming few years, so as to avoid producing greatly excessive global warming that is due to fossil fuel combustion-produced CO2 emissions.
Investing in fuel-efficient, low-carbon transportation alternatives, such as ocean heat heat-pump-powered ships, compressed-air-powered vehicles, electricity-powered vehicles, bicycle subways, bicycle and pedestrian trails, and nonfossil-fuel-powered rail and/or bus projects, will reduce our dependence on petroleum, and save consumers money on energy.
Suggested by Danny Hull on 02/08/2009 @ 01:47AM PT
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I am so inspired by Dr. Steven Chu (secretary of energy). Here is a great blog about what he said today: http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/02/04/chu-wake-up/
Chu is speaking truth to power on climate change. I think if he takes a lead on changing the energy policy and if we can somehow keep him safe from the energy and coal interests who try to corrupt everything in Washington to keep their profits up, a new clean energy future will be possible with legislative and agency action. Wahoo. This IS real change.
Suggested by Liz Rose on 02/04/2009 @ 06:37PM PT
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stop subsidizing meat and dairy production. Those industries have too much power and uses up all of our resources. Do you know that approx 70% of all grain and 50% of all water consumed in America is consumed by livestock?
If the govt can take money away from the meat & dairy industry, people will eat less of the killer stuff, become healthier and less energy sucking livestock will be raised.
Why not treat meat & dairy industry like tabacco industry and take advertising away from them?
Suggested by Joanne Chang on 02/04/2009 @ 12:37PM PT
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Look up Roger Duncan in Austin, Tx. Also Pliny Fisk. The point is that there are people who have worked brilliantly to create solutions to the need for energy independence for the past 30 years and they have the financial record keeping to prove the case that these are workable methods.
In the mid-1980s, the citizens of Austin began electing people to the city council with a vision, led by Roger Duncan and citizen activists like Shudde Fath, now 90. They obviated the need for the city-owned electric utility to finance a whole new, nearly billion dollar, power plant by instituting conservation economics. The city created incentive programs so homeowners could afford better insulation and other home improvements that could lighten the overall load on the electric grid. Zoning codes were adjusted so that green builders would be able to compete. Green Building, in fact arose from this origin.
When a public policy is put in place, it immediately attracts critics that want the financial record to show benefit. Voters want to see this. Over time, if policies do not show that they work, they are voted out with the elected leaders who believed in them.
In Austin, as well as in a number of other cities, a whole range of such policies are awaiting White House recognition for the value of time tested solutions that could become the basis for national energy policy- and should. You don't need geniuses in Washington to invent something that has already been invented.
Suggested by Stuart Heady on 02/04/2009 @ 11:25AM PT
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I suggest that 6 of you vocal people work with me TWICE in 2009 to get a 5-20 minute AUDIO message recorded so we can start the "Make The Grid Green" Podcast. I'm skilled in podcasting and would be glad to volunteer my help to get this project started. Of course all participants would need to get your ideas for an audio presentation approved by the main organizers of this critically important IDEA.
joseph
Clean@h2opodcast.com
http://H2Opodcast.com
Suggested by Joseph Puentes on 02/04/2009 @ 05:34AM PT
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