Recently I saw this article on Treehugger entitled “Facebook App Saves PC Energy…Maybe”.  This Facebook application makes recommendations for configuring your PC for lower energy usage.  You can then invite friends to join and see who wins a “Green Your PC” challenge.

This is a good way to get others involved through a social networking site.  I am a big fan of Peer Review and Ratings for building reputation.  If you can trust the opinion of many others then we can greatly reduce the fear of strangers.  This is a key point in helping establish an organized paid ride sharing system like Pay4Rides.

How else can we use social networking and twitter to bring people together to make new “friends”?

This is a long clip (12 minutes) from Live Aid and it is a little spotty during a few points, but a very powerful performance.  To continue the celebration of Earth Hour I wanted to feature a song that shows the spirit of people coming together.  If you watch the clip, let me know what you think.

To let it go! And so to fade away
To let it go! And so to fade away
I’m wide awake
I’m wide awake
Wide awake
I’m not sleeping, oh no, no, no

According to this story from AP, Earth Hour was a big success.  I am very excited about any idea that can gather this much attention and increase awareness of our current energy consumption.

I was at a party Saturday night where the hosts turned off the lights and lit candles.  It was a fun experience to share with friends and all the kids were even more enthusiastic than the parents.  The youth of today wants us to reduce our wasteful habits to leave them a better world.

Here is a video celebrating the first 2 years of Earth Hour while encouring even more participation this year.

This week’s song is a strong recommendation from my 10 ½ year old daughter Jane.  It was not my first choice, but she can be very persuasive.  If you are not familiar with Miley Cyrus, then you do not have a young girl in your house that watches Hannah Montana almost every day.

After listening to this song, I have to agree with her.  It has a great message about the youth of today telling us all to wake up to the everyday challenges that we face.  Unfortunately, many of us are currently looking the other way.

So, maybe this song will inspire you to take action.  If not, you might be harassed like me, by a cute girl singing this song during your next car ride.

Ohh
Can you take care of her
Ohh
Maybe you can spare her
Several moments
Of your consideration
Leading up
To the final destination
Ohh
The Earth is calling out
I wanna learn
What it’s all about

But everything I read
Is global warming
Going green
I don’t know
What all this means
But it seems
To be saying

Wake up America
We’re all
In this together
It’s our home
So let’s take care of it
You know that you want to
You know that you got
To wake up America

In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day this week I would like to feature an Irish group.  There are so many great ones including Van Morrison, U2, The Waterboys and The Pogues.  The band I chose for this week is Snow Patrol doing their song “Chasing Cars”:

We’ll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don’t need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I believe the song is about a girl, but when I listen to the lyrics I can also hear a cry for Energy Independence.  Go ahead, look at the lyrics above while listening to the song and let me know what you think.

On Wednesday, Australia suffered one of the area’s biggest environmental disasters when a cargo ship leaked tons of fuel oil into the ocean.  A massive clean-up is now underway along nearly 40 miles of east coast beach.

Initially the crew reported the spill was only 5,000 – 8,000 gallons, but later corrected their estimate to be ten times more, closer to 60,000 gallons.  The freighter was struggling in rough seas when some cargo came loose and punctured the fuel tanks.  The massive oil spill is bad enough, but the cargo causing the damage is reported to be 31 containers of ammonium nitrate.  It is believed that the 620 tons of chemicals in the containers have sunk to the ocean floor and pose another threat to the wildlife if not recovered soon.

As bad as this spill is, it does not come close to The Worst Major Oil Spills in History.  When are we going to learn?  This is just another example of the costs to our environment associated with the import of foreign oil.

I truly feel bad for the people of Australia and wish them the best in their clean-up.  We all need to seek clean alternative energy and continue to improve our conservation efforts.

I saw the image below on Treehugger today and thought they made an excellent point for the power of an image.  We can talk and talk about the differences between transportation types, but these pictures clearly illustrate the advantages.

In the comments, a few readers have made a good case for a fourth image to represent walking, which I agree, is a very valid position.  Wouldn’t that be nice, a clear street with just people?

Obviously, I would argue the first picture would look much different with Passenger Energy.  If each car carried 3 passengers with a driver instead of the typical single occupancy vehicle, then we could remove 75% of the cars.

The story goes on to mention an article that the author, Michael Graham Richard, wrote 4 years ago.  The story titled: Have You Reduced Your Dependence on Cars? is a very good read, again with some great comments.

We all need to make a concerted effort to move away from cars as our primary source of transportation.  Car pooling, mass transit, biking and yes, even walking are wonderful alternatives.  You don’t have to sell your car, just use it less.

photo credit: Press-Office City of Müenster, Germany

You can find the song Gasoline on Sheryl Crow’s latest cd Detours.  I have always liked her music and I got to see her play live back in the mid 90’s, opening for John Hiatt at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park.  She has certainly come a long way since then.

I picked this song to feature this week since it accurately represents many of the problems we face with our current oil imports.  She picks a date in the future to show how foolish we may look when we review the incredible dependence we have today on gasoline.  In her clever lyrics, she touches on climate change, peak oil and the mistakes made by our government.

Give this song a listen and let me know what you think.  There are also several interesting live versions of this song on YouTube where she nicely segues into “Gimme Shelter”.

Way back in the year of 2017
The sun was growing hotter
And oil was way beyond its peak
When crazy Hector Johnson broke into a refinery
And the black gold started flowing
Just like Boston tea

It was the summer of the riots
And London sat in sweltering heat
And the gangs of Mini Coopers
Took the battle to the streets
But when the creed was handed down
For no more trucks and no more cars
They threw cans of petrol through the windows at Scotland Yard

Gasoline
Will be free, will be free
Gasoline
Will be free, will be free

Last year I wrote about how hypermiling can dramatically cut your gasoline consumption.  Well, I recently learned that the New Oxford Dictionary announced hypermiling as the 2008 word of the year.  They discuss the history of the word, some of the methods and positive results of changing bad driving habits.  If you began keeping a log of your own gas mileage, then you could test hypermiling to see what kind of personal gains can be achieved.

In another story, you can see that web based tools and the internet can help cut vehicle emissions.  A pilot program in Denver configured 400 vehicles with greenhouse gas-tracking systems to provide the driver with feedback on their driving.  They could immediately see the impact of rapid acceleration, sudden braking and excessive idling.  This information resulted in reduced emissions and better fuel economy.

Automakers have also begun informing drivers with real time statistics.  The Toyota Prius already encourages drivers to seek more efficient energy use through a digital interface.  Now Honda is taking it a step further with their upcoming new car, the Insight.  This story on Earth2Tech discusses how the “Eco Assist” dashboard turns fuel efficiency into a video game.  They compare this to a Wii Fit for cars where drivers are rewarded with positive feedback for good driving behavior.

We should all strive to cut our gasoline consumption and reduce vehicle emissions with hypermiling, web based tools and enhanced driver instrument panels.  Good driving habits combined with advancement in technology could go far in improving our fuel efficiency.  Maybe someday all cars will be connected to the internet to help reduce our consumption, track carbon emissions and offer peer review through community.  I would like to add passenger energy as the next advancement in our fight for energy independence.  How ‘bout you?

photo credit: Marcin Wichary

This weekend over 10,000 of our nation’s youth gathered for Power Shift 2009.  The goal of the conference was to allow the attendees to make connections, harness resources and take action to repower and reclaim their futures.

This historic gathering is one of the largest and most well-organized youth movements in years.  On Monday, they are marching on Capital Hill to protest dirty energy and call for a dramatic transition to alternative energy sources.  There is some excellent coverage from this weekend’s activities over at It’s Getting Hot In Here.

While reading about this conference, I found this great hip hop song that I am using for my song of the week.  I have never heard of any of the artists before, but I love the message.  The song is “Green Anthem” by Tem Blessed, First Be & Outspoken:

Everybody shine
Be solar powered
Speak your mind
That’s wind power
Move your H2O
Wavepower
Organize people power
We got the soul power