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”?
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.
Lent is a time that Christians spend focusing on their relationship with God by stripping down to the essentials. For many of us, this means giving up chocolate, alcohol or smoking. This can also be a time to dedicate to volunteering and helping others.
In this spirit of the season, I saw an interesting story on Fast Company entitled “British Bishops Call for Carbon Fast During Lent”. A group of British bishops ran a successful “carbon fast” last year and they are calling on followers to again reduce their energy usage.
Sometimes committing to these actions for a short period of time can result in long term changes to our consumption habits. So go ahead, give up the wine or chocolate, but also give up a few habits that waste energy. You will improve your own wellbeing, the struggling economy and the health of the planet. If you could share a few rides, that would ne nice too.
On Tuesday, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar announced that they are adding a longer period of public review to the Bush offshore drilling program. In a wise decision, the government wants to take more time to do the proper analysis before expanding this type of exploration. There is more detail in this story entitled “Drill Baby Drill? Not so Fast: Interior Dept. Scraps Bush Offshore Drilling Plan”.
By adding 5 months to the review process, are we just delaying the inevitable increase in offshore drilling or is this a true change in direction away from this risky proposition? In this story entitled “The Future Of Offshore Oil”, Dan Shaply cites the many dangers ocean drilling. Hurricanes over the last several years have ruptured oil platforms and pipelines causing hundreds of thousands of gallons to be released into the ocean. This along with oil spills from tankers present a serious threat to our oceans.
When gas prices were soaring to record levels, most people thought that offshore domestic drilling was a necessary evil. Now that oil prices are way down, this option looks even less attractive.
We all understand the grim ecological objections against this type of drilling, but what is the alternative? Should we, in the words of T. Boone Pickens, continue with the “greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind” to foreign countries that hate us? Given this ugly option, I would definitely consider offshore drilling. If you do not like either option, then you must embrace more aggressive conservation efforts to reduce our insatiable appetite for crude oil.
You may have seen these facts before, but they are well worth repeating again and again until we do something about it:
We have 4% of the world’s population
We consume nearly 25% of the world’s oil
We only produce about 10% here in the U.S.
If we are going to protect our oceans for future generations then we need to take action now to break our addiction. Let’s follow the government’s lead and put the brakes on our gluttonous consumption of this dwindling resource. So instead of “Drill Baby Drill”, we should “Conserve Baby Conserve”. Not too catchy, let me know if you have a better one.
Today was a historic day in many ways and we welcomed a new president. There is so much coverage of this event that I do not have much to add. I just wanted to highlight one line from President Obama’s speech:
“… each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.”
If you agree with this statement then you know we need to make significant changes in our energy consumption. In the spirit of cooperation, please share any ideas you have on how to make Pay4Rides a reality.
This week T. Boone Pickens announced a new program that will report our monthly foreign oil purchases. This is a great way to focus our attention on this vital problem by using real numbers to track progress in reducing imports. We can set goals and then meet our objectives.
How significant is our oil dependence? The numbers are staggering:
Spending nearly $20 billion on 380 million barrels in December 2008
We spent approximately $475 billion on imported oil in all of 2008
Every minute we send $432,000 overseas to feed our addiction
The transfer of wealth is wrecking our economy while foreign countries realize the benefits. This is taking money away from our domestic programs at a critical time. Wouldn’t you rather see this money spent on roads, schools and government projects here in the United States?
Last July, Pickens unveiled a plan to increase the use of wind power and natural gas to cut U.S. dependency on foreign oil. This would create millions of jobs building out our wind capacity and upgrading our national electric grid. All of this would have a very positive effect on our economy.
Developing oil alternatives is just one half of the puzzle with the other half being conservation. Gradually changing our sources of energy would be nicely complimented by all of us just consuming less. Attacking this problem from both sides will result in dramatic reductions of imports. I look forward to getting these monthly updates as a yardstick to measure our progress. Will you be watching?
Here is a very thought provoking story, “What if Climate Change is Not an Energy Problem?”. Alex’s basic premise is that while burning fossil fuels greatly contributes to greenhouse gases, our consumption habits can have an even greater impact. So just switching to alternative energy without increasing conservation will have much less of an impact on the environment
He raises three important considerations
Whether we use the energy we create
How we use it
How we live
The first point describes the waste in many of our current energy systems. Not all energy that is generated is consumed; much of it is lost in the process and distribution. The second point addresses how our current inefficiencies are wasting large amounts of energy. Point three goes to the heart of the problem with over consumption. We can all have an immediate impact by just increasing our conservation efforts.
I strongly agree with the basic premise of this article and applaud Alex for presenting this idea. Regarding suburban sprawl, I don’t think we can undo our current housing situation. Smart construction and compact communities are great for some, but not for all. I live in a quiet neighborhood and consider our suburban setting a wonderful enviroment for raising children.
Pay4Rides would directly address 2 of the 3 major points in this article. It is up to the energy producers to gain more efficiency in their production process, but we can help elsewhere. How we use energy could be greatly improved by tapping into unused passenger capacity with many of today’s single occupancy drivers. How we live could be enhanced by people working together to better utilize our existing resources. As we go into the New Year and people start diets, remember that it is always easier to just eat less than it is to burn extra calories. The same could be said for energy, consume less and conserve more. The choice is yours.
Do you ever get that helpless feeling and think to yourself, what can I do to help? Live Earth gives many suggestions on how we can all help reduce our carbon footprint. Here are a few:
• Switching to fluorescent light bulbs
• Planting tress in our yard
• Turn off our computers when not in use
• Recycle
• Go solar
These are all wonderful suggestions and everyone should try their best to follow these guidelines. Unfortunately, it just does not seem like enough and it can be hard to get excited about small savings. Pay4Rides is everyone’s chance to make a big difference, every day.
What if we could reduce daily gas consumption by 25%? Without spending any money? Too good to be true? Maybe not …
All it would take is a trust in our fellow US citizens. We trust taxi drivers, why not a stranger?
* These savings are based on just 1 in 4 sharing a ride instead of driving themselves.
Gasoline prices across the country are dropping at record rates. The price has fallen over fifty cents in just the last two weeks. There are many factors contributing to this record drop including:
Difficult economic conditions
Drop in crude oil price
Reduced demand
There is not much we can do about the first two, but reducing demand is under our control. Many drivers have already scaled back their driving habits due to the high prices in the summer and now the failing economy.
Unfortunately, we know these price drops will not continue much longer. OPEC has already said they will cut production and refineries will reduce their output. The price drop will slow down and then eventually stabilize. How soon before they then begin their inevitable rise?
We need to aggressively reduce demand to maintain lower prices through Passenger Energy.
Another factor to consider is a concept called peak oil. This is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum is reached. After the peak, the rate of production steadily decreases until the resource has been exhausted. An energy crisis can occur if global consumption is not reduced before the peak.
Geophysicist M. King Hubbert predicted the decline of oil production in his book Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage. While long-term solutions exist in the form of conservation and alternative energy sources, they probably will not be enacted in time to evade a short-term catastrophe. We need to change our consumption habits now, not tomorrow.
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.
