NY Times: Melting glaciers make winters colder for some

Yesterday's New York Times had a really complicated article that addressed the question, how come winters are so freakishly cold (like in Europe right now) if there's global warming? According to this scientist, all the reasons that I thought answered the question (seasonal weather phenomena like El Nino) don't explain all.

If I read correctly, this guy is blaming added moisture from the melting of glaciers for creating more snow around them, which affects temperature in Northern cities. This is kind of a new explanation and a seemmingly reasonable one at that. But why all the mystery around the author who is listed as, "Judah Cohen is the director of seasonal forecasting at an atmospheric and environmental research firm."

Any thoughts?

Playing with our new solar spider

This is what we got for Christmas: An awesome solar spider. It's amazing. As soon as you block the sun, it stops. (the video is from YouTube)

Ruli's has carton wine

Ruli's International Kitchen, 2900 N. Mesa, has carton Chardonay from the brand Bandit. For their take on why a carton is better than a bottle, click here.

Bacterial clothing, relaxation drinks and other green ideas

Green ideas from the New Yorl Times Magazine's Ideas issue:

Growing clothes from bacterial cultures. A London design researcher (I know...) grows "bacterial cellulose" in a tub until it makes a mat that can be cut into clothes. She made this jacket (picture).

Relaxation drinks. Move over, energy drinks. We now have non-alcoholic relaxation drinks like Slow Cow with natural ingredients like melatonin, hops, linden, kava extract and valerian.

Turbine-free wind power so neighbors can't object to the sound and birds can't get caught in the blades. It's called Vibro-Wind (picture) and transforms vibrations into electricity.

The train that never stops. I don't know if it counts as green, but it's sooo cool. This Chinese train has a detacheable compartment on its roof that stays at the station while the rest of the train continues on, watch the video here.

Climate change activism is fun!

I recently met Katherine Ball, a 27-year-old grad students in Oregon (this is her blog) who went to the Cancun climate summit (which ended in an agreement last week) as an environmental activist. Like Copenhagen, Cancun had a whole entourage of environmental activists protesting, meeting, exchanging ideas outside while the United Nations envoys were wheeling and dealing inside. Summit activism is fun and fascinating so I was happy to be able talk with Katherine. (Below, the official logo of the summit and a cynical satire.)

Here were Katherine's impressions:

• There was way more activism going on at the 2009 Copenhagen summit than at Cancun, maybe due to Cancun's more isolated location.
• Cancun felt like a police state with police in Jeeps topped by machine guns posted all along the road side.
• Climate change negotiators are still only looking at market-based solutions like REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) Program, a UN carbon-offset scheme. Katherine sighted with indigenous populations who feel the forests will be given away to foreign capitalists.
• She had a pretty good time:

"I got to have conversations there with people I never get to have and I live in Portland , Oregon, which is pretty progressive."

Target glass recycling bin = Humiliation station

I hate recycling glass at Target. The bin is inside the store, right next to the check-out lines -not only the best lit spot in the store but also the very spot, I suspect, in which acoustic laws allow the sound of my empty wine bottles crashing down the empty bin to be heard in appliances, men's apparel and interior decor. Because, let's face it, I don't recycle pickles jars. I recycle wine bottles and I generally have lots of them because I don't go to Target that often (not because I drink too much, I swear).

In one word: Humiliating!

I still do it because Target is the only game in town for recycling glass.

But the other day I lived through an even more mortifying scenario. I dragged my two reusable bags brimming with bottles into a store full of holiday shoppers -going, clink, clink, clink with every step- only to find the bin completely filled. What to do? I considered briefly leaving the bags to the side and fleeing but I didn't want to pass for a terrorist. So I took the full bags back with me, bottle necks sticking out, and going clink, clink, clink all the way to my car.

Awesome polar bear game!

My 6-year-old daughter just received this game for her birthday. It is called "North Pole Camouflage" by Educational Insights. You have to place transparent tiles over an arctic landscape, making sure that the polar bears are over the ice, the fish over the water and that neither are over a human fisherman or hunter. It's addictive.

Climate accord signed in Cancun!

Still emotionally scarred from the fiasco that was the Copenhagen climate summit last year, I blocked out all information about the climate talks going on in Cancun this past week. But lo and behold, they reached a deal yesterday! Not the perfect deal of course, not even a deal that would prevent us from reaching the dreaded +2 degrees C, but still... In a nutshell:


■ All countries to cut emissions
■ Forest deal to provide finance for countries who avoid emissions from deforestation
■ Finance deal to potentially provide $30billon for developing countries to adapt to climate change now, and up to $100billion later.
■ A new UN climate fund to be run largely by developing countries
■ Easier transfer of low carbon technology and expertise to poor countries
■ China, the US and all major emitters to have actions inspected
■ Scientific review of progress after five years

Complete coverage in the Guardian after the break.

Real Christmas tree vs. fake? How about 'wall tree'?

I solved the dilemma between buying a real Christmas tree or a fake one. I put seven nails in the wall in the shape of a tree, strung some Christmas lights (sorry, no money for l.e.d bulbs this year) and added ornaments. (I stole the idea from Martha Stewart.) Voila:

And this is Martha's version:

The one to beat

A few weeks back, we convinced our landlord to fill the attic crawl space with insulation* and we stuffed a pillow in the fireplace flue. However, I am sad to report that, as far as I'm concerned, there has been no change whatsoever in the heat retention abilities of my house. It's still cold and the heater still comes on a lot. Granted it's not scientific, so I should wait a little and compare gas bills. This is the one to beat:

Yikes! Almost $200 in gas! Now, there seems to be a big difference between November 2009 ($114) and this November ($18) but that might be an anomaly... We'll just have to wait and see. (I know you, faithful reader, are on pins and needles.)

*Two people have told me that attic insulation pays off in the summer... And that my old, leaky, single-pane windows are canceling all my good insulation efforts...

Vote for Repower America tee-shirt

I love it when people want my opinion! And Repower America (Al Gore's campaign to go green) is asking the public to vote for one of two tee-shirt designs. (I voted for the first one)

 

Give me back my data

Interesting article in yesterday's New York Times' Magazine about using all the data that stores keep on us to make us greener consumers. The idea would be to be able to see a report of our purchases over time and be able to adjust our habits. There could also be clear directions in the report about how to recycle the various products we buy.

The student who came up with this idea acknowledges that businesses will probably not want to share the data (it is collected to make us buy more stuff, after all, not teach us to buy less), but she says:

A solution “has to be a 50-50 kind of thing,” ...; too much responsibility has already been offloaded onto consumers, who have less information than the producers they buy from.  

and

why shouldn’t you have access to the traces of your own behavior that you leave behind and that others collect? ... “It’s more of a cultural shift,” she says. “It’s about creating a culture where we own this data. This data is ours.” 

Eco Party tomorrow

Tomorrow is the El Paso Solar Energy Association holiday party, dubbed "Eco Party" at Harry's house, 5116 Camino de la Vista. Come by at 6 p.m. if you want to mingle with solar-minded people...

Thermostat question

People have been telling me that it's more efficient to leave your thermostat on at a low temperature when you leave the house, rather than turn it off and turn it back on again when you get home.

It that true? It sounds like baloney to me...