Saving Energy – Page 8 – Creative Greenius

Greenius Is Fired Up Over Obama’s Green Economic Recovery Bill!

February 17, 2009February 17, 2009campaign, carbon producers, citizen volunteer, climate change, election, electric cars, environment, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, green building, Killer Coal, News Media, plug-in cars, politics, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, Sustainability, Voters, Yes We Can!1 Comment

President Obama Steps Up To Save The Economy & The Climate While Republicans No Longer Relevant

I wholeheartedly applaud, support and endorse President Barack Obama’s signing of the $787 billion economic recovery bill just moments ago. I cheer his rapid action less than a month after taking office to start getting us out of the Bush Depression – both literally and figuratively.

This bill is not only the most sweeping economic recovery package in our nation’s history, it’s also the greenest.

Fortunately for all of us, climate change guru, Joe Romm of Climate Progress, has already done the heavy lifting and outlined just how green and positive this new bill is. Read:

Here’s What’s Green In It

Continue reading ➞ Greenius Is Fired Up Over Obama’s Green Economic Recovery Bill!

The Curious Case of the Torrance Enivornmental Commission

February 9, 2009November 2, 2009citizen volunteer, climate change, environment, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, green building, green buildings, politics, recycling, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, Voters, water conservation, wildlife9 Comments

scoop1 I attended the first 2009 meeting of the Torrance Environmental Quality and Energy Conservation Commission last Thursday night and it was curiously different from anything I expected.

First of all, I was the only member of the public who attended the meeting. Secondly, the energy level, enthusiasm and sense of urgency I’ve experienced at other environmental meetings was nowhere to be found among the Commissioners. Maybe they all wished they were watching the Lakers-Celtics game that night instead…

Your Greenius already knew the Lakers would beat down Boston, so my focus was fixed on what was going down in the room.

Continue reading ➞ The Curious Case of the Torrance Enivornmental Commission

Wising Up About Energy Use

February 5, 2009November 15, 2009carbon producers, climate change, environment, fossil fuels, green building, renewable energy, Saving EnergyLeave a Comment

Your Creative Greenius has been working hard around my home and office to cut my needless electricity use. Not only do I power down my computers at night, but I now have four different power strips that get shut off too. The difference that’s made in cutting my “phantom energy use” has been serious in cutting my bill from SCE, not to mention my personal carbon footprint.

I also spend time volunteering for the South Bay Environmental Services Center in which I try to spread the energy savings and conservation message to everyone I come in contact with. All intelligent people know that if we practiced energy efficiency seriously in the United States we could save billions and billions of dollars and cut our greenhouse gas emissions by huge amounts. If you hear someone arguing against conservation and efficiency you know you’re talking to someone who is easily proven wrong.

But what if we each knew exactly how much energy every electrical appliance we plug into our wall sockets actually used? And what if we knew exactly how much each appliance cost us? Think you might use that knowledge and your lizard brain and start to use your electricity more wisely? Is it possible you could actually practice some cognitive behavior? Maybe you can’t do that in your personal relationships, but I bet you can if it saves you money on your electric bill.

Continue reading ➞ Wising Up About Energy Use

Inside The Green Task Force

December 8, 2008October 15, 2009carbon producers, citizen volunteer, climate change, environment, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, green buildings, politics, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, Sustainability4 Comments

main_image For more than a year now in this blog I’ve been researching and reporting on climate change, energy and transportation issues and related environmental stories covering them on both a personal and a global perspective. I haven’t been breaking any hard news, I’ve just been spreading the news that doesn’t get enough attention and adding my take on top of it for the majority of my readers who don’t have the time to dig as deep as I do.

I have to admit I’ve shared a pretty dire world view when it comes to the current and coming impacts of climate change.

That’s what happens when you start each morning reading blog’s like Joseph Romm’s Climate Progress and following the work of Dr. James Hansen and the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change.

But during this same past year, I’ve also been attending the meetings of the South Bay Cities Green Task Force.

I’m there as one of the only independent citizens – and of course as the Creative Greenius, but I’m mostly there because I’m an aspiring policy wonk and I eat the content of these meetings up. The truth is, I’m unabashedly fascinated by and truly interested in the work they’re doing. And the work they’re doing brings California’s leading edge fight against global warming right into my neighborhood and into my home. It is, as the cliche puts it, where the rubber meets the road, and the road is the street I live on.

Continue reading ➞ Inside The Green Task Force

The Further Adventures of The Solangelist

December 2, 2008December 3, 2008climate change, environment, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, Sustainability1 Comment

As we move into the final month of the year 2008 I keep looking up at my rooftop longingly.

Even with the extension of the solar tax credit which came as an unexpected bonus along with the $700 billion bailout and the big increase in how much you can claim, I still think dipping into my cash reserve to the tune of $29 grand for the up front cost of my solar system would be loony tunes at the moment – and with the economy putting us into this Not So Great Depression I’m not really interested in adding that much in debt in order to pay for my panels.

Continue reading ➞ The Further Adventures of The Solangelist

Ten Things President Obama Needs You To Know Right Now

November 19, 2008November 20, 2008carbon producers, climate change, environment, Environmental Politics, fossil fuels, politics, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, Sustainability3 Comments

While the rest of America has been transfixed by the spiraling, ever-worsening economic crisis, the auto industry bailout and the Obama transition team leaks about Hillary Clinton and John McCain’s new roles in the Administration, I’ve been in Chicago engrossed in meetings with people I promised I’d never admit having met with. So lets just say I went for the blues and the BBQ.

Along with the pulled pork I enjoyed finding out that these Chicago guys are smart enough to know what’s really going on out there and sharp enough to know they’ve got to get the rest of the country up to speed before January 20th rolls around.

It’s not like they gave me any secret briefing information or anything. And it’s not like they told me what to write – not in so many words anyway. But if you’d like to help the President hit the ground running – and be able to keep up with him along the way – here’s what you need to know.

Continue reading ➞ Ten Things President Obama Needs You To Know Right Now

Shove That Coal Back In Its Hole – The Greenius Goes Solar

August 23, 2008October 25, 2009climate change, environment, Environmental Politics, renewable energy, Saving Energy, solar power, Sustainability1 Comment

I’ve had it. Your Creative Greenius has reached his tipping point.

The more I learn about the latest news on climate change and how much time we really have left to do anything about it, the more I feel like like the late Italian political theorist, Antonio Gramsci, who wrote in his Gramsci: Letters from Prison,

“I’m a pessimist because of intelligence,but an optimist because of will.”

And it is that will that makes me declare that enough is enough, damn it. New evidence is presented every single day of the week it’s time to act decisively now. But we are not living in sane times. We are living in the Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs era. that would convince any sane person that

With greenhouse gases pouring into the skies and building up faster than the deficit with each passing day; with the price of coal electric rates soaring up up up across the country; and with sell-out lizard brain politicians pimping oil as they croak out, “Drill here! Drill now! Hell, drill my wife if it means I’ll get your vote!”; the Greenius is taking matters into his own hands and going solar.

I can’t wait any longer. It’s either go solar, or go postal and believe me, nobody wants a Rambo Greenius. I’m dangerous enough with a broom in my hands.

Continue reading ➞ Shove That Coal Back In Its Hole – The Greenius Goes Solar

Greenius For The People

August 18, 2008August 23, 2008environment, renewable energy, Saving EnergyLeave a Comment

Writing about green issues is one thing, but venturing out into the great wide open and getting in touch with my inner Ed Begley Jr. enviro-angelist self by interacting with my neighbors and fellow citizens of the South Bay beach communities of Southern California is where the rubber meets the road. Or where the Greenius meets the people who never read this blog and aren’t looking for my brand of creative.

I’m just some middle-aged moke in a Hawaiian shirt to them and they don’t really give a good cahoot whether I’m worried about climate change tipping points or how many parts per million of CO2 are in the atmosphere. Most of the time they just want to know if I’m going to help carry the boxes to and from the car.

Continue reading ➞ Greenius For The People