Clear the Air eMagazine Nov 14, 2009

Check out the latest eMagazine from Clear the Air, featuring news on green articles from around the world.

As well as viewing it page by page, you can also:

Download it as a PDF

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Clear the Air eMagazine October 14 2009

Check out the latest eMagazine for Clear the Air.

As well as viewing it page by page, you can also:

Download it as a PDF

Download it for your Amazon Kindle

Eco-Friendly Corporate Promotional Items

Proforma has been in the print and promotional items industry for over 30 years, being named #1 Promotional Item Distributor by Promo Marketing magazine and #1 Business to Business Supplier in North America by Entrepreneur Magazine. Since 2005, John Simonetta, the owner of Proforma Simonetta Freelance, has focused on providing clients with creative eco-friendly promotional solutions, items like the NOT A PAPER CUP – http://3.ly/z44 – and E.C.O FLEECE JACKETS – http://3.ly/Vb4

For updates on sales and specials follow John at http://twitter.com/ProformaGreen

Green Building Material: Straw Bale Houses

Whilst not necessarily a new building material, straw is increasingly been seen as a greener option to build a home.

Simon Turner

How Green Are You? Calculate Your Ecological Footprint

An Ecological Footprint is the measurement used to calculate how much human pressure we place on our planet.  

You can now find out your own individual pressure – at first it may horrify you but so long as you do something about it, that can only help.

I have just taken a test to find out what my Ecological Footprint is. What a shock! I am horrified to learn how high it is as I thought I was living “green”.

Global Footprint Network stated that if everyone lived the lifestyle of the average American,  we would need 5 planets. My results stated I would need 4.6 planets.

I encourage everyone to take this test here www.ecofoot.org

Christine Watson

this article originally featured on the MarquetteTurner.com site

Sustainable Energy: Is Clean Coal Really Clean?

When I hear the term “clean coal” I can’t help but wonder what it could possibly mean? Coal to me is black and dirty and produces horrible black and smelly smoke when it is burned. The term “clean coal” is used to refer to any process used at a new or existing facility which will significantly reduce sulfur dioxide emissions or other green house gases in the fight against global warming.

Around 50% of electricity production in the USA is through coal fuelled power stations. The clean coal technology term is used to describe the process by which carbon is captured and sequestrated (confiscated and stored). There are currently estimates that clean coal technology reduces emissions by as much as 77% so there are still at least 23% of emissions that are not captured.

The other issue is of course in the storage of pollutants and radionuclides. Significant amounts of fossil fuel energy are required to mine coal and transport it to power stations. Disposing of pollutants and transporting the waste also require large amounts of fossil fuel energy and therefore the whole notion of “clean coal” technology seems questionable at the very least.

Coal mining can strip away mountains, hills and natural areas and can cause enormous environmental destruction due to subsidence, erosion and degradation. While there is no question that “clean coal” technology reduces green house emissions it does not compare to the efficiency and environmentally friendly solar and wind technologies. These should surely be the methods Australia pursues. We can only hope.

Michael Marquette on +61 433 170 170

Nuclear Power is not the Energy Source for Australia

We have all heard the debate in relation to climate change regarding the use of Nuclear Power as a potential replacement for our coal fueled power stations. Is Nuclear power clean and green? Will nuclear power decrease the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions and thus decrease global warming?

In 2007 around 15% of the world’s electricity came from nuclear power. The United States produces the most nuclear energy in the world with nuclear power providing 19% of its electricity supply. France supplies more than 78% of its electricity through nuclear reactors and the European Union as a whole relies on nuclear power for around 30% of its total electricity needs.

The reality is that enormous amounts of fossil fuel are used to mine, mill and enrich Uranium that is needed to fuel a nuclear power plant as well as construct the enormous concrete reactor. Nuclear reactors have a 30-40 year life cycle and massive amounts of fossil fuel energy are required to complete the dismantling process. There is also enormous fossil fuel energy required to transport and store the nuclear waste which is buried underground.

Scarily radioactive waste like Strontium 90 remains radioactive for 600 years. Plutonium is the most significant element in nuclear waste and is so toxic and carcinogenic that 500 grams of the waste evenly distributed around the globe would be enough to cause cancer for every man, woman and child on the planet and Plutonium waste remains toxic for 500,000 years.

When considering radiation it is easy to look at Dentists when they X-Ray your teeth. The dentist will leave the room because any amount of radiation is dangerous if you are exposed to it often enough. The USA currently has more than 55,000 metric tons of nuclear waste that it has stored with each reactor producing a further 25-30 tons of nuclear waste annually.

Australia currently has no commercially operational or planned nuclear reactors. Our focus should be on the harnessing of solar and wind for our energy production. The Kyoto Protocol requires that we produce 20% of our energy needs through renewable means by 2020.

I would like to see our politicians commit to the British plan of producing enough off shore wind farms to produce all of the energy required to power the entire nation by 2020. If nuclear power is too dangerous for Iran to have we should not be looking to increase its use anywhere in the World.

Michael Marquette on +61 433 170 170

Original article published on the Marquette Turner site

Some Tips to Help Save the World and a Little Money as Well

If you can slide a piece of paper under the seal while your fridge door is closed it needs replacing. This will save kilograms of greenhouse gases, reduce your electricity bill and keep your food fresh.

Furniture used to be built to last. Buying second hand furniture and having it restored is likely to be cheaper than buying new, saving both money and the earth’s resources.

The website www.freecycle.org lets you list any of your unwanted items and find stuff you want, for nothing. A site similar to eBay, but you don’t have to pay.

Australians throw away $5 billion worth of perfectly good food every year. Stick to a list or shop online to avoid impulse buying and waste. Isn’t this a frightening fact?

Did you know that 36% is the percentage of daily indoor water Aussies use for showers and baths, compared to 19% for the US and 20% for the UK. Aren’t we a clean bunch!

Christine Watson

Recycling: Designer Objects Produced from Recycled Materials

Regenesi is an Italian company that designs and manufactures objects from materials that have been recycled.

Created by Entrepreneur Maria Silvia Pazzi the quintessential thought process behind every item is that is must adhere to strict aesthetic and sustainable criteria.

The company uses everyday materials that include glass, cardboard, aluminum, and plastic, to produce bags, crockery, lamps and much much more, all the time believing that “there is no contradiction between being function, eco-compatible and beautiful.”

Simon Turner

The Harvest Green Project for 2030 Eco-Friendly Living

The “Harvest Green Project’ by Romses Architects has been announced as the winner of “The 2030 Challenge” organized by the City of Vancouver “to address climate change plans and to guide greener and denser development, reducing carbon emissions for the future.”

The concept of ‘harvest’ is explored in the project through the vertical farming of vegetables, herbs, fruits, fish, egg laying chickens, and a boutique goat and sheep dairy facility.

The structure of the winning green design will harvest renewable energy using photovoltaic glazing and small and large-scale wind turbines to support the solar and wind-farm infrastructure.

Other features include:

- renewable energy will be harvested via green building design elements harnessing geothermal, wind and solar power;

- the buildings have photovoltaic glazing and incorporate small and large-scale wind turbines to turn the structure into solar and wind-farm infrastructure;

- using the concept of vertical farming potentially adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals;

- a large rainwater cistern terminates the top of the ‘harvest tower’ providing on-site irrigation for the numerous indoor and outdoor crops and roof gardens;

- the proposal purposefully incorporates program uses for residential, transit, a large farmers market and supermarket, office and agricultural research and educational facilities, and food related retail/hospitality.

Simon Turner

Marquette Turner Luxury Homes

Your Green Grass Could Save The World

 WITH new research showing that the world’s forests are absorbing less man-made carbon dioxide each year, two Australian scientists said some plants could store CO2 for thousands of years.

Grasses such as wheat and sorghum can store large amounts of carbon in microscopic balls of silica, called phytoliths, that form around a plant’s cells as they draw the mineral from the soil, a report in the latest issue of New Scientist says.

When a plant dies, the phytoliths, or plantstones, enter the soil and lock in the carbon for potentially thousands of years, said the Southern Cross University agricultural scientists Leigh Sullivan and Jeff Parr. The next step would be to see if plants that best store carbon in plantstones have higher or lower crop yields and quality.

Strains could be bred to better produce plantstones and farmers could potentially claim carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol, the report said.

The forestry industry is already heavily involved in carbon storage but storing carbon in plantstones could become more widespread because farmers could also still earn income by selling the crops for food, the report said. 

Simon Turner  simon@marquetteturner.com.au