Category — Being Green
Wahoo… an investment for the future with electric commuter rail
Last night the board voted on the decision to do Electric rail or Bio Diesel. Electric won (Wahoo!!) I think it will be cleaner, less pollution, and allow us for more options in terms of powering the lines for the future. Do it right the first time has always been my favorite plan. Plus, and of course I am only offering my opinion, the possibility of electric gives us future choices for how we generate the electricity we need. Solar, wind or something else may be the future power source that runs across these lines. I like possibilities.
Here is the article for you to read from [Read more →]
July 25, 2007 1 Comment
Live Earth 07/07/07
Check it out here..
And check out your carbon footprint here.
And the new Urban Brain Go Green Forum started today in honor of 07/07/07 and Live Earth.
July 7, 2007 No Comments
Did someone turn the heat on…
Just a little follow up from yesterday’s post on climate change and global warming. Here are the details of this chart from the Wikipedia definition.
This image shows the instrumental record of global average temperatures as compiled by the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia and the Hadley Centre of the UK Meteorological Office. Data set HadCRUT3 was used. HadCRUT3 is a record of surface temperatures collected from land and ocean-based stations. The most recent documentation for this data set is Brohan, P., J.J. Kennedy, I. Haris, S.F.B. Tett and P.D. Jones (2006). “Uncertainty estimates in regional and global observed temperature changes: a new dataset from 1850″. J. Geophysical Research 111: D12106. DOI:10.1029/2005JD006548. Following the common practice of the IPCC, the zero on this figure is the mean temperature from 1961-1990.
This figure was originally prepared by Robert A. Rohde from publicly available data and is part of the Global Warming Art project.
April 12, 2007 No Comments
Ain’t no snow
Just a sad FYI that I am guessing most everyone knows… There ain’t no snow in them there hills.
Yep. I was up in the mountains over the Easter Weekend and this shot of the Bachelor Gulch lift shows what everyone knows. The snow is mostly gone. It was a low snow year for the mountains and a record breaking snow year for Denver. Could it be climate change or does everyone still believe that this is a hoax?
I am using the climate change term after a colleague pointed out that it was a safer term that global warming. Whatever is happening and with all the disputes about global warming one thing is clear. [Read more →]
April 11, 2007 3 Comments
A challenge to drive less in Denver
Denver is doing a special challenge to all of us. The city is asking us to drive less. We can bike, walk, or use public transportation more but for Pete’s sake get out of your car. And they will be giving away rewards to those who take up this challenge and succeed.
You know I am all for sustainable growth, green building, and leaving my car sitting until one of those rare occasions arises where I need it. And if they built a dang train to the mountains I might just be set truly free. But until then this is a step in the right direction to get others to try alternative transportation.
I mean what can be cooler but a promotion to see if folks in Denver will give up their cars for a week, a month or even longer.
Learn more here.
And don’t just learn more. Try it. Even if you don’t do their program.
March 12, 2007 No Comments
More on Green Roofs
Every week or so I have to make a pitch for something green. Today it is Green Roof Architecture. There is so much more that can be done with the rooftops of our buildings. And along with the environmental benefits there are also the aesthetic and human enjoyment factors. Green roofs can be beautiful private gardens for residents, and there are also stories of folks creating private gardens for their residents, shared vegetable plots, or simply a quiet space to relax.
I found a great site that has a wonderful entry worth checking out at http://www.inhabitat.com/2005/11/13/green-roofs/ . Take a moment to learn more and hopefully we can see this grow in Denver (even with our arid conditions).
Happy Green!
January 25, 2007 No Comments
Between 60 and a million miles per gallon
And I am not kidding!!
Just imagine driving to work every day and never having to buy a single drop of gas. Again, I am not kidding. Before you read this article, think about this for a new company; Green Cabbie. Green Cabbie would be a cab company where every vehicle is a hybrid. Even if cost a little more to the consumer I would choose them every time. If the city/state gave companies a break for using hybrids instead of gas guzzlers just think of the impact we could have. Green Taxis would be huge for NYC. If someone does start Green Cabbie, let me invest. For the record, I still prefer public transportation or my bike, but if you gotta drive…
“GM announced the Chevy Volt, due for delivery in April. This hot little car has two engines, one is powered by batteries and one by gasoline. All propulsion is accomplished by the electric engine which, in turn, is powered by the lithium ion batteries. The batteries are charged by plugging them into the wall. For the first forty or so miles of driving, the batteries have enough power to move the car from zero to sixty in 8 seconds and hit a top speed of 120 mph.
Then, after all that aerodynamic, electric, regenerative-brake-using driving, an ultra-efficient, small, inexpensive gasoline engine kicks on and recharges the battery. Using only power generated by the gas generator, the car gets about 60 mpg [Read more →]
January 16, 2007 No Comments
The Miniature Earth
I stumbled across a website that looks at our world population from a different view. It takes our little planet and describes it to us as if there were only 100 people on it. Check the site out and get a great perspective on life, and I am sure if you are living here in Denver it will [Read more →]
January 16, 2007 No Comments
Can we learn something from smoggy Europe…
And I don’t mean smoking. An article in the New York Times this past Sunday talked about the increase in pollution and smog that is being generated by an increase in cars. Starting with a focus on Dublin, which has seen an increase to double the number of cars from 15 years ago, the article focuses on a growing problem there and one that we have in the United States as well.
With a chicken and the egg question, planners look at urban sprawl and automobiles as partners with this problem. No one can answer which causes which. Urban sprawl creates the need for more cars. Cars allow urban sprawl to expand. Let’s look at this chicken and the egg.
On the chicken side, when we build urban sprawl and when we build farther and farther from our cities and transportation system we create the need for cars. As people move to or live in these sprawl locations they become dependent upon cars, usually one car for every person in the household at or over the age of 16. No trains, public buses, or other services go to these remote suburbs, so everyone needs a car to go shopping, to get to work, to enjoy entertainment, or to get children to school.
On the egg side, cars create the ability to develop urban sprawl, allowing projected new development projects to be located far from cities or other transportation. Who cares if you are 40 minutes from the city, the light rail station, or public transportation. All you need to do is give everyone in your home a car and you’ll be fine.
Whether it is the chicken or the egg that is the cause, both are creating a problem. [Read more →]
January 11, 2007 No Comments
Street Cars are coming back!
Colfax Streetcar Feasibility Study
“Representative Diana DeGette announced that she has secured $1 million for critical transportation and infrastructure projects in the 1st Congressional District as part of the federal transportation funding package passed in early June. $500,000 was allocated to study the feasibility of a street car line on Colfax Avenue in East Denver. The study was requested by local businesses and the City of Denver to address heavy public transportation use and provide an important transportation alternative to the rapidly redeveloping urban corridor.”
What does this mean… well for those who don’t know most of Denver used to have rail lines everywhere. It was great, you just got to jump on a street car and go where you wanted.
Then, of course, we messed everything up. We ripped out the rail lines, paved over the streets, and turned our city over to the automobile. Before this happened, the Highland area was supposedly a map of rail lines. That is simply how our city grew.
Fortunately, Denver learns and is a progressive city. So now we are seeing the explosion of light and heavy rail across the city, the redevelopment of the Union Station Terminal, and now… streetcars may be making a comeback.
Rumor is the Mayor has money in his budget too and we may in the faaaaaaaaaaaaar future have a truly public transportation system across even more of our city.
Sell your car, pack a backpack, put on your shoes, and go truly urban in a walkable city.
On this one I don’t have many details. Anyone have any other news, thoughts, opinions, etc. Does anyone have the old streetcar map? Want to read about the history of Denver’s Streetcars.. here is one book.
December 25, 2006 No Comments
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