Hollywood’s feature films are greening up their productions thanks to the Producers Guild of America (PGA) Green Committee. Founded in 2008, the committee is reaching out to productions worldwide, reducing their carbon footprint and leading the industry in the fight against climate change. They are replanting trees, keeping Styrofoam out of their catering services, and recycling costumes, paints, props and fabrics.

“The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a national non-profit trade group committed to protecting the rights and credits of producers in film, television and new media. Given the current climate crisis and the significance of the environmental impacts of film production, a movement is growing to support sustainable production practices,” said Amanda Scarano Carter, Co-Chair of PGA Green Committee West.

While it is the producers who have joined forces to encourage people to limit their environmental impact, they are getting some celebrity help. On the set of “Knight & Day”, Cameron Diaz has been proactive. She made sure there were no plastic bottles on the set, and that recycle bins were placed all around. “It makes it a lot easier when you have someone as influential as Cameron Diaz setting the tone,” said Fred Baron, Chair of the PGA Green Committee.

The committee’s website provides tools for industry professionals to exchange ideas and make suggestions about greening the filmmaking process. In the near future the committee’s website will become an environmental portal for the six major studios and film industry as a whole. It will feature a carbon calculator and a green marketplace where sets, costumes, and movie accessories can be exchanged. “I am very excited about the direction we are going,”  Baron said.

The PGA Green Committee also is taking their sustainable efforts off the set. This past Saturday, they joined with the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles to green up a Lynwood, California community. The project will put up LEED-certified houses.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

This Sunday, Nov. 15, is America Recycles Day, a nationwide initiative by Keep America Beautiful and the National Recycling Coalition. In its 12^th year, America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to encouraging Americans to not only recycle, but buy recyclable products. There is more garbage going into landfills now than ever before. Recycling can not only slow climate change, but preserve and protect the environment around us. Everyone has the ability to do their part.

“The purpose of America Recycles Day is to continue to promote the social, environmental and economic benefits of recycling and encourage more people to join the movement toward creating a better natural environment,” states their website.

Last year the amount of energy saved from recycling aluminum and steel cans, plastic PET and glass containers, newsprint and corrugated packaging was equal to:

• The amount of electricity consumed by 17.8 million Americans in one year.
• 29 percent of nuclear electricity generation in the US in one year.
• 7.9 percent of electricity generation from fossil fuels in the US in one year.
• 11 percent of the energy produced by coal-fired power plants in the US.
• The energy supplied from 2.7 percent of imported barrels of crude oil into the US.
• The amount of gasoline used in almost 11 million passenger automobiles in one year.

It is easy to get confused on what can and cannot be recycled. There are quite a lot of items that are acceptable such as: steel cans, aluminum cans, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, plastic beverage bottles, milk jugs, glass bottles and jars, cereal boxes, other clean and dry cardboard boxes. Do not forget that your old electronics are also accepted at many retail stores including Best Buy. Stay away from items such as plastic grocery bags, Styrofoam, light bulbs, food-soiled paper, wax paper and ceramics because they cannot be recycled.

Take the pledge to not only recycle, but to tell others about the benefits.

There will be events held all over the country Sunday, find one near you.

If you already recycle at home, transfer that same philosophy at work or school. It is nice to have a day to remind us to recycle, but do not stop at one day, make it an everyday practice.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Dr. James Hansen, the NASA scientist known for sounding an early alarm about climate change, will join student protesters at a “sleep out” in Boston this weekend.

The students, from Boston-area and other Massachusetts colleges, have been sleeping out on Boston Common and at various campuses to push the state to pass a law committing to clean energy. Their target goal: Have Massachusetts pledge to be using 100 percent clean energy by 2020.

They’ve asked Gov. Deval Patrick, already known for signing the Global Warming Solutions Act, to again put the state at the forefront of combatting climate change by introducing clean energy  legislation before the legislature adjourns later this month. The students have won a meeting with the governor on Nov. 17.

The sleep outs began two weeks ago, with the overnight campouts followed by lobbying with legislators on Monday mornings. Four Last week, police ticketed the campers for trespassing, student leaders said.

This weekend the group expects at least 100 student activists to meet with Dr. Hansen (whose Phd is in Physics from the University of Iowa) at a 4 p.m. Sunday rally, followed by the camp out. Dr. Hansen is scheduled to hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. Monday morning (Nov. 9).

In June, Dr. Hansen, along with actress and environmental activists Daryl Hannah, was arrested for civil disobedience for blocking a road at a coal plant protest in West Virginia. The pair, along with several local residents, were protesting mountaintop removal.

Known for his testimony to Congress in 1988, alerting leaders to the dangers of greenhouse gases, Hansen has said that the world needs to move away from burning coal to create electricity.

The student sleep out was inspired by the idea that protesters would not rely on the “dirty energy” heating their homes and dorms until lawmakers pledged to move in a new direction.

For centuries, different religions have argued about many issues and even gone to war over some of them. Next week however, they will put it all aside and come together for a common cause — sustainability.

On Monday, Nov. 2, a group of 200 religious leaders from all around the world will meet for three days at Windsor Castle for an interfaith climate celebration. “Many Heavens, One Earth: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet” will be hosted by Prince Philip and is co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Program and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), a faith-based environmental organization co-founded by Prince Philip in 1995 to link conservation and ecology with faith. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations will also be in attendance.

Event organizers hope are gathering the religious leaders in order to present and discuss 30 long-term climate plans for their communities. The group believes that climate change is not only a pressing environmental problem, but also a moral one.

The religions represented at the celebration include Baha’ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism and Sikhism.

“It’s being called a celebration because despite the gloom surrounding so much environmental talk, there is in fact a lot to be hopeful for, and positive about. These initiatives, with their emphasis on long-term practical action, offer a great deal of hope for the future. Also, it can be too easy for individuals to feel crushed by the scale of the environmental challenge ahead - yet without a sense of hope, we cannot motivate people – or ourselves – to make the lifestyle changes needed,” said Susie Weldon, spokesperson for the ARC.

Having to be not only environmentally conscious about the food prepared, caterers also must be ethical and faith-consistent. Throughout all three days of the celebration, all the food will be vegetarian and free-range. Castle caterers are aiming for most of the food to be local, organic, and fair-trade. Also, there will be no bottled water provided to attendants.

The Mercure Castle Hotel, Windsor, will host the welcome dinner on Monday — its first-ever vegetarian banquet. Likewise, Tuesday the group will attend a banquet at Windsor Castle prepared by Edible Food Design, one of the castle’s catering companies, which will be the first vegan meal prepared for a Royal banquet. The vegan meal includes roasted pear salad with cobnuts and chicory, Portobello mushrooms stuffed with artichoke and herbs, pearl barley risotto and organic wine.

The event is “the first major, internationally coordinated commitment by the religions to the environment and aims to shape the behavior and attitudes of the faithful for generations to come,” according to ARC’s website.

Some of the unique environmental initiatives that will be announced include:

• new faith-based eco-labeling systems for Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Judaism
• 8.5 million trees to be planted in Tanzania
• all Daoist temples in China to be solar powered
• 10 Muslim cities to be chosen to lead implementation of the Muslim Seven Year Action Plan
• moves to source ecologically sustainable fuel sources for Sikh gurdwaras in India, which feed 30 million poor people every day

With more than  6.5 billion people worldwide, the majority of them belong to one faith or another. There are 2.1 billion Christians, 1.34 billion Muslims, more than 950 million Hindus, 50-70 million Daoists, 24 million Sikhs and 13 million Jews, according to the Atlas of Religion.

“Many of the faiths with which ARC works are part of communities at the forefront of climate change or at the very least, environmental degradation due to deforestation, flooding, crop failures, drought. They know firsthand what kind of impact this has on people in vulnerable countries. The Windsor Celebration will bring together people who have a real insight into the effects of climate change from very diverse parts of the world,” said Weldon.

“The world’s faiths joined together in this cause – if viewed in terms of sheer numbers of people – could become the planet’s largest civil society movement for change. With their unparalleled presence throughout the world, the world’s religions could be the decisive force that helps top the scales in favor of a world of climate safety and justice for future generations… this event will be one for the history books,” said UNDP Assistant Secretary-General Olav Kjorven in a press release.

The celebration precedes the climate-change discussions that will take place in Copenhagen in December. Like many other climate events prior to December, the celebration hopes to make an impact on key leaders who will be attending Copenhagen.

“…the faiths aren’t waiting for governments to finish arguing about what’s needed or who should pay for it. They’re getting on with doing what they can to help the environment, without asking other people to commit to action first but saying ‘this is what we can do and we will do it’,” said Weldon.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

It could be colder in Boston this time of year. With overnight lows in the upper 40s, it’s not the worst or best condition for sleeping outside.

"Sleepers" gather in Boston

Still, that’s what dozens of college students and environmental activists across the state have decided to do to make a point about clean energy and press Gov. Deval Patrick to promote a bill that would power Massachusetts with 100 percent clean energy by 2020.

The students, organized through the student-led Leadership Campaign, began their “sleep out” protest this past weekend with about 70 students and community members sleeping out in Boston Common.

Participants came from Harvard and Boston Universities; from Clark University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute and even from Westfield State College and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the western part of the state. Community members came from all over the state and included ordained clergy, according to organizers.

The plan: To sleep outdoors instead of in dormitories and houses powered by “dirty electricity”, until a plan is in place to power homes with clean electricity. Monday morning, after the first sleep in, students lobbied legislators at the Statehouse.

How long will the students shiver in the night? They’ll be back every Sunday night in Boston Common, and on other campuses students will continue to sleep out through the week,  until early December, if necessary. The activists want Patrick to introduce and pass a bill before Dec. 7, when global climate negotiations begin in Copenhagen. (Find out more about sleeping out on their website.)

“Massachusetts has already led on this issue,” said protest coordinator Craig Altemose. “When the science said 450 parts per million [of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was the safe upper limit], the Legislature passed a bill putting the Commonwealth on track with this target.

“But now the science says 350 is the highest safe level.  We’re now at 390, so we know that the Legislature and the Governor will again step forward and lead us to a clean energy future with accurate science-based targets.”

What the students and activists are asking for is realistic, says Dan Abrams, a spokesman for the Leadership Campaign.

Tents in Boston

“…There have been numerous reports that state that we can get a very high percentage of our energy in Massachusetts from wind and solar alone.  I have read a report that says we can get around 60% of our energy from wind alone. I also have heard of a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists that says we can get 92% of our energy from wind and solar (and that doesn’t include off shore wind or energy conservation),” Abrams said.

But moving to clean energy is not really a choice dictated by how easy or not it will be to shift the infrastructure and electricity generation, he said.

“The science has clearly stated the world needs to cap the carbon in our atmosphere at 350ppm and we must do whatever it takes to get us below that number; 10 years is how long we are giving our government because it’s very scientifically possible to get to this goal much sooner but it is the politics that take a little bit longer.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

If anyone doubted that there’s a global grassroots movement to fight climate change, they may reconsider after viewing the photos that streamed in this weekend from the International Day of Climate Action.

Demonstrators in Sydney at the Opera House

From Sydney to Barcelona; the Himalayas to Hollywood, people in more than 180 nations gathered to display the number 350 — the benchmark that many scientists consider to be the safe upper limit for carbon in the air. Above 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide (Earth’s atmosphere is already at 390), greenhouse gases play havoc with arctic ice and the oceans, sending Earth toward a tipping point that climatologists around the world would bring disastrous floods, coastal losses, droughts and vast alterations in farmland.

The organizing group behind the demonstrations, 350.org, asked concerned citizens and like-minded groups to coalesce around this single number to make a point that the people across the globe want solutions.  Specifically, they want their national leaders to take serious steps to curb global warming at the upcoming United Nations’ climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

350 in Bangladesh

The wave of actions that rippled across the planet this past weekend began in the Pacific, where many islands could be inundated by the rising seas created by greenhouse gases. It moved with the time zones around the planet, to the mountains where glaciers are thinning to Africa where the ability to grow food is threatened.

In Bonn, activists make their desires clear (Photo: Robert von Waarden, Spectral Q)

In Europe activists used the day to express their hopes that political leaders will act decisively. Environmentalists are concerned that politicians may move too slowly, and that without a firm move toward clean energy and away from polluting fossil fuel industries, the planet’s atmosphere will continue to fill with greenhouse gases.

At 11 a.m. on Saturday, Columbia University’s two largest student environmental groups gathered in the middle of campus to bang on drums, strum guitars, blow through horns and yell at the top of their lungs. For one ear-throbbing minute the campus erupted– all in the name of the environment.

The literal wake-up call to the Upper West Side of New York City kicked-off the day-long festivities, organized by Green Umbrella and Eco-Reps, for the International Day of Climate Action, a world-wide day of events organized to deliver a unified call to action for bold leadership on the climate crisis.

Demonstrators at the Brooklyn Bridge

“This movement may be small today, but we’re not alone at all,” said Greg Tulchin, the head organizer of Columbia’s 350 Event. “We’re connected to all these millions of people around the world.”

Despite the relentless downpour in the city, scheduled events carried on in NYC, with the grand finale in Times Square including supporters chanting and carrying signs as jumbo screens streamed climate day slogans. At Columbia, a small group of students and neighbors huddled under tents while creating their own 12-foot banner for Times Square. They made newspaper pots for planting and watched eco-related performances.

Students at Columbia College (Photo: Sommer Saadi)

“There is a lot of information out there [about climate change] and it can be really overwhelming,” said Elizabeth Kipp-Giusti, publicity director of EcoReps, one of the organizing groups. “If we can do a little bit to facilitate that process of going through it all, then that’s a step toward having people be more environmentally aware and that’s all we can ask for.”

With the goal of the day being to raise awareness about 350 and the December UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen, being in the middle of the campus, in the middle of the city, making lots of noise translated to success—no matter the weather.

Theater Troupe in Trujillo, Peru (Photo: Valkiria)

While rained soaked events from Boston to Washington D.C., demos in the rest of the US fared better, with people turning out in tiny towns like Orono, Minn., and major cities, including larger gatherings in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Everywhere people made a point about the effects on climate change on their corner of the world, declaring “We love our snow” in Alaska, with that changing to “Save Our Coasts” on Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles.

The sun shone also on events in South America, which has been losing natural habitat to over-development, and in Africa, is already hitting hard. Many island nations and countries in low-lying areas, which stand to lose coastal lands to rising seas as well as worsening storms, participated in the demonstrations, from the Maldives and Micronesia to the Caribbean.

School children in the Dominican Republic

Bill McKibben, environmental activist and founder of 350.org, declared the day a huge success to supporters and urged anyone who’s curious to visit the website and see the photos.

“It was so sweet to watch the day move around the globe, with thousands upon thousands of pictures appearing, sometimes a dozen a minute! There were photos of climbers high on the glaciers of Switzerland holding 350 banners, of bicycle parades from Copenhagen to San Francisco, of organizers in Papua New Guinea beating their church gong 350 times while churches in Barcelona rang their bells 350 times.”

“…Together, we’ve shown the world that a global climate movement is possible and set a bold new agenda for the upcoming United Nations Climate Meetings in Copenhagen this December,” he said. “The 350 target is the new bottom line for climate action and world leaders must now meet that target.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

By now you’ve heard the dire predictions for how sea level rise would affect Miami. Basically this city, already imperiled by worsening hurricanes, is in the bulls-eye for rising oceans too.

But did you realize that a one meter sea level increase — now believed by many scientists to be a likely outcome of global warming by 2100 — would put Philadelphia underwater?

Greenland Ice Flow (Photo: NASA)

Yes, the city of Brotherly Love would be among the large family of coastal cities potentially devastated by coastline changes. And not in the too-distance future either.

According to glacier and ice shelf expert Dr. Gordon Hamilton, Philadelphia could experience troubles decades before that 2100 benchmark if storm surges pushed rising oceans inland.

In other words, there is no magic threshold when the seas, warmed by the atmosphere and swelled by melting ice sheets, will spill over their old boundaries. There is a steady creep occurring now. But flooding, hastened by storms, could happen well before the ocean’s reach the 1 meter increase (absent any serious human action to slow the current progression).

Hamilton, a research professor at the University of Maine who studies melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica , and Dr. Asa Rennermalm, a Rutgers University professor who studies Arctic and Greenland ice sheets,  are kicking off a lecture tour today to spread this news about how the oceans are rising even faster than projected just a couple years ago.

The first talk was this morning at the Wagner Free Institute in Philadelphia followed by a demonstration at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, N.J. Subsequent engagements will take the pair to Miami; Washington, New York City and several other cities. The tour, dubbed the “hip boot tour” to emphasize the reality of the coming floods, is sponsored by Clean Air-Cool Planet, a non-profit dedicated to fighting global warming.

None of these cities where the scientists will be speaking will be spared by rising sea levels. Just as most mega-cities around the globe will be affected, because so many population centers sit on the coast or on rivers that lead directly to the coast. Cities like Paris. And Philadelphia.

Talking to Hamilton is a bit like previewing one of those apocalyptic movies where the world suffers from monster storms, vast floods, temperature changes and incredible destruction of infrastructure.

At a one-meter rise, for instance, the subway entrances in Manhattan would be at the water level, which means the subways would be inundated, permanently, said Dr. Hamilton, whose degree is in geophysics.

One doesn’t need a degree in geophysics to understand the consequences of the nation’s financial capital being underwater. Having St. Louis and Chicago on dry ground would not ameliorate the devastation to humans and world trade.

In Philadelphia, a 1 meter increase would flood the downtown district and areas along the river. Harbor trade would be shut down and on the east side, Camden, N.J., would be inundated. Across New Jersey, aquifers would likely be contaminated with sea water.

Neighborhoods at higher elevations, north and west of Philadelphia would remain dry.

Parts of Florida at 33 feet above sea level and below are shown flooded (Image: NASA.)

In Miami, nothing would be unaffected. A 1 meter sea level rise would put most of the city underwater, and it wouldn’t be alone. “Most of Florida’s big cities would be severely affected,” Hamilton said. Models overlaid on satellite images show Miami, the Keys, St. Petersburg and Tampa under water. The everglades would become a saltwater marsh and aquifers in the state would become brackish or completely salinated.

Hamilton says he shows people how their city’s coastline would change, but also tries to get local audiences to see the global nature of the problem.  “Not only are you flooding downtown DC, but hundreds of millions of people in Southeast Asia like Bangladesh, ” he said.

The key point of the tour is not just to demonstrate impending devastation, but to explain that the threat is more imminent than was predicted by the Interplanetary Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just two years ago.

In 2007, the IPCC warned that the sea levels would rise a little more than half a meter and possibly more. Even at that less drastic increase, the “the impacts are virtually certain to be overwhelmingly negative,” scientists wrote.

That prediction was based on the best available science.

What didn’t make the report, Dr. Hamilton said, was that in 2005, geophysicists studying the freshwater ice sheets in Greenland and changes in Antarctica had witnessed an alarming quickening in the speed of some glaciers as they carried ice toward the ocean.

In Greenland, some of these rivers of ice “were doing these crazy things,” he said. Some were moving 45 meters in a day — about the distance of one half a football field. In glacial terms, they were moving very fast. You could hear the ice cracking, he said.

“Almost over night, in the course of 9 to 10 months, they started moving about three times faster than they had been,” Dr. Hamilton said.

Scientists know the changes were prompted by global warming, and that the ice melts can grow exponentially, with water in crevasses contributing to the problem. But they still don’t understand what it all means. Some glaciers later slowed, but others sped up, Hamilton said. The net effect is likely to be a faster melt, with more water raising the ocean levels worldwide.

“Our talks right now are to emphasize that the picture has changed dramatically. If you were to take a consensus among my colleagues who work in Greenland and Antarctica, everybody is likely to say that it (sea rise) is more likely to be a meter.”

If not more.

“Politicians,” he said, “regardless of their political leanings on climate change need to be aware that they’re ethically bound to consider the upper bounds of sea level change…It’s delinquent for people to say they’re going to plan for the minimum (possible change) and then in 50 years time find that huge amounts of their infrastructure is flooded because they didn’t pay attention.”

• The lecture tour dates and cities are:

• Oct. 20 – Philadelphia

• Oct. 21 -  Portland, Maine

• Oct. 22 – Tampa, Fla.

• Oct. 23 -  Tampa, Fla.

• Oct. 24 – Miami, Fla.

• Oct. 27 -  Wilmington, N.C.

• Oct. 28 – Norfolk, Va.

• Oct. 29 – Hampton, N.H.

For details on those talks see the Clean Air-Cool Planet website. For more information on melting ice and rising ocean levels, as well as other predicted outcomes of global warming, see the US Global Change Research Program 2009 report (East Coasters can see the section on the Northeast) or the  IPCC reports at the United Nation’s website.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Tomorrow’s leaders are already working towards a cleaner future — that could be as bright as the sun.

The Solar Decathlon, an international competition hosted by the US Department of Energy (DOE), is showcasing solar-powered home designs created by students from around the world.

Students selected to participate were given two years to design and build the prototype solar homes, which must be carbon neutral and completely powered by the sun. The projects, many costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, are on display at the National Mall in Washington through Sunday (Oct. 18).

Two thousand students came together to form 20 teams, which are competing to win prizes in several categories, such as best architecture or engineering or “comfort zone”.

The Solar Decathlon Proposal Review Committee, which is made up of engineers, scientist, and other experts from the DOE and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory, selected the teams that they thought had the ability to meet the strict structural and safety requirements. Once selected, each team was given $100,000 to get started. Projects often require more, so individual teams then raise any additional funds.

“The U.S. Department of Energy supports the Solar Decathlon to encourage young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. DOE also supports the event to help move solar energy technologies to the market place faster. The Solar Decathlon helps accelerate the research and development of energy-efficiency and energy production technologies,” said John Horst, spokesperson for the Department of Energy.

The Solar Village

The 800-square-feet homes must be completely powered by the sun. They are meant to be prototype zero-energy, zero-carbon homes. The hope is that this competition stimulates research that will reduce the cost of solar-powered homes and the advancement of solar technology. While the Solar Decathlon aims to find ways to save money with solar technology, design and comfort are important as well.

The student teams represent universities from across North America, and two from Europe:

Reflective Louvers

• Cornell University
• Iowa State University
• Penn State
• Rice University
• Team Alberta (University of Calgary, SAIT Polytechnic, Alberta College of Art + Design, Mount Royal College)
• Team Boston (Boston Architectural College, Tufts University)
• Team California (Santa Clara University, California College of the Arts)
• Team Germany (Technische Universität Darmstadt)
• Team Missouri (Missouri University of Science and Technology, University of Missouri)
• Team Ontario/BC (University of Waterloo, Ryerson University, Simon Fraser University)
• Team Spain (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)
• The Ohio State University
• The University of Arizona
• Universidad de Puerto Rico
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Kentucky
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• University of Minnesota
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• Virginia Tech
  

  A student built solar home

There are a total of 10 contests throughout the competition, which began Oct. 8.

• Architecture: Architectural elements, holistic design, and inspiration are evaluated when looking at a house’s design. Market Viability: Houses are marketed to an audience of the team’s choice. Points are given based on a realistic approach to affordability, livability, ease of building, and marketability.
• Engineering: Houses are assessed based on reliability, innovation, efficiency, and functionality in engineering excellence.
• Lighting Design: Houses must include functional, energy-efficient, and aesthetically pleasing lighting systems. The judges score on the following categories: electric lighting quality, day lighting quality, ease of operation, flexibility, energy efficiency, and building integration.
• Communications: Teams are scored based on their verbal, written, and photographic communication of their houses. Messages must be consistent, effective, and able to engage a wide audience.
• Comfort Zone: In order to score points in this contest, houses must maintain a certain temperature and humidity inside during the competition.
• Hot Water: This contest displays how solar hot water systems are able to supply enough hot water daily.
• Appliances: House appliances must run like those of the average US home while using less energy. Throughout the contest, the houses must keep refrigerator and freezer temperatures within the typical range, wash and dry laundry, as well as run the dishwasher.
• Home Entertainment: This contest exhibits the houses’ ability to go beyond basic functions, like powering modern electronics and conveniences.
• Net Metering: The newest contest, measures how much energy the houses produce and consume throughout the competition, and rewards teams for producing more energy than they consume.

“Certainly it’s also important to raise awareness among the general public about renewable energy and energy efficiency and what technologies are available — that is, commercial off-the-shelf materials and supplies – today that can be used to help reduce energy use,” said Horst.

The Solar Decathlon encourages students to find practical solutions to a global problem. Their research is expected to be influential in the marketplace and bridge the worlds of science and business, showing that they have both dollar and environmental value.

The need for alternative energy is no longer an issue for the future. According to the US Department of Energy, the United States consumes about 100 quads of energy per year, with 22% of that coming from the residential sector. The cost of that energy is almost $1 million per minute, and the US consumes one-fourth of the world’s energy resources, but only contains 5% of the world’s population.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Friday will be a milestone day for the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement with the planned announcement that the group has reached 1,000 signatures. Mayors representing 85 million Americans will have signed the pledge to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities in line with Kyoto Protocol standards.

U.S. Conference of Mayors President Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will make announcement  during the Conference’s Leadership Meeting from Oct. 1 to Oct. 3 at the Westin Seattle Hotel, where 60-plus U.S. mayors will discuss the continuing recession and “green” economic recovery with White House and Obama Cabinet Officials.

Officials who will address the mayors include U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims, National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. Census Bureau Director Dr. Robert Grover, Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller, White House Urban Affairs Office Director Aldofo Carrion and White House Chair on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley.  Other federal officials will cover topics such as stimulus implementation, climate protection, green jobs, and other federal policies that impact urban and metropolitan areas – many of which have unemployment rates above 10 percent.

The Conference also plans to release a Climate Protection City Profile report that outlines specific actions mayors are taking to make their cities more energy efficient and meet the goals of the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. Mayor Nickels, who will lead a delegation of mayors supporting Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, initially introduced the agreement in February of 2005 in response to federal inaction on the Kyoto Protocol. The Conference has since held summits on alternative vehicles (2006), green buildings (2006) and climate change (2007).

West Coast Green, a gathering that‘s part expo, part trade show and part thought conference, will be showcasing leading edge green projects when it opens at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco this coming weekend.

One of the largest conferences devoted to the “built environment,” the event attracts speakers with architectural, design and construction expertise from around the nation.

Visitors to the 2009 conference, Oct. 1-3, will be able to see demos of hundreds of products, as well as examples of green design, such as a large hanging garden constructed on a bamboo framework that will be suspended over the bay. The installation aims to show how green can be beautiful and useful, using vegetation to mitigate heat, sequester carbon and improve water and air quality.

The SFH40, an off-grid building for emergency use (Photo: West Coast Green.)

Another demonstration will feature a self-sustaining, off-the-grid building called the SHF40 that could be used during medical or weather emergencies or as temporary housing.

Some 300 exhibitors will be showing green and non-toxic building products; solar, wind and waste reduction technology.

But West Coast Green is also about envisioning what could be, and this year offers several “leadership summits” where participants can learn about retrofitting residential buildings, clean tech and green business opportunities – so they can go forth and pave — or, er, permeable rock path — the way in these arenas. There will also be a “design slam,” a brainstorming session among designers to help green a renovation of a Pier at Fort Mason.

Many notable sustainability experts will be speak, including keynoters:

• Bill Reed, president of the Integrative Design Collaborative based in Massachusetts and New Mexico

• Andrew Winston, founder of Ecostrategies.

• Rebecca Costa, futurist and author, The Watchman’s Rattle

• Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, author of Design Like You Give  Damn

• Peter Darbee, CEO of PG&E, a sponsor of the event and among the companies leaving the US Chamber of Commerce over the chamber’s opposition to climate legislation.

• Ray Anderson, chair and founder of Interface Inc.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom also will address the gathering at the opening Thursday morning. Dozens of other speakers will conduct workshops at the conference, which is in its fourth year.

Another green building conference is fast approaching. The annual GreenBuild event hosted by the US Green Building Council (which administers the LEED certification program). GreenBuild xpects to showcase up to 1,800 products at the Phoenix event Nov. 11-13.

It’s the ecology… That might’ve been the mantra of the early 1990’s (instead of “It’s the economy, stupid!”) if more American public leaders besides Al Gore been heeding environmentalists’ warnings.

But now current films like  The Age of Stupid,  a terrifying backward glance from future decades, are trying to make up for lost time. This new documentary/dramatization, among many other environment films hitting movie houses and TV airwaves, are challenging our collective consciousness regularly – if not haunting it.

The Age of Stupid, starring actor Pete Postlethwaite (”The Usual Suspects,” “In the Name of the Father”) as a future archivist, will premiere next Monday, Sept. 21, in New York City’s Winter Garden, with an introduction by former UN Secretary-General and Nobel Prize recipient Kofi Annan. During the event, which opens with a Green Carpet (made from recycled soda bottles) The Age of Stupid will be simulcast in 450 American theaters, with tape-delay showings in more than 30 countries.

Held under a solar tent and powered by renewable energy sources, it may well be the first global premiere of its kind, featuring live-satellite discussion with scientists on the ground in the Himalayas and Indonesia. It also will be part of the UN’s Climate Week. Tickets and theater sites are available online at  Fathom Events.

Set in 2055, “The Age of Stupid”  depicts Postlethwaite as a global archivist perusing historical footage of environmental news clips and catastrophes – including “interviews” of six eco-survivors from around the world: a Hurricane Katrina survivor and former oil-company worker; an Alpine tour guide who has witnessed the demise of his homeland and livelihood over previous decades; and a young Nigerian med student who simply can’t access clean, running water in his country.

Yes, the film is meant to scare us and motivate us.

If the former Vice President’s 2006 An Inconvenient Truth galvanized the masses, films like The Age of Stupid promise to keep the viewer in arms, as experts warn yet again that Earth’s ecological tipping point looms ever closer. Presented in a hindsight-is-20/20 fashion, it projects the future, as well as the heart-crushing question: Why didn’t humans act when they could to prevent the inevitable?

“Our response to climate change will define our generation, in the same way that ending apartheid, overturning slavery or landing on the moon defined earlier generations,” director Franny Armstrong (”McLibel”, “Drowned Out”) recently said. “At the moment, we are The Age of Stupid, but there is still time to turn things round. … We’re launching this event in the U.S. and globally, with the aim of inspiring 250 million viewers to leap into action before the world leaders decide our collective fate at the crucial UN Climate Summit in December. All of life on Earth is at stake, so may as well aim high.”

Funded in part by MoveOn.Org and Greenpeace, the film moved actress Gillian Anderson and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke enough to participate in Monday’s simulcast/premiere. After the film and panel discussion, Yorke will play an acoustic version of The Age of Stupid soundtrack. The docu-drama debuted earlier this year in London, setting a Guinness World Record for the largest ever simultaneous event premiere, and requiring just one percent of the CO2 typically emitted during a Hollywood premiere.

Tickets are available at participating theater box offices as well as at Fathom Events.

(Photo: Postlewaite and director Franny Armstrong.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Peter Schulberg and the nonprofit Eco-LogicalART Gallery announced that “Taking It All Off For ART/3” will premiere Oct. 10th, 2009 at 7 p.m. The exhibit features a “live” curtain drop to reveal a 14-foot by 48-foot art piece painted on a recycled billboard and installed directly over the Eco-LA Gallery. Now called “Second Saturday at Eco-LA” once installed, the art over the gallery will be seen 35,000 times daily and over 1 million times by months end.