From Green Right Now Reports

A new California law goes into an effect this week that will make it easier to recycle dangerous mercury thermostats. The Mercury Thermostat Collection Act of 2008 increases the number of thermostat collection locations and requires heating and air conditioning wholesalers with physical locations in California to collect thermostats from the public and contractors. Retailers are also encouraged to participate.

Co-sponsored by the California Product Stewardship Council and Sierra Club California, AB 2347 is California’s first full producer responsibility legislation and makes California only the third state to pass such a law in an effort to protect public health.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

City centers are often portrayed as grimy, polluted places. And they can be grimy, polluted places - the daily destination for thousands of carbon-emitting commuters and home to many smokestack industries.

Just don’t blame the people living there. Households closer to the urban action are, on average, far less polluting, according to research by the Center for Neighborhood Technology. The reason is not hard to fathom: People living in more densely developed areas drive less and are more likely to take public transportation.

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By John DeFore
Green Right Now

This June may have given New Yorkers an unseasonably rainy stretch crummy enough to keep them inside whenever possible, but it has also delivered a novel way to exploit the rare sunny day: A new park built upon industrial ruins, sustained by both citizens and government, and (to judge from its opening week) enjoyed by all.

Known as The High Line, the park sits upon a long stretch of elevated train track running down the west side of the city’s lower end. The nearly 80 year-old tracks once carried freight through industrial areas, running straight through some warehouses to allow for easy loading and unloading of goods.

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From Green Right Now Reports:

A majority of Americans - about 75 percent - support regulating greenhouse gases from power plants, cars and manufacturing that would reduce global warming, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

But only a bare majority - 52 percent - support a cap-and-trade approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and 42 percent oppose such a program, which is the type of approach taken in the Waxman-Markey climate legislation expected to be voted on in the US House of Representations, possibly Friday.

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By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

Texas Gov. Rick Perry surprised environmentalists, among others, when he recently vetoed the TV Take Back Bill (HB 821), would would have allowed Texans to recycle their outdated televisions for free as part of the necessary switch away from analog to digital TV.

It was a defeat for Texas environmentalists who not only had the support of local governments but TV manufacturers as well.

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By Diane Porter
Green Right Now

There’s a shiny green report card out in Warren County, Kentucky this month.

The county’s school district won the Alliance to Save Energy’s 2009 Andromeda Award for its programs, which include $4 million in energy savings over the last five years, a 28 percent energy use reduction, a daily curriculum that focuses on energy efficiency and Energy Star ratings on four buildings. But the star of their show undoubtedly is the new Richardsville Elementary, a Warren County School on target to become the nation’s first net zero energy public school when it opens in fall of 2010 (see photo above).

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By Diane Porter
Green Right Now

Deb Lovig’s official title at Cree, the lighting and semiconductor company, is “LED Programs Evangelist.” The description fits. Ask her to pick a favorite project and she’ll name five before you get her stopped. She’ll skip from North Carolina State’s dorm lighting project (see picture, right) to the University of California-Davis’ smart parking garage to Notre Dame’s beautiful acorn-shaped fixtures without taking a breath.

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From Green Right Now Reports

San Joaquin County announced it is developing a statewide paint stewardship program aimed at reducing the 8-million gallons of leftover paint Californians generate annually. The California Paint Stewardship Program will focus on teaching consumers how to buy the right amount of paint, properly store leftovers, and provide reuse and recycling options. For paint that cannot be reduced or reused, the project goal is to increase collection of unused paint for recycling and stimulate the recycled paint market.

Studies show that consumers frequently misjudge their paint needs, leading to large volumes of leftover paint. California’s local governments are spending almost $16 million annually to collect unused paint through Household Hazardous Waste programs, with taxpayers and garbage rate payers paying about $8 per gallon to operate the programs.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

The Obama Administration, via the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), issued a wake-up call today, a massive report on climate change called Global Climate Change Impacts in the U.S..

It concludes that the effects of climate change are here, they’re worsening and they must be dealt with soon if future generations are to enjoy ample food, water and comfortable living conditions

Quite simply, it’s a message about impending disaster. Average temperatures are getting hotter and could rise as much as 10 degrees by the end of the century. Our use of fossil fuels is mainly to blame. If we don’t stop polluting the air with heat-trapping gases, the ensuing climate changes will lead to drought, flooding, severe storms, stressed agriculture, thinning glaciers, earlier snow melts, rising sea levels, declining ecosystems and deteriorating air quality.

End of story. Literally.

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University of Maryland Report

EDMONSTON, Md.—The Northeast Branch of the Anacostia River runs through the heart of Edmonston, Md. In somewhat of a give-and-take relationship, runoff from Edmonston’s streets and parking lots carries many pollutants into the river; when it rains, the Anacostia “gives back” in the way of flash floods caused by overwhelming amounts of stormwater coming from upstream communities.

Kristen Markham, project leader, at the end of the trench where the outflow pipe from the bioretention drains into the existing stormwater drainage. (Photo by Kristine Caiafa)

Recently, 24 students from the University of Maryland partnered with local agencies to develop a natural system that could alleviate the flooding problems and decrease the amounts of pollutants flowing into the Anacostia River Watershed by building a bioretention system at Tanglewood Park.

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By Shermakaye Bass
Green Right Now

Last week, the Obama Administration announced a new youth-jobs program designed to simultaneously boost the country’s economy and ecology: a promising, if labyrinthine, new agency called the Office of Youth in Natural Resources (OYNR), which falls under the Department of the Interior. The OYNR debuts with a program, the 21st Century Youth Conservation Corps, patterned after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930’s (but not expected to create the 3 million jobs CCC did).

The timing couldn’t be better. The White House has been increasingly criticized for the slowness with which ‘Stimulus Act’ money has resulted in actual shovel-ready jobs. Putting kids to work is a great way to counter the criticism.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Mayor Thomas Leighton won the 2009 Mayors’ Climate Protection Awards, the U.S. Conference of Mayors announced today.

The awards, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., recognizes mayors for innovative practices in their cities designed to increase energy efficiency and curb global warming. An independent panel of judges determined the winners from a pool of 140 applicants.

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