Currently viewing the tag: "environmental"
As the old adage goes, April showers bring May flowers. But for those looking to green their homes, April showers also provide an easy way to reduce water bills and water waste. CAP has the story . Rainwater harvesting is a simple and efficient way to capitalize on the naturally occurring precipitation in your area, and reduce dependency on irrigated or treated water. Provided you live in a region that receives above a certain amount of annual precipitation (the EPA recommends a minimum of 8 inches), rainwater harvesting can be a cost-effective means of greening your home. The most basic way to harvest rainwater is to use a rain barrel. As the name suggests, rain barrels are simply large bins placed at the end of roof gutters to collect rainwater. This system is incredibly simple and easy to install, yet able to collect tremendous amounts of rainwater
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Rainwater harvesting: April showers help more than flowers
Get the Clean Air Act widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Not seeing a widget? ( More info ) The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has launched a new web gadget that estimates the net health and economic benefits of the Clean Air Act since it became law in 1970. The peer-reviewed EPA report, The Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act from 1990-2020 , finds that by reducing the harmful effects of air pollution, the CAA Amendments of 1990 generated environmental and health benefits of about $1.3 trillion (in 2006 dollars) in 2010. The cost of compliance last year was estimated at $53 billion (in 2006 dollars) — yielding a benefit-cost ratio approximately 25 to 1 .
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Clean Air Act delivered $1.3 trillion in health and other benefits in 2010 alone at $53 billion cost – UCS launches the Clean Air Act Benefits Ticker
Yep, I saw Gasland … so, like many of us, I’m pretty concerned about the growing use of hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) to extract natural gas, and the health and environmental effects potentially caused by this technology. So I was encouraged when I saw a headline at Environmental Leader stating “ 24 Companies Agree to Publish Fracking Chemicals .” Specifically, a new site, FracFocus.org went live on Monday that purports to provide general information on fracking, watersheds, and the chemicals used in the process, and to give access to specific chemicals used in individual wells owned and operated by the participating companies. After reading the EL article, I was kind of encouraged. After visiting the site, that positive feeling was tempered a bit… In fairness, this is a new site, and one that’s usefulness depends largely on the companies providing information about their fracking chemicals.
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Fracking Chemicals & Transparency: Is FracFocus the Real Deal?
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has launched the EcoCar2: Plugging into the Future competition, with 16 university teams selected to participate. EcoCar2 is a unique educational partnership between the DOE and General Motors aimed at helping prepare future engineers for opportunities in clean energy and advanced vehicle industries. The three-year collegiate engineering competition challenges teams to reduce the environmental impact of an existing vehicle without compromising performance, safety or consumer acceptability. Read more here … Related posts:
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EcoCar2 competition seeks greener, safer cars