Comic Relief From Steven Colbert... plus the greening of Bellingham, WA

(h/t to Barry Katz at "the future is green"... an excellent blog site)

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Prescott Oil Loves the Earth
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

After a good chuckle, read Barry's recent guest post on the greening of Bellingham, Washington by Mayor Daniel Pike. Here's a sample of the Mayor's post:

As a community, we share the challenges and joys common to most communities: tough finances, a rising unemployment rate, businesses struggling, but also a shared sense of place and connection with our neighbors. What makes us a little different from the mainstream, though, is our commitment to a triple bottom line, or TBL, approach to the issues before us. In Bellingham, the conversations are not about jobs versus the environment, rather the community talks about how to grow better. This is a community whose ethos receives notice from authors such as Bill McKibben and Paul Hawken, and that National Public Radio’s “Marketplace,” in its Nov. 15, 2008 broadcast, described Bellingham as “the epicenter of a new economic model for a post-consumerist economy: locally produced goods and services focused on what surrounding communities need and can sustain.”

And more:

Perhaps the most compelling opportunity we have put in practice as a Triple Bottom Line approach is our waterfront redevelopment project. The waterfront project is the largest waterfront redevelopment effort in North America, comprising about 220 acres on Puget Sound, on the site of an old pulp and paper mill. The redevelopment is one of a handful of national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design--Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) pilot projects. This approach steps beyond construction-specifics to include elements like reduced automobile dependence, housing and jobs proximity, access to active public spaces, and habitat conservation and restoration.

This is our opportunity to thoughtfully and intentionally design a new neighborhood that reflects our deepest values as a community – to make real the vision the community has been articulating and advocating for years

Malmo, Sweden - On the Green Frontier

Three years ago, in an article titled Green living takes root in Sweden BBC News reported on the efforts of Malmo, Sweden and its green district Western Harbour. A portion of the BBC report from October 2006 follows:

Sustainability is the motto of the Western Harbour (Vaestra Hamnen) project in the southern city of Malmo. There are futuristic buildings sporting massive glass windows and glinting solar panels.But turn a corner and you find a green courtyard with a little pond and some modest timber structures that remind you of Swedish villages."I really like the diversity of houses - and they've made it easy here to live in a sustainable way," says Helena Parker, who was among the first to move into the area in 2001.

A former shipyard and industrial site is being turned into a green residential area based on 100% use of renewable energy.

The planners devoted plenty of space to greenery and water features. And there are no high-density tower blocks, except for the Turning Torso - a graceful 190m (627ft) skyscraper designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Parking space is limited to 0.7 cars per apartment, compared with the usual 1.1 for Malmo, and garages are underground.

Architect and planner Hans Olsson says the project drew inspiration from the plan of medieval Lund, a nearby town. "We wanted a human scale, small streets."

Taller buildings are on the outside, facing the sea and sheltering the inner spaces. Passages to the sea are narrow to keep the wind out.

Bo01 has an open drainage system which traps rainwater on numerous living green roofs, in courtyard ponds and open channels. That allows the water to run off slowly into a saltwater canal or the sea.

The ponds and canal not only look attractive - they provide habitats for wildlife, creating biodiversity.

Jon Andersson, energy coordinator for the project, says there were initial fears in Malmo that "exclusive" flats would be built, just for the rich.

But student flats account for 34% of the homes in Bo01 and there is also a retirement complex, while the seaside walkway is enjoyed by residents and non-residents alike.

A nearby 2MW wind turbine provides much of the electricity for Bo01, the rest coming from solar panels. Solar collectors on 10 of the buildings provide 15% of the heating, but a more important source is a heat pump connected to aquifers 90m (297ft) underground.

Oil-free future

The sustainable measures were backed by 250m kronor (£18.5m; $34m) from the Swedish government and 1.9m euros (£1.3m; $2.4m) from the EU.

Most of Sweden's electricity comes from nuclear and hydropower - but green solutions are part of a plan to wean the nation off oil. Housing accounts for about 40% of Sweden's energy consumption.

The energy-saving star of Bo01 is probably the small, well-insulated LB house, no more expensive to build than a conventional home.

Its energy consumption is 87kWh per sq m annually - compared with about 200kWh per sq m for some other buildings in Bo01.

Fast forward to 2009... and the news out of Malmo, as reported by the enterprising Maria Colena, is encouraging:

Western Harbour, a former shipyard now densely urban, runs on 100-percent renewable energy from sun, wind and hydropower, as well as biofuels generated from organic waste. Its buildings are constructed with sustainable materials and designed to be energy efficient, and its streets are pedestrian and cycle friendly -- 40 percent of commuters and 30 percent of all travelers go by bike [source: PV Upscale - Full report on Malmo at this link/pdf] .

Additionally, the restoration of the area of Sege Park, another eco-friendly transformation, will power the neighborhood with green energy sources including photovoltaics (solar electricity), wind power and biofuels.

­Augustenborg, a district that's been going green over the past decade, is known for its green roofing -- botanical roof gardens that reduce runoff and add insulation and vegetation to an urban neighborhood. Augustenborg is also home to the world's first emissions-free electric street trains, as well as more than a dozen recycling houses processing about 70 percent of collected waste [source: Ekostaden.com].

Happy Earth Hour!

Happy Earth Hour, mis companeros verdes!
One hour on March 28, 2009 from 8:30 to 9:30 pm with no electricity or light!

A thought-provoking effort and a moment (or hour) of refection for my kids and me. See you on the flip side. We at Metro Green would love to hear how you passed this momentous slice of time and what came up for you.

Here's a good video promo:


Enjoy. Meditate. Plan for change.
Each day we awake in a brand new world.

Best to you from
Metro Green.

Speedbumps on Green Highway

'Green' stimulus costs jobs, study says

By Gianluca Baratti

March 27 (Bloomberg) -- Subsidizing renewable energy in the U.S. may destroy two jobs for every one created if Spain’s experience with windmills and solar farms is any guide.

For every new position that depends on energy price supports, at least 2.2 jobs in other industries will disappear, according to a study from King Juan Carlos University in Madrid.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget proposal contains about $20 billion in tax incentives for clean-energy programs. In Spain, where wind turbines provided 11 percent of power demand last year, generators earn rates as much as 11 times more for renewable energy compared with burning fossil fuels.

The premiums paid for solar, biomass, wave and wind power - - which are charged to consumers in their bills -- translated into a $774,000 cost for each Spanish “green job” created since 2000, said Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at the university and author of the report.

“The loss of jobs could be greater if you account for the amount of lost industry that moves out of the country due to higher energy prices,” he said in an interview.

Spain’s Acerinox SA, the nation’s largest stainless-steel producer, blamed domestic energy costs for deciding to expand in South Africa and the U.S., according to the study.

“Microsoft and Google moved their servers up to the Canadian border because they benefited from cheaper energy there,” said the professor of applied environmental economics.

Getting down and dirty for squeaky-clean dishes

The Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. — The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law- abiding people in Spokane into dishwasher-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don't work as well.

Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation's strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010.

But it's not easy to get sparkling dishes when you go green.

Many people were shocked to find that products like Seventh Generation, Ecover and Trader Joe's left their dishes encrusted with food, smeared with grease and too gross to use without rewashing them by hand. The culprit was hard water, which is mineral-rich and resistant to soap.

As a result, there has been a quiet rush of Spokane-area shoppers heading east on Interstate 90 into Idaho in search of old-school suds.

Real estate agent Patti Marcotte of Spokane stocks up on detergent at a Costco in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and doesn't care who knows it.

"Yes, I am a smuggler," she said. "I'm taking my chances because dirty dishes I cannot live with."

(In truth, the ban applies to the sale of phosphate detergent — not its use or possession — so Marcotte is not in any legal trouble.)

Marcotte said she tried every green brand in her dishwasher and found none would remove grease and pieces of food. Everybody she knows buys dishwasher detergent in Idaho, she said.

Supporters of the ban acknowledge it is not very popular.

Phosphates — the main cleaning agent in many detergents and household cleaners — break down grease and remove stains. However, the chemicals are difficult to remove in wastewater treatment plants and often wind up in rivers and lakes, where they promote the growth of algae. And algae will gobble up oxygen in the water that fish need to survive.

While traditional detergents are up to 9 percent phosphate, those sold in Spokane County can contain no more than 0.5 percent.

Phosphates have been banned in laundry detergent nationally since 1993. Washington was the first state where the Legislature passed a similar ban against dishwasher detergents, in 2006. The ban is being phased in, starting with Spokane County.

Reykjavik: Icelandic Green

Following yesterday's post on future green cities, here's some additional scholarship on a current one from Maria Colenso posting at How Stuff Works:

Reykjavik, Iceland

Reykjavik is the smallest amazing green city on our list, with only about 115,000 people living in the city and roughly 300,000 people in the entire country of Iceland. But its impact on the world has been impressive.

Gavin Hellier/The Image Bank/Getty Images
Reykjavik, Iceland has colorful rooftops and a green plan for power.

Iceland plans to unplug itself from all dependence on fossil fuels by 2050 to become a hydrogen economy. Already, Reykjavik (and all of Iceland) gets energy for heat, hot water and electricity entirely from hydropower and geothermal resources -- both of which are renewable and free of greenhouse gas emissions. Some vehicles even run on hydrogen, including three city buses.

5 Green Cities of the Future

Writing for the online journal How Stuff Works, Maria Colenso has done an admirable amount of research and investigative reporting on what she (apparently) considers the 5 preeminent Transition or Green City projects either in the planning stages, currently under development or already up and running (5 Green Cities of the Future). They share the common theme of being waste free, transport efficient, wholly energy independent and minimizing carbon output.

Below, slightly abridged for space is her report.

"How do green cities help in the effort against climate change? Eco-cities all share similar characteristics: They aim to reduce or eliminate fossil-fuel use, adopt sustainable building practices, promote "green space" and clean air quality, implement energy-efficient and widely available public transportation, create walkable city designs and develop well-organized mixed-use neighborhoods that combine living, working and shopping. These qualities add up to sustainable urbanism.

Here we'll look at five green cities of the future -- some that have broken ground for construction, some that are still the ambitious aspirations of city planners -- all competing to be the first carbon-neutral city in the world."

5. San Francisco's Treasure Island, Calif.

Treasure Island's transformation to green is just another shade in its colorful history. The 400-acre (1.5-square-km) man-made island was built in the middle of San Francisco Bay for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. The ­land was intended to hold an airport after the Expo. Plans for the commercial airport never took off, though, after the Navy acquired the island during World War II. In 1996, the base was decommissioned, and since then, the island has been home to a deteriorating landscape and about 3,000 residents.

Under a new proposal, Treasure Island -- along with its neighbor Yerba Buena Island -- will become one of the most environmentally friendly developments in the United States when ground is broken in 2009.

The Treasure Island project will be a test bed for eco-friendly urban ideas. Some of the proposed green features include LEED-certified buildings, the reduction (or elimination) of storm water runoff, alternative forms of water treatment including artificial wetlands called Living Machines and a transit system that favors clean air vehicles over fossil-fuel chugging cars. A 20-acre (0.08 square-km) city-operated organic farm is planned in walking distance from the city center and will supply the projected 13,500 residents with locally produced foods. Solar and wind-farm power will provide energy; and by 2020, solar panels will cover 70 percent of rooftop space and will provide about 30 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually [source: ENN].

4. Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria, British Columbia, plans to be carbon-neutral by 2012. Its Dockside Green pro­ject brings that goal closer to realization. The environmentally sustainable plans for Dockside Green combine residential, commercial, light industrial and green space on 15 acres (roughly 0.06 square kilometers) of harbor-front land.
How will Dockside Green achieve its goal to be the first carbon-neutral community in North America? Through a combination of green solutions for buildings, transportation, energy and waste treatment.


Let's begin with buildings: Those of Dockside Green are being constructed with reclaimed wood from forests that were submerged by reservoirs. Energy-efficient appliances and fixtures (such as motion-sensing light switches), green roofs (rooftop gardens), and carbon footprint monitors (that allow residents to track their heat, energy and water use over time) are outfitted inside homes.

It's unlikely you'll find a car or two parked in driveways, either. Residents of Victoria, and now Dockside Green, take part in a clean-fuel and hybrid car-sharing program (even the cars are Smart). In addition, Dockside Green plans include bike and pedestrian paths, subsidized public transit and a harbor ferry.

Energy and waste treatment will be self-contained within Dockside Green. One hundred percent of waste will be treated on-site, and the treated water will be reused to flush toilets and irrigate gardens. A biomass-gasification plant will turn wood waste into energy for heat and hot water.

This innovative green community is under way currently, with the first of three neighborhoods opening in 2009. Upon completion, the entire community will be home to about 2,500 people. ­

3. Sherford, England

A b­owling green, a dedicated cricket playing field and an organic farm in the town's park -- sounds like a lovely, green place to live, yes? The future residents of Sherford, England, have these amenities to look forward to, along with a plethora of other green characteristics.
Sherford, in south Devon, is the eco-project of Prince Charles. It will be home to 12,000 people and is planned for completion by 2020. Royal advisors consider it Britain's greenest future community.

The proposed community will take advantage of cutting-edge green building designs and materials but will look like a traditional English town. Buildings will be constructed with sustainable materials gathered mostly from within a 50-mile (80-kilometer) radius of the site; water and sewer waste will be recycled.

Homes and workplaces alike will put their rooftops to work. The majority of buildings will have solar power systems, and vegetation will cover the roofs of commercial buildings. About half of Sherford's power will be supplied from renewable sources in the community: In addition to solar power, plans call for wind turbines.

Lastly, a walkable urban layout will put residences, retail stores and industry in close proximity, reducing the need for cars. In fact, cars will be banned from some areas of the town. Did we mention new homeowners receive a free bicycle? ­

2. Dongtan, China

China is on its way to being the world's worst offender in greenhouse gas emissions by 2009 [source: USA Today]. Yet there's an eco-oasis in the works on Chongming Island, near Shanghai. Chongming Island, roughly three-quarters the size of Manhattan, sits at the mouth of the Yangtze River and is poised to become home to one of the first carbon-neutral cities in the world: ­Dongtan.

Dongtan will grow in phases, with phase one (for between 10,000 and 25,000 residents) expected to be complete in time for the 2010 Shanghai Expo and the final phase complete by 2030 (for up to 500,000 residents). The city will be comprised of three neighborhoods called Marina, Lake and Pond, and will be designed with opportunities for all socioeconomic groups and many occupations in mind, including farming. Designated agricultural areas will use organic, sustainable farming methods.

It's the energy plan that makes Dongtan ambitiously green. The city will source its energy from a combination of solar and wind power, biofuels and recycled organic matter. There are no plans for landfills in Dongtan -- waste will be composted, processed and reused. Rooftops will be green with vegetation, which provides insulation. Only clean-fuel cars will be allowed on the island, and the abundant public transportation will run on hydrogen fuel cells. In addition, bike and pedestrian paths will snake through the city grid.

The city will only be built on three-quarters of Chongming Island. The remaining area is reserved as a protected ecological zone. To attain carbon-neutrality, Dongtan planners also expect to plant trees to offset emissions. ­

1. Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

No cars, no waste, no pollution. Doable? Such a city is slated to rise from the oil-rich grounds in Abu Dhabi. Masdar, which means "the source" in Arabic, is a $22-b­illion undertaking that could be the world's first carbon-neutral city [source: Masdar].

Masdar's sustainable urban development will take advantage of wind, hydrogen and solar-photovoltaic energy sources. Wastewater will be treated and recycled into irrigation systems.

In addition, Masdar's transportation goals are ambitious. Fossil-fuel burning cars are banned from the city in lieu of an electric personal light-rail system -- small, programmable cars that run only when you need to go somewhere, and a pedestrian-friendly city layout.

Masdar is already under construction and will develop over several phases, with completion expected in 2016 [source Inhabitat]. Up to 50,000 people are expected to live in Masdar, and the first residents will likely move in sometime during 2009 [CNET].

The time of the carbon-neutral city is upon us. And if these projects make the jump from paper to reality successfully, they might even earn a spot on our list of existing amazing green cities. ­

E=MC2 for E value "Electric" (as in car)...

In the title equation, when E stands for Electric (as in electric cars) the MC stands for Mucho Cash. Squared. Take a look at Aptera, a first-generation ultra space-aged three wheeled all electric car currently in production in California. At a penny per mile and plug-in-and-go recharge convenience, Aptera already has 1100 deposits and customers eagerly awaiting production & delivery of the sleekly aerodynamic $30K automotive innovation.

Check it out:



Aptera is by no means alone.

Meet Shai Agassi of BetterPlace.com speaking at a Web 2.0 summit. Agassi's new business model is based on all-electric cars with easy to charge and easy to swap out batteries running on highways served by an intercontinental, indeed international, network of charging/battery changing stations.



Agassi has raised an unprecedented $300M in seed and development capital and installations of his vision are already underway in Israel and in process in Hawaii.

The Better Place network will provide fully-automated battery exchange stations. These swap stations are designed to extend the driver’s journey beyond the 100 mile range of a fully-charged battery. Because most of today’s driving is within 40 miles of the home, a visit to one of these facilities will be infrequent when compared to the number of times we currently have to pull into a gas station.

These Better Place battery exchange stations are even more efficient and convenient than conventional gas stations. Each is roughly the size of your average living room. Like the charging spots, they are fully automated. A driver pulls in, puts the car in the neutral gear, and sits back. The battery exchange station does all the work. The depleted battery is removed, and a fully-charged replacement is installed. In under three minutes, the car is back on the road. It’s just like an automatic car wash, a quick, effortless, drive-through experience.

The battery exchange stations will be able to accommodate any Better Place-compliant vehicle. All manufactured batteries will be stocked so that any electric vehicle with a swappable battery, regardless of make or model, can pull in and be serviced.

I don't know about you but to me this looks suspiciously like the future.

UPDATE: Apparently Korea's Hyundai is getting into the act.
UPDATE #2: Introducing the Tesla S Electric to launch in 2011 at around $50K.
UPDATE #3: Even China is planning to give the US "Big Three" automakers a run for their money in the electric car market.

Fusion or Illusion?

Writing last week in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman referred to fusion energy as The Next Really Cool Thing. On a recent visit to the auspiciously named National Ignition Facility, or N.I.F., at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 50 miles east of San Francisco, Friedman reports on touring a facility that could be what Metro Green likes to refer to as the Central Front in war on fossil fuel.

"Cynics often say that viable fusion energy or hydrogen-powered cars are “20 years away and always will be.”

But what if this time is different? What if a laser-powered fusion energy power plant that would have all the reliability of coal, without the carbon dioxide, all the cleanliness of wind and solar, without having to worry about the sun not shining or the wind not blowing, and all the scale of nuclear, without all the waste, was indeed just 10 years away or less? That would be a holy cow game-changer.

Are we there?

That is the tantalizing question I was left with..."

In case the fusion concept is new to you, here's Friedman's description:

I began my tour there with the N.I.F. director, Edward Moses. He was holding up a tiny gold can the size of a Tylenol tablet, and inside it was plastic pellet, the size of a single peppercorn, that would be filled with frozen hydrogen.

The way the N.I.F. works is that all 192 lasers pour their energy into a target chamber, which looks like a giant, spherical, steel bathysphere that you would normally use for deep-sea exploration. At the center of this target chamber is that gold can with its frozen hydrogen pellet. Once one of those pellets is heated and compressed by the lasers, it reaches temperatures over 800 million degrees Fahrenheit, “far greater than exists at the center of our sun,” said Moses.

More importantly, each crushed pellet gives off a burst of energy that can then be harnessed to heat up liquid salt and produce massive amounts of steam to drive a turbine and create electricity for your home — just like coal does today. Only this energy would be carbon-free, globally available, safe and secure and could be integrated seamlessly into our current electric grid.

But if the notion is not so far out, or far off, InventorSpot,
a website billing itself as "Serious Fun For The Inventor In All Of Us," brings realistic news from a European research facility, HiPER (High Power laser Energy Research):

Perhaps a lesser known alternative is nuclear fusion--the same process that fuels the sun and the stars. To hear its potential--a method that offers enough energy for the world's power, a limitless fuel supply, and no greenhouse gas emissions--it sounds like an ideal solution.

But while it's one of the only foreseeable methods to completely eliminate our reliance on natural gas, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 0%, development of a nuclear fusion reactor will take time. Actually, it already has--one of the biggest criticisms of the idea is that, after 40 years of research, there have been no significant breakthroughs. Most dishearteningly, scientists have not yet been able to contain a nuclear fusion reaction long enough to produce more energy than is required to perform the reaction.

If it's hard to know exactly what to make of these reports, it's equally hard not to be enthusiastic. No GHGs, clean, renewable power and all based on the underpinning principle of nuclear power: E=MC2.

Assuming it can be made to work, what's not to like?

White House Vegetable Garden

And while we're on the Obama bandwagon, we at Metro Green wish to say good on Barack & Michelle for forwarding the idea - both in spirit and in practice - of the value of locally grown produce.
From the March 20, New York Times article "Obama to Eat Local Produce (Really Local)":

Whether there would be a White House garden has been more than a matter of landscaping. It’s taken on political and environmental symbolism as the Obamas have been lobbied for months by advocates who believe that growing more food locally could lead to healthier eating and lessen reliance on huge industrial farms that use more oil for transportation and chemicals for fertilizer.

This kind of environmentally sound leadership, though, in the case of the garden is largely symbolic, is precisely what I was hoping for from Brocco (my 6-year-old son's nickname for BHO). So, as the fruits of the First Garden grow, let me be the first to wish the Obama's bon appetit!

UPDATE: Seems nothing escapes the artistry & wit of the editorial cartoonists (John Cole, Scranton Times-Tribune march 26.2009):

Obama on Leno 3/19

A conversation worth watching. Not exactly Metro Green, but important:



UPDATE: Re: "Special Olympics" gaffe...I love this guy.