Saturday, January 31, 2009

Great Lakes Zephyr Archives...

... please note that all of our blog archives have moved along with the main blog, dating all the way back to the GL Zephyr's creation in 2003.

Links to all of the archives can be found near the bottom of the lower-right sidebar.

Thank you for reading!

Dan Stafford
GL Zephyr Publisher / Creator

Friday, January 30, 2009

Great news for the Chicago area

I have some underground info that free city-wide wifi is coming to Chicago and some neighboring suburbs. This is coming in via major league sports operators, not the Fed, as I understand it.

Don't ask me how I know, but infrastructure planning is cooking now, and hardware won't be too long to start in the oven.

Now, if the Fed wants to get more bang for its broadband stimulus bucks...

Whyis free wifi good news for the regional environment?

Up tha telecommute and down that gas pumpin', Baby!

More when I can, & thank you for reading!

Dan

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Actively seeking industry interviewees...

The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal seeks industry personnel to be interviewed. I have a standardized list of (11) questions that I would like to ask. The interview can be scheduled and conducted via Skype or text-only.

The questions are:


1. What was it that brought you into environmental work? Was there a particular moment or person that inspired you?

2. What do you feel was the most rewarding moment or action you took in your position within the industry?

3. What agency(ies) or programs in the Great Lakes region do you see as making the largest impact on the environment in the next five to ten years, and why?

4. What is the single thing that you see as something easy for the everyday person to do that would have the largest impact on improving the environment or combating Global Climate Change?

5. How do you feel we're doing in the Great Lakes region on environmental issues overall, and what is our greatest area needing improvement in this regard today?

6. What do you think our chances are of tapping wind energy on the Great Lakes given our current political and business environment?

7. What do you think of the idea of using wind turbines out on the lakes to produce clean energy?

8. What, in your opinion, has been the darkest hour during your tenure for the environment in the Great Lakes, and why?

9. What do you see as our best hope of mitigating the circumstance or event in the last question?

10. Are you hopeful given the change of leadership in Washington on January 20th of this year? If so, why?

11. What is the one thing you would most like to “get across” to the people of the Great Lakes region regarding our treatment of the environment?

Interested parties may answer the questions listed above, and e-mail them with credentials and contact information to: aqmstaffo@mailbag.com.

Interviews will be posted on the GL Zephyr as text transcripts and podcasts. Text-only interviews will be read as a podcast and posted.

Professionals in this industry fulfill an important mission, here's a chance to tell of your part in that mission and your vision for the future.

As always, thank you for reading - and for sharing.

Dan Stafford


http://www.archive.org/download/GreatLakesZephyrPodcast0000001/GL-Zephyr-cast-0000001.mp3

Friday, January 23, 2009

Looks like the Interview with CUB will be...

Looks like the Interview with CUB will be in mid-February. I just heard from Celia @ the Citizen's Utility Board of Illinois, and that's the timing that works best for her.

I like the idea as well, since I just moved this blog to a new domain days ago, we need the time for readership to move over and find our new home.

Speaking of the domain move and site revamp, I'm pretty happy with it overall. I think I'll go plug the GL Zephyr into Google and see if they've picked up the move yet.

Thank you as always for reading.

Dan

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Intergarden - hooking people with garden space & no time up with people who have time but no garden space

I thought you might want to check this out - http://intergarden.ning.com

The idea is to have local persons that are unemployed, underemployed, or retired, or who just want to garden (and have no garden space) hook up with people who have garden space but are too busy working or don't know enough about gardening up with each other. (WOW, is that a long sentence.)

The idea is that the two parties would split the produce 50/50 in exchange for using each other's time/space/skills.

This site is BRAND SPANKING NEW, less than a week, and it is completely free to join. I'm doing this strictly as a community service. (Ning.com will probably get advertising revenue from it, but I personally get nothing but a sense of accomplishment.)

I hope to get the word out in a big way BEFORE the growing season starts.

This is great for busy home owners with sunny back yard space because they can eat fresh organic produce and supplement their grocery budget just by sharing - and be as local food as you can get.

This is great for the impoverished and underemployed because it can increase their food security through their own individual effort - and provide good skills.

This is great for expert vegetable gardeners because they can help pass on their knowledge for the future and do a great service to the community.

If there's any way you can help spread the word about Intergarden, please do so. People are going to need to start some seedlings as early as March, and given the economic climate, this could really help a lot of people.

With gratitude and respect,

Dan Stafford
Intergarden concept originator
Co-Chair, Progressive Democrats of Illinois
http://www.illinoisprogressives.org

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Good News! I have an interview coming up with...

...Ms. Celia Christensen. The Citizen's Utility Board of Illinois Environmental Outreach Coordinator ( www.citizensutilityboard.org ) has agreed to be interviewed for the G.L. Zephyr in the near future.

I would like to thank Mz. Christensen in advance for her time.

I'll be posting a text transcript, mp3 audio, and possibly video of the interview shortly after it's conducted.

We still have timing to work out yet, so I'll let all of you know when it'll be as soon as I know.

Regards, and thank you for reading the Great Lakes Zephyr.

Dan Stafford

Monday, January 19, 2009

Set up Intergarden yesterday

I'm pretty happy I set up Intergarden yesterday. http://intergarden.ning.com -

Intergarden is a site devoted to hooking up people who have unused garden space but would love some free produce with those who have time but no space and need or want free produce.

Share the garden space and split the produce!

Community garden program run out of plots last year? Join and promote Intergarden!

Have community garden plots go unused last year? Join and promote Intergarden!

Have gardening knowledge you'd like to pass on to others for the future? Join and promote Intergarden! Write your tips in our discussion forums.

Intergarden is free to join. I don't make a dime off of it either, though Ning.com might through a few ads.

For me, it's all about helping people all over the world.

So Join and promote Intergarden. It's for all of you.

http://intergarden.ning.com

Dan Stafford


Words are the mind's bridge - its connection to all the universe.
Love is the heart's bridge - its connection to all other souls.
Loving words can work miracles.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

01/17/2009 Wind, Energy, Hydrogen News...

Image removed by sender.

Popular Science

Flying the Coal-Fired Skies
Popular Science - New York,NY,USA
John MacNeill In the not-so-distant future, cars could run on electricity, power plants on wind and solar energy, and city buses on zero-emission hydrogen ...
See all stories on this topic

The Films Are Green, but Is Sundance?
New York Times - United States
It explained that the energy for the festival’s official screenings comes through Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Skies program, which provides wind-powered ...
See all stories on this topic

Is the ultimate green fuel particle annihilation?
Tulsa World - Tulsa,OK,USA
The green fuels are geothermal, wind, solar and hydro. Nuclear plants are not totally green. Hydrogen is green, but producing hydrogen must also be green. ...
See all stories on this topic

 

The Desert Speaks

http://www.thedesertspeaks.org - a television series about desert dwellers and habitats, rich in culture, history, tradition, and biology. Quite fascinating.

Thank you for reading!

Dan

Enviro-tip:

After you pour that 1st cup of fresh-brewed or perked coffee, pour the remainder into a stainless steel thermos and turn the pot off. Your coffee will stay hot up to 12 hours without using any electricity, and your coffee won't get that "burnt" taste, ever. Plus, the stainless-steel thermos won't leach plastic chemicals into your coffee. (You should use ceramic mugs or stainless steel travel mugs for the same reason.)


Words are the mind's bridge - its connection to all the universe.
Love is the heart's bridge - its connection to all other souls.
Loving words can work miracles.

Welcome to the NEW Great Lakes Zephyr!

I have finished (for now) the move to blogspot and a new template for the Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal.

I probably still need some tweaks, but here we are, fresh and new but still as we were. I've preserved as many of the features of the old blog on Whizzyrds.com (My personal domain) as is possible.

If you look down at the site meter on the lower right side bar, there's a link back to the old page, but note that I changed the template BEFORE I moved the blog. The old site meter has been imported under the new one, and it will continue to track hits to the old blog as well.

I hope that this change makes things better for you, and for I.

Thank You as always for reading.

Dan Stafford

Feedburner publish test 2

Test 2 for feedburner feed...

Testing feedburner feed update

I just updated my Feedburner feed source URL. This post is a test to make sure it is updating the feed correctly.

Thank you for your patience!

Dan

I am moving this blog!

The new domain should be: http://GL-Zephyr.blogspot.com

This will cause me to lose my hit counts & you'll need to update your links to the new domain, but it will allow me to use the full features of the blog, and claim it properly on Technorati.com.

Please visit the blog at its new location.

Thank You, and thank You for reading!

Dan Stafford

I will be re-vamping this blog soon...

It's long-past time for me to give the Zephyr a new template. I may also need to move it to blogspot for hosting due to technical difficulties with Technorati.com, I'll wait and see on that yet.

I will try to preserve as much of the look and feel of the Zephyr as I can when I move to the new template, and I'll save a copy of the current template script for reference in updates.

The new template should make it easier for publishing and adding features, and make this blog easier to find. It will also allow me to integrate with Feedburner, fix the comments and backlink features, integrate with Twitter, and other things this old template just can't handle.

Please bear with me while I go through this process, and struggle to bring you as much environmental news as I can in one place.

Regards, and thank You for reading -

Dan

Monday, January 05, 2009

Technorati claim post

Technorati Profile

Just me claiming the Zephyr on Technorati & about time.

Dan

01/05/2009 T.O. Enviro-news

The Boston Globe | Wind, Waves, and Watts http://www.truthout.org/010509EA The Boston Globe: "The steady, strong winds over the Atlantic off New England have attracted another developer interested in harnessing them for power generation. A new wrinkle in the proposal by Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Company, of Washington state, is that the supports anchoring each wind turbine platform to the ocean floor would be designed in a way to turn wave action into electricity as well."  Greening the Ghetto http://www.truthout.org/010509LA Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker: "A few months ago, Van Jones, the founder and president of a group called Green for All, went to visit New Bedford, Massachusetts. His first stop of the day was the public library, where someone had assembled an audience of about thirty high-school dropouts. They leaned back in their chairs, hands in the pockets of their oversized sweatshirts. A few appeared to be stoned."

GLIN NEWS: 05 January 2009



GLIN Daily News wrote:
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Support GLIN Daily News: http://www.glin.net/news/sponsor/
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Great Lakes Daily News: 05 January 2009

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/


Engineers to inspect 3 state dams for waste ash
----------------------------------------
Three Minnesota dikes that hold vast amounts of coal waste ash will be inspected by state engineers in light of the disastrous ash sludge spill last month in Tennessee. Source: Star Tribune (1/5)


Oberlin sets up more ways to show how resources are used
----------------------------------------
Oberlin College has secured an $812,000 grant from the Great Lakes Protection Fund for a four-year pilot project to monitor and display personal and community water consumption. Source: The Chronicle-Telegram (1/5)


Canada ready to plug into electric cars: study group
----------------------------------------
Plug-in electric cars can make a breakthrough into the North American market within the next decade as the economy emerges from its current slowdown, says the head of an industry-led panel advising the Harper government. Source: The Montreal Gazette (1/4)


Lyme grass, a new plant 'invader,' could take over dunes
----------------------------------------
Lyme grass is flourishing at 125 sites in the coastal dunes of Lake Michigan, according to a new report prepared for The Nature Conservancy. The plant concerns botanists because it competes with native marram grass, or dune grass - one of the predominant species in Great Lakes coastal dunes. Source: Muskegon Chronicle (1/4)


Scientists find signs of 13,000-year-old extinction event
----------------------------------------
It's well-known that a meteorite colliding with Earth is considered the most likely reason why dinosaurs died off 65 million years ago. Now a team of scientists says it has found new evidence that a comet triggered a similar extinction 13,000 years ago, at a time when humans were around. Source: Chicago Tribune (1/2)


Pipeline company to pay $1.1M for violations in Wis.
----------------------------------------
The company that built a 321-mile, $2 billion oil pipeline across Wisconsin has agreed to pay $1.1 million for environmental violations, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Friday. Houston-based Enbridge Energy Co. will pay the money to settle a lawsuit accusing it of violating state permits. Source: Chicago Tribune (1/2)


Dow Chemical in talks for Michigan dioxin cleanup
----------------------------------------
More than three decades after Dow Chemical was blamed for some of the worst dioxin contamination in history, federal regulators are meeting with the company yet again about cleaning up polluted waterways in eastern Michigan. Source: Chicago Tribune (1/1)


Waukesha may face radium fines
----------------------------------------
The state Department of Justice likely will fine the City of Waukesha, Wis., for failing to completely rid its drinking water of potentially cancer-causing radium, Mayor Larry Nelson said. Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1/1)


Group pushes water-conservation measures
----------------------------------------
Investing $10 billion in water-efficiency programs could play an important role in America's "green economy," creating as many as 220,000 jobs while protecting a priceless natural resource says a new report produced by the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes. Source: Muskegon Chronicle (12/31)


Slowing economy has some ships tying up early for winter
----------------------------------------
There are still a couple of weeks in the Great Lakes shipping season, and the Army Corps of Engineers will be operating locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., until Jan. 15. But the recession is drying up business, and a number of Great Lakes ships have already called it quits, tying up for winter early. Source: Minnesota Public Radio (12/31)


Cuyahoga County wins Ohio environmental cleanup grant
----------------------------------------
Cuyahoga County is receiving a $2.1 million environmental cleanup grant from the state of Ohio to help rehabilitate the Cuyahoga River channel. Source: Crain's Cleveland Business (12/30)


COMMENTARY: Don't expand the landfill
----------------------------------------
Additional hazardous waste landfill capacity in New York State is unnecessary. Demand is down and there's no need to encourage it, the state concluded a long time ago. So, why does the proposed expansion of a hazardous waste site in Niagara County remain an issue? Source: The Buffalo News (12/26)


Did you miss a day of Daily News? Remember to use our searchable story archive at http://www.great-lakes.net/news/inthenews.html


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TO SUBSCRIBE and receive this Great Lakes news compendium
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GreenBuzz :: Our Top 10 Stories of 2008, The Year in Greenwashing, and More...


GreenBuzz :: Dec. 29, 2008
January 5, 2009
In This Issue GreenBuzz
  » The Latest News on Sustainable Business Practices
  » Featured News: GreenBiz.com's Top 10 Most Popular Stories of 2008
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Taking Care of Business

By Joel Makower

Happy 2009! I hope you are beginning the new year with a fresh sense of optimism and hope. I certainly am.

Admittedly, it's no small feat. The economy is sinking, with little certainty of when we hit bottom, let alone resurface. This is destined to be a year of change, some of it much-needed, some of it painful. We're in uncharted territory now, with barely a working compass.

But beyond the inevitable chaos is hope -- and no, not just the campaign slogan type, but real hope, the hope of fresh starts -- that the changes ahead will yield innovative solutions in how business is done, and the environmental and social impacts that result. We'll all be watching.

Of course, my team and I will be doing more than watching. We're planning a spate of new features and services to help you find your way, from stories of how your colleagues are faring to nuts-and-bolts survival strategies. We'll track the money flows of the new administration, looking for opportunities to tap into what is expected to be multi-billion-dollar expenditures to foment a green economy. And we'll continue to offer leading-edge research, starting with our 2009 State of Green Business report (and concomitant conference), launching February 2.

You'll also be seeing greater focus on the GreenBiz Blog, and the growing cacophony of voices from thought leaders as well as our own editorial team. We'd love to have you participate -- to share your observations from the trenches, your insights into what's working, what's not working, and how you're surviving -- and, I hope, thriving -- in the coming year. If you have ideas, or simply want to review our blogging guidelines, send a note to Leslie Guevarra.

For now, enjoy some of the topics we covered over the holidays. But get ready for all that's yet to come. It's going to be an adventure!


   The Latest News on Sustainable Business Practices
Fiji Water, Clean Coal and Political Parties Make 2008 Greenwash List
By GreenBiz Staff

Companies and coalitions big and not-so-big have made the ranks of most notorious "green" campaigns in the year-end list from National Public Radio's Greenwash Brigade.... Read More



California Gives $20 Million to Recycling Projects

U.S. Diners Looking for Greener Restaurants and Healthier Fare in 2009: Survey

Sustainable Community Concept Takes Hold in Texas, Georgia, Tennessee

Public Buildings in U.K. Emit More CO2 Than All of Kenya

Industry Leaders Team Up to Green Food's Supply Chain

Pacific Northwest's E-Waste 'Paradigm Shift' Launches Jan. 1

Ohio Launches Advanced Energy Masters Degree Program

Harvard Extension School Offers E-Learning Course on Environmental Management


   Featured News
GreenBiz.com's Top 10 Most Popular Stories of 2008
By GreenBiz Staff

In a year when the economy was all the business world could talk about, our readers dug in deep to stories about creating change, overhauling the ways business gets done, and yes, how going green can save big money.... Read More


         
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   GreenBiz Radio
Starting With the End: Designing Products for Reuse
By Sarah Fister Gale

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   Columns and Blogs
Joel Makower
Behind IBM's Quest for a 'Smarter Planet'
> Read more...
Ariel Schwartz
Hidden Electric Bill Fee Finances New York's Energy Projects
> Read more...
Robert Pojasek
Once is Not Enough: Continual Improvement is Essential to Sustainability
> Read more...
Cary Krosinsky
The Responsibility of Ownership: New Year's Resolution 2009
> Read more...

      FEATURED RESOURCES

Waste & Opportunity: U.S. Beverage Container Recycling Scorecard and Report, 2008

Twenty-three beverage companies are scored on the based on their reduction of virgin content in containers, use of recycled content, activities related to recovery and recycling legislation and program, and communication of their recycling goals and efforts.

Sustainable Aviation CO2 Roadmap

This report assesses carbon dioxide emissions from United Kingdom aviation from 2000-2050.




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