apple juice

From the outside, there is nothing unusual about the stylish new gray and orange row houses in the Kranichstein District, with wreaths on the doors and Christmas lights twinkling through a freezing drizzle. But these houses are part of a revolution in building design: There are no drafts, no cold tile floors, no snuggling under blankets until the furnace kicks in. There is, in fact, no furnace.

via The Energy Challenge – No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in Innovative ‘Passive Houses’ – Series – NYTimes.com.

I wonder if this would work in Minnesota?

Many people will tell Mr. Obama that taxing carbon or gasoline now is a “nonstarter.” Wrong. It is the only starter. It is the game-changer. If you want to know where postponing it has gotten us, visit Detroit. No carbon tax or increased gasoline tax meant that every time the price of gasoline went down to $1 or $2 a gallon, consumers went back to buying gas guzzlers. And Detroit just fed their addictions — so it never committed to a real energy-efficiency retooling of its fleet.

via Op-Ed Columnist – The Real Generation X – NYTimes.com.

emphasis mine. The stupid thing is that Ford, GM and Chrysler make more energy efficient cars for other markets! So where are those cars for America?

First time a diesel has won the award!

LA 2008 Green Car of the Year

We’re waiting for the wagon version at our local dealership… it might be a while they tell us.

Where are all the hatchbacks and wagons?

There was a segment on 60 minutes tonight, exposing the illegal exporting of e-waste to china, where it is broken down in conditions that have contributed to health problems for citizens of the region.

Electronic Wasteland

Unfortunately, they didn’t really offer any solutions or suggestions on what we might do about it.

I think it is important to note that given an option to do so, people will try and do the right thing, in terms of recycling…

I wonder what the environmentalists suggest?

Thomas Friedman’s excellent new op-ed, Flush with Energy, contains this startling stat:

Denmark today gets nearly 20 percent of its electricity from wind. America? About 1 percent.

What are we doing here?

I don’t agree with everything position Obama takes, I think he could be even stronger in his plans to break our addiction to oil… but, it is pretty hard to tell Americans that “As president, I’m going to make gasoline $10 a gallon”.

Here’s Obama’s latest ad, “Hands”. I think it compares nicely with McCain’s plan for “more drilling”.

you have to click through to this article, just for the picture if nothing else: Gas-Tax Holiday = Cheap Votes

a gas-tax holiday is the worst idea i have ever heard. it will save you $30. it will create more profits for oil companies (as they raise prices to fill the gap), it will set back important transportation projects across the country, and it will encourage people to drive more, not less, creating more pollution and pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere.

bad bad stupid stupid. we should do the exact opposite. raise the gas tax. raise it by a dollar and dedicate it to transit projects.

encourage people to drive less.

encourage people to drive smaller cars.

encourage people to take transit.

one more reason to not vote for the old politics of John McCain and Hillary Clinton. time for a change. don’t believe me?

It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away

thomas friedman – “dumb as we wanna be“

Smog over Downtown, originally uploaded by ajc3.

Just arrived at Matt’s safe and sound. He’s in the shower, and Madeline is sleeping so I thought I’d post a quick picture. This was taken out of the window of the plane as we were landing. Downtown LA is barely visible in the smog.