apple juice

No fluke: new survey finds $4 gas is the tipping point: “The survey found that if gas were to shoot to over $4 a gallon again, 40 percent of car shoppers would ‘consider purchasing a new fuel-efficient car right away.’ About the same amount, 41 percent, said that $4 gas would make them choose a ‘more efficient car the next time they were ready to buy a car.’ Even at $3.75, 29 percent of car shoppers thought buying a more efficient car ‘right away’ was the right move. Takeaway point: when gas prices go up, people will want to have greener cars. The question is what kinds of vehicles will be available then the inevitable happens. “

(Via AutoblogGreen.)

i’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We need a gas tax that establishes a price floor for a gallon of gas.

A Plea To President Obama: End Mountaintop Coal Mining by James Hansen: “Mountaintop removal, which provides a mere 7 percent of the nation’s coal, is done by clear-cutting forests, blowing the tops off of mountains, and then dumping the debris into streambeds — an undeniably catastrophic way of mining. This technique has buried more than 800 miles of Appalachian streams in mining debris and by 2012 will have serious damaged or destroyed an area larger than Delaware. Mountaintop removal also poisons water supplies and pollutes the air with coal and rock dust. Coal ash piles are so toxic and unstable that the Department of Homeland Security has declared that the location of the nation’s 44 most hazardous coal ash sites must be kept secret. They fear terrorists will find ways to spill the toxic substances. But storms and heavy rain can do the same. A recent collapse in Tennessee released 100 times more hazardous material than the Exxon-Valdez oil spill.”

(Via WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future.)

One thing you can do is call Xcel and ask to be on the 100% windsource program. Also, call or email your legislator and ask them to support policies that would end the process.

I just found The Story of Stuff via an article at the New York Times.

The video is a cheerful but brutal assessment of how much Americans waste…

“Cheerful, but brutal” is a perfect description for this video.

I’m too much of a sucker. Technology “stuff” is a major impediment to being more environmentally friendly. It just never stops.

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?