Events
Green County, Greensburg, Clean the Green river clean-up event 7/24/2010 Greensburg, KY (map)
Please join Kentucky Waterways Alliance on Saturday, July 24th to "Clean the Green"! Meet at The American Legion Park in Greensburg at 8:00 a.m. CTS. Participants will receive a Free T-shirt, water bottle, boat rental, and lunch. Plus, you will be entered to win a Perception Carolina 140 Kayak (includes vest and paddle) that retails for $980! After the clean up, celebrate at the park with refreshments, educational booths and live music. Please RSVP to Kelly Craig at 270-932-2884 or kelly@kwalliance.org . KY's Green River is the fourth most biologically important river in America! Let's keep it that way for future generations. [For carpooling, email gogreen@wku.edu]
Residential Energy Assessments for Contractors 7/22-23/10 in Frankfort Kentucky Solar Partnership
Learn to control and reduce home energy use. This course is for building contractors, remodelers, solar installers, designers, homeowners and small building operators. Kentucky's own John Robbins, CEM CSDP teaches the class.
Sustainable Energy Training Series 2010
ASPI and the Kentucky Solar Partnership present the 2010 Sustainable Energy Training Series, offering 13 workshops on topics related to solar energy and residential energy conservation. The Sustainable Energy Training Series is oriented towards professionals... Click here to learn more
News
Local
Gulf oil spill: Raising awareness BG Daily News 6/27/10
On a hot Saturday afternoon, Claudia Hanes donned a pair of green, peace-sign sunglasses as she stood on a public sidewalk, spouting a message about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the way it’s being handled.
State
Our voices do matter! Last month, the Kentucky PSC held hearings on E.ON U.S.'s requests to triple the residential monthly flat charges for electricity and gas, while lowering the "per unit" prices. The KY Sustainable Energy Alliance asked people to show up at the hearings and speak against the proposed rate structure. They did, and their voices were heard. On June 8, LG&E and KU agreed to limit the amount of increase they will seek, and they changed the structure to reflect slightly higher costs for higher use. Note: If utility rates must increase, they should increase per unit of energy, not on the flat monthly fee to encourage conservation and efficiency. [From KY Solar Energy Society E-News, June 2010]
Wendell Berry Takes His Papers and Leaves In response to UKs naming a new dorm for basketball players the ‘Wildcat Coal Lodge’ in order to please coal-friendly donors.
If Kentuckians, upstream and down, ever fulfill their responsibilities to the precious things they have been given—the forests, the soils, and the streams—they will do so because they will have accepted a truth that they are going to find hard: the forests, the soils and the streams are worth far more than the coal for which they are now being destroyed. From Wendell Berry essay in Missing Mountains: We Went to the Mountaintop But It Wasn’t There: Kentuckians Write Against Mountaintop Removal
Green University® Recycle Anything Guide (PDF)
http://www.theage.com.au/world/climate-to-warm-at-double-rate-20100706-zyyx.html
The world is heading for an average temperature rise of nearly 4 degrees, according to a global analysis of national pledges. More than 100 heads of state agreed in Copenhagen last December to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 to 2 degrees above the long-term average before the industrial revolution, which started a huge global rise in greenhouse gases. But after a concerted international effort to monitor the emission reduction targets of more than 60 countries, including all the major economies, the Climate Interactive Scoreboard now calculates that the world is on course for a rise of nearly double the stated goal by 2100. Another study, by Climate Analytics, at the Potsdam Institute in Germany, suggests the temperature rise is likely to be 3.5 degrees by the end of the century.
Climate changes in the Atlantic can affect drought in distant regions Science Daily (6/29/10))
"We need a mass of people who are hot under the collar about Congress doing nothing to address human-caused global warming." ~ Exec. Secretary Joe Volk, July/August Washington Newsletter
Four Things the CLEAR Act Does Right This CLEAR Act would create a disincentive to pollute by setting a rising, predicable price on fossil fuel pollution and compensate consumers for the inevitable short-term increases in energy costs. You can print this out as a flyer to put up in your meeting, church, or community space.
Questions for the Candidates in the 2010 Elections - Global Warming Focus
Find updates on these and other issues at Friends Committee on National Legislation.
Read recent news on climate change and energy legislation in the Senate Earthjustice [action@earthjustice.org]
Find the latest updates on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill at Earthjustice blog, unEARTHED
Do you know the Story of Coal? Earthjustice [action@earthjustice.org]
Renewable Energy
10 Renewable Energy Myths
New Report Says U.S. Electric Utilities Must Embrace Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency to Compete in 21st Century:
Ceres, July 8, 2010
For First Quarter of 2010, Renewable Production Continues Growth – Now Almost Equal That of Nuclear Power:
Energy Information Administration, June 30, 2010
Solar Power Now Cheaper Than New Nuclear in North Carolina July 8, 2010
Oregon's Feed-In Tariff Sells out in 15 Minutes Greentech Media, 7/6/10
$1.45 Billion Loan Guarantee for Abengoa CSP Plant Greentech Media, 7/6/10
President Obama gives the go-ahead for one of the world’s largest concentrating solar power projects.
Energy Independence Declared at Cypress with SunPower and Bloom Greentech Media, 7/6/10
Municipal Solid Waste to Cellulosic Ethanol Demonstration Plant Ethanol Producers, by Holly Jessen, July 6, 2010
Global Small Hydro Power Market Expected to Reach 201 GW by 2020 GlobalData, by A.B.G.Thilak
Water
Calamity on the Colorado, Peter M. McBride “With demand rising and supply falling, Lake Powell could reach dead pool in the 2020s.”
Water Supply, Air Pollution Most Pressing Issues for Cities, Say Participants ... PR Newswire (press release)
Food
Tuna’s End NY Times, 6/27/10 On the high seas, the bluefin is being hunted into extinction. Will we ever be able to think about seafood the same way?
Manure provides higher returns than chemical fertilizers, economist says Science Daily (6/29/10)
'Balanced' ecosystems seen in organic agriculture better at controlling pests, research finds Science Daily (7/1/10)
Miscellaneous
Calling All Fanatics, Derrick Jensen, Orion Magazine, July/August 2010
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