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Want to WATCH EARTH NEIGHBORHOOD TV? YOU CAN'T!!! Community Televison stopped broadcasting on 1/1/09 due to inaction by the Long Beach City Communications office and our City Council. Meetings with local TV producers and City Staff have identified a plan to resume programming, but must be approved by Long Beach City Council Members In 2012. What Can You Do? Support Community TV in Long Beach ! The Legislation, passed 5years ago, that will allow Cable networks to provide cable TV, Internet and telephone service was passed by the California Legislature. Now it is up to cities to make provisions for community program production and broadcasts. Funding for these broadcasts is provided by the Cable Networks but is now being used for Government broadcasts, only. The Preston Papers - From Re:Source Editor Preston Sommes, Jr. At the recent United Nations Conference of the
Parties (COP 17) in Durban, South Africa, world leaders punted once
again. Instead of taking meaningful action on climate change today,
they put off creation of a global emission treaty until 2020 -- a
commitment few believe will be honored without massive public
intervention. Anticipating this failure, Earth Day Network and
their global partners, including Tck Tck Tck, met in Durban to
develop a plan for global action in advance of the next major
meeting of world leaders at the United Nations Conference on
Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June. Mayors and local elected officials from around
the world did make history by joining together to sign the Durban
Adaptation Charter for Local Governments, requiring cities to
increase their mitigation and adaptation efforts immediately. (Read
more about the Charter at the
Earth Day Network
blog) GREEN JOBS - Get Ready for our Future White House top economic adviser, made this point very clearly during his interview on Fareed Zakaria's GPS on CNN: "Some of the jobs that were lost aren't going to come back, but some of the jobs are going to come in new places," Summers said. Globally, research from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has shown that a shift to a a low-carbon and sustainable economy can create millions of green jobs across many sectors of the economy. Similarly, the employment outlook from the US Department of Labor for job growth between 2008-2018 indicated a significant growth of green jobs this. Of course, this prediction is largely based on President Obama's pledge to invest $150 billion to create 5 million green jobs in the US over the next 10 years. The focus on green jobs is tremendously important not only to create jobs, but also to have a tremendous positive impact on our environment. High Speed Rail - Are You On Board? The Obama administration has given passenger rail the strongest federal push since the days of Abraham Lincoln in hopes of spurring job growth and keeping pace with a rising China. In early 2010, Washington allotted $8 billion in stimulus cash to fund 13 high-speed rail systems spread across 31 states, including projects in Florida, the Midwest, California, and the Northeast. "Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail," said President Obama during the 2011 State of the Union address. America's current "high-speed" train, Amtrak's Acela Express, averages a mere 80 mph along its 16-station route from the District of Columbia to Boston. By comparison, France's TGV has an average speed of more than 150 mph, and China just built a train that can exceed 300 mph. An Acela trip from New York to Boston costs about $100 and clocks in around 3.5 hours?or just a tad quicker than the $15 buses that leave from Chinatown. As anyone who has traveled on Amtrak will tell you, the system is not known for punctuality, thus putting Amtrak in close competition with the independent bus lines. How To Build A Better Lightbulb When changing out incandescent light bulbs for energy efficiency, there are usually two options, CFL and LED. However, the start up company Vu1 is adding another light bulb option (not to mention acronym) to the mix, the Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL) bulb. The Vu1 ESL innovation re-purposes technology from our tried and true friend, the cathode ray tube (CRT) television. ESL uses accelerated electrons to stimulate phosphor and create light, thus making the bulb surface glow. For the most part, the ESL bulbs are made of recyclable material, namely the plastic and the glass. But like many electronic devices today, the semi-conductors and electronic components are not as easily recyclable. The good news is that unlike CFL's, we do not have to worry about heavy metals such as mercury with the ESL. The ESL technology has also been nominated for a 2011 Edison Best New Product Award. It will be judged along side other nominees on several criteria including societal impact, marketplace innovation, and technological innovation. Thinking Global Yet? Taking A Look At How Wind Works - That Works for Me and You! Large wind farms are being built around the world as a cleaner way to generate electricity, but operators are still searching for the most efficient way to arrange the massive turbines that turn moving air into power. To help steer wind farm owners in the right direction, Charles Meneveau, a Johns Hopkins fluid mechanics and turbulence expert, working with a colleague in Belgium, has devised a new formula for the best spacing for a large array of turbines. Turbines used in wind farms for commercial production of electric power are usually three-bladed and pointed into the wind by computer-controlled motors. These have high tip speeds of over 200 mph, high efficiency,tubular steel towers that range from 200 to 300 feet tall. The blades rotate at 10-22 revolutions per minute. The newest wind farms, which can be located on land or offshore. Currently, turbines on these large wind farms are spaced about seven rotor diameters apart. The new spacing model suggests that placing the wind turbines 15 rotor diameters apart - more than twice as far apart as in the current layouts - results in more cost-efficient power generation. The research is important because large wind farms, with hundreds or even thousands of turbines are planned or already operating in the western United States, Europe and China. Earlier computational models for large wind farm layouts were based on simply adding up what happens in the wakes of single wind turbines and they are underperforming. The new spacing model takes into account interaction of arrays of turbines with the entire atmospheric wind flow. HP INNOVATES CLOSED LOOP INKJET CARTRIDGE RECYCLING PROGRAM, GIVES PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES SECOND LIFEIn an industry first, HP today announced it has developed an engineering breakthrough that enables the use of post-consumer recycled plastics in the production of new Original HP inkjet print cartridges. More than 200 million cartridges have been manufactured using the process thus far. HP used more than 5 million pounds of recycled plastic in its inkjet cartridges last year, and the company is committed to using twice as much in 2008. The company's innovative recycling process facilitates the combination of multiple sources and grades of recycled plastics from everyday water bottles to highly technical HP inkjet cartridges. In addition to closing the design loop, using recycled content saves energy and keeps plastic out of landfills . Since piloting the process, HP has used enough recycled plastic to fill more than 200 tractor trailers. GOOGLE HELPS BOOST GREEN TECHNOLOGIES Google Inc is prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in big commercial alternative-energy projects that traditionally have had trouble getting financing, the executive in charge of its green-energy push said on Wednesday. The Internet search giant, which has said it will invest in researching green technologies and renewable-energy companies, is eager to help promising technologies amass scale to help drive the cost of alternative energy below the cost of coal. HOME NEWS URBAN FARMS MOVEMENT GROWS with WATER WISE and with LOCAL, LONG BEACH GROWS PROJECTS Recirculating Farms Coalition, is officially launching a national campaign to promote growing local, fresh food and create green jobs. Its focus is on eco-friendly farms that use clean, recycled water in place of soil to grow plants (hydroponics), fish (aquaculture), or a combination of both plants and fish (aquaponics). The new collaborative brings together educators, farmers, fishermen, chefs, non-profit organizations and many others who are working to create an accessible, sustainable and healthy food system in the United States. Marianne Cufone, Executive Director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition, said, The current U.S. unemployment rate is 9.1 percent, and about one in six people are struggling to buy food. Building recirculating farms in diverse communities nationwide can provide fresh, local food and create stable jobs in a sustainable business, two things the U.S. very much needs right now. Recirculating farms use innovative ways to be space, energy, and water efficient. They can be as small as a desktop for personal use, or large enough for commercial operation. Well-designed farms re-use up to 99% of their water, and recycle waste. They can run without antibiotics, or other drugs and chemicals, and use renewable energy. Recirculating farms can grow fish, vegetables, flowers, fruits, herbs and more. Contact: http://www.recirculatingfarms.org/ LONG BEACH GROWS DOES JUST THAT! Join Long Beach Grows ia the first local organization advocating
for urban agriculture, including backyard urban agriculture, and
for a just and equitable food system in Long Beach. Help us build
and operate our first community farm co-op,
LBGROWS Unity Farm, on the
property of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach. Food
we grow will be shared among the gardeners & with
underprivileged Long Beach residents. Plus other LBGROWS community
farm co-op sites are in the works. Let's build unity in our community around the issue of urban
agriculture and local food security. Your tax deductible donation
(tax ID # 20-4583660) will help us build and operate our first
community farm co-op,
LBGROWS Unity Farm, TOTE IT HOME From Long Beach Shops and Busineses Plastic Bags in large retail stores were banned in Long beach in August 2011. Contrary to some fears, business has not collapsed and in fact, has prospered as shopping options are expanind along with tote bag choices! BRING A BAG TIPS! Keep a couple of reusable bags in your desk/locker at work, in your car and in your purse so you have one along with you when you are moving around the city and make that convenient stop at a store. Carry a fashion forward bag with you- put your purse in it! Help promote Long Beach buinesses when you pick up the "I Got It Here", cool blue tote bags being given out now by local businesses! Some shops have their own, custom totes you can collect. Support Long Beach as you buy locally and help globally by doing away with plastic bags. Tot-carrying shoulder bags help your back and hands, too. Bye-bye carpal tunnel! Hold That Tiger- Then Let Him Go! A wild tiger fitted with satellite-collar was successfully translocated from Nepal's Chitwan National Park to Bardia National Park for the first time, according to World Wildlife Fund. The translocation was led by the Government of Nepal with support from World Wildlife Fund Nepal (WWF-Nepal) and the National Trust for Nature Conservation during the last days of the Year of the Tiger. It will further Nepal's goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022, the next time the Chinese calendar celebrates the endangered species. "This translocation the first of its kind in Nepal is a concrete example of our commitment to saving wild tigers using the best science available, including the application of cutting-edge technologies," said Minister of Forest and Soil Conservation of Nepal, Deepak Bohara. The collared tiger was an injured male rescued by park authorities from Chitwan National Park after it wandered into a hotel in the tourist town of Sauraha outside the park last September and was relocated to the Babai valley, an ideal location for the translocation because of its vast size and available prey species, improved anti-poaching efforts, lower human-tiger conflict and good connectivity with other protected areas through the Terai Arc Landscape all the way to India's Suhelwa Wildlife Sanctuary. The satellite collar, which accurately reports the tiger's location every 30 minutes, will help scientists gain a better understanding of tiger behavior, improve conservation interventions like anti-poaching operations and monitor the tiger adapting to its new environment. THE BEAUTY SPOT From The Miami Herald: Florida Rejects Another $1 Million Grant Using as ammunition a Florida judge's ruling this week that the federal healthcare law is unconstitutional, state officials are wasting no time stepping away from the controversial overhaul. Their latest move: rejecting a $1 million federal grant awarded to the Agency for Health Care Administration to plan a system required by the law where consumers can comparison shop for health plans. It's the second federal healthcare reform grant rejected by Florida. Previously, Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty returned a $1 million grant that would have provided a resource for consumers to monitor insurance-rate changes and how premiums are spent. <http://nodraftnoway.org/organizer.shtml>. Or contact <http://nodraftnoway.org/ndnwcomments.shtml > for information and help to organize a local campaign. national movement against military recruiting and the draft. Way chapter. Millions of East Africans Need Food and Water - Donate Now http://ga0.org/ct/c7qqd3s1UzpB/ desperately needed by the affected regions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania, where the lives and livelihoods of millions of people are threatened. Help Oxfam step up its relief efforts in East Africa - click here to make a secure online donation now. http://ga0.org/ct/c7qqd3s1UzpB/ |
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