Cali And Panama Conference Targets Renewable Energy

Posted on June 12, 2012 by QuestPoint

The 9th annual Global California Conference will be held at the San Jose City Hall this year on June 22nd. The topic is Panama and the Canal Expansion and its impact on California job creation. One of the presentations is about great renewable energy projects and investment opportunities in the West Coast of the U.S., Panama, Latin America, the Caribbean and the World: Massive Opportunity: Impact Capital for Renewable Energy Projects.

“Panama is poised is poised to become a key player in trade between Latin America and North America as well as Asia. Its geographic location favors a number of possibilities for players and surrounding countries” says panel guest, Rodney Alves of Alves & Associates.
“Panama’s strategic location is a major global shipping and logistics hub. The massive infrastructure improvements underway, including additional Ports and the Panama Canal Expansion, enhance the importance of the U.S.‐Panama Free Trade Agreement”, states Alvaro Cabal Lachman, President of USPAW.

Notable dignitaries from Panama as well as California will be participating in the conference, such as, former Ambassador to Panama in Washington D.C, Juan Sosa, who is now the President of USPA, U.S., will be giving the ‘keynote’ speech. The conference is produced by TradePort, the Monterey Bay International Trade Association in partnership with the United States ‐ Panama Business Council West.

Nutiva Moving To San Francisco Bay Area

Will Solar Energy Generation Silence EV Critics ?

Posted on June 11, 2012 by QuestPoint

Hybrid and electric vehicles are neither clean nor green according to a new environmental book, Green Illusions (June 2012, University of Nebraska Press), written by University of California – Berkeley visiting scholar Ozzie Zehner. Green Illusions exposes numerous hidden side effects of new hybrid and electric cars, such as the Tesla, Leaf, Fisker Karma, and Prius. The analysis considers mining impacts, toxins, energy use, suburban sprawl and carbon footprints of production. From an environmental perspective, Zehner argues that hybrids and electric cars are no better than gasoline vehicles, a conclusion backed by a National Academy of Sciences report.

“Shifting from gasoline to electric vehicles is like switching a smoking habit from cloves to menthols,” asserts Zehner. “It isn’t acceptable for doctors to promote menthol cigarettes — should environmentally minded people promote alternative fuel cars?” In a California radio interview yesterday, Zehner pointed out that the higher cost of electric cars reflects the greater quantities of fossil fuels used to build them. He argued that electric cars do not eliminate the negative side effects of vehicular travel. They merely shift the problems elsewhere. Most electric vehicle studies compare traditional gasoline fuel to electric car charging, which relies primarily on coal, natural gas and nuclear power. However, fueling activities represent only a portion of a car’s total environmental impact. Zehner points out that the larger impact comes from manufacturing the car. The added copper, aluminum, rare earth metals and other materials necessary for electric car production offset any benefit achieved during the entire charging lifecycle.

Even if mining companies clean up their operations and engineers increase battery storage capacity there is still a bigger problem looming on the horizon, argues Zehner. “Alternative-fuel vehicles stand to define and spread patterns of ‘sustainable living’ that cannot be easily sustained without cars. Suburban infrastructure maintenance and road construction induce ecological consequences beyond the side effects of the vehicle itself.”Instead of subsidizing electric cars, Zehner advocates for lawmakers to support smarter urban design policies that focus on walking, bicycling and public transit.

Viking River Cruises Organic And Solar

D’Angelo Plays Eco Arts Bonnaroo Music Festival

Posted on June 10, 2012 by QuestPoint

Rock the Earth, a national not-for-profit environmental organization that partners with the music industry, just held the largest music festival in the United States – the 11th Annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., June 7-10. Rock the Earth held a series of artist interviews and performances live on Bonnaroo’s Planet Roo Solar Stage, as well as a series of environmental films at the festival. To coincide with its environmental programming, together Rock the Earth and Bonnaroo held a cell phone recycling campaign that rewarded participants who recycled their old and unused mobile phones with free goodies and entry into the daily drawing for prizes.

Moderated by Rock the Earth’s founder and Executive Director, Marc Ross, the theme of this year’s performances and discussions on the Planet Roo Solar Stage were on “Social Change Through Music.” Attendees learned what inspires musicians to be activists, and explored the synergies between the artists that create music and music’s interconnectedness to the environment and world.

From Manchester, Tennessee the Newsfeed Resecher reported, “D’Angelo is back. The reclusive R&B singer made his first live U.S. appearance in 12 years at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival early Sunday morning, surprising a few thousand fans during Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Superjam session. “I’ve been waiting 12 years to say this ladies and gentlemen, D’Angelo!,” Thompson said as the crowd roared. It was his first U.S. show since 2000 and a prelude to an appearance at July’s Essence Music Festival and a European tour with many of the same players who backed him Sunday morning. D’Angelo played live in Europe earlier this year.”

GE Opens Electric And Hybrid Vehicle Innovation Center

NYC, IBM And CUNY Creating Solar Energy Venture

Posted on June 9, 2012 by QuestPoint

IBM is helping New York City (NYC) become a global leader in urban solar energy market analysis and sustainability through an innovative agreement with CUNY Ventures, a City University of New York (CUNY) Economic Development Corporation entity. The goal of this effort is to nourish solar adoption by developing the capability to analyze and understand key solar market indicators that can make solar system development more cost competitive. Using IBM’s Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) for Smarter Cities as the backbone, this analytics-based approach will help New York City monitor and analyze solar production and capacity through a virtual control room that will provide a dashboard view of key indicators.

The collaboration is part of ‘Solar Market Analytics, Roadmapping, and Tracking NY’ (SMART NY), a groundbreaking project supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) ‘Rooftop Solar Challenge’, part of the DOE SunShot Initiative which is striving to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade.

With IBM’s IOC software, CUNY Ventures will access and analyze data from the NYC Solar Portal, an inter-agency permitting and tracking solution developed by Procemx; data systems in solar empowerment zones; and the NYC Solar Map, putting in place a long-term solution designed to drive down the costs of solar deployment. Initially, five state and city entities will utilize the solar market analytics: the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the NYC Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, Consolidated Edison, the NYC Department of Buildings and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Full Article: IBM Smarter Cities Technology Helps NYC Envision Solar Energy Leadership through CUNY Ventures

Green News Wall

Dartmouth Students On Vehicle For Change

Posted on June 8, 2012 by QuestPoint

For the second consecutive year, Caesars Entertainment Corporation is sponsoring Dartmouth College‘s Big Green Bus tour across America. The converted Greyhound bus, operated by students, will run on recycled waste vegetable oil (WVO) as it travels the country educating individuals on best sustainability practices.The 11-week, 12,000-mile journey will take the 13 students across 24 states and will make refueling stops at Caesars resorts including Harrah’s Cherokee Casino (June 26), Harrah’s Tunica Casino (July 1), Harrah’s New Orleans Casino (July 3), Harrah’s Phoenix Ak-Chin Casino (July 14), Flamingo Las Vegas (July 19), Harrah’s Lake Tahoe Casino (July 24), Harrah’s North Kansas City Casino (August 30) and Thistledown Racetrack (September 3).

Caesars Entertainment’s Big Green Bus gold national sponsorship will enable this “classroom on wheels” to increase awareness about the importance of sustainable practices and incorporating conservation at home.The bus will provide educational opportunities at each stop through stations including a tour of the bus, an interactive map telling stories of sustainability across the country, a demonstration of how individuals can build and shop for environmentally friendly products, a discussion about the energy cost of food, personal waste reduction and a stationary bicycle that powers a generator to light multiple energy efficient bulbs.

“This year, we are proud to increase our support of The Big Green Bus and its mission to educate communities around the country on climate change and environmental responsibility,” said Gwen Migita, Vice President of Sustainability & Community Affairs for Caesars Entertainment. “Caesars is committed to support the classroom on wheels while engaging thousands of employees and the community in seven regions around the country.” Code Green seeks to make both positive environmental and social impacts while reducing water, energy and waste consumption at each of its more than 50 properties worldwide.

Russian Researchers On Global Energy Adventure

Kenya Using Ecotourism To Save Lions

Posted on June 6, 2012 by QuestPoint

The ongoing struggle for lions to exist against the twin threats of poaching and a diminishing habitation has been brought to international attention through two films – The Last Lions and African Cats. The Last Lions is a National Geographic production which addresses the sobering statistic that there are roughly only 20,000 lions left in the wild in Africa. To put this into perspective, 50 years ago the numbers were close to 500,000, so today’s figure of 20,000 represents a horrifying drop in numbers of approximately 96% – the main cause of the decline in numbers being due to poaching activity. Filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert are passionate on the subject and set out a very strong case to have lions protected by governmental and international accords in the same way that other endangered species such as the elephant are protected. The couple cite the fact that the eco-tourism industry benefits to the tune of billions of pounds each year which should bring with it the moral and financial imperative to protect the animals that tourists want and expect to see.

The Disney nature production African Cats is a sympathetic portrayal of the difficulties facing lions and other big cats and serves to raise awareness of the subject to a wider audience – especially among children (the film carries a U certificate). Both films underline the necessity and the urgency of the work currently being carried out at the Porini Camps in Kenya. Porini safari camps are at the spearhead of the conservation of wildlife. Interaction with local communities is crucial to their success. Porini lease farmland from the Maasai tribes in Kenya and allow the vegetation to recover from over grazing and farming and to become restored as part of the lions’ wider natural habitat. It’s a business model that benefits all parties. The Maasai are employed as wardens and guides as an alternative to farming: Porini safaris benefit from their wealth of local knowledge and tracking skills and the wildlife benefits as poaching is no longer financially attractive because the average wage earned at the camp is 5 times the national average.

Restoring land to its natural state is just part of the conservation work Porini is committed to. Visitors to the camps wanting to contribute to the safeguarding of the area and its wildlife for the future have the unique opportunity of some hands on conservation work.