Add some "Hope" to Copenhagen

What gives you hope?

image from hopenhagen.org

What a great website! Go here to learn about the Copenhagen Climate Talks and make your support known as a global citizen. The site features an interactive world map with a quote about hope from each person (you!) who signs the UN Climate Petition. The website is a perfect example of using the visual power of advertising to talk about addressing climate change in positive terms.

My post was inspired by this article: Convince public on climate to save planet: experts
And how do you convince the public? Well, the DOE says it has to be fun, easy, personal, local and interactive.

Home Energy Use App by Google

Hey look - Google made a sweet an app to monitor home energy use, and it's coming soon to a neighborhood near you! The Google PowerMeter will give you real-time data about your home's energy use -- so you can finally "see" how much electricity you're using and when. And it has the sleek, colorful grandma-friendly interface of Google, horray! I'm really excited about this, and waiting anxiously for them to roll this out in New England -- they're currently testing it in the UK.

image from google.org/powermeter

I'm still not convinced that complete information is actually going to lower my home energy use, even though I'm excited about all of the colorful graphs. My Discover card, for example, has a great online "spend analyzer" that I check out all of the time - it's colorful and interactive, and it makes me more aware of what I purchase, but I'd be hard pressed to say that it helps me to curb spending.

For the PowerMeter app, it would be really valuable to have a !! goal setting tool !! built in (something my credit card obviously does not have). That way you can set a goal, say using 10% less energy this year than last, and the PowerMeter can send you reminders of when your energy use is off track. (Or a cookie when you're doing a good job?) The economist in me loves easy access to more complete information, but the lazy bum in me realizes that sometimes coaching is more important than knowledge when it comes to remembering to change my habits.


So, yes, Google is taking over my life (and probably yours). But they just make it so darn convenient...and good looking.

Coal Plants -- Water Pollution with No Fines?

(Warning: this is a rant.)

AAAAAHHH! Quit polluting my beautiful state for FREE! Ack!

Power plants make HUNDREDS of EPA pollution violations and pay NO FINES? What?? I'm lucky if I can talk my way out of one speeding ticket, but 392 of them, you must be joking. See the NYT map and data here.

I try to focus on positive solutions for climate change on this blog, but today's New York Times article on water pollution from coal-fired power plants fired up the economist in me. Effluent (regulated water discharge) violations from coal-fired power plants numbered between 59 and 392 violations for the ten top violators between 2004 and 2007. Gross, but okay, it happens, people & companies mess up sometimes. (There's the Three Mile Island near-miss, the TVA fly ash boo boo, maybe the whole prime-mortgage debacle...) But none of these coal plants that are top repeat violators had to pay anything for messing up. No fines?? None? Not even a little "oops, sorry my drunk college son keeps puking on your front steps, we're sending him over to clean it up and mow your yard." No three strikes you're out? Not even a symbolic 25 cents in the swear-jar?

It is not reasonable for plants that break federal regulations to pay the same amount as the plants that play by the rules. How, HOW, can a company be considered an advantage for the economy if 1) it dumps more pollution into my community than it pays for, 2) doesn't clean it up, 3) and doesn't pay for someone else to clean it up? If one of those three things is happening, the company is either not making enough profit, or is poorly managed. If you're not making enough profit, or you're too poorly managed to play by the rules (ie. regulations), GET OUT OF THE GAME! Go invest your capital in something that is legal. There are rules to capitalism and democracy (this is not anarchy kids), and if you're not willing to play by those rules, then you're not a capitalist, you're just stealing.

The New York Times downloaded this data in May 2009 — E.P.A. records may reflect updates since that date. The E.P.A. acknowledges known problems with its database. Only facilities with active permits are shown; those that have closed or had permits terminated prior to May 5, 2009 are not included. Additional explanations and supplementary data.