Fossil Fuels Are the Bottled Water of Energy
Written on 08/31 at 08:09 PM by Andy Posner
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I wrote this article for the Huffington Post. It can be seen in its original context here.
We already know the numerous reasons why bottled water is bad, including the energy and water it takes to manufacture, ship and discard the product, as well as the fact that tap water must meet more stringent water quality standards. But here’s the interesting thing: fossil fuels are essentially bottled energy. And just as the green alternative to bottled water is tap water, the logical alternative to fossil fuels is renewable energy. Why? Well, here are just a few reasons (hint: both depend on current flows and are locally available):
1) Like bottled water, fossil fuels are mined from countries around the world, processed, shipped and then, finally, consumed. This process is wasteful and contributes to environmental degradation, to be sure, but perhaps the greatest downside of a global energy supply chain is that it makes for unstable geopolitics. This may sound like an argument against globalization, but it is nothing of the kind; rather, it is an argument against the globalization of energy. Think about it this way: Thomas Friedman has argued that no two countries that have a McDonalds--that is, two countries that have opened themselves up to global markets--will go to war with one another, because they stand to lose more than they gain. That theory more or less holds up as long as we are talking about consumer products, fast food chains, and the like, but it falls apart when we start talking about natural resources. Simply put, energy and water are not Barbie dolls and McDonalds; nations cannot do without them, and therefore the countries rich in fossil fuels hold too much sway on the global stage.
Meet My New Folding Bike!
Written on 08/31 at 06:29 PM by Andy Posner
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I am now the proud owner of a Bike Friday folding bicycle. The name of the particular model is the Pocket Rocket, and it is a beautiful, fire-engine red bicycle that rides like a regular road bike but folds down small enough to fit into a suit case that can be checked in at the airport. I got this bike because in order to meet my goal of riding my bike at least an hour a day for 10 years, I will have to have a bike that I can take with me when I travel by bus, train and airplane. Of course, I recently upgraded both my race bike and my mountain bike, but the fact of the matter is that when it comes to cycling, few are more obsessed and in love with the sport than I! It is rare in life to find an activity that guarantees health, fitness and happiness, and for me cycling is just such an activity! So far I have ridden 10 days in a row, and I feel absolutely fantastic. Read more about the bike (and see more photos!) after the fold.
A Historic Moment
Written on 08/29 at 02:32 PM by Andy Posner
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An Electric Moment
Last night a football stadium was packed to the gills, not with football fans cheering on their home team, but rather with people from all walks of life who endured long lines and heat in order to listen to a politician deliver a speech. It was a speech given 45 years to the day after Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech that, symbolically and literally, opened the way for a black man to accept the nomination for president of the United States. It was a speech given to cheering crowds and extraordinarily high expectations. It was given to a nation that has gone decades without an inspirational leader. It was a speech given during an inflexion point in history, when the world is facing new global challenges and new global opportunities, and the very strength of America’s place in the world depends on the direction we choose to take; will we once again be a nation that does not torture, that does not invade sovereign nations, that leads by example? Will we be innovators? Will we rebuild our infrastructure, provide health care to all, protect social security and educate our children?
Something Amazing is Stirring
So it was that Obama stood up before the crowd and, looking calm, confident and collected, gave a speech that at times soared into the clouds and at times swept along the earth. He gave a speech that moved to poetry and then, in a smooth change in tone and cadence, became an explanation of policy positions. He gave a speech that attacked his opponent without disrespecting his opponent. He gave a speech that moved commentators--myself included--to soaring commentary. And finally, he gave a speech that will resonate in history not because of any one line or phrase, but because of the context and the moment. We will look back on this night when we are older and proudly say, “I remember that.” We will think back on where our country was headed and realize that something amazing was stirring all along.
I Am Now A LEED Accredited Professional!
Written on 08/25 at 03:25 PM by Andy Posner
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Passing the LEED Exam
Last Thursday I took--and passed!--the LEED accreditation exam. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and it is a performance-based rating system for green buildings established by the U.S Green Building Council. It has come to be accepted as the benchmark for green building, and covers all aspects of a building, from materials, to energy, water and building operation. Becoming a LEED accredited professional (LEED AP) allows you to be a consultant on a LEED project, and it is also something you can put after your name to improve your credibility.
How LEED works
I studied for about a month to pass the exam, which consists of 80 questions covering all aspects of the rating system. The way LEED works is that the points are broken down into 5 topic areas: Sustainable Sites; Energy & Atmosphere; Water Efficiency; Materials and Resources; and Indoor Air Quality. A final category rewards efforts that don’t fall under the other topic areas. Within each category, points are awarded for achieving environmental performance. For instance, 1-10 points can be earned in the Energy & Atmosphere, depending on the energy-efficiency of the building. Each category has pre-requisites that must be earned, and depending on how many points the project is awarded a building can be rated anywhere from LEED certified to LEED platinum. (Learn more about how LEED works here)
The Garmin 705: Making Cycling Even More Efficient and Fun
Written on 08/25 at 02:07 PM by Andy Posner
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I wrote this article for Treehugger. It can be seen in its original context here
The Garmin 705 Mounted to my Touring Bike
GPS Units Are Useful
Affordable GPS units are tremendously useful, enabling scientists to track global warming, drivers to save fuel, indigenous groups to document environmental destruction, and so on. GPS is also used for fun and recreation; for instance, geo-caching is a popular “high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world” that gets people outdoors, and for several years Garmin has sold GPS units for bicycles that display speed, distance covered, etc.
Combining the Fun and Functionality of GPS
All this is great, but what if we could combined the usefulness of GPS technology along with the fun? Well, I recently purchased a Garmin Edge 705, which does just that. The 705 has all the features of a standard GPS bicycle computer (speed, distance), but it also provides turn-by-turn directions and maps anywhere in North America. Bicycles are already the most efficient form of transportation, but getting lost on a bicycle (especially at night) is not only tiring and frustrating, but can potentially be dangerous. So I was especially excited about putting the 705 on my bike and testing things out.
Dealing With The Variability of Renewable Energy Forces Us To be Smart
Written on 08/24 at 08:24 PM by Andy Posner
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I wrote this article for the Huffington Post. It can be seen in its original context here
The thing about fossil fuels is that they enable utilities, planners and policy-makers to, in effect, be dumb. Because fossil fuel is essentially stored solar energy, the fuel can simply be pulled out of the ground, transported to a large power plant and burned. No attention needs to be paid to wind speeds, cloud cover or tides. Of course, we know that the entire supply chain of conventional energy--from extraction, to processing, to transportation and on to burning the fossil fuel--lead to social, political and environmental degradation, the costs of which are getting higher and higher.
Moving to renewable energy sources helps mitigate those costs, yet it also forces societies to be smart about energy. To put it simply, that’s because renewable energy sources are variable, and different regions can posses vastly different renewable resources. This variability can be a problem for utilities, because they need to constantly supply enough power to meet demand. According to a recent study by the Rocky Mountain Insitute (RMI), “In the past, utilities believed that they had to compensate for this variability by installing more traditional, fossil-fueled power plants. The more wind or solar power on the grid, the thinking went, the greater the need for backup generating facilities to be there when the wind or sun wasn’t.”
- Meet My New Folding Bike! (Poetry & Musings)
- Green Microfinance: Advancing Social Equality and Environmental Sustainability in the United States (Ideas)
- Executive Summary of the Capital Good Fund Business Plan (Ideas)
- A Solution to the Limited Success of Micro-Credit in the United States? (Ideas)
- Photos of Some Upgrades to My Bikes! (Poetry & Musings)
Green Microfinance: Advancing Social Equality and Environmental Sustainability in the United States
Click here to download a PDF of my complete thesis. Questions and comments are much appreciated!
My masters thesis in Environmental Studies at Brown University looks at how microfinance--the provision of small…
A Solution to the Limited Success of Micro-Credit in the United States?
Micro-credit has undoubtedly been a runaway success in developing countries as a tool of both poverty alleviation and economic development. To date, some 100 million people have been reached by micro-loans, and Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank…
Tonight, the Oneness of Things
It is late and my mind should be drifting through the colorful abyss of deep sleep, yet instead i find that tonight sleep will not come. I am like a hungry flower who dreams of bees so ardently that all…