efficiency
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Has Obama lost environmental voters?
Al Gore's critique of Obama's failure to act on the climate crisis is further evidence of environmentalists' frustration with this administration.
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One day, we’ll water plants with our pee in public restrooms
Everyone remembers that deathless scene from Waterworld where Kevin Costner pees in a jug, filters it, drinks some, then spits the rest into a plant. (EVERYONE REMEMBERS IT, I SAID. But if you’ve been living under a rock, you can watch here -- start around 1:30.) Well, that may soon become a reality. For now, at least, we’re still not drinking processed urine -- on a societal level, anyway; what you do on your time is your own business. But one ingenious conservation junkie has come up with a urinal design that filters pee in order to water plants.
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How to stay cool for next to nothing
Central AC is for suckers. Why are you cooling every inch of your house, even the dust bunnies under the couch, when the only part that actually needs to be cooled is your body? Having endured, sans air conditioning, countless summers in locations including the deep South and the middle of the gigantic urban heat […]
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Representative Tipton: My 150 isn't even my biggest truck
Recently U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton came to Aspen to speak to his Republican supporters here. He said that he drove an F150, and that that wasn’t even his biggest truck. And then he lamented the fact that it cost $78 to fill his tank halfway. And so we should drill for more oil in the […]
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Why the next light bulb you buy will last 22 years
By 2014, it will be illegal to sell traditional incandescent light bulbs in the U.S. You've got a handful of alternatives, and one of them, the LED bulb, will last up to 22 years. And the quality of the light it produces will be every bit the equal of traditional bulbs — maybe even better. […]
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Reno 9-year-old finds simple, smart water-saving solution
Two years ago, Mason Perez, then seven, went to wash deposits of ballpark ketchup and relish off his hands and face. The water in the Reno Aces ballpark poured out the faucet so hard and fast that it hurt his hands. His mom turned down the faucet, and that's when Perez had a brilliant, simple […]
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Japanese workers wear Hawaiian shirts to save energy
To prevent rolling blackouts as a result of the failure of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant, the Japanese government is mandating that all offices set their thermostats at 82 degrees F this summer. Combined with the usual salaryman armor — a dark business suit — that sounds a little like the eighth circle of hell (the […]
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Behavioral nudges on electric bills could save three coal plants worth of emissions
Smarter electric bills make smarter consumers.Over the years, I’ve written quite a bit about social psychology, behavioral research, and how they can be used to encourage energy efficiency and conservation. I’ve also written quite a bit about Opower, a company that uses behavioral insights to help utilities communicate more effectively with their customers. (See links […]
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Visiting a house in Germany that generates more energy than it uses
During my trip to Germany last week, one of my hosts from the Böll Foundation and I took a morning commuter train up to Borgsdorf, north of Berlin, to visit an experimental passivhaus built by architect Oliver Jirka for his own family. Here’s your faithful correspondent on the scene: Digital readouts show hourly/daily/weekly output of […]