Driving green

Buying green is just the first step in reducing the environmental impacts of automobile use. Your choice of vehicle is most important, but how you drive and how well you maintain your car, van, or light truck will also make a difference.

• Avoid "jack rabbit" starts and aggressive driving. Flooring the gas pedal not only wastes gas, it leads to drastically higher pollution rates. One second of high-powered driving can produce nearly the same volume of carbon monoxide emissions as a half hour of normal driving.
• Think ahead. Try to anticipate stops and let your vehicle coast down as much as possible. Avoid the increased pollution, wasted gas, and wear on your brakes created by accelerating hard and braking hard.
• Follow the speed limit! Driving 75 mph instead of 65 mph will lower your fuel economy by about 10 percent, and can dramatically increase tailpipe pollution in many vehicles.
• When possible, plan your trips to avoid rush hour. Stop-and-go driving burns gas and increases emissions of smog-forming pollutants.
• Combine trips. Warmed-up engines and catalysts generate much less air pollution, so combining several short trips into one can make a big difference.
• Take a load off. Carrying around an extra 100 pounds reduces fuel economy by about 1 percent. Take a few moments to unload your cargo area.
• If your vehicle has it, use overdrive gear at cruising speeds. When driving a manual transmission, shift up as soon as possible. Running in a higher gear decreases the rpm and will decrease fuel use and engine wear.
• Try using the vents and opening windows to cool off before you turn on the air conditioner. Air conditioner use increases fuel consumption, increases NOx emissions in some vehicles, and involves environmentally damaging fluids.
• Unlike many older cars and trucks, modern vehicles don't need to warm up and they have automatic chokes, so you don't need to step on the gas pedal before starting the engine.

Article courtesy of Greenercars.org

 

Troops suffer long-term brain impacts from shock waves, Seattle study finds

Seattle researchers, with the aid of sophisticated scanning technology, have found long-term changes in brain functions of Iraq veterans exposed to blast shock waves.

The findings have been published online in the journal NeuroImage, amid a contentious debate among doctors about the causes of memory loss, mood swings, insomnia and other symptoms that afflict some troops shaken up in bomb blasts or other explosions.

Some researchers believe that the brain quickly heals from mild brain trauma and that lingering symptoms result from other problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder. But this study suggests these veterans suffer significant neurological damage.

"This is evidence of persistent alterations of the brain of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with repetitive blast exposure," said Elaine Peskind, a Veterans Affairs Puget Health Sound Health System psychiatrist who led a team of 11 VA and University of Washington researchers. "These changes are real and long lasting."

Peskind says the results of the brain imaging also raise concerns that some blast-exposed veterans, in their mid-to-later years, will suffer from higher rates of Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia that afflict some professional boxers and football players.

Co-author Donna Cross, of the University of Washington, who worked on the imaging with Eric Petrie and Satoshi Minoshima, recently received an award for the research from the Society of Nuclear Medicine.

Different results

The study is at odds with published findings of Charles Hoge, an influential researcher in military medicine who is convinced that thousands of U.S. military personnel have been misdiagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury.

Hoge, who works in the office of the Army's Surgeon General, says these men and women are more likely to suffer from depression or post-traumatic stress disorder that is largely unrelated to exposure to concussive blasts.

Many of these blasts result from roadside bombs that have been a weapon of choice for insurgents in both Iraq and Afghanistan. These blasts send shock waves that penetrate the skull.  more http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012110352_brain14m.html

Article courtesy of The Seattle Times by Hal Berntan

Climate change concerns warm up

The number of Americans who believe that global warming is happening – and are concerned about it – are on the rise, according to a new national survey by researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities.

Since January, public belief that global warming is happening rose four points, to 61 percent, while belief that it is caused mostly by human activities rose three points, to 50 percent. The number of Americans who worry about global warming rose three points, to 53 percent. And the number of Americans who said that the issue is personally important to them rose five points, to 63 percent.

“The stabilization and slight rebound in public opinion is occurring amid signs the economy is starting to recover, along with consumer confidence, and as memories of unusual snowstorms and scientific scandals recede,” said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. “The BP oil disaster is also reminding the public of the dark side of dependence on fossil fuels, which may be increasing support for clean energy policies.”

Earlier this year, polls showed public confidence in global warming science was eroding. See here:

The poll also shows that Americans who said President Obama and Congress should make developing sources of clean energy a high priority increased 11 points, to 71 percent, while those who said that global warming should be a high priority rose six points, to 44 percent. In a seven-point increase since January, 69 percent of Americans said that the United States should make a large or medium effort to reduce global warming even if it incurs large or moderate economic costs.

Article courtesy of The Boston Globe -Green Blog-by Beth Daley

Gore cites savings from action on climate

MANILA — Poorer countries that have borne the brunt of climate change’s effects will save, not lose, money by putting in place ways to rescue the environment, Al Gore said yesterday.

The former US vice president spoke to a forum in Manila in one of his first public engagements since he and his wife, Tipper, announced they had separated after 40 years of marriage. He would not answer audience questions about it, and reporters did not have an opportunity for interviews.

In the lecture focused on Asia, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate blamed global warming for droughts and frequent, more destructive typhoons, including those that have left millions homeless in India, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam over the last several years.

“When there are lots of them, much more frequently and they are bigger on average, how can we connect those dots?’’ he asked. “How long will it take us as a civilization to connect those dots in a way that causes us to demand that our political leaders and political systems react?’’

Gore said proposals to store carbon dioxide in the ground are expensive, and the best way to trap it is in plants. He added that China is a leader in this area, planting more trees than any other country.

Article courtesy of The Associated Press/ The Boston Globe

 

Greener Transportation for Massachusetts

Significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions is challenging for any state agency, but for the one in charge of creating and maintaining the infrastructure for driving, it’s bound to be even harder.

But now, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has promised – and is legally obligated – to reduce emissions over two million tons by 2020. Read that another way: If left unchecked, 2020 transportation emissions would increase by some 19 percent over 1990 levels. The newly announced targets, called GreenDOT, would lower emissions 7.3 percent below 1990 levels, or almost 30 percent below the unchecked prediction.

The agency is also redoubling efforts to encourage more walking, biking and public transportation riding and smart growth development.

“In the coming years, we will see the results in smarter growth, cleaner vehicles, and jobs devoted to building a lower carbon transportation system,’’ said Gov. Deval Patrick.

The agency will get the greenhouse gas reductions in part by balancing highway system expansion projects with those that reduce emissions. Examples? More public transportation projects, street design that includes lanes for bicycles and more efficient fleet vehicles.

GreenDOT was designed as an adjunct to several existing state laws and policies such as the 2009 Transportation Reform Law that created the agency; the Global Warming Solutions Act and MassDOT’s Complete Streets design approach that calls for appropriate accommodation for all types of transportation users.

“GreenDOT helps realize the Governor’s vision for transportation reform by refocusing our transportation system on combating climate change by investing in healthier transportation options and building communities that support all transportation users,’’ said MassDOT Secretary and CEO Jeffrey B. Mullan.

Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles said the GreenDOT effort will help create and maintain green jobs. Already, he said the state is home to companies that work in the arena, such as A123Systems, which manufactures batteries for hybrid buses, and ZipCar, the car sharing service.

Article courtesy of The Boston Globe-The Green Blog-Posted by Beth Daley

The mile-plus Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway of parks, gardens and plazas through downtown Boston’s most diverse neighborhoods is likely to receive more green canopy. Originally, three double ramps into and from the I-93 tunnel were to be covered by platforms holding ultramodern structures. However, due to high costs for those structures, the Greenway may instead retain its expansive city and waterfront vistas.
www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=7668

 

Article courtesy of Smart Growth Network State by STate and International News Headlines

California-Save the Bay to Redwood City Council: ''Salt Ponds Are Not Land to Be Paved"

In a continuing dispute over a 12,000-home Saltworks project, proposed by agribusiness giant Cargill and DMB Associates for 1,436 San Francisco Bay salt-pond acres in Redwood City, the proponents and critics repeated their housing-near-jobs versus restore-the-wetlands arguments at a neighborhood meeting. With nearby cities of Belmont, Atherton and Menlo Park opposing the project in formal resolutions, reports the San Mateo Daily Journal, DMB Government Affairs Director Michael Henderson insisted that San Mateo County needs the housing to accommodate the area workforce and to reduce inbound commuting and its environmental side effects.
www.smartgrowth.org/news/article.asp?art=7659

 

Article courtesy of Smart Growth Network State by State and International News Headlines