Recently in the Sports Category
Feb 12 2010
Several stories on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:
Recent polls show public support for global warming is declining but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is denouncing warming deniers calling them “anti-science, flat-earth climate skeptics.” Brown will co-chair the United Nations High Level Advisory group on Climate Change Financing. The group aims to raise cash to halt deforestation, encourage low-carbon development and adapt to rising sea levels, extreme weather events and higher temperatures.
President Obama wants to develop a new government agency that would focus specifically on Climate Change. During his campaign, he promised the American people he would devote a good portion of his administration’s time to fighting global warming. Obama announced that in an effort to live up to that promise, he was ordering the creation of a new organization. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Service will actually be a branch of the existing NOAA but will have its own director and specific agenda.
For the next couple weeks, Olympic hopefuls will adorn their colors and put their boots into bindings in the mountains overlooking Vancouver. And they’ll be racing and jumping towards medals in mostly man-made snow. January of 2010 was the warmest January on record in Vancouver, with temperatures averaging 44.8 degrees. This is in stark contrast to recent snow storms on the east coast of the United States, which have fueled the fire for global warming skeptics. Scholars of climate science argue that neither example is proof of anything. Instead they would point to longer term trends showing a gradual warming of the whole earth over the last thirty years.
Feb 12 2010
Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:
Major league baseball spring training begins next week and the greening of the sport continues to show no letup. The Minnesota Twins are installing a giant underground storage tank the size of a freight car to harvest and recycle rainwater at their new ball park, Target Field. The Twins may save more than two million gallons of water a year. The Rain Water Recycle System will purify rainwater for human consumption as well as maintenance and irrigating the field. It was designed by Pentair, a company specializing in water systems and storage. The Twins also are seeking a LEED (Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design) certification for the new park.
Eco-minded residents of Berkeley are recycling and composting so much that the city's refuse revenues are down by $4 million, the biggest factor in a $10 million city budget deficit. Residents are switching to smaller trash bins which carry a lower collection rate. People are buying less stuff so there's less packaging and cardboard waste, and a failed business means there's no trash to collect. "Not only does the amount of garbage change with the economy, but the very nature of garbage changes," says Robert Reed, spokesman for Recology Sunset Scavenger, San Francisco's garbage company.
Car sharing memberships in North America soared by 117 percent between 2007 and 2009, according to the Frost & Sullivan research firm, and total membership is projected at 4.4 million in North America and 5.5 million in Europe by 2016. The firm estimates that each vehicle in a car sharing fleet replaced 15 personally owned vehicles in 2009 and car sharing members drove 31 percent less than when they owned a personal vehicle. This means fewer cars on the road and a reduction of more than 482,000 tons of CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, car sharing firm Zipcar Inc. has pulled the 2010 Toyota Prius hybrids from its fleet (less than 1 percent) due to the recall for a potential brake problem. Zipcar also has removed 2009 and 2010 Toyota Matrix models in a previous safety recall.
Feb 05 2010
Several stories on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:
A white roof may look like a painted masterpiece to those who want to reduce urban heat. The National Center for Atmospheric Research recently completed a study demonstrating that white roofs can be an effective method for cooling. The study’s simulations provide an idealized view of different types of cities around the world and indicate that, if every roof were entirely painted white, the urban heat island effect could be reduced by 33 percent.
According to a new report released by a leading Canadian environmental group, the city of Vancouver, which will host the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, would earn a bronze medal if fighting climate change were an Olympic sport. The report claims the event’s organizers have done a good job building energy efficient venues, but have fallen a tad short when it comes to offsetting carbon emissions surrounding the Winter Games. Environment is one of the three “official pillars” of the Olympic movement.
Just before athletes from around the world will have a chance to earn their gold, silver and bronze medals, athletes from Indianapolis and New Orleans will go after the Vince Lombardi trophy. And it is estimated that this year’s Super Bowl – which the NFL says is more environmentally responsible than in the past – will produce 310,000 pounds of carbon emissions. In addition, researchers claim the stadium in Miami will use 187,000 KW of electricity and the television sets of home viewers will consume roughly 10,004,603 KW of energy. And speaking of green, it is estimated that close to 54 million pounds of avocados will be consumed by guacamole loving fans.
Aug 21 2009
Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:
I was scanning the pre-season college football polls when some new rankings came in for a different kind of game -- the "greenest" universities. The Princeton Review test-preparation company recently issued it second "Green Rating Honor Roll" of 15 schools, including UC-Berkeley, Arizona State, Harvard, Yale, and my favorite just because of its name -- Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. Ratings cover energy use, recycling, food, buildings and so on. Other groups also grade colleges, including the Sierra Club, which rated the University of Colorado at Boulder No. 1 among "eco-enlightened" schools. Oh yes, the University of Florida Gators are No. 1 in the USA Today football poll.
Seattle voters have rejected a proposed 20-cent charge for disposable paper and plastic shopping bags, with supporters blaming economic conditions and a $1.4 million anti-fee campaign by the plastics industry. The City Council adopted a bag charge ordinance last year but opponents got enough signatures to put it on the ballot. Despite the opposition in Seattle, bag bans are expected to grow. Here in San Francisco, City Hall briefly considered a bag fee before banning non-biodegradable plastic bags in 2007 without much fuss. Stores now offer reusable paper bags, and many businesses and groceries are slapping their names and logos on cloth bags and selling them for a dollar or giving them away.
San Francisco is pedaling a little closer to a citywide bicycle sharing program. With only two bike rental locations in a city with a population of more than 800,000, the Recreation and Park Department hopes to add more rental kiosks for residents and tourists as early as January. Officials from Montreal's new Bixi (bike+taxi) share system recently visited Golden Gate Park to show off their bikes and a portable pay station powered by solar panels. Montreal launched Bixi a few months ago with 3,000 bikes and 300 stations in the city's downtown core.
Aug 07 2009
Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:
A NASCAR track in Pennsylvania - Pocono Raceway - is joining the ranks of sports venues by adding solar panels to generate three megawatts of electricity for the track. The power plant reportedly would be the world's largest for a sports facility. Renewable energy and other green features are becoming standard in new stadium construction in the U.S. and other countries.
Here in San Francisco, PG&E helped the baseball Giants install one of the first solar panel systems at a sporting site. Wind power could be next, with London erecting a wind turbine to help power the summer Olympic Games in 2012.
Old factory towns and industries are getting a new lease on business through clean energy. Pulp mills in Maine and Wisconsin are retooling to make biobutanol and biodiesel from wood waste, and a steel company in San Angelo, Texas, has taken a joint venture stake in a wind tower plant. Pueblo, Colo., an old steel town, is developing a wind turbine factory. Stirling Energy Systems plans to use automotive suppliers to make components for its solar electric machines called SunCatchers, the New York Times reports.
South Korea's LG Chem Ltd. plans to build a battery cell manufacturing plant in Michigan to support 250,000 electric vehicles, helped by $151 million in "green" economy grants from the Obama administration. Most battery manufacturing for advanced vehicles is based in Asia. LG Chem's Compact Power subsidiary is supplying lithium-ion battery cells from South Korea for GM's plug-in Chevy Volt. The company also has a battery contract for GM's planned plug-in Buick SUV. The Michigan plant is to open in 2012.
Aug 06 2009
He hops off his bike and smiles. He is no longer a victim of angry mornings spent in bumper to bumper California traffic. When Grant Cameron arrives at work these days, exercise has his blood pumping but he is feeling both relaxed and refreshed. It wasn't always this way.
In Grant's life, pedals and an electric motor have replaced talk radio and the steering wheel. He now commutes to work on a recumbent electric bike that he invented - one he calls the "EV0." The name is a nod to GM's no longer in production electric car, the EV1, produced from 1996 to 1999.
Looking to help his mindset as well as his fitness and the environment, about a year ago Grant decided he would start cycling to work. Recognizing that the greenest commute is one powered by his own body, he initially tried to tackle the 30 mile daily commute over the hilly terrain in San Diego on a mountain bike.
"That was just too tough," he told me. "I love my bike, but I'm no Lance Armstrong. I can't sustain that ride five days a week, and to be honest, I don't have the time."
So Grant spent the time he had wearing his thinking cap. He bought a comfortable recumbent bike, an electric kit, a motor, throttle, controller and a lithium iron phosphate battery (LiFePO4). The result is his EV0; an electric bike that helps with the hills and still allows him the option to pedal when he wants some exercise or more power. For the technical specs and to see the bike in action, check out this video produced by Grant's filmmaker son, Hollis.
In a car, the commute from Grant's home in San Diego County to his job at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is traffic dependent and driving one way can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. On his electric bike, the commute is consistently 50 minutes, but Grant has the option of reducing that time should he decide to push the pedals with more vigor.
When he's not inventing electric bikes, Grant studies wave patterns at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UCSD. He hopes his work will some day contribute to a smarter energy grid - one that is more reliant on things like wave power, and less reliant on carbon emitting energy sources.
Jul 27 2009
It happens all the time in music, fashion and life: What once was old again is new.
In the case of surfing, some people are dropping into the wave of environmental consciousness on their "retro" wooden boards.
Historians say the earliest surfers were riding wooden logs as far back as the sixth century. Before wetsuits, rash guards, stickers and surf wax, there was the surfer, the ocean and the board - a trifecta of harmony. Heavy wooden sleds were a mainstay until the foam revolution of the 1950's and 60's when surfers began to eat the forbidden fruit in the name of performance. Foam and glass boards were our original eco-sin. The environment has paid ever since.
When wooden boards were virtually scrapped from the surf-scene, they were most commonly replaced by lighter, polyurethane foam. That foam is first shaped and then covered with fiberglass cloth and polyester resin. These petrochemicals emit harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere. Even worse, there is no sufficient recycling program for old or broken foam surfboards. Sure, you may find some in the dorms of UC Santa Barbara or UC Santa Cruz as makeshift tiki-bars. A few serve as lawn chairs in front of surf shops But our landfills act as graveyard for the vast majority of foam boards that have no rides left to give.
In the last few years, many in the surf industry have decided to repent by looking for more sustainable materials. You can now ask your local shop about biofoam, carbon fiber, and eco-friendly epoxy. Environmentally conscious finishers are turning to oil-based resins for use in the glassing process. But a few board architects are looking back to surfing's history for the key to building a more sustainable future.
Maine based, all-wood Grain Surfboards are now being ridden from the east coast of the lower 48 to the north shore of Oahu. The boards still must be glued and glassed but are constructed of nothing but wood. Foam purists question their responsiveness, but owners of the company say the boards are more than just rideable.
"It's a mistake to think wooden boards can't be performance boards," Brad Anderson told me from his shop in Maine. "But comparing them to competitive foam boards is like comparing stock car racing to Formula One."
In California, shapers like Ryan Lovelace and Danny Hess are seen as visionaries, or possibly re-visionaries when it comes to shaping wood surfboards that rival the performance of traditional foam and glass. Both are watermen in the best sense of the word. Both use recycled surfboard foam in the innards of the board to keep the flex up and the weight down.
Lovelace and his partner at Timberline Surfboards, Raphael Wolfe, do their shaping and woodworking in and around Santa Barbara. Hess hones his craft in his hometown of San Francisco. But you can find his boards in shops from Cannon Beach, Oregon to Brooklyn, New York. While they each have their own opinion on what types of wood to use and the optimum wood-to-foam ratio, their visions align when it comes to the robust strength, stability and lessened environmental impact of wood.
Hess' website states, "Each surfboard has a lifespan far longer than a conventional surfboard because the wood does not fatigue and break down the way foam can."
Lovelace agrees. "If you take care of it, you can surf every day on a wood board for 25 - 30 years and never ding the rails or break it in half," he told me. "So while they are a bit more expensive (to make and buy), you get a far better return on your investment."
