Now, let’s set this anthem as our goal for the love of our posterity.
We were the future that Woody was speaking of.
Please take the time to view this video!
… as the green future unfolds!
A Norwegian-American Woman’s Legacy To Our Green Future
Founded in 1889, the story of Foss Maritime based out of Seattle, Washington, is a quintessential example of the American Dream: Thea Foss, a young Norwegian immigrant and her husband, Andrew, turned one rowboat into what eventually became a world class fleet of tugboats. It started in Tacoma, Washington when Thea Foss bought a used rowboat, hoping to rent it out to help with the family’s finances. After painting it pristine white with green trim (nice foresight!), she sold the rowboat at a profit and used the money to buy several more boats. By 1904, the company boasted 10 launches, a shipyard, a 60-passenger oil powered boat, and a small rescue craft to help disabled vessels. (more…)
The New Era Of Zero-Emission Mobility Has Arrived
Want to hear something outstanding? After more than 115,000 Americans had gone on the Internet and registered their interest in the 2011 Nissan LEAF all electric car, last Tuesday (April 20), Nissan opened the reservation lines and in the first 65 hours 6,635 customers paid their $99 and signed up to reserve their zero emission car for a December delivery. Far exceeding the expectations of the company which hoped to have 25,000 reserved customers lined up by the car’s roll out in December. Better than 25% of their goal reached in hours instead of months. (more…)
What Have We Really Done In 41 Years
On Tuesday night April 20th, in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded.
Two days later on Thursday afternoon the blazing inferno of wreckage sank 5,000 feet to the bottom of the Gulf. 126 people were on board at the time of the explosion, 17 were injured, and on Friday rescuers suspended the search for the 11 people missing from the British Petroleum leased Transocean Ltd oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
On Friday the Coast Guard said crews were continuing efforts hoping to have it all “cleaned” up before the estimated shoreline arrival in nine days. They had recovered 181 barrels of an oil-and-water mixture by midday Friday, with ‘only’ about 200 barrels remaining within a 2-by-12-mile-long oil slick spreading through Gulf waters 40 miles offshore.
But by Saturday morning the Coast Guard reported the spill now covers a 20-by-20 mile area as remote vehicles found the rig capsized and lying on the sea floor about 1,500 feet northwest of the well. Oil shooting from the end of the pipe that had connected the rig to the well at the sea floor. Spewing out at a sickening rate of 42,000 gallons a day.
Forty-one years after an oil well blowout off the Santa Barbara, California coast gave rise to the environmental movement and the first Earth Day event, look how far we have come. An accident that is likely to be one of history’s worst in terms of human loss and environmental destruction.
Without a doubt, the major talk will be around the financial cost. So, let me ask you this, would the ‘cost’ have been this severe if the accident had been a blown out wind turbine rotor or a faulty solar panel? I think not. And neither do you.
Bless the fragile waters, wetlands and coastline of the Gulf of Mexico that are now is serious peril. Bless the families of the lost. Bless our world and her children.
For Every Sector, Little Earth Day Ideas For A Better World
For everyday people like you and I:
Celebrate Earth Day by doing simple things like checking the air pressure in your car tires. Keeping tires properly inflated can earn you another 10 cents per gallon. If everyone’s tires were properly inflated, we would be saving about 4 million gallons of gasoline every DAY. (more…)
“What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” – Henry David Thoreau
The Energy Department said a white roof can knock 10% to 20% off a building’s electric bill. To that end, it is encouraging anyone replacing or building a roof to take advantage of substantial tax credits and promoting “cool roofs,” which don’t have to be white and could include silver reflective paint or even rooftop gardens. (more…)
Norway’s Doomsday Seed Vault Hits 1/2 Million Mark
In November 2008, Forced Green posted an article on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The “Doomsday Seed Vault” lies 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the North Pole, in Norway’s remote Svalbard archipelago, quite literally an Arctic island. The vault complex is designed to withstand global warming, earthquakes and even nuclear strikes. A safeguard against wars or natural disasters wiping out food crops around the globe. A master backup to the world’s other 1,400 seed banks, in case their deposits are lost. A wise move especially in the face of such events as the war wiping out seed banks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and another bank in the Philippines was flooded in the wake of a typhoon in 2006.
Days after celebrating its second anniversary, the trust that oversees the seed collection announced on Thursday (March 11), the vault now houses half a million seed samples, making it the world’s most diverse repository of crop seeds. Since it opened for “deposits” two years ago the facility amassed at least one-third of the world’s crop seeds. Since it opened for “deposits” two years ago the facility amassed at least one-third of the world’s crop seeds (more…)
