Maryland Environmental News: October 2008
Maryland is one of the most diverse states in terms of its geography as it has almost every type of topography you can think it. Ranging from the mountainous areas in the west that are part of the Appalachian to low marshlands on the Chesapeake bay. You can never stop finding new and different places to go in Maryland and still be amazed at how beautiful the environment is. That probably sounds pretty biased, probably because I have lived in Maryland for my entire life. There are many environmental issues present in Maryland and I just wanted to share a few of those with you.
Chesapeake Bay Pollution Reduction
Waterman from both Maryland and Virginia along with the Chesapeake Bay foundation are threatening to sue the EPA if they do not take action to reduce the amount of pollution in the bay. The Chesapeake Bay is America’s largest estuaries and has a wide variety of sea creatures including Maryland’s famous blue crabs. The EPA has failed to enforce the Clean Water Act, leaving the bay to continually worsen. The biggest problem is when Dead Zones occur that reduce the amount of oxygen in the bay. This can be deadly to many of the creatures in the bay including the blue crabs, fish and oysters. Not only does it put many fisherman out of work, but it also puts the many species in the bay at risk. The Chesapeake Bay foundation is angry that the EPA continues to push the pollution problems in the bay to the background. That’s why they have gone down the legal route to force the EPA to meet its goal of eliminating much of the pollution in the bay by 2015, outlined in the Clean Water Act.
Environmental Groups Cracking Down on Mercury
Three groups: the Environmental Integrity Project, Clean Water Action and the Waterkeeper Alliance are arguing that the Carroll County cement plant and a Western Maryland paper mill are contaminating local waters with mercury. They are two of the top five contributors to mercury contamination the state and unlike the other three, have no laws requiring them to clean up. Combined, the two contribute to almost 40% of the entire state’s mercury emissions. This is horrendous considering that mercury is extremely dangerous to the environment as well as our health. The paper mill did install $30 million worth of pollution control equipment late last year, but the results are not yet in on how this may curtailed their mercury contamination. The cement plant has yet to take action and only will do so if federal regulations are put into place.
Save and Go Green: Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
Compact Fluorescent Lamps, commonly referred to Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs or CFL bulbs, have become a popular alternative to traditional incandescent light bulbs. They not only provide you with a energy savings but they can provide a whiter light than incandescent lamps. This does not mean that they are perfect though as they cost more to buy and contains slight amounts of mercury.
Incandescent
Incandescent lamps are traditional bulbs that people have been using for years. It was what originally was perfected by Thomas Edison back in the late 1800’s. The details as how it works are pretty in depth, but the key to why so many people are switching from using these types of bulbs is that they produce more heat that light. Wikipedia sums it up nicely by saying:
Approximately 90% of the power consumed by an incandescent light bulb is emitted as heat, rather than as visible light.
This means that much of the electricity provided to a light bulb is to produce heat instead of the actual light, making them more inefficient. GE is currently in the process of developing an incandescent that they hope will be 4 times as efficient its traditional counterparts.
Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
What are they and How Do They Work?
Compact fluorescent lamp or CFL have been around for nearly an entire century, but have only been perfected and widely distributed since the 1980’s. CFLs work through a process by which an electric component called a ballast causes a gas filled tube ( or a bulb in this situation ) or emit ultraviolet light. This then causes a coating inside of the tube to be excited and emit visible light.
This process allows for the light bulbs to last up to 15 times as long as incandescent light bulbs, but can show signs of degradation as they age. They also use as little as 1/5 of the energy causing for a dramatic savings in electricity and therefore reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emitted. You can use my Energy Calculator to determine how much it is currently costing you to have traditional light bulbs as compared to flourescent.
Are CFL Bulbs Dangerous Since They Contain Mercury?
Compact Fluorescent bulbs do contain slight amounts of mercury averages around 4.0 mg. Regardless of how little this amount is, mercury is a dangerous substance and should be treated as such. Don’t get too worried and throw out all your fluorescent bulbs just because they contain mercury. Just be cautious when handling them just as you would with any other breakable item and there should be no problems. Accidents are inevitable and if one does happen, just be sure to properly dispose of the bulb as described by the EPA. As long as you are careful handling and disposing of them, they present no danger.
Which One Should You purchase?
There are many companies that currently manufacturer fluorescent bulbs and it can be hard to determine which is best to buy in terms of efficiency and cost. Popular Mechanics published a review of many of the popular fluorescent bulbs from brands including:
The report contains a comparison of how each CFL stacks up against each other as well as against traditional incandescent in both price and wattage use. One thing to look for when determining is that it is Energy Star certified. This will guarantee that it will meet the Energy Star’s strict standards thus ensuring that it will be long lasting and truly save you money on your energy bill. To see the full report by Popular Mechanics, see The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs. There are also CFLs in an array of sizes and shapes for any room in your house.
Best Buy’s Vampire Awareness Day
Best Buy is promoting turning off electrical devices through Vampire Awareness Day on this Thursday, October 30, 2008. The idea of this day is that Vampire Power, electricity wasted while devices are turned off or in standby, can have a huge impact not only our wallets, but also the environment. Best Buy made a video about Vampire Power that really gets the point across:
Best Buy lists out some interesting statistics on their site to get the point across that not unplugging some of those energy draining devices can cost tons of money and electricity.
- It is responsible for wasting an estimated $4 billion in the U.S. annually and the Department of Energy notes that this figure could rise by 20 percent by 2010.
- The average American home has approximately 20 to 40 electronics plugged in that abuse vampire power.
- These appliances can cost you close to $1,000 in electricity costs per year at current rates (more in the future if energy costs continue to climb).
As I describe in my article about Computer Energy Saving, you can save on Vampire Energy by always unplugging your electric devices where there is no need to have them plugged in. An easy way to do this is to have these devices plugged into a power strip. This can allow you to simply switch off the power strip when you are no longer using the electronic devices. It is a really easy an effective way to eliminating any electricity waste.
You can also figure out how much electricity those electronic devices are consuming by using the P3 Kill A Watt. You can then put those figures into my Energy Calculator to determine how much electronic devices are costing you and how much you could save by unplugging them.
2008 U.S. Presidential Candidates Environmental Views
The presidential election is coming up in just less than two weeks and it’s time to decide who you want to vote for to be our next president. A major concern that I have along with many Americans have is what will the next president do to make sure that our country becomes more eco-friendly. This includes eliminating our dependency on foreign oil and moving our country towards using renewable energy sources such wind and solar energy.
I am a firm believer in giving every candidate an equal opportunity, no matter if many believe that the smaller parties have no chance of winning. While researching the environmental views of all of the candidates, I stumbled upon a site called Grist that put together a chart of the top 5 candidate’s views on certain environmental issues. The candidates shown include:
- Bob Barr
- Cynthia McKinney
- John McCain
- Ralph Nader
- Barack Obama
Grist also includes interviews with candidates that are still running for president and those that dropped out of the race. I know environmental and energy issues are not the only concern for choosing a candidate for president, but it should be a major issue you consider. Depending on which candidate actually becomes president could make a profound difference on how eco-friendly our country becomes or if it does at all.
Bond Falls Scenic Falls Photo
I found a beautiful photograph on Flickr of the Upper Bond Fall Cascade that I wanted to share. It just seems to unreal on how perfect the water looks. The photograph was done through JMP Photography LLC. Check out there site to see similar photographs.
Save and Go Green: Green Printing
A few months ago, I wrote an article about ways that you can save money and be eco-friendly when printing at home. When you want to more commercial quality printing or bulk printing, you can buy from environmentally friendly printing companies without sacrificing quality or price.
Green Printing History
Environmentally friendly printing techniques have been around for a number of years, but have only begun to really become mainstream in the last few years. Some of the main components of green printing include:
- Using recycled paper.
- Recycling any paper waste produced while printing.
- Switching to vegetable based inks that have low VOCs.
- Using new technologies such as digital printers.
Recycled Paper
Initially I thought that using recycled paper has only been used at most for 50 years in our country. After researching it a little, I realized that I was way off. There is a instance of a paper mill dating back to over 300 years ago that was using recycled linens to produce there paper. As time progressed, more and more recycled paper was being. Today, over half of our current paper use comes from recycled paper and that rate continues to grow.
Soy Based Inks
Just a decade ago, almost all of our ink used in America was produced using petroleum. In the mid to late 1980’s, the NAA or Newspaper Association of America researched many vegetable oil combinations to come up with soy oil to be used for ink. Since then, soy ink has taken off and really become popular over the past few years. What makes soy ink so great is that soybeans are much more environmentally friendly to grow that other vegetables and require little energy to actually produce the ink.
Even though soybean oil itself is edible, the ink that is made from it is not totally edible or biodegradable. This is caused by the fact that certain pigments used in traditional inks are still used in soy ink. Even though it is not 100% biodegradable, soy inks degrade much quicker than the petroleum counterparts and make it easier to remove from paper in the recycling process. Soy inks also have low levels of VOCs or volatile organic compounds that are dangerous toxic emissions. These low levels also make it much harder to use on coated types of paper like magazines and make it impossible to use in pens and personal printers.
Printing Technology
New printing technologies have also helped contribute to the green printing movement. Digital computers are much cleaner than traditional printing presses since they do not run on petroleum based products and there are no byproducts or emissions. They also do not emit harmful VOCs just like soy inks. Also, they require less space since there is less equipment needed.
Why go Green Printing?
At this point it should be pretty obvious for the reasons for printing companies to switch to new eco friendly printing technologies. New digital printing equipment combined with soy based oils and recycled paper can make a huge different for the environment. Petroleum products are eliminated from this process therefore helping eliminate any harmful emissions. This includes VOCs that can cause serious problems when inhaled by humans as well as significant damage to the ozone. Recycling is also a huge factor when it comes to eco friendly printing as it really help save trees from being cut down. A major concern with using recycled paper is the quality of the paper. As it turns out, there is no longer a quality difference in normal paper as compared to recycled.
There are many companies that have started to use these environmentally friendly printing techniques without sacrificing quality or raising there prices.
PSPrint is a printing company that is providing environmentally friendly printing along with affordable prices. Not only do they use recycled paper on many of their products, but they also recycle any paper waste that is made during the process of printing. They also use soy based inks as described above on all of their printing products. Even though they are using eco friendly printing methods, PSPrint still carries all the normal products a printing company carries. They also have printing locations on both the East coast and West coast. This eliminates shipping costs for the company to help them reduce costs and helps reduce carbon emissions. They have really good prices too and have a Low Price Guarantee. This guarantees that if you find a lower price at another company, they will match that price.
Another company that is going the green route is BizCard. They are a Green Seal certified company and only buy from certified paper mills. Most of their products use recycled paper and they recycled all of their paper waste. The company uses low VOC solvents such as soy ink. Much of their equipment is Energy Star certified. They also use digital presses, which eliminate the chemicals used in making plates.
This Week in Environmental News: October 18th
World Environmental News
Many of the European Union’s 15 original member nations are on target to meet Kyoto treaty commitments original agreement of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 8% by the year 2012. The only countries that our currently behind the others include Denmark, Italy and Spain. Just yesterday a report was released by the European Environment Agency in order to detail each countries progress on meeting the treaty. The report also included that all countries were on target to meeting their long term goal of reducing emissions 20% by 2020. It is good to see that Europe as a whole is pushing all original members to it’s original agreement to reduce emissions that harm our environment. Also in the treaty was that all it’s members be using 20% of their energy needs from renewable energy. Most of the countries are far from meeting that goal, but many countries including Britain are at work to moving their countries to use renewable sources of energy like wind and solar.
Wind Energy News
A business fund owned by Abu Dhabi’s government is buying a 20% share in London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm development. Masdar green investment fund invests in the research and development of clean renewable energy. The fund bought 40% of German’s giant energy company E.on current half share in the project. The project could have as many as 271 wind turbines offshore in the Thames Estuary of Britain. The funds provided give the project a surer footing as their have been many financial worries over the past few months. The wind farm will generate an estimated 1,000 megawatts of power, enough electricity to power around 750,000 homes. That amount of energy will boost Britain’s percentage of energy coming from renewable energy in order to meet the EU’s target of 20% by the year 2020.
