Green Cool Hip

Will President Obama bring solar panels back to the whitehouse?

We may not all remember but President Jimmy Carter was a visionary in advocating alternative energy by bringing solar panel to the white house back in 1979.  President Reagan did the [now] unthinkable and removed them.

While President Obama clearly and ludly supports the green movement, we have yet to hear of his energy savings plan for the white house.  Sungevity which leases home solar systems is offering to install a solar system at the White House for no more than zero cent.

In pushing the envelope even further, Sungevity is also offering to lease the entire system to the government of the people for the low price of $537.  Assuming my math is correct and using the estimated population of 307,006,550 U.S. residents, that’s $6,444 annually or about $.000021 per U.S. resident per year.

Ronald Reagan may have lacked judgment in ordering the solar panels removed, but Obama can start leading by example in the fight against global warming.

Sungevity has already taken the first step with its offer and writing to the President and First Lady [see letter here] and started the Globama initiative.

Let’s bring solar energy back to the White House.  Let’s lend our support by signing the petition.

Worried that you may not have lived a green life or that your decomposing body, and coffin materials sipping in the ground may be more bad treatment that the planet deserves. Well, worry no more.

After a lifetime of trashing the planet or taking of it, one can now satisfy his desire to remain green in the afterlife thanks to alkaline hydrolysis also referred to as resomation.

Alkaline hydrolysis not only reduces carbon dioxide emissions by about 90%, it also uses less energy than conventional cremation. The water-based process can rapidly reduce the human body to ashes.

Although safer to the environment – no mercury is spewed into the atmosphere – this process does not come without its share of controversy. For example, the Catholic Church strongly opposes the process, stating this is not a respectful way to dispose of corpses. However, Christiannity, Judaism and Islam in the past have all been strongly opposed to cremation though it has now become accepted in many of these circles.

However, with a third of Americans and half of the Canadian population now opting for cremation, and more green-conscious citizens, resomation is poised to enjoy some noticeable success.

But let’s not start trashing the planet yet just because we can be green in the afterlife.

The last two months have been particular busy trying to complete year-end projects, and as a result has taken my focus off the site. In addition, I recently got involved (from a technical standpoint) with the Rebuild Haiti effort now underway, following the recent earthquake which has devastated this beautiful island.

But 2010 is here and GreenCoolHip wants you to go out and see two of the best green movies of 2009 if you have not already done so.

If I were asked to choose one movie last year that would be captivating and open our eyes to how we treat our planet and its living organism, it would be impossible. However, I could manage to round up two.

Food Inc., the documentary film by Robert Kenner, takes a hard look at how farm animals are raised in the United States and reveals the shocking truth about how we grow and harvest our crops. In our culture of more, bigger, faster and not necessarily better, we have traded quality and long term health concerns and let corporations put profits ahead of our safety and our environment. I bring up Food Inc. as a must-see movie because we all need to ask ourselves the following question. How can we take care of our planet if we don’t take care of ourselves?

Which brings us to our second choice, Avatar. After his 1997 blockbuster hit, Titanic featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, James Cameron waited 12 years before releasing his next movie, which almost instantly became a hit grossing over 1 billion dollars in a short period of time much like Titanic.

In Avatar, Cameron depicts a future where earth, after being trashed and having all its natural resources exhausted by its abusive inhabitants cannot longer sustain life. So we do what we do best and set out to exploit another people on another planet, except that we did not expect them to resist and fight back.

I will not delve too much into the movie as it’s excellent and I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who have yet to see it.

There will certainly be some great movies in 2010 urging us to think about the environmental impact of our actions. But for now, go out and see Avatar in theaters, or if you would rather stay home, grab a copy of Food Inc.

Enjoy!

We have previously heard about a coffee shop in the Netherlands that generates electricity through its revolving door and a Tokyo train station generating electricity through special flooring tiles installed in front of ticket turnstiles. In every case it is accomplished by converting kinetic energy into electricity.

Now, a Burger King in Hillside NJ is applying the same concept to produce electricity as vehicles go through its drive-thru.

With America being so dependent on imported fuel to power its industries, finding new creative ways to generate electrical power has become a necessity.

WATCH the video below.

The US House of Representatives has just passed a bill that will make 150 million dollars available over the next five years for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles and the infrastructure to support them.   This is a good step towards reducing smog considering that the United States only account for less than 2% of the total number of these vehicles in the world.

However, setting up this infrastructure across the country will require more than 150 million dollars.  Converting the majority of  local public transportation fleet and government vehicles is where this initiative will have the most impact.

Though still a fossil fuel, natural gas is however cleaner than diesel and gasoline, and reduces CO2 emissions.

Over the past few years, European farmers have been raising animals and growing crops on their farms while feeding electricity to their local power grid.  Animals and crops share the field with solar panels which provide an additional source of revenue for the farmers.

Although it enjoys less sun than other parts of the world, Germany has gone as far to pass a law that guarantees a minimum price for each kilowatt of electricity.  One farmer claims annual revenue over half a million dollars from the sale of its electricty.  Now the fever is catching among farmers in France where one farmer plans to produce enough electricity from its photovoltaic installation to power as much as 4,000 residences.  French Secretary of Environment and Energy, Jean-Louis Borloo was quoted as saying “France’s ambition is to play a leading role in the technological revolution which is about to happen in solar power”.  To prove it, the French government has taken steps similar to Germany to guarantee a minimun tariff for the sale of electricity.

With the United States enjoying more sun than these countries and the price of electricity steadily rising along that of fossil fuel, I suspect it won’t be long before U.S. farmers start looking to the sun for additional revenue.

Gas powered vehicles are wonderful, for there are many gas stations and filling our tanks only takes a few minutes.  It does not matter if one lives in an apartment building and has to park on the streets or a house in the suburbs with a garage, filling up is a very easy and simple task.  You are certain to find a gas station nearby.

Can we claim the same convenience for a plug-in hybrid or a plug-in electric vehicle?

Currently, the answer is no.  But a fast growing company known as BetterPlace promises change as it aims to bring battery recharging and swapping stations to communities around the world.

Now, imagine being able to travel from state to state in an electric vehicle and not having to worry about when its battery will run out of charge.  With BetterPlace software installed in your car, you will be bale to locate near proximity battery servicing stations, where you can either recharge your battery or swap it in about six minutes for a fully charged one.  Assuming this ambitious goal comes to fruition, once these stations reach our cities, owing an electric vehicle will no longer seem only suitable for those who live in the suburbs.

Image Wired Magazine

So, Can BetterPlace really make the world a better place?

With partnerships and development efforts in Israel, Denmark, Australia, Japan, Canada and the United States, and already emerging as a leader in bringing standards to the EV market, BetterPlace will surely contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions on our planet.

That’s pretty cool Green technology.

Shall we say Planet BetterPlace anyone?