Strivin To Be Green

I’ve found a house that could be our first Strivin’ To Be Green project. It’s listed as having three bedrooms and 1 bathroom. The way the house sits on the property, the south facing front porch would be a good place to add a solar greenhouse for heat. Depending on City codes with the property line there might be enough room on the east side of the house for an additional solar greenhouse or at the very least solar heat panels.

Built in 1920, this abandoned house is in great disrepair. It needs a new furnace, a new hot water heater, and windows.. which is good because for this project we want to install efficient alternative

energy sources for heat as well as energy efficient windows. The listing also states that some of the walls need to be repaired… which is an opportunity to install insulation and any wiring that this project may need.

The house is listed for less than $10,000 and ALL OFFERS are being considered for the property. I am feeling a sense of urgency to raise enough funds to be able to make a reasonable bid on the house. So I am asking you our reader/follower to ChipIn $10 (or more) to our Home Purchase Fund. You can find a the ChipIn widget at http://www.StrivinToBeGreen.com on the left hand side of the page. There you will be able to see how much has been raised so far.

I want to thank everyone who has encouraged me with this project since I first began talking about it. I especially want to thank our Twitter followers who have joined and encouraged others to follow StrivinToBeGreen on Twitter. You are doing a tremendous job at helping others become aware of this project.

As this project develops, I will be adding interactive features to the web site allowing our supporters to give their input on the renovation project itself as well as input on which charities will benefit from this project. Plus I’ll be setting up the 24/7 live cams and begin filming the work on the house and editing into “webisodes” so you can watch our progress. But to get it all kicked off, we need a house to work on. And there is a very good candidate of a house waiting for the first buyer who makes an acceptable offer on it – let’s make it StrivinToBeGreen’s offer!

Our current Home Purchase Fund campaign runs through October 10th (10-10-10) to coincide with a project by 350.org. But because the seller is very motivated, I’m urging you to make a $10 contribution today so that I can begin making an offer of the house asap.

Once you’ve made your contribution please tell all your environmentally minded friends to do so as well. Email them the link to this post, tweet, retweet. Tell your friends on facebook. Tell your friends in person. We can do this, if we do it now and I thank you for all your interest and support in this project.

Also, get in contact with me if you are interested in helping out with this fundraiser by hosting your own fundraising event or if you have an environmental group that would be interested in helping me raise funds and getting a % of what’s raised to go toward your group let me know. For an example of what that might look like, click here. Together we can make this happen! Thank you!

As oil gushing from the BP oil spill reaches for the Gulf Stream in which it can be carried around the world, anger toward BP is also spreading. At 7:52 pm EST on May 29, 1010, thirty-nine days after the BP oil rig disaster occurred, an online movement to “Boycott BP ” reached the level of having 200,000 people on its “like” page.

A post on the group’s wall by one facebook user states, “I will never support BP or any BP brands again! The damage done to our environment is irreversible and all because of greed!”

BP Spokesperson, David Nicholas told NPR that he isn’t aware of any related impact on BP gas stations. Either Nicolas is downplaying the impact or hasn’t been informed of it. Or it may be true. Because part of the problem of a boycott against a commodity driven company such as BP is that they can sell their oil to the other oil companies in the world. So even if consumers get gas from a Shell or Mobile gas station, it may be that it originally came from a BP oil rig.

This does not deter those in the boycott whose feelings about it are reflected in the sentiments of Sandra MacDonald of Seattle WA who posted, “this is a movement that WE ARE creating to say NO to what is harmful to LIFE and say YES to changing our culture of what is killing us. “

And this growing public outcry may translate into legislation in Congress. Maggie Sky of Chicago, IL posted, “As far as preventing this from happening again that just has to boil down to no more off shore drilling.”

On April 20, an oil well blowout occurred at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The blowout caused an explosion that killed 11 platform workers – Jason Anderson, Aaron Dale Burkeen, Donald Clark, Stephen Curtis, Roy Wyatt Kemp, Karl Kleppinger, Gordon Jones, Blair Manuel, Dewey Revette, Shane Roshto, Adam Weise. The disaster also injured 115 people including 17 whose injuries were serious.

Below the rig, which sank, the well began gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Ian MacDonald, professor of oceanography at Florida State University told NPR’s Science Friday host Liane Hanson that between 40,000 and 100,000 barrels of oil are escaping from the well, per day. It is now considered to be the worst U.S. oil spill in history.

CNN reported today that BP’s latest attempt to stop the flow of oil, called the “top kill” method, has failed.

Chris Sharpe posted to the Boycott BP wall “this whole thing really hurts me on a personal level…down inside, like, I don’t know…loss…sadness…”

Anger is also spreading to the streets as a number of protests are springing up around the county. On Sunday: Jackson Square in New Orleans at 1pm, Daytona Beach, FL at 8am. Monday: Athens Ohio at a BP station on Court Street at noon, and at 8am in Whiting, IN at a BP Refinery.

BP Boycott Page on Facebook

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — In what could set the stage for a fundamental shift in commercial aviation, an MIT-led team has designed a green airplane that is estimated to use 70 percent less fuel than current planes while also reducing noise and emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx).

The design was one of two that the team, led by faculty from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, presented to NASA last month as part of a $2.1 million research contract to develop environmental and performance concepts that will help guide the agency’s aeronautics research over the next 25 years. Known as “N+3” to denote three generations beyond today’s commercial transport fleet, the research program is aimed at identifying key technologies, such as advanced airframe configurations and propulsion systems, that will enable greener airplanes to take flight around 2035.

MIT was the only university to lead one of the six U.S. teams that won contracts from NASA in October 2008. Four teams — led by MIT, Boeing, GE Aviation and Northrop Grumman, respectively — studied concepts for subsonic (slower than the speed of sound) commercial planes, while teams led by Boeing and Lockheed-Martin studied concepts for supersonic (faster than the speed of sound) commercial aircraft. Led by AeroAstro faculty and students, including principal investigator Ed Greitzer, the H. Nelson Slater Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the MIT team members include Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation and Pratt & Whitney.

Their objective was to develop concepts for, and evaluate the potential of, quieter subsonic commercial planes that would burn 70 percent less fuel and emit 75 percent less NOx than today’s commercial planes. NASA also wanted an aircraft that could take off from shorter runways.

Designing an airplane that could meet NASA’s aggressive criteria while accounting for the changes in air travel in 2035 — when air traffic is expected to double — would require “a radical change,” according to Greitzer. Although automobiles have undergone extensive design changes over the last half-century, “aircraft silhouettes have basically remained the same over the past 50 years,” he said, describing the traditional, easily recognizable “tube-and-wing” structure of an aircraft’s wings and fuselage.

The MIT team met NASA’s challenge by developing two designs: the 180-passenger D “double bubble” series to replace the Boeing 737 class aircraft, currently used for domestic flights, and the 350 passenger H “hybrid wing body” series to replace the 777 class aircraft now used for international flights.

The engineers conceived of the D series by reconfiguring the tube-and-wing structure. Instead of using a single fuselage cylinder, they used two partial cylinders placed side by side to create a wider structure whose cross-section resembles two soap bubbles joined together. They also moved the engines from the usual wing-mounted locations to the rear of the fuselage. Unlike the engines on most transport aircraft that take in the high-speed, undisturbed air flow, the D-series engines take in slower moving air that is present in the wake of the fuselage. Known as the Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI), this technique allows the engines to use less fuel for the same amount of thrust, although the design has several practical drawbacks, such as creating more engine stress.

According to Mark Drela, the Terry L. Kohler Professor of Fluid Dynamics and lead designer of the D series, the design mitigates some of the drawbacks of the BLI technique by traveling about 10 percent slower than a 737. To further reduce the drag and amount of fuel that the plane burns, the D series features longer, skinnier wings and a smaller tail. Independently, each tweak might not amount to much, but the “little 5-percent changes add up to one big change,” Drela said. Although the plane would travel slightly slower than a 737, he said that some of this time could be recovered because the plane’s wider size should allow for quicker loading and unloading.

Not only does the D series meet NASA’s long-term fuel burn, emissions reduction and runway length objectives, but it could also offer large benefits in the near future because the MIT team designed two versions: a higher technology version with 70 percent fuel-burn reduction, and a version that could be built with conventional aluminum and current jet technology that would burn 50 percent less fuel and might be more attractive as a lower risk, near-term alternative.

Carl Burleson, the director of the Federal Aviation Agency’s Office of Environment and Energy, said that in addition to its “really good environmental performance,” the D series is impressive because its bubble design is similar enough to the tube-and-wing structure of current planes that it should be easier to integrate into airport infrastructure than more radical designs. “You have to think about how an airport structure can support it,” he said. “ For some other designs, you could have to fundamentally reshape the gates at airports because the planes are configured so differently.”

Although the H series utilizes much of the same technology as the D series, including BLI, a larger design is needed for this plane to carry more passengers over longer distances. The MIT team designed a triangular-shaped hybrid wing body aircraft that blends a wider fuselage with the wings for improved aerodyamics. The large center body creates a forward lift that eliminates the need for a tail to balance the aircraft.

The large structure also allows engineers to explore different propulsion architectures for the plane, such as a distributed system of multiple smaller engines. Although the H series meets NASA’s emissions-reduction and runway-length goals, the researchers said they will continue to improve the design to meet more of NASA’s objectives.

The MIT team expects to hear from NASA within the next several months about whether it has been selected for the second phase of the program, which will provide additional funds to one or two of the subsonic teams in 2011 to research and develop the technologies identified during the first phase.

The current federal limit on liability claims is $75 million. The White House has asked Congress to increase that limit. A number of Democrats have introduced legislation to increase the limit to $10 billion. Complete story at:
NPR

Undoubtedly, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico needs to be a wake up call for Americans to get off our addiction to oil for energy.

Presently, the news reports that 200,000 gallons of crude oil are spewing into the ocean daily. The first attempt failed and it could take months to plug it up. In the meantime – birds, marine wildlife, the fishing industry, and the tourism industry suffer. There are no borders in the ocean, so as this leak continues many more will be threatened by this catastrophe.

It didn’t have to happen. The Exxon spill gave us a wake up call, and all we heard from big oil and pitbulls with lipstick was “drill baby drill”. The Exxon spill didn’t even have to happen, except that Reagan repealed Carter’s attempts to put our nation on a more sustainable future.

And so we are here now with an opportunity. Obama faces this opportunity as well, the question is, will he step up to seize the moment of this crisis and make changes for a sustainable energy future in America?

We must move forward, NOW!

There is a bi-partisan (Liberman/Graham) bill that proposes to shift us toward greater energy efficiency. Besides automotive use of oil, I also think that those homes that are heated with oil in the Northeastern states could convert to geothermal and other resources given incentives such as tax credits (the kind Carter had in place that was actually doing some good). There is some talk about establishing clean energy tax credits and incentives for homeowners who make their homes more energy efficient.

The time for talk is over. Congress and the President must take action to move us forward on a long term path that will end out dependence on oil as an energy source.

For my applied journalism class, I’ve decided to create a video feature on the three R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle. I’d like this to become a periodic feature of the show Strivin’ To Be Green, but for now what I am creating is for learning and practice. Think of it as a pilot project.

I’d like to invite Strivin’ To Be Green community members to be a part of this project. Especially if you live in Michigan since that is where I am. I’ve already got someone in Ann Arbor scheduled for me to film/interview her recycling efforts and tentatively scheduled someone in Lansing to let me film/interview him with his reuse project of making his own bio-diesel fuel. I still need an example of what someone is doing to “reduce” their material/energy consumption. And if there is anyone who would like me to film their efforts in any or all of the three R’s please contact me.

If you live outside of Michigan and you’d like to share some video of what you are doing to reduce, recycle or reuse, feel free to contact me and we’ll figure out how you can send your videos to me to be included in the pilot project and help me get an A in my class!

So after almost everyone (except for me) went out to buy a new TV to accommodate for the digital tv signal, we are now told that there is an even better new fangled TV that we just have got to get. The 3D TV. At the Consumer Electronics Show, this technology is on display in the Samsung HDTV LED 9000. It sports a thin screen and includes a 3D processor, 240 MHz refresh rate. It is said to be more energy efficient than plasma or LCD TVs. My question is, just how environmentally responsible would it be for people to ditch their brand new digital TVs just so Hannah Montana or Chuck can leap into living rooms? Or do the makers of the digitals know something we do not about planned obsolesce?

Today I did a drive-by of a potential house for this project. The price is nice, under $10,000. However not much land on the south side of the house for a south facing sunroom which would be nice to have for heat and lifestyle. It did have a driveway, which is good. No garage, but that can be built. Every winter I am reminded of just how much I’d like to have a garage. It does come with a nice chunk of land, part of which is an old river bottom with lots of trees and not very usable for a garden.

SPONSOR NEWS
I’ve received word today from greenadvertizing.com that Strivin’ To Be Green is now officially accepted as a part of their network for our “Sustaining Sponsors” spot located on every page of the site. And I’m sure that since we are still just starting out, advertising is rock-bottom prices.

STATS: Today Strivin’ To Be Green has 41 FB fans and 60 followers. Chipins: 2 people totaling $14.22.

YOUR WIND POWER SUGGESTIONS:
Someone suggested to me that I create a list of all the possible ways to improve a home, make a list and then allow members to vote on which improvement to make next. I like that idea. So I need your help in creating that list, and I’ve decided to start by asking members to give suggestions for wind power electricity generation. Your suggestions can be commercial or home made. If they are commercial please include info about the company and a link to their web site if they have one.

In a press conference, GlobalWatt CEO Sanjeev Chitre announced that his company will bring his company to Saginaw, Michigan to build solar cell technology 600 jobs in 2010, 700 jobs in following five years. According to WNEM reporter, the combination of having a pool of ready and skilled workers, a solar manufacturing “chain” in Michigan and state tax credits, helped to convince GlobalWatt to locate in Michigan.

Monday StrivinToBeGreen.com had a technical glitch, but with me working into the wee hours of the night on it… we are back online and ready to go. I want to thank you for your patience with that and for your continued belief and support of the StrivinToBeGreen project.

We are now ready to begin the fundraising phase of this project. I’m asking you and others to ChipIn $4.22.

People who ChipIn $4.22 or more before Earth Day will be a Founding Member. What does that mean?
It means Founding Members will be helping to fund the start up costs (camera, cables, software, taxes and initial renovation projects). In other words, Founding Members will help to make this project possible.

What do Founding Members get? The knowledge that they helped make this possible. Also only Founding Members will get to nominate up to 10 environmental organizations that you want me to include on the ballot to benefit from the sale of the house. As we approach the auction date, all members will be given access to that ballot to vote one which organizations will receive the benefits and as a Founding Member you get to nominate which ones will show up on the ballot.

Once I have the Membership software set up, I’ll send you an email inviting you to activate your Founding Member account. If you decide you don’t want to activate your membership, it is the only email you will receive from me. As I develop the project I will continue to find other ways to thank Founding Members for helping me get this project started.

My goal is to have 10,000 Founding Members by Earth Day 2010. That’s about 100 Founding Members a day between now and then. It will raise enough to buy the house, get some production equipment and start some of the renovation on the house. Ten thousand is a lot of people, but I know that with your help we can find 10,000 people around the Earth who care about the Earth enough to ChipIN to make this happen.

Please, ChipIn right now, via Paypal so you know it is secure and it just takes 2 minutes.
Again, thanks in advance to you for your support!