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Friday Green Numbers round-up for March 25th 2011

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Green Numbers

And here is a round-up of this week’s Green numbers…

  1. Infographic of the Day: Do Americans Pay Too Little for Gas?

    Even with prices at the pump hovering around $3.50, that’s a fraction of the prices in other rich countries

    Every year without fail, as the days get longer and warmer, gas prices begin to shoot up. Throw in intense turmoil in the Middle East, and the annual price skyrocket and accompanying fretting began even earlier this year. But while gas prices have risen to more than $3 a gallon in the United States, remember that gas here is still cheaper than many places–especially developed nations–around the world.

    This infographic from Flowing Data shows where–according to gas price tables on Wikipedia–people are paying more… read on

  2. China battery plant poisons more than 100 villagers

    Lead emissions from a battery plant in eastern China have poisoned more than 100 villagers, including 35 children, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday, the latest in a string of heavy metal pollution cases in the country.

    A total of 139 villagers in a village near Taizhou city in coastal Zhejiang province have been found to have elevated lead levels in their blood, Xinhua cited the provincial health department as saying in a statement.

    Three of the adults had lead in their blood more than… read on

  3. Philips AmbientLED 12.5 Watts LED Lightbulb (Product Review)

    The Philips AmbientLED 12.5-watt A19 LED lightbulb (quite a name!) is probably the favorite LED bulb that I’ve tried so far. It beats the competition when it comes to light output (800 lumens vs. 450-590 lumens for the other LEDs that I’ve tried), the design of the bulb is very innovative, and light quality is excellent.

    Read on for my full review and more technical specs on the Philips AmbientLED…. read on

  4. Obama administration announces massive coal mining expansion

    Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced yesterday an enormous expansion in coal mining that threatens to increase U.S. climate pollution by an amount equivalent to more than half of what the United States currently emits in a year. A statement from Wild Earth Guardians, Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife put the announcement in perspective:

    When burned, the coal threatens to release more than 3.9 billion tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, equal to the annual emissions from 300 coal-fired power plants, further cementing the United States as a leading contributor to…. read on

  5. The triumph of coal marketing

    Do you have an opinion about nuclear power? About the relative safety of one form of power over another? How did you come to this opinion?

    For every person killed by nuclear power generation, 4,000 die due to coal, adjusted for the same amount of power produced… read on

  6. King Crabs Invade Antarctica for First Time in 40 Million Years

    King crabs haven’t historically caroused in Antarctic waters — it’s simply been too cold for the famed crustaceans. But warming waters have allowed crusading crabs to march further south than they have in millions of years. Which is bad news for the diverse sea life currently thriving in the underwater habitats around the Antarctic peninsula: Seeing as how they’ve been living in a crab-less environment for 40 million years, scientists now fear that Antarctic animals like brittle sea stars, mussels, and sponges will be sitting ducks for the marauding king crabs… read on

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Friday Green Numbers round-up for Feb 18th 2011

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Green Numbers

And here is a round-up of this week’s Green numbers…

  1. How La Poste Saves $7 Million a Year In IT Energy Costs

    France’s La Poste manages 180,000 PCs that sat mostly idle, yet still used as much electricity as if they were fully engaged in a difficult computing problem.

    “The AVOB solution does what other solutions do by automatically putting the PC into low energy mode when inactive after a specified amount of time,” Charpentier explained. “That saved La Poste 50 percent on average. What AVOB does differently is to also automatically adapt power consumption of the PC depending on the task to save an additional 10 to 20 percent on the …

  2. Joule on Pace to Produce Solar Fuels at Productivities Far Exceeding Those of All Known Biofuel Processes

    Joule Unlimited, pioneer of Liquid Fuel from the Sun?, today supported the high-productivity potential of its production process with the publication of a detailed analysis and model of its breakthrough solar-to-fuels platform.

    Published by Photosynthesis Research, the peer-reviewed article examines Joule?s critical advances in solar capture and conversion, direct product synthesis and continuous product secretion, which collectively form a platform for renewable fuel and chemical production with yields up to 50X greater than the maximum potential of any process requiring biomass. In addition, the analysis counters prior assumptions about …

  3. Waste Management Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2010 Earnings

    Waste Management, announced financial results for its fourth quarter and for the year ended December 31, 2010. Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2010 were $3.19 billion compared with $3.01 billion for the same 2009 period. Net income for the quarter was $281 million, or $0.59 per diluted share, compared with $315 million, or $0.64 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2009. The Company noted several items that impacted results in the 2010 and 2009 fourth quarters. Excluding these items, net income would have been $287 million, or $0.60 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared with $257 million, or $0.52 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2009, an increase in earnings per diluted share of over 15%.

    For the full year 2010, the Company reported revenues of $12.52 billion compared with $11.79 billion for 2009. Earnings per diluted share were $1.98 for the full year 2010 compared with …

  4. Exxon, Shell Both Essentially Admit Peak Oil Is Upon Us – Or Will Be Soon

    Two today on peak oil and how the big oil companies are finally publicly (if quietly) coming around to what peak oil researchers have been saying for a while: It’s here, or will be shortly.

    First, Wall Street Journal highlights how ExxonMobil is having a hard time finding new oil and has had a hard time for a while now. For the past 10 years for every 100 barrels it’s extracted it’s only been able to find 95 more. Natural gas exploration on the other hand has been very successful–enter, fracking.

    Second, Raw Story sums up a report by Shell that at best …

  5. Climate change doubled likelihood of devastating UK floods of 2000

    Researchers have for the first time quantified the part climate change played in increasing the risk of a severe flood

    Global warming made the floods that devastated England and Wales in the autumn of 2000, costing ?3.5bn, between two and three times more likely to happen, new research has found. This is the first time scientists have quantified the role of human-induced climate change in increasing the risk of a serious flood and represents a major development in climate science.

    “It shows climate change is acting here and now to load the dice towards more extreme weather,” said Myles Allen of Oxford University, who led the work, which he started after his own home was…

  6. Florida governor slams brakes on high-speed rail – rejects $2.4 billion in government funds

    Florida’s Tea Party-backed Governor Rick Scott on Wednesday rejected $2.4 billion in government funds to build a high-speed passenger rail line, prompting a sharp rebuke from Washington as political tensions grew over the federal budget deficit.

    At a news conference in the state capital, Scott strongly criticized President Barack Obama’s budget proposal for 2012 unveiled on Monday and said federal grants earmarked for Florida to begin work on a high-speed rail link between Tampa and Orlando would be turned down.

  7. Soaking Up the Sun to Squeeze Bills to Zero – Zero-Net Energy office building in Colorado

    The west-facing windows by Jim Duffield?s desk started automatically tinting blue at 2:50 p.m. on a recent Friday as the midwinter sun settled low over the Rocky Mountain foothills.

    Around his plant-strewn work cubicle, low whirring air sounds emanated from speakers in the floor, meant to mimic the whoosh of conventional heating and air-conditioning systems, neither of which his 222,000-square-foot office building has, or needs, even here at 5,300 feet elevation. The generic white noise of pretend ductwork is purely for background and workplace psychology ? managers found that workers needed something more than silence.

    Meanwhile, the photovoltaic roof array was…

  8. Soladigm Closes $40M for Its First Smart Window Factory

    Windows that can be tinted on demand could be a promising way to cut energy costs, but technology to control the amount of light and heat that pass through windows isn?t common. Soladigm hopes to change that and has just lined up an additional $10 million in equity financing to bring a Series C round to a total of $40 million, the company said Tuesday.

    Soladigm plans to use some of the money for its first factory, which will cost about $130 million, be located in Mississippi, and be set to start shipping its electrochromic windows in the first quarter of …

  9. Would you buy a $40 light bulb?

    Maybe you should.

    This week, Philips Lighting said that its AmbientLED 12.5 watt bulb ? which, just to confuse you, is also sold under the Philips EnduraLED brand ? has qualified for a EPA?s Energy Star rating. That means that it?s an efficient and, quite possibly cost-effective alternative to the 60-watt bulb, even with a $39.97 list price at Home Depot.

    Here?s how the math works, at least according to Philips …

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