Gallup recently found that 83 percent of Americans want more government support for clean energy. Yale and George Mason University researchers found [PDF] that 72 percent of Americans believe that global warming should be a government priority. And another Gallup poll found that three out of four Americans regularly engage in environmentally friendly behaviors.

Apparently, many Americans are aligned with the environmental movement’s goals. We just don’t align ourselves with the movement itself.

grist, 07.05.12.

Beginning with the very first Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) over a decade ago, The Do LaB team have worked hard over the years to ensure that even as our festival grows in size, we always put the environment first and foremost by implementing new ways in making the event as green as possible. Helping to make that happen is Shena Turlington, our accomplished Environmental Director, whose creative thinking and passion for our planet has played a pivotal part in why LIB has become “North America’s Greenest Festival.”

“Being green at LIB is not an add-on as it is at most festivals,” added Turlington. “At LIB it’s one of the foundations. The Do LaB is constantly putting every festival decision through the filter of, ‘Is this going to make a positive impact on the world?’.

Read the rest of our interview with Shena and learn more about what we’re doing to make 2012 our best, most green year yet.

You can also read their Green Report 2011 (PDF).

Free water initiative:

We will again be providing free water this year: purchase an LIB water bottle, or bring your own bottle. Water filters at water stations improve taste and remove any VOCs, sediments, and chlorine.

Plastic bottles will NOT be available for sale.  We also ask that you please not bring them.

 Additional Water Initiatives:

• An on site Environmental Impact Assessment report is performed to ensure our activities do not negatively impact the ground water at Irvine Lake
• Signage educates attendees of the benefits of low-flow toilets and water and shower taps
• Bathroom faucets are adjusted to low flow settings
• Greywater from showers is used to control air pollution by spraying it on the grounds dust

on-site EIA???

and fyeah! no crummy plastic water bottles.

guess who’s going to LIB? :)

only 3 weeks away!!

photo by daniel jung.

Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station: Iceland’s second largest geothermal power station

smarterplanet:

A proposed high voltage electrical cable running across the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean to tap Iceland’s surplus volcanic geothermal energy would become the world’s longest underwater electrical cable, if it goes ahead. The cable would be a significant step towards a pan-European super grid, which may one day tap renewable sources as far afield as Scandinavia, North Africa and the Middle East. It’s argued that such a grid would be able to widely transmit energy surpluses from active renewable sources, thereby alleviating the need for countries to use (or build) back-up fossil fuel power stations to cater for peaks in demand when more local renewable sources aren’t particularly productive.

If a European super grid comes to fruition, energy surpluses will be big business. So it’s hardly surprising that both Germany and the United Kingdom are jostling for position at the other end of the Icelandic cable, with Norway and the Netherlands also having been mooted as potential connectees. That would necessitate a cable at least 745 miles (1198 km) in length, making it easily the longest electrical cable in the world.

» via ars technica

via infoneer-pulse:

(via emergentfutures)

In an area renowned for clogged freeways and sprawl, the region’s sustainability challenges are immense. Riverside-San Bernadino, for example, claimed the number one spot as the nation’s most sprawling metro area in Smart Growth America’s definitive 2002 study, Measuring Sprawl and its Impact. In a separate index, the southern California area was identified by the Brookings Institution (using 2006 data) as having the nation’s highest rate of driving per person. The transportation analysis firm INRIX, which issues an annual “National Traffic Scorecard,” ranks the region as also having the nation’s worst traffic congestion, based on sophisticated measurements of travel delays. Indeed, five of the nation’s ten most congested freeway corridors, INRIX reports, are located in Southern California. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the region’s air quality is notorious. It is the worst in the country for pollution by ozone smog, which can impair breathing function, according to the American Lung Association. It is the second worst for particle pollution, which causes heart and lung disease and premature death. In addition, two southern California counties – Los Angeles and Orange – are among the nation’s 20 riskiest for developing cancer from breathing toxic air pollution, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The region is fifth worst for per capita carbon emissions from transportation (though its mild climate and resulting low residential energy demands help keep overall emissions relatively low).

atlanticcites, 12.04.12.
SCAG passes plan to remake transit identity. sfgate/AP, 04.04.12.