Home energy usage drops!

Good news on the energy front. Recent surveys are showing a reduction of the energy usage in the average American home. Credit more efficient lighting and appliances for the drop. Hopefully the trend continues!

Review of "$20 Gallon"

Just finished listening to the audio book version of $20 per Gallon. A good listen, with the theme of what life would be with gasoline prices at different amounts. The author starts at $4 per gallon and works his way up from that price. The book strikes a hopeful note that life will actually become better as the rising price of petroleum forces us to stop using fossil fuels.

The indexing of the lifestyle changes to the price of gasoline was a nice touch. It's something everyone can relate to. Here's a link to the book's site:
20$ per Gallon

Copenhagen Climate Change Conference -- it's time to act!

Climate change is real science. We've studied it to death under the Bush administration and it's time to act. Even Bush appointees on IPCC agreed that climate change poses a real threat to our world. Climate change will cause mass extinctions, famine, severe weather changes, and possibility even war. Want to see Indian and China duke it out over water rights? Not a pretty picture since both countries have nukes, but it could happen if the glaciers in the Himalayas melts.

A recent CNN article pointed out this very real possibility.

Put pressure on the politicians to craft a real, workable climate change agreement at the Copenhagen Conference. Go to Blog Action Day 2009 and add your voice!

More info:
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Copenhagen Climate Change Conference
NASA Global Climate Change Site

Ikea introduces solar-powered lighting ...

CleanTechnica.com posted an article on Ikea's new line of solar lighting. The Swedish furniture superstore is a leader in green furnishings and lighting and it looks like they have no intention of losing that lead. The lights range from $6.99 to $19.99 in price. Here's a link to the $19.99 worklight.

Finally bought a new LCD TV set ...

Well Sandy and I finally gave in and bought a new TV set. Regular readers of this blog probably wonder what does that have to do with the environment or astronomy, the most common blog topics?

Well, truthfully, I just wanted the Nintendo WII out of my bedroom! The good news is the new TV is Energy Star compliant. In fact, the new set only uses a .5 watt in standby mode (off)! A big improvement over older TV sets.