Theta -- Green Christmas

Sorry Elvis, it looks like it’s going to be a green Christmas this year.

According to All Headline News, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree featured energy-efficient bulbs and a solar panel for the time this year.

About 30,000 multicolored LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, were used to light the tree instead of the usual incandescent bulbs. The energy-saving bulbs is expected to reduce consumption from 3,510 kilowatt hours to 1,297 kilowatt hours per day, a savings that is equivalent to what a family would use in a month in a 2,000-square-foot home.

The article reported that a solar energy roof was installed pm 45 Rockefeller Plaza to power the lights. The roof is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2,000,000 pounds over its 30-year lifespan.

The Miami Herald reported that the big ball that drops on New Year’s in New York will also be energy efficient.

According to an article in the Daily Mining Gazette, the use of LED lights Christmas are also being used at home.

A relatively new option for holiday decorators, LED lights use less energy to operate than traditional incandescent bulbs. For instance, one 7-watt incandescent bulb consumes the same amount of electricity as 140 LED bulbs (the equivalent of two 24-foot strings).

Upper Peninsula Power Company Communications Manager Janet Wolfe said, “The new low-energy light strings are becoming popular with holiday decorations because they cost less to decorate.”

The article stated that decorating with LED mini bulbs can save the homeowner a significant amount of money – over $300 in savings if decorating a 100-foot building outline.

Gazette.com reported that residents in the Kensington and Bethesda area of Maryland are buying LED Christmas lights as much as they are buying regular incandescent lights.

Manager of Hardware City John Wood said People prefer LEDs because they’ve got a better burn to them.

Residents have also said they use less energy and are cooler to the touch then traditional bulbs.

‘‘LED lights have become much more popular, and much more widely available, which is important,” she said. ‘‘What people like is that the bulb itself does not grow warm. So if there are children in the house, it is a safety precaution.”

The article reported that the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints Festival of Lights now uses 350,000 energy-efficient lights in its 450,000 display and have noted a difference in cost.

My father offered to buy me LED Christmas Lights for my new house this year. My roommate Robbie said Christmas lights in general were “tacky.” Whether or not they are actually “tacky,” switching to energy-efficient lights might not be such a bad idea this year.

Eta -- Global Warming

It’s 80 degrees in the middle of November in Huntsville, Texas, but global warming isn’t about to unleash hell on us -- at least that's what The Australian thinks.

According to a recent article, British chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson had an interesting view on global warming while addressing the New Zealand Business Roundtable:

“The more one examines the current global warming orthodoxy, the more it resembles a Da Vinci code of environmentalism. It is a great story and phenomenal bestseller. It contains a grain of truth and a mountain of nonsense. And that nonsense could be very damaging indeed.”

Lawson also seemed to think that being “warmer but richer” was better than being “colder but poorer,” as he examined living standards in areas projected to be most affected by global warming.

Al Gore’s wallet may have a problem with these perspectives.

The Wall Street Journal posted an article about his contributions to the global warming business today. The article stated:

If Mr. Gore can develop marked-based solutions to environmental challenges, we will cheer the well-deserved riches flowing his way. On the other hand, if he monetizes his Nobel Peace Prize by securing permanent government subsidies for nonmarket science projects, he’ll have earned a different judgment.

It seems that alternative energy projects are becoming more popular and increasingly financed. The National Venture Capital Association reported that “clean tech” drew in more than $800 million in capital last quarter.

With all this potential for green technology, “Mr. Gore seems to grasp the scale of the challenge.”

Gore may be in luck.

AFP published an article yesterday about the impact of so-called global warming on New Zealand glaciers. The lead read:

New Zealand’s largest glaciers are retreating fast in the face of global warming and could disappear altogether, scientists said Monday. A report by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said the volume of ice in New Zealand’s Southern Alps had shrunk almost 11 percent in the past 30 years.

According to the article, 90 percent of the loss was because of rising temperatures. NIWA’s principal scientist Jim Salinger said:

“The 12 big glaciers with these pro-glacial lakes have passed a tipping point. It is not yet clear whether the glaciers will disappear completely with future warming, but they are set to shrink further as they adjust to today’s climate.”

Nigel Lawson should probably pay more attention.

Al Gore and New Zealand are not the only entities worried about global warming, however. With the U.S. Presidential elections only a year away, candidates are making their views on global warming known in hopes of increased support.

Senator Hillary Clinton fielded a question about climate change from a curious sixth-grader recently. A New York Times Politics Blog got the scoop.

CNN claimed in an articleyesterday that despite candidates’ attempts at making global warming an issue, it is falling short of officially becoming part of the presidential campaign.

“It doesn’t fit very well into the ‘horse race’ coverage,” Grist.org writer David Roberts said. “There’s not really a hook with one candidate jabbing another or one candidate making a gaffe. The press wants conflict, like an anti-war protestor confronting Senator Clinton at the global warming forum.”

Roberts said the only way global warming would become a campaign issue is if “John Edwards hair caught on fire or something as a result of global warming.”

“Then we wood get it,” he said.

The issue of global warming is unique and difficult to generalize. It will be interesting to follow coverage of global warming, especially in the context of the Presidential elections.

And I would pay money to see John Edward’s hair catch on fire.

Zeta -- "e-waste"

Americans seem to have caught on to the whole recycling thing, but there is a whole other realm to sustainability that they have to discover – correctly disposing of electronic waste, or “e-waste.”

The “Environmental News Service” published an article Tuesday about this practice.

According to Kate Krebs, executive director of the National Recycling Coalition, "Every day in the United States, an estimated 133,000 computers are discarded and not recycled or reused, which causes mounting trash and toxicity in landfills,"

The article states that a new survey shows that only 23 percent of Americans recycle e-waste. It also claims it is getting easier to do so.

Staples, a store similar to Office Depot in the North, became the first national retailer to begin an in-store recycling program for e-waste.

Mark Buckley, vice president of environmental affairs at Staples, told the “Environmental News Service”:

"Between 2000 and 2007, an estimated 500 million computers became obsolete in the U.S. Providing options for technology recycling is an important way that Staples makes it easy to make a difference for the environment."

The article also states that Office Depot has recognized the e-waste problem. On America Recycles Day yesterday, Office Depot announced its decision to focus on providing approximately 3,500 green products services.

The Xerox Corporation has also jumped on the bandwagon.

According to the article, the Xerox Corporation made the announcement last week to decrease electronic waste from landfills.

"’If that amount of waste were loaded into garbage trucks, it would fill more than 160,000 trucks, stretching more than 1,000 miles, from Seattle to the Mexican border,’ said Patricia Calkins, Xerox vice president, Environment, Health and Safety.”

“The Capital Times” published an article yesterday adding to the coverage of e-waste.

The article focused on the recycling of e-waste on a local scale.

According to the article, Madison, Wisconsin, hosts an “electronics recycling roundup,” which allows citizens to bring their old computers, stereos and televisions for recycling to various drop-offs around the city.

City Recycling Coordinator George Dreckmann said, "The time has come to change the way we collect computers and electronics.”

Dreckmann said the event helps to reduce the amount of computers and electronic components ending up in landfills.

Interesting enough, it costs money to participate in the event – a $5 fee. (There is a $25 fee for televisions.)

Ironically, the “Associated Press” ran a story unassociated with the “The Capital Times” article that offers a unique perspective on charging for the collection of e-waste.

The lead read:

“A national recycling coalition says television manufacturers need to make it easier for American consumers to safely dispose of aging TVs, which can seep lead and other hazardous chemicals into the soil around dumps, often in China, Nigeria and other countries.”

In the article, Robin Schneider, vice chair of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition and executive director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment, contents that programs that charge simply “don’t work.”

The article states that Sony Corporation is trying to make it easier on the public by providing drop-off locations for electronics recycling at no cost.

America isn’t the only country with an e-waste issue.

The Guardian Unlimited seems to think Europe can do more to recycle electronic waste.

“’There is a lot of room for improvement even though Europe is often seen as a good example,’ said Ruediger Kuehr, manager of a study led by the U.N. University for the European Commission on how to salvage electronic and electric waste.”

The article states that the European Union could do more to solve this problem. It could raise collection rates for appliance, as well as improve the collection of smaller objects.

Aside from the fact that yesterday was America Recycles Day, and most of the media in the country probably published something related to recycling, I do believe the issue of “e-waste” has preserved its place in the media for some time.

The very computer you are reading this from will have to be recycled at some point. Now that the media has taken this environmental issue on board, hopefully it will end up in the right place.


Look. Here are six ways to cut your carbon footprint. (Recycling electronics is number 5.)


*Note: For some reason, the Sony Corporation recycling program page would not open, so I decided against linking to the dead page and opting for linking to the press release. I would have liked to link to the recycling program page, but I want people to have access to at least some information. The press release will have to suffice until I fix it.

The third video doesn't work and the fourth video offers information about electronic recycling at the end of the segment.

Epsilon -- Green Design

The Wall Street Journal published an article Thursday exemplifying a trend in green design news coverage. The article outlines three new nationwide certifications for newly built homes consistent with environmental standards.

According to the article, The National Association of Home Builders is a trade group responsible for 80% of the country’s news homes each year. The organization contends that other environmentally friendly certification processes are too “impractical,” so it is developing a new certification project next month.

The article also discusses the Energy Star program – which also certifies environmentally conscious homes. The program boasts an 18% increase in efficiency, compared with homes built in 2004.

The article said,

“The rush to focus on green homebuilding comes as the residential real-estate market continues to struggle. Builders are eager to jump on the green marketing bandwagon as a way to differentiate their products.”

The last certification mentioned in the article – the Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program – seems to be making it in the news a lot lately.

According to the article,

”the LEED rating system is ‘the nationally accepted benchmark’ for green building.”

Michelle Moore, the Green Building Council’s vice president for policy and public affairs, argues against The National Association of Home Builder’s view that the certification process is too impractical.

“In any marketplace, there’s inevitably going to be people who do the minimum that they can and call themselves green,” she said.

The article comes to an end by further discussing the certification processes.

Upon further research, I found a number of additional articles that report on the LEED program.

An Environmental News Service published an article recently titled “Green Home Building Blossoms in Chicago.” The article basically summarizes the program and reports on how the LEED program is advancing in Chicago.

According to the article:

“There were more than 1.8 million new single-family construction starts in 2006, but McGraw-Hill SmartMarket reports that only two percent of American houses are built green…At least 335 houses have earned LEED certification since the pilot program began in August 2005, and 8,000 more are in the pipeline.”

The article also said that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is making green design options easier to generate by making the tools and materials easier to come by.

The “Chicago Green Homes” program is one of the ways Daley is looking to do this.

“Each of us can make a difference in the health of our families and the health of the planet by the choices we make every day. The Green initiatives we are unveiling today can help each of us make choices that protect the earth, our families – and our homes,” Daley said.

The Wall Street Journal and Environmental News Services are not the only ones reporting on the LEED program.

Acccording to the Houston Chronicle, Kohl’s stores are now jumping on the sustainable design bandwagon, and they are using the LEED program to do it.

The article said:

"Kohl's Corp. plans to make all its newly built stores environmentally friendly through measures such as using sustainable materials and cutting down on energy costs, starting with stores open next fall."

A recent survey from the 2007 Autodesk/AIA Green Index also illustrates a rise in the trend of green design coverage.

The survey measures how the American Institute of Architects uses green design.

The article said:

“The index shows that green building has taken a firm hold on the industry and has captured the attention of both architects and their clients. The 2007 Autodesk/AIA Green Index survey reports 70% of architects say client demand is the leading driver of green building and that the primary reason these owners and developers are demanding greener buildings is for reduced operating costs.”

As the world becomes wearier of “global warming” and other environmental issues, I project that even more news sources will start reporting on sustainability – especially green design.


Note: I added a list of videos at the top of the right frame. These videos will change weekly in order to allow further enlightenment. Not all videos will be completely revelant (do to a design flaw of Blogger). Click on the video to view it -- it will open at the top of the main frame).

Delta -- California Wildfires

News of the California wildfires had America up in flames this week.

Spreading like the actual wildfires themselves, reports of the fires increased dramatically until finding their stagnant, smoldering resting places in various international media.

American media such as “USA Today” and “Forbes” of course found room in their pages and online editions for coverage of the wildfires.

Upon examination of these media, however, I found that most of the reporting focused on how the fires impacted the people, insurance companies, the economies of the affected communities and the cause of the fire.

Few mainstream media touched on the environmental impact. In fact, international media covered more of the environmental aspect than their American counterparts.

An article from the prominent national medium USA Today on Oct. 24 focuses on the development of the area before the fires hit.

According to the article,

“more than 55,000 people have moved to the neighborhoods touched by this week’s fires.”

Very briefly does this article mention the environmental impact of these fires. Even various environmental organizations seem to be more interested in economic and business affairs.

Head of the Endangered Habitats League Dan Silver said there was push to stop development of high-risk areas before the fire.

“There aren’t any lessons here we shouldn’t have learned already,” Silver said.

There is no mention of any “endangered habitats.”

An article from Forbes refers to the California wildfires as an environmental issue briefly. It, too, focuses more on the human and economic aspects.

Like other articles on the fires, the Forbes piece focuses more on how the economy will be affected.

This is one of the only statements in the article that specifically addresses the environment, even though it mentions the area before the fires and not the aftermath:

“Many parts of the state, including Los Angeles, have experience record low rainfalls and record-high temperatures this year, leaving vast swathes of countryside at the mercy of fires.”

Surprisingly, BBC News – a foreign news medium – featured more on the environment than American media.

BBC took a different spin on the California wildfires by allowing readers to actually post their experiences on the site in an Oct. 23 edition.

Many of the contributors mention the

“atmosphere of smoke, as and poisonous toxins hanging over the city.”

At least BBC lets readers bring up environmental questions, such as air quality.

From the mainstream coverage of the California wildfires that I examined, I feel that American media do not see the environment or environmental issues as a priority for the public at this time.

As the California wildfires continue to burn, I believe that the public will just have to wait to hear news of any environmental effects.

Gamma -- Setting Up A Reference Point

My MCM 465 professor -- Marc Edge Ph.D. -- referred me to an article from Straight.com entitled “Trust us, we’re the media.” The article basically focuses on the issue of misinformation in news media, especially in the realm of environmental reporting.

The writer, Mitchell Anderson, said that North American newspapers have a habit of reporting false information regarding environmental issues to the public, and that:

“such journalistic mischief clouds public debate."

I decided to write about this article first, even though it focuses on Canadian newspapers, because I believe it necessary to set up a point of reference for American media. If we understand how other countries are handling the issue of global warming and other environmental issues, then we will understand the significance of how our media covers these issues.

I also like this article because it brings up the issue of whether the information American media does distribute is first, worthy of being mentioned, and second, factual.

The article discusses in detail how many Canadian news outlets disseminate information about global warming that is either inaccurate or fictional.

For example, Anderson wrote that the Calgary Sun reported that:

“global warming temperatures have declined since 1998 in direct contradiction to computer models on which the Kyoto Accord is based.”

Anderson said this statement is incorrect and questions why it doesn’t have any scientific basis.

”Strange,” he said.

Because it brings up the fact that not all information released to the public is true, I believe this excerpt will help me look at the coverage of environmental issues from American media more objectively.

For the rest of my blog, I will focus on American media -- referring to Canada and other countries as reference points for my research.

Beta -- Links

I added a list of specific environmental blogs to the right. I chose these links because the specific topic I chose to blog about -- how national media cover environmental issues -- is not common and I doubt there is just one blog that deals with this topic. However, I am sure that individual environmental blogs must reference a national medium at least once in its content. Therefore, I will search individual blogs and find information about my blogging topic.