Diane Rehm interviews founder of National Resources Defense Council

James Gustave Speth appeared on The Diane Rehm Show, Thursday March 27th. He is the dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University and co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
 
Mr. Speth and Mrs. Rehm discuss environmental issues, State policies and the way things are. From the interview link: “A leading environmentalist explains how American-style consumer capitalism harms the planet and what must be done to save the earth for future generations.”
 
Listen to the interview or read the transcript here.
 
His recently published book on these subjects is entitled “The Bridge at the Edge of the World” (Yale Univ. Press) (Amazon.com).

Record Efficiency Solar Inverter Could Mean 30% Cheaper Solar

You read that right. Nevermind attempts to improve the solar panels in a photovoltaic power generation setup – this new inverter could mean 30% cheaper solar. Amazing what’s possible when scientists stop to focus some time on the little things often lost in development of complex, cutting-edge technologies.

(This advancement impacts any sort of electrical array where an inverter is used, but I gear this post toward photovoltaics because in my opinion they’re currently by far the best option for alternative energy production. I lost the love for wind turbines when I learned they kill thousands of bats a year. Which warrants a separate post…)

A new inverter developed by engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute achieved an efficiency rating of 98.5 percent. The more efficient the inverter, the less energy is lost in the conversion.

“Fraunhofer researchers succeeded in reducing the power dissipation of conventional inverters by 30 to 50 percent when compared with results obtained with traditional silicon-based transistors.”

So, while increasing the efficiency of the photovoltaic material itself is probably the more exciting direction for improving efficiency, inverters that lose less of the energy as it is usefully delivered are also a development that will help.

(Source: EcoGeek)

Detox Your Home

PlanetGreen.com has a new room-by-room feature detailing how to replace toxic products with more healthy alternatives, and reduce environmentally hazardous materials and practices.

It’s called Detox Your Home and it includes short videos with Sarah Snow, who has two terrific shows on the Discovery Networks:  Get Fresh and Living Fresh.

(More home health links here:  http://del.icio.us/bobodod/home+health and more home related videos here:  http://del.icio.us/bobodod/home+video)

The United Plant Savers

A blurb promoting the United Plant Savers non-profit organization was on a flap of the verbosely printed box of Golden Ginger tea I recently finished. These folks are doing a wonderful thing. Their mission is to “…preserve, conserve and restore native medicinal plants and their habitats in the U.S. and Canada.” Check out their site for media, articles and links to sources. Very cool.

Dig in del.icio.us for more native plants links: http://del.icio.us/tag/native+plants

(OT: I very highly recommend Traditional Medicinals’ ginger teas, esp. Ginger Aid. Get em at your locally owned health food store or websites such as VitaCost.com which I found through Google’s Product Search.)