A Cleaner Way In Turning Sea Water To Drinking Water

Dr. David Kreamer's vision is to return old ships to the seas where they belong. Together with a new purpose, he wished to see these ships produce drinking water from sea water using desalination facilities installed aboard.

Having a PHD in hydrology, Kreamer's goal is to produce potable drinking water for areas in the world scarce of water supply. He has addressed the issue of contaminating the seashore and nearby habitats by land-based factories using the desalination process. He claims that if these are mobile ships producing water then they could evenly spread out the extra salt content all over the ocean to minimize the effect. Also, he adds that being a mobile ship, one major advantage is that it can automatically moved to different locations making sure to avoid catastrophic typhoons and the like. He also wants to use renewable energy to run these ships, suggestions are wind and solar power.

For more information, click here.

Sarah Palin on the Environment

This coming November of 2008, the world will witness history in the making as democrats and republicans fight again to claim the presidency of the United States of America. Bush will no longer run this time and will allow two parties with different viewpoints clash and seek supremacy at the end of this year. But let me cut down the chase and focus on the stand of republican Governor Sarah Palin running for the vice-president position regarding the environment.

She claims that "climate change is not to be attributed as man made" during an interview with news week. Her state (Alaska) is by far the one who is affected most of it but still she insist that this is a natural phenomenon that is not solely blamable to mankind's actions. Now my position on that... BULL@#$%!

Looking at her platform on "environmental reforms", she is pro-oil drilling in the ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) because according to scientist, Alaska holds approximately 10.3 billions bbl of "recoverable undiscovered oil," which will make it the largest onshore oil deposits in the US. With her running mate Mccain who was quoted "if you want to drill, drill, drill, ANWR is where you will start" . 

ANWR is home of bears, gray wolves, sandhill cranes, and a herd of caribou. Now when you look at it in a very simplistic manner, opening up an oil-drilling center in that area will cause a domino effect in the ecology. You have to realize that in order to establish that oil-drilling activity, one must invest in transportation (thus creation of unwanted service roads), waste disposal and operation of heavy machinery that can add to the daily carbon emissions. Even though she promises to tapped only a portion (19 million acre) of the undiscovered oil, this will still make a dent in the surrounding areas. 

She is now even with Bush when it comes to environmental reforms and when you look at it, Bush even change his position today regarding climate change. He is now pro to capping the gas emissions of major companies to a minimum in order to minimize and eventually decrease the production of these gasses. 

There was even an instance that Sarah Palin sued the Federal Government for stating a fact that the polar bears are threatened species due to warming. Her act of suing is no doubt self-service since this statement can stop the policy in opening the ANWR for oil-drilling. 

Even though she claims that this will help the Americans solve the energy problem, most economist claim that this action can only cause a minimal change in the long-run. There is no guarantee that pushing for the onshore drilling will cause a rising effect in their economy.

To know more about her position for the environment, click here.

As for me, I say NO to Sarah Palin!

8 Ways to Practice Product Stewardship

Product Stewardship is the process of evaluating the life cycle of the products we buy and use. It involves how they are made, how they arrive at stores, how you use them and what happens to them when you no longer need them. As a consumer, it is our right and obligation to know these things because this will not only help the quality of products being manufactured but also helps in improving the manufacturing process for a greener earth. Here are 8 ways to ensure that you are being a good product steward.

1. Stay Informed  - wherever you are, as a consumer you are being bombarded with different marketing campaigns telling you how "green" their product is or how their product qualifies for an "environmentally-safe" insignia just to sell their goods. We also have to understand that there are different levels of being "green" to keep in mind. While a carbon offset is a nice gesture by the company to think of the environment, a change in manufacturing to remove harmful chemicals is probably more meaningful in the long run. Companies play a huge role in product stewardship but without the proper endorsement of informed consumers, these means nothing.
2. Extra Spending Won't Hurt You - price is a huge factor when you are shopping, but keep in mind that product stewardship costs everyone money. Companies spend more to manufacture eco-friendly products so if you can afford the extra cost, the environment (and the future generations) will thank you. 
3. Locate Your Products  - imported cheese from France may taste great, but what is the cost for the environment when it is shipped to you. Consumer products list where it comes from on the package, so take a look the next time you buy a product. An eco-friendly solution is to shop at a farmer's market at least once in a while. This will not only lessen the toll on the environment but also supports the local economy.
4. Check the Ingredients - with all the fad diets today, almost everybody is checking the nutritional panel at the back cover to check for carbohydrates and trans fats. Why not do this for other consumer goods. The next time you buy a product, check for it's composition. One thing to look out here are the products that contain lead and mercury which are chemicals that can wreak havoc to the environment. 
5. Reduce Your Packaging - when was the last time you bought something not wrapped in paper or plastic? To be more eco-friendly, try using a reusable canvas bag when you shop at the groceries or try buying in large quantities the products that you normally use to lessen the packaging being thrown into landfills. This will also help the companies to change their packaging cost to a minimum to be more environmentally friendly.
6. Recycle - do I need to say more? :)
7. Take Advantage of Take Backs - a lot of companies today, specially electronic goods (like laptops, mobile phones, pda's, etc) offers a free service of taking back the used battery or any part that can be recycled so that consumers need not to worry about disposing this hazardous parts. Some even offer monetary compensation for old parts.
8. Close the Loop  - the recycle symbol has two purposes: first is to tell you how the recycling process is done and the second is what is being made of that recycling procedure. The recycled content will then be sold again to maximize profit and at the same time helping the environment. Buying recycled is how you close the loop; otherwise it becomes less important that it was recycled in the first place.]

So what are you waiting for? Start being a productive and efficient Product Steward today!!!!