ryanthibodaux

The Green Options Interview: Van Jones

Ryan Thibodaux — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:41:18 +0000

Van Jones is the founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a non-profit organization working to find solutions to "America’s two biggest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction."

The Ella Baker Center's Reclaim the Future campaign focuses on ensuring that jobs and job training are available for the poor and for people of color in the emerging green economy.

I spoke with Van at his office in Oakland on May 21. He had just returned from Washington D.C. where he testified before Congress about green collar jobs.

Green Options: The scope of your work and activism is extremely broad: civil rights, political activism, juvenile justice system reform… How does environmental activism fit in?

Van Jones: From my point of view, we have a legacy in Progressive politics in the last century of being very fragmented: single issue, sub-sub-sub-issue sometimes. We've worked harder and harder and gotten farther away from each other and from any real solutions. So, it's not about the environment fitting in.

I look at the world through certain lenses: race, class, gender, power. The environment is a lens: a way I look at the world. So I see the environment in everything. I see ecological perils and solutions in everything. It's not surprising that a society that has throwaway children and throwaway neighborhoods also has throwaway species and throwaway resources and throwaway continents. It's a throwaway mentality that we have.

Weekly DIY: Make Your Own Biodiesel

Ryan Thibodaux — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 12:34:20 +0000

Photo: Utah Biodiesel SupplyEven with the retail price of biodiesel hovering close to the price of regular diesel ("dino-diesel" to us bio-enthusiasts) in many areas, a growing group of DIYers are making the fuel from scratch in their own garages and back yards.

Homebrewing biodiesel has many advantages: it usually costs well under $1 a gallon to produce, it eliminates trips to the gas station, and it makes a hell of a hobby.

I've been making biodiesel in my garage for almost two years with equipment that I built myself from instructions available for free online and with used vegetable oil that I pick up for free from a local restaurant. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Like most homebrewers, I started my bio-adventure by making small test batches of biodiesel in my kitchen.

The Green Options Interview: David Cope, CEO of Novazone

Ryan Thibodaux — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:36:10 +0000

Novazone is a Livermore, California-based company that provides clean technology solutions, most notably ozone disinfection and sanitization systems, for purification of food and water. They have about 300 customers, including Safeway, Arrowhead, CocaCola, and Proctor & Gamble, in 16 countries around the world.

Ozone is simply three oxygen molecules bonded together (O³). Because ozone is an unstable substance, Novazone's solutions create ozone on site from the oxygen in the air. When used as a food and water purifier, ozone can control and eliminate the spread of pathogens such as bacteria and mold without using chemicals or leaving any residue. Once the ozone has done it's job, it quickly reverts back to safe, breathable oxygen (O²).

In anticipation of an announcement that the company made yesterday, I spoke with Novazone's CEO David Cope in San Francisco on April 20^th.

Green Options: I think a lot of people have probably heard of ozone being used to clean and purify food and water, but the EPA says that ozone is a pollutant at ground level. What makes it safe for your applications?

David Cope: Actually, that's sort of an urban myth. If you read carefully, ozone is a proxy indicator of pollution. It itself is not pollution. When sunlight reacts with pollutants, it will create ozone as a byproduct. That [created ozone] is something that is easier to measure than sulfur dioxide, for example. So they measure ozone as a proxy indicator.

It has a very short half-life. [It breaks down into O²] literally in seconds sometimes, out in the open and depending on the temperature. So it's actually very, very misunderstood. Ozone itself is not a pollutant. But, having said that, on average it's healthy not to breathe in a bunch of extra ozone. OSHA has come in and has well-defined safety levels. For example, at 100 parts per billion in the air, you can have up to eight hours of continuous exposure. In none of our applications is there any ambient ozone.

GO: So it's also safe for workers who are handling the ozone?

DC: Ozone, like all clean technologies, as a substance is not that interesting, but it's the unique application science, the unique application of how to apply it in the right dose at the right time in a safe way, that's interesting.

As we evolve, we come up with more clever ways to use nature to solve these problems. From the cavemen burning logs for fuel, to jet fuel and gasoline, to now, "Hey, we can use corn and we can use grass clippings to make ethanol!" Ozone is one of those things. It's a unique way to use oxygen to solve a problem.

Mercedes-Benz E320 BLUETEC Wins World Green Car Honors

Ryan Thibodaux — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:20:56 +0000

Thanks to the promise that it offers of bringing an efficient diesel sedan back into the North American market, the Mercedes-Benz E320 BLUETEC was awarded the 2007 World Green Car honors last week at the New York International Auto Show.

Mercedes is billing the E320 BLUETEC as the "cleanest diesel vehicle in the world." Engineers incorporated a modular design concept which uses a series of components, such as an oxidation catalytic converter and a maintenance-free particulate filter, to "wash" emissions from the engine before anything leaves the tailpipe. Those features, combined with an advanced new approach to reducing nitrogen oxide emissions, make the BLUETEC's emissions cleaner than even a standard gasoline automobile.

X PRIZE Unveils Multi-Mullion Dollar Automotive Prize Contest

Ryan Thibodaux — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:31:21 +0000

In 1996, the X PRIZE Foundation was troubled by what it saw as 40 years of stagnation in spacecraft innovation, so they "sought to bring about a radical breakthrough in the advancement of human spaceflight." Eight years later, the foundation sparked headlines around the world when they awarded their $10 million prize to aerospace designer Burt Rutan and Microsoft's Paul Rubin for successfully launching a personal spacecraft into the earth's orbit twice in two weeks.

Now they've set their sites on spurring innovation closer to earth. We learned today from Chris Baskind at Lighter FootStep that the X PRIZE Foundation has formally announced its rules for the new Automotive X PRIZE. The multi-million dollar prize will be awarded to the teams in two categories who build cars that get at least 100 miles per gallon of gasoline (or its equivalent with other fuel types).

Tip o’ the Day - Choose the Earth: Choose ExxonMobil

Ryan Thibodaux — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 14:15:53 +0000

Many of us are doing our best to decrease our gasoline and fossil fuel consumption. While we recognize that it is an honorable personal virtue to do so, most of us also realize that it isn't very realistic, and is often more trouble than it's really worth, to incorporate over-hyped and performance-reducing alternatives into our hectic lives.

Weekly DIY: Vegan Cashew “Cheese”

Ryan Thibodaux — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 13:12:21 +0000

It Can Be Greener!For me, a big part of living green is eating a plant-based diet. My wife decided to go vegan almost 4 years ago, and after I did my fair share of whining and nay-saying, I finally joined her a few months later. We've never looked back.

Well, okay, almost never. Giving up the meat was far easier than I ever expected. Eggs? Never liked those much anyway. Milk? Soymilk made de-dairying a breeze. Even ice cream, you ask? Let me introduce you to Turtle Mountain and Tofutti. All was well in our vegan world, except for one thing: cheese. Even vegans have a recommended daily intake of pizza!

At first, we decided we would cheat with cheese and pretend we were vegans anyway. This became harder and harder to do as we learned more and more about the environmental harm dairy farms can cause. We tried vegan soy cheese alternatives, but found that most brands (but not all) were mouth-numbingly bland, didn't melt, and/or tasted like wet cardboard marinated in that water you pour out of tofu packages. Mmmm.

Take Me Out to the Environmentally-Friendly Ballgame!

Ryan Thibodaux — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:12:53 +0000

New D.C. Ballpark. Courtesy of WashingtonNationals.comEditor's note: Red, Green and Blue will take a break this week, but that doesn't mean Ryan and Jimmy are! RG&B will return, though, in a new format that we really think you'll like...

That's right, sports fans. After a long, cold winter, the 2007 baseball season is just around the corner!

While many of you this time of year are watching the madness of 19 year-olds tossing balls at hoops, I'm spending my time examining Oakland A's box scores, listening to webcasts of Spring Training games, participating in Fantasy Baseball drafts (team name: Renewable Synergy), and, most importantly, keeping track of the latest efforts by Major League Baseball and its teams to "go green".

Red, Green, and Blue: The Virtue of Conservation

Ryan Thibodaux — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:33:33 +0000

St. Matthew Island. Photo: Dave KleinWelcome to another edition of Uncle Ryan's story time...

Editor's note: Red, Green and Blue is Green Options' weekly take on politics and the environment from both sides of the aisle. Ryan Thibodaux represents the progressive position. Jimmy Hogan's conservative take on this issue is available here.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful uninhabited Alaskan paradise called St. Matthew Island. In 1944, the United States Coast Guard arrived and stationed 19 men on the island to aid ships and aircraft with navigation. To ensure a backup food supply for the men, the Coast Guard released 29 reindeer on the island.

When World War II ended, the Coast Guard decided to abandon the island base, leaving the reindeer with no predators and with a seemingly unlimited food supply of thick carpets of yummy lichen. For the reindeer, it was undoubtedly heaven on earth.

Red, Green, and Blue: A Case for Ethanol Skepticism

Ryan Thibodaux — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 14:36:53 +0000

I am a liberal, and I have a confession to make: I don't like it when the government throws my money away, either. It's hard to admit, but it's just another one of those inconvenient truths. It's also exactly what I think is happening with the at least $5 billion in ethanol subsidies the federal government will hand out this year.

Now don't get me wrong: it's not farm subsidies and certainly not alternative fuel subsidies that I have a problem with. I just think that the government should encourage farmers to grow (organic and sustainable) food, not fuel. It should also support those alternative fuels and technologies that provide a demonstrable measure of increased efficiency and decreased reliance on fossil fuels. Ethanol does neither.