Eco-Focused News
What did Stephen Colbert say on The Colbert Report World Water Day show?...they will have the Eco-Nuts wetting their yoga pants? Hey! We will accept his apology and I will continue writing my Eco-Focused℠ News page. Colbert interviewed Dean Kamen who talked about his invention which uses a vapor compression distiller process to purify the most disgusting dirty water. Dean Kamen believes 10 years from now, the lack of potable water will create as many or more problems then the oil crisis creates today. Colbert also talked about an inventor from Pennsylvania recently discovering that you can set sea water on fire by blasting it with high frequency radio waves. "Could this solve the energy crisis or burn the worlds oceans to the ground?" Colbert is a nut himself (a political satirist:) but he interviews some pretty interesting people! Here is the
Colbert Report link
MORE ECO-FOCUSED℠ NEWSOpt Out of the Yellow & White Pages - Save the Trees & reduce waste to our landfills!
The Arizona Republic newspaper had an article in The Green Zone, March 29th, 2009 “Residents Rebel Against Eco-Friendly Detergents.” This article is about Spokane, Washington’s strictest ban ever on dishwasher detergents containing phosphates. This is a wonderful law, but the problem is people are finding eco-friendly products like Seventh Generation, Ecover, and Trader Joe’s leave the dishes so dirty that they need to be rewashed. They blame the hard water in the area. This situation is turning law-abiding citizens into smugglers of illegal detergents like Cascade and Electrasol. Where are the Oprah Show viewers who have heard about the Shaklee products through Oprah and Dr. Oz? Rachael Rey featured Shaklee products on her show. The Today show interviewed Shaklee's CEO, Roger Barnett. Where are all the Spokane, Washington Shaklee Independent Distributors? I have been a Shaklee Independent Distributor here in Mesa, Arizona for many years and would be happy to help the Spokane folks find the perfect legal dishwashing solution. The water here is very hard too, and the Shaklee dish wash product works great! Shaklee products can be ordered here on-line. Word is out about how safe and great these products are! To Learn More: Going Green Products for a Cleaner World Konarka is a company that has found a way to replace solar panels with plastic flexible film no thicker than a strand of hair and their production goal is to produce electricity at 1/10th the cost of solar cells. Konarka flexible plastic solar cells Below is a very disturbing Adobe Presentation about plastic bag pollution. Plastic bags apparently have been banned or in the process of being banned in countries like Canada, some European countries, China, and even Rwanda! The list goes on and on. Thank goodness and hopefully the U.S. will get on board, too! The Danger of Plastic Bags Water bottle Blues Avoid water bottle waste! Save money & make your own purified water. I love my MTS! Acidic Oceans and the CO2 Impact Socially Responsible Investing The July 2008 Issue of Northern Update talks about the importance of investing in companies that that are good for the planet, good for people, and good yield payouts can add to the moral satisfaction of being a SRI'er. SRI = ethical management, high labor standards, safe high quality products, and services. Not to mention stewardship of the environment. Apparently, Northern Trust is the first in the United States to launch a global sustainability index fund. It spans the financial, industrial, utilities, telecom, retail, and energy sectors. This mutual fund is called the Northern Global Sustainability Index Fund and their annual net operating expenses according to this publication, are estimated to be .65%. To find out more, visit their site:
Northern Funds information
Eco News-information below was obtained from March 24th 2008 edition of Time Magazine: Vertigro Energy, located in El Paso, Texas, and their principal scientist, Glen Kertz are on a joint venture pursuing the idea that algae oil could fuel our future. They grow oil rich algae, pumped through clear plastic bags which are suspended in a green house. After their bioreactor processor produces the algae, the algae is siphoned off, the lipids extracted then refined into fuels like biodiesel. This facility is also conducting sophisticated algae research to identify which algae are best suited for specific uses. They are projecting that they can produce 100,000 gallons of algae oil per acre, per year. Corn only yields about 20 gallons per acre. Glen Kertz says if you take one-tenth of the state of New Mexico and convert it to greenhouse algae production, the result would be enough oil to meet the transportation needs of the entire United States. 
More News About Bacteria and Algae and Their High Energy Potential: The information for the Eco News article below was obtained from, ASU Researchers Explore Bacteria-Driven Diesel Fuel, The Arizona Republic, May 18, 2008.The Science Foundation and energy company BP partnered for a project at Arizona State University. They are researching how one of Earth's smallest organisms may replace its largest industry by growing bacteria to make diesel-engine fuel. The director of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the ASU Biodesign Institute, Bruce Rittmann says bacteria has an advantage over other biofuels such as corn ethanol and soybean bio-diesel. Bacteria contain a higher concentration of fats that can be burned for energy. It can be continuously harvested and grows faster than crops. Instead of needing fertilizer, researchers hope to feed the bacteria the carbon dioxide released from electric power plants. Both algae and bacteria have high energy potential and require very little water and space to grow. They both use photosynthesis to convert sunlight to energy and accumulate a lot of lipids. The difference is bacteria accumulates a lot of lipids because they are growing fast and algae produces high lipids when under stress, and not growing well. This gives bacteria the advantage and we will be looking forward to hearing more about their research! The Seabed - The Greatest Source of Biomass Can One Day be an Algae Garden? Bernard Stroiazzo-Mougin, president of Biofuel Systems in Valencia is developing a ground breaking process using sea algae to create biocombustible fuel. This thermodynamics engineer knew he was on to something big when he realized algae can replicate a process that usually take millions of geological years. Sea life has an amazing ability to turn sunlight into energy. The oceans are the greatest filter of CO2 and he hopes to replace more than 50% of global oil production within ten years. Metal-Eating Worms Here is one way to get metal and toxic waste out of the soil. A project in India headed by Dr. Suneet Dabke, used 300,000 worms to clean four acres of waste. A year later the soil showed a 60% reduction in heavy metals. The worms are later sifted out and burned. 
Wind FarmingPhoenix, Arizona’s sister city Calgary, Canada, has a new facility that allows the city to power 75% of its municipal operations with green energy, specifically wind farming. They hope to raise those numbers to 90% by 2012. Mayor Dave Bronconnier says the wind farm has the capacity to produce enough energy to power about 32,000 homes. Not bad for a city known as an oil town! Below is my friend Annie's web page about Living Off the Grid Annie and her husband are very knowledgeable about this subject because they are living it! A big Kudos for Larry Hagman too! Annie writes, "Larry Hagman owns the nation's largest residential solar-powered system." Annie and Tom have been friends with the Hagmans since 1981. See her site for this story and more!
It was mentioned in the Arizona Republic April 4, 2010 the $8.5 billion City Center in Las Vegas, with its six interconnecting buildings, is the largest development with LEED Gold certification. Even the limousines run on compressed natural gas.
New York Times "Foreign Affairs" Columnist - Our World - Hot , Flat & Crowded
The Oprah Show - April 2008 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Al Gore was featured on the Oprah Show recently. They didn't say this on the show... but Al Gore has been criticized for his monster, energy guzzling home leaving a huge carbon foot print for an individual. People have been saying he doesn't practice what he preaches. Well, he remedied the situation! After changing the zoning restrictions in his area and obtaining the special building permits, his home is now "Green Certified by the Green Building Council." Good for him! Sofie Uliano was also interviewed and she featured her new book Gorgeously Green. Here is my quick review: She said to watch out for sodium lauryl sulfate found in toothpaste and shampoos. This chemical is a hormone disrupter.
Here is an organic/natural toothpaste suggestion
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