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Green Thoughts
Compiled by Sally Gilhooley

In business, teleconferencing instead of flying will save time, money and carbon emissions. Airplanes produce 12% of transportation sector emissions pumping them high into the atmosphere.

- www.nature.org

1.1 billion people live without access to safe drinking water. The Blue Planet Run 2007, with twenty runners from sixteen countries, will run to generate awareness of the need for clean drinking water throughout the world. You can help.

- www.blueplanetrun.org

The world's oceans cover 70% of the earth and hold huge potential energy through tides, waves and thermal energy from the heat of the sun. Unlike wind or sunlight, tides can be predicted decades in advance. Predictability is important when supplying electricity. New technologies can harness the power from any moving water but converting this power is far from simple or cost-effective. Although wind, biomass and solar power are currently receiving most of the renewable energy research dollars, today, there is a greater push for water power funding through environmental advocacy groups worldwide.

- Chemical & Engineering News magazine

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) leads efforts to sustain and expand nuclear power's ability to drive carbon dioxide emissions reductions and satisfy growing demand for electricity. Nuclear energy has had a prominent role in providing France with the lowest electricity bills in Europe, clean air and lucrative power exports to Germany, Italy and England.

- www.epri.com

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is partnering with other federal and state programs to establish the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network which will track potentially harmful chemicals and include monitoring contaminants in the water supply. It is hoped that such biomonitoring will lead to identifying hazardous exposures before adverse health effects appear.

- The Pink Ribbon, a publication of the West Islip Breast Cancer Coalition for Long Island, Inc.

Beyond petroleum (bp), the leading producer and supplier of oil and natural gas in the U.S., is investing up to $4.6 billion over the next 15 years to increase production of natural gas, the cleanest burning fossil fuel. Their wind power project is expected to generate enough electricity to power 120,000 homes when completed this year. Bp is also investing $500 million over the next ten years to establish the Energy Bioscience Institute to find the secrets of bioscience and apply them to finding sources of clean and renewable energy.

- bp.com/us

Hydrogen would be an ideal candidate to replace fossil fuels if only it wasn't so difficult to store safely. Researchers have now discovered a storage solution which is both efficient and cheap.

- www.sciencedaily.com

Consumers can save 17 million trees and avoid 4 billion tons of greenhouse gases each year by eliminating paper checks and bills. New research shows how online banking and bill payment is green, safe and practical. Reports show that 61 million households currently bank online (53% of U.S. households) which is predicted to reach 82 million households by 2012, or 67% of U.S. households. Get a copy of the complete 2007 Online Banking and Bill Payment at

- www.javelinstrategy.com/research

More than 40,000 former wildlife poachers have joined Community Markets for Conservation (Comaco) which allows them to exchange their animal snares for training in organic farming, bee-keeping, gardening and carpentry. Jewelry called snarewear is being fashioned from snares once used for poaching. - From the New York Times. Also visit Wildlife Conservation Society.

Green is trendy. Fifteen dollar designer shopping totes saying, "I'm not a plastic bag," went on sale at Whole Foods Market, New York City, in mid-July and couldn't be produced fast enough to meet demand. Shortly thereafter, the bags were offered on Craigslist for between $200 and $500.

- The Christian Science Monitor

The Energy Biosciences Institute, (EBI), a research group formed by BP who selected the University of California Berkeley, the University of Illinois and the Lawrence Berkeley Lab to partner with them, will explore methods to improve the recovery rate of oil in reservoirs. With current production technology, oil recovery rates vary from 20 to 70%. EBI is also working to enhance the way plants and other organisms can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and transfer it to the soil or ocean. - www.bp.com

The New Oxford American Dictionary dubbed "carbon neutral" the word of the year for 2006. The term refers to living in a way that reduces your negative impact on the earth's atmosphere, ecosystems and people.

- The Nature Conservancy

Eat Locally. Supermarket shelves are filled with food that may have traveled from the other side of the globe in planes, burning fossil fuels all the way. Shopping at local farm stands and markets you will get fresh, healthy foods and save our climate.

- The Nature Conservancy

© 2007 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE 2020 GUIDE TO GOING GREEN

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