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GREEN HOME SHOW #33: Eco Friendly Living: Part 2 Green Language Definitions
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The following content is from THE GREAT GREEN HOME SHOW #33.
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Overall Segment #2 – 12:00
The Language of Green – 7:00 Sponsored by: Suntrust Mortgage
Section 1.
- Fair trade: Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based model of international trade which promotes the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. The movement focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, and so on.
Fair trade's strategic intent is to deliberately work with marginalized producers and workers in order to help them move from a position of vulnerability to security and economic self-sufficiency. It also aims at empowering them to become stakeholders in their own organizations and actively play a wider role in the global arena to achieve greater equity in international trade.
Renewable Portfolio Standard or RPS: (for wind power relevance) A Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is a regulatory policy that requires the increased production of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal energies.
The RPS mechanism generally places an obligation on electricity supply companies to produce a specified percentage of their electricity from renewable energy sources. Certified renewable energy generators earn certificates for every unit of electricity they produce and can sell these along with their electricity to supply companies. Supply companies then pass the certificates to some form of regulatory body to demonstrate their compliance with their regulatory obligations. Because it is a market standard, the RPS relies almost entirely on the private market for its implementation. Those supporting the adoption of RPS mechanisms claim that market implementation will result in competition, efficiency and innovation that will deliver renewable energy at the lowest possible cost, allowing renewable energy to compete with cheaper fossil fuel energy sources.
- Sustainability: is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. The term, in its environmental usage, refers to the potential longevity of vital human ecological support systems, such as the planet's climatic system, systems of agriculture, industry, forestry, and fisheries, and human communities in general and the various systems on which they depend.
- Renewable Energy: Renewable energy effectively uses natural resources such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. Renewable energy technologies range from solar power, wind power, and hydroelectricity to biomass and biofuels for transportation. About 13 percent of primary energy comes from renewables, with most of this coming from traditional biomass like wood-burning. Hydropower is the next largest source, providing 2-3%, and modern technologies like geothermal, wind, solar, and marine energy together produce less than 1% of total world energy demand.[2] The technical potential for their use is very large, exceeding all other readily available sources.
- Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), also known as Green tags, Renewable Energy Credits, or Tradable Renewable Certificates (TRCs), are tradable environmental commodities that represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource. These certificates can be sold and traded and the owner of the REC can claim to have purchased renewable energy. While traditional carbon emissions trading programs promote low-carbon technologies by increasing the cost of emitting carbon, RECs can incentivize carbon-neutral renewable energy by providing a production subsidy to electricity generated from renewable sources
- Cocoa: Chocolate and Sin:
Cocoa is the dried and partially fermented fatty seed of the cacao tree from which chocolate is made. "Cocoa" can often also refer to the drink commonly known as hot chocolate,[1] cocoa powder, the dry powder made by grinding cocoa seeds and removing the cocoa butter from the dark, bitter cocoa solids; or it may refer to the combination of both cocoa powder and cocoa butter together.
The cacao tree may have originated in the foothills of the Andes in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America where today, examples of wild cacao still can be found. However, it may have had a larger range in the past, evidence for which may be obscured because of its cultivation in these areas long before, as well as after, the Spanish arrived. It may have been introduced into Central America by the ancient Mayas, and cultivated in Mexico by the Toltecs and later by the Aztecs. It was a common currency throughout Mesoamerica and the Caribbean before the Spanish conquests.
Cacao trees will grow in a limited geographical zone, of approximately 20 degrees to the north and south of the Equator. Nearly 70% of the world crop is grown in West Africa.
Cocoa was an important commodity in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Spanish chroniclers of the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés relate that when Montezuma II, emperor of the Aztecs, dined he took no other beverage than chocolate, served in a golden goblet and eaten with a golden spoon. Flavored with vanilla and spices, his chocolate was whipped into a froth that dissolved in the mouth. No fewer than 50 pitchers of it were prepared for the emperor each day, and 2000 more for nobles of his court.
Chocolate was introduced to Europe by the Spaniards and became a popular beverage by the mid 1600s.[4] They also introduced the cacao tree into the West Indies and the Philippines.The cacao plant was first given its botanical name by Swedish natural scientist Carolus Linnaeus in his original classification of the plant kingdom, who called it Theobroma ("food of the gods") cacao
Prolonged intake of flavonol-rich cocoa has been linked to cardiovascular health benefits[9][10][11], though it should be noted that this refers to plain cocoa and dark chocolate. Milk chocolate's addition of whole milk reduces the overall cocoa content per ounce while increasing saturated fat levels, possibly negating some of cocoa's heart-healthy potential benefits. Nevertheless, studies have still found short term benefits in LDL cholesterol levels from dark chocolate consumption.And of course this cocoa is not to be confused with Cocoa Beach which was the setting for the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, although only one episode was actually filmed there (Jeannie's wedding)
Nor should Cocoa be confused with the coca plant which can be used to create cocaine
Or Coco Chanel was a famous French close designer and who is actually very pasty and did not resemble dark chocolate in any way
However cocoa is definitely related to Cocoa Puffs which is a brand of chocolate-flavored puffed grain breakfast cereal manufactured by General Mills. They are small "puffed" spheres that have been flavored with chocolate. Essentially, General Mills took their popular Kix cereal and added chocolate flavoring to it. Kix cereal is produced at the same factories as Cocoa Puffs, but differs in both density and circumference. Its mascot is Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, whose catchphrase is "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs". Sonny was originally dark brown but has since become orange. He wore a striped pink and white shirt, but this has been removed since 1994.
Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down – 5:00 Sponsored by: CMI Solar Electric
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China Bans Production, Sale and Use of Plastic Bags
In a move that surprised many consumers and businesses, the Chinese government has banned the production, sale and use of thin plastic bags (those under 0.025 mm thick), and has forbidden supermarkets and shop owners from handing out free plastic bags to customers.
The new regulations will be in force beginning June 1, 2008, and companies that fail to comply could face heavy penalties, including fines and confiscation of goods and profits.
The Chinese people use up to 3 billion plastic bags daily, and China must refine 37 million barrels of crude oil every year to manufacture plastics used in packaging—including those plastic bags, according to reports by China Trade News and Reuters.
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A 100-foot fountain of petroleum smothered the Canadian town of Burnaby this week, after a pipeline was pierced by a road-excavation crew.
Fifty homes were evacuated and the contamination spread to the nearby Burrard Inlet, a harbor and wetlands ecosystem home to a variety of marine wildlife, including four species of salmon.
Experts told the Canadian Press that the cleanup will cost millions, and that the toxic effects of petroleum in soil, sand and water could last for decades.
According to the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, members of the road crew that breached the pipeline said it was improperly marked, a charge denied by the company that owns it.
Burnaby officials, meanwhile, say the city has strict guidelines to prevent such accidents.
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Companies are learning that they can make money cleaning up their environmental act. The 3M Corporation in St. Paul Minnesota has redesigned its manufacturing processes to eliminate each year 90,000 tons of air pollutants, 10,000 tons of water pollutants, a million gallons of waste water, and 15,000 tons of solid waste. In the process the company saved $200 million. A Goldkist poultry plant came up with procedures that used 32% less water and generated 66% less waste and saved $2.33 for every dollar spent to institute the changes.
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Ethanol! Amazon deforestation and fires are being aggravated by US farm subsidies, claims Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s staff scientist William Laurance. According to Laurance, whose findings are reported in the December 14th edition of Science, a recent spike in Amazonian fires is being promoted by massive US subsidies that promote American corn production for ethanol. The ethanol is being blended with gasoline as an automobile fuel.
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Eleven companies --
- AT&T,
- Best Buy,
- LG Electronics,
- Motorola,
- Nokia,
- Office Depot,
- Samsung,
- Sony Ericsson,
- Sprint,
- Staples,
- and T-Mobile
