Green Jobs - Joe Medeiros

Wow!! Great web sites to look at and the advice on how to match our passions with being environmental responsibility. In every line of work education, law, engineering, agriculture, sales and politics can be connected to a environmental responsibility position. They idea of contribution to others and mankind and doing something you love and making that a career choice is important. I think having Rich demonstrate his hydrogen/water energy producer was a get tie in to this lecture. Rich who is going for an automotive career links it with finding a better way to fuel our cars and helping to cut down on our toxins was really cool! I like the fact that Joe mentioned even if our goal was to just live off the grid that would be a tremendous help to balance out the people who don't think about the environment. Whether it be outside, out of the country or inside a building there are a lot of environmentally responsible jobs out there to look at and choose from. It's exciting!

Gary Liss - Zero Waste

Talking about zero waste was really interesting. Mr. Liss said that if everyone in the state of California recycled and composted all our waste that would be equal in eliminating all the auto exhaust in California. That seems huge. Having zero waste doesn't seem difficult. Mr. Liss stated several times that the system of how goods are brought to us and how we dispose of what we don't use, could be changed and that would make a huge difference. Countries like New Zeland have policies in place that make it a zero waste country. In the bay area San Francisco, Berkeley, Marin county, Oakland and Palo Alto have adopted and set up a recycle system for zero waste. Business like HP in Roseville, Apple, Toyota and restaurants in San Francisco have been leading the way with 90% no waste. Vons and Safeway grocery stores take back the goods not sold to their distribution center where it is made into compost. Ricoh Electronics is another zero waste company and also asking their suppliers to adopt a zero waste policy. I was disturbed to hear that every land fill leaks and for most companies the output related to put out a product they have produce 2/3rds of waste.The cost to redesign a system to have zero waste is not expensive. Thought needs to be taken on where the products suppliers are coming from. Products need to be made with the environment in mind. Incentives need to be put into place to encourage companies to change to zero waste strategies. The government has the power to make the companies change with tax credits to companies who comply and fines for the companies who don't. I thought his was a very informative speaker.

Earth Day Hurray!

Before taking this class, I remember I was standing in line at Whole Foods to check out and the patron in front of me asked the grocery clerk if the farmer's market that is held in their parking lot on Tuesdays was a good one. The patron also asked if the store was in support of the farmer's market or found it to be in competition with the store. The grocery clerk admitted she had never been, but heard, the farmer's market was good and that Whole Foods was happy that they set up near them. The patron then said that she can't seem to remember to go the the farmer's market and that shopping at Whole Foods was just the same. The grocery clerk smiled and nodded her head in agreement. Then this class opened the door to the truth and the understanding of what was really happening. I wish I had the knowledge then to correct both people like I do today.
Awareness and knowledge are good things. Sometimes in order to get many people to pay attention we have to make things look fancy, sexy or the "in" thing to do. Like it was talked about in class, we have to sell the idea to the masses. Earth Day, that has been around for a long time, and is getting more recognition and a message is going out. It has become commercialized. It is common to see a t-shirt that has a picture of the earth and says, "reduce, recycle, renew". I was told that Oprah had a show on "earth friendly" products. It a good thing! We need everyone to participate in helping the world clean up and be more efficient before it is really really too late. As long as the the correct information is going out to the public, then Earth Day is a perfect reminder for us all to be more responsible. Sometimes when I can't quite button my pants, it's a good reminder for me to cut back on my calories and pick-up on my exercise. If people need that reminder to stay on track once a year, then it is better than having a dirty world that we can't fit into.

Virtual Joe Mederios

I hate to admit it but I was one of those people who didn't know much about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I remembering hearing the acronym ANWAR and it was in Alaska. I didn't know that it is a 19.6 million acre area and has 18 major rivers and 300 archaeological sites. I didn't know that it was a migratory biomone with 135 migratory bird species from 4 continents go there to nest. Joe let us in on the fact that 36 different fish species are there and 180 different bird species. Lots of animals live here too. Musk Ox, caribou, polar bears, brown bears and black bears are a few larger animals that Joe mentioned that come to the area or live there. Joe told us about the 100 times a year there is an oil spill or leak and it is not a clean operation. It's terrible that they put this area on danger of losing so much natural habitat. It seems here on earth we have lost so much already. Can we afford to causes more damage? I thought it was really interesting how we only receive 16% of our oil from the Persian Gulf. It seems like the government would have you believe we get almost all of our supply from there. I was lead to believe we are at their mercy because they have the oil and we do not. But it turns out that we also have other sources that are not talked about too much, 21% from Africa, 49% from the Western Hemisphere too. I thought Joe's lecture was interesting and something to think about and start talking about and looking into more.

Ray Darby- The Energy Guy

I was just thinking about solar electricity and if it was something that might be right for my house and then Ray came and talked about it. I didn't know that 50% of the cooling or heating in our houses goes out if you have forced air. Nor did I know that we lose 2/3rds of the electricity generated from power plants to our homes. I can see how transportation is a huge part of what we use energy on. It seems like everyone drives and hardly anyone walks anymore. I try and do all my errands in the same direction to help cut down on driving too much. I also have a hybrid which I feel good about driving. I think it is true how builder's don't care if your house is efficient but focuses mostly on how it looks with the design. I know in Roseville a few years back they built homes that had solar tiles on the roofs. I thought that was a good idea. I've seen solar panels on Stanford Ranch across from Costco at a car wash and on E Roseville Parkway the fire station has solar panels on it's roof. Ray suggested that we reevaluate the way we drive, the efficiency of our homes and how we use electricity. His solutions about eating locally and lower on the food chain was good too.

A Change of Perspective

With knowledge comes awareness and with the awareness comes choices.
This class has given me a lot of choices to think about. Before this class I was aware of global warming and believed it was occurring. I didn't like being dependent on foreign oil or the bad emissions from cars that go into the air. I bought a hybrid not because I can get better gas mileage (which I do get about 52mpg) but for air quality. My car may not be the coolest looking or the fastest but it gets me to where I need to go safely, timely and I feel good about driving it. I have heard of the WWF and that we have to "Save the Panda's, the polar bears...." but I didn't understand the whole cycle of the way in which the environment, ecosystems and species worked.
I am overwhelmed by all the things we are learning in class. Some days I think, how is this ever going to get better? But I try and tell my friends and family about what I'm learning so they can see what I'm seeing. I shop at Farmer's Markets more. I am more conscious to buy local, California grown and in season fruits and veggies. As much as I might want to make guacamole, I just can't buy the avocados from Chile. I try and have meatless days 2 times a week. I've gone to the library and on-line for vegetarian dishes to try. I've thought about finding a spot in my small yard to grow vegetables, which never interested me before. I always bring my own bags when I shop. I turn lights off when I leave a room. During the colder months I wore lots of sweatshirts and jackets around my house and only turned on the heat when I knew company was coming. I'm not sure how I'll do in the hot months, but I'm already thinking about what I can do to keep myself from using the air conditioner to a minimum. When I run errands I think about where I need to go and try and make my stops in the same directions. Before I purchase something I stop and ask myself if I really need what I'm buying more than I have in the past. More times then not, I find myself putting items back on the shelf. Learning about poverty has changed the way I think about things as well. I have heard about the slum of India and have even read about them, but it was nothing compared to seeing the slum in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire". The massive poverty shown was jaw dropping and I know it was just one example of what is out there. Population, education, mining waste, agriculture, politics and our interdependency and the connectedness of all these topics, I never even considered before.
So, you ask if this class has changed my perspective? I would say that this class has changed my life and the way I live and view the world is very different than before.

Dr. Larid Thompson

I wasn't able to watch the program on t.v. because I had to take my daughter to the Dr. So I watched in on iTunes and the quality wasn't very good. I had a difficult time seeing the power point slides clearly. I thought his presentation was full of lots of complex and complicated slides. A little difficult to keep up with what he was talking about on the iTunes version. I wished Dr. Thompson had a pointer because that would have helped to see in which part of his slide he was referring to during his presentation.
He had a lot of information and I felt very informed when he was done. It is so scary too to see how our consumption is high and growing and the resources of oil and coal are depleting. His information on how we reached the mid-point of total production capacity in the 1970's was depressing. Also when he talked about that fact that 63% of oil, natural seeps into the earth and atmosphere was scary to me too. The fact that we are very inefficient and we use only 63% of the energy we produce made me feel like a greedy American.
The process of oil and where it was found was really interesting. I was one of those people who thought it came from dinosaurs although I did question this belief. I thought it was interesting seeing how the oil platforms and rigs work. The information on the barrel of oil and how it is refined was difficult to see but I can tell that it goes into making different things at the different levels in the barrel. I thought that was interesting.
I like the idea of biodiesel and did hear that Volkswagen is going to sell a Passat that is diesel and can run on biofuels. I thought the idea of switching from corn to switch grass was interesting except it is not native to the U.S. The fact that sweet potatoes and sugar beets can produce more ethanol fuel than corn was something I did not know either. But like Dr. Thompson said economics drives everything and with the corn farmer lobbyist out there I'm not sure if the use of corn can be changed or shared with another source.
It seems there has to be a better solution. Someone in class asked it a little bit of all the different ideas that are valid and being presented can be put into practice. I liked that idea. I think then it might not put a strain on one thing. Like with the corn crops it isn't great for the soil to keep having the same type of crop.
So the bottom line sounds like we need to be more efficient as individuals and be more aware of how we use our energy. There was a show on television that had a family of four trying to live off the grid. I watched a little of it and tried to tape it because I'd like to see what they did and how I can incorporate it into my life.