Green Graham

I continue to not understand why supermarkets insist on having open refrigerator and freezer sections without doors or lids (even the goedkoop in this Belgian supermarket is in open refrigerator cases). Supermarkets don’t even have those thick plastic curtain strips. Why not? It’s a huge waste of energy — and for no good reason. If you can get around a supermarket, you can probably open a door or pull up the lid on a freezer chest. Supermarkets could take a cue from that paragon of green, 7-11. The beer and soda is behind the big doors, and even the little popsicles and ice cream bars are in a freezer case with a lid (which is really fun because it always makes me feel like a little kid when I get ice cream). Tell your supermarket to save some energy and put a lid on it — or you can just whine about it on a blog.

Solix, a Fort Collins company that turns algae into oil, is getting a piece of a new $44 billion federal grant for expanding biofuels research. Read more on Solix here.

I try to read most of the articles in The Economist each week, and babble about it — mostly to help me jog my lousy memory.

I plan to usually post it at my personal blog, but the most interesting article was about global climate change (and I think it’s significant that a conservative and respected news magazine is a strong defender of global climate change science). Anyhow, the story notes that scientists are hazy on why the global temperature increases slowed during the Naughty Oughties. The scientists are frustrated (as reflected in the famed email-gate messages) by the mystery, but still stand by the general, and dangerous, trend. My favorite quote closes the article and reflects the fact that global climate change theory is based on sound and irrefutable science: Read the rest of this entry »

If only I could make a full-time living writing about sustainable beer and music, I would be a happy man. I’m in the right town for it. Last week, I wrote an update about the solar array at the New Belgium brewery here in Fort Collins.

The neighboring brewery, Odell, is also going solar. The brewer of Easy Street Wheat and 90 Shilling activated a smaller array last week. For more on sustainable brewing, keep an eye on my Go Green and Make Gold column at ecohearth.com.

Watch this Guardian video about the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas this weekend. It really takes gadget geeks and electronics companies to task for their big talk and small action on sustainability. It also promotes some sustainability efforts, such as this electric bike.

There’s a little gadget fiend in almost all of us. Thus, the CES has been a big story this week. I’ve heard a lot of hype about the new 3-D TVs but little about the waste created by throwing away all our old big-screen TVs and replacing them with another power-guzzling big-screen TV.

On a slightly more positive note, Eco-Hearth will publish my article next week about some real sustainability efforts that debuted at the CES. Geek on.

I rapped at you last year on this blog and my Eco-Hearth blog about New Belgium beer (brewers of Fat Tire and Sunshine Wheat) and its big solar plans. The company’s new solar array went online yesterday. It is the biggest privately owned solar plant in the state, but it also demonstrates the difficulties of the renewable transition. A 200 KW system only supplies 16 percent of the brewery’s peak electric load and three percent of its total energy use. It also is not able to store the power, so it will only be used in real time. This isn’t going to be easy. I need a beer.

As my wife pointed out, I would rather listen to a public radio show than a football game on a Sunday afternoon. I’m comfortable in my manhood.

Anyhow, said food show, “The Splendid Table,” had an interview this week with a supermarket expert (how do you end up with that job?). He basically said local is the new organic. As I have said before, organic standards are too complicated and expensive for most small farmers to implement. Because of the added costs, and the added cachet, organic food is overpriced. Shoppers are instead turning to local food in their efforts at healthy, sustainable eating.

Restaurants are also aiming local, according to this survey. The supermarket expert also noted that vegetables and fruit frozen at the peak of the season are healthier than fresh-ish produce out of season. Seems self-evident to me, but I guess not everybody knows that.

The New York Times has a story today about upscale bowling alleys helping to revive the economy — at least in New York. The story has a pair of photos and a quick mention of Brooklyn Bowl.

“Brooklyn Bowl, a combination music club/bowling alley fashioned out of an old iron foundry, followed in Williamsburg last summer.”

But the story doesn’t mention the eco-consciousness of the bowling alley, which uses LED lighting, recycled cork and rubber flooring, and eschews bottles and cans. For more on the alley, check out my other green blog at EcoHearth.com.

I’m about to give up on Obama and the Dems. The cap-and-trade bill will be full of holes and exemptions big enough to drive a Hummer through. It will also create the same problem as the health care bill: Passing this bill will make people think the problem is solved and we don’t need to consider the issue for another 20 years.

Maybe it’s time to turn to the states. Many states, like Colorado, are starting their new legislative sessions soon. Check out these state laws that take effect on Jan. 1. Encourage your state legislatures to pass similar bills this year.