July 23, 2010
Sun recharges your favorite e-gadgets
by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
Appeared in:
- E-Magazine Blog as “Camping with Gadgets,” 13 Aug 2012
- Vall-E-Vents Sierra Club Newsletter, June 2011
- Fullerton Observer, Aug 2010, p. 10
- Surf City Voice, 21 July 2010
Recharge solar lanterns and small electronics with solar rechargers
Does the prospect of spending a weekend away from your favorite e-gadgets (cell phone, laptop, iPod or PDA) stir up separation anxiety? Around our house we’ve dubbed this e-angst, and it can kill enthusiasm for an otherwise welcome family camping vacation.
For teens or adults similarly infected with e-angst, a diversity of devices are on the market which let you bring your e-gadgets along with you camping and also trim your carbon footprint because they utilize only sunshine for power.
Solar chargers
An assortment of portable solar-powered chargers is available that adapt to virtually any handheld electronic appliance including digital cameras and GPS units. Most rely on photovoltaic silicon cell technology akin to what is used on rooftop solar panels. Many are small enough to fit in a back pocket or certainly a glove box so can travel with you virtually anywhere. The cost is as little as $15 on up to $150 depending on the capacity. Because rechargeable batteries are incorporated, gadgets can be recharged even after the sun goes down. Small electronics generally charge in 2-4 hours.
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climate change, energy, global warming, green business, health, solar, sustainable living, wildlife | Tagged: camping, climate change, conservation, energy, environment, fossil fuels, global warming, petroleum, photovoltaics, pollution, solar charger, solar cooker, solar lantern, sustainability, sustainable living | 
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Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
June 16, 2010
Americans, with 100 ‘energy servants’ each, share blame in Gulf oil spill
by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
Appeared in:
- Santa Monica Daily Press as “America’s Addition to Oil Caused Gulf of Mexico Spill,” 11 Nov 2010
- E-Magazine’s Our Planet Weekly as “Decoding Just How Power is Needed to Support the Typical American Lifestyle,” Nov 5 2010
- Southern Sierran, Jul-Aug 2010
- Fullerton Observer, p. 2, July 2010
- Surf City Voice, June 16, 2010
Gulf-oil-soaked pelicans await clean up. Photo credit IBRRC
There’s no shortage of finger-pointing as the now worst oil spill in U.S. history continues its assault on the Gulf Coast’s ecology and economy.
A USA TODAY/Gallop Poll taken in late May, for example, found that 73 percent of Americans feel that BP (British Petroleum) is doing a ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ job of handling the crisis, and 60 percent evaluated the federal government’s response in the same unfavorable terms.
Confronted with images of birds swathed in crude oil and prognostications that the Gulf region’s fishing and tourism industries might never recover, the urge to form a posse, so to speak, to rout out those responsible and hold them accountable is all too human.
But are we Americans shocked enough yet by the enormity of this calamity to own up to our personal role in it? After all, it’s ultimately our nation’s energy-intense lifestyle and attachment to fossil fuels that gives companies like BP and our government the implicit go-ahead to pursue oil at the risk of the very kind of disaster now ensuing.
Unless you’re a physicist or energy wonk of some sort, hearing that the average yearly per capita energy consumption in the United States in 2008 was 337 million Btu probably tells you little about your energy footprint. Knowing that a Btu is an energy standard equivalent to 252 calories – about what’s contained in a Snickers candy bar – is probably of little help either.
That’s why Professor of Physics Richard Wolfson of Middlebury College has been giving demonstrations for the last decade which impart a real gut-level, hands-on feel for the energy it takes to support the typical American lifestyle.
His demonstration is simple but ingenious. A volunteer is asked to turn a hand crank which, through a geared system, drives an electric generator connected to two 100-watt incandescent light bulbs.
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2 Comments | climate change, energy, global warming, politics, pollution, science, sustainable living, toxics, wildlife | Tagged: Americans, BP, British Petroleum, fossil fuels, Gulf, oil, oil spill, petroleum | Permalink
Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
December 10, 2009
©iStockphoto.com/dbuffoon
by Sarah (Steve) Mosko, PhD.
Appeared in:
- El Cuervo de Orange, Feb 14, 2012
- Vall-E-Vents, May 2010.
- E-Magazine’s ‘Our Planet Weekly,’ April 8, 2010.
- Fullerton Observer, early March, 2010, p. 17.
- Orange Coast Voice, Dec. 7, 2009.
Which consumes more fossil fuels, lawn maintenance with gas-powered tools or lawn watering? For residents of Southern California, the correct answer is watering because of the energy it takes to transport water to the region.
Southern California (SoCal) is a semi-arid desert. Rainfall averages only 15 inches per year, for example, in the Los Angeles area. Local water sources have fallen far short of meeting the region’s water needs for more than a century.
With 2/3 of the state’s rainfall in Northern California and 2/3 of the water demand in SoCal, the State deals with this imbalance by pumping in half of SoCal’s water supply from sources hundreds of miles away, the Colorado River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Water-Electricity Relationship
Piping water long distances is costly in terms of electricity, especially water imported from the Delta which has to be pumped uphill 2,000 ft to get over the Tehachapi Mountains.
In a first ever analysis of the energy embedded in bringing potable water to residential faucets and hoses in SoCal, a 2005 Calif Energy Commission analysis calculated 11,111 kWh/MG (kilowatt hours per million gallons), three times costlier than in Northern California. Most of the electricity is for water transportation, much less for water treatment and maintaining water pressure. Every 100 gallons of imported water eats up enough electricity to keep a 100 W bulb lit for 11 hours.
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6 Comments | California, energy, global warming, green business, pollution, science, sustainable living, toxics, waste, wildlife | Tagged: California Energy Commission, Colorado River, desalination, drought, electricity, energy, fossil fuels, grass, lawn, lawn care, lawn maintenance, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides, Sacramento San Joaquin Delta, SoCal Water$mart, Southern California, sprinklers, water shortage, watering | Permalink
Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
June 1, 2007
Appeared in:
- San Fernando Valley Sierra Club newsletter in two parts in July and September 2008.
- Southern Sierran in August 2007.
- Orange Coast Voice newspaper as It’s No Bull, Beef production creates global warming in June 2007, page 2.
A Beef About Beef
by Sarah S. Mosko, Ph.D.
The connection between our meal choices and global warming might be another “inconvenient truth” that is particularly hard to swallow. Illustration by Willis Simms.
Global warming is on the tip of many tongues these days, but so are hamburgers, pork chops, and fried chicken. As hybrid car sales are up and SUV sales on the decline, it seems Americans might be waking up to the reality that each of us bears some responsibility for climate change through our everyday consumer choices. John Robbins, the once heir-apparent of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream company, has authored bestsellers, such as The Food Revolution, detailing the detrimental environmental impacts of a meat-based diet. He and other experts make a strong case that food choices rank right up there with what car you drive in determining your personal contribution to global warming. A quick look inside the hamburger bun easily makes the point.
Massive Fossil Fuels Consumed to Produce Beef
Most U.S. beef comes from cows raised on factory farms where hordes of animals are crowded onto concrete lots and fed grains, mostly corn. The grains are also grown using industrial farming methods that rely heavily on application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides manufactured from Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | climate change, energy, global warming, pollution, science, sustainable living, waste | Tagged: beef, carbon monoxide, climate change, CO2, economy, energy, environment, factory farm, fossil fuels, global warming, green business, greenhouse gases, health, livestock, meat-based diets, pollution, science, vegetarian diet | Permalink
Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
April 1, 2007
Appeared in:
Driving on Sunshine
Ethanol: Starve While You Drive
Sarah S. Mosko, Ph.D.
From President Bush on down, it seems everyone is talking up “biofuels”, especially corn-grain ethanol and soy-diesel, as the panacea to the country’s energy woes . . . global warming, air pollution, increasing prices at the pump and dependence on foreign oil.
Automakers are promoting flex-fuel cars that run on either E85, a gasoline mixture that is 85% ethanol, or straight gasoline. Agribusiness giants like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland are trumpeting their ethanol, Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by Sarah (Steve) Mosko
Boogie Green 