America’s consumption of gasoline is insatiable, which is, of course, the engine that drives the BPs of the world to search for more crude. Every dollar we spend at the gas pump is another request, from us to them, to go forth and seek more oil even though we all know that means drilling in more challenging areas. For decades there were just too few options for breaking our addiction to oil. But now, thanks to the Nissan Leaf, the Chevrolet Volt, the Ford Focus, the Mitsubishi iMiEV, and others, the electric vehicle (EV) will be available to consumers at the end of this year or in 2011. This means…
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Power to the People
Community effort in Southeast Portland brings solar within reach for many. PORTLAND, Ore. — September 16, 2009 was the deadline for Portland homeowners to become part of the very first Solarize Portland project — a grassroots effort that’s making it easier to go solar for less through the power of community. What began as the idea of one homeowner in Southeast Portland, has now grown to include 335 neighbors. The number is well over the original project goal of 50 participants. Led by Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Coalition and Energy Trust of Oregon, the group is going through the process together — from learning how solar works, to installing systems on…
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Pixels vs. Paper
Our publication The Green Living Journal is available both on line and in printed form at 350 locations throughout the Portland-Vancouver metro area. The question of which of the two editions has the least impact on our environment is of constant concern to us, but the answer is rather elusive and often determined by who does the research. What makes for interesting reading are some of the bullets that the different sources put forth in order to support their particular position. From International Paper’s latest newsletter we learned that: “On average it takes 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity to produce 440 lbs. of paper, the typical amount of paper each of…
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Welcome to Green Living
Originally published in the Spring 2008 issue of the Green Living Journal Welcome to the first issue of the Green Living Journal serving the Portland Vancouver area, which also happens to be our first ever venture into the publishing world. We hope you enjoy its message as much as the folks in Vermont and southern Oregon have enjoyed their editions published by individuals with years of experience. So just why would a retired forester fast approaching his 70th year start a new career (we hope we succeed in putting out many more issues) in a whole new field of endeavor? Perhaps a short tale will shed some light on that,…