Tag Archives: Sustainable Living

VW Jetta wins Green Car of the Year Award

From the New York Times, Thursday, November 20, 2008:

“To qualify for consideration as a nominee, a vehicle must exhibit characteristics that substantially raise the bar in environmental performance and be in production by Jan. 1 of the award year,” said the guidelines on the Green Car Journal Web site. “Plus, a potential nominee must be driven by Green Car Journal to allow experiencing driving dynamics first-hand.” Those qualifying this year were the BMW 335d, Ford Fusion Hybrid, Saturn Vue 2 Mode Hybrid, Smart Fortwo and Volkswagen Jetta TDI.

Click here to read the whole article.

Passive solar home — totally in the 21st century

From the website “Solar House, Solar Home,” retrieved on 11/11/08:

Just after January 1, 2000, I left the 20th Century and I haven’t been back since. If your attention is rooted in the 21st Century, you only need your eyes and ears to understand that energy efficiency and sustainability will be the unfolding story of our time for the foreseeable future.

In the 21st Century, any home design that does not incorporate super energy efficiency for maximum total annual energy savings is a non-starter. In this new epoch, if you don’t incorporate energy efficiency into a new home plan, you simply become a 21st Century Nero: fiddling with home design as America burns fuel. The earlier you adjust to this new epoch and make the necessary conversions and alterations to your lifestyle, the better you will fare. A new ENERGY STAR qualified home, while a great improvement over traditional new homes, will simply not do. A new home, like the passive solar home I have built that is directly heated by the sun, is not just energy star efficient, it is energy super nova efficient.

Click here to read the website and see photos of the home.

Controlling the spread of invasive plants

Column from the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer July 14, 2008

Finally it is summer in Fairbanks, with warm weather and lush green growth all around us.

Wildflowers are showing off their bright yellows, purples, pinks and blues.

Arnica, fireweed, bluebells, wild sweet pea and others adorn the roadsides.

All is well. Or is it?

Among these wonderful native wildflowers are “imitators”; plants that lead us to believe that because they have beautiful flowers and lush green growth, they are harmless and wonderful also.

These are what are referred to as exotic plants. They have been introduced into Alaska for many different reasons: as forage crops, food sources, garden plants and by “hitch-hiking” on the wheels of vehicles or with animals.

Click here to read the full article.