NASA | The Green Economy Post: Green Careers, Green Business, Sustainability

Government Agencies Required to Go 95% Green on All Purchases

By Tracey de Morsella on June 3, 2011 Comments Off on Government Agencies Required to Go 95% Green on All Purchases Agriculture Department, Air Force, Army Reserve training post, bio-based, biodegradable, CA, clean energy, compostable, cool roofs, Defense Department, Depar, Department of Transportation, DoD, electronics stewardship, energy-efficient, Environmental Protection Agency, environmentally preferable, executive order on green management, Federal Acquisition Regulations Council, federal contractors, Federal Trade Commission, Fort Hunter Liggett, FTC, general services administration, green aviation, Green Guides, green management, green NASA Ames, Green Purchasing Plan, green supply chain, Greenspace Initiative, GSA, Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims, interim rule on green procurement, NASA, net-zero-energy building requirement, non-ozone depleting, nontoxic, Obama administration, Pilot Army Net Zero Installation initiative, recycled content, recycling, section 438; Livability Principles, solar array, stormwater provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, sustainability base, sustainable purchasing, sustainable systems, tment of Housing and Urban Development, vegetative roofs, waste diversion, waste streams, Water Efficiency, water efficient

Two days ago, the Federal Acquisition Regulations Council released an interim rule on green procurement, requiring that the head of each agency ensure that 95 percent of new contract actions are for products and services that are energy efficient, water efficient, bio-based, environmentally preferable or non-ozone depleting, adhering to criteria set out by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department. The agencies also must aim to procure items that contain recycled content and are nontoxic.

Global Warming Deniers and Their Proven Strategy of Doubt

By Yale Environment 360 on June 21, 2010 5 Comments acid rain, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Atmospheric Science at NASA: A History, Benjamin Santer, Cato Institute, CEI, climate data sets, climate science, climate scientists, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Cooler Heads Coalition, DDT, environmentalists, Erik M. Conway, fossil fuels, Frederick Seitz.National Academy of Sciences, Gene Likens, George C. Marshall Institute, George Keyworth, Global Climate Coalition, global warming, global warming deniers, greenhouse gases, Heartland Institute, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, James Inhofe, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, Naomi Creskes, NASA, Oklahoma, ozone depletion, President Reagan, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, San Diego, scientific cleansing, SDI, second-hand smoke, Strategic Defense Initiative, University of California

For years, free-market fundamentalists opposed to government regulation have sought to create doubt in the public’s mind about the dangers of smoking, acid rain, and ozone depletion. Now they have turned those same tactics on the issue of global warming and on climate scientists, with significant success.

NASA Wants to Bag Biofuel From Sewage [UPDATED]

By Chris de Morsella on November 30, 2009 8 Comments algae, algae biofuel, algae production, Algae Systems, algal biofuel, biodiesel, biofuel, bioreactors, California, canola, Carbon-Negative, forward-osmosis membranes, green economy, Jonathan Trent, manmade ponds, Moffet Field, NASA, Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae, OMEGA, osmosis, palm oil, semi-permeable membrane, sewage, soy, Spaceship Earth project at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA scientists from the Moffet Field laboratory in California have proposed an ingenious process to grow algal biofuels in the ocean enclosed within large floating bags made of a special semi-permeable clear plastic membrane. Growing algae in floating bags in the sea solves several major problems that are faced by current land based methods of algal biofuel production in an elegant low energy, low impact manner. This is the kind of out of the box thinking that is needed in order to grow the green economy. Now, in updated news NASA engineers and industry veterans have launched a company, Algae Systems, to commercialize the process.