Your home’s most banal object gets the iTouch.

Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod, left Apple last year to revolutionize the thermostat. Hot, huh? But not too.

Did you know that heating and cooling costs take up half of our monthly household energy bills? That’s as much as the refrigerator, lighting, TVs, computers, and stereos combined. Thermostats are in control of all that usage. In the United States, thermostats determine 10% of our consumed energy usage overall, which equals some 1.7 billion barrels of oil per year.

The thermostat is boxy and stout and not nearly as sleek as a brand new Energy Star icebox, but it is an essential tool in the fight against climate change. Nevertheless, need it look so plain and utilitarian?

Heck no, says Fadell who founded Nest Labs upon his departure from Apple. In October, they released their first product: the world’s sexiest thermostat.

At $249 it’s expensive and, by some accounts, a bit tricky to install. Nest however, is smarter than your average thermostat in that it literally learns to program itself according to your real-life habits.

We encourage programming your thermostat, which can save you 20% on your energy bill, but proper programming requires you to adhere to a strict schedule: lower it when you go to work in the morning, turn it up when you come home, lower it again at bedtime. But you, yourself, rarely adhere to a strict schedule. You go out, sometimes all night, occasionally not taking the walk of shame through your front door until two, three days later. It’s not your thermostat’s job to guilt you; the Nest encourages an active social life.

It builds a schedule around your habits, and can figure out when you’re not there. You can also control it from your laptop and phone.

The Nest uses the same wheel interface as the iPod nestled in a stainless steel frame.

When the little green leaf appears, that means the system is in energy-conserving mode.

If you live in a mega green home and require more than one thermostat, install extra Nests and they’ll communicate with one another.

Considering the thermostats we’re used to:

The Nest is elevating the mundane one degree at a time.

Images: Nest; Passive Aggressive Notes

Did you know that women hold 39% of leadership positions in the sustainability sector?

Compare that statistic with research that shows women holding only 8% of general management positions in the United States and we’ve got plenty of reason to be excited about this constantly growing industry, not only because it’s providing sustainable solutions for our future, but because women are nearly equal players in terms of representation.

Ecomagination is celebrating some of the women of the clean tech industry by highlighting their efforts. From biofuels to efficiently storing energy, these women are leading the way for the industry as a whole.

But what is it like to be a female in this sector? What does it take to run a successful operation in the clean tech industry? As part of the series by Ecomagination, Solar Sister founder Katherine Lucey will answer community submitted questions on video next week.

Lucey does some inspiring work, empowering women in “remote African villages to become entrepreneurs, selling solar lamps to light the homes of their friends and families using their most plentiful natural resource: the sun.”

To make sure we get your questions for Lucey on Twitter, submit them to @ecosalon and @ecomagination and use the hashtag #ctwomen. You can also leave your question in the comments below by Thursday, October 27, 2011 and we’ll be sure to get it submitted.

In two words? Canada executes.

Having just returned from extraordinary Vancouver, I can appreciate how its greenness extends beyond the pristine meadows of Stanley Park to thrive in the souls of its dwellers who witness their slightly higher taxes at work in the form of a well-maintained, pothole-free environs. It’s not just bells and Whistler. It’s beauty that exists down deep, even in the success of enacted laws that put the U.S. and its stagnating bipartisan representatives to shame.

No wonder Vancouver’s goal of being the greenest city in the world by 2020 gives it yet another edge in livability. Sure, San Francisco and Portland are weaning off the foreign fuel nipple, but our neighbors to the north might outwit and out play us by focusing on the most winning survivor tactic of all: spawning green jobs like rabbits – some 10,400 in the next eight years.

According to the Vancouver Sun, the city is now moving ahead in 10 key areas that range from greening the economy by securing the city’s international reputation as a mecca of green enterprise, improving food production, cutting greenhouse gases and making walking, cycling and public transit the preferred transportation option for its citizens.

In terms of the jobs, some 300 are linked to expansion of the city’s district energy program, while another 900 comes from clean tech trade missions spurring the relocation of companies. Another 600 are predicted in the farming sector – urban growing, farmers’ markets, food processing and street food vendors. While Canadians agree being greener is a matter of conscience there is nothing like the promise of income to perk up commitment to conservation.

The good news is the green strides are not just limited to Vancouver. Throughout the country, progress is being made and used as a benchmark for what is possible if civic leaders go the distance. Here are some of the initiatives:

Switching Off the Coal

The province that has become a teenage girl destination because of Justin Bieber might now be better known for a reliance on green energy as it shuts down four coal-burning power plants even before its 2014 target date. It’s part of a 10-step transition to generate all of its electricity from fuel sources such as biomass to cut nasty carbon dioxide emissions. So far, coal production has dropped 5% while wind generation rose 80% – a reduction of pollution equal to the annual emissions of seven million autos.

Sparing the Trees

One of Canada’s largest media corporations, Quebecor, is making a sizable dent in its newspaper, magazine and book publishing distribution through its Concrete Actions initiative – the switch to printing on 100% recycled paper will spare more than 79,000 trees and 215 million liters of water. Meanwhile, it planted more than 210,000 trees as part of a program to plant roots for every Videotron customer who participates in online billing.

Victoria’s Dockside Green

While Vancouver sets out to lead the world in green building design and construction, Dockside Green in the heart of downtown Victoria, B.C. is setting records as a green development – earning its second residential LEED platinum ranking through the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) for two towers called Balance. Comprising 171 homes, it matched Phase I in earning a record 63 out of 70 points, serving as a model for sustainable community development. The high score was based on several key factors, including: biomass gasification using wood-waste to create heat and hot water; improved insulation, green roofs, exhaust air energy (heat) recovery, reduced lighting power densities with energy-efficient fixtures and occupancy sensors.

Boosting Subway Systems

Ottawa has coughed up $1 billion in funding to improving the public transit in the Greater Toronto Area to “cut the commute, clear the air and drive growth.” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said traffic congestion had become a top issue – blamed on a $2 billion a year loss in productivity. Across the country, refurbishing and improving public transit has become a cause célèbre according to HuffPo Canada. While leaders look for ways to get people off the streets and on nicer, roomier subways, they are netting results through simple, targeted incentives. Examples cited: The Toronto Transit saw sales go up 57% by giving monthly pass customers a small incentive for buying a year’s worth of passes in advance: Meantime, Montreal has a huge response when offering s small incentive if customers bought their monthly passes off-peak and off-line from a participating retailer rather than transit ticket booths.

Giving Edge to Organic Food Producers

Canada’s organic producers now can circumvent red tape to expand their products locally in grocery stores and to export to Europe through an international agreement giving the country an edge in the European Union, the single largest market for organic products in the world. A result of an extensive analysis of the Canadian and EU organic production and certification systems, The Canada-European Union Organic Equivalency Arrangement allows the healthy exchange of imports and exports of certified products without need for additional certification.

Embracing E-Waste Recycling

It appears everyone is getting into the act, including the annual Live Green Toronto Festival where visitors recycle nearly 3,300 media items in one day – swapping good DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs and records to keep them out of the landfills. Since 2004, Canada-based Sony, Panasonic, Bell and other companies have stepped up their own recycling programs, recognizing that while technology enhances our lives the downside is the short life cycle and ultimate disposal of products that can break down in landfills and poison the environment. As members of Product Stewardship Canada which implements recycling solutions for end-of-life electronic products, the companies participate in take-back programs in Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Nova Scotia, and will soon expand to other provinces.

Making Way For More Bikes

Not all commuters are thrilled about it, but Vancouver’s mayor, Gregor Robertson, who peddles to work each day, is making way for bike lanes in the bustling city. Gregor recognizes that a true commitment to being the greenest includes letting more bikers share the streets – yes, even those bikers who forget to wear helmets or signal when they change lanes. Does it make the city a better place to live? Well, according to the Globe and Mail newspaper, biking improves cardiovascular health which makes people happy, reduces gas and bills and makes the air cleaner – which pleases Fraser Valley, where Vancouver’s pollution blows.

Images: Coolin Sights; Mediamag; Lightrailnow; CBC;The Globe and Mail, alexindigo

Drying For Freedom is a documentary about the very real repercussions of owning a clothesline.

Do you dare to use a clothesline? You represent a dying breed and quite possibly, a hindrance to progress.

Steven Lake, the director of Drying For Freedom, a film exploring a “new eco battlefield where communities and individuals are banned from drying their clothes naturally outdoors,” says his journey into the wild world of dirty clothes has proven to be a wash when it comes to understanding why people disapprove. Blame it on corporate America selling the dream of electric bliss with the Reagan family as poster children to post-World War II America, creating electric consumption with total disregard for the future carbon impact on the planet.

Whoever kicked it off, it’s become a U.S. born and bred disease that is crossing oceans and infecting underdeveloped countries who aren’t used to laundry convenience.

Lake says it all started when he first Googled the word ‘laundry,’ and learned from Wikipedia that clotheslines are banned in some countries. He was hooked.

“This especially interested me about a place like North America, and seemed a real contradiction about Americans and how much they’ve paid and fought for the price of freedom and that they’ve seemingly and willingly given it up by restricting themselves in their own homes,” says Lake, who seeks to understand how a simple single act which cuts carbon emissions and reduces energy bills could be frowned upon in a time of acute environmental awareness and a return to economic frugality.

Traveling the globe, talking to homeowners, neighborhood associations, appliance dealers, police and environmental advocates, Lake sought to find out why laundry hung out to dry is grounds for prosecution, fines and in one instance in Alabama, murder.

Drying For Freedom Director, Steven Lake

“That people didn’t have the desire and sometimes the right to be environmentally friendly was unsettling,” says Lake, giving the example of the state of California with 300+ sunny days and so few people hanging clothes out to dry as an example.

“It’s these little things that will save us and add up.”

According to The Guardian, by washing and drying a load every two days, an average individual creates around 440kg of CO2 each year (roughly 970 pounds), which is the equivalent to flying from London to Glasgow and back with 15-mile taxi rides to and from the airports.

“Part of the problem is that tumble dryers (like dishwashers and washing machines) generally use electricity to generate their heat. This is typically more than twice as carbon-intensive as creating heat from gas – for the simple reason that, in the case of electricity, most of the energy in the fuel gets wasted up the cooling tower of a power plant, with yet more getting lost in transmission to the home,” reports The Guardian.

With the ability to hang a rope between two trees, not only could the typical homeowner save money, they could greatly shrink their carbon footprint. But sometimes that simple gesture of putting up a clothesline isn’t up to the homeowner.

In the case of the murder in Alabama, Lake says “One man had a clothesline and the other man pulled it down, the man put it up and the man who had the clothesline shot the man who kept pulling it down.”

While Lake agrees the deeply troubled neighbor took matters unquestionably further than most of the stories he documented, it still brings to light the question of why people see clotheslines in such a negative way. What do clotheslines connote culturally for Americans, as well as other cultures?

“If you have a clothesline, it means you are either anti-progress or you just can’t afford it and that means you are the worst kind of person because it looks very ‘ghetto,’” says Lake. In the documentary, a member of a homeowner’s association calls it the same and even his association members are taken aback. In status-conscious American culture, an environmentally, economically sensible and simple act takes on shades of class divide.

AlterNet reports that 57 million Americans – approaching one person out of five – live in homes regulated by homeowner associations (HOAs). Many of these private associations hold sway not only in exclusive neighborhoods but in many more modest neighborhoods like condominium complexes.

“They have sweeping powers to enforce so-called restrictive covenants, which can control almost any aspect of the property, from the size of the house or garage down to details like changes in paint color or placement of basketball hoops. When a house is sold, the covenant goes with it,” reports AlterNet.

Often, these “covenants” include the clothesline ban and leave no wiggle room for exception.

Many have felt the law tightening too quickly with urban sprawl encroaching on older neighborhoods bereft of any stringent clothesline laws. In rebellion, some homeowners have become inspiring clothesline activists, which Lake documents in his film through inspirational tales like Clotheslines For Change.

Clotheslines For Change reports that as of 2009, “passage of ‘right to dry’ legislation in Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont, together with legislative efforts on this front in Connecticut, Oregon, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Nebraska, and New Hampshire, were largely attributed to Project Laundry List’s ongoing efforts.” Since the 1970s, Florida has also had a solar rights law that protects most property-owners from the intrusions of community associations.

Drying For Freedom Director, Steven Lake

But because diseases are contagious and homeowners are many, I asked Lake whether he thinks he can really throw a curve ball into the face of change when it comes to inspiring people to put out a clothesline and save energy.

There are a few things to take into consideration, says Lake. One is that the U.S. has sent a very powerful message to the world that we should make life more convenient and thus use more energy which is “infectiously moving on into other cultures and exporting bad habits.”

“We can also send a message out to the U.S. exporting culture which is targeting India and China not to do as we do,” says Lake, “and because we have such an infinite source of credit through borrowing and loans we can’t quite judge the value of not paying for electricity that powers our dryers and I’m not sure we will have this awareness about many parts of our lives without something terribly drastic happening.”

On the Drying For Freedom site, Lake writes: “This is an environmental documentary, but it’s also about characters; the people involved in this fight, for and against it. It’s the passion behind these individuals that drives us to tell this story. Whether you agree with them or not, everyone believes they are right and that is strength of belief which is often hard to find in people these days it’s hard to explain to people why on earth we would be making a documentary all about clotheslines! There are times I’ve doubted it myself, but I always remember why our team got so involved in the first place. It’s different and it matters to us.”

Image: This Tiny House, Drying For Freedom

What you should know about collaborative hands moving mountains  – one volunteer, festival and tweet at a time.

As Japan’s global relief missions move quickly to aid the mind boggling earthquake and tsunami recovery, school students throughout the U.S. are holding bake sales to swap lopsided muffins and chewy brownies for the feeling of being part of the giant cog of good will.

In many respects, this is how the little guns that run lesser known nonprofits make a dent, using what fuel and funding they have to reach out and stir passions. In essence, it’s about changing the world via one dougnut, app or Tweet at a time.

Here are some of the little engines that could make a significant dent in aiding women, children and the planet at large.

1. Halting the Recruitment of Underage Killers

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

If war is hell for adults, you can imagine its toll on children. That’s what we’re up against in Uganda, Lebanon, Bosnia and elsewhere, where kids are forced under extreme duress to shoot weapons, plant mines or explosives and live under horrendous conditions without adequate food or healthcare. Despite global condemnation, hundreds of thousands of children have battled and died in world conflicts, and as many young girls have been subjected to rape and sexual enslavement. Desertion is often punishable by death.

Mission: Headquartered in London, its goal is to promote international and regional legal standards halting the military recruitment or engagement of any young person under 18 in hostilities. Through advocacy, research and monitoring, the coalition pushes for enforcement of the standard by all armed groups, governmental and non-governmental, and humanitarian organizations.

2. Power to the People

Ms. Foundation for Women

What has Ms. and Gloria Steinem done for you lately? While this foundation was started in 1972 at the height of the feminist movement, it has expanded by leaps over 35 years, growing seed funding from $87,000 in start-up grants to an endowment of $24 million. If money talks, then this effort is screaming about ending discrimination and inequity once and for all by giving women the collective power – and funds – to ignite change for generations to come.

Mission: Imbuing women with wisdom and tools to solve on their own problems of poverty, violence, discrimination and other forms of injustice; delivering strategic support to over 150 trailblazing organizations that are advancing women’s solutions for change at decision-making tables across the country.

3. Sew and Dress for Green Success

Clothing Matters

Founded by Martha Swain, who runs sustainability workshops to further her mission from a shop in Grand Rapids, Mich. which she opened with $400 to sell both apparel and ideas to a global community. The nonprofit connects companies and customers working to shift what we wear – from plastic materials cranked out in sweat shops to natural fibers of the highest quality and sustainability – amounting to one of the world’s best examples of socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing.

Mission: Work with domestic and overseas partners whose policies and practices exceed Fair Labor Organization standards. Commit to supporting practices that conserve natural resources, reduce pollution and promote social justice.

4. Food for Thoughtful Consumption

Food and Water Watch

Not so puny with 12 offices in the U.S., but not a household name either, this nonprofit cares about food, water and fish being safe, accessible and sustainably produced – in addition to monitoring abuses of farm workers such as the so-called “serfs or Arkansas” flocking to the poultry industry. The goal is to keep clean and affordable water flowing to homes, protect the quality of oceans and force governments to protect and educate their citizens.

Mission: Encourage a world where all people have access to affordable, healthy and wholesome food and clean water to meet basic needs – a world in which leaders take responsibility to manage essential resources sustainably.

5. Wind in Our Sails, Lower Utility Bills

American Wind Energy Association

They’re not just blowing hot air when it comes to this clearinghouse for communicating facts and ideas about alternative energy. The AWEA considers itself the hub of the wind energy industry with 2,500 members looking to promote, build and buy wind power technology around the world. Working with Congress, industry leaders and small businesses, the goal is to further U.S. leadership in the production of small wind turbines (100 kilowatts and less), generating power that reduces energy bills while protecting the environment.

Mission:Focusing on our economy, environment and energy security, AWEA seeks to power a cleaner America by promoting wind power growth through advocacy, communication and education.

6. Walk the Line

Rails to Trails Conservancy

Included in a read as one of the best 100 nonprofits to work for, this Washington, D.C.-based body promotes the development of thousands of miles of beneficial trails where old defunct rail lines once meandered through the national landscape. In doing so, it seeks to create a nationwide network of trails to connect corridors and build healthier places for healthier humans.

Mission: Attracting 150,000 members since its start in 1986, it looks to 9,000 miles of potential rail trails waiting to be built to span communities, regions, states and the entire country.

7. Stir a Cure

The Cancer Project

As we struggle to find holistic approaches to combating the disease that reaches one million more people each year, the project advances prevention and survival through nutrition education and research. Taking this new direction in the battle, the project provides classes, books, video programs, fact sheets and other educational materials on prevention and the value of health diet changes. Its hands-on nutrition classes are gaining increased popularity and helping survivors and families adapt to diets that have proven results.

Mission: Make cancer prevention a top priority and improve survival after a diagnosis by providing comprehensive information about the role of dietary factors in keeping people healthy.

8. Pleasure Principle

Clitoraid

If we have come a long way, then how does Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) affects some 130 million women in the world today? This horrific practice in Africa, Asia and the Middle East carries lifelong psychological and physical effects – and truly is a barbaric way to keep women down.   Clitoraid aims to correct the wrong through surgery while completing a $200,000 Pleasure Hospital in Burkina Faso, West Africa, offering free medical services for physical restoration and rehab for FGM victims.

Mission: Training and education for clitoral repair surgery for victims and empowering them to reach their first orgasms as a way of celebrating sexual freedom and pleasure for all women in the world. Promoting campaigns against female excision and sharing pleasure, hope, kindness and femininity.

9. Compassionate Nesting

Housing Works

The double whammy of AIDS and homelessness is too much for a civilized society to take. Housing Works is made up of a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS with advocacy offices in NYC, Albany, Washington D.C. Mississippi, Haiti and Puerto Rico. Through grassroots efforts it fights for funding and legislation to ensure people with HIV/AIDS have homes, healthcare and other life-sustaining services, and legal protections from discrimination.

Mission: To end the dual crisis of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, provision of lifesaving services and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain its efforts.

10. The Race to Somewhere Happy

Project Appleseed

Its website poses the poignant question: Why wait for Superman? When it comes to improving our dismal public school offerings, parents are now taking the initiative, spurred on by disturbing documentaries like Race to Nowhere, which bashes the daily grind with a refocus on the thriving child who is educated for the current age and allowed an elusive childhood in the process.

Mission: For parents, grandparents, schools, faculty or any other caring adult to pledge to help our community’s children achieve a truly independent future by reforming public schools, including district evaluations, fitness and nutrition, funding, green schools and technology and six slices of parent involvement and engagement.

Tell us about a nonprofit that deserves to be heard: tips@ecosalon.com.

Images:  Pink Sherbet Photography, Warchild; Saltysoul; Food & Water Watch; AWEA; The Cancer Project; Housing Works; Project Appleseed; Clitoraid; Black Sexual Politics

Tips for saving money on gas.

Gas prices are going up, again, and they might not be going down anytime soon. In the short term it’s painful, but in the long term, it may well be a useful reality check. High prices serve as a good motivator for all of us to be mindful of fuel conservation and reduce our own carbon emissions, saving money while we’re at it. Here are 11 ways you can conserve gas on the road, at home, and while you play.

Beware of public transportation. If you have a good public transportation system, by all means, use it. However, the good news is – more people will be using it. The bad news is – more people will be using it. State and federal budgets have been taking a beating, so that means that public transportation systems have had their share of cuts. The American Public Transportation Association has warned Congress that transportation systems could be overloaded if gas prices continue to rise. More funds for public transportation systems are more important now than ever, so start writing your politicians. In the interim, carpooling is another good option, and it goes without saying, drive a car with the best gas mileage that suits your budget and your needs.

Make friends with a mechanic. For those who do not have a public transportation system, no good bike path system, and have to drive – the first step is to make sure your car is in good condition. Correct tire pressure, clean air filters, wheel alignment and good general car maintenance will optimize your gas mileage.

Lose some weight. Get rid of any excess items you are carrying around in your vehicle. Extra weight makes your car work harder and use more gas. Also lose the sports racks, luggage boxes, and any other accessory that creates drag on your car when you aren’t using them.

Learn to (eco)drive. Back to driver’s education class, everyone. Give up your jackrabbit starts, quick braking, variable speeds, and just plain speeding. Embrace the posted speed limit, use cruise control whenever possible, and choose routes that have fewer stops and starts even if they are a little longer distance.

Wear deodorant. Lots of it. Summer is coming, and with it hot temperatures. While late model cars are pretty efficient, running your air conditioning can consume up to 20% more gas, so use the 4-40 rule. When driving under 40 m.p.h, roll down your (four) windows and feel the breeze. Driving over 40 m.p.h. increases the drag on your car (negating any benefit from not using your air conditioning), so roll the windows up and use your air conditioning sparingly. If you really want to avoid any impact on your fuel efficiency, drive with the windows up, the air conditioning off, and use your air vents.

Hone your time management skills. Condense all your errands into one trip on one day, instead of going out multiple days. Also, buy your gas in the early mornings or evenings when it’s cooler. Cooler gas is denser, so you get more for your money (the pump only measures volume).

Cut off ties to activities more than 10 miles away. Find things to do nearby instead. Ones that you can walk or bike to are even better. Learn to love your neighborhood and your town.

Vote for your town to build more bike paths. As much as we need better and extended public transportation, a plan to build more bike paths is a good idea in the long-term, too. Biking or walking is healthier and does more to alleviate carbon emissions than even taking public transportation. Currently, in many places, biking is simply too dangerous to be a good method of transportation. Wider road shoulders and sidewalks, paved bike trails and a refresher course of road rules regarding right-of-way for bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers are all good ideas.

Let your grass grow. Buck the neighborhood association rules and consider some natural landscaping. If you must have a manicured lawn, take stock of your power tool inventory. Before you get out your power mower, leaf blower, edger, and other gas-driven yard implements, consider replacing them with manual tools. Buy a push mower and use hand clippers, a rake, and a manual edger and you can get a workout, have a beautiful yard, save on gas and lower emissions.

Don’t go into the office. If your work permits it and your boss can be persuaded, work from home when you can.

Rethink your recreation. Gas-powered boats, jet-skis, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, dirt bikes, and recreational vehicles are all popular forms of entertainment, but it might be time to change how we spend our free time and look for non-gas-powered alternatives. Some of those weekend activities could become prohibitively expensive this summer.

image: Don Hankins

The modern world needs to shut up.

Every weekday I walk to work along one of my city’s streets, and I’ve given up trying to listen to my mp3 player. I mouth frustrated obscenities at the roaring cars and replay scenes from I Am Legend in my head. I wish they would just stop. Yet it’s this wearisome racket that could help meet our future energy demands.

Question – what is noise? Energy, in the form of waves of pressure? No, that’s sound. Defining noise requires that damning, planet-ruining word “useless.” Unwanted, irritating and seemingly unavoidable, as a by-product of everything mechanical we are beholden to. We make the skies roar, the ground tremble, and we drown out the rhythms of the natural world until the biophony (of which we are a part) is in total confusion. It’s the human race’s noisy, angsty teenage years, and we’re turning it up to 11.

How can we fix this? “Stop at source” seems logical, but we live in a world so attuned to noise that electric car manufacturers are forced to add artificial engine sounds for safety reasons. So what do we do instead? We hide from it, soundproofing ourselves into happy ignorance or diverting it so it’s somebody else’s problem. Fingers in ears, lalalalala.

Luckily, there are signs it’s just a phase we’re going through.

The next generation of acoustic engineers are working hard to turn this acoustic nuisance into a power source. Enter the SONEA, a 7kg box you stick on your noisiest outside wall. Every single decibel of vibrating air smacking into it will generate 30 Watts of power (or so the designers claim) – just enough to keep the average CFL burning.  But just think what an array of them will do. An array facing the main runway at Heathrow Airport, or slung under a bridge on North America’s busiest highway. Even if the technology falls short right now, the potential is staggering.

But we’re not done. Why not help solve the fuel crisis as well? As New Scientist reports, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered a way to turn noise into an electrical charge that can break up water into oxygen and hydrogen. At 18% efficiency it’s a step up from existing piezoelectric (pressure-generated electric) technology – and it creates hydrogen fuel from water, or “a free lunch” in the words of the team’s lead researcher.

Just how far away are we from sound-harvesting architecture? Concept designs are already tweeting their way across the Internet, such as the Urban Transducer skyscraper with its frequency-tuning panels that hunt down the noisiest Hertz. Are we seeing the start of a whole new form of alternative energy gathering? Imagine a production line of energy collectors, with acoustic technology transforming the eco-friendly whump-whump of a wind turbine into even more juice.

It all sounds good from where I’m standing – with my fingers in my ears.

Images: nrbelex and Yanko Design.

So the joke goes that there’s a guy stranded on the roof of his house. Flood waters are rising and he’s praying to God for help. A couple of kids come by in a canoe and say, “Hey Mister! Jump in!” Preoccupied with prayer, he ignores them and they paddle away. Soon the water level is higher and the local sheriff comes by in a dinghy, “Get in, pal! It’s gonna get worse!” The man says, “Please, officer, not now, I must focus on the Lord!” Before long the waterline breaks over the roof of the house and a helicopter comes by, dangling a rope ladder. “Climb up!,” the pilot shouts above the roar of his engine. With the water raging and chopper wind blowing fiercely around him, the man screams, “Leave me! The Lord will save me!” Finally, the flood overcomes the man. As he’s being swept to his doom he looks to sky and asks, “Oh Lord, why have you left me to die?!” “Left you to die?!,” booms the Almighty, “I sent you a canoe, a dinghy and a helicopter, you idiot!”

I couldn’t help but think of this joke when I heard the infamous and honorable Representative from Illinois, John Shimkus (who is currently seeking the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce panel in the next Congress), tell us that we don’t have to worry about global warming. Only God, says Shimkus, can destroy this earth, not man, and after all, He made a deal with Noah not to flood us out any more. I feel like shaking this guy and saying, “your Guy’s sending you data and science and smart people, you moron! He’s speaking to you and he’s saying: ‘Save thyself!’”

The War on Science is on and some people are telling us that He/She/It doesn’t believe in global warming and neither should you. By way of background, here’s a right-on quote from a blogger on About.com: “One of the principle driving forces behind all this [science] denial is a desire to get around the conclusions of science when they conflict with some preferred ideology – political, economic, religious, whatever.”

The political and economic issues behind climate change denial seem clear. As my father used to say, it’s always about two things: money and dollars. Corporate polluters have a record of funding efforts to portray good science as bad, promoting the notion of “science impotence” (portraying science as a  failure based on the fact that certain phenomena remain “unexplained”), and of course funding the campaigns of science deniers (take a guess where BP put its money this last election cycle). But what’s with the religious attacks? I mean, if you’re looking for something apocalyptic, global warming experts are offering up some crash and burn on a silver platter.

Of course there’s a thesis to be written here and we can go back to Descartes gumming up Church works with his thinking therefore am-ing, and then, of course, there’s our man Darwin who really queered the deal. But while portraying evolution as a theory as opposed to fact might be harmless enough (if ignorance can ever be harmless), denying changes in the weather puts people at risk. I don’t want to question Rep. Shimkus’ sincerity of motives; let’s not presume that his beliefs are really a front for corporate-backed efforts to derail climate change legislation. But his (and other policymakers‘) anti-science stance is dangerous and is based on antiquated thinking that precludes the coexistence of science and biblical creationism, something our greatest theologians would find ignorant, at best.

The truth is, there’s plenty of room for theology to exist alongside science and even support its conclusions as perhaps information coming straight from God’s workshop – tools “delivered” to us so that we might better love and protect ourselves and our neighbors. Whether or not one believes in creationism as the genesis of life, analysis of facts on the ground is just that – and a method to help preserve that life, wherever it comes from. Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, alternative energy technology is a gift from, well, just ask the folks at the Evangelical Climate Initiative.

You know, whatever one believes (or doesn’t believe), it’s important to have enough sense to come in out of the rain. You might even consider such a logical maneuver as taking refuge in God’s house. In any case, most of us can agree to this: finding a port in a storm beats going down with the ship.

Image: radiant guy

The White House is going solar (again). Two weeks ago, Nancy Sutley, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced at a “GreenGov” symposium plans to install solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the roof of the executive residence next spring. This, they say, is “a project that demonstrates American solar technologies are available, reliable, and ready for installation in homes throughout the country.” Nice. But while the Obama administration’s promotion and support of alternative energy is encouraging, if not exactly aggressive, I’m reading these greening of the White House stories and am not sure whether to be encouraged or depressed. To be sure, this solar panel installation is a good thing. Likewise, it was a good thing four presidencies and three decades ago – when we did it the first time.

Maybe it’s because we’re staring down the barrel, so to speak, of a 1994 redo; a tragic, almost identical backslide to the one that took place on the Hill in the midterms of 15-plus years ago. With this history repeating itself right now, the idea of traction on issues like solar power seems so fleeting. To wit, I bring you Jimmy Carter, who installed similar panels on the mansion to much fanfare in 1979.

It was a move supporting his energy policy, which he discussed in a famous televised speech a few years prior: “Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation and to the use of coal and permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power.” he told us. “It is a problem we will not solve in the next few years, and it is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century.”

Ronald Reagan’s ascendancy put an end to that nonsense – immediately and completely. “The budget for the [Solar Energy Research] Institute – which President Jimmy Carter had created to spearhead solar innovation – was slashed [under Reagan] from $124 million in 1980 to $59 million in 1982. Scientists who had left tenured university jobs to work [on the project] were given two weeks’ notice and no severance pay,” Arthur Allen wrote in Mother Jones back in 2000, just months before another Big Oil president would take office. “By the end of 1985, when Congress and the administration allowed tax credits for solar homes to lapse, the dream of a solar era had faded”¦ Solar water heating went from a billion-dollar industry to peanuts overnight; thousands of sun-minded businesses went bankrupt.”

In 1986, when work was done to fix a leaky roof, President Reagan took down the panels. “By ripping the solar thermal (aka solar hot water) panels off the White House roof in the mid 80s to make a “˜statement’ against alternative energy – and for oil – Reagan was instrumental in killing the U.S. solar thermal industry,” says Lisa Margonelli, Director of the Energy Productivity Initiative at the New America Foundation. Sadly, she also informs us that the Virginia company that made the White House panels was out of business by 1991.

So here we are again, more than a quarter of century later, and Obama’s repeat of Carter’s gesture leaves us to wonder where we would be today “if only.” Think about 30 years of intensive, subsidized investment in solar power – or wind, for that matter. How different would our world be today? I’m not just talking about global warming and environmental issues here. I’m talking about jobs. I’m talking about geopolitics. I’m talking about war and peace.

Ironically, as recent as last month, in an effort to avoid comparison to the ill-fated, one-term Carter administration, the Obama White House looked like it was about to balk at installing the panels. So the turnaround (albeit symbolic) this close to election time does indeed show some alternative energy chops.

I hope they’ll still be there in 2015.

Image: Beverly & Pack

Every time I pass a Best Buy, Wal-Mart or Target, I can almost see a pulsing blue aura hovering around the mammoth plex; or rather, an anti-halo that screams: “This facility couldn’t give a rat’s ass what it eats. Enjoy your rolling blackouts this season.” And inside, I hear the hum: A diffuse but powerful white noise surrounding me like a florescent radioactive soundtrack. This, I think, is the sound of energy consumption.

I would never have expected any of these shops to own up to the issue and take some (expensive) steps to deal with retail energy crime. But IKEA may be stepping to the plate.

The often mysterious Swedish (or is it Dutch) superstore has been making a bunch of noise regarding green corporate responsibility in recent years, from investment (IKEA GeenTech venture capital) to sourcing and sustainability. And though the store certainly has its critics, the shop is digging deep to find out ways to deal with facility energy usage. To that, witness its geothermal energy heating and cooling plans for its new Centennial, Colorado (near Denver) store scheduled to open next fall.

IKEA worked with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to design and build the geothermal system, which will be buried under the store’s parking garage. Way under. Like 500 feet-ish under (that’s down, down, a football field down and then down some more), where some 130 pipes will pump liquid that will cool and be brought back to the surface to heat or cool the facility, depending on the season.

Explains Triple Pundit: “When warm air at the surface is passed over the cool pipes, the air gets cooler. When the air is cooler than the liquid, it is warmed as it passes over the pipes.  Meanwhile, the geothermal technology helps to maintain a building’s relative humidity at 50%.”

When it’s super hot or cold outside, the system won’t be able to do the job by itself, but most of the time it’ll be able to take care of business.

IKEA says the system may serve as a model for future stores. NREL Senior Geothermal Analyst Erin Anderson (above, on-site) adds: “The IKEA/NREL project could be the benchmark for a credible standard for geothermal installation in large-scale retail stores nationwide”¦ We’re trying to collect data on how it actually performs, which could prove invaluable to future projects. By collecting actual live data on the performance of systems, you have better insight on what needs to be improved. We’ll be able to say with confidence, ‘if you do it this way, it will work this well.’”

At the end of the day, it’s not like your next trip to IKEA will be “hum-free” or that the halo will be any less toxic – much less saintly. It’s positive, though, that these things aren’t going wholly unnoticed. Whether it’s good consciousness or just good PR for the big box shops to show some energy manners, a reduced footprint is a reduced footprint. Let’s hope some more shops dig deep for some answers, as well.

Images: Håkan Dahlström and Pat Corkery