GreenerThinker

Why Women Opt Out of Math/Science Careers

2009-03-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't say that I was particularly alarmed, mostly because I see the evidence everyday, but I found a new article that cites why women are absent from math or science careers.

You can find the article here.

Basically they confirmed that the typical age of child-rearing coincides with the most intensive period of academic lifestyle (ie getting tenure, pursuing promotion, etc). I don't think that is particular to just math/science careers, but pretty much the evidence suggests that women have to make a choice between having children and pursuing a promoted career.

I believe though that it is becoming more and more common to see companies and universities offer a delayed tenure package, as the article suggests. Slow going, but things will change.

My New Iphone App: Cow Fart CO2

2009-03-04T19:36:00.000-08:00

After a long and arduous journey, my Iphone application finally made it to the Apple Itunes store. Click here to open up ITunes: http://tinyurl.com/bdd2sv

The application is called Cow Fart CO2. It measures your carbon footprint in terms of cow farts. Nice.

If you are thinking about publishing an app, here are the steps you will have to take.

0. Own a Mac. Own an Iphone.
1. Get the Iphone SDK.
2. Plan out what you want to do
3. Read the forums, read the tutorials, and don't give up on Objective-C.
4. Make sure everything works on the Iphone Simulator
5. Think about whether you want your app to be sold within a company (LLC is best), or if you want to have your personal name attached.
6. Apply to the developer program.
6. Pay $99.00
7. Pay $300.00 if you file for an LLC
8. Wait for 1-2 months
9. Get an e-mail from Apple; fax legal documents.
10. Wait for 2 weeks
11. Obtain a developer license
12. Rip out your hair as you try to figure out how Apple's black box code-signing ritual works.
13. Remember not to throw your Iphone at the wall when your code-signing works after 5 hours of tweaking and fiddling and then realize that your binary won't compile for whatever reason.
14. Read the forums and thank those who help you figure it out.
15. Submit your application to the I-Tunes store.
16. Wait for 2 weeks.
17. Get rejected, resubmit again for making a stupid error.
18. Get the glorious e-mail from apple saying your app has now been listed!!!
19. Make bank...or not.

The Girl Effect

2008-12-05T13:51:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure how long this has been around, but this makes an enormous amount of sense.

Here are some quick facts from the website:
1) When a girl in the developing world receives 7 or more years of education, she marries 4 years later and has 2 fewer children.
2) Educated girls grow to be educated women, who end up having healthier babies.
3) When girls earn an income, they reinvest 90% of it back into their families
4) 75% of HIV-infected youth in Africa are girls

Sustainable Home Insulation

2008-11-18T13:08:00.000-08:00

I've been working diligently on a project for my Materials Design class. I just finished.

Below you can look at my presentation for the Design of a New Material for Home Insulation. Hope you learn something!

Cork-Concrete

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Let's Try This Again

2008-09-23T00:56:00.000-07:00

It has definitely been a long time since I have last posted. My bookmarks of possible articles to comment on has grown exponentially large...to the point that I may have to just dump the whole thing and concentrate on the new stuff that's coming in.

These past few months have been relatively intense. Most notably, I was studying close to 5 hours a day for the past 3 months in preparation for my (2nd) attempt at the qualifying exam.

I am finally relieved to say that I PASSED!

Now...let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Technically, I've got something like 4 years left at this institution. That's 4 more years of sweating constantly. God forbid, it might be 4 more years of inhaling dangerous chemicals, which seems to be par for the course with my new research project (long range explosive detection system). I know, its quite a distance from sustainability, but hopefully in the next 4 years I will find some way of bringing it all together.

Or I could just leave this December with a Masters. For once, I'd have the opportunity to make a bit more money than my paltry above poverty salary. I'd also have the opportunity to travel to some great place, which doesn't have cockroaches, billions of geckos, millions of mosquitoes, or rampant bad smells of alcohol and swamp.

I guess we'll see what happens. I might even put up a poll soon to let you help ME decide.

Environmental legislation is eroding away

2008-07-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a lot of people excited about the environment these days. Heck, even Al Gore got a Nobel Peace Prize. But in actuality, where it counts most, the legislation is falling apart at its seams.

In addition to a lot of other depressing news, legislation supporting environmental causes is going backwards.

First, there was the news that Congress might not actually renew renewable energy tax credits when the previous bill expires in December. They might wait for the new president to take office. Luckily my main woman Barbara Boxer has about 4 bills in the pipeline, so if one gets defeated there are 3 others that could potentially pick up the slack. But if all 4 get defeated, you can kiss the wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable energy industries goodbye...at least for a year or two.

Second, the EPA has been working to put out legislation that calls for a cap and trade system of certain pollutants. Coming from the Bush administration, it was a weak proposal to begin with, but it was easily voted against by the U.S Court of Appeals. Then right after the ruling, the administration said it would take no more steps to enforce emissions under the Clean Air Act. Wonderful.

Third, today President Bush called for a lift of the off-shore oil drilling ban which is also embraced by McCain. I guess it would be nice to go to the beach someday and see some oil rigs pumping away.

I've never wanted November to come so soon.

TED and Japanese Energy Hungry Toilet

2008-06-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

First, let me mention in passing that I just discovered a REAALLY cool website which posts videos of famous people giving sometimes incredible presentations on just about anything interesting. Here is one that I liked about food:

Next up is this pretty weird article about Japanese toilets. Apparently there is a growing phenomenon of Japanese people buying toilets that have some crazy features. Here is an excerpt:

Japanese toilets can warm and wash one's bottom, whisk away odors with built-in fans and play water noises that drown out potty sounds. They play relaxation music, too. "Ave Maria" is a favorite.

High-end toilets can also sense when someone enters or leaves the bathroom, raising or lowering their lids accordingly. Many models have a "learning mode," which allows them to memorize the lavatory schedules of household members.

Thats pretty legit Washington Post reporting right there. All joking aside, there was a reason this article was in the "Green" section of the Post. Japan is notorious for energy conservation (hence origin of Kyoto agreement) so its a bit ironic that the growing fad is for something that consumes an enormous amount of energy just to make the bathroom experience more pleasant.

Oh the humanity.

Is it worth it?

2008-06-12T10:58:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I'm not the best at being sustainable, but I sure do try.

For example, right now I'm sitting in an air conditioned airport waiting for my flight to Atlanta to start boarding. Eventually I'll be going to California, which is about 2,700 miles away. Double that because I need to come back (unfortunately). So after punching in a couple numbers into TerraPass, I can calculate that this trip is going to produce at least 2,200lbs of CO2. WOW. That's equivalent to all the lights in my apartment running for 3 months straight, 24 hours a day.

BUT I walked and used the bus to get to the airport in the first place. AND I use energy efficient lights!

So do I still consider my efforts worthwhile?

Thats a tough question to answer, but the short end of the stick is yes. Living in America presents you with opportunities that are naturally going to make you make decisions that are more harmful for the environment. It's a combination of cheap energy and plentiful fuel-intensive activities.

If my ticket cost $2000 due to a higher environmental tax, I wouldn't have been able to afford the trip. But it doesn't, so I take advantage of the convenience.

I consider my efforts worthwhile because the small decisions towards sustainability can have more significant outcomes (atleast I'd like to think). Sure an airplane pollutes a ton, but choosing to eat locally empowers a healthier lifestyle for you and the environment for generations. Turning off the lights and the A/C for a few hours changes a behavioral mindset that says we always need everything "ON" to be happy. Riding a bike is like killing a lot of birds with one stone: exercise, sunshine, no gas and therefore no dependence on foreign oil. Although if you ride a bike in Gainesville, people will attempt to run you over.

The most important reason--of why this is all worth it--is that we are mindful. Just THINKING is saying that you care for future generations. Just being mindful of the hundreds of millions who live in extreme poverty is saying that you care that your lifestyle will not produce another burden for them to bear. For me, that is a starting point.

Facebook Stalking to a Green Lifestyle

2008-06-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

It's 4pm in the afternoon and you just got home from school. Time to get on to Facebook and see what your friends have been posting on each others' walls about that awkward party the night before. While viewing the latest debauchery, you find something intriguing. You notice that one of your best friends creates a group entitled "We go big or go home." You join because maybe at the party you witnessed some hilarious collegiate insanities. Maybe you join just because your best friend invited you and you thought it was something sweet to have in your repertoire of group listings. Or perhaps you're quiet by nature, and maybe by joining you can project yourself to be someone with a slight edge to their character. More appealing to others you think. Lets say in a week you get a group e-mail from "We go big or go home" advertising a ridiculous theme party. Do you think that you are more likely to put yourself out there (meaning, you go crazy) at this new party due in some part to your newfound group association? You have to live up to it right? ...

Now consider this finding: Harvard medical sociologist Nicholas Christakis and UCSD political scientist James Fowler found by scavenging a social network of nearly 12,000 people in a Boston suburb that 67% of smokers who had a spouse who recently quit smoking, also quit smoking. If a friend quit, the chances of quitting increased by 36%.

What in the hell do these two random pieces of information have to do about sustainability? Simple. Social networks can change human behavior. While the green movement has seen little movement within social networks, there are various campaigns being waged to quickly form a social network of activism. But I believe popular networks are largely untapped. Is it possible that maybe one day we will be stalking friends' profiles to see how much they recycled the day before, or how much energy they saved by turning off the lights. Will we ever receive the same juicy feedback that may enable us to quit drinking our morning Starbucks out of those ubiquitous white cups and substitute a cheap reusable coffee mug instead? What will it take for conservation to be the new hit item of the Mini-Feed?

Post Qualifying Exam Wisdom

2008-05-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took the qualifying exam as part of a two part process in achieving PhD candidacy for Materials Science. It was brutal. But I will try not to worry about the scoring process now underway, and instead focus on what my adviser calls "the experience and not the test."

So here it is...my experience. In short, despite the humbling 5 hour examination, I would have to say my preparation brought immense wisdom. Over the last several months, I have taken a myriad of facts, figures, and frustrations and have melded them into a story that has never before made so much sense. It's incredible what the brain can do. I have never felt that I could offer so much perspective into a field that was new to me only a year ago.

You can ask me about the compositions of iron and carbon in steel or how glasses are made on another day. But for now, I would like to outline a few reflections (or rather, connections) on how I see this field changing sustainability for the future.

First, we will have to confront the rising challenge of waste disposal sometime soon. Our landfills are filling at alarming rates with a growing world population and toxic leachate poses serious risks to a limited water supply. For this problem, I see biodegradable materials such as plastic made from starches (left over corn stalks, for example) as a step towards reducing our most immediate and physical impact on the environment.

Second, household lighting accounts for some obscene amount of typical energy consumption-I'm not aware of what the percentage is, but its high. Yes, the government can subsidize the solar industry. But more effective would be if all the incandescent lights were replaced with compact fluorescent lights (CFL), and even better than that would be Light Emitting Diodes (LED). I'll spare you the intense science, but basically very little voltages are needed to power an LED, and it has the added bonus of not having a toxic metal like mercury hiding inside like in CFL's. Mercury = Bad.

Third, better heat transfer materials are needed. What's heat transfer? Say you go into your apartment in Florida and despite keeping the blinds closed all day, you find yourself perspiring by just sitting and watching Dr. Phil. That's bad (or I guess it would be good?) heat transfer. An ideal solution would be to have some really good insulating material (and I'm not talking about the toxic fiberglass asbestos stuff) that keeps your apartment or house at a constant temperature so you never have to use the heater or the air conditioner. Materials that do this best are air gaps filled with straw, clay, or if you really want to get crazy, find a way to put an aerogel or foam inside. This is what NASA uses to keep astronauts from burning on re-entry. it was also featured on Extreme Home Makeover.

Lastly, lets utilize more "smart materials." How can a material be smart...one might ask. (I subsequently envision a piece of stone reading a book...ok I'm lame). They are materials which you can do something to, and they do something for you in return. We already have them in wide use. They are used in gas grill ignitors (you push on the button and BAM fire! Yay!...the push creates voltage which lights the fuel), and bras. Yes, bras. Shape memory alloys are inserted around the cups for stability, yet they can stretch, deform, and still hold their shape. Amazing. But actually I think these materials have even greater potential. Let's put them in floor tiling so as we walk we can harvest the energy to light our homes (Explained here) Let's put them in our car cupholders (if you really really have to have a car), so the heat from our morning coffee can keep our MP3 player powered up (Just imagine this in reverse). We expend energy everyday doing typical tasks, so lets have something that can conserve that energy and not create excess demand for power plants.

You would be surprised at how close we are to incorporating some of these ideas into our normal lifestyle. As environmentalism goes mainstream and more chic, the economics will work out. If only I could draft my own questions for the qualifying exam...

Emitting the Global Average

2008-05-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

I've been relatively dormant since my last post, but my efforts to be more sustainable have not let up. Many good things have happened to me, and I will be more than willing to share the results.

First, I sold my car and bought a bike. This was a HUGE decision for me, partly because I have always had immediate access to a vehicle. I remember when I was younger and I was totally into cars, and even as late as freshmen year in college I had a poster on my wall depicting all the various classic cars I wanted to have in my possession. I envied Jay Leno because I had heard he kept a garage full (thats an understatement, its more like a warehouse full) of classic cars. Then through college I gradually became more aware of the moral consequences of owning a car. Still I couldn't let myself give up that luxury. Last weekend, I gave up that luxury. While my decision was still half economical (owning a car was straining my already meager living stipend), I felt relieved that I no longer felt like a hypocrite. I felt relieved that I could finally walk the walk--that is, talk of sustainability, and also LIVE sustainability!

Since selling my car, I have already realized dramatic and somewhat comedic effects:
- I sleep much better at night
- My daily exercise has soared 200%
- Daily sun exposure to my pale skin has doubled
- I am genuinely happier
- I no longer feel direct effects of shifting oil prices

Now why have I titled this blog "Emitting the Global Average?" Since reading more and more about this global food crisis, I feel an obligation to be more considerate about the (hundreds of) millions of people who are less fortunate. The famous Gandhi quote comes to mind: "Live simply so others may simply live." I feel that a world more just, means we must all do our part to live simply. And there is a very practical, achievable goal that can ensure this. We can all choose to emit the global average. That means:

- Traveling less
- Eating lower on the pyramid
- Living in smaller places
- Biking/ Walking
- Buying less
- Using less services

One of the best carbon footprint calculators is offered by the Berkeley Institute for the Environment. Use it to gauge how much you emit compared to the global average, and then take the necessary steps to reduce your footprint. How committed are you?

"Cheap-Energy Mind"

2008-04-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I read a fantastic article by Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food) in the NYtimes about the "why bother" question that many seem to be asking. Why bother switching out incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescents, if a country like China is headstrong in its industrial revolution? Why bother going local when we don't know for sure what our impact on the environment really is?

The real question is, why should we bother changing our lifestyle when we can go about the way we live cheaply? What Pollan and almost every scientist agrees upon is that the way we live currently does not factor in such environmental costs. Yes my power costs $0.10/ kwh but surely that does not reflect the erosion mining causes, the trace amounts of heavy metals in my drinking water, and the gradual replacing of agricultural land for housing developments.

What is required of us (in the next 8 years actually) is a complete change in mindset. Perhaps we should forgo our TV for an hour and take a walk, become vegetarian for a day because the meat we consume costs an enormous amount of energy to generate, or drive a bit less because the ethanol in our gasoline is indirectly contributing to the current world food crisis.

These are not easy connections to make. But we owe it to ourselves and those less fortunate to find out. So change a light bulb and be happy you made a difference.

Comments...

2008-04-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

A few people have said they had trouble leaving comments on my blog. I'm not sure if this was user error or if I had some setting wrong, but I decided to make it so anyone could post. I also got rid of that pesky validation code thingy. So unless I start getting people posting about 0% financing on a new home, the security details will be gone. Hope that helps!

Lots of Sustainable Things

2008-04-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

Tuesday might have well been Sustainability Day. As soon as I got off my plane from California I jetted off to the Sustainable Products Trade Show at UF (yes, I recognize the irony in that statement). Remember my post about the 7:1 garbage bin to recycling bin ratio at UF? Well apparently, Florida is doing some things to lessen their environmental impact. Shocking. I failed to take some pictures of the event despite having brought my camera, but here is a list of some of the cool products that UF is actually buying:

- PLA (corn-based plastic) cups
- Biodegradable plates, plastic-ware, and cups for Gator Dining Services
- Electrical load management for the dorms (so you can see which dorm room is using the most electricity)
- Reusable, compostable, and recyclable, carpet made from sustainable resources
- "green" chemicals/reagents and water filtration systems for labs

As if that wasn't enough action for one day, I then scurried off to my department's weekly seminar, which featured a professor from UMich who spoke about Organic Photovoltaic fibers. Now, I'm not really sure about the practicality of this research, but it is encouraging to see someone trying to think about ways we can actually scale up solar research to make a real impact. Even at 40% growth a year, solar technology still has A LOT to make up to be competitive with fossil-fuel based technology.

My day concluded with my monthly GRU (local utility) meeting for Gainesville Energy Advisory Committee. Here I get to see how energy policy is crafted (or not) and implemented (or not) albeit at a local level. This month I discovered that its pretty difficult to enact energy conservation programs. The problem is that most energy conservation programs are difficult to measure, so their benefits are muddled. The utility would have a pretty large incentive to conserve more energy if they knew quantitatively what each measure would do. For example, how much do CFL's (those swirly energy efficient bulbs) actually save the utility, and who is using them?

One thing is for sure though. When I talked to a company spokesman for NatureWorks at the Sustainable Products Trade Show, I asked him if these seemingly obscure products were actually finding a way into the market. He replied, "The demand is absolutely huge. 10 years ago all this stuff was a fad or a fringe movement, but now it is serious money. These products are here to stay." That seemed like an accurate statement, especially after he pointed to the new biodegradable Kentucky Fried Chicken bag.

CA High Speed Rail

2008-04-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

This is a sweet potential project for high speed transportation in CA. I'm not foreseeing it getting built anytime soon, especially in the midst of a recession. Perhaps when Obama is President, it will get done :)

P.S Thanks Travis for unknowingly letting me rip this off of your Facebook profile.

The Business of Green

2008-03-31T06:18:00.001-07:00

It's no secret that businesses are starting to sprout up touting their green credentials. In the bay area, I've seen a whole lot of companies that have made a fortune out of "green consulting." Still, I volunteered for a non-profit that had dependable monthly donations in solar cells for low-income housing, which proves that the technology can trickle down to the most marginalized of our society.

Recently a New York Times feature showcased the movement behind green businesses. Such businesses have broad missions from manufacturing non-toxic and biodegradable products, to companies that try to make a business out of making others more sustainable.

Because of my natural entrepreneurial spirit, I am always fascinated by these environmentally conscious companies, but always somewhat doubtful of their abilities to turn a profit. Today's market seems to favor those who cut corners. But until then, I will savor such optimistic stories, and I will continue to sit back and wait for the winning formula.

There's Hope In Fast Food

2008-03-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

There was an uplifting article today in the Washington Post. Chipotle Mexican Grill is moving to 100% locally-raised pork for its carnitas burritos in all 700 of its Charlottesville stores. That's nearly 5 million pounds of naturally fed piggy meat a year.

This is a significant milestone for an industry plagued by unsustainable practices and decrepit moral values. I was beginning to doubt that with the USDA's favoritism towards McDonalds lobbying groups that there was any room for sustainable and organic food business models. Ok, so there is certified USDA organic, but it seems like that label can be smacked on almost anything.

Thank God we have Chipotle. The fast growing fast food chain has worked persistently to bring small farms into the distribution circuit, and their decentralized philosophy is helping local go national. They have bold goals of having all of its meat be locally raised in the near future, and they are grabbing organic ingredients as fast as the market will let them.

And their food is uber delicious.

7 to 1

2008-03-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

7:1 is the ratio of garbage to recycling bins at Florida, by my unofficial counting on the way to lab this afternoon. In short, Florida sucks at recycling.

I'm pretty environmentally conscious about my waste, so having limited recycling bins is only making the experience for those around me more unpleasant. Currently there is a nice pile of yellowish papers by my trash can, and before Jess visited last weekend there was a rather sophisticated pyramid of PET bottles on my desk. I'm not a squirrel (shocking, I know), so hoarding my trash isn't my forte.

What I realized today is that really miss is the recycling mindset of SCU (my alma mater for those who don't know). On that campus I always felt that it was inconvenient not to recycle. There were always eyes watching and judging me to see where I placed my piece of dirty plastic. When I went to a lecture a month ago on climate change, which ended up being a regurgitation of Al Gore's documentary, I asked the lecturer (who is a professor in my current department of Materials Science) why there weren't more recycling bins. It seemed like a stupid question. I got an answer that was more or less "why is this relevant." At these types of lectures, scientists have a tendency to cop out to big policy. They say, "our school needs to ratify the Kyoto Protocol" or "we all need to support renewable energy and buy fuel efficient cars" as if there were a team of administrators in the back that were going to respond "oh really? That's what we have to do? ok!" Hello...we're broke...we can't afford Priuses or renewable energy.

What I want is a simple, money saving solution that will also be good for the environment (and my hygiene, I guess). I would like one recycling bin outside my office so that I don't have to disgust my co-workers with my trash sculptures. I want to know that people are just as concerned with the little solutions as they are with the big.

Solar Sells

2008-03-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

That's not just a play on words. It's the truth. For those of you who do not watch CNBC, Google/Yahoo Finance, or your private online stock-broker, now is the time to start. A quick search will yield a myriad of investment mumbo-jumbo, so let me break it down:

- Last year solar stocks had a blockbuster year. Most major clean-energy funds that contain solar stocks in their portfolios gained nearly 50%. That's huge (especially to poor college students like you and I). Some individual stocks like First Solar, which makes a certain type of thin film cell, rose something like 200-300%.

- Worldwide silicon supply is experiencing a shortage. What does this mean? Well, it means that solar companies will have a tougher time making new products, which will affect their growth and earnings. First Solar (mentioned above) may not be able to sustain 300% growth. HOWEVER, what is also true, is that the companies that MAKE and SELL silicon to solar cell companies, can basically demand whatever price they want. Since there are only a handful of companies who actually do this right now, and even less who are publicly traded, I'm willing to place a well-educated bet that the CEOs of these companies will probably be getting a new Ferrari (or two) by the end of the year. :) And we may finally be able to pay off our college debt.

- The House just approved $17 billion in new renewable energy funding a month ago. Thanks to good ol' George Bush, this funding may never be spent (except for say, a "cleaner fuel source" for tomahawk cruise missiles), but it shows that Congress is ready to put some serious cash into the "clean-tech" industry. Match that with the billions that are already being poured into new companies in Silicon Valley on the scale of the dot-com era Venture Capital, and it's a pretty good indication there are quite a few people who have faith in these companies. As soon as we get a new president in office (Republican or Democrat) the floodgates will open.

- At the time of this writing, oil is $110 a barrel which translates to a national average of $3.22 per gallon of gas and will probably be pushed up to $4 soon enough. I won't even mention the gazzilion numbers of products that are made with oil or energy from it which will undoubtedly raise prices all-around. While that means investing in Exxon is pretty much guaranteed money, it also means for the investor with a *hint* of a conscience that renewable energy companies are getting plenty of attention (and funding).

Now, I don't want to sound like the messiah here and help you gamble all your money away. Like any good investor, I should put a disclaimer on my statements: with all that being said, solar stocks are still risky. Many are trading at nearly 18 times their earnings (eerily similar to the dot-com bubble syndrome), and some don't even have a legitimate product out yet. You practically need an iron stomach to handle the roller-coaster ride. But for those of you who do good research, you will see that the fundamentals are there. People want solar. There is much money to be had.

Yes, I did.

2008-03-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

I know. Everyone and their mom seems to be getting a blog these days. The truth for me is that this is not the first time. For those of you who remember, I was once a member of the Livejournal community. That was the time I found a blog useful for cataloging my adventures with the crew team, complaining about my awkward and inconsiderate freshmen roommates, and commenting relentlessly on teenage angst.

Now, nearly 5 years later, I feel just a little more mature. Just a bit. I hope this blog will be a distillation of my daily briefings of various news-sites, and my increasing knowledge base of technological solutions to looming worldly problems. I don't want to be another doom and gloom reporter, but rather a breath of fresh air. This will be a place where I can highlight different aspects of a movement that is coming into full force, but still has a long way to go to undo the damage that has already been done.

And, as with anything associated with my personality, I hope this blog will not be taken too seriously. I like to have fun...and sometimes lines are crossed. I can guarantee that this blog will be fun to read. So let me offer one hurrah for my entrance into this community, and one for the environment. I like this place we call Earth, and hopefully I can introduce you all to some greener ways of living.