The Chinese government has done little over the last decade to combat air pollution however there were hopes the being awarded the 2008 Olympics they would kick their “green campaign” into high gear both to protect the athletes and showcase Beijing as beacon of progress on the environmental front. It appears that this goal has not come to fruition. While it certainly is bad news for the athletes one can only hope that this debacle helps highlight to the world the environmental crisis caused by the voracious energy appetites of developing nations as well as put greater international pressure on the Chinese goverment to begin to tackle their environmental crisis.

Thanks to Engadget for the report of this innovative idea.

“We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers,” said Larry Page, Google Co-founder. “We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal.”

Currently Coal is a primary power source for many, supplying roughly 40% of the world’s electricity. The greenhouse gases it produces are one of the greatest environmental challenges we face in regards to global warming. Even the so called “Clean Coal” initiatives mentioned of late would have practically little effect in developing nations such as China where environmental concerns often take a back seat to feeding their countries voracious appetite for energy. If Google could provide a solution that is cheaper and has the added benefit of being green it would take huge burden off of our need to utilize fossil fuels (such as coal) generate power.

Given Google’s track record with innovation and their seemingly endless supply of cash this is one green initiative that may actually have some legs. We certainly wish them the best.

If this claim is true it heralds a major advance in the technology which many feel has great promise as the next revolution in eco-friendly lighting. While CFC’s help a great deal in reducing our energy usage they also contain Mercury which is a toxic substance that is often released into the environment by careless consumers who don’t dispose of their used CFC light bulbs properly.

The Department of Energy has estimated that LEDs could reduce national energy consumption for lighting by 29% over the next decade and a half.

Here are the results of their findings:

Bottom of the Barrel

* ExxonMobil
* ConocoPhillips

Middle of the Barrel

* Royal Dutch Shell
* Chevron
* Valero Energy Corporation
* Citgo

Top of the Barrel

* BP
* Sunoco

Read detailed results here

Many have chose cremation not for environmental reasons but because its substantially cheaper than a burial. However cremation releases dioxin, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide. It is estimated that cremation released 1,000 to 7,800 pounds of mercury into the air anually. Not a good way to go if you are a greenvangelical wanting to leave the earth on a better foot.

So what is the alternative? Well there is a small but growing cottage industry of ways to die green. Their answer, simple do what humans have done for years and bury the dead in the natural world and let natural processes do what they do best, recycle. I personally would rather my family visit a tree I helped nourish naturally than a concrete slab in a fertilized and watered urban park.

To find a provider near you please visit the site below.

greenburialcouncil.org/

While I applaud the leadership Mayor Bloomberg is taking on this issue it begs the question “can they do more?”. Consider that the most typical taxi cab in New York (and in most major American cities) is the Ford Crown Victoria and almost every police car is also a Crown Victoria it begs the reasonable assumption that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. There are over 7,760 vehicles in the NYPD – the largest in the nation. If as the mayor states the conversion of the cabs to hybrid cars will save the cab drivers money and help the environment it seems to logically follow that converting the cities fleet would also have the same win-win effect.