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Like the case of safety, insulated, & low-e glasses, government law mandates most effective use of product acceptance. Unfortunately, the stagnant growth of wage roll employees & pandering politicians in developed economies are inspiring outcries of protectionism from globalization.

Certainly the most affected segment of the population is those with limited skills & tenure. However, public policies addressing the advantages to adding millions of consumers & disadvantaged people in poverty & terrorist regions far outweigh the shortcomings. There is more. This issue should be focused on retraining.

If you go green, what will it look like? Will it be solar? Will it be clean coal? Will it be ethanol or biodiesel? Are government subsidies required to supplement technology to make it economical to develop? How fickle is the public to taxation to promote subsidies? In the U.S., clean energy is gobbling up ten percent of America’s venture capital. It’s estimated that investment into this activity has doubled between 2004 & 2006 to $63 billion.

As an example, a detailed analysis on the real cost of gasoline, done by the International Center of Technology Assessment, estimates the indirect costs of subsidies, tax breaks, depletion allowances, security costs, climate change, & health care costs of treating respiratory illnesses amounts to about $9 per gallon?in addition to the current price of $3 to $6 in world prices. There is more. This additional cost to the state could be offset by a significant reduction in individual tax rates instead of being spent on excessive social & medical programs.

Currently almost all clean energy relies on government subsidies to make it competitive with fossil fuels. For this reason voters pay either way in direct subsidies or higher prices. Unfortunately, government subsidies are an unstable foundation on which to build a business since politicians are a vacillating lot.

This is especially true because people look at green products & technology as a bonus with bragging rights for owners.

But these same people are less willing to pay the difference in price since future savings is a non-starter. This tendency will change, of course, as energy prices rise & the price of technology falls. There is more. The cost of generating wind power, for example, has come down to less than ½ per kwh.

The first solar powered cells were over sixty-five times more expensive than they’re today. While people may see a three-year payback, they can not see beyond the benefits because people in the U.S. often move every five to seven years. Convincing data isn’t enough since final decisions are wallet driven. Even with the law of diminishing returns consumers will have a pecking order of upgrades that they’re willing to pay for because green is still the color of money.

The price of oil hits the pocket of consumers in every non-energy producing country in the world. This influences greatly both manufacturing & transportation costs in Europe & the United States & will soon have an impact on China, India, & other oil-dependent regions. So… So something has to yield. In our industry, we have the real opportunity to make a contribution ? & it’s the issues we discuss at meetings like this that set the tone & direction for solutions.

Are we in the glass business or are we in the environmental business & we just happen to make glass? The answer to this question will impact the future of our industry.

Guardian is a diversified global manufacturing company headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, with leading positions in float glass, fabricated glass products, fiberglass insulation & other building materials for commercial, residential & automotive markets. There is more. Through its Science & Technology Center, Guardian is at the forefront of innovation including development of high performance glass coatings & other advanced products. Guardian, its subsidiaries & affiliates employ 19,000 people & operate facilities throughout North America, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa & the Middle East. To see the full text of the speech visit http://www.guardian.com

Guardian is a diversified global manufacturing company headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, with leading positions in float glass, fabricated glass products, fiberglass insulation & other building materials for commercial, residential & automotive markets. There is more. Through its Science & Technology Center, Guardian is at the forefront of innovation including development of high performance glass coatings & other advanced products. Guardian, its subsidiaries & affiliates employ 19,000 people & operate facilities throughout North America, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa & the Middle East. Please direct all media inquiries to Amy Hennes by phone at (248) 340-2109

Information is now being discovered & disseminated throughout the planet at an unprecedented rate. And so… So is misinformation. Global warming has all the makings of a catastrophe, but the powers that be would rather that you did not realize that… Here are some basic facts about the reality of global climate change.

Myth #1: Within the scientific community, debate persists as to whether or not anthropogenic (human-caused) gases are the primary cause of global warming.

Fact: Worldwide, climate scientists are united in agreement that the current rise in greenhouse gases & global temperatures are directly correlated to human-related causes. Mean temperatures across the globe are trending upwards, scientists agree. And so… Since the Industrial Revolution, the world’s consumption of fossil fuels has increased at an alarming rate & climate scientists consent that the combustion of these fuels are the primary culprits of global warming. Whatever debate exists does so in the popular media & political arenas. So… Skeptics are often spokespeople or “scientists” hired by industries that have a stake in new emission-cutting regulations or changes in consumer purchasing patterns that would curb global warming.

Myth #2: The current warming trend is just part of the natural cycle of rising & falling climate variation. A small shift in degrees isn’t a big deal.

Fact: While climate change does follow a natural cycle of fluctuation in global & regional temperatures over time, we’re experiencing a major increase in the rate at which climate change is occurring that doesn’t fall within the normal boundaries of global climate cycles. Right. While some animals & plants were able to adapt to slow changes over time, many will become extinct as a result of faster climate changes. Evolution requires time to change any given species-successful changes are made over thousands (or millions) of years. Clear? In contrast, scientists predict that the average global temperature will increase anywhere from 2.5 to 10.4 degrees F in the 21st century alone. Even though this may seem insignificant, such a shift across the entire globe will dramatically effect the more delicate ecosystems which are, in turn, connected to the function of each other system. The last Ice Age was only 5-9 degrees colder than today’s temperatures.

Myth #3: Global warming is a good thing; an extended warm season would be more comfortable & extend the growing season, thus increasing global food supplies.

Fact: While a small amount of warming might benefit some select regions, the negative effects of global warming will far outweigh any positives. Among the many expected results of global warming are: drought, flooding rainstorms, forest fire, & species extinctions. Many of the extreme weather events will occur in areas that are already experiencing trouble producing their own food because of resource depletion, specifically in the developing world where hunger is already prevalent. Furthermore, population density will further increase pressure on the globe as a result of the rising seas forcing people from their homes to higher ground. More mild cold seasons will invite non-native species, threatening the livelihood of native plants (which will already be under stress). Insects that pose threats to the well-being of humans will experience an evolutionary advantage as a result of larger areas being hospitable to them for longer periods.

Myth #4: Like examples of the past, humans can easily adapt to the effects of global climate change, especially with current & future technologies.

Fact: Even though humans can adapt to new climatic situations quite rapidly, there’re many notable historical examples of major population decreases as a result of climate change. If the global warming trend continues without action, the rate of increase & the degree of warming will exceed anything experienced since the beginning of human civilization. The fallout from global warming will drastically impact all aspects of modern human life, as well as the global economy with which we’re so intertwined. If industrialized nations are now able to fufill the prophecy spoken by so many media pundits & invent their way out of this crisis with technology, those countries lacking the resources to do the same will be left high & dry. The pressure from the movement of large groups of people displaced by global warming will be felt across borders, both political & socio-economic. Additionally, conflict over food & water will likely have a ripple effect across the globe.

It is clear that the need to act on global, industrial, political, & individual levels is imperative to address one of the biggest environmental challenge humans as a species has ever seen. Education is the first step; action is the next. The future is in our hands.

Sources:

Wang, James, PhD. & Michael Oppenheimer, PhD. “The Latest Myths & Facts on Global Warming.” Environmental Defense, 2005. [PDF]

“Myth Manners Thinks Abrupt Climate Change Would Be Rude.” Grinning Planet. June 21, 2005.

You are encouraged to reprint this article, but please include this resource box. The preceding article was provided by ACoolerClimate.com, home to many more articles encouraging others to take grassroots efforts to stop global warming. Please sign up to help disseminate this information & learn how you can assist the cause:http://www.acoolerclimate.com

Related Global Warming Article: Learn How To Help Stop Global Warming By Knowing Your Paper Recycling Facts

We are surrounded by environmental toxins. So… Substances that may cause distress or disease to our bodies can be easily found in everything that we eat, in everything that we drink & even in the air we breathe. And so… Some of these compounds are a by-product of an industrialized world. Heavy metals like lead & cadmium are released from factories or are produced as waste substances in the industry. We are also exposed to many naturally-occurring toxic substances.

For example, volcanic eruptions release much of the free mercury that can be easily found in the environment. Our bodies have a variety of mechanisms for dealing with this toxicity, but the current total load exceeds the body’s ability to adapt. When our bodies fail to break down or get rid of these toxins, the only other way to deal with them is through sequestration.

The body will attempt to deposit these compounds into tissue to reduce their potential damage. By example, lead may be sequestered into bone, displacing calcium & increasing the risk of osteoporosis. There is more. The overall load of these toxins is sometimes called our “Body Burden.”

A high body burden has been implicated in: Immunotoxicity - leading to asthma, allergies, cancers & chronic disease; Neurotoxicity - leading to cognition impairment, memory loss as well as sensory & motor dysfunction; & Endocrine toxicity - leading to reproductive issues, loss of libido & metabolic impairment. For lots more information see www.bodyburden.org

In research published in 2005, New York University School of Medicine researchers provided some of the most compelling evidence yet that long-term exposure to air pollution-even at levels within federal standards-causes heart disease. Previous studies have connected air pollution to cardiovascular disease but until now it was poorly understood how pollution damaged the body’s blood vessels.

Environmental toxicity is a global concern. These pollutants do not recognize national or political boundaries. As an example, Japan has experienced a phenomenon known as “yellow sands” over the past many years. There is more. This is caused by pollution blowing in from Chinese factories across the Sea of Japan.

In the air.
There’re now 1460 metric tons of airborne toxins that travel on the jet stream around the world. Because of this there is no place on the planet that can be actually considered a pristine environment. Facilities in the United States released 4.7 Billion pounds of toxins into the air in 2005- 72 Million pounds are known carcinogens.In 2005 the city of Chicago experienced 68 days when the air quality was too unhealthy for children, elderly & the ill. Coal-fired power plants spew sulfates, nitrates & mercury into the air. These compounds have been connected to more than 20,000 premature deaths each year.

In the Water.
There’re an estimated 7 Million illnesses & 1000 deaths each year in the United States from waterborne microbes. Chlorinated chemicals in drinking water from pesticides, herbicides & refrigerants have been connected to increased risk of breast cancer. Cyanobacterial toxins in municipal water have been connected to illness & disease worldwide. And so… Sewage treatment plant workers are at much higher risk of respiratory illness, skin rashes, headaches & body aches.

What about our food.
Environmental toxins work their way into the food chain. As of late 2005, 47 states have advisories to limit intake of freshwater fish due to mercury contamination. In 2005, the FDA reported finding chlorinated pesticides, like DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene - a breakdown product of DDT), in 63% of foods surveyed. Pesticides & Herbicides in food have been connected to many cancers.

The most surprising thing about our body burden is that we’re at risk even before we’re born. A study conducted in 2005 by the Environmental Working Group in cooperation with the American Red Cross examined the umbilical cord blood of newborns. There is more. They found that the average newborn has 200 different industrial chemicals, pollutants & pesticides in their blood. These included over seventy known carcinogens (toxins that may cause cancer). Other studies have found high levels of the metals cadmium & mercury in the breast milk of nursing mothers.

As we grow up we’re exposed to seemingly benign compounds that are even meant to benefit us but have been shown to have long-term negative consequences. By example, Fluoride in our drinking water has been connected to Osteosarcoma & Hypothyroidism. Additionally, vaccinations which undoubtedly stop disease may contain the mercury compound Thimerosal which has been connected to the rise of autism in children.

What can be done? We need to look at both prevention of toxicity & dealing with the inherent rise in body burden that has occurred since birth. A healthy diet high in raw foods has been shown to be beneficial. Of course, make certain that you wash these foods to get rid of pesticides & herbicides that cling to the surface of fruits & vegetables. Air purifiers may get rid of particulate matter & lower your exposure to some of the airborne toxins. Lastly, avoid seafood which has been shown to have higher mercury levels - like tuna steak, marlin & sea bass.

Aside from limiting our exposure we should all be actively aiding our bodies in the elimination of these toxins. Most programs for systemic detoxification begin in the digestive tract with products that act either as laxatives or diuretics. There is more. These include the ubiquitous colon cleanse products. By helping our bodies to get rid of waste quickly, it may aid in lowering body burden over time.

For more information, please visit Invisible Killers

David Isserman, a native of St. Louis, is a graduate of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Prior to graduating, David established & sold a company specializing in asset liquidation for businesses.

Currently, David lives in Boulder, Colorado, & is the president of Isserman Consulting, a communications consultancy specializing in building relationships with public & private companies to help them improve market awareness through public relations, investor & shareholder relations, & web strategy development.

In rural areas, usually of tropical developing countries, houses & shelters are mainly build of wood, bamboo & leaves & not very durable. And so… So far so good. When there is some money to spend, bricks are preferred as building material. Bricks are made in kilns, which requires wood for operation. Wood is becoming limited as these countries hardly have replanting projects, or ‘wood-growing industries’, that keeps this circle going.

Firewood is mostly taken from natural forest. In the past, these tropical countries had abundant natural forests. Unfortunately, their forest resources have significantly declined, due to civil wars, illegal logging or over cutting, population growth, etc.

Deforestation has economic & environmental consequences. Clear? It leads to firewood shortages, & adversely effects living conditions, especially of those in the rural area. Every day more forest & bushes are disappearing. Do you follow? The wood prices have increased significant over the past years & is becoming alarmingly expensive for the poor.

If rural people want to go for bricks, the road conditions are poor & transport does not guarantee the fragile bricks to be delivered in one piece.A key feature of most of the UNDP conservation projects is encouragement of community engagement in forest protection & wildlife conservation. In this way, those that live in natural resource areas become part of the solution for their sustainability. UNDP projects also link these countries to actions under the Kyoto protocol to reduce emissions of harmful greenhouse gases, CO2 from combustion processes (wood), being one of the major ones.

THE SOLUTION

Bricks can be made without burning & the use of sun-dried bricks of soil is practiced since thousands of years, called adobe. In modern times, also rammed bricks are made, by compressing soil & then sun-dry them. These bricks however are not very strong, nor durable & tend to crack on drying, especially if so called “black cotton soil” is used.

It is therefore proposed to mix soil with sand & cement, while adding some water & then compress this material in a form giving mould, which results in strong & durable bricks, that do not crack. This can be done with simple & yet innovative manually operated brick presses, to produce interlocking soil bricks without burning from the freely available soil around (any kind of), allowing the rural population to build their own durable houses.

This fits well in environmental programs, that aim to reduce rural poverty & sustain economic growth, ensuring that future generations will be easily able to benefit from the rich environmental resources of the country, while reversing the loss of them.

Feasible, affordable & environmentally friendly, including significant cost savings & on-going environmental benefits, building with soil bricks is one of the most environmentally-sound building technologies in the world today, utilizing on-site available soils, as the main ingredient of the soil bricks.

The environment is protected in many ways:

• It lessens the environmental impact of building construction. The need for lumber is substantially reduced, thereby curtailing deforestation, drought, soil erosion, flooding, species displacement as well as the greenhouse effect

• It saves money… On-site manufacturing of brick eliminates a large portion of transportation, middlemen & breakage cost. This is because the soil bricks that might get broken for one reason or another, can be recycled through the manufacturing process.

  The structures made with soil bricks are as beautiful & durable as housing made from conventional bricks. There is more. The higher acoustical qualities of these houses shut out exterior noise for less stressful living. Do you follow? The interlocking blocks are more thermally radiant than conventional bricks & reduce the need to heat or cool the interior.

When the bricks leave the machine, they’re already strong enough to be handled for storage & they reach there final strength about a day later, when the cement has cured.

There is hence no need to burn the bricks, which makes this process a very low-energy requiring one. The soil is thought to originate for free from the building site itself & constitutes between seventy & 80% of the total mass of the bricks.

The press delivers bricks that are interlocking & thus do not require jointing cement. This process uses 75% less cement than the conventional method. The bricks have cavities, that are filled by pouring thin cement, as to seal the bricks over their whole length & between the vertical joints, keeping small insects (ants) & rain water (drought) out. If required, steel or bamboo rods can be placed in the cavities as well, which would provide for earthquake resistant structures.

One of the main features of this brick type is, that it has more resilient strength than its fired counterparts. There is more. The secret of its success, is the composition of materials & the forming under moderate pressures. There is more. The soil brick is suitable especially for use in multi-storey buildings, due to its durability & robustness. Clear? It allows to abandon the inflexible & costly steel supported concrete column construction.

The bricks’ cell interlocking system, eliminates the need for a horizontal mortar bed & anchoring reinforcements in wall corners & joints, thus reducing the demand for highly skilled brick layers, all together cutting the costs of construction considerably. Apart from the environmental benefits, the expected price of a pressed brick versus a conventional, burned brick, is at least 1:4 lower.

Brick presses allow rural people to create independently their own affordable bricks to build houses themselves & not have to rely on salesmen & production in towns, bad roads, transport problems & fluctuating prices. A brick press can be operated by the house builder himself or somebody can make a business of it, by serving other members of his community.

This simple, yet innovative technology can generate income when used as service to other villagers, which alleviates poverty & saves the forest at the same time. Most rural inhabitants are farmers who are often only busy for 6 months of the year & look for other employment during the remaining 6 months.

Though the idea of pressing bricks from soil is far from new & many have made an effort, for some unknown reasons this technology does not seem to have made its brake through. In my view it must have to do with wrong management, because the demand, or at least the need is there & the technology is simple (once you know how to do it).

Rudolph N. J. Draaisma is an all-round engineer, who has extensive experience in developing & building soil brick making machines. His latest design puts all that experience & know-how together. He also is a real expert on energy conversion & recovery systems.
Read how this brick making machine works

In today’s world of shrinking throwaway options, a reuse, recycle approach is rapidly becoming practical, & construction professionals are being forced to focus on this idea by a combination of growing popular support for GREEN plus dollars $ & cents considerations-whether they’re environmentally minded or not.

According to Frank Coolick, Administrator of Department of Environmental Protection’s Solid & Hazardous Waste Program - http://www.nj.gov/dep/dshw/ there were over 400 landfill sites in N.J. in the 1970s many of which accepted construction & demolition waste. Today there’re 13 & one is scheduled to close at some particular point in the foreseeable future.

The pressure is on, says Mr. Buono, who is also a founding member of US Green Building Council’s N.J. Chapter (USGBC-NJ). It is very important now to get people thinking about sustainability & recycling. Mr. Buono entered this once unlikely marriage between his chosen profession of construction waste management (CWM) & environmentalism, as a result of this point of view.

Not one to pull punches he spoke of ‘garbage’ a number of times during our discussion, & said he sees garbage as a key bridge connecting people to GREEN. ‘People relate to garbage much more than they do to geothermal or sunlighting,’ he said. When they hear about recycling garbage they say ? ‘Oh yeah ? saving the planet’.

It is because of people like Mr. Buono that the times are a-changing. To those invested in building awareness of the new GREEN order, garbage has become our teacher ? first, because it’s everywhere & second, because it is not going anywhere unless we rethink our practices & policies.

The ascendancy of USGBC’s LEED - Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design - rating system is an indicator that environmental concerns are being taken seriously. Language on the national USGBC website illustrates how overarching this system is, stating that ‘LEED gives building owners & operators the tools they need to have an immediate & measurable impact on their buildings’ performance? promoting a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human & environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, & indoor environmental quality.’ Yet because LEED standards are still relatively new to the world of construction & demolition ? the USGBC itself was only founded in the 1993 - working towards even one LEED certification is regarded as a major undertaking by many, & isn’t entered into lightly. Achieving a LEED certification is regarded as a cause for pride.

It is therefore noteworthy that Mr. Buono, who has been hammering away at recycling C&D waste for over twenty years, has created construction waste management programs for 32 LEED projects, including the ground breaking Willow School, in Gladstone, N.J. the first LEED Gold Certified Building in the state (2002) - which recycled over 90% of its waste at a significant net cost savings for the project.

Simply put, Mr. Buono goes in as a consultant, conducts a waste audit & identifies the percentage which can be removed from the dumpster. He anticipates saving the cost of paying for all those disposal services completely. Yet, broaching a waste management program can still be a tough sell. To succeed in his mission he has to bring in the idea of recycling without alienating his clients. Right. While most people are theoretically in favor of a healthy environment, in most cases, he said, dollars $ & cents are still the bottom line. His job is to get them to see that recycling can be conducted at least at the same cost as not recycling, & more likely at an unanticipated profit which can be often used for GREEN materials & systems later on. He wants to get his clients to see that being GREEN isn’t simply amorphously ‘good,’ it’s good business & very good PR.

This is why planning is of the essence, Mr. Buono says. But when a company throws its hat into the LEED arena, there is a much bigger picture to consider. LEED gives a roadmap for measuring & documenting success for every building type & every phase of a building’s lifecycle by attaching points to carefully articulated specifics within a number of categories including:

New Commercial Construction & Major Renovation projects
Existing Building Operations & Maintenance
Commercial Interiors projects
Core & Shell Development projects
Homes
Neighborhood Development
Guidelines for Multiple Buildings & On-Campus Building Projects
LEED for Schools
LEED for Retail

Each one has C&D components according to Robert Kobet, AIA, President of Sustainaissance International & a lecturer on the topic of LEED accreditation & the credits or points required to fulfill LEED requirements - rkobet@yahoo.com. In the CWM arena LEED rewards you differently for all those things which are kept out of the landfill & those things which are kept out of the landfill & then reused in other building projects, he said. Attention is paid to the quantities involved, & innovation is rewarded. By example, projects are rewarded for increasing demand for building materials & products that are extracted & manufactured nearby, thereby reducing the environmental impact of transportation. They are also rewarded for using rapidly renewable building materials & products made from plants that are typically harvested within a ten year cycle or shorter, reducing the use & depletion of finite raw materials & long-cycle renewable materials. Clear? If you do an exemplary job, he said, you can score additional materials reuse points (MR).

According to Mr. Coolick, we generate 6 million tons of C&D a year ? much of it concrete. Thanks to Mike Buono & companies like his, over 80% of that gets ground up to be reused for purposes such as fill for foundations or road bedding, for example. ‘One container of concrete ? the heaviest of materials ? weighs 10-12 tons. You can have that container recycled for $350. Or you can throw it out at $65 a ton which is about double the cost. For years they have picked up all the waste & taken it to a landfill,’ he said, ‘even though it’s possible to recycle at ½ the cost of throwing it away, in part because there’re no landfill fees.’

In short - there is money to be made, says Mr. Buono. There’re an awful lot of things that come out of the buildings that are recylcable ? glass, steel, masonry, brick, stone ? so many dollars $ per pound of stuff. Often, even GREEN oriented construction projects do not realize that they can be sustainable right from the start, before their buildings are built. And so he continues preaching the cost benefits of putting a waste management plan in place right from the beginning, whether in construction or deconstruction, rather than just throwing the stuff away. The challenge is to figure out how we’re going to achieve the level of recycling we need, he said. ‘Sustainability is important. It is important to do sustainability even before you build.’

For more information on LEED certifications visit the USGBC.org website.

Jacqueline Herships is a publicist & communications strategist working to build public understanding of Sustainability, Green Building, Smart Growth, Community Redevelopment & the Environment. Her column “Spotlight on Green Builders” appears in the US Green Building Council (USGBC-NJ) newsletter. For further information:

jacqueline@jacquelineherships.com

http://jacquelineherships.com