be green now!

Green Mountain Energy has just launched its new site BeGreen which allows consumers to calculate their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and purchase offsets that enable users to neutralize their carbon footprint. Green Mountain, based in Texas, is the country's largest supplier of green energy and serves both residential and commercial interests. Their highly interactive and informative BeGreen site allows users to calculate auto, home, air travel and natural gas emissions and purchase carbon offsets which go towards renewable energy credits, reforestation programs and other carbon offset technologies. In addition it allows users to create online profiles and get useful tips on living a low-impact lifestyle.

i get around

Call me crazy, but I like public transportation. I've done a fair share of it, and, unlike most people, I don't mind being squished in a small space with strangers. There's something exciting about not really knowing how to get to your destination, but by the time night falls, you're usually there. As a transportation aficianado, I love this map, produced by the International Networks Archive (INA), so much! Not only a beautiful graphic, it's got tons of interesting facts. Did you know that 8 years is the longest horse-drawn journey? Or that our flying feathered friends cost the airline industry $385 million each year?

The transportation map is part of a series created by INA as a way to depict data about global topics in a map-like manner. Currently there are six other really cool maps ranging from the global arms trade to Starbuck's and McDonald's as hubs connecting the poorest and wealthiest nations in the world.

Check them out next time you're surfing the web (which may soon be considered another form of transportation, no?)

the rebirth of the electric car

Every night, I see the same array of car commercials, all trying to one-up each other on how many miles per gallon their automobile gets compared to others on the market. I find myself laughing out loud when I hear statements like, "27 miles per gallon". With alternatives like bio-diesel, vegetable oil and electricity out there, you would think that car makers would take notice and actually create a vehicle that was in fact revolutionary, once and for all ending our dependence on a oil. We can do better, and alas, a new car company has ...

Introducing Tesla Motors. I know, I know, you are thinking, "Great, I get to drive a go-cart to and from work everyday, which probably maxes out at 50 miles per hour." Think again, the new Tesla Roadster is powered by lithium-ion batteries and an electric motor, can go from 0-60 in 4 seconds with a top speed of 135 mph, and only needs to be recharged every 250 miles for 4 hours (if it is a completely dead battery) before it's ready to go again. Plus, it's super sleek.

yellow goes green

Here's a little green initiative that caught my attention. In August, Town and Country did a little piece on taxi companies across the country making the transition to fuel-efficient hybrids. New York City is seeing small fleets of hybrids hitting the road and they have begun to appear in Las Vegas, New York, San Antonio, Chicago, San Francisco, and elsewhere. Ideally they will make their way everywhere.

Presently, the ubiquitous New York taxi, the Ford Crown Victoria, gets a measly 17 miles per gallon (less if you factor in how lead-footed all the cabbies I've ever taken in NY drive). The Ford Escape Hybrids which are being slowly introduced, average 36. With numbers like that, taxis may save as much as $8,000 a year on gas per vehicle - a plus for drivers who usually have to pay for their own gas. Will this translate to savings on the meter? Probably not. But it's a step in the right direction.

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