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Stories about moms turned activists resonate with me. Having a child with persistent asthma, after all, motivated me to start advocating for cleaner air and lower emissions through websites like this one. There is nothing quite like the mothering instinct kicked into overdrive and funneled into the effort to protect and preserve the land, air, and water for our children. On a less serious note, the chaos of early parenthood is possibly the best training available for battling environmental damage.

- Installed capacity in China's wind power sector will grow 64 percent this year to 20 million kilowatts, organizers of the 3rd China (Shanghai) International Wind Energy Exhibition and Symposium 2009 forecast Friday. Installed capacity grew 105 percent last year. Chinese industry experts believe that by about 2020, wind power will likely surpass nuclear power as China's third-largest source of electricity, after thermal and hydro power. Wind power comprised 1.5 percent of China's total installed capacity in 2008, when the country became the world's fourth-largest wind power market.

The San Diego Union Tribune blogs about the new plan for Fuel Cell Cars & hydrogen fueling stations in California. The plan, which was released last month by the California Fuel Cell Partnership, anticipates by 2017 almost 50,000 fuel cell vehicles in California, supported by 36 fueling stations which are slated to cost $180 million. Check out the UT's blog post here, and follow it to the summary and the full report on the California Fuel Cell Partnership Web site.

Next100 has a report on the introduction of LED street lighting in some sections of San Francisco - Brightening Up San Francisco's Tenderloin. San Francisco's gritty Tenderloin district will shine a little brighter thanks to a new streetlighting program announced today by Mayor Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and PG&E. Newsom press conf 3-25-09.JPGAt a press conference this morning on Turk St., joined by PG&E's senior vice president for public affairs, Nancy McFadden, Newsom said the city is installing 50 ultra-efficient, energy-saving LED streetlights in the depressed neighborhood, a smart move to enhance public safety while demonstrating environmental leadership and saving money. In addition, city authorities are working with PG&E to evaluate "smart controller" technology that will monitor the performance of individual streetlights, adjust their intensity, and signal when they are about to fail. Flexible controls will give officials to ability to turn selected lights on or off, dim them, or flash them to alert emergency personnel.

a brief review about the risk factors of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

A monthly blog about the effects of climate change.

As attention to Earth Day picked up again in 1990, so did the frequency of events land celebrations on college campuses, in city parks and other gathering places around the world. But rather than spilling any more green ink writing about Earth Day 2009, I dug up the best Earth Day posters I could find spanning the last 39 years. As might be expected, the earlier posters were much more difficult to track down (mostly because there were fewer events to advertise). I also found the paucity of posters from the 1980's indicative of Reagan-era anti-environmentalist sentiment.

During Earth Week, visitors to the U.S. Department of Energy website -- energy.gov -- will be immediately directed to a special web feature giving them key energy saving tips and user-friendly information about the critical emerging technologies and initiatives underway to move the nation toward a clean energy economy. The webpage is intended to help people enjoy a more green lifestyle by making simple adjustments. It details steps consumers can take to make informed energy decisions, save money on monthly bills, become more energy efficient, and protect the environment. These money saving tips include monitoring energy usage in homes, purchasing fuel efficient hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars, insulating homes, using Lighting Emitting Diodes (LED) and Compact Florescent Light (CFL) bulbs and using power strips to fully shut off multiple appliances and electronics at once when not in use. "Earth Week is a fitting time for all of us to reevaluate our personal energy habits," Secretary Chu said. "By taking simple steps to reduce our energy use, all Americans can strike a blow for energy independence, while saving money on energy bills and moving America toward a clean energy future."

China is planning a stimulus package worth 440 billion dollars to expand its renewable energy use, state media said, as the country aims to rely more on cleaner ways to power its growth. The three trillion yuan (439.7 billion dollars) investment will see part of the focus on wind power, the Beijing Morning Post said, citing Liang Zhipeng, a State Energy Administration official. The government has collected opinions from local economic planning agencies and relevant companies about a draft plan, Liang said, according to the report. Under the plan, China's wind power capacity will reach over 100 gigawatts by 2020, the report said, more than triple a goal of 30 gigawatts announced in 2007 in a renewable energy development plan.

The whole thing is happening without flashy ad campaigns, so it's not surprising if you've never heard of municipal solar financing. But the financing program, also known as property tax financing, is a veritable underground solar revolution. It all started in Berkeley, CA with the Berkeley FIRST Program, which allows homeowners to pay for solar panels through property tax bills over a 20 year period. The bills carry a fixed interest rate and stay with the house, so there's no need to worry about paying for panels on a house you don't live in anymore. The Berkeley program was so popular that California passed the AB811 bill to let any interested city in the state launch a similar program.

Jerome a Paris has an excellent (and long) article at TOD about the economics of wind power - The cost of wind, the price of wind, the value of wind. I'd like to try to clear some of the confusion that surrounds the economics of wind power, as it is often fed and used by the opponents of wind to dismiss it. As I noted recently, even the basic economics of energy markets are often wilfully misunderstood by commentators, so it's worth going in more detail through concepts like levelised cost and marginal cost, and identify how different electricity producers have different impacts on electricity (market) prices (which may or may not be reflected in retail prices) and have different externalities. Value for society of a generation source may also include other items that are harder to acount in purely monetary terms (and/or whose very value may be disputed), such as the long term risk of depletion of the fuel, or energy security issues, such as dependency on unstable and/or unfriendly foreign countries or vulnerable infrastructure.

For proper management and treatment of epistaxis, it is very important to know about the mode of onset,duration & frequency of bleeding,amount of blood loss,side of the nose from where bleeding is occurring,whether the bleeding is occurring from front[anterior] or back[posterior] part of the nose.

Founded by Paul Hawken WiserEarth http://www.wiserearth.org connects individuals and organizations working on social justice and environmental issues.

WiserEarth helps the global movement of people and organizations working toward social justice, indigenous rights, and environmental stewardship connect, collaborate, share knowledge, and build alliances.

I read U.S. opens way for wind power off coast and wondered "what's in it for me"? The federal government has cleared the way for developers to plant wind farms in offshore waters on the Outer Continental Shelf, a move that could have a significant impact for North Carolina. ... Eventually, the regulations could help shape energy production in North Carolina, where the Outer Banks jut sharply into the Atlantic. The area has some of the strongest and steadiest winds on the East Coast, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior. ... In a scheme similar to some offshore oil and gas drilling leases, states would get about 27 percent of the revenue sent to the federal government from offshore wind and hydrokinetics leases.

Technology Review has an article on plastic solar cells with "near-perfect internal efficiency" - Pushing Plastic Solar Cells. Plastic solar cells are lightweight, flexible, and, most important, cheap to make. But so far, these devices have been too inefficient to compete with silicon solar cells for most applications. Now researchers from a few institutions claim to have made polymer solar cells with record-breaking efficiencies. These cells still aren't good enough to compete with silicon, but polymer efficiencies have been increasing at a rate of about 1 percent a year. If they can keep this up, say researchers, plastic solar cells will be competing with silicon within a few years.

Editor's Note: Hear Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. executive Mark Case talk more about the utility's smart grid program in BBJcast, the Baltimore Business Journal's weekly podcast devoted to the top business news in the region. Available on iTunes, search "BBJcast." Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. is seeking as much as $200 million in federal stimulus money to pay for nearly half of a "smart grid" program that will help customers reduce energy consumption during times of peak demand.

Largest Grassroots Solar Event in America: Register Now! Imagine 140,000 people participating in a national tour of solar-powered homes and institutions - all in one day. That's what happened last year at the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) National Solar Tour - and this year looks set to be even bigger. Whether it's DIY solar homes and solar cars, new homes with solar as standard, or utility-scale multi-megawatt solar installations, TreeHugger is not short of stories about how solar power is leading us away from fossil fuel dependence and helping to stem climate change. But while change is beginning to happen, it's not happening anywhere near fast enough. That's why the ASES tour is so important - getting people in front of real, live solar installations, showing them how they work, and encouraging folks to go solar themselves. Read on to find out how you can participate.

This is a very effective security feature of any house. When someone is near your house, don't worry much about it.

Technology Review has an article on thin film solar vendor Xunlight's approach - making cells on flexible steel sheets - Roll-Up Solar Panels. Xunlight, a startup in Toledo, Ohio, has developed a way to make large, flexible solar panels. It has developed a roll-to-roll manufacturing technique that forms thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells on thin sheets of stainless steel. Each solar module is about one meter wide and five and a half meters long. As opposed to conventional silicon solar panels, which are bulky and rigid, these lightweight, flexible sheets could easily be integrated into roofs and building facades or on vehicles. Such systems could be more attractive than conventional solar panels and be incorporated more easily into irregular roof designs. They could also be rolled up and carried in a backpack, says the company's cofounder and president, Xunming Deng. "You could take it with you and charge your laptop battery," he says.

As the world turns greener by the day, manufacturers are trying to switch to eco friendly and energy efficient products.