You've been hearing about the negative impacts of global warming for years. Sometimes your friends nervously joke about it — "Could land in the Rocky Mountains become beachfront property?" Other times you read with worry the news about forest fires, hurricanes, droughts and heat waves. And you wonder, "Is climate disaster already upon us?"
Scientists say the answer is "yes." We are now experiencing the effects of human-caused climate change and, even if we drastically alter our polluting behavior today, we'll continue to see changes over the next two to three decades. This change is irreversible, and researchers predict it may be worse than the depressing situation Al Gore foretold in "An Inconvenient Truth."
"What happens in the next 20 or 30 years is largely already determined." says Kevin Tranberth, ScD, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have already increased by more than 35 percent since pre-industrial times, owing to human activities. Over half of that increase has occurred since 1970."
Although this prognosis seems dire, there is hope. While we can't change the polluting that has already occurred, we can make changes now that will leave a cleaner world for our children and grandchildren. "One important message to convey is we can very much affect what happens 90 years from now by the decisions we make today," says Jim Hurrell, PhD, a senior atmospheric scientist with NCAR. Tranberth agrees. "If we act now, the benefit comes about 30 to 40 years from now," he says. "We can still have a big impact on what happens in the second half of this century."
But what happens if we don't act now? Here is how your part of the United States could be affected in the year 2100 if we don't turn this around.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Acting Freddie Mac CFO found dead
David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, was found dead in his Hunter Mill Estates home Wednesday morning in what police say was an apparent suicide.
Fairfax County Police spokeswoman Mary Anne Jennings tells WTOP police responded to the Kellermann home after family members dialed 911 at 4:48 a.m.
Sources tell WTOP Kellermann hanged himself.
"We were called from inside the house to come investigate an apparent suicide," Jennings says.
"We're not going to give you details of the condition of the body, except to say it was an apparent suicide."
A medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
Police on the scene tell WTOP Kellermann's body was found on the home's lower level.
The Kellermann home sits on the corner of Raleigh Hill Road and Brittenford Drive in picturesque Hunter Mill Estates, a neighborhood of single-family homes outside of Vienna, just over the border from Reston. According to Fairfax County tax records, Kellermann's home is assessed at $898,440.
Neighbors tell WTOP they are surprised to hear about Kellermann's suicide. They knew him, his wife and young daughter from neighborhood parties and the pool.
"I'm in total shock. This is a wonderful family. This is the last thing I would have ever expected," says Susan Unger, who lives across the street from Kellermann. "I'm saddened. It's awful."
Unger's husband Paul says Kellermann was a "terrific guy."
"We're just shocked beyond belief. This is just a wonderful family -- very family oriented," Paul Unger says.
Kellermann, 41, had been with Freddie Mac for more than 16 years.
He had been named acting chief financial officer in September 2008, taking over after Anthony "Buddy" Piszel resigned. Freddie Mac's CEO David Moffett resigned last month.
Fairfax County Police spokeswoman Mary Anne Jennings tells WTOP police responded to the Kellermann home after family members dialed 911 at 4:48 a.m.
Sources tell WTOP Kellermann hanged himself.
"We were called from inside the house to come investigate an apparent suicide," Jennings says.
"We're not going to give you details of the condition of the body, except to say it was an apparent suicide."
A medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
Police on the scene tell WTOP Kellermann's body was found on the home's lower level.
The Kellermann home sits on the corner of Raleigh Hill Road and Brittenford Drive in picturesque Hunter Mill Estates, a neighborhood of single-family homes outside of Vienna, just over the border from Reston. According to Fairfax County tax records, Kellermann's home is assessed at $898,440.
Neighbors tell WTOP they are surprised to hear about Kellermann's suicide. They knew him, his wife and young daughter from neighborhood parties and the pool.
"I'm in total shock. This is a wonderful family. This is the last thing I would have ever expected," says Susan Unger, who lives across the street from Kellermann. "I'm saddened. It's awful."
Unger's husband Paul says Kellermann was a "terrific guy."
"We're just shocked beyond belief. This is just a wonderful family -- very family oriented," Paul Unger says.
Kellermann, 41, had been with Freddie Mac for more than 16 years.
He had been named acting chief financial officer in September 2008, taking over after Anthony "Buddy" Piszel resigned. Freddie Mac's CEO David Moffett resigned last month.
The border for dummies
Can someone please tell us how U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano got her job? She appears to be about as knowledgeable about border issues as a late-night radio call-in yahoo.
In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.
All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas. The notion that some arrived via Canada is a myth that briefly popped up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and was then quickly debunked.
Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: "I can't talk to that. I can talk about the future. And here's the future. The future is we have borders."
Just what does that mean, exactly?
Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada's border to Mexico's, suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from Texas to California to keep them out.
In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?
In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.
All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas. The notion that some arrived via Canada is a myth that briefly popped up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and was then quickly debunked.
Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: "I can't talk to that. I can talk about the future. And here's the future. The future is we have borders."
Just what does that mean, exactly?
Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada's border to Mexico's, suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from Texas to California to keep them out.
In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?
National Post
Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Fans of the Dead left a sea of trash in their wake
A parking lot near the Cobblestone District is getting a big cleanup today.
That it's happening on Earth Day is a coincidence, but one tinged with irony.
The Scott Street lot, near Michigan Avenue, was turned into a staging ground Tuesday for hundreds — perhaps thousands — of fans waiting to see a concert at HSBC Arena by The Dead, former members of the Grateful Dead minus the late Jerry Garcia.
But the crowd of young jam-band enthusiasts and aging hippies — thought to be particularly environmentally conscious — left behind a parking lot strewn with beer and wine bottles, cans, bags, pizza boxes and hundreds of balloons used to get high with nitrous oxide.
Noticeably absent were any trash cans that could have given people a place to throw things away.
Management of lot operator Pay to Park had no immediate comment.
msommer@buffnews.com
That it's happening on Earth Day is a coincidence, but one tinged with irony.
The Scott Street lot, near Michigan Avenue, was turned into a staging ground Tuesday for hundreds — perhaps thousands — of fans waiting to see a concert at HSBC Arena by The Dead, former members of the Grateful Dead minus the late Jerry Garcia.
But the crowd of young jam-band enthusiasts and aging hippies — thought to be particularly environmentally conscious — left behind a parking lot strewn with beer and wine bottles, cans, bags, pizza boxes and hundreds of balloons used to get high with nitrous oxide.
Noticeably absent were any trash cans that could have given people a place to throw things away.
Management of lot operator Pay to Park had no immediate comment.
msommer@buffnews.com
Goodell: Vick’s ticket back is “genuine remorse”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says Michael Vick has paid a significant price for doing an “egregious thing” and will have to show genuine remorse and that the experience has changed him in order to get a chance at resuming his career in the league.
Goodell appeared Tuesday night at Washington & Lee University, engaging in a panel discussion about leadership in sports and taking questions from the audience.
Afterward, Goodell said he has not kept up with Vick’s legal issues since suspending him from the league after his conviction in a federal dogfighting case. Vick is serving a 23-month prison term and has a team of lawyers trying to settle his finances in bankruptcy court.
A major component of the bankruptcy lawyers’ efforts to find a way for Vick to satisfy his creditors is based on his ability to again earn millions in pro football.
Goodell appeared Tuesday night at Washington & Lee University, engaging in a panel discussion about leadership in sports and taking questions from the audience.
Afterward, Goodell said he has not kept up with Vick’s legal issues since suspending him from the league after his conviction in a federal dogfighting case. Vick is serving a 23-month prison term and has a team of lawyers trying to settle his finances in bankruptcy court.
A major component of the bankruptcy lawyers’ efforts to find a way for Vick to satisfy his creditors is based on his ability to again earn millions in pro football.
Border comments spark diplomatic kerfuffle
Ottawa was rushing to defend its border security on Tuesday amid a diplomatic scuffle with the U.S., which erupted after Washington's homeland security chief suggested that the 9-11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the comments during a media interview earlier this week, much to the chagrin of Canadians on both sides of the border.
In recent years, Ottawa has invested a great deal of effort into dispelling perceptions among Americans that Canada's border is an easy entry point for terrorists planning attacks on U.S. soil.
"Unfortunately, misconceptions arise on something as fundamental as where the 9-11 terrorists came from," said Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador in Washington.
"As the 9-11 commission reported in 2004, all of the 9-11 terrorists arrived in the United States from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued by the United States government and no 9-11 terrorists came from Canada."
Later, Napolitano's staff attempted to tamp down the controversy by blaming the comments on a simple misunderstanding, said Wilson, who was the keynote speaker at the Border Trade Alliance meeting in Washington Tuesday.
"Her comment from her people is that she misunderstood," Wilson said, adding that he was planning a personal meeting with Napolitano in the near future.
The furor began when Napolitano was asked to clarify statements she had made about equal treatment for the Mexican and Canadian borders, despite the fact that a flood of illegal immigrants and a massive drug war are two serious issues on the southern border.
"Yes, Canada is not Mexico, it doesn't have a drug war going on, it didn't have 6,000 homicides that were drug-related last year," she said.
"Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it's been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there."
When asked if she was referring to the 9-11 terrorists, Napolitano added: "Not just those but others as well."
However, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan downplayed the comments and said that Napolitano is well aware that Canada was not the source of the 9-11 terrorists.
"We spoke about it back in March, and we were sharing a chuckle at the fact that the urban myth does circulate," he told CTV's Power Play.
"Ms. Napolitano understood quite clearly, then and now, that none of the September 11 terrorists came through Canada, as the 9-11 Commission found."
Still, that positive outlook wasn't shared by other Canadian officials.
On Tuesday afternoon, RCMP Commissioner William Elliot expressed frustration with the comments during an interview on CTV's Power Play.
"I was somewhat surprised and disappointed," he said, adding he hopes the misconception has been cleared up.
"I understand and am happy to hear that she has issued a statement acknowledging that that didn't happen."
But Thomas d'Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, decried Napolitano's comments on Tuesday.
"I am a longstanding friend and ally of the United States, but sometimes failures in our two-way dialogue cause me to shake my head in sadness and dismay," he said in a press release.
"The claim that some of the 9/11 terrorists entered the United States from Canada is, quite simply, a myth - an urban legend that began with a handful of erroneous media reports in the days following the terrorist strikes."
With files from The Canadian Press
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the comments during a media interview earlier this week, much to the chagrin of Canadians on both sides of the border.
In recent years, Ottawa has invested a great deal of effort into dispelling perceptions among Americans that Canada's border is an easy entry point for terrorists planning attacks on U.S. soil.
"Unfortunately, misconceptions arise on something as fundamental as where the 9-11 terrorists came from," said Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador in Washington.
"As the 9-11 commission reported in 2004, all of the 9-11 terrorists arrived in the United States from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued by the United States government and no 9-11 terrorists came from Canada."
Later, Napolitano's staff attempted to tamp down the controversy by blaming the comments on a simple misunderstanding, said Wilson, who was the keynote speaker at the Border Trade Alliance meeting in Washington Tuesday.
"Her comment from her people is that she misunderstood," Wilson said, adding that he was planning a personal meeting with Napolitano in the near future.
The furor began when Napolitano was asked to clarify statements she had made about equal treatment for the Mexican and Canadian borders, despite the fact that a flood of illegal immigrants and a massive drug war are two serious issues on the southern border.
"Yes, Canada is not Mexico, it doesn't have a drug war going on, it didn't have 6,000 homicides that were drug-related last year," she said.
"Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it's been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there."
When asked if she was referring to the 9-11 terrorists, Napolitano added: "Not just those but others as well."
However, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan downplayed the comments and said that Napolitano is well aware that Canada was not the source of the 9-11 terrorists.
"We spoke about it back in March, and we were sharing a chuckle at the fact that the urban myth does circulate," he told CTV's Power Play.
"Ms. Napolitano understood quite clearly, then and now, that none of the September 11 terrorists came through Canada, as the 9-11 Commission found."
Still, that positive outlook wasn't shared by other Canadian officials.
On Tuesday afternoon, RCMP Commissioner William Elliot expressed frustration with the comments during an interview on CTV's Power Play.
"I was somewhat surprised and disappointed," he said, adding he hopes the misconception has been cleared up.
"I understand and am happy to hear that she has issued a statement acknowledging that that didn't happen."
But Thomas d'Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, decried Napolitano's comments on Tuesday.
"I am a longstanding friend and ally of the United States, but sometimes failures in our two-way dialogue cause me to shake my head in sadness and dismay," he said in a press release.
"The claim that some of the 9/11 terrorists entered the United States from Canada is, quite simply, a myth - an urban legend that began with a handful of erroneous media reports in the days following the terrorist strikes."
With files from The Canadian Press
Freddie Mac official found dead in apparent suicide
David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of money-losing mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home early Wednesday in what police said was an apparent suicide.
The Fairfax County police responded to a 911-call at 4:48 a.m. at the suburban Virginia home Kellermann shared with his wife Donna and five-year-old daughter Grace. The police would not release the exact cause of death, but spokesman Eddy Azcarate said Kellermann's body was found in the basement.
Kellermann, 41, lived in Hunter Mill Estates, a well-off neighborhood of large single-family homes with manicured lawns. County records show Kellermann's home is worth about $900,000.
Paul Unger, who lives across the street from the Kellermanns, called the family a "solid, salt-of-the-earth kind of family" that hosted the neighborhood's Halloween party. "He was just a nice guy ... You cannot imagine what kind of pressures he must have been under," Unger said.
Some neighbors said Kellermann had lost a noticeable amount of weight under the strain of the job, and some said they suggested to him he should quit to avoid the stress. The neighbors did not want to be quoted by name because they didn't want to upset the family.
Kellermann, a University of Michigan graduate who went to business school at George Washington University, worked for Freddie Mac for the past 16 years and was named acting chief financial officer last September when the government seized control of the company and ousted top executives. Freddie Mac lost more than $50 billion last year, and the government has pumped in $45 billion to keep the company afloat.
Kellermann's death is the latest in a string of blows to Freddie Mac, which owns or guarantees about 13 million mortgages and us the No. 2 mortgage finance company after sibling Fannie Mae. The company has been criticized for financing risky mortgage loans that fueled the real estate bubble, and its first government-appointed CEO, David Moffett, resigned last month after six months on the job.
As the company's financial chief, Kellermann was working on the company's first quarter financial report, due at the end of May, with federal regulators closely overseeing the company's books and signing off on major decisions.
That relationship has been tense at times. Freddie Mac executives recently battled with federal regulators over whether to disclose potential losses on mortgage securities tied to the Obama administration's housing plan, said a person familiar with the deliberations who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia have been investigating Freddie Mac's business practices. But two U.S. law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the Freddie Mac investigation, said Kellermann was neither a target nor a subject of the investigation and had not been under law enforcement scrutiny.
News of Kellermann's death came as a shock to employees of the McLean, Va.-based company, with those who knew Kellermann tearing up on Wednesday morning and a quiet mood prevailing. Senior executives at the company heard the news on local radio before going to work.
John Koskinen, the company's interim chief executive, said in a statement that Kellermann, "was a man of great talents .... His extraordinary work ethic and integrity inspired all who worked with him."
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement that "our deepest sympathies are with his family and his colleagues at Freddie Mac during this difficult time."
Freddie Mac and sibling company Fannie Mae have both come under fire from lawmakers as they plan to pay more than $210 million in bonuses through next year to give workers the incentive to stay in their jobs. Kellermann was in line to receive retention awards totaling $850,000 over the next year.
___
Associated Press Writers Matt Small, Devlin Barrett and Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.
The Fairfax County police responded to a 911-call at 4:48 a.m. at the suburban Virginia home Kellermann shared with his wife Donna and five-year-old daughter Grace. The police would not release the exact cause of death, but spokesman Eddy Azcarate said Kellermann's body was found in the basement.
Kellermann, 41, lived in Hunter Mill Estates, a well-off neighborhood of large single-family homes with manicured lawns. County records show Kellermann's home is worth about $900,000.
Paul Unger, who lives across the street from the Kellermanns, called the family a "solid, salt-of-the-earth kind of family" that hosted the neighborhood's Halloween party. "He was just a nice guy ... You cannot imagine what kind of pressures he must have been under," Unger said.
Some neighbors said Kellermann had lost a noticeable amount of weight under the strain of the job, and some said they suggested to him he should quit to avoid the stress. The neighbors did not want to be quoted by name because they didn't want to upset the family.
Kellermann, a University of Michigan graduate who went to business school at George Washington University, worked for Freddie Mac for the past 16 years and was named acting chief financial officer last September when the government seized control of the company and ousted top executives. Freddie Mac lost more than $50 billion last year, and the government has pumped in $45 billion to keep the company afloat.
Kellermann's death is the latest in a string of blows to Freddie Mac, which owns or guarantees about 13 million mortgages and us the No. 2 mortgage finance company after sibling Fannie Mae. The company has been criticized for financing risky mortgage loans that fueled the real estate bubble, and its first government-appointed CEO, David Moffett, resigned last month after six months on the job.
As the company's financial chief, Kellermann was working on the company's first quarter financial report, due at the end of May, with federal regulators closely overseeing the company's books and signing off on major decisions.
That relationship has been tense at times. Freddie Mac executives recently battled with federal regulators over whether to disclose potential losses on mortgage securities tied to the Obama administration's housing plan, said a person familiar with the deliberations who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia have been investigating Freddie Mac's business practices. But two U.S. law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the Freddie Mac investigation, said Kellermann was neither a target nor a subject of the investigation and had not been under law enforcement scrutiny.
News of Kellermann's death came as a shock to employees of the McLean, Va.-based company, with those who knew Kellermann tearing up on Wednesday morning and a quiet mood prevailing. Senior executives at the company heard the news on local radio before going to work.
John Koskinen, the company's interim chief executive, said in a statement that Kellermann, "was a man of great talents .... His extraordinary work ethic and integrity inspired all who worked with him."
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement that "our deepest sympathies are with his family and his colleagues at Freddie Mac during this difficult time."
Freddie Mac and sibling company Fannie Mae have both come under fire from lawmakers as they plan to pay more than $210 million in bonuses through next year to give workers the incentive to stay in their jobs. Kellermann was in line to receive retention awards totaling $850,000 over the next year.
___
Associated Press Writers Matt Small, Devlin Barrett and Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.
Watt’s the big deal? ‘Vampire power’
Plasma TVs, video game systems, smart phones, iPods, digital video recorders and other gadgets are practically mainstream these days.
The devices get cheaper, sleeker and more powerful all the time.
But they rely on one very low-tech feature — an electrical cord.
Many of these gadgets are incredibly compact, but when they are running or recharging their batteries, they can suck up vast amounts of energy. Some estimates suggest that electronic devices account for 10 to 15 percent of all home electricity use.
A sizable piece of this energy use is known as “phantom power” or “vampire power” because it occurs while the devices are turned off or not in active use.
“It’s one of those things with electronics; it’s a couple watts here and a couple watts there, and pretty soon it adds up to a lot of watts — and real money,” said John T. Thompson, a Buffalo State College associate professor of computer information systems.
There has been a push, reflected in the well-publicized marking of Earth Day today, to make consumers more energy-conscious on everything from light bulbs to dishwashers.
But that’s not the case for electronic devices. Most Americans want the latest and most impressive gadgets, and energy use isn’t a factor for most consumers in deciding what to buy.
“These are the devices of the day that do amazing things for us,” said Douglas K. Johnson, senior director of technology policy for the Consumer Electronics Association.
Now environmental agencies and electronics manufacturers are working to make sure consumers keep energy efficiency in mind when buying a device — and to make sure they manage their power use after they’ve taken it home.
“One of the things we don’t do well is communicate how much energy these devices use,” said Thomas W. Reddoch, executive director of energy utilization for the Electric Power Research Institute.
To put this in perspective, the typical American home in 1980 had 2.8 consumer electronic devices, while today it has 24 such devices, according to the electronics association.
Steve Poland, a tech entrepreneur, owns an extensive list of electronic devices that includes a 50-inch plasma TV, two laptop computers, three external hard drives, two video game players, two MP3 players, a BlackBerry phone and a digital camera.
“I would say that’s marginally [more than] your average individual,” said Poland, a Buffalo resident whose latest start-up project, InSeconds, is meant to help Web sites make money.
When consumers make decisions about which devices to purchase, they typically consider cost, performance, brand and style but not energy efficiency.
“In my mind, there’s an abundance of power, even though I’m sure it’s not the case,” Poland said.
The electronics association calculates that consumer electronics make up 12 percent of residential energy use, a finding in line with the estimates made by other agencies.
Larger, high-definition TVs consume more energy than older- model TVs, and television watching in general is rising as people have more viewing options today, the Natural Resource Defense Council noted.
The council and Ecos Consulting calculated that TVs in America consumed 46 billion kilowatts per hour of electricity in 2004 and estimated that this would soar to 70 billion by 2009.
The energy used annually by two DVRs, for another example, is equivalent to the amount of electricity consumed by the average refrigerator, said Mark M. Michalski, associate project manager for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA.
An unexpected energy hog is the digital picture frame, which is growing in popularity as people take more photos with their digital cameras and the price of the frames comes down.
The devices use a lot of juice because many people leave them on all day and all night.
If every home in America used one digital picture frame, we would need to build five new 250-megawatt power plants, according to the electric power institute.
“It is not a concern at the individual level, but if you multiply [energy use] by 300 million people, then it becomes a concern,” said Cemal Basaran, an engineering professor and director of the Electronic Packaging Laboratory at the University at Buffalo.
Even when they’re turned off, as long as the devices or their chargers are plugged in, they are using energy. And this “vampire power” can be a big electricity drain.
In the typical American household, 75 percent of the electricity used for electronic devices is consumed when the devices are shut off, the U. S. Department of Energy found.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the average American household spends $100 per year to power devices when they’re not in use, Michalski said.
“Everybody can be doing more to reduce their draw on the grid, and to reduce their costs in the process,” Thompson said.
Experts say that it is time to take the same “green” campaign that promotes fluorescent light bulbs and efficient refrigerators and apply it to these devices. Gaming consoles, for example, use an estimated 16 billion kilowatts per hour of electricity each year, the NRDC and Ecos Consulting found, enough to power San Diego.
Incorporating better, user-friendly power-management features on these video game players could lower their energy use by 11 billion kilowatts per hour, the agencies found.
This would lower the nation’s electricity bill by $1 billion and cut emission of 7 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Manufacturers are working to voluntarily disclose how much energy these devices use, and to highlight the most energy- efficient devices within a product category, Johnson said.
Manufacturers are making a greater number of devices that are more energy efficient, though consumers must make energy use a priority. “The fact of the matter is, consumers are going to buy what they want to buy,” Michalski said.
In addition, consumers can be mindful of their energy use.
Making sure you completely turn off and unplug the devices when you’re done with them is a basic way to cut down on energy use. Also, unplug the charger when you’re done charging a cell phone or MP3 player.
If people don’t want to constantly unplug and plug in these devices, NYSERDA recommends getting an advanced power strip. The strip allows devices that need to stay on all the time, such as a DVR, to remain on while cutting off electricity to the ones that don’t.
Green-friendly organizations also are making it easier for people to keep track of their electricity use online.
Also, companies are selling gadgets such as the Kill A Watt, which measures how much electricity a device consumes.
Users plug a gadget into the Kill A Watt, then plug the Kill A Watt into a wall outlet to get an energy-use reading.
“It’s way better than getting a bill at the end of the month and wondering, where does all that energy go?” said UB graduate student Kevin Lim, a blogger who studies technology and social media.
Some tech-savvy environmentalists have altered a Kill A Watt to make it send the data to their Twitter accounts.
And a municipal utility in Sacramento, Calif., experimented with sending statements to customers that compared them with average customers and with their most energy-conscious neighbors. The most energy- efficient customers received smiley faces on their bills, and the heaviest users got frowning faces. “It made it competitive,” Lim said, “and bred even more awareness.”
swatson@buffnews.com
The devices get cheaper, sleeker and more powerful all the time.
But they rely on one very low-tech feature — an electrical cord.
Many of these gadgets are incredibly compact, but when they are running or recharging their batteries, they can suck up vast amounts of energy. Some estimates suggest that electronic devices account for 10 to 15 percent of all home electricity use.
A sizable piece of this energy use is known as “phantom power” or “vampire power” because it occurs while the devices are turned off or not in active use.
“It’s one of those things with electronics; it’s a couple watts here and a couple watts there, and pretty soon it adds up to a lot of watts — and real money,” said John T. Thompson, a Buffalo State College associate professor of computer information systems.
There has been a push, reflected in the well-publicized marking of Earth Day today, to make consumers more energy-conscious on everything from light bulbs to dishwashers.
But that’s not the case for electronic devices. Most Americans want the latest and most impressive gadgets, and energy use isn’t a factor for most consumers in deciding what to buy.
“These are the devices of the day that do amazing things for us,” said Douglas K. Johnson, senior director of technology policy for the Consumer Electronics Association.
Now environmental agencies and electronics manufacturers are working to make sure consumers keep energy efficiency in mind when buying a device — and to make sure they manage their power use after they’ve taken it home.
“One of the things we don’t do well is communicate how much energy these devices use,” said Thomas W. Reddoch, executive director of energy utilization for the Electric Power Research Institute.
To put this in perspective, the typical American home in 1980 had 2.8 consumer electronic devices, while today it has 24 such devices, according to the electronics association.
Steve Poland, a tech entrepreneur, owns an extensive list of electronic devices that includes a 50-inch plasma TV, two laptop computers, three external hard drives, two video game players, two MP3 players, a BlackBerry phone and a digital camera.
“I would say that’s marginally [more than] your average individual,” said Poland, a Buffalo resident whose latest start-up project, InSeconds, is meant to help Web sites make money.
When consumers make decisions about which devices to purchase, they typically consider cost, performance, brand and style but not energy efficiency.
“In my mind, there’s an abundance of power, even though I’m sure it’s not the case,” Poland said.
The electronics association calculates that consumer electronics make up 12 percent of residential energy use, a finding in line with the estimates made by other agencies.
Larger, high-definition TVs consume more energy than older- model TVs, and television watching in general is rising as people have more viewing options today, the Natural Resource Defense Council noted.
The council and Ecos Consulting calculated that TVs in America consumed 46 billion kilowatts per hour of electricity in 2004 and estimated that this would soar to 70 billion by 2009.
The energy used annually by two DVRs, for another example, is equivalent to the amount of electricity consumed by the average refrigerator, said Mark M. Michalski, associate project manager for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA.
An unexpected energy hog is the digital picture frame, which is growing in popularity as people take more photos with their digital cameras and the price of the frames comes down.
The devices use a lot of juice because many people leave them on all day and all night.
If every home in America used one digital picture frame, we would need to build five new 250-megawatt power plants, according to the electric power institute.
“It is not a concern at the individual level, but if you multiply [energy use] by 300 million people, then it becomes a concern,” said Cemal Basaran, an engineering professor and director of the Electronic Packaging Laboratory at the University at Buffalo.
Even when they’re turned off, as long as the devices or their chargers are plugged in, they are using energy. And this “vampire power” can be a big electricity drain.
In the typical American household, 75 percent of the electricity used for electronic devices is consumed when the devices are shut off, the U. S. Department of Energy found.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the average American household spends $100 per year to power devices when they’re not in use, Michalski said.
“Everybody can be doing more to reduce their draw on the grid, and to reduce their costs in the process,” Thompson said.
Experts say that it is time to take the same “green” campaign that promotes fluorescent light bulbs and efficient refrigerators and apply it to these devices. Gaming consoles, for example, use an estimated 16 billion kilowatts per hour of electricity each year, the NRDC and Ecos Consulting found, enough to power San Diego.
Incorporating better, user-friendly power-management features on these video game players could lower their energy use by 11 billion kilowatts per hour, the agencies found.
This would lower the nation’s electricity bill by $1 billion and cut emission of 7 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Manufacturers are working to voluntarily disclose how much energy these devices use, and to highlight the most energy- efficient devices within a product category, Johnson said.
Manufacturers are making a greater number of devices that are more energy efficient, though consumers must make energy use a priority. “The fact of the matter is, consumers are going to buy what they want to buy,” Michalski said.
In addition, consumers can be mindful of their energy use.
Making sure you completely turn off and unplug the devices when you’re done with them is a basic way to cut down on energy use. Also, unplug the charger when you’re done charging a cell phone or MP3 player.
If people don’t want to constantly unplug and plug in these devices, NYSERDA recommends getting an advanced power strip. The strip allows devices that need to stay on all the time, such as a DVR, to remain on while cutting off electricity to the ones that don’t.
Green-friendly organizations also are making it easier for people to keep track of their electricity use online.
Also, companies are selling gadgets such as the Kill A Watt, which measures how much electricity a device consumes.
Users plug a gadget into the Kill A Watt, then plug the Kill A Watt into a wall outlet to get an energy-use reading.
“It’s way better than getting a bill at the end of the month and wondering, where does all that energy go?” said UB graduate student Kevin Lim, a blogger who studies technology and social media.
Some tech-savvy environmentalists have altered a Kill A Watt to make it send the data to their Twitter accounts.
And a municipal utility in Sacramento, Calif., experimented with sending statements to customers that compared them with average customers and with their most energy-conscious neighbors. The most energy- efficient customers received smiley faces on their bills, and the heaviest users got frowning faces. “It made it competitive,” Lim said, “and bred even more awareness.”
swatson@buffnews.com
‘Refrigerator’ Perry hospitalized in SC
Former Chicago Bears defensive lineman William “The Refrigerator” Perry remains hospitalized in South Carolina.
Aiken Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Melissa Summer said Wednesday that Perry is in serious condition. The 46-year-old Perry has been hospitalized to deal with complications from Guillain-Barre (gee-LAN’ bah-RAY’) Syndrome, a chronic inflammation disorder of the peripheral nerves.
Perry’s nephew, Purnell Perry, said Tuesday that his uncle was admitted more than a week ago but was expected to recover. A man who answered the phone Wednesday at Purnell Perry’s home in Aiken said he couldn’t comment on the football player’s hospitalization.
The 300-pound plus defensive tackle played for the Bears’ 1985 Super Bowl team, and helped lead Clemson to the 1981 national championship.
Aiken Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Melissa Summer said Wednesday that Perry is in serious condition. The 46-year-old Perry has been hospitalized to deal with complications from Guillain-Barre (gee-LAN’ bah-RAY’) Syndrome, a chronic inflammation disorder of the peripheral nerves.
Perry’s nephew, Purnell Perry, said Tuesday that his uncle was admitted more than a week ago but was expected to recover. A man who answered the phone Wednesday at Purnell Perry’s home in Aiken said he couldn’t comment on the football player’s hospitalization.
The 300-pound plus defensive tackle played for the Bears’ 1985 Super Bowl team, and helped lead Clemson to the 1981 national championship.
Record attempt reaps 217K texts, $26K phone bill
Their thumbs sure must be sore. Two central Pennsylvania friends spent most of March in a text-messaging record attempt, exchanging a thumbs-flying total of 217,000. For one of the two, that meant an inches-thick itemized bill for $26,000.
Nick Andes, 29, and Doug Klinger, 30, were relying on their unlimited text messaging plans to get them through the escapade, so Andes didn't expect such a big bill.
"It came in a box that cost $27.55 to send to me," he said Tuesday. He said he "panicked" and called T-Mobile, which told The Associated Press it had credited his account and was investigating the charges.
The two Lancaster-area residents have been practically nonstop texters for about a decade since they attended Berks Technical Institute together.
That led Andes to search for the largest monthly text message total he could find posted online: 182,000 sent in 2005 by Deepak Sharma in India.
Andes and Klinger were able to set up their phones to send multiple messages. During a February test run they found they could send 6,000 or 7,000 messages on some days, prompting the March messaging marathon.
"Most were either short phrases or one word, 'LOL' or 'Hello,' things like that, with tons and tons of repeats," said Andes, reached by phone.
Andes sent more than 140,000 messages, and Klinger sent more than 70,000 to end the month with a total of just over 217,000, he said.
A spokesman for Guinness World Records didn't immediately return messages asking whether it would be certified as a record.
April came as a relief to Andes' wife, Julie, who had found his phone tied up with texting when she tried to call him on lunch breaks.
"She was tired of it the first few days into it," Andes said.
Nick Andes, 29, and Doug Klinger, 30, were relying on their unlimited text messaging plans to get them through the escapade, so Andes didn't expect such a big bill.
"It came in a box that cost $27.55 to send to me," he said Tuesday. He said he "panicked" and called T-Mobile, which told The Associated Press it had credited his account and was investigating the charges.
The two Lancaster-area residents have been practically nonstop texters for about a decade since they attended Berks Technical Institute together.
That led Andes to search for the largest monthly text message total he could find posted online: 182,000 sent in 2005 by Deepak Sharma in India.
Andes and Klinger were able to set up their phones to send multiple messages. During a February test run they found they could send 6,000 or 7,000 messages on some days, prompting the March messaging marathon.
"Most were either short phrases or one word, 'LOL' or 'Hello,' things like that, with tons and tons of repeats," said Andes, reached by phone.
Andes sent more than 140,000 messages, and Klinger sent more than 70,000 to end the month with a total of just over 217,000, he said.
A spokesman for Guinness World Records didn't immediately return messages asking whether it would be certified as a record.
April came as a relief to Andes' wife, Julie, who had found his phone tied up with texting when she tried to call him on lunch breaks.
"She was tired of it the first few days into it," Andes said.
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