GreenOrlando – Page 5 – The place for things green in the City Beautiful

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Plug-In Hybrids Get 100+ mpg

The growing costs of U.S. dependence on oil have hit home. Factor in world insecurity, economic instability, and it’s clear we pay a lot more to fill up our cars than the price on the pump. And with the threat of global warming, it’s clear we need to use much less oil. How can we start to change?
The century-old gasoline-powered engine is on its way out. Auto makers say the answer will someday be fuel cell cars. Maybe, but we need to get affordable cars now that use far less gas with lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Oh, What A Feeling

It sure feels good to be green. Hybrids are a much needed step in the right direction. I’m still looking for a new car, and fuel economy is a big motivator for me. With Brevard’s 72 miles of coastline to traverse, gas guzzling monsters just aren’t right for me.

Have you noticed all the new hybrids on the road? Amid all the hype about employee discounts, sales and holiday specials, several automakers are deploying a whole fleet of hybrids. And I’m seeing them pop up in the least expected places.

Florida Energy Achievement Awards

The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) is pleased to announce the creation of the “Florida Energy Achievement Awards.”
This new annual award will recognize a company, organization or individual that has made a significant achievement in the efficient utilization of energy, energy conservation, energy education or renewable energy in the state of Florida.

Remote Control Children or Developmental Programming?

Cartoon Network recently announced a new 2 hour block of programming targeted at 2 to 5 year olds. In response, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood publicly lambasted the channel for being,

“the latest attempt to get young children in front of screens — which is exactly where marketers want them”

This raises several important questions on both ethical and parental sides of the issue. Is this another ploy to plop children in front of a tv and endear them to colorful characters and their merchandise? Can television programming actually be beneficial to a child’s development, or more importantly – is it even needed for wholesome development? Read on for the major arguments from both sides, and contribute your own answers to these vital questions.

Crippled in Both Feet

Recently, a few weeks after my father Frank’s passing, I spent time with my mother Flora going through some of his things. He didn’t leave much behind, being a simple man with simple tastes. There were a few clothes; some medals from World War II; a few service pins; several books; a 1980 appointment calendar in which he had scribbled dozens of motivational sayings; and a strange piece of metal we found lying in a drawer.

My mom gasped when she picked up the metal bar, thick and laden with screws. “Look at this,” she said. “What is it?” I inquired.

Family History

This holiday season take a journey of adventure and discovery and prepare to write your family history. Your mission, if you decide to accept it, will be to interview your family members and learn what makes you who you are today.

Visit websites and chronicles of ancient documents to discover who landed where and who married who, and who in your family made the news. Travel through the portals of time and discover from yesteryear’s newspapers the social issues of the times and how your ancestors stood on those issues. Boldly go where few relatives have gone before and carefully review those old letters and pictures that have been in the attic for years. As you converse around the Thanksgiving meal, discover who made that delicious recipe for turkey stuffing or some other dish that is ritually prepared every holiday season. Speak in honor of those who served our country in a foreign war. Find out the accomplishments of your forefathers and record them for history. Visit a gravesite and experience the sacred resting-place of an ancestor.

Spend a Day learning about Florida’s Sea Turtles

Ever wonder about your “Nocturnal Neighbors”? No, not those noisy neighbors next door that are always up until 2 AM. I mean the ones visiting our beaches at night as they have for longer than you can imagine. That’s right, sea turtles! The three species of sea turtle using Brevard’s beaches struggle with the burden of crawling from the surf and finding a suitable nesting location near the dune. Once they find a suitable sight they deposit a hundred golf ball sized eggs into a carefully crafted nest chamber. Leaving them to be incubated by the heat of the summer sun, the mother turtle will never see her babies again. The hatchlings emerging two months later have very little chance of survival with only one in a thousand expected to make it to adulthood.

Dad

My father, Frank N. De Marco, died on Tuesday, July 26, at his home in Ormond Beach, Fla. He was 80. I had the honor of being with him, when he closed his eyes in this life and opened them in his new life to behold the face of God.

I Want My Solar

Soaring energy costs, increased international demand for cheap fuel, and in-your-face realities of global warming all add to one conclusion: America needs renewable energies in a big way, and we need it today, not another 20 years down the road.

Learning About Florida’s Sea Turtles

Ever wonder about your “Nocturnal Neighbors”? Spend a Day learning about Florida’s Sea Turtles! Learn how to join NESTS — Neighbors Ensuring Sea Turtle Survival! Take a Sea Turtle Lighting Course!

Using Solar Energy in a Disaster

A workshop on the “Basics of Using Solar Energy in a Disaster” will be presented at the Solar World Congress in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, August 12, from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. The course will be taught by Bill Young, a senior engineer at the Florida Solar Energy Center. Participants in the workshop will learn about the uses of solar energy for response, recovery and mitigation functions following disasters.

GM: Serving the Greater Good?

“GM Suffers Massive Losses. Wow, do you mean that we don’t want to buy ever bigger SUVs? I read the headlines from Forbes and API, and it sounds like a shocker. Big scoop… front page news: “GM Posts Another Huge Quarterly Loss.” Can even ’employee discounts’ save the day?

Prayer in Schools

I recently received an email. In it was a petition, written to President Bush, calling for the reinstatement of prayer in schools. With 1557 names on it, it asked users to forward it on when it reached 2000, something that I’m sure happened soon and was diligently delivered. But I’m afraid that the good intentions of the originator is misplaced.

Join the Local Food Revolution

The taste of a juicy tomato, just-picked off the vine at the peak of ripeness, is one of life’s simple pleasures – and for many of us it is a distant memory. When I was growing up my mother always kept a vegetable garden. I remember digging around in the dirt with her, eating sugar snap peas right off the vine, pulling up carrots and picking big juicy tomatoes for grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches.

New Territory

Bruce Wilkinson’s recent bestseller The Prayer of Jabez shined the light on an obscure Old Testament character who unleashed a powerful petition to the God of Israel that had a dramatic impact upon his life. A key portion of the prayer was Jabez’s request that God would “expand his territory.”

What this meant, explained Wilkinson, was that Jabez sought broader and deeper opportunities to be of service to God and to humankind.

The ONE Campaign

The ONE Campaign grew out of the Heart of America tour in 2002, in which a busload of citizens and celebrities toured the mid-West in support of a new U.S. initiative on global AIDS. The success of that trip insured that a new constituency of Americans were raising their voices for Africa and needed to be heard. Together with the Better Safer World Campaign, representing nine of the largest, most effective private aid agencies (with 3 million supporters) working together to fight global poverty, and Bread for the World, a Christian voice for ending hunger for more than 30 years, the ONE campaign got off to a great start.

Forever Florida

A visit to Forever Florida and the Crescent J Ranch is like a romp through the terrain that once dominated this State. The unfortunate part is trying to figure out where we will show our children this amount of unspoiled land in the future?

Helping Sea Turtles

For those of you dropping by Green Orlando on a monthly basis, sea turtles are a topic you’ve heard about before. From day one its publisher, Eric Needle, has been inspired by the story of sea turtles and the efforts citizens of this county have made to help protect these summer visitors.

Brevard County and each of the municipalities in the county have lighting ordinances established to reduce the effects of lights illuminating the beach, which disorients nesting females and the hatchlings emerging a couple of months later. It’s a concerted effort by citizens throughout the county, to do what we can to help these imperiled reptiles and it’s easy. Seeing a massive nesting sea turtle or a cute hatchling is usually enough to illicit an emotional response from most everyone and when we’re tied emotionally to these creatures we work towards protecting them.

Florida’s Green Budget

Florida’s new budget sets aside $2 billion for Everglades, beach restoration, land conservation and water improvement. Wow. Florida is an amazing place to be. The state of our environment is critical to so many industries. From tourism to agriculture, quality of life in the sunshine state remains a priority, and the new budget shows that Talahassee sees the connection.

Sea Turtle Ranger Program

This month, the turtle walk program at Sebastian Inlet State Park broke an all-time, nightly record. Recent participants of the Sebastian Inlet State Park “Turtle Walk” made history by witnessing the magic of a loggerhead turtle lay her eggs on the same night that a leatherback and green turtle beached themselves to lay their eggs. The nesting of the leatherback was a record breaking eighth nest of its kind within the park this year.

Young Professionals of Brevard

Young Professionals of Brevard will host their monthly networking social, sponsored by Community Educators Credit Union, on Thursday, May 26, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm at The Redhead Martini & Cigar Bar – 626 Glen Cheek Dr., Port Canaveral. All young professionals in Brevard County are invited to attend.

Driving Green

According to the US EPA, every gallon of gasoline your vehicle burns puts 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and contributes to global warming. If you drive a vehicle uses gasoline, or any fossil fuel, then you can play a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change. You can reduce (or offset) the effect your driving has on the environment by supporting projects that reduce greenhouse gases anywhere in the world, and effectively make your vehicle “Greenhouse Gas Neutral”.

Pella Windows and Doors

Pella Corporation is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of premium-quality windows, entry door systems, storm doors and patio doors. What makes Pella newsworthy is their vision and environmental ethic.

The Real Florida

So you’re in Central Florida for a conference, on vacation, or maybe you live here! But have you ever seen the real Florida? Many of us, residents included, have no idea how diverse, how immense and how beautiful the natural Florida outdoors are.