The environmental impact of a BeGreen Fan Tag at Lolla this year was impressive. For $5, fans helped avoid about 665 pounds of carbon dioxide, which is as much as 39 trees can absorb in one year! To put it another way, it’s like not driving about 738 miles.

Even though Lollapalooza is over, you can still get your BeGreen Fan Tag for ACL, which is October 2nd – 4th, 2009. Visit their website here to snap up remaining one day passes!

Even better, smart meters will be able to send that usage data to applications like those being developed by Google, Microsoft and Verizon. Theoretically, you could check your energy usage from your phone and realize that someone may have left the AC turned up and all the lights on. And of course, once you realize where and how your energy bills are skyrocketing, you can take more effective steps to reduce them.

Google’s PowerMeter
PowerMeter was launched recently with 12 pilot partner utilities, after being tested by Google employees on their own home energy usage. Anecdotes about expensive, power-hungry space heaters and paying to power the laundry room for a whole apartment complex illustrate the power of access to usage data. Also, it’s free.

Microsoft’s Hohm
Hohm seems similar to PowerMeter, although we have limited information so far. The press release mentions that Hohm will make energy saving recommendations based on data you enter about your usage. Sounds like it doesn’t hook directly into smart meter usage data yet, but Microsoft is also partnering with 4 utilities for pilot programs. Plus, there’s a communal element, allowing you to compare your usage with others in your area and talk about ways to reduce it. Again, also free.

Verizon’s Fios
Verizon, taking advantage of their home fiberoptic broadband system, plans to enter the home energy management game too. Since this tidbit of news just came out (very) recently at the Green:Net 09 conference, I’ll let an actual attendee from FastCompany explain:

Verizon can remotely update home routers, which means that customers can too. So once we give thermostats and window shades IP addresses, we can turn down the heat and schedule the shades to open or close on a daily schedule–all from our cell phones. That’s the gist of what Verizon wants to do, but the company remains mum on details of a release date, partnering companies, and price.

This one might not be free, but it would be pretty cool.

Republicans have stoked concerns of these younger members of the House, and also consistently cast the bill as the “largest tax increase in American history”.

The next step is for House members to vote on amendments to the bill and send their final version to the Senate, which has its own version of an energy/climate bill circulating. Analysts expect the process of reconciling the two bills to be long and protracted, without guarantee of victory for the Democrats.

President Obama has come out with strong support for the bill, combatting Republican tax rhetoric and reframing the legislation to create jobs and lead to economic recovery. His support extended even to Twitter, where his official “tweet” read: Help pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act — crucial to creating a clean energy economy: http://bit.ly/aWcDK. The link sends Twitter users to an official Barack Obama page with instructions to call Congress in support of the bill.

However, if you can’t afford organic fruit and vegetables all the time, spend your money wisely with the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) “Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides”. The guide provides a straightforward list of popular fruits and vegetables ranked by their estimated pesticide contamination. By avoiding the top most contaminated fruits and vegetables, or by buying these in organic forms, consumers can reduce their pesticide exposure by up to 80%. See below for their “Dirty Dozen” (which you should buy organic) and the “Clean 15″.

While many consumers think that rinsing or peeling their produce is enough to rid food of any contaminants, the EWG’s warns that this will not protect the consumer, as all of the fruits and vegetables ranked highest on the pesticide scale had been thoroughly cleaned or peeled before being tested. By making a few simple diet changes, you can avoid this worry altogether.

So which fruits and vegetables should you opt for this summer? Many of the most refreshing fruits sit low on the pesticide scale, such as mango, pineapple, watermelon, papaya and kiwi. Before you head to the supermarket, grab the “Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides” application for iPhone (available at www.foodnews.org) so you can be a savvy shopper at the touch of a button.

As you reevaluate your purchasing habits, remember that buying locally grown produce is an easy way to “be green”. Produce can often travel a thousand miles before it reaches the shelf at your favorite grocery store, so look for farmer’s markets in your area and buy produce with a small carbon footprint. Visit www.localharvest.org for a listing of farmer’s markets in your area.

The report adds to existing international scientific consensus on these two points, and does so for the first time from the American government’s own research.The first and the last of the report’s 10 key findings are particularly powerful; scroll down for the full list.

If you’ve got the time and the inclination, click through to the full report here.

1. Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced.
Global temperature has increased over the past 50 years. This observed increase is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases. (p. 13)

2. Climate changes are underway in the United States and are projected to grow.
Climate-related changes are already observed in the United States and its coastal waters. These include increases in heavy downpours, rising temperature and sea level, rapidly retreating glaciers, thawing permafrost, lengthening growing seasons, lengthening ice-free seasons in the ocean and on lakes and rivers, earlier snowmelt, and alterations in river flows. These changes are projected to grow. (p. 27)

3. Widespread climate-related impacts are occurring now and are expected to increase.
Climate changes are already affecting water, energy, transportation, agriculture, ecosystems, and health. These impacts are different from region to region and will grow under projected climate change. (p. 41-106, 107-152)

4. Climate change will stress water resources.
Water is an issue in every region, but the nature of the potential impacts varies. Drought, related to reduced precipitation, increased evaporation, and increased water loss from plants, is an important issue in many regions, especially in the West. Floods and water quality problems are likely to be amplified by climate change in most regions. Declines in mountain snowpack are important in the West and Alaska where snowpack provides vital natural water storage. (p. 41, 129, 135, 139)

5. Crop and livestock production will be increasingly challenged.
Agriculture is considered one of the sectors most adaptable to changes in climate. However, increased heat, pests, water stress, diseases, and weather extremes will pose adaptation challenges for crop and livestock production. (p. 71)

6. Coastal areas are at increasing risk from sea-level rise and storm surge.
Sea-level rise and storm surge place many U.S. coastal areas at increasing risk of erosion and flooding, especially along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, Pacific Islands, and parts of Alaska. Energy and transportation infrastructure and other property in coastal areas are very likely to be adversely affected. (p. 111, 139, 145, 149)

7. Threats to human health will increase.
Health impacts of climate change are related to heat stress, waterborne diseases, poor air quality, extreme weather events, and diseases transmitted by insects and rodents. Robust public health infrastructure can reduce the potential for negative impacts. (p. 89)

8. Climate change will interact with many social and environmental stresses.
Climate change will combine with pollution, population growth, overuse of resources, urbanization, and other social, economic, and environmental stresses to create larger impacts than from any of these factors alone. (p. 99)

9. Thresholds will be crossed, leading to large changes in climate and ecosystems.
There are a variety of thresholds in the climate system and ecosystems. These thresholds determine, for example, the presence of sea ice and permafrost, and the survival of species, from fish to insect pests, with implications for society. With further climate change, the crossing of additional thresholds is expected. (p. 76, 82, 115, 137, 142)

10. Future climate change and its impacts depend on choices made today.

The amount and rate of future climate change depend primarily on current and future human-caused emissions of heat-trapping gases and airborne particles. Responses involve reducing emissions to limit future warming, and adapting to the changes that are unavoidable. (p. 25, 29)

Chu notes that public investment is the only way projects like FutureGen will get off the ground. The Bush Administration yanked funding for FutureGen in January 2008, when they were told costs would double from $950 million to $1.8 billion. Fortunately, more recent data seems to suggest cost projections were inaccurate. Although a final decision won’t be made until early 2010, this is a step in the right direction for a project that was once presumed dead.

Artistic rendering of the possible FutureGen coal plant

Meanwhile, clean coal became a great vehicle for the coal industry during the election season, helping to lodge our dirtiest electricity source in the minds of the public as a viable “clean” technology. See below for the Reality campaign’s latest TV commercial, directed by the Cohen brothers. Restarting FutureGen changes the argument, albeit at a cost of $1 billion for one zero emissions coal plant. At least you can’t say we didn’t try.

Of course, we wouldn’t be adding this to the BeGreen store if it didn’t have major environmental credibility. The Earth Policy Institute noted in 2006 that Americans drink about 90 liters of bottled water annually, which works out to approximately 180 half liter single use bottles. These are made from PETE, better known as plastic #1, which requires petroleum to manufacture. In fact, about 1.5 million barrels of oil each year go toward meeting America’s demand for single-use plastic water bottles.

Wait a minute – you can recycle plastic #1, right? Right. But only about 15% of plastic water bottles are ever recycled, which means the rest go into landfills where they take over 1,000 years to break down. And by break down, we really mean disintegrate into tiny pieces that simply mix in with soil.

For all the popularity of bottled water in the U.S., you would think it’s superior in quality to tap water. Turns out, it’s just the opposite. The US EPA has higher water quality standards for our tap water than the FDA has for bottled water. And, about 40% of all bottled water begins as tap water and simply has a few minerals added – including Dasani and Aquafina. Not to mention that bottled water costs up to 10,000 times more that tap water.

When you purchase a BeGreen Kanteen and fill it with tap water, you’re getting hydrated in a safe, eco-friendly, and economical way.

“Greening the Herds: A new diet to cap gas” from the New York Times discusses how grass-fed cattle emit less methane during digestive processes than grain-fed cattle. Grass contains more Omega-3 acids than grain, which allows the digestive process to go more smoothly. Grass-fed cows even produce more milk. Researchers, such as those from Stonyfield Farms (the eco-yogurt mavens) are attempting to replicate the Omega-3 benefits of grass by heating flax seed, although the technology is still young and expensive.

Worldwatch Institute also put out a new report today entited “Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use” that pushes for more attention on soil carbon sinks. The authors recommend climate-friendly agricultural practices like farming with perennials that can absorb carbon over time, minimizing soil tillage, and (you guessed it) improving methane management in livestock. Are you seeing a trend yet?

Meanwhile, ClimateBiz guest blogger Noam Ross explains why the all-mighty Ethanol Debate isn’t helping anyone. Nothing is being accomplished by environmentalists trying to penalize ethanol for land use emissions, while pro-ethanol groups complain it isn’t their fault. Instead of shifting the blame, far sighted advocates on both sides should be working toward comprehensive land use improvement programs that would prevent destruction of carbon sinks in order to grow biomass for ethanol.

Incidentally, this plays into yet another hot button issue: reducing deforestation, and it’s role in international climate policy. Both pro- and anti-ethanol groups can hold hands and sing kumbaya over saving trees, right? Here’s a great (if lengthy) summary of the increasing role that REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) is beginning to play in the climate policy arena: Rainforests Win Big in new U.S. Climate Bill.

If you’ve ever taken an economics class, you might remember a concept called “comparative advantage”. That’s a fancy way of saying that some people can produce things more efficiently than others – maybe due to more knowledge, better resources, or any number of reasons. So it’s more efficient for you to purchase some goods from other people because it would cost you more to make them yourself.

The same concept applies to balancing out emissions, which economist Robert Frank touches on nicely in this New York Times blog. Frank gives some examples about buying offsets to neutralize emissions rather than spending the extra money to buy a hybrid car or buy local tomatoes. Although these choices are good for the environment, the same result can be achieved more efficiently in many cases by choosing a cheaper alternative and buying offsets instead. That’s why all of the climate policies currently in practice (Kyoto Protocol) or in the works (Waxman-Markey bill) allow for large emitters to purchase offsets in lieu of some of their emissions reductions. Reductions can be achieved at a lower cost elsewhere, which is good for the economy as a whole.

Frank ends his article by noting that offsets alone won’t solve global warming. For that, we need to limit carbon emissions and build the cost of emitting carbon into everyday transactions. Within that framework, carbon offsets are an efficient means to reduce global emissions. In the meantime, they’re a simple way for ordinary people and companies to keep global warming from getting any worse.