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3.31.08

Submitted by Marc Lefkowitz  |  Last edited September 23, 2008 - 1:44pm
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  • The latest in NPR’s Climate Connections series looks at perhaps our most controversial climate problem—large, energy-hog suburban homes in cities like Atlanta where families like Michelle Carvalho's drive two cars everywhere. Does this type of media coverage raise awareness or just lead to more head-in-sand behavior about what’s a reasonable size home and commute?
  • While Geography of Nowhere author James Howard Kunstler's usual hot rants about unsustainable suburban lifestyles takes a backseat in his column in the latest, local design-themed Metropolis centers on what localism means in our age of oil depletion. Not just driving will be affected. “We’ll be forced to make very different arrangements for virtually everything that constitutes everyday life in our society,” he writes. “Everything we do from now on will have to be finer in scale, quality, and character. We’ll have to grow food differently (than oil-reliant agribusiness), at a smaller scale, closer to home.”
  • In Cambridge, Mass. a new effort is helping residents tighten up the energy efficiency of their homes and business with the goal of reducing the city’s carbon footprint by 10 percent in just five years. "NOW on PBS" reports on Cambridge Energy Alliance which provides energy audits and then comes up with a plan for each resident or business to reduce their energy use. The Alliance helps people find low interest loans to pay for the upfront costs of green retrofits. They expect to get 50% of people in the community to join in. GCBL reader David Slawson writes: “Could this serve as a model for us here in Northeast Ohio?”


April 1, 2008 - 2:49pm

Energy Audits

Pat Blochowiak Says:

I tried to find a way to have an energy audit done on my home, as I had on a previous home in another city, but never found any individual or group that did them.  I found very expensive partial services, but no way to have a complete audit done.  That would be a valuable service, especially if it were affordable.


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