I guess I'll take the SUV

Recently, two researches have found that having a pet dog is twice as bad for planet earth than driving a SUV. They published all of their findings in an easy to read book. How can that be you ask? Apparently, the land it takes to produce the plants and animals used in dog food could be used to produce twice the amount of energy it takes to build and fuel a SUV. And what about your pet cat? Well owning a cat increases your carbon footprint to a level equivalent to a Volkswagen Golf.

Now not everyone believes that this is all true. Pet owners have come to the defense of their lovable pooches pointing out holes in the scientists data:

"...your dog is worse than your SUV has way too many variables. For one, they used a German Shepherd as their baseline, which weighs in around 70 or 80 pounds. And while I know there are 100+ pound dogs out there, I don't know a single dog owner with one... Also, they compare their baseline pooch to driving 10,000 km a year, which is only 6,250 miles. I think it would be awesome if everyone with a car only drove 6,000 miles a year, but the average American actually drives 12,000."

However, later it is admitted, "Then again, maybe I'm just a guilty greenie rationalizing my own need to have a pet." I would have never thought that man's best friend would be less of a friend to the world than a SUV.

AeroVironment, Inc.

Here is a cool company that is on the cutting edge of the "green movement", and they are headquartered right here in Los Angeles. While their main line of business is in unmanned aircraft systems, recently, Aerovironment has been focusing their efforts on clean technology solutions.

One of these solutions is the PosiCharge EV fast charge system that allows industrial, electric vehicles and machines to perform more work and use less energy. It has been helping manufacturers cut costs, reduce CO2 emissions, and be more energy efficient in business operations. AeroVironment has been working with GM to integrate this technology with the technology used in hybrid and electric cars. Together, they have relesed the GM Impact prototype and are working on furthering the electric car market.

AeroVironment also has a business sector that provides an array of engineering services focused on clean transportation and clean energy. Some of their past projects were things like the universal solar pump contoroller, a clean water system designed to harvest solar energy used to facilitate water pumping to remote areas. They also have worked on projects that set up wind turbines on office buildings in a way that helped supply some of the buildings energy while adding to the asthetics and architectual design of the building.

AeroVironment is one company that is doing their part to help the world be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

The Green Police

Since the Super Bowl was last week, I thought it would be fun to talk about one of the commercials that aired during it. The commercial was for the Audi A3 TDI which burns clean diesel instead of gasoline and won the green car of the year award by the Green Car Journal. The commercial jokes about "green police", but it actually is showing viewers many ways they can be more environmentally friendly. Check out the commercial, have a few laughs, and learn to save the earth!

Welcome to The Green Twig

Welcome to The Green Twig! This is a new blog that will explore issues concerning the earth's environment. New posts will be regularly added that cover topics like green technology or pollution and every post will discuss how the environment is affected, whether positively or negatively, by that issue. Reading this blog will help give you insights about how your actions affect the environment as well as teach you about new initiatives that help battle pollution.