So there's this national event every year called TED. It's a bunch of really bright people speaking about their ideas on science, art and the world around us. Al Gore has done his first rendition of a renewed climate crisis lecture at TED this year. I think this video shows the passion Gore has for his work and the passion with which he believes it.

Who would have guessed that there is no real benefit to a gas tax holiday, as put forth by John McCain. Obviously (we use this word a lot) this will have absolutely ZERO long term impact on gas prices and will only provide a temporary relief of 18.4 cents/gallon off the national average of $3.62/gallon, a mere 5% of your purchase price. Average savings would be LESS THAN $50 for just about every consumer. Big business would make out much better, but the average consumer need not get worked up about whether or not this happens. Of course, not everyone will do their research and will clamor for such a tax holiday.

Obama was the only candidate to speak about this in a real sense and actually oppose it instead of merely playing to the uninformed voters. See the video below:

Some real numbers:
Average Sedan Gas Tank: 17 gallons
Average fill up (using $3.62 average): $61.54
Average fill up (using non-taxed, adjusted average of $3.44): $58.48
If you filled up once a week: $233.92 vs. $246.16

Your savings: $12.24/month. Congratulations, now don't spend it all in one place.

Many of us have the natural tendency to just hit "ctrl+p" or "file ... print" when we want to print something from our computers. Webpages, although available online all the time, are being printed all the time to show colleagues or family members. Sometimes when you print, however, you will get the site's footer (alone) at the top of the final page.

This is a wasted piece of paper and ink. You certainly would have omitted that page if you had known it was going to print all on it's lonesome, yes? Well, change your routine. Go to "Print Preview" first and you will get to see how it will all layout on paper. Then when you actually print, you can specify the pages to be printed. If it's a 3 page document and the footer is alone on the 3rd page, you can tell your printer to print pages 1-2.

There are 300 million people in the US, imagine on average each of us does this once a year (a seriously minor undertaking) - that's 300 million sheets of paper or 3727 TREES using this calculation.

USF President Judy Genshaft signed The American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment today in a special ceremony at the Getting Green by Going Green Expo at the Sun Dome.

The complete news release is here.

The full typepad article with accompanying video can be seen here.

Creative Loafing published a "Green Report Card" for Tampa Bay back in January and while I have seen some changes since then, the report card for Hillsborough County is atrocious and the report for Florida is not awful, but definitely needs improvement.

On this subject, Florida and Tampa grade like a bored high school student - a meager C+. The only way we can make strides forward is to encourage your local government (Charlie Christ, Pam Iorio) to make a bigger effort to be green!

See the full story here:

http://tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/tampa_bay_s_green_report_card/...

There are quite a few reasons to be happy about this year's Grand Prix. Not only do we get great entertainment, but they are trying to do their best to have a smaller environmental footprint. They even have lofty goals for the years to come. Read all about it at the link below.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/apr/03/sp-alms-irl-go-green-with-altern...

Join Going Green Tampa Bay in uniting the business, academic and green communities of Tampa Bay at this one-day exposition of all things sustainable.

Visit www.goinggreentampabay.com for more information on the expo.

No filters, no membranes, no ion collection, no disposables. Stephen Colbert is an extreme "tongue in cheek" interviewer and he jokes about wasting water, but Dean Kamen gives some very serious facts about water in this world.

50% of the water in the world is contaminated and Dean hopes to make this device available to third world countries to hopefully eliminate 50% of the world's disease.

This is a time where being eco-friendly is a no-brainer. Concrete proof of a carbon buildup in our atmosphere has all signs pointing to the human footprint making one of the largest impacts this planet has ever seen.

Knowing the details makes green living seem so, obvious.

There are many people in the Tampa Bay area who seek to be greener people and this site is dedicated to them. We hope to provide a wealth of information on green, sustainable, renewable living in the Tampa Bay area.

Green isn't only cool or hip, it's necessary and responsible living. The more awareness we have, the more products are made and the easier it becomes for us to live a more sustainable life.