I still don’t really get how Barack Hussein Obama got this far in the Presidential race. On Yahoo Answers, there are some funny answers to that question along with some reasonal answers as well. Obama definitely has a strong confident presence in his voice and is a favorite among college students. He is also not your typical candidate and is suppose to bring hope to bring changes. My problem with him however, is that he does not have a lot of experience and has not done enough to show that he is ready to be President. I think it would be cool to have our first African American President, but not sure if we are ready yet. It was great having a woman run against a black man for the Democratic nominee but I am also pissed that Obama beat  Hillary Clinton because she would have been a way better President. Normally I consider myself a Democrat, and obviously one man does not make all the decisions, and I think having a Democratic party would do a better job, but I still think John McCain may be the better candidate versus Obama to be the next President.

Bill Clinton said that global warming is going to be a big issue that the next President is going to have to deal with. So who would make a better President and where do they stand on the position on global warming? This is a great article on that very topic. In this blog, Shannon Moore has compiled a list of both Obama and McCain’s positions on global warming from various sources. It is pretty clear that both candidates will do a way better job on this topic than President George W. Bush. Global warming is one of the main issues that should be addressed in the next fours and Congress will need to make more of an effort to help with this fight. Obviously both candidates are going to say a bunch of bull right now so that they can be President so we can only wait to see how much the next President will actually do. According to this article, the League of Conservation Voters, a group that monitors Congress environmental records, gives Senator John McCain a score 0 in 2007 and 24% lifetime while Senator Barack Obama got a 67% in 2007 and 86% lifetime. The conservative wing of the Republican party is more opposed to environmental issues and renewable energy. Regardless, renewable and alternative energy is the wave of the future and our next President will surely make some progress to make up for thr garbage that we had to live with in the last eight years.

image taken from http://janeyvox.blogspot.com/

My friend Danny was back in town from Japan and was telling me how the Japanese have a pretty interesting recycling system. They separate burnable items which can include food and paper that get incinerated and non-burnables, which go to the landfill. Glass bottles, jars, and aluminum/tin cans are separated out and different kinds of paper and cardboard are also separated. Cardboards need to be cut up and bound together into a stack and plastic bottles need to have the labels and caps removed. This all sounds like a lot of work but it sounds like it is a good environmental system. Being in an apartment, my friend Danny has to bring his garbage downstairs and sort it all out. 

In my building complex in South San Francisco, we just have two big blue recycling containers and we are suppose to just toss all our paper/cardboard and plastic/glass/tin containers into it. I assume they bring it all somewhere and it gets sorted? So I guess it works the same way here but other people do it for us. The only problem is that there are different recycling systems for different cities and districts and they are not all consistent. So we never really know what happens with our recycling. For example, San Francisco and Albany are two cities that I know have composting recycling but many other cities in the bay area do not.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co is buying 800 megawatts of solar power that will be able to power 239,000 homes. This will be the country’s first utility-scale photovotaic plant. The two companies providing the power will be two bay area companies, OptiSolar and SunPower and the panels will be installed in San Luis Obispo.

Photovoltaic power is a solar technology that converts sunlight into electricity using silicon-based panels. They are planned to be used in 2013.

You can read more about this story here.

As I watch some of the events of the Olympics, specifically the rowing competition today, the air did not look very good. Of course it was also suppose to be a overcast day and there were also showers that occurred.

Here is a good site that shows the air quality issues at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. There is a section that shows everything that the government is doing to curb the pollution issues. There is also a section showing images of the Bird’s Nest on different days leading up to the start of the Olympics. Surprisingly there were actually several days of blue skies! (I bet if I was writting this blog in China, it would probably get rejected or banned.) 

On a good note, the opening ceremonies were really awesome. A record $300 million was spent on it and it was truely an awesome event. My favorite part was definitely the blocks that moved up and down so smoothly that it seemed unreal that there was a human being under each one. It also made me proud that the Olympics were held in China. It is a tremendous event that China is very proud to host and make it the best event possible to show to the world that this is a new and improved China that the world needs to recognize. China is a global world power and the opening ceremonies was a good example that showed the history and culture of China and along with the amazing architectures at Olympic Park, also showed the technology and the advancements that have now come out of the most populated country in the world.

http://sfgate.stats.com/interactives/olympics/oly_fea_pollution/index.html#start

The best way to take advantage of fuel efficiency is to drive at a constant speed and not start and stop excessively. In 2009 Nissan will be introducing an Eco Pedal system which will tell you if you are stepping on the gas harder than you need to. “The ECO Pedal system is fed data on the rate of fuel consumption and transmission efficiency during acceleration and cruising, and then calculates the optimum acceleration rate. When the driver exerts excess pressure on the accelerator, the system counteracts with the pedal push-back control mechanism.”

By using this system, it can provide a fuel savings of 5-10%.  Of course, buying a hybrid car will save you a lot more fuel but the choices for Hybrids currently are still very limited and there are plenty of regular gasoline cars that are sold. This will probably be a good addition to people who may not normally care about being green, but it still helps by saving you money at the gas pump.

via Treehugger and Nissan