Wednesday, March 23, 2011

"Greener Than Any Mega-Yacht in Her Class..."


Comment from Fr. Paul R. Bear >>

"You go, girl!!  We ice bears are left to wonder, "what will the humans think of next?"  My you are a clever bunch.  (Smart, but not wise...)    Still, from where I sit, buying an energy-efficient yacht in even the smallest luxury boat class does not excuse you from going to carbon confession."

Motoryacht Ark Angel
By Keith Henderson at March 22, 2011 10:43
Maritime Propulsion


"...Sauter Carbon Offset Design recently introduced the superyacht Ark Angel with a design claiming to be faster and far greener than any megayacht in her class. The design aspires to achieve 50 to 100 per cent reduction in fuel consumption and GHG emissions.

The 78 m hull and decks are of Carbon/Kevlar composite construction, beam is 10 m and draft 2.4 m (at 50 per cent load): the superstructure is aluminum giving a displacement of 450 tons.

The total propulsive power of the ship is 4,000 kW, split between three electric pods with counter rotating propellers (CRP). A multi-mode solar hybrid propulsion arrangement offers flexibility in the choice of several power sources available to propel the vessel."

Read rest of article

Carbon Confessions from Earth Day 2009, Santa Barbara, CA

The Tree of Carbon Forgiveness

The Tree of Carbon Forgiveness
Carbon Penance Generator

 

   Instructions

 

  1.  Click the Forgiveness Button.
  2.  Implement Carbon Penance quickly.
  3.  Avoid future Carbon Temptation through greater

     personal and social awareness. 

 


Penance -- Then and Now

Penance -- Then and Now
In the Middle Ages, there was no buying and selling of carbon indulgences. Now it's a booming business. "The worst of the carbon-offset programs resemble the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences back before the Reformation," said Denis Hayes, the president of the Bullitt Foundation, an environmental grant-making group. "Instead of reducing their carbon footprints, people take private jets and stretch limos, and then think they can buy an indulgence to forgive their sins." The New York Times, 4/29/07

What's a Carbon Footprint?

What's a Carbon Footprint?
A carbon footprint is a "measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide". It is meant to be useful for individuals and organizations to conceptualize their personal (or organizational) impact in contributing to global warming. A conceptual tool in response to carbon footprints are carbon offsets, or the mitigation of carbon emissions through the development of alternative projects such as solar or wind energy or reforestation. A carbon footprint can be seen as a subset of earlier uses of the concept of ecological footprints

Source:  Wikipedia - Carbon Footprint