Rediscovering the iconic "Keep America Beautiful" commercial

In the early 1970's, a very powerful commercial - a public service announcement - was broadcast to promote Keep America Beautiful. The Native American who appeared in the spot was Iron Eyes Cody but many recall him crying when he saw sickening pollution. . Here is a link to the PSA.

I wrote in my first post one year ago about the impact that Chief Seattle and this lost TV ad had on shaping my views about the environment. Last week, I attended a Tribal Caucus meeting and learned about the public service announcement that came out in the 1970's (when I was a teenager). Over these past 40 years we've made much progress but we still have a long way to go for showing respect for others and our Earth. 

Memorial Day: Remembering our Heroes, the Rationing Program, and Celebrating One Year with Conserve & Pro$per

On this Memorial Day holiday, we have so much gratitude to share for our veterans and fallen heroes who've made our country such as great place to live. My Dad and his brother both survived WWII and lived to tell the stories for how they helped to win our freedom. My Mom shared memories as I was growing up of the War Rationing Program to conserve all resources. Each family received a coupon book to purchase food, clothing, shoes, gasoline, and much more. The government wanted everyone to ration goods to help the soldiers and created messages like, "Do with less so they'll have enough." Recycling programs began! My Mom described having to write a letter with only one piece of paper -- so she wrote on both sides, in the margins, and after writing the letter on two sides she turned the paper upside down to print in the spaces between the lines! Talk about being economical! So that's how my parents raised us baby boomers: to be very conservative and not waste anything. 

So we began this blog website one year ago - not for commercial purposes - but to express our first amendment rights - freedom of speech. To share our lifestyle and keep learning more about how we can save and appreciate more through conservation. In coming blogs, I will share recent positive experience with obtaining a home energy audit that is largely sponsored by the utility company. We're evaluating solar panels and electric cars, The hot summer is just beginning and for the first time in Colorado it is legal to capture rain water for irrigation so we are checking into the pros and cons. Future blogs will discuss our support for wildlife conservation groups to protect endangered species including the Asian elephant. Thanks for reading this blog and sharing your ideas!

Lawn Watering during Spring Rains

Yesterday in Grand Junction, Colorado we received about 1/4 of an inch of rain throughout the day. As we dropped our kid off to school we noticed several homes and churches watering their lawns despite the rain. There are rather simple fixes for not water in the rain such as using sensors available at the hardware store or from RainBird (R). I've heard that many of the problems with lawns are caused by improper watering. There is lots of opportunity to conserve and use less of our finite resources.

Ready for Spring in the Valley and Snow in the Mountains

Yesterday in Grand Junction, Colorado we reached 72 degrees F! Seems warm for early March and the trees are beginning to bud. We are happy for the sunshine and getting outside but beginning to feel the start of allergy season with the index going from near zero three weeks ago to the medium level now. We still have more snow skiing we would like to do this year and the forecast is calling for a couple of inches of fresh powder on Sunday night. According to NOAA and the Weather Channel we are still in the El Nino cycle and may get some wet weather in the spring time especially in the southern U.S.

The drought is still very severe in southern California and here is the latest map. Heavy rains up to 18 inches and 4 feet of snow predicted for California today can help with drought conditions but hopefully there we be no severe flooding.

We Need Another Big Miracle of Cooperation and Focus to Save the Earth

Have you seen the 2012 movie Big Miracle?

If you haven't here is the trailer and I do not want to spoil the plot except to say it is a true story about saving California gray whales trapped in Arctic ice.  The plight of three whales becomes an intense survival story as the one pool of open water allowing them to breath is rapidly becoming frozen over. Miracles unfold to save the whales through surprising cooperation in 1988 among Greenpeace, an oil company, the National Guard, Eskimo people, inventors and during the Cold War -- President Reagan asking the USSR for help! 

This week the Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences announced finding that based on fossil evidence sea levels rose faster in the past Twentieth century than the past 27 centuries.

Here is the NRP version of the scientific study.

So we must work quickly to reverse the damage done to the Earth if we want to save precious species including our own. We also need to avoid confusion of short term weather events (e.g. was that storm due to global warming?) and long term trends of climate change. It will take cooperation and focus of the large majority of people working together to create another Big Miracle!

Melting Polar Ice - What about Santa?

This week I started bedtime reading to our 6-year old son the book The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth by the Earthworks Group. The very first chapter discusses Climate Change and What Can Happen: "If the Earth's temperature gets hotter by just a few degrees, polar ice can melt, raising the level of the ocean and wiping out islands and coastal areas."

He immediately felt concern and his first response was, "If the North Pole is melting what's going to happen to Santa Claus?"

Well just about a month after Christmas he is still especially appreciative that Santa was good to him by getting his first skateboard. Meanwhile, his parents have insisted he be very cautious. 

Then we discussed the book section What's Going On: "Factories, electric power plants, and cars are putting too much of one of these gases -- carbon dioxide (CO2) -- into the air." So he asked, "Does our car cause the ice to melt?" We discussed how it is important to drive fuel efficient cars and avoid unnecessary trips, to turn off the lights, plant trees, recycle, etc. and he quickly feel asleep.

While hybrid sales are down, we purchased a safer hybrid SUV saving fuel and CO2 emissions

Last night President Obama mentioned in his State of the Union speech that auto sales set a record in 2015. Over 17.5 million cars and trucks were sold in the U.S. according to the Wall Street Journal. With gasoline prices below $2.00 per gallon, there is a great increase in people buying large fuel inefficient vehicles and hybrid sales are down. So why did we choose to purchase a hybrid vehicle last month?

First of all we are a one car family. It's a challenge at times to carpool but we like to think it keeps our family closer by going places together. We do save a significant amount of money having just one car avoiding many additional expenses. 

We've been looking to replace our 2006 Toyota Matrix for over a year for many reasons including older safety equipment (only two front airbags), poor fuel economy of 20 mpg, and terrible performance going over mountains. The one thing we really liked was that we paid the loan off many years ago making the overall costs of running the car very low. 

We spent many months watching new car videos and strongly considered the VW "clean diesel" prior to the cheating scandal. We considered plug in electric cars but in rural Colorado a bigger car is needed just to get noticed on the highway! We also really like the reliability of Toyota vehicles and got to know many people at our local dealership.

So we discovered a new Rav4 Hybrid compact SUV had all the features we were looking for - at least it appeared on the YouTube videos but they were not available for test driving until December 2015. So first we rented a 2015 Rav4 to test out the features driving into the mountains for the weekend and we really like the performance and extra space for our growing family. 

Speaking of performance, the standard non-hybrid Rav4 has 176 horsepower (hp) while the hybrid model comes with a 4-cylinder 150 hp gasoline engine with 141 hp electric motor for a combined 191 hp of added power. Check out the details on Car and Driver's review. So the added performance of the hybrid plus the improved fuel economy were major factors in our decision: standard non-hybrid model 24 mpg city/31 mpg highway compared to the hybrid model of 34 city/31 highway.

In our case we mostly drive around town with more frequent breaking which regenerates the electric motor providing additional fuel economy. Price difference is about $4,000 more for the hybrid so is it really worth it? We drive on average 15,000 miles per year -- say the hybrid gets an average of 8 mpg better than the non-hybrid then the amount of gasoline consumed is 469 gallons/year for the hybrid and 625 gallons/year for the non-hybrid. At $2.00 per gallon for gas it would take 12.8 years to break even but at $3.00 per gallon of gas it only takes 8.5 years to break even on the extra cost of the hybrid. So is there more to compare than just mpg and cost - what about the environment?

It  amazing to consider that for every 1 gallon of gasoline burned in a vehicle, 20 pounds of CO2 are emitted according to FuelEconomy.gov. So using the same difference in gasoline consumption in the two vehicles equates to a savings of 3,120 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted per year by driving the hybrid. It sounds like a lot but I will need to do more research in future blogs to determine the positive impact - for now it feels good and we can tell people we are trying to 'go green!'

To make the deal more affordable, we found Costco's auto buyers program to determine dealer costs below the MSRP. The extra cost of the hybrid only added about $75 per month to the auto loan. We also got a good deal by trading in the Matrix and this turned out better than any offers we could get by advertising on Craigslist. 

We're especially amazed at the advancements in safety features made over the past decade. Now we have eight air bags which like insurance we hope never to use, backup cameras with bird's eye views, and most impressive are the radar assisted blind spot monitors on the side mirrors. The other evening I backing up the car in a parking lot at night with big vehicles parked on both sides of me and the radar alerted me to a car passing by before I could see the headlights. 

Overall, we are happy with our purchase and glad we made the decision before interest rates go up any higher and snow fell in Colorado! 

Local Medical Professionals Link Improving Our Health To Cleaner Air

Today I learned that Mesa County residents have much higher rates of respiratory illness, including lung cancer, than anywhere in the state. Paula Anderson with Primary Care Partners wrote an article in this morning's newspaper titled: Save the planet by improving life in the valley.

While we live in a small new community with homes on central air and we do not burn wood, I've noticed many homes in the surrounding area burning wood and the smoke has been getting into our home! Several nights I awoke to smelling smoke and coughing. A room sized air filter helped to clean the polluted air once inside but did not stop the problem. This week we cut the outside intake pipe to the HVAC system and now suck air in from the garage. We also added some air filters at the intake and in all the vents. Obviously, we must be careful not allowing car fumes to enter the home. Our next option is to purchase an expensive electrostatic filter system.

We also notice the air pollution from wood smoke getting into our car as we drive and must make sure we are recirculating inside air.  

2015 Year In Review for Conserving and Pro$pering!

We've seen great progress and continued challenges in 2015. While this year will go down as the warmest in recorded human history, there is optimism that 200 governments will take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. still produced about 50% of our electricity from burning coal this year and the alternative renewable sources of solar and wind are rapidly increasing up to about 5% nationwide. Conventional nuclear power and burning natural gas accounted for about 40%. Hydroelectric power from dams also add about 5%. We did not make much progress in reducing our demand on fossil fuels which will only come through new innovative inventions - maybe several are on the way including hydrogen fuel cells, fusion, capturing wave energy, and small modular nuclear reactors. One of the breakthoughs that occurred in 2015 was Tesla Energy announcing capturing sunlight with solar batteries using Powerwall. 

This year auto makers were hit by the VW scandal cheating on emissions testing while Toyota and other brands announced new hybrid models. These events hit home as we shopped for green cars and hoped the new "clean diesels" were for real -- luckily the news broke before we made a regrettable purchase and opted for a hybrid instead. More on this in future blogs.

2015 is the year of the drought although lack of precipitation in the western U.S. is several years in the making. Despite an El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean bringing 2 feet of snow to the Sierra Mountains, most of California and large parts of Oregon, Washington, and Nevada are still in extreme to severe drought today. 

This year for the first time Colorado has a Water Plan and is developing other plans to deal with natural resource issues. We still use groundwater to make snow and this year we continued to see competition among ski areas for who could open earliest in the season. 

And in 2015 we launched this website blog and company Conserve & Pro$per LLC to be a non-commercial and independent source of information on how we can take action for improving our lifestyles.  Please share your ideas and thoughts about the year!

Extra, Extra Read All About It: Links to World News of UN Agreements to Reduce Greenhouse Gases!

Here are links to 38 articles from news sources around the world announcing that the United Nations made historic agreements yesterday in Paris to reduce greenhouse gas emissions!

With close to 200 countries agreeing to limit emissions and report on outputs to strive towards a balance of carbon sources and sinks, one of the key parts is promoting sustainable development and a more sustainable planet! This agreement will likely create huge incentives promoting clean energy investments. 

The Five Key Decisions Made in the UN Climate Deal in Paris

Bloomberg - ‎5 hours ago‎

Envoys to the United Nations climate talks handed down a 31-page document on Saturday outlining their boldest steps yet to rein in global warming. Here are the key points of the text, along with comment on why the decisions made in Paris matter: ...

Nations Approve Landmark Climate Accord in Paris

New York Times - ‎8 hours ago‎

Traditionally, such pacts have required developed economies like the United States to take action to lower greenhouse gas emissions, but they have exempted developing countries like China and India from such obligations. The accord, which United ...

COP21: UN chief hails new climate change agreement as 'monumental triumph'

UN News Centre - ‎14 hours ago‎

For the first time today, 195 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – pledged to curb emissions, strengthen resilience and joined to take common climateaction. This followed two weeks of tireless negotiations at the United ...

Paris UN Climate Conference 2015: Climate deal requires $23 trillion investment

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎7 hours ago‎

The deal struck at United Nations climate talks requires an overhaul of historic proportions for energy policies worldwide and a huge investment in cleaning up the pollution now damaging the Earth's atmosphere. What was once unthinkable has now become ...

Draft of Climate Pact Is Ready, UN Officials Say

New York Times - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

LE BOURGET, France — After almost two weeks of marathon negotiations, the lines for food and coffee on Friday night snaked through the temporary tent city here that has been home to the globalclimate talks. People made final bets in a five-euro pool ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Countries strike grand deal to tackle ...

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎16 hours ago‎

Nearly 200 countries have struck a landmark grand bargain on climate change, agreeing for the first time to take action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. After two weeks of grinding negotiations in Paris, nations signed off on the new deal that aims to ...

United Nations Reaches Historic Climate Change Deal

Refinery29 - ‎16 hours ago‎

After more than seven years of negotiating, more than 190 countries have agreed on a climatechange agreement designed to stop the onslaught of global warming. The landmark agreement was reached during the United Nations' COP21 Climate Change ...

Is Hope Possible After the Paris Agreement?

The Atlantic - ‎18 hours ago‎

Christiana Figueres, the UN's lead climate change negotiator and the impresario of Paris, told The New Yorker earlier this year that, “If anyone comes to Paris and has a eureka moment—'Oh, my God, the [national cutbacks] do not take us to two degrees!

What Is Al Gore Saying About The UN Climate Accord?

Bustle - ‎11 hours ago‎

On Saturday, the United Nations finalized the biggest international agreement on climate change ever, an accord signed onto by representatives of nearly 200 countries. It's been a rare cause for celebration by environmentalist groups — even though it ...

UN Climate conference 2015: Energy companies key to climate result

The Australian Financial Review - ‎7 hours ago‎

An evolution in the private sector is crucial, because despite all the powerful language of the Paris agreement, it does not immediately oblige countries to do anything more than what is contained in their already released climate pledges, or "Intended ...

Cheers as French hosts release proposed UN climate-rescue pact

The Tico Times - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

With 2015 forecast to be the hottest year on record, world leaders and scientists have warned the accord is vital for capping rising temperatures and averting the most catastrophic consequences ofclimate change. If climate change goes unabated ...

BISHOP: HARD WORK FOLLOWS CLIMATE DEAL

NEWS.com.au - ‎14 hours ago‎

The Paris talks have largely been free of the fierce arguments that plagued previous UN climateconferences. Prior to the session, China's top negotiator Gao Feng said “there is hope today” for a final pact, while Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony ...

World powers voice support for UN climate pact

Yahoo News - ‎20 hours ago‎

Nations most vulnerable to climate change lobbied hard for wording in the Paris pact to limit warming to 1.5C, warning otherwise rising seas would wipe out low-lying island nations and coastal areas. Big polluters, such as China, India and oil ...

UN Climate Conference 2015: World commits to cutting greenhouse gas emissions

The Australian Financial Review - ‎14 hours ago‎

The landmark United Nations climate agreement has opened the way for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to continue with subtle shifts in Australia's climate change policies despite his promises toclimate change sceptics during his leadership coup to ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Is it possible to keep global warming below...

Stuff.co.nz - ‎15 hours ago‎

A recent review by the UN climate body found that when temperatures do rise above 1.5C, polar regions, high mountains, tropics and low-lying coastal regions will be most in the gun. In Africa, the ability to grow food will be hit, particularly for the ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Countries strike grand bargain to tackle ...

Stuff.co.nz - ‎15 hours ago‎

The rebuilding of confidence to get to this moment in the United Nations climate negotiations has been slow, but has been aided by external factors including the plunging cost of non-fossil fuel energy and broadening commitments from business and other ...

Highlights Of The Proposed UN Climate Accord

NDTV - ‎10 hours ago‎

Envoys from nearly 200 nations on December 12 adopted to cheers and tears a historic accord to stop global warming, which threatens humanity with rising seas and worsening droughts, floods and storms. (AFP). Le Bourget, France: Envoys from nearly 200 ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: Historic deal appears imminent

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

An historic global deal to limit and tackle climate change appears imminent after a final draft agreement has been completed at the United Nations conference in Paris. After nearly a fortnight of negotiations, and several days in which exhausted ...

UN General Assembly president welcomes adoption of new climate accord

Manila Bulletin - ‎9 hours ago‎

UNITED NATIONS — UN General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft on Saturday welcomed the adoption of Paris Agreement to tackle climate change, saying that “this agreement reaffirms the value of multilateralism in addressing global challenges.”.

5 takeaways about the climate deal

USA TODAY - ‎14 hours ago‎

To that end, the agreement formally asks the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N. climate science and research body, to issue a special report in 2018 detailing steps needed to reach the 2- and 1.5-degree Celsius targets. The ...

Final draft of climate deal formally accepted in Paris

CNN - ‎18 hours ago‎

... 'The world needs a success.'" Negotiators took a key step December 5 with the release of a draft agreement that has been posted online by the United Nations Framework Convention onClimate Change. That draft has been modified throughout the week.

'Draft agreement ready' at Paris climate summit

FRANCE 24 - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

Negotiators at the U.N.-sponsored climate summit in Paris have come up with a draft agreement that will be presented to ministers at 10:30 GMT, a French government source said on Saturday. "There is a draft agreement," the source said. "It is being ...

Paris Climate Agreement Promises to be UN Chief's Legacy

IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters - ‎7 hours ago‎

NEW YORK | PARIS (IDN) - Ban Ki-moon has reason to be sure that when he completes his second term as the Secretary-General of the United Nations end of December 2016, he would have left behind a proud legacy.Climate change has been “one of the ...

Paris UN climate conference 2015: World on the cusp of historic deal

Sydney Morning Herald - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

The world is on the cusp of an historical agreement to tackle climate change after the French organisers of the Paris summit released the final wording of a deal, mapping out compromises on the key disputes that had divided countries. Almost 200 ...

The Latest: UN chief Ban praises Paris climate accord: 'History will remember ...

Newser - ‎17 hours ago‎

Activists dressed like animals stage a die in during a demonstration near the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, Saturday, Dec.12, 2015 during the COP21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. As organizers... (Associated Press) ...

Nearly 200 nations join together to fight climate change in historic Paris ...

Los Angeles Times - ‎10 hours ago‎

The agreement reflects the first universal environmental accord since signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change began holding meetings around the world in the early 1990s. In 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, only developed ...

It's Not About Warming: Here's Why The U.N. Holds Climate Summits

Investor's Business Daily - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

In the days leading up to the 21st session of the Conference of Parties to the U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change, hardly a living person could avoid hearing the desperate talk about the Paris summit being our last chance to save the world ...

What Happened At The Paris Climate Talks? Details Of The UN ClimateAccord Are ...

Bustle - ‎20 hours ago‎

Despite the deadly terror attacks that threatened to put a halt to U.N. climate talks, world leaders gathered in Paris last week, determined to begin discussions over new global policy that would help usher in a new era of renewable energy and try to ...

French hosts submit proposed UN climate-rescue accord

Channel News Asia - ‎Dec 12, 2015‎

French President Francois Hollande (left), French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (centre) andUnited Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrive for a statement at the COP21 ClimateConference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on Dec 12, 2015. (Photo: ...

UN's climate summit in Paris to overrun as squabbles over global warming cause ...

Daily Mail - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

The UN's climate talks in Paris are to overrun into Saturday as disputes between countries have caused delays. Campaigners outside the conference have increased attempts to put pressure on world leaders at the talks with protests, including drawing a ...

Scottish First Minister hails "historic" UN climate agreement

Shanghai Daily (subscription) - ‎13 hours ago‎

"This historic agreement sends a signal of certainty about the global economy's low carbon future, in the same way as we did for Scotland through our world-leading climate legislation in 2009. We want to avoid the worst impacts ofclimate change ...

COP21 climate change summit reaches deal in Paris

BBC News - ‎18 hours ago‎

A deal to attempt to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C has been agreed at theclimate change summit in Paris after two weeks of intense negotiations. The pact is the first to commit all countries to cut carbon emissions. The ...

Key points of the draft UN climate accord

The Local.fr - ‎20 hours ago‎

Envoys from 195 nations zeroed in Saturday on a historic climate rescue pact after host France released a final draft for ministers to peruse and adopt. France delivers 'historic' climate-rescue accord (12 Dec 15); Paris climate summit talks go into ...

New UN Report Links Climate Change To Human Rights

CleanTechnica - ‎Dec 11, 2015‎

Published by the United Nations Environment Programme on Thursday — global Human Rights Day — in Paris at the United Nations COP21 climate negotiations, the new report, ClimateChange and Human Rights, aims to provide “a comprehensive study” ...

The Observer view on the Paris climate deal

The Guardian - ‎13 hours ago‎

The sight of grinning delegates, linking arms and laughing, at the end of last night's Paris climatetalks, represents a rare moment of cheer in the normally gloomy business of negotiating carbon emission deals. In 2009 , those talks ended in grim ...

Paris climate change agreement: the deal at a glance

Telegraph.co.uk - ‎5 hours ago‎

"1.5 Degrees" in white neon is lit on the Eiffel Tower in the French capital, as the COP21 United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris Photo: AFP. In order to actually limit warming to that level, the ...

COP21: NGOs react to UN Paris climate deal

Climate Home - ‎15 hours ago‎

“For the first time in history, the whole world has made a public commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the impacts of climate change. Although different countries will move at different speeds, the transition to a low carbon ...

COP21: Global Climate Agreement Reached At United Nations Talks In Paris

Huffington Post UK - ‎3 hours ago‎

Some 196 Countries have agreed a new international deal to tackle climate change following marathon United Nations talks in Paris. Delegates approved the historic agreement on Saturday, with the deal aiming to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas ...

Revolutionizing a Low-Carbon Energy Economy Worldwide: the arguments of Climate Change and Changing Public Opinion

As the United Nations climate change summit begins in Paris, there are optimistic signs of new initiatives. President Obama announced that 20 countries will double their R&D budgets over the next 5 years for clean energy with Mission Innovation. These countries on five continents produce 75% of the world's carbon emissions. Government investments are being made along with private-sector capital such as the Bill Gates led group of billionaire investors creating the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.

While many people remain skeptical that humans can cause global climates to change and if the billionaire investors and numerous governments who are calling for low-carbon energy sources is still not convincing -- consider some of the simple arguments that I have been making for decades. By the way, this controversial topic of global warming became the topic of great debate in my family:

* Burning coal and other fossil fuels causes air pollution smog which can emit radioactivity.

Look what's going on in China: Being outside for 1 hour can reduce your life expectancy by 20 minutes! And cold air inversions trapping pollution is common in many US cities like Denver!

* Scientist have known for 120 years that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide can cause warming and cooling of the atmosphere!

* Recall the concern and ultimate ban on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that caused huge holes in the ozone? I've seen Australian children required to wear sun hats due to increased cancer risk.

* What will happen if we do not take action? Are we seeing an irreversible global meltdown? I am amazed that many business channels  like Bloomberg are now advocating the science of climate change!

* Scientist like to discuss the uncertainty - will the earth warm 2,4, 6, or 8 degrees as various modeling scenarios are used to predict? However, the financial markets and politicians want absolute certainty before taking action. I've felt for a long time that by the time scientists can prove global warming it might be too late - consider that Plate Tectonics is still considered a theory! 

So what are some of the things that we can all do to help  reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions while saving money?  According to EPA there are many things we can do including replacing light fixtures, insulating your home, buying Energy Star appliances, and using water efficiently.

Check your energy provider to see if they offer home energy audits. Xcel Energy provides up to $200 in rebates for having energy audits conducted. Two 250 megawatt power plants have NOT been built in Colorado as a result of energy conservation!

Contact us at Conserve & Pro$per to take action!

A new way to keep the chill out

The first house I bought  many years ago had single pane casement windows built into cinder block walls.  The windows would frost in the winter so I built interior wood frames to attach sheets of thick plastic that helped insulate the windows. The house was warmer but I could barely see out the windows!

Our current home was built in 2012 using modern Energy Star rated double pane windows. I've been surprised that these windows still allow cold air in the house. So I went shopping at our local hardware store thinking I would need to build opaque plastic frames again.

Luckily, the store recommended a new product using clear shrink film made by Frost King which is very easy to install and so clear that I have not needed to use a hair dryer to remove wrinkles. The product comes in various sizes and quantities - with an average cost of $1.50 per window. I'm already amazed at the qualitative results feeling our home much warmer than before!

The Final Colorado Water Plan Is Available Today

The much anticipated final Colorado Water Plan is available today!

The Plan can be found at http://coloradowaterplan.com/

If you submitted a comment to the draft report, the Colorado Water Conservation Board posted a spreadsheet with comments and responses. Here is the response to the September 13th comments (#27 out of 207 received during the first half of September) provided by Conserve & Pro$per LLC:

Thank you for your comments. Water conservation is a very important facet of Colorado's water management. Colorado's Water Plan has a conservation stretch goal, which demonstrates that conservation is a top priority. Colorado's Water Plan is based on incentives for local water providers to continue implementing innovative water conservation programming. The CWCB will explore the tax credit program so that local water providers, if they desire, can create landscape transformation programs. The CWCB supports implementation of best practices such as landscape codes and regulations. 

 

Water Conservation - it's like money in the bank!

While demand for water resources continues to outpace supplies, there are many success stories of communities making improvements through conservation. Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) is a promising method that can save water just like putting money in the bank. Here's how it works: The utility pumps water into wells that are 100's to 1000's of feet below the earth surface. A typical sandstone aquifer has 20 to 30% open pore space to allow water storage. As water is pumped in to the ground the water table rises often replacing water that was previously removed. The process of ASR can be most effective when water is stored during wet years and pumped out during dry years.  ASR is being used by southern Denver and many other cities and may be preferred to building new reservoirs -- no water is lost to evaporation when the water is injected back in the ground. The Highland Ranch community is saving a one year supply of water by injecting 14,000 acre-feet of recycled treated water using 25 wells. That also means more water for the South Platte River ecosystem.

I've visited many locations where too much water was withdrawn from aquifers causing the ground to subside and cracked building foundations. ASR could help reverse the trend of water depletion and ground subsidence by increasing aquifer recharge.  

Announcing Upper Colorado River Basin Water Forum

The Colorado Mesa University's Water Center will host the 5th annual Colorado River Basin Water Forum on October 28-29, 2015. Topics will include recent weather anomalies, managing flows for multiple purposes, and demand management. The 2015 forum is organized to be an interdisciplinary dialogue between academic, practitioner, and artistic perspectives on water issues affecting the Upper Colorado River Basin. Here is the website link for more information and to register for the forum.

The Great Divide: A Film on Colorado's Water Issues

Colorado Mesa University's Water Center  held an event last Saturday night that drew about 300 people to see the film "The Great Divide" and discuss issues. The documentary provides a great history of water development in Colorado which ultimately impacts 18 other states in the US as headwaters run on both sides of the Continental Divide. With future populations increasing, water supplies will continue to be in greater demand and East Slope areas will likely exercise their water rights to draw more water out of West Slope basins. The need for education is the one thing that everyone can agree on and the hope is that negotiated settlements rather than legal battles will prevail.

Here is a link to a preview of the Great Divide film.

East Coast Floods are in the news and West Coast Drought Continues

Our hearts go out to all life tragically affected by the raging floods currently focused in South Carolina. We also stay mindful of the prolonged four year drought on the west coast focused in California. Check out Pacific Institutes website on the drought and low reservoir levels.

A Walk for Water

Yesterday, about 50 people in Grand Junction took a walk for water. A 12-year old girl organized the event to raise awareness and donations for people who must walk daily for access to water.  The event took place at the campus of Colorado Mesa University and it was great to see younger children inspiring college students and adults. The international group Unbound.org is sponsoring children in 12 impoverished countries.  Here is the TV news broadcast about the local event.

Comments submitted on the Colorado Water Plan

Here are the comments that I've submitted on the Colorado Water Plan:

Thank you Governor Hickenlooper and the Colorado Water Conservation Board for creating the state's first strategic plan for water. The Colorado Water Plan makes great strides towards addressing problems and solutions to our obvious water deficits in the arid western United States. However, the plan needs to be much stronger with urgent actions now. For example, the Introduction (page 4) section on "Why Do We Need a Water Plan?" gives the appearance that we have a future resource problem (rather than a current problem) by projecting shortfalls out to the year 2050 of 500,000 acre-feet/year statewide. 

The truth is that the western U.S. and Mexico are in serious trouble now. Coloradans depend on food from California. Due to the 4-year drought, many crops are withering and our food supply is threatened nationwide. We also depend on reliable hydroelectric supply from Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Current water demand is greater than supply so as lake levels further decline this will have a greater impact on the Colorado River - I did not see these topics mentioned in the Colorado Water Plan.

When Governor Brown in California declared a statewide emergency this year with a call to action by reducing water use by 25%, I've closely watched the response here in the Western Slope. To my surprise many people complained about the wet May and abundance of mosquitoes and weeds. To my astonishment, the Daily Sentinel quoted the Grand Junction Rockies manager concerned the rains in July discouraged attendance with the headline "Rain, Rain Go Away!" It also appears the local legislators want to fight the plan rather than conserve.

I've taken videos of businesses watering lawns in the rain, watering during the hottest part of the day instead of the evening or early morning, and over watering onto streets.  Can the Colorado Water Plan provide incentives and enforcement actions for proper water use?

This May, I started a website blog at www.conserve-prosper.com to promote educational awareness and eventually the hope of a productive business to facilitate beautiful xeriscapes, conservation with water audits, and improving water supplies and quality.

The Colorado Water Plan describes an action for Municipal Water Conservation and Efficiency as, "explore a tax credit for outdoor conservation practices..." Can the plan offer tax credits now? If not, by what date can we expect incentives to go into effect? Likewise, more metrics are needed to gauge accountability.

My neighborhood in the Redlands community of Grand Junction is on Ute municipal water supply with xeriscape requirements. However, there is no enforcement and most people still want to plant grass! At my home with our drip irrigation and native plants, we use about 3,000 gallons per month in the summer while people who've planted grass may use 30,000 gallons per month or more. If people are given the choice between lawns and food, I think most rational people would agree to plant less turf. The problem is that most people have an irrational fear of 'use it or lose it.' The Colorado Water Plan could provide a much better rational for the urgency of needing to work together to solve our common problems.

Previously, I've lived in Las Vegas and Albuquerque (working as a hydrologist) - both cities are models for water conservation programs. Can the Colorado Water Plan review and adopt some of the important lessons learned from other desert communities such as lawn buyback programs?

I will be happy to provide more ideas and insights!

Sincerely, 

Bill Dam

News from the 2015 Colorado River District Water Seminar

At the annual Colorado River District water seminar held on September 10th, we heard numerous speakers discuss the essential need to conserve. The western U.S. is close to a crisis as the demand for water is greater than the supply! As Lake Powell and Mead reservoirs decline, we are approaching the minimum levels needed to generate hydroelectric power. Water availability affects rural and urban areas, agriculture, and the environment. These issues are interconnected and we must work together to resolve our conflicts.

Here is the Grand Junction's Daily Sentinel article on the conference.