Jeff Stephens
exploring the confluence of energy, water, and people. More →
Carbon De-Sequestration
Timelapse – Los Angeles Wildfire from Dan Blank on Vimeo.
Environment Canada estimates that for every acre of primarily coniferous forest burned, approximately 4.81 metric tons of carbon is released into the atmosphere—between 80 percent and 90 percent in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), with the rest as carbon monoxide (CO) and [...]
Utilities Seek Stimulus Funds to Upgrade Meters
The first deadline for smart grid stimulus funding (Funding Opportunity Number 58) from the Department of Energy has passed and it appears, from public statements made by the utilities themselves, that the program may already be close to oversubscribed.
According to greentechgrid, “…the rough tally of publicly announced grant requests now stands at a total of [...]
California Faces Further Water Cut Backs
In June, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a ruling under the Endangered Species Act that water deliveries in California must be curtailed by an additional 5 to 7 percent (330,000 acre feet) to prevent further loss of protected species. The species in question included the Chinook salmon, the Central Valley steelhead, the [...]
Reinventing the Electric Grid
This whole week, National Public Radio is examining the costs, the politics, and other challenges of upgrading the country's electricity grid. From discussing the state of the grid to siting much-needed new transmission lines to how best to accommodate the intermittent nature of renewable power, the series covers the important issues faces our nation's energy [...]
Climate Change, Snowmelt, and Water Politics in the West
There’s much talk about how climate change will affect weather patterns, causing more intense events such as hurricanes and tornadoes. In California, one consequence of the greenhouse gas buildup is a change in precipitation type; climate change is expected to cause a shift from snow to more rain during winter months (i.e., a [...]
Intersection of Water and Energy
This site has been largely ignored since I took a full-time position back in September 2008 with KEMA, Inc., a global technical and management consulting firm focused on the energy industry. As I wondered how best to archive old content including past articles that I'd written for green building publications, these pages have remained static. [...]
Communicating CSR Progress
The ongoing challenge for companies implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives is how much to 'toot their own horn' about progress. At what point does calling out tangible company improvements become overly promotional and dismissed as empty marketing speak, or worse greenwashing? Also, what are the most effective communication vehicles?
According to the Natural Marketing Institute's 2007 [...]
Battling Communication Schizophrenia
In the rush to capitalize on purchasers’ alleged desire for green products and services, companies are ‘shoe-horning’ environmental themes in to all of their communications. Companies are quick to add a “Sustainability” section to their website thinking that changes to a site’s main navigation must demonstrate true commitment to the environment. A newsletter article about [...]
Word Clouds
Word clouds are visual depictions of a site's keywords or tags. They give a quick snapshot of a site's content because greater prominence is given to words that appear more frequently. They can be useful on news sites, competitor sites, or individual documents.
Using a free service like Wordle, users can enter an RSS feed or [...]
Communicating Climate Change
The July/August 2008 issue of the Columbia Journalism Review examines climate change and asserts that "media coverage of climate change is at a crossroads." Essentially, the article is saying that we're [moving] "beyond the science of global warming into the broader arena of what governments, entrepeneurs, and ordinary citizens are doing about it." Hence…
"Journalists [...]
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