Re: City CarShares eBikeShare Pre-Pilot Program Comes To Berkeley

by Edwin Ruiz - Friday, 14 March 2014, 07:16 PM

eBikes are a great green alternative for city transportation. On a recent visit to Shanghai
China, the amount of people using the ebikes are enormous. This alternative not only reduces
gas emmissions, but also reduces the amount of traffic in the city. There are specific lanes
marked for the ebikes that does not alter the regular car traffic. It is also a more healthy way
of communing to work and other places. This method of transportation will definitely help
people have a better quality healthy life.
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Re: City CarShares eBikeShare Pre-Pilot Program Comes To Berkeley
by Noel Medrano - Saturday, 15 March 2014, 02:07 PM
I completely agree with Edwin's statement that this method would help people create a
healthy life. There would be many variables that would be included in the benefits where
program not only helps with reducing gas emissions, and traffic, but also increase the amount
of exercise which helps America fight the obesity epidemic. Obesity has been plaguing society
as well as the increasing health insurance costs due to these issues.
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Re: City CarShares eBikeShare Pre-Pilot Program Comes To Berkeley
by Karawa Joney - Tuesday, 6 May 2014, 11:26 PM
Hey Edwin,
I support your statement that ebikes are a great green alternative fr city transportation. It
reduces the number of cars on the streets thus reducing the monoxide emissions. In Holland
for example, bicycles are not luxury but a necessity and it reduces traffic congestion in
Amsterdam and thus pollution from cars are minimal.
Deploying approximately 90 of the bicycles to 25 pick up stations across the city will definitely
improve the quality of life to the people of this locality. So a green minded public will support
the introduction of ebikes to traditional bikes.


Re: Why The Zero Home Matters
by James Wilson - Friday, 11 April 2014, 12:57 PM

I think this is a great idea. Think of the largest drawback to solar powered utilities; the
footprint. This is kind of like a solar power electric company that instead of building a huge
solar plant, they break it up and install small sections of it on all their users property. There
are many benefits including minimizing transmission losses, low probabiltiy of large scale
outages, lower risk because you are not building an expensive plant and then finding
customers to buy your power. You do not add to the generating infrastructure until a customer
is onboard. Access for routine maintenance could be difficult but not if the contracts were
written properly. Also there is no real estate costs for a large scale plant. This is probably how
they sell the power 20% cheaper than the utilities. Overall, this could be a very viable system.
And the other aspects of the zero home are interesting as well. In my opinion it is still not
there yet but we are making strides. There is one comment that is very important in the
article. Everybody wants to go green but nobody wants to pay to go green. We need to
develop more efficient technologies that make this zero home more affordable. Green should
lower costs, not increase them.

Re: Why The Zero Home
Matters
by Karawa Joney - Tuesday, 6 May 2014,
11:08 PM
Hey James,
Its definitely true that the Zero Home is America's most
efficient energy-efficient home because its affordable and its
construction techniques. It could become the next cable
company because it has a lot of attributes especially its ability
to use the photo-voltaic system.
Personally I don't think there is any blank cost of these homes
by transferring the cost of ownership to the future because as
we read from the article, there is a lot of flexibility in the
maintaining ownership. Homeowners are motivated by the
fact that the panels costs approximately 20 percent less than
the public utility.
However because of the US fossil fuel consumption rate, zero
home improvements will go a long way to to increase
sustainable trend. These are ranked pretty high but the issue
is every one wants to go green but no wants to incur the costs
of going green.
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Bush Telegraph: The Dogs Fighting Rhino Poachers
by James Kukucka - Thursday, 24 April 2014, 12:47 AM

Because of the high value of rhinoceros horn in countries such as China
and Viet Nam, rhinoceros poaching has become an epidemic and an
urgent conservation matter. Supported by the international crime
syndicate and poverty in the areas that rhinos dwell, poaching must be
stopped to preserve the rhinoceros. K9 Conservation is doing their
part by training dogs to fight poachers to reverse this trend and avoid
rhinoceros extinction. The dogs are well suited to be trained to locate
poachers and their incriminating evidence that is needed for a
successful prosecution. Do you feel the use of dogs for this cause is a
sustainable solution to the problem of poaching? What else could be
done to eradicate this practice?
Link to article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activityandadventure/the-bush-
telegraph/10604851/Bush-Telegraph-The-dogs-fighting-rhino-
poachers.html
Reply

Re: Bush Telegraph: The Dogs Fighting Rhino Poachers
by Martha Peace Were - Tuesday, 6 May 2014, 01:59 PM
The dogs seem to be effective in this arena so I think this is a sustainable solution. At least
more sustainable than other means like using firearms which could easily be misdirected for
other uses. People keep arguing that education does not help much if the poachers have
already made-up their minds. However, how about educating the buyers of the horns. Greater
emphasis should be placed on the demand side as most conservation measures are now
concentrated on the supply side. The article claims that the powder from rhino horns has no
medicinal value. Maybe the buyers in China and Vietnam should be made aware of this fact.
Efforts should concentrate on finding what the rhino horns are used for and creating
substitutes that will result in a decreased demand for rhino horns.
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Re: Bush Telegraph: The Dogs Fighting Rhino Poachers
by Karawa Joney - Tuesday, 6 May 2014, 10:24 PM
Hey Martha,

I strongly agree with your line of thought; as we read through the article it is evident that using
dogs to fight this illegal activity has been successful. However, it should be noted that it has
only been successful in certain areas for instance 'in the Sabi Sand reserve' but areas like
South Africa poaching is still hard to combat. Dogs remain the best option because of their
degree of honesty and trust compared to humans.
We equally read about the medical uses of the horn and this definitely has attributed to its
high demand especially in China and Vietnam the cost is on the rise. In addition to educating
the public and the buyers of the horns like you said, there should be some government
involvement whereby strict legislatures are implemented to reduce these poaching trends.
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