Kids fear environmental decline, Earth becoming space dust

Kids fear Earth as space dust

It doesn't matter that their parents are busy at home helping to save the planet, elementary school kids are afraid Earth is doomed to worsening environmental conditions, water scarcity and that the planety eventually will become space dust in their lifetime. Where are they getting this stuff?

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com


Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime

Deadline Newsroom - As if kids don't have enough to worry about with homework, peer pressure and clueless parents.

Just as Atomic Age adults taught kids to always look over their shoulder for an end-of-days nuclear flash of light, today's earth conscious parents, apparently, are also scaring the bejeezus out of their children.

Six to 11 year old kids are so anxious about global warming and climate change more than half of them think Earth's days are numbered or what's left won't be a pretty picture. Ironically, 95 percent of them says parents are busy at home doing things to save the planet.

Habitat Heroes commissioned Opinion Research Corporation adults to query mostly elementary school kids about the condition of Terra and the questions alone probably kept them awake nights.

The survey said:

• One-in-three kids questioned fear Earth won't be here when they grow up. That has got to create some cognitive dissonance in the poor children. How can you grow up if there's no planet?

• More than one-in-two (56 percent) believe Earth will not be as good a place to live, despite the fact that 95 percent of them say parents or working to improve the planet by recycling, using rechargeable batteries and conserving water and electricity. That means kids are feeling hopeless, despite their parents' efforts.

• Fifty-percent of kids said hurricanes and tornadoes are the natural disasters that scare them the most.

• Twenty-eight percent fear polar bears, penguins and other animals will disappear from the planet.

• A quarter of all children polled were afraid that there is not enough drinking water for everyone on the planet.

Girls more worried than boys

• Sixty-seven percent of girls ages 9-11 versus 60 percent of boys that age worry Earth won't be as nice a place to live when they are grown up.

• Fifty-seven percent of girls ages 6-8 versus 43 percent of boys that age worry likewise.

Location, race play roles

• Fifty-nine percent of kids in metro areas are concerned that living conditions on Earth will deteriorate compared to 47 percent of non-metro kids.

• Seventy-five percent of black kids and 65 percent of Hispanic kids feel likewise.

• Water and air pollution concerns were voiced by black children, 34 percent; Hispanic children, 30 percent; white children 27 percent.

Earth to Habitat Heroes: Instead of nightmare-generating surveys? Tell kids Earth will be just fine with their help.

Read more about Global Warming in the Deadline Newsroom.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group, including DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site, and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop. Perkins is also a National Real Estate Examiner. All the news that really hits home from three locations -- that's location, location, location!

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'Not So Big' approach goes great with green remodeling

'Not So Big' re-greening

Architect and "Not So Big" life style visionary Sarah Susanka says when it comes to green remodeling it's not only about sustainability, energy efficiency and durability, but also innate beauty and the appropriateness in size. Here's how to make homes more comfortable, functional and sustainable through green remodeling or "regreening."

See all "regreening" stories.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com


Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime

Deadline Newsroom - A decade ago, architect and "Not So Big" life style visionary Sarah Susanka started up the road to guru status with a blueprint for living that extolled the values of living responsibly, sustainably and meaningfully.

She was ahead of her time.

Susanka nearly single-handedly, revolutionized the way people think about where they live while prompting others to trade in the bigger-is-better approach for a livability-is-larger mantra.

The true feeling of home, she said from the beginning, is not about the kind of emotional lust that put the economy in a tailspin, but the need to tailor a home to fit the human form and the need to scale a house in proportions that serve real human functions.

Your house, truly should be your home, not a box stamped -- inside and out -- from a cookie cutter assembly line.

'House Not Beautiful' is 'House Not Sustainable'

Today she sheds that same light on making homes more comfortable, functional and sustainable through green remodeling.

The Not So Big definition of "green" is not only sustainability, energy efficiency and
durability, but also innate beauty and the appropriateness in size.

Susanka says a house that fits its inhabitants in both form and function is a sustainable home because it is more likely be well cared for by its residents.

Here's how to go green when remodeling the "No So Big" way.

The basics

• Give your home the once over. Obtain an energy audit from a home energy expert to identify problem areas and pinpoint areas that need energy efficient improvements.

• Tighten the ship. Get a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) contractor's check up. Seal major air leaks identified by the energy audit, replace defective or substandard ductwork and seal all ductwork.

• Tighten it more. Increase the level of insulation in the house especially in attics and crawl spaces. Choose from sprayed-in, closed-cell and Volatile Organic Compounds-free (VOC) foam insulations that can achieve a high insulation value even in small stud or rafter cavities.

Material world

• Weight didn't break the wagon, waste did. Reuse original components from the home. Recycle items that can't be reused. Repurpose materials, such as grinding up old stucco for the driveway base.

• Be a good Material Girl...or Boy. Choose VOC-free paints and varnishes. Seek engineered wood products and Forestry Stewardship Council-certified (FSC) woods, as well as carpet made from natural fibers such as wool.

See the big picture

• Improve energy efficiency. To increase efficiency and lower bills, install the latest, most efficient HVAC equipment, using double or triple-paned windows with reflective coating. Select EnergyStar rated appliances. Install newer low-flow, dual flush toilets that flush once for liquids and twice for solid waste.

• Top off improvements with a green roof. Extend the roof overhangs to protect the exterior from weather and shade the house from the high summer sun. Install solar equipment on a roof area with unobstructed, south-facing access to sunlight.

Think big, start small

• One beats a zero. Include as many green upgrades as possible when remodeling, but if it all seems overwhelming, choose one and do it well. One small green step for each home, is one collective green step for the planet. Simply changing the furnace filter once a month is one of those small steps.

• Also see: How to get the goods on 're-greening'

• Click on the keywords below for more stories on this subject.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group, including DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site, and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop. Perkins is also a National Real Estate Examiner. All the news that really hits home from three locations -- that's location, location, location!

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Gas Prices Fuel Urban Desires

Global warming-spawned climate control was already making us reconsider where we should live. Now the cost of gasoline is also giving new meaning to "location, location, location." Even Santa Claus is moving to avoid North Pole melt.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Gasoline is putting the brakes on the choices you thought you had about where to live.

Scientists recently revealed how burning fossil fuels, like gasoline, contributes to climatic change.

Climate change can spawn severe weather conditions that force you to think twice about where to live.

It's not just the fear of the roof being blown off, burned away or snowed under.

Extra costs are associated with living in a natural disaster risk area -- more robust buildings, higher insurance premiums, higher home energy costs and disaster preparedness, to name a few.

Now, the cost of gasoline -- averaging $4 a gallon nationwide -- is further reducing the choices you have about where to live.

A recent Coldwell Banker Associates Report, "Interest in Urban Homeownership Fueled by Higher Gas Prices", found that the vast majority of sales associates' clients -- 78 percent -- said the rising cost of gas has increased their desire to live in the city instead of the suburbs.

More than 80 percent of them said that's because, with the higher cost of gasoline, the commute is just killing their household budget. They want to be closer to work centers or the public transit that can take them there.

Urban development, inline with mitigating global warming, is typically more compact, more densely populated with both people and destinations, more walkable and generally easier to traverse for less via public transit.

Urban cores also tend to be nearer job centers and community and cultural centers. From city center it's often a lot easier to get from Point A to Point B for a fraction of the cost of a gallon of gasoline.

It the Coldwell Banker survey, 75 percent also said the basic prospect of being able to walk to more places is a positive factor. And there's a positive health factor that comes with walking.

Coldwell Banker's survey also found an 84 percent spike in interest for properties with a home office, another indication of a trend towards telecommuting, getting out of those gasoline burners and having more money to spend at home and for the home.

Global warming-sensitive planners and developers as well as consumers, more and more often seek urban living-style development -- even in the suburbs -- for a host of reasons from a healthier, walkable, more energy efficient environments to cheaper development costs, less impact on the infrastructure and closer knit communities.

Coldwell Banker's survey wasn't the first to discover gas pains in suburbia.

DeadlineNews.Com
has long reported how the reliance upon gasoline to support suburban living is a questionable approach to the American Dream.

In 2004 DeadlineNews.Com reported in "Vote For Smart Growth":

The U.S. Census Bureau's "2004 American Community Survey" found that those who were in the market to buy a home were more likely to say they want to be in or near a city as opposed to living in a suburb or rural area.

The same year the chilling documentary "The End Of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and The Collapse of The American Dream" became an eye-opener about the impact the decline in oil supplies will eventually have on the American Dream -- especially the suburban version.

The documentary reveals the lifestyle many home buyers choose is one with a questionable future.

"The whole suburban project is the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world. America took all its post war wealth and invested it in a living arrangement that has no future," says new urbanist James Howard Kunstler, Saratoga Springs, NY author of "Geography Of Nowhere: The Rise And Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape" (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, $14).

"The End of Suburbia" says the nation's reliance upon fossil fuels has been exponentially multiplied by the drive-everywhere suburban way of life Kunstler calls a "tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work. A land full of places that are not worth caring about will soon be a nation and a way of life that is not worth defending."

The now four-year-old documentary says cheap oil, enjoyed for the past 150 years as the lubricant driving suburban development, is about to evaporate and virtually forecast what's happening in today's market.

"Within our lifetimes we are going to see the end of the Age of Oil, and the result of that will be the end of an American way of life" says Richard Heinberg, author of the new "Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World" (Consortium, $16.95). Heinberg is also a journalist, educator, and, at the time, core faculty member at the New College of California, a sustainable world institute in San Francisco, CA.

The documentary also said, just a year into the War in Iraq, that the war is but the first battle in a larger war to control what's left of the world's oil reserves in order to sustain a lifestyle fewer and fewer home buyers desire.

"Afghanistan and Iraq are the two opening engagements in what are bound to be a long series of wars and international contests over the remaining oil in the world, and over 60 percent of that oil is located in places where people don't like us very much," says Kunstler.

"We have to revive the idea of the city, the town. New urbanists have been criticized for being 'back to the future' but you have to pick up the threads of culture and history and carry them forward," said Peter Calthorpe , an urban designer, architect and founder of the San Francisco-based Congress for New Urbanism.

"The traditional American town and the great American city were fabulous forms of urbanism. The ultimate form, the classic American grid, both at the city scale and village scale, is pretty unique. It's just tragic the kind of environments we are creating when we compare them to what we used to build," Calthorpe said.

Indeed DeadlineNews.Com's "Builders Filling the Gap" revealed only in the last decade have new home builders become serious enough about infill housing, transit oriented development (TOD) and urban living to create special divisions devoted to the energy-dependent lifestyle.

They may be too late.

• See the series "Global Warming Hits Home" only available on DeadlineNews.Com.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group -- DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Climate Change, Home Location Intertwined

There may be no safe haven to consider as a location for your home when it comes to global warming. The first extensive government-sponsored North American focus on climate change paints a dire, almost doomsday scenario, but hey, Santa's moving from North Pole melt.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - When it comes to where you choose to live, be very careful what you wish for.

That river-side bargain, bay view dream home or desert adobe could, along with you, become a victim of climate change.

Just as inundated Midwestern communities along the Mississippi River were feeling the pain of flood plain living, a U.S. climate change study said they and others can expect more of the same.

Buy a home in the wrong location and, more and more often, it could be inundated, a real sweat box or not sufficient shelter from a perfect storm.

That's according to findings in a new report by U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research.

The report "Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate", the first extensive federal report that focuses on North America alone, offers a bleaker picture for the nation than earlier reports that focused on the global impact of climate change.

Global warming, an increase in the atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, is on the rise, most scientists agree. When temperatures rise so do oceans and the incidents of drought and other severe weather conditions.

The study says global warming of the past 50 years has been largely caused by human activity that increases heat-trapping gasses. Activities include the increased use of fossil fuels, deforestation, even suburban sprawl and urban development.

Many types of extreme weather and climate event changes have been observed during the five-decade period and continued climatic changes are projected for this century.

The report says, in North America, 2006 was the second hottest year on record, with the higher latitudes of Alaska and Canada experiencing the greatest temperature anomalies.

Since the record hot year of 1998, six of the past ten years have had annual average temperatures that fall in the hottest 10 percent of all years on record for the U.S.

As the planet continues to fry, some critics continue to say global warming is a natural warming, man has nothing to do with it and, in time, global warming will pass. Still others continue to call it a hoax.

To the contrary, the report says expect changes in the intensity, duration, frequency, and geographic extent of weather and climate extremes. It also says there is a 90-percent chance that the frequency and intensity of heat waves and monsoon like downpours will rise.

In general, geographically speaking, expect more intense hurricanes spawned by the warmer Atlantic Ocean; heat waves and drought over much of the nation, especially the Southwest; heavy downpours and floods in large basins like the Mississippi River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin (CA) River Delta.

That could mean heavy monsoon-like downpours that come every 20 years could return every 6 years; 100 and 500 year floods every 10 to 15 years; record hot days, typically experienced a few times every 20 years, could become more common every three or four years.

Some say there is no safe haven.

Even Santa Claus may have to move to avoid North Pole melt.

It only sounds funny.

The fallout can be catastrophic in loss of life, property and money. Climate change that spawns flooding or drought can affect the water supply over an expanse of neighborhoods and communities. Likewise, extreme cold and heat put a strain on the power grid. And wildfires thrive during dry weather.

The report says:

• Abnormally hot days and nights, along with heat waves, are very likely to become more common. Cold nights are very likely to become less common.

• With hotter days and more evaporation, precipitation, on average, is likely to be less frequent, but more intense. The recent Mississippi River Valley storms are an example.

• Sea ice is expected to continue to decrease and may even disappear in the Arctic Ocean in summer in coming decades. That will raise the sea level along shorelines, erode coastal areas and contribute to more, stronger hurricanes.

• Droughts are likely to become more frequent and severe in some regions. Previous reports point to desert sprawl, with deserts' outer lying regions, nearer residential development, expanding and getting hotter.

• Hurricanes will likely have increased precipitation and wind. The Hurricane Katrina year of storms was a harbinger of this condition.

• The strongest cold-season storms in the Atlantic and Pacific are likely to produce stronger winds and higher extreme wave heights. During the winter of 2007, the city of Rome and nearby areas in upstate New York experienced more than 100 inches of snowfall.

The "Weather and Climate Extremes" report comes on the heels of other related reports from the same agency. Other reports discuss adaptation options for climate-sensitive ecosystems and the effects of climate change on agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity.

• More global warming news that hits home!

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Site To See: Green Condo Life

A new Web site and best practices manual is designed just for homeowner association members who want to pitch in on the world's 'green' movement to help save the planet.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com



Deadline Newsroom - Just because you live in a homeowner association (HOA) governed community doesn't mean you always need permission to go green at home.

Granted, a condo, townhome, loft or other home in an HOA community isn't always your castle when it comes to certain home improvements, but there are many other approaches you can take to help save the planet.

Community Associations Institute (CAI) has launched an interactive, Net-based initiative, Community Green to help HOA communities turn global thinking into local action through environmental awareness and activism by community association leaders and the 60 million people who live in HOA communities.

The principles are simple:

• Collaborate with neighbors to develop sustainable, consensus-driven decisions.

• Respect property rights and honor private agreements that are compatible with sustainable environmental practices.

• Be vigilant in actions that minimize the environmental footprint.

And developing green habits in a condo home is easy. Here are some ideas:

• Buy Energy Star. Appliances account for 20 percent of a household's energy consumption. Upgrading your kitchen with a new refrigerator will save the most. Don't forget the dishwasher, stove, oven and clothes washer and dryer.

• Tighten up. Close the fireplace damper when not in use. Insulate. Plug holes. Check air ducts for leaks. Patch the roof.

• Be cool with heating and cooling. Heating and cooling account for more than 40 percent of a home's utility bills. Keep your system well maintained, clean filters regularly and consider upgrading to the latest energy efficient models as soon as possible. Keep the thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer. Turn kitchen, bath and other ventilation or exhaust fans off as soon as possible or they'll suck out warmed or cooled air.

• Landscape smart. Choose indigenous plants with deciduous trees planted on the south and on the west sides to keep your house cool in the summer and allow sun to shine in the windows in the winter. Vines also provide shading and cooling. Growing on trellises, vines can shade windows or the whole side of a house. Winter winds can be deflected by planting evergreen trees and shrubs on the north and west sides of the house.

• Lighten up. Replace 25 percent of your lights in high-use areas with fluorescents and you'll save about 50 percent of your lighting energy bill. Why not replace them all? Fluorescent lamps also last six to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Whenever possible, use solar powered outdoor lighting. Otherwise use photocells or a timer on outdoor lights so they will turn off during the day.

• Make windows winners. Windows account for 10 to 25 percent of heating and cooling bills. Replace old single-pane windows with new double-pane glazing and high-performance glass. In cold climates select windows that are gas filled with low-emissivity (low-e) coatings to reduce heat loss. In warmer climates, select windows with spectrally-selective coatings to reduce heat gain. New solar control spectrally-selective windows can cut the cooling load in half. If you can't replace your windows or decide not to, install white window shades, drapes or blinds to reflect heat away from the house; close curtains on south- and west-facing windows during the day;
Install awnings on south- and west- facing windows; Apply sun-control or other reflective films on south-facing windows to reduce solar gain.

"Best Practices: Energy Efficiency" by the Foundation For Community Association Research contains more greening information for HOA dwellers including remodeling tips and case studies of HOAs that successfully made it a priority to reduce their energy consumption and costs.

The report is available on the new Web site Community Green, along with a host of related information for HOA members.

"Site To See" reviews are occasional but timely critiques of content-heavy real estate Web sites deemed unique, consumer-friendly, informative and easy to use.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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How To Get the Goods on 'Regreening'

Divorcees' divvied up domicile.

'Regreening' -- green remodeling -- requires some extra homework to make sure the materials, design and contractor all come with true green practices and guidelines.

See all "regreening" stories.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - It makes good sense to go green when you make home improvements and renovate your home.

Green remodeling, dubbed "regreening," includes design and construction that reduces the environmental impact of the work itself. That includes the impact on energy, water, and materials consumption; waste generation; and harmful emissions -- indoors and out -- according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

The council also says a green home is one that uses less energy, water and natural resources; creates less waste, and is healthier for the people who live there.

If being politically correct isn't enough to make you see green, with today's attention to global warming, consider this: regreening can also increase the amount of green backs you get when you sell your home.

But how can you be sure the green approach you use is the best green you can find for your home improvement?

To assist homeowners who want to cultivate a green home improvement lifestyle the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and the USGBC have teamed up to create Regreen, a resource for green home renovation best practices and guidelines.

ASID is a community of designers, industry representatives, educators, and students committed to interior design. USGBC is coordinating the establishment and evolution of a national consensus to provide the industry with the tools necessary to design, build, and operate buildings that deliver high performance inside and out. It's also a leading organization representing the building industry on environmental building matters.

The partnership says to get true green, begin with these tips.

Consider composition. When choosing a green product, consider the raw materials used to create the product and their origin. For example, some composite decking manufacturers use recovered wood fibers and recycled plastic grocery bags, milk jugs and detergent bottles to create their materials. Products using recycled rather than virgin materials help by creating less waste, by keeping materials out of landfills and by reducing the need for costly raw materials like petroleum.

By comparison, decking products made polyvinyl chloride (PVC) come with the promise of lower maintenance, however the material is problematic.

"PVC is the worst plastic from an environmental health perspective, posing unique and major hazards in its manufacture, product life and disposal," according to The Healthy Building Network. The network also says PVC poses unique and significant risks in its production, product life and disposal, and defies the greater desire for a healthy environment and improved quality of life.

Consider a product's life cycle. To reduce environmental impact, seek long-lasting products that also can be repurposed or recycled at the end of their life. Some can even be returned to the manufacturer to be recycled into future products.

Consider sustainability. Products should also have the ability to be maintained sustainably. For building products that will be used outdoors, look for durable products that can withstand the regional climate over an extended period. Sustainability should also be practiced by the manufacturer and during the production process. Manufacturing processes can use a great deal of energy and resources, as well as release toxic chemicals and gases. Look for sustainable companies that have implemented environmental processes and procedures to reduce emissions and energy, as well as reduce the amount of waste through recycling, reusing and other environmentally responsible practices.

Consider value. While green home improvements are inherently good for your home's value, ensure you'll get the most from your regreening by looking for a life-cycle cost analysis of green products. The analysis calculates the approximate maintenance cost over its lifetime compared to the initial product price.

For more information, download Regreen ASID & USGBC Residential Remodeling Guidelines, check out USGBC's Green Home Renovations, visit Healthy Building Network's Web site and see Consumer Reports' GreenerChoices.org.

• DeadlineNews.Com offers more green news that hits home.

• DeadlineNews.Com offers more global warming news that hits home.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Cultivating A Green Lifestyle At Home

Going green at home is a lot more than just switching light bulbs, swapping out the thermostat and plugging holes. To really save the planet, change your lifestyle.

See all "regreening" stories.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Think you really know how to go green at home?

Sure, you've swapped out those incandescent bulbs with fluorescents. You have a new thermostat. You've stuffed your attic with insulation. Winterization plugs and seals have already saved you a bundle.

You've been trading up to Energy Star emblazoned major appliances and those not-always-on tech gadgets. And gas prices are forcing you to trade in that gas guzzler.

Still, chances are, you've only scratched the surface of saving the planet.

Going green at home is more than just tossing one energy hog for a more efficient replacement. To really shrink your households' carbon footprint, going green must be more of a lifestyle than a trend-induced fad.

Here are some green steps you may have overlooked.

• Hire a green broker. When shopping for a home, hire an EcoBroker.

Around since 2003, EcoBrokers are licensed real estate agents, additionally endowed with eco-savvy certification from the Association of Energy and Environmental Real Estate Professionals.

As an education outreach partner with a national green builder network, BuiltGreen.org, EcoBrokers help the home building industry sell green homes, but they also assist home buyers who want to buy green homes -- new and resale.

At an open house they can point out features that save energy costs or where you can improve the green status of the listing. Schooled in energy efficient technology and sustainable energy issues they can also help you land an Energy Efficient Mortgage, which, if you are really serious about being green, you won't buy a home without.

• Buy a green home. The U.S. Green Building Council, the folks who developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building rating system for all kinds of structures, residential and not, help take the guesswork out of buying a green home. The council's Green Home Guide includes links to green multiple listing services (MLS), ListedGreen.com and GreenHomesForSale.com offering new and resale sustainable homes around the globe.

To help you shop green the council also offers a Green Home Checklist a detailed analysis of what features to expect in a green home.

• Regreen. "Regreening" is green remodeling, renovating and home improving and new guidelines from the LEED people, Green Home Renovations help you, well, go for the green.

• Buy a green home in a real Emerald City. Two studies point you to green location gems. BestPlaces.net and Country Home magazine teamed up to produce Best Green Place To Live and SustainLane.com offers Greenest U.S. Cities.

And if you really want to get down to the green nitty gritty, location-wise, you can plant your green being in specific communities and neighborhoods noted for green living.

The LEED for Neighborhood Development program, offered by, the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU), U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national system for sustainable neighborhood design.

• Fill up with green. When it's time to send a thank you gift to your Ecobroker or to fill that new or resale green home with stuff, buy green. Consumers Union's GreenerChoices.org brings the consumer advocate's time-honored goods and services ratings scrutiny to environmentally sustainable and healthy goods and services. From the foods you stuff in the fridge to the car you park in the garage GreenerChoices.org has ratings for numerous household goods.

• DeadlineNews.Com offers more green news that hits home.

• DeadlineNews.Com offers more global warming news that hits home.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Preservationist Sounds Aspen Vacation Home Alarm

Aspen's big, empty, always-on vacation homes are gassing the planet with more carbon dioxide per home than homes that are always occupied.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - In a growing number of areas in the tiny, historic town of Aspen, CO it feels a lot like an empty movie set. The lights are on, but in many cases, well, nobody's home.

That's not just a cheap shot, but what local Joanne Ditmer would consider fair criticism of county planners who've allowed parts of Aspen to resemble a ghost town most of the year.

Of the nearly 6,000 homes in and around Aspen, more than half of them are luxury vacation McMansions occupied less than three months out of the year, typically during high snow season.

Ditmer is a preservationist awarded by Colorado Preservation Inc. as a pioneer in saving historic buildings.

Also an environmental and urban issues columnist for the Denver Post since 1962, Ditmer says, while the empty vacation retreats certainly threaten the fabric of Aspen's historic, small-town way of life, there's a more global problem to consider.

Aspen's Sopris Foundation says one sprawling vacation home emits more than four times the level of carbon dioxide per day from a full-time home. The vacation homes, says the foundation, are responsible for more than 60 percent Aspen's total residential carbon footprint.

That's because, in many of the newer, often-vacant luxury crash pads, not only are the lights really on around the clock when nobody's home, the homes also come with heated driveways and roofs to melt the snow, heated swimming pools, heated towel rods and heated hot tubs --- not to mention the heated expanse of square footage.

Aspen's vacation homes are a prime example of the kind of residential real estate over-indulgence recently described in Daniel McGinn's "House Lust: America's Obsession With Our Homes" (Random House, $24.95).

Among them is the nation's most expensive, perhaps most infamous residential listing, Saudi Arabia Prince Bandar's 56,000 square foot, 96 acre estate, currently listed for a cool $135 million.

Part-time Aspen residents also include: Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"), Kevin Costner, Felicity Huffman and Jack Nicholson.

Granted, most of the homes are a mere 10,000 square feet or less, but there's more -- the Sopris Foundation says the county's master plan is only 40 percent built out.

With a remaining 60 percent yet to come in the urban core, Aspen may be just getting started as a more than mile-high vacation home playground for the rich and famous.

"With 60 percent more growth, would anything be left of Aspen, and the Roaring Fork Valley, that is unique and splendid?" laments a saddened Ditmer in a recent column.

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© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Droughts Impact 'Location' Buying Factor

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom – If you are considering a move to a growing number of regions, be prepared to live a lifestyle heavily influenced by dry weather conditions.

Droughts are no longer passing events that wring out the ecosystem and dry up water supplies somewhere else. They are spreading further, they linger longer and that increases the chance one will impact your decision about where to buy a home.

The southeast drought that has created water turf wars in parts of Alabama, Georgia and Florida has captured the headlines in recent weeks, because water supplies are at risk.

However, a growing number of regions are also experiencing or expecting prolonged dry spells.

Rather than rare or random, drought is a normal, but temporary aberration, unlike aridity -- a permanent condition of some climatic regions, such as deserts.

Drought comes and it goes as a result of a precipitation deficiency over an extended period of time, typically a season or more, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC).

However, scientists say, climate change can impact both the expanse of arid regions and the frequency, duration and depth of drought.

What areas are most at risk for the scorched earth effects of drought?

According to Bert Sperling's BestPlaces.net, they are Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA; San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA; Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA; Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro, TN; Chattanooga, TN-GA; Birmingham-Hoover, AL; Greenville, SC and Knoxville, TN.
They've been ranked "America's Drought-Riskiest Cities," based on the Sperling Drought Indices available on a new Web site DroughtScore.com.

The site points to the shrinking Great Lakes, 4.4 million residents in the southeast with a dwindling water supply and fires in Southern California as drought generated conditions impacting lifestyles.

Sperling used data available from the National Climatic Data Center, including long-term precipitation trends and patterns, and the Palmer drought indices to develop the Sperling Drought Indices.

A score of 100 represents the climatic normal for a given area. Values greater than 100 represent drier conditions, and values less than 100 indicate wetter conditions.

The drought riskiest locales have scores of 120 or higher. The lowest, where wet conditions could also cause trouble, have scores at about 77 or lower. Texas is most at risk for getting soaked, while California regions are most likely to dry up.

At DroughtScore.com, visitors can determine the drought score and make comparisons for every city, town and ZIP code in the U.S. That's more than 50,000 locations.

Along with the single drought score, which measures the current drought conditions in an area, DroughtScore.com also graphs the scores for the last 13 months and compares the local area to state and national averages.

Why do we need so much information on a weather condition that's largely been a passing event impacting only select regions?

Failing to account for drought conditions could be just as potentially disastrous in choosing a place to live as it is to ignore the existence of quake faults, storm regions and those prone to flooding.

Sperling himself explains it best.

"In the past we've been able to overwhelm nature by throwing resources at it in the form of money, energy and time. Unfortunately with higher prices of energy, with people crowding, we buy our way out of it anymore."

"If global warming is going to be with us and it looks that way, even the most hardened cynic has to take a look at the evidence that we are in a drought cycle and the easy availability of water isn't there anymore."

"It's a good idea to keep this information in mind because some places may not be as livable as they have been in the past. If you are not in a large metropolitan area where there are water table and water rights, aquifers and reservoirs available, you may be on your own in those areas," Sperling said.

• Living In A Hot Spot
• Hurricane Season And At-Risk Metros
• Economically Promising Desert Life Turning Deadly
• Global Warming Hits Home
• Global Warming Contributing To Homeowners Insurance Costs
• Movie Review: Global Warming Hits Home

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Nobel Peace Prize Brings Global Warming Message Home

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

"What is the use of a house, if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"
-- Henry David Thoreau

Deadline Newsroom – The Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 went to former Vice President Al Gore and a joint global agency because they've been instrumental in bringing the global warming message home.

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr., for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change," said Professor Ole Danbolt Mjoes, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announcing the award on November 12.

The IPCC was formed in 1998 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to address climate change on a global level.

The IPCC's series of "Climate Change" reports provides the basis for much of Al Gore's Oscar-winning 2006 "Inconvenient Truth" documentary (#16 on Amazon's DVD sales chart) and book by the same name.

Consider the Gore-IPCC team effort the gift of climatic cognizance.

Prior to presenting IPCC's work in documentary form, global warming was often considered quackery, political conspiracy and down right fabrication.

For years after the IPCC's first report, the media, attempting to be fair and balanced, often gave groundless naysaying as much ink as the studied research from scientists. The media concedes its initial reaction to IPCC reports delayed what today has become wide spread acceptance and action to stop the effects of global warming.

Greenhouse gasses are the culprit and humans play a large part. Burning fossil fuels -- gasoline in motor vehicles, heating oil in homes, coal in factories -- among other actions, contribute to the gasses. Greenhouse gasses cause the planet to heat up and that results in climate change -- hotter summers, colder winters and more severe storms, according to the IPCC and most scientists and scientific groups studying the issue.

Fifty years from now, The World According To Al Gore doesn't include much of Manhattan, the Florida Peninsula, the San Francisco Bay Area or other coastal and low-lying regions where, within a half century, homes could be under 20 feet of water as oceans swell from glacier-melting temperatures.

Other reports reveal higher temperatures are creating more drought, heatwaves and desert sprawl.

Since Gore borrowed a page from Hollywood drama, however, more attention has been given to where and how communities are planned and developed, to "greener" more sustainable conservation-minded lifestyles and, at the individual level, to where to live -- or not to live.

"Indications of changes in the earth's future climate must be treated with the utmost seriousness, and with the precautionary principle uppermost in our minds. Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind. They may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources," said Mjoes during the prize announcement.

The Nobel committee said IPCC, using scientific data during the past two decades has created a consensus about the connection between human activities, global warming and the consequences.

Gore was noted for his tireless efforts as "one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians."

"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted. By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC and Al Gore, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is seeking to contribute to a sharper focus on the processes and decisions that appear to be necessary to protect the world's future climate, and thereby to reduce the threat to the security of mankind. Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," Mjoes said.

Half of Gore's $1.5 million prize was slated for the Palo Alto, CA-based Alliance for Climate Protection where he was scheduled to speak the day the award was announced. Gore co-founded the Alliance, a bipartisan, non-profit organization, as a vehicle for raising money to encourage Americans to find ways to address global warming.

If You Are Interested: Broderick Perkins was one of the first journalists to make the global warming-housing connection and to regularly visit the Global-Warming-Hits-Home issue.

• DeadlineNews.Com offers more green news that hits home.

• DeadlineNews.Com offers more global warming news that hits home.

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Americans Voice Urgency About Global Warming

by Broderick Perkins, DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom – Mortgage market meltdown has nothing on planetary meltdown.

With most global warming conspiracy theories debunked, with climate-isn't-changing quacks sent packing and with a more informed media reporting what the bulk of the world's scientific community has long known, planetary meltdown is really hitting home.

Americans consider global warming an urgent threat, according to a new survey, "American Opinions on Global Warming" conducted by Yale University's Project on Climate Change, Gallup and the ClearVision Institute.

That's not surprising, given the effects of global warming are already impacting the world's most climate-change vulnerable regions where much of the world's populations lives.

The World According To Al Gore in the Oscar-winning documentary and book, "An Inconvenient Truth," doesn't include much of Manhattan, the Florida Peninsula, the San Francisco Bay Area or other coastal and low-lying regions where, within 50 years, homes could be under 20 feet of water as oceans swell from glacier-melting temperatures.

But Al Gore didn't invent global warming.

One in 10 people worldwide, including one in eight city-dwellers, live less than 10 meters (33 feet) above sea-level and near the coast and are at risk for flooding and stronger storms exacerbated by climate change, according to the International Institute for Environment and Development.

Its "The Rising Tide: Assessing The Risks Of Climate Change And Human Settlements In Low Elevation Coastal Zones", says popular low-lying-development digs up a double whammy.

Human masses flock to zones at higher risk of suffering from ever more inclement weather, rising sea-levels and flooding. Compared to regions with smaller, thinner populations, the higher population at greater density puts more people in harms way, making survival, emergency and rescue operations more difficult should a natural disaster hit.
And it's not just the upward motion of the ocean.

The United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) report "Global Deserts Outlook", said earlier this year, even as global warming is beginning to cause higher sea levels to nip at coastlines, hotter weather is fueling "desertification," which pushes the desert frontier out, closer to population centers typically situated on the previously cooler desert fringes.

In addition to the distant potential for apocalyptic disaster, the more down-to-earth reality of higher costs to insure, build and heat homes and otherwise live with the effects of global warming is what really hits home for the American populace.

It's as if the planet is squeezing populations between a rocky shore and a hard, hot place.

Earlier this year, Philip J. Trounstine, director of the Survey & Policy Research Institute at San Jose (CA) State University said, "My suspicion is that those who are highly educated are aware of this issue and there is some caution about purchasing in low-lying coastal areas. You are thinking in 50-year increments, which means leaving the property to children and projections in the rise in sea levels in 50 to 100 years."

But the Yale-Gallup-ClearVision survey indicates global warming concerns have been imbued with a time lapse photography-like sense of urgency as more and more Americans call for action now rather than in the next generation.

According to the survey:

• Sixty-two percent of respondents believe that life on earth will continue without major disruptions only if society takes immediate and drastic action to reduce global warming.

• Sixty-eight percent of Americans support a new international treaty requiring the United States to cut its emissions of carbon dioxide 90 percent by the year 2050. The United States has been dragging its heels on signing the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that would require the United States to cut its emissions 7 percent by the year 2012.

Unfortunately, that's not surprising from a nation that spends a fortune turning corn into nutrionally harmful high fructose corn syrup instead of bio fuel.

• However, Americans don't think they should be taxed for heel dragging and oppose carbon taxes as a way to address global warming -- either in the form of gasoline taxes (67 percent against) or electricity taxes (71 percent against).

• Americans are, however, ready to bite the bullet and pay for change even if those it those elected, car makers, and utility companies would prefer other approaches. A whopping 85 percent of those polled support requiring automakers to increase the fuel efficiency of all new consumer motor vehicles to 35 miles per gallon, even if it meant a new car would cost up to $500 more; and 82 percent support requiring electric utilities to produce at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources, even if it cost the average household an extra $100 a year.

• Move over Iraq war and wake up presidential candidates. What is surprising is that 40 percent of respondents say a presidential candidate's position on global warming will be either extremely important (16 percent) or very important (24 percent) when casting their ballots.

That's provided, of course, the candidates actually detail their global warming platforms.

• Finally, 50 percent of those polled say they are personally worried about global warming and 15 percent said they are worried "a great deal."

If only worry could cool the planet.

• DeadlineNews.Com offers more green news that hits home.

• DeadlineNews.Com offers more global warming news that hits home.

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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