The Power of Sun

Blog #24

• The production of energy has a huge impact on the environment, human health and the well-being of many communities. At what level would you be most comfortable helping to transition to sustainable and healthier energy choices?
• With out new home, we are required to have solar placed, so although not my choice, I do like that we are going to be adding to the safety of our environment. We already keep electronics unplugged when not in use and avoid using fireplaces or heaters, and instead stick to blankets. 
• Do you know what types of governmental incentives exit in your community, state, country to transition to renewable sources of energy?
• Funny to ask this question; it was the first thing I asked when our builder told us that we had no option to not have solar; on top of this was no incentive was being offered as PG&E customers have exhausted the program. Seriously? Exhausted the program; so for us currently no incentives, but according to energy.ca.gov multiple incentives are still active for different counties. Ex: Burbank, Corona, Healdsburg, LA, Palo Alto and Riverside to name a few. When researching more, it appears that we might see an incentive from our new home, but this was not made clear from our builder. Either way, whether given a choice or not, I am proud to say that we will be participating in programs to make our environment better!

In the News:

I found the coolest article on the Oceans changing color! In the article published 02/04/2019 by National Geographic it is projected that by 2100 the ocean as we know it now will change. As the oceans continue to warm phytoplankton will be responsible for the ocean changing color, all colors of blue and green will become more rich and vibrant. Phytoplankton accomplish this by using chlorophyll that absorbs sunlight and thus changes color. Sounds beautiful, but scientist are warning that this sign is due to a drastic global change.

This photograph was taken in 2011 from the Barents Sea, using a MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer scientist were able to see some of these color changes happing already.