Now that it’s 2011, times are changing and solar is the way to go. Rather than wasting time searching for cheaper monthly rates to heat your home, which is highly unlikely, there couldn’t be a more ideal time to look into the economically and environmentally better decision to heat and light your home or commercial building. In 2007, Illinois had the same incident occur with their main electric provider and rates shot up 50% for their consumers. With solar, all that is required of you is to pay for the installation of the panels and then your monthly bill is incredibly minimal compared to what you would typically pay using electric. Perhaps you own a commercial building that’s a high electric user, our company, All Green & Lean, will pay for the entire installation process leaving you with only significantly smaller monthly payments. Electric was all the rave back in the day, but now with the knowledge and new technology we have, there couldn’t be a better option than going solar.

This protocol was adopted on December 11, 1997 in Kyoto, Japan and on February 16, 2005, became enforced to participating countries. The detailed rules of the protocol were adopted in 2001 in Marrakesh, Morocco formerly known as the Marrakesh Accords. In order to assure that these rules are being followed, a number of factors must take place to meet the requirements of the protocol. In simplest terms, they must monitor their emissions and keep precise records of their trades and transactions, and based off of the submission of their annual emission inventories, the International transaction log, which gets set and administered by the UNFCCC secretariat, will determine if the country complies with their agreement of the protocol. If they do not, their transactions must be terminated. At the end of each commitment period, a new international framework must be negotiated to keep this process on track and moving forward.

Although the United States isn’t a committed member of the protocol, it does participate in the Convention on Climate Change, which sets the framework for the protocol. The difference between the convention and the protocol is that the convention can only encourage countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while the protocol commits and enforces countries to do so. As one of the top industrialized countries, we should be on board with the rest of the world working to lower greenhouse gas emissions, not just sitting back scheming our own ways to tackle this problem. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposed their first regulations earlier this year, which had minimal effects. We need stronger regulations and better incentives or nobody will find it necessary to switch to greener and more environmentally safe technology. We call ourselves leaders of the world, yet we are still so far behind in putting a stop to global warming.

As much as people would like to think the climate is just changing on its own, greenhouse gasses (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor) trap the light from the sun into the earth’s atmosphere which causes the earth to heat up, creating difficult, and unsettling living conditions for all forms of life. Not to mention those gasses alone have caused a rise in health problems, such as cancer and heart attacks in the past decade.

How global warming works

http://hubpages.com/hub/Global-Warming-Fact-or-Folly

The obvious effect of rising temperatures is the melting of the glaciers, ice sheets, and the Arctic sea ice. This causes sea levels to rise, which has been rapidly occurring in the past century, and at the rate it’s going, is expected to heighten by 7 to 23 inches throughout the upcoming century.  Although the average sea surface temperature had only gone up a few degrees, its effects are obvious with record-breaking numbers of natural disasters occurring.

Rising water vapor and an unstable atmosphere cause tornados, while an increased precipitation rate has intensified rainfall (and snowfall) resulting in more severe thunderstorms and generating more hurricanes. Along with the precipitation increase, droughts have become more frequent, which have led to a serious struggle in the agricultures industry and are causing a break in the food chain. This past year, the price of wheat jumped significantly due to the droughts that have occurred across the world. All of these issues could be narrowly avoided if we’d reduce our emissions of greenhouse gasses; instead, global warming is affecting every aspect of life everywhere in the world harshly and negatively.

If we want to live on this earth, we need to take care of it or it’s going to keep fighting back. We need to be smarter about the choices we make, or eventually everything is going to die out, including ourselves.

• Since the power source is the sun, its renewable energy, meaning it will never run out. Also, because the sun generates 10,000 times the amount of energy the entire world uses annually, you would never have to worry about there not being enough.
• It’s the most natural form of energy that exists.
• Solar panels release zero emissions making it perfectly safe for the environment.
• They create absolutely no noise at all.
• After the installation, they rarely require any maintenance.
• They can light our homes, heat our water, and power our cars.
• Solar Panels are able to endure almost every weather condition.
• The payments you’d typically be making drop dramatically saving you money in the long run, and overtime, pays itself off of the initial price spent.
• A variety of solar panel systems are available with a vast range of prices making it affordable for pretty much everyone.
• If you don’t use all the electricity that you produce, utility companies will gladly buy your excess electricity from you.
• Most Governments provide tax credits or incentives for people investing in solar such as covering 20-30% of the cost. They each have their own policies, so it could be more or could be less.

New Jersey has been promoting energy efficiency for their residents, and by the end of 2010, 4,400 new homes had already been built meeting ENERGY STAR standards, meaning they are 15 – 35% more energy efficient than traditionally built homes. Features of these homes include high efficiency heating, cooling, and water heating systems; added levels of insulation in walls, foundation, and attic; sealed and insulated duct systems; and ENERGY STAR qualified windows, appliances, and lighting.

New Jersey’s Cutting Edge Program, also, is 2^nd in the US behind California to the fastest growing market for Solar PV Systems due to SREC’s and tax benefits. They have recently surpassed 300 MW of installed solar capacity making their increase in SREC’s eligible to meet New Jersey’s Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). Since September 2010 New Jersey has been averaging 15 MW per month with more than 8,000 projects happening throughout the state. Their RPS program attracts varied participants such as facility owners of all sizes, residential homeowners, and facility developers and system installers of renewable energy.

Whether you’re interested in increasing your knowledge as a consumer, or looking for your business to make the switch to become environmentally friendly, the following qualifications will help you reach your goal.

Biodegradable

This is probably one of the most misunderstood terms in the green industry. A product is not biodegradable unless it is fully capable of decomposing back to earth’s natural elements in no more than a year.

Non-Toxic

A non-toxic item is both non-toxic for humans as well as the environment. They have no immediate or acute hazards as determined by the LD50 and LC50 tests and contain little or no chronic data available on substance.

Ozone

Protecting the Ozone layer is something that should really be taken more seriously. The government regulates the amount of chemicals factories are allowed to emit into the air, however, with technology today, industries should be required to invest in technology that allows them to produce their products without destroying the ozone. Everyday, 1,800 tons of ozone destroying chemicals are released into the atmosphere and without the ozone layer, life would not exist on earth.

Recyclable

Using used materials to create new ones reduces consumption of fresh materials, which makes the world a nicer, cleaner, environment to live in. Reducing energy usage, air pollution, water pollution, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions also falls under the category of recycling. Because people keep producing rather than reusing, we now have an excess amount of carbon in the air, which has gone from a good thing to a bad thing. The point of recycling is to save and restore our resources so we don’t eventually use them all up, or generate too much of something that used to be a valued resource. The more we save the healthier our environment is which should be a goal for everybody living on earth.

If it were up to me, every business should be required to go green. It may be pricy at first, but with all the incentives provided by the government and the long-term benefits, it wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable. Most companies are satisfied with their production as is and find no reason to change their ways. However, if going green doesn’t start becoming a necessity then the world as we know it will eventually become unlivable, which is unfortunate because we have the chance to change the way we live now before its too late.