Hate To Say We Told You So…

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A couple weeks ago we raised the topic of increasing natural disaster rates and the impeding “Frankenstorm” headed to the Eastern side of the US and Canada has basically proven our point. Along with raising the possibility of increasing natural disaster rates being tied to climate change, we also pointed out the suggestion for looking into weather and natural disaster home insurance…point and case.

Now, we aren’t speculating that this possible natural disaster is related to climate change…though it could be…we’re just saying that these incidents don’t seem to be decreasing at any rate, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to look into those insurance policies we were talking about. For more information on the oncoming storm, view the video below. Any questions? Give us a shout on Twitter @enviromint.

image courtesy of NASA Goddard Photo and Video

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The Future of Energy

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…Or so they say. New studies and experiments attempting to find a suitable alternative to combustible fossil fuels as an energy source have come up with a possible solution in the form of a synthetic gasoline made from air and water.

The concept of a sustainable energy to replace gasoline is a touchy topic at best. An economic structure has been developed around the oil and gas industry. Pull the pin, and this industry falls apart. The problem being that in this situation we are preserving an industry that is detrimental to the planet because it’s beneficial to the economy. So we really need to ask ourselves which is more important: Earth or money.

The argument is certainly affronting to certain audiences, however the choice that must be made is plain and simple. Either we replace gasoline and oil as energy sources and phase out or integrate the economic structure surrounding them, or we destroy the only planet we have to live on.

Back to the topic of the synthetic gasoline developments – the aforementioned source of energy expected to be the staple in replacing combustible fossil fuels, and taking less of a toll ion the environment to boot. The question is when/if this discovery will ever see the light of day, or whether it will be buried amongst other innovations after being subsided by larger dominant oil companies. These companies could go so far as to pitch law suits claiming the attempt to strip people of their livelihoods…but it seems as though this will eventually have to happen regardless, should we decided to take our planet’s condition a tad more seriously.

What would you like to see in the future of sustainable energy? Solar? Wind? Battery? New fuel alternatives? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below, or on Twitter @enviromint.

 

image courtesy of paulinaclemente

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Weather Insurance – The Untapped Resource

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Considering that the past year has been the warmest year on record in many portions of the world as a result of climate change, property investors and insurance brokers alike should be using this key indicator to promote what may be an overlooked area of consideration – weather and natural disaster insurance.

Homeowners in the UK are already receiving forewarning regarding these types of insurance due to homeowners making weather and storm-related claims that are being rejected as a result of their lacking maintenance of their properties, as opposed to suffering extensive storm damage.

Climate change wears a cape of natural disaster – in other words, things are only going to get worse from here until climate stability is established worldwide. Examples of speculated natural disasters caused by climate change are the “two tropical storms, Alberto and Beryl, formed before the start of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, the first such occurrence since 1908.”  Another indicator of this phenomenon is the “12 natural disasters in the United States that each caused more than 1 billion in damage, ranging from wildfires in the Southwest to a blizzard in the Northeast.” Yes, that is correct, 12 natural disasters in only one year.

So now that all the key indicators are in place, we’re gonna go out on a limb and say that over the next few yours as our climate situation gets progressively worse, do yourselves a favour and look into weather and natural disaster insurance. At this point these events are unpredictable and unpreventable, and nobody likes being unprepared, so this is our fair warning that these insurance policies, though they may not seem to be of immediate importance, they very well could be.

Share your thoughts with us in the comments below or on Twitter @enviromint.

 

image courtesy of http://www.arteyfotografia.com.ar/18613/fotos/419503/

 

 

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A Vacation In Mordor

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Ever wonder what it’d be like to vacation in a desolate wasteland? Well, now you can stop imagining and get…excited?

The environmental impact of the Alberta tar sand mines is about to be literally covered up and built over top of. Yes, that’s right ladies and gents, the tailing ponds resulting from the massive amount of water required to extract oil from the sands are being proposed to turn into a Lake District…Now you can have your family fun in the remains of industrialization’s greatest environmental disaster (well, one of them at least). This area, according to Nathan Vanderklippe of the Globe and Mail, has the potential to be “a recreational haven complete with campgrounds, boating, fishing – even swimming.” Now doesn’t that sound nice?

Now the only problem is taking what looks like a pitch-black lake, masking it, and turning it into a cover-up campground operation. Before you know it they’ll probably refer to tailing ponds as the foundation for a future haven. An ambitious idea, minus the fact that instead of improving the environmental conditions in the area, or ceasing the creation of these massive tailing ponds (now hey, there’s an idea!) they’re to be turned into a multi-generation development that will take an approximate 40 years to even consider environmentally stable (because, let’s face it, safe is a bit of a stretch). Even better, this 40-year process won’t even start until the mining is done, and who knows how long that could take.

What are your thoughts on the matter – should this concept be applied to more environmental atrocities? Should there be a movement to inhibit this development? Or should we go along with it and make the best of a destructive situation?

Share your reflections in the comments below, or on Twitter.

 

image courtesy of celebdu

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GMO Companies Losing Traction

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Monsanto and other companies responsible for the production of GMO foods and products are in the midst of a raging PR and lobbying battle over California’s Proposition 37 – a bill which, if passed, will require all genetically modified foods to be labeled and identified as such in Californian grocery stores, as they are currently flying under the radar as regular food. Monsanto has shown nothing but ardent resistance to this motion, donating over $4.2 Million to lobby against it. Despite these efforts, recent speculations and polls indicate that the proposition might in fact be going through. According to one poll, 67% of registered Californian voters support Proposition 37, while only 25% are opposed.

Russia has also put its foot down by ceasing the importation of Monsanto corn for fear that it may cause cancer, as results of a recent study imply. A longitudinal study was conducted over a two-year span where test groups of rats were compared for medical abnormalities after one group being fed regular corn and another being fed Monsanto corn. The test results revealed that the group of Monstanto corn-fed rats developed more tumors and pathologies than the regular corn group.

All-in-all, it seems as though the veil is finally being lifted and revealing the true nature of GMO production companies, and the high potential detriment of their products on consumers. Let us know what you think in the comments below. Should GMOs be labelled, or passed off as regular food in grocery stores? Will Proposition 37 pave the way for a larger, possibly global policy revision in relation to GMOs? Would you feel safer having GMOs labeled in your local grocery store?

For more environmental and real estate news, be sure to follow us on Twitter and check the blog regularly.

image courtesy of Frapestaartje

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Let’s Do Something About It

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Planet Earth – We have the technology…we can rebuilt it.

We ran across an info-graphic today that really got our gears turning, so we’d like to share it with you to start off this blog post.

 

 

This info-graphic inspired us to re-iterate a value we hold dear – sustainability. one of the key components of our business model is to create a paperless real estate office solution for all to benefit from, including the environment.  This way we create less need for paper usage as well as preventing the consumption of energy or causes of environmental instability required to dispose of paper or other materials. By going paperless you’re not only saving money, you’re saving the planet.

One of the main problems revolving around the concept of sustainability in our society is the constant debate of whether or not what’s happening to the Earth is actually climate change or not, as opposed to just doing something about it. Not only are we perpetuating the issues that created this global environmental state of instability, but we have methods to avoid this situation entirely, but are afraid to use them. Economic systems have been built around the concept of fossil fuels (which is inadvertently messing up the planet) making it difficult for those in power to see the benefits of pursuing a global initiative to convert to sustainable energy methods. The problem with this situation is that the clock’s ticking a little bit too quickly for comfort when it comes to the detrimental effects of current human behaviour on our planet. Instead of looking at the money we will lose we need to very seriously consider the fact that we’re starting to lose where we live, and soon, the people living there.

What can we do? Push for more initiatives that encourage clean sustainable energy to prevent a very real possibility of catastrophic circumstances as a result of everything we’re clinging to. It’s not about economics, it’s about the people and the planet. We can all make the right choice, now we just need to do it together.

 

image courtesy of Kevin M. Gill

For more environmental and real estate news, stay tuned to our Blog and Twitter for updates.

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GMO’s Are Big No No’s

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The battle against GMO’s rages on wildly as Monsanto plans on selling their genetically modified organisms, predominantly corn, on the fresh food market for the first time, sending environmental activists into a fury.

Generally, Monsanto’s genetically modified corn doesn’t get as far as the shelf in your local grocery store and instead is sold to major corporations and processed to make all sorts of different foods and drinks, as well as being fed to cows instead of proper food, as the genetically modified corn can be produced cheaper than other animal food. GMO’s like corn are used in a multitude of foods like cereal, soda pop, and all sorts of weird stuff that you’d never think corn would have anything to do with. Soybeans are also in the same boat, courtesy of Monsanto. (For more information on GMO’s and Monsanto, be sure to check out Food Inc.)

What’s wrong with normal food? Is corn so terrible that we needed to doctor it to make it better? Last we checked natural corn tasted just fine, so what’s the crack? Now 94% of corn produced is a GMO, and the scariest part about this whole ordeal is that not only are GMO’s going to be sold as “fresh food” despite it’s barely being food, but they won’t even be labelled as GMO products, so there’ll be no telling the difference when shopping in the produce section at your local Wal-Mart – the supposed retailer of these forthcoming GMO products.

In November, Californians will be asked to vote on whether or not GMO products should be labelled in-store or not. The unfortunate part about this is that the “Big Food” campaigners suggesting these goods don’t require labels have managed to contribute up to $25 Million in campaign funding, which is ten times as much as the organic farmers and environmentalists opposing them have raised.

We can only hope that this vote, and the other votes taking place in numerous states to ensure the labeling of GMO’s, work out in the environmentalist and organic farmers’ favour so that these “foods” can be labelled as what they are. This could even be a step in the direction of abolishing the concept and production of genetically modified foods as a result of raised public awareness…but we won’t get our hopes up just yet.

For more environmental and real estate news, be sure to follow us on Twitter and check out the rest of our Blog.

image courtesy of KB35

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The Race For Oil Is Drying Us Out

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And it’s doing it in both the metaphorical and literal sense…As we are continuously patrolling the globe in search for oil to turn into combustible fuels, we are also feeding the monolithic Goliath known as climate change. Not only are we depleting this ever-so-important resource, but in doing so, we’re feeding the global warming phenomenon, thus literally drying us out with climate temperature increases, and the depletion of our natural resources.

We could even look at the dangerous extraction process of this resource, invasive foreign policies, and wars that have occurred over oil as drying us out of people as well. The reason this situation that seems so perplexing is that we have the technology to avoid the unnecessary consumption and extensive depletion of oil sitting right in front of us: battery power. Battery powered vehicles are not a new technology (Green-Tech: “Recycling” Electric Vehicles, Green-Tech: Debunking the Electric Vehicle) but are finally starting to be produced on a relatively large scale; however not large enough. We have the ability to create fleets of electric vehicles, yet each car manufacturer only tends to produce one or two models of vehicle that are 100% battery powered.

Call us crazy, but wouldn’t it be easier on the environment, the planet, and the people who risk their lives for the extraction and acquisition of oil, if we did just that? It seems that despite the obvious warning signs that our planet is about to be in big doo-doo (Watch 131 Years of Global Warming in 26 Seconds) and shows no signs of future improvement, that nobody really wants to execute the solution. We’re not saying battery power would eliminate the need for oil – hopefully one day it could – we’re saying that we could save a lot of lives, future, and present, as well as preventing the environmental havoc that oil extraction invokes, and hopefully slowing down the global warming process, despite the fact that it may already be too late to do so.

Are there other alternatives that could end this oil-crazy world? Are we being too hasty to think that this whole process is preventable? What are other methods that could yield the same results we’re talking about? Let us know your thoughts on Twitter.

 

image credit: http://grist.org/news/great-news-the-world-is-on-the-brink-of-a-massive-boom-in-oil-production/

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Greenland’s Getting Greener

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Yes indeed, Greenland’s starting to show it’s true colours, but not in a good way. Recently, scientists discovered that Greenland, which is nearly completely covered by ice, started melting…in fact, about 97% of Greenland’s massive ice sheet showed signs of melting, even in the coldest highest places. This incident is receiving mixed attention from the scientific community, as some are looking to climate change and global warming as a probable cause for the expansive amount of melting, and others are declaring that this incident is cyclical for Greenland, as the country experienced the same phenomenon about 150 years ago.

What we do know, is that, other than a piece of ice the size of Manhattan breaking off from the sheet, this melting is getting resource gathering companies excited at the idea of tapping this unexplored source. Yes, from the ashes of any terrible situation there always rises those who keep profitability closest to their hearts as opposed to humanity. Unfortunately, this could lead to another situation where overzealous foreign interest and militarization turns one country into another’s cash cow, while their resources are extorted and exported. However, hopefully the melting will not continue to catastrophic lengths and Greenland, and their valuable deposits of resources, can remain in tact. This could be a whole lot of speculating for nothing, so let’s hang back and see what comes next.

For more information on the newfound interest in Greenland’s resources, please visit the following article: http://grist.org/news/let-the-games-begin-the-rush-for-resources-in-greenland/

photo courtesy of christine zenino

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Olympics Going Green

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The Olympics are often a double-edged sword for the countries that host this prestigious international sporting event. Generally there is a lot of input, for an outcome that over doesn’t cover the costs invested in said countries or cities. In fact, most cities are left in debt after hosting the Olympics, and often don’t recover for a number of years if they do at all. However, the London Olympics tend to be shedding some different light on this situation, as they are turning to more sustainable resources and economically friendly and efficient means to execute the games this summer.

BMW is a major sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic Games, and rightfully so, as their eco-consciousness if most certainly (and literally) a breath of fresh air. The company will be providing a fleet of vehicles that consist of low-emissions vehicles, a large number of electric vehicles in all shapes and sizes, as well as a prototype electric bicycle by the name of the BMW Pedelec. This two-wheeled electric source of transportation will be making its public debut at the Olympic games, and will also explored for commercial distribution in the future.

And it doesn’t stop there. The Olympic basketball stadium constructed specifically for the games was in fact made out of a large amount of recyclable and re-usable materials, definitely demonstrating the truth in the London Olympics claims of sustainability being an important part of their MO. In this case, the grass most certainly is looking greener on the other side…well, on the other side of a very large body of water. With London’s clear efforts to have one of the “greenest” games yet, hopefully in the future we will see more and more countries follow their lead, using solar and electric energy, sustainable resources, and more,  as part of their plan of action.

 

photo courtesy of Jon Curnow

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