SantaFe.com

On April 30th Governor Bill Richardson solicited applications for the Clean Energy Projects program, and the Energy Innovation Fund. Earlier this year, the Governor proposed and the legislature funded a combined $3.5 million in capital equipment funds. These two funds continue Governor Richardson’s commitment to making New Mexico the “Clean Energy State.”

“The Energy Innovation Fund and Clean Energy Projects program will accelerate the innovation and adoption of clean energy technologies in our state,” said Governor Bill Richardson. “I’m calling on our clean energy entrepreneurs and...

Friday, May 2, 2008

Baby steps, Carolyn Lee is convinced, is the best path to sustained environmental friendliness at her small Santa Fe hotels.

Over the past year, the Santa Fe businesswoman has gradually upped the green ante at two of her downtown properties, Hacienda Nicholas and The Madeleine Inn, using a piecemeal approach of a water-conserving washing machine here and cloth bin liner there.

"Basically, now every time I go to buy a new appliance or product, everything is done as an eco-friendly purchase," Lee said.

Lee has been running Hacienda Nicholas and The Madeleine Inn, located near each other at...

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 2:52 PM
by Kiera Hay • Journal Santa Fe

What could the silver lining be as we face the daunting issue of global warming and our carbon emission increase?

Consider that the City of Santa Fe faced an overwhelming water crisis seven years ago. We used an average of 140 gallons per person per day in the year 2001. Our average use dropped to 106 gallons per person per day in 2006—a 32% reduction in water use over the course of 5 years. This change came about mostly because of creative solutions implemented by a community of aware individuals. Our water problems are not over. Nor is global warming an easy fix. However, with...

Friday, April 18, 2008 at 12:29 PM
by Burke Denman and Cedar Mountain Solar, LLC (Photos) • SantaFe.com

The environment has become a hot topic amongst countries, lawmakers, and local neighborhoods. It has become such a controversial subject that few can agree on its effects, affects, and what measures we must take in order to preserve it. Fortunately for us young people, the environment will soon be our responsibility. Unfortunately, it is also our responsibility to obtain accurate information to create an environment that we can enjoy, as well as future generations. I recently interviewed Taylor Selby of Earth Care International, an organization committed to informing and helping youth care...

Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 2:55 PM
by Alexis Shannez Dudelczyk • SantaFe.com

Picture this: A handsome 28-year-old bachelor is transferred by his computer company in California to its Paris office, complete with a company-paid two bedroom penthouse overlooking the City of Lights. Good pay and plenty of time to enjoy French wine, French food, and yes, French female companionship. It’s the kind of job most young men would kill for and Taylor Selby felt pretty much the same way when he landed in Paris in 2000. But six months into this dream life Selby found himself channeling Peggy Lee, asking “Is That All There Is?”

“I was having a blast, but when the novelty...

Tuesday, April 1, 2008
by Hal Wingo • SantaFe.com

Do you know that “climate change” now has its own language and acronyms?

CDM – Clean Development Mechanism

CDP – Carbon Disclosure Project

CTS – Carbon Trading Systems

ESG – Environmental and Social Governance

GHS – Greenhouse Gas

IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

A current list of biofuels: algae, biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol and corn-based ethanol.

In the near (we hope) future, these acronyms and biofuels will be household terms. In future columns on sf.com, we will delve into each of these, analyzing their costs and benefits, and what is specifically happening...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

My connection to the Santa Fe River begins with my birth in 1977, just a road’s width away from the bosque. It begins with a sky so blue it hurts the eyes, hills spotted with juniper and cactus, and green splashes of cottonwood along an intermittent stream. It begins in a land of contradictions, a high arid landscape stretched south beneath a sweep of rustling aspen in the mountains above. Through this landscape cuts the lifeblood of Santa Fe – its River – the reason for Santa Fe’s existence itself, and a potent part of my own personal history.

My earliest memories are interwoven with...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by Eliza Kretzmann • SantaFe.com

If you ever wondered where to find beekeepers beyond the virtue of a farmer’s market, steal off to a mead tasting and surely you will find them in a swarm. Mead was hot in the Dark Ages, a sweet wine brewed from honey, water and yeast. It may even be the legendary “ambrosia” spoken of in myths and fairytales. For a beekeeper, it is their preferred poison.

So off I went to a mead tasting at the home of Kate Whealan, the coordinator of the Sangre de Cristo Beekeepers. The house was cozy with soft-spoken beekeepers sipping mead around a warm fire. So inviting was the scene, a spider...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by Melanie Moore • SantaFe.com

Maybe if I didn’t have a pulse, I wouldn’t be getting caught up in the green revolution happening everywhere around me. To avoid it seems impossible, now that the global reach for oil exploration has begun knocking on our back door. If a label boasting, “certified organic” does not seduce me around every corner; someone is surely to be standing in line next to me and prepared to say, “You know you can buy those organic.” Try ordering a coffee without treading on one’s social consciousness. Look into the eyes of someone ordering a latte. “Do I take the sleeve or not take the sleeve,...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
by Melanie Moore • SantaFe.com

A £12m EU-funded investigation into the difference between organic and ordinary farming has shown that organic foods have far more nutritional value.

Up to 40 per cent more antioxidants, which scientists believe can cut the risk of heart disease and cancer, could be found in organic fruit and vegetables than in those conventionally farmed.

In the four-year Quality Low Input Food project, the biggest of its kind to date, a farm in north-east England grew conventional produce alongside organic varieties. Cattle were also farmed on the 725-acre plot, where it has been discovered that organic...

Monday, October 29, 2007
by Emily Dugan • SantaFe.com