Lately I've become more and more interested in the environment and green living. I have been interested in nature for many years (at least since I moved to Northern California in the early 1990's). I am also very interested in wildlife (as demonstrated by my
wildlife photo gallery). As such, I guess I consider myself green at heart, but it's not always easy to live green. I often have trouble reconciling my greenness with my desire to live well. On the one hand I would donate to charities such as the
World Wildlife Fund,
National Wildlife Federation and
National Parks and Conservation Association, but on the other hand I would drive an SUV (Ford Explorer), use halogen lights and leave the faucet running when I brush my teeth.
I have already been trying to live my life a bit greener over the past couple years. I try to be diligent about recycling. I'm more mindful about the amount of water I use. I drink tap water instead of bottled. I even traded in my Explorer for a Ford Escape Hybrid (pictured on right, more pictures
here). I know it's not the most efficient hybrid but it's a start! Of course there's still a lot more I can do, and I'm spending more time thinking about what those things might be. I guess that's why I've started this blog: to help myself think about how I can increase my greenness. And who knows, maybe I'll spark an interest in someone else (as if anyone reads my blogs).
Earth Day is only a couple days away. I guess I haven't really thought much about it before. Maybe this year I'll do something different. I'm not sure what that will be, but here's a site from WWF with some ideas:
One big change I have been toying with is the possibility of changing my career to something in the "Green Technology" field. I've started to look into various Silicon Valley greentech companies to see if any have opening that I might fit. I think I've even sent my resume to one company called
Bloom Energy. I say "I think" because their website is pretty blank, but I submitted my resume for a job posting on the site of one of their investors which I hope is for Bloom Energy. The only reason I ever heard of the company was from the April 16, 2007 issue of Newsweek. In it, the CEO of Bloom Energy, K. R. Sridhar, said the following with regards to the climate crisis:
"I'm not against conservation, but the idea that we can conserve our way out of this problem will not hold. If we want to tell the generation that comes after us that they'll be better off than we are, they will need to consume more energy and not less. And the country that figures out how to make that happen will be the leading economic power in the 21st century." [more]
I believe in this. We need to find better ways to do things, not just do less. This realization helped fuel my current interest in a career change. Unfortunately I have not heard anything back from Bloom Energy so far and as it turns out my experience in consumer electronics and EDA don't help a whole lot in most greentech fields like solar energy, biomass and fuel cells. I'll keep looking and I do have some ideas of my own.
By the way, while I was looking for a new career, I may have found my next car, the Tesla Roadster:
This car is totally cool and totally electric! Click on the banner below for more info:
Now if only I can find a greentech job that pays me enough to afford it...
Talk about nature, environmental issues, green technology, etc.
During the night last night something wonderful happened: the pair of peregrine falcons nesting at the San Jose City Hall brought 3 new bundles of white fluff into the world. Thanks to a webcam supplied by the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, many people, myself included, were able to witness the event. Though it was difficult to see what was going on in the dim light, it was obvious that some of the eggs had hatched. By morning there were 3 eyasses (baby falcons) in the nest. Congratulations Jose and Clara. I look forward to watching these young birds grow over the next months.
