“Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.”
Taylor Swift
Things feel really heavy these days. I don’t know about you, but I could use some upbeat news. So, to lighten the mood, here are some fun climate-related tidbits from the news.
The motorcycle Tom Cruise rode at the Olympic Closing Ceremony was electric
That’s right, it was a Live Wire S2 Del Mar, made by an offshoot company of Harley Davidson. It boasts 84 horsepower, and can go 103 MPH. Not too shabby. It can also charge in no time flat. Electric definitely doesn’t equal boring!
Interlocking construction bricks made from recycled plastic are coming
Would you buy a house made from Lego-like bricks? What if I told you these giant bricks, made from 90% recycled plastic, are more than 3x sturdier than traditional bricks? Weighing only about 5 pounds each, they lock together like our favorite plastic building pieces. Creative construction materials like this can solve multiple problems at once, including cutting heat-trapping emissions.
If you live in Texas, you may be able to charge your elective vehicle for free
Ford and TXU Energy just announced customers can charge their Ford electric trucks (like the popular F-150 Lightening) or cars for free from 7 pm to 1 pm each day. These are the hours when grid demand is lowest. Texas has the third highest EV sales in the country, so I predict a lot of happy customers. We need more of this!
A new community in the Catskill Mountains is running entirely on clean energy
A new community in Upstate NY uses zero fossil fuel for energy. The homes are all-electric and powered by solar. By design, they require less energy to heat and cool because they are built using Passive House standards. There are other examples out there, and hopefully many more to come.
It’s not all bad news
So, it’s not all bad news, we just need to look a little harder. Solutions to climate change are all around us. And, as Taylor says, when we use our imaginations we can make our lives better and have fun at the same time.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.