Connecticut Green Living

This article originally appeared on Examiner.com, March 26, 2016. March 2,2017 update: Catch the film on Netflix. "What excited me so much about solar is that here is something we can all access and it’s a disruptive technology. Our electric grid was one of the biggest engineering achievements of the last century – and you put a lowly solar panel on your house and you've disrupted that." - Shalini Kantayya Filmmaker Shalini Kantayya has more accolades than a summer movie premiere has papparazi - from finishing in the top 10 out of 12,000 in FOX's "On the Lot" filmmaking competition produced by Steven Spielberg to being a TED and Sundance Fellow. Of course, this analogy only works until you realize that soon, this talented thirtysomething Hartford native will be bombarded by the press and she'll have as many shutterbugs in her face as she has plaques on the wall. The buzz is simple: this is a young filmmaker who gets what needs to be done. We nee...

Connecticut consistently ranks as one of the nation's most educated states. From Yalies to proud UConn alums, we've an embarrassment of intellectuals here. So why is the state so dumb when it comes to tapping public transportation? Although Hartford ranks pretty decently -- in 2010 an estimated 21.1 percent of its residents regularly chose public transportation -- the state pales overall. On the same annual ranking, a city that has no excuse not to be on the bus or the train, a dismal 13.3 percent were onboard. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported that over 78 percent of our residents drive alone in their cars to work. This examiner wholly believes that the greatest impediment to getting more folks to share a ride, or get on the bus or train is reversing a stigma. Being a bus rider is even fodder for comic effect in movies. Women walking to the bus in the 'burbs sometimes get propositioned as ladies of the evening! It's the bus, people, not a meth d...

In its first-ever endorsement, the eight-year-old U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce promotes Hillary Clinton. According to the Chamber's president Michelle Thatcher, the choice was clear even if it wasn't always easy. After all, representing businesses means representing people of various political orientations. "First and foremost, it was a hard decision because we are such a varied membership, so the biggest implication of course we want to make is to have an effect. The numbers are still so close – this is why we put this out there. We put the country even ahead of our own non-profits," says Thatcher. She says that while endorsing Clinton "wasn't on the forefront" of the Chamber's planning, it made sense from a sustainable business perspective, as well as buinesses and practices they promote. "To do otherwise would be extremely risky," she says. The Chamber's endorsement follows the lead of hundreds of nationally prominent organizat...

October is National Energy Awareness Month, and according to WalletHub, the average household spends nearly $2,000 a year on energy bills. In honor of this important month, the personal-finance website conducted what they say was "an in-depth analysis" of 2016’s most and least energy-efficient states. The top 10 most efficient states are, in order: New York, Utah, Minnesota, Vermont, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. The least efficient are, in order: West Virginia (#39), Kentucky, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina (#48). We Nutmeggers can be proud that we ranked number 9 on the list, right behind Colorado but ahead of the Live Free or Die State. Yet, 9 isn't 1, so this reporter wanted to speak to someone at WalletHub who could explain how we could become first. Note, due to what WalletHub said were data limitations, Alaska and Hawaii were excluded from analysis....

This has been an astounding election season. At once nauseating as shocking, despicable as hilarious. Yes, if you don't have a sense of humor, your nerves and stomach won't survive this final stretch. But through it all, whatever your feelings about Hillary Clinton in particular, you must vote for her. To vote for a candidate who denies the existence of climate change is a vote for ruining the planet. Think of it: every day, Americans board planes, confident that the laws of science have allowed that plane to take off and get them safely to their destinations. And adventurous souls, from the SpaceX astronauts to National Geographic explorers to simply weekend backpackers, rely on physics, astronomy, geology and other disciplines to inform their every move. When a high school friend was killed during a rock climb of Half Dome in the '70s, it was a scientific principle that killed him, not the will of God or magic. When there is a tragic train accident, science is behind the...