Two news stories...

this morning. One so upsetting I could barely leave the house. I nearly stayed curled up on the sofa all day. But the second got me off the sofa and out the door.

1) this year's red list is out.
32% of amphibians threatened or extinct.
Between 21 and 36% of mammals threatened with extinction.
38% of the world's species, overall, are threatened with extinction. That's
more than one out of every three species.
Welcome to the second largest mass extinction in the history of the planet, so
far. Just so you know, the trend is negative. It's going to get worse.

2) Google's Clean Energy 2030 proposal. Google has spent the last dozen years or so gathering up the smartest problem-solvers on the planet, and putting them all in the same place. Go, google, go.

I've done my part three of Google's five Clean Energy targets.

"We can achieve these results in 2030 by:

• Deploying aggressive end-use electrical energy efficiency measures to reduce demand 33%.
• Baseline EIA demand is projected to increase 25% by 2030. In addition, the increase in plug-in vehicles (see below) increases electricity demand another 8%. Thus, our efficiency reductions keep demand flat at the 2008 level."

We've reduced electricity demand at our house by 66%!

• "Replacing all coal and oil electricity generation, and about half of that from natural gas, with renewable electricity:
• 380 gigawatts (GW) wind: 300 GW onshore + 80 GW offshore
• 250 GW solar: 170 GW photovoltaic (PV) + 80 GW concentrating solar power (CSP)
• 80 GW geothermal: 15 GW conventional + 65 GW enhanced geothermal systems (EGS)"

Through Rocky Mountain Power's Blue Skies Initiative, we get ALL of our electricity (and some of our neighbors' too) from wind power. Yes, we pay a premium. Ok.

• "Increasing plug-in vehicles (hybrids & pure electrics) to 90% of new car sales in 2030, reaching 42% of the total US fleet that year"

Oops, no, not this one. Plug-in conversion not available for our year Prius. But if it WAS available, we'd do it. Someone convert the 2001 model, please!

• "Increasing new conventional vehicle fuel efficiency from 31 to 45 mpg in 2030"

We get 48.6 mpg on average in our 2001 Prius. See preceding bullet point.

• "Accelerating the turnover of the vehicle fleet from 19 to 13 years (resulting in 25 million new vehicle sales per year in 2030, a 31% increase over the baseline)"

If someone would sell me an electric car for less than $25K, I would buy it.

I'm ready for 2030. I did my part, twice over! I'm 66% more efficient! Now build me a plug-in for my Prius, or an electric car. I'll buy it tomorrow. I promise! Let's 'git 'er done', as they say around here. Time's a wastin'.