Notes From Copenhagen

Follow daily updates from the Copenhagen Conference by a Pace Law School Dean Emeritus, Richard L. Ottinger, as he writes about his experiences from the conference. Happy reading!

New Blogs From The U.S. Government

The Reference and General Government Blogs via the USA.gov website added the following new blogs:

• Office of the United States Trade Representative Blog covering U.S. trade issues.
• United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) where David Kappos, the director of the USPTO, discusses the work of the agency.
• White House Office of Public Engagement blog that aims to engage the American public in a dialogue with the current Administration.

The Environment, Energy, and Agriculture Blogs via the USA.gov website added the following new blogs:

• Energy Empowers blog where readers can learn more about building a new energy economy by improving efficiency, building sustainable businesses, and using old skills in new ways to generate clean energy.
• White House Council on Environmental Quality blog discussing the Council's efforts to coordinate Federal environmental efforts.

The Business and Economic Blogs via the USA.gov website added the following new blogs:

• Inside Adams is a blog from the Library of Congress that points readers to the Library’s collections of books, journals, prints, photographs, digital collections, finding aids, and Webcasts related to science, technology, and business.
• President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Blog covers the efforts of the advisory board that meets periodically and solicits information and ideas to promote the growth of the economy, establish a stable financial and banking system, and create jobs.
• The Small Business Watchdog blog is the official blog of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy providing the forum of discussion and inviting readers to post their thoughts, ideas, and comments regarding the small businesses across the US.

Don't forget you can subscribe directly to any updates and news via email or via RSS feeds. Happy reading!

FAOLEX Legal Office

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has online legal office called FAOLEX.

A multilingual team summarizes and in many cases translates laws and regulations on topics falling within FAO's mandate - agriculture, cultivated plants, environment, fisheries, food, forestry, land and soil, livestock, water and wild species and ecosystems. Legal information is received by FAO from Member Nations pursuant to Article XI of the FAO Constitution.

The website offers advanced search, which allows a user to narrow search by the following subjects: agriculture, forestry, cultivated plants, environment generally, air & atmosphere, fisheries, land & soil, water, mineral resources, energy, food, livestock, wild species & ecosystem, sea, and waste & hazardous substances. The website is available in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic. It also offers Basic Texts, Fishlex, Waterlex, Water Treaties, Publications, Right to Food, and Treaties generally.

Green Google

Via the Official Google Blog, A Green Tour of the Google Campus blog post features Google's efforts to be environmentally friendly. Read for yourself about environmental sustainable measures Google implemented regarding its employees coming to work, lighting and buildings issues, or employees need to run daily errands.

Wonder About Your Power Usage?

Via Law.com Legal Technology, an article titled Green Gadgets to Exorcise Power Phantoms, the author Joseph Howie writes about the phantom power usage, which he describes as power being used/drawn even when devices are supposedly off. He mentions few examples of energy waste (listed bellow). He continues saying that the first step to energy savings is to be able to measure how much energy is being consumed; therefore he lists few tools/gadgets that can help you measure, calculate and project power usage.

There are 168 hours in a week, but most devices are used no more than 50 hours, so it's easy to see how a significant percentage of a law firm's electrical usage can be wasted by having devices drawing power all the time.

Instances when power is used without knowing:

• computers can be configured to blank their screens when they're not being used, but the computer can still draw substantial power;
• printers and copiers can take several watts of power just to be ready to print;
• servers can draw a substantial amount of energy even when users are not accessing them. In fact, the cost of running a server can be a significant percentage of its original cost. Older servers may be very inefficient, costing hundreds of dollars a year to operate;
• cell phone chargers can draw power even when the phone isn't connected, or when it is connected but fully charged;
• coffee makers that can make coffee in an instant may do so by always keeping the water warm and ready to brew.

Tools/Gadgets (read the full article for descriptions):
Kill A Watt
The Energy Detective
Smart Strip Power Strip
Energy Orb
Solio Charger
Wagan Tech

A large office might find it relatively easy to cut a kilowatt per hour for the entire year, resulting in saving almost a thousand dollars of electricity, four and a half tons of coal and about 10 tons of CO_²!