We all get happy when it’s obvious that someone has put a lot of thought into their gift for us. The GreenTech Geek gets doubly — make that triply — happy when it’s clear that the gift-giver has not only though about me in selecting my gift, but also about the larger world in which we live.

So you can imagine my giddiness when I opened the following presents on Christmas morning two days ago:

• Purple ‘Peace’ Bumper Sticker — My nieces in Eugene, Oregon — home to all things good for the Earth — have a tradition of sending me bumper stickers for Christmas, always containing messages intended to keep me connected to wholesome liberal thought processes so easily chipped away at lollygagging in it’s-all-about-the-sun San Diego. This year’s offering: a bold purple ‘Peace’ sticker from an interesting place called Peacemonger.org that sells all number accessories laden with messages reminding humanity of its better nature.

This gift served an additional awesome purpose: reminding me of the a little music video I put together a few years ago called The Bumper Stickers Did It. It’s about the power of the bumper stickers of Eugene, Oregon to lift my spirits during a difficult time in American history, when a Presidential election was stolen, Bush ruled the land, and unjust war was raging. 

Click here to have a look — and check out a couple more amazing gifts I got — at my latest weekly GreenTech column over at the popular San Diego-based blog, Tea With Lemon. 

A reader of this column was aghast at my December 5 post (Trash Art) about the giant swirl of plastic garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean. So she called my attention to an impossibly happy Japanese inventor, Akinori Ito, who’s come up with a fascinating way to turn plastic trash into usable oil. So it seems Japanese innovation can bring us more than freaky robots and imperishable automobiles The United Nations University has taken notice and produced a short video about the guy, his invention, and his crusade to spread the simple technology to countries most impacted by plastic trash.

Click here to see the rest of this post in my new GreenTech column at the popular San Diego-based blog, Tea With Lemon.

These days, some artists have taken on an even broader subject with their music — saving the Earth itself.

Here is a collection of four very special songs with strong views about how we think about the Earth, what we have done to the Earth, what some are doing to save the Earth, and the unthinkable future that awaits us if we let things get out of control.

VIDEO – Oscar Paradise: ‘Da Da Dam’ 

First up is ‘Da Da Dam’ by Paradise Oscar, a young singer from Finland who was his country’s entry in last spring’s Eurovision Song Contest (sort of an American Idol for the entire European continent). Oscar spins a musical fairy tale that cleverly pokes fun at those who deny our Earth is in danger. My favorite verse from this song:

 I’m going out in the world to save our planet

And I ain’t comin back until she’s saved

I’ll walk my way to see the King and parliament

If they don’t help I’ll do it by myself

Next is ‘Earth Song’ by the legendary Michael Jackson. You can see the video and my other choices here: 

GreenTech Geek: Songs to Save Us

Lidia the Seal

Do you like Lidia? Learn all about her, and the incredible series of environmental artworks she is part of, in my new GreenTech Geek post — titled Trash Art — at the popular San Diego-based blog, Tea with Lemon:

GreenTech Geek: Trash Art

My new role as weekly “GreenTech” columnist for the popular San Diego-based blog Tea With Lemon continues, with a new post about the Pizza Monster, Congressional malfeasance, and salvation worn on your wrist:

GreenTech Geek: Triumph of the Pizza Monster

My second weekly column for thew San Diego-based blog Tea With Lemon just went live. It's called Freaky Japanese Robots. Click on the picture above to read it. Enjoy!

My inaugural post appeared just this week. It’s about efforts to start a Meetup group in San Diego for folks who ride, and are interested in, smaller electric vehicles:

GreenTech Geek: Let’s Roll

You’re welcome to subscribe to Tea With Lemon to be notified of my new columns each week. Some will be serious, some funny, in keeping with the theme of the blog. I’ll also post links to the columns, as they appear, here on Journey from Copenhagen.

With my life staying pretty busy, it’s nice to be able to focus on writing a specific column covering things I’m passionate about, as opposed to taking care of all the upkeep needed to produce an entire blog.

So Journey from Copenhagen will continue to live; but going forward it’ll be tied to my weekly GreenTech Geek columns. I’m excited that my columns will reach a wider audience; currently Tea With Lemon has over 1,600 regular subscribers. I invite you to join me on this exciting new phase of my journey from Copenhagen.

America is falling behind in the sciences. And not enough females are are entering technical fields. Help fix that  … by sending my amazing niece to Science Camp!

Give a little … to make a BIG difference. Find out more about  Karina’s campaign to go to Science Camp and how you can help here:

Send Karina to Science Camp

With the cost of gasoline soaring over the last 10 years (with no end in sight) it’s heartening to see that the cost of renewable energies has dropped to be comparably reasonable. In fact, the cost of solar has dropped enough to make it possible for solar companies to offer $0 down leasing options for homes. Some homes even end up paying less to lease panels than the previous electric bill. Keep this up, and we can use the savings to afford driving cars around while the cost of gas continues to rise.

My thanks to Skot Colacicco of GreenMarketing.tv for this though-provoking guest post.

I just met this guy, Jeff Weissler, here at Blogworld. His blog is all about combining great wines with sustainability, so he’s a big promoter of organic wines.

My kind of guy, and my kind of blogger!

You can check out his cool blog, fittingly called Conscious Wine, here:

http://consciouswine.com/