Two Years Ago In TreeHugger: Alternate Energy and Yogourt
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 12.16.07
Ruben complained "no one knows how to do anything anymore. We can’t understand, let alone repair, most of the gadgets we use everyday. We increasingly eat packaged and pre-made food; even organic food often comes wrapped in plastic. We don’t know how to grow tomatoes, can peaches, hem pants, or build fences. As the last generations of depression-era children or back-to-the-landers take their leave of this world, these skills go with them. When we try to learn from scratch we soon discover that recipes in books don’t tell half the story." So he learns how to make yogourt.
We first showed two energy producers that have gone on to new exciting lives in the internet, showing up on screens everywhere, if not in reality.
The "Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp" debuted amid controversy, as we and are commenters noted "The device steals energy from passing cars, full stop (sorry, 'period')...what better than to extract motorists' money in the form of energy? Most drivers aren't physicists and so will not be aware that they're being ripped off. Fiendishly clever, that." ::Ramp Creates Power as Cars Pass (Or Does It?)
We first showed the Magenn Air Rotor system, that has also taken on an internet life of its own, and was listed as one of the New York Times' best ideas of the year 2007. The Magenn website has not changed much over time, but they have a new CEO and promise to have the 10Kw version flying in 2008. We look forward to it. ::Magenn Air Rotors: Floating Wind Turbines
More from our archives ::Two years ago in TreeHugger
I came across and interesting idea. Future news. Here is my attempt:
China shocks the world by revealing the first completely pollution free coal fired power plants are supplying energy to the Olympics. Every gram of carbon the plants produced is trapped and recycled.
In further news it is announced that you may save the environment by getting drunk. Distilled spirits manufacturers finally realized that they could trap and recycle CO2 produced by sour mash fermentation by adding just a little extra plumbing.
And finally, one of the largest sources of waste paper was eliminated as phone books the world over went on an "opt in" system. After it was realized that many people who communicate via cell phone and internet never even open a phone book, it was easy to cut the number of phone books produced in the world by 90%.