Manuel said:
"This is great news! I hope all cities pass this into law.The practice of using plastic bags just to quickly dispose of them has been going on far t..." [read]
Jay Knecht said:
"What are the performance stats for the Son of Max? ..." [read]
gazelle said:
"@ Dallas:
The book, and the supplementary videos in the "How It All Ends" youtube series, address this in detail, but I'll try to paraphrase:..." [read]
Barry said:
"Kofi Annan has about as much of a clue about electric cars and developing countries as Ann Ann the Panda.
He underestimates the ingenuity o..." [read]
JJ said:
"Very cool. I didn't thought that biodesel might be our future fuel...." [read]
Derek said:
""I guarantee you this will spark huge debates around the world," she said. "We have to delve into this in a way that hasn't been done in a long tim..." [read]
With all the disappointing news about the UN climate negotiation talk shifting for reaching a legally binding deal in December to one which is merely politically binding, I thought I'd share this rather encouraging piece on analysis from Cleantech Group, which says the outcome of COP15 really doesn't matter much for cleantech investment:
Mark your calendars for November 23rd. That's when the first aviation biofuel test flight with passengers aboard is scheduled to take place, and the first test flight in Europe. Dutch airline KLM has announced that "a select group of passengers" will be ride in a Boeing 747 powered in one engine by a mixture of 50% bio-kerosene and 50% conventional aviation fuel:
See the bee? Aim the pee. Photo Sfegette via flickr.
Chasing negawatts, the energy that you don't use, is a popular pursuit these days for cash-strapped states, and California is turning out to be excellent at it. Negawatts (a term Amory Lovins came up with) can offer a lot more bang for the buck, so to speak, then building new power. And asSteve Fleischli at HuffingtonPost reports, when faced with choosing a $550 million salination plant that would require lots of water and lots of power but produce fresh water, or a Coastal Restoration $187 million project to swap out 455,000 existing urinals for waterless alternatives and save water and generate negawatts, California's choice would seem to be, well, clear.
And then there were five... Indian Oil Corporation has become the fifth major oil company to stake a claim in the world of algae biofuels. IOCL has a signed a memorandum of understanding with Florida-based PetroAlgae to license micro-crop technologies for "future large-scale production of renewable fuels."
Eight jet contrails from exhaust vapor mess with radiation balance. Photo by Jasmic via Flickr
No, we are not saying air travel is green. But some airlines are a lot greener than others. In fact, in this arena, the difference between 'eco savvy' and 'who cares' is much more drastic than in most industries--you're looking at 418 billion pounds of carbon emitted annually by airplanes, enough aluminum cans from beverage services to build an entire new fleet each year, and contrails causing "climate forcing. The good news is some airlines, like Virgin America, are making strides to green the industry. Greenopia ranked U.S. carriers' environmental record, noting big differences with older fuel-inefficient fleets. There are also times planes can be greener than car or train trips. So who's not up to snuff? Here's the offenders, with number seven being the worst of the worst.
UK wind energy developer Ecotricity's stance on green energy supply has long been controversial. Instead of guaranteeing that it purchases all of its energy from green sources, as most of its rivals do, it has instead guaranteed it will invest its profits into building new generating capacity - arguing that this is the most effective way of cutting carbon emissions. Now it looks set to take a further step into the fossil fuel arena - supplying customers with natural gas, and channeling those profits into greener supply too. The question is—will it fly with customers? Is this a logical step toward greener energy, or a muddying of the waters?
Well, Not Literally 100 Miles...
The Insitute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) has released a second version of its study titled Energy Self-Reliant States. In it they look at various ways that U.S. states could generate clean electricity locally (rooftop solar PV, onshore wind, offshore wind, etc). Just from the name of the institute, it's pretty obvious that they aren't in favor of centralized solutions to our energy problems, but at least they aren't all ideology: They back up their claims with a lot of data.
Biomimicry is everywhere these days. It seems increasingly clear that design inspired by nature will play a great big role in our energy future. Case in point: Green Wavelength, an up-and-coming California engineering biz, has prototyped a small wind turbine, the xBEE, the elegant flapping motion of which is inspired by the buzz of insect wings (see the video below).
Borrowing design cues from nature is already changing the face of technology, especially in the swirly realm of fluid dynamics. We've seen fan blades inspired by the bumpy fins of whales, solar cells made more efficient by the texture of butterfly wings, turbine blades that mimic the hydrophobic surface of leaves, and maybe even high-MPG car coatings that are rough like shark skin.
image: Desertec
It's been a couple of months since we've had an update about the mammoth solar power in the Sahara desert project otherwise known as Desertec. Last we left it, though the idea had been around for a while, a consortium to make the dream real was just in the works. Well, another step forward has now been taken, with the official legal formation of DII GmbH:...
photo: Chrishna via flickr
The buzz around the green blogosphere today is anotherrecord-setting Chinese wind farm, with 240 turbines producing 648 megawatts. But this one isn't in Inner Mongolia -- it's in Texas.
This $1.5 billion wind farm -- a US-China joint venture paid for in part by Chinese banks -- will be built not with turbines from usual suspects GE or Vestas, but with Chinese-made machines from a year-old company called A-Power.
Needless to say, most of the project's green jobs will be created in China. And don't shoot the messenger, but it's hoping to secure 30 percent, or $450 million, of its financing from, yes, U.S. stimulus funds.
Someone better turn on those spin machines right about now....
Amanda Little built a journalistic career decrying the pains and convulsions of our petrol-obsessed society, but it wasn't until she embarked on a very personal quest did the story of oil become illuminated in human terms. Amanda tells TreeHugger Radio how, to write her first book, Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells--Our Ride to the Renewable Future, she went inside the Pentagon and the Talladega Superspeedway, visited corn farmers and rode along with T. Boone Pickens, witnessed a boob job and landed on a Gulf Coast oil rig. Through it all, she learned a new-found respect for the hydrocarbon, and a renewed vision for a green future.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via iTunes, or just click here to listen, right-click to download.
Also check out our text interview in which Amanda talks about her recent move to Nashville....
image: Sopogy
When you think of solar power on roofs your quite naturally think of photovoltaic panels or solar hot water heaters. Well, expand that idea a bit: Anaheim, California-based Sopogy has just deputed the first commercially available solar thermal system for industrial rooftops:...
Low tech magazine
One of my favourite websites is Low-tech Magazine, where Kris De Decker looks at simpler technologies that have been around forever, worked really well, and asks why they shouldn't be used again. Kris always goes into extraordinary detail, producing essays rather than posts. A good example is the recent article on the traditional windmill, where energy from the wind is converted directly into mechanical energy, without the messy intermediate conversion into electricity that we do with wind turbines today. He suggests that for certain uses, it might even be more efficient....
Look, TreeHuggers, a fun widget! Put your kid on our cover. Or your cat. Or your dog. Or your weird witch doll. Go crazy here.
And that's just one part of our brand new climate package. In fact, the November/December issue of Mother Jones is full of important stories to read in the lead-up to Copenhagen.
Editors-in-Chief Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery wonder what we'll tell our kids when they wonder why it took us so long to start fixing the climate. Kevin Drum writes about how Big Ag got everything it asked for in the climate bill--and then it came back for more. And residents in one small California town ask, You want to pump how much carbon under our yards? Much more inside the issue.
Over at the Blue Marble blog, Julia Whitty lists the five preventable health problems that shrink our lifespans the most. And speaking of unhealthy and preventable, Fiji Water might have been burning its trash, releasing carcinogens into the air of its beleaguered island home. Meanwhile, India gears up to go nuclear. Cool or scary?
Lastly, some good gadget news: Soon you'll be able to charge your cell phone using any kind of light. Windowless cube workers rejoice. ...
Vertical axis wind turbines are an intriguing technology that most people still know little about. The turbines we are accustomed to use blades to turn a horizontal axis (which is often housed in the little cupola on the top of the turbine's tall stem). Vertical axis turbines turn a vertical shaft (picture a barber's pole) to generate power. Helix Wind, a US maker of some very slick looking vertical axis wind turbines, has struck a deal with a West African telecom company to power cell phone towers with wind. This allows the towers to operate autonomously without transmission lines or diesel generators....
Is a Storm Brewing in North Carolina? Image via: InhabitatShare
The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (UNC) isn't dismayed by reports of other states having a tough go at getting mountaintop wind turbines approved. In fact, they weren't even dismayed when their own state of North Carolina announced earlier this year that they just might ban wind turbines for the state just for being ugly, and no we're not kidding. Those Tar Heels are taking it all in stride and working with Duke Energy to get wind turbines installed just off the coast, reports UNC News. ...
"The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind"
To most of us, old bicycle parts are mostly good for DIY furnitureprojects if they're good for anything, and windmills are best designed by people with advanced degrees.
When fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba, of Masitala Village in Wimbe, Malawi, stumbled across the image of a windmill for the first time while pouring over a library book, he wasn't thinking like that. He was thinking of his village's lack of electricity (only 2% of Malawi is electrified) and of how electricity could power an irrigation pump, which would help his family and others cope with meager crops. If you've been reading TreeHugger, or any news really, you probably know what happened next......
Image: Creative CommonsWhen the River Runs Dry
Melting glaciers might seem like good news for hydro power, but that's only in the short term. There might be more water going into rivers now, but what happens when the glaciers are gone? That's a serious problem for countries like Switzerland that get a huge chunk of their power from glacier-fed hydro....
It's been a busy week over at Mother Jones: First, there's been quite a stir over the Yes Men pranksters' Chamber of Commerce shenanigans, and earlier this week MoJo blogger Kate Sheppard appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show to talk about the stunt. Watch her charm the pants off viewers everywhere here.
Here's a question: If you had to pick someone to police America's nuclear power, what qualities and experience would you look for in a candidate? Probably not tons of connections to nuclear energy in the private sector, but there's where you and Obama would disagree. Read about William Magwood, the president's controversial nominee for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, here. Scary stuff, but there's plenty of good news in renewable energy this week, too: Making solar power cheaper by allowing consumers to pool together and buy it in bulk sounds like a cool idea, especially if we fix our gnarly electrical grid.
New faces: Our intrepid Ride 350 guest bloggers are filing daily dispatches along their 350-mile bike down the California coast in the name of raising awareness about climate change. Feeling inspired? This week's Econundrum will help you trim your own emissions with five low-carbon foods.
Lastly, in case you haven't noticed, sea otters are adorable. Unfortunately, they are also in trouble. Gratuitously cute pictures and facts right this way.
That's all for this week. Back next Thursday with more news from our corner of the web.
Photo Credit: Flickr user meckert75 under Creative Commons....
Oil palm concession in Indonesia, photo: Hayden via flickr.
Can we just all put palm oil biodiesel produced on deforested peatlands to rest already: A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme shows that biodiesel production under these conditions can result in greenhouse gas emissions 2000% higher than fossil fuels. Other biofuels fare much better however: ...
Solving the chicken or egg dilemma for electric vehicles. Image credit:Photobucket,Goodstuff1852
Electric cars have the potential to improve our energy system, resuscitate the automobile industry, and dramatically reduce America's oil use.
At least, that's the goal.
President Obama has called for one million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015. One million! Sounds huge, right? Well, not exactly. That's less than one-half of one percent of the entire U.S. fleet--a pretty modest market share.
...
Here's one more reason to feel good about heading out to Chipotle for a burrito: The Denver-based Mexican restaurant chain has just announced that is making a big solar power push, partnering with Standard Renewable Energy to install solar panels at approximately 75 of its restaurants over the next year:...
photo: Wayne National Forest via flickr.
We've got about five years to build a global low-carbon economy before holding global temperatures below the critical 2°C threshold becomes nigh impossible: That's the word from WWF, in Climate Solutions 2. But the good news is that we still can make the transition, and the money it will bring in will far outweigh that going out:...
Harold Smith of Prince Edward Island has it all figured out: He has a private 20 Kilowatt wind turbine, and electric Toyota and a licence plate that says NO GAS.
It helps that he lives on a flat and windy island, and that he can afford the C$ 128,000 that it cost to put it all together. But it is a sensible model that a lot of people could do, especially in places like PEI where all of their fuel has to be shipped in.
He doesn't have any problems with performance, either:
...
Image Source: kevinthoule
Dear Pablo: Is it true that the heat absorbed by dark solar panels contributes to climate change?
The Source Of The Myth
This myth recently surfaced in the sequel to Freakanomics, call Superfreakanomics. Some people are very disappointed with the authors, who created quite a stir with their first book. The source of the myth is a quote by Nathan Myhrvold, the former Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft (commenting outside of his expertise):...
Spittelau waste to energy plant provides district heating in Vienna. Image credit:Wikipedia
In the past few years, there's been much talk about the variety of available and developing technologies that could help secure a more sustainable energy future. Since October is Energy Awareness Month, the discussion of these energy alternatives is even more pertinent. You've probably heard about these developments, such as wind and solar power, as they have dominated headlines in the news and broad-scale discussions about renewable energy. But one technology that is both sustainable and consistently available yet rarely mentioned as an alternative to fossil fuels is waste-based energy. ...
At the start of this year's Solar Decathlon, our very own David DeFranza got showed you how thing's were starting to shape up in this Department of Energy sponsored college solar-powered home building competition. Well, the scores are in and Team Germany has won! America.gov has put together a series of short video clips on the teams. So start with Germany above, and keep going for profiles of other contestants below:...
Photos via the Local
Everyone loves bunny rabbits--they hop around gleefully, their noses twitch in that adorable way, and after they're dead, you can burn their corpses for bioenergy. At least, that's what they're doing in Stockholm, Sweden. See, they have a rabbit overpopulation problem in the Scandinavian capitol--the bunnies keep doing what they do best, and they're overrunning the plant life. So the resourceful Swedes came up with a solution: they kill the overabundant bunnies, toss their cadavers into a local heating plant, and keep the locals warm with dead rabbits....
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the weekly archive if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 11. 5.09
Images: 
image: Desertec
It's been a couple of months since we've had an update about the mammoth 
photo: 
image: Sopogy
When you think of 
Low tech magazine
One of my favourite websites is 
Look, TreeHuggers, a fun widget! Put your 
Is a Storm Brewing in North Carolina? Image via: 
"The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind"
To most of us, old bicycle parts are mostly good for 
Image: 
It's been a busy week over at 
Oil palm concession in Indonesia, photo: 
Solving the chicken or egg dilemma for electric vehicles. Image credit:Photobucket,
Here's one more reason to feel good about heading out to 
photo: 
Harold Smith of Prince Edward Island has it all figured out: He has a private 20 Kilowatt wind turbine, and electric Toyota and a licence plate that says NO GAS.
It helps that he lives on a flat and windy island, and that he can afford the C$ 128,000 that it cost to put it all together. But it is a sensible model that a lot of people could do, especially in places like PEI where all of their fuel has to be shipped in.
He doesn't have any problems with performance, either:
...
Image Source: 
Spittelau waste to energy plant provides district heating in Vienna. Image credit:
Photos via 
