Amazing Plastic Bottle House
Posted by Laird on Sep 29, 2008
It’s no secret that our obsession with plastic bottles is turning into a bit of an environmental crisis, and no wonder, in the US alone 70 million bottles are purchased every day, yet only a measly 10 million are recycled. So, it’s good to see someone doing something useful with the bottles instead of adding to the giant mounds of garbage threatening to suffocate the planet.
Artist Jasmine Zimmerman has created a translucent sun dome from hundreds of empty recycled bottles, and intends to travel through various boroughs of New York with it to spread the word about reusing and recycling.
Jasmine says, “This year, Americans will drink more than 30 billion single-serving bottles of water. In the course of our busy lives this year, we will throw out more than two million tons of polyethylene terephthalate plastic bottles – an unintended byproduct of our everyday convenience.”
consumption D.Day 2008.
Posted by Laird on Sep 28, 2008
The Earth will pass a bleak mile-stone on Tuesday. It will be the date this year, by which we humans will have used up more of the world’s resources than it can replenish.
It will be two weeks earlier than last year, according to the WWF. Guess who’s leading the over-consumption? Our good friends the USA - and ourselves.
Anaconda, the wave power generator
Posted by Laird on Jul 20, 2008
Anaconda, the wave power generator
Looking like something out of a Fifties B-movie, it slithers and slides through the waves.
But far from being a deadly predator, the 600ft-long rubber sea snake could one day be the answer to the country’s energy crisis. The device - named the Anaconda after the large snake that lives in water - is a wave power generator, which converts the rise and fall of the oceans into cheap, green electricity.
How the devices might look in the sea.
Its creators say it could offer a reliable alternative to the thousands
of wind turbines due to be built in the next decade.
Professors Francis Farley and Rod Rainey, the snake’s inventors, predict that, if tests continue to be successful, the first ‘Anaconda farms’ could be built within five years. The device, which is 20ft wide, is made up of a long rubber tube, closed at both ends and filled with water. Designed to be anchored with one end facing the oncoming waves, it should be used in water between 120ft and 300ft deep, typically about one or two miles from shore. Because it is made of rubber - meaning it is lighter than other wave generators and does not need complicated hydraulic ramps, hinges and articulated joints - it is cheaper to build and needs less maintenance.
A computer-generated image shows a ’snake farm’, each Anaconda providing ‘green’ energy
Tests using small-scale models of the device at Southampton University suggest each Anaconda could provide one megawatts - enough to provide energy for a few hundred homes.
Project director Tom Roach said the best sites for the farms would be off the west coast of Scotland and Ireland, or the South-West of England.
‘It works best where you have these large sea swells generated over long distances,’ he added. ‘They would have little environmental impact because they’re designed to float below the surface.’ He said a study by the Government’s-Carbon Trust found the Anaconda tubes could produce electricity more cheaply than offshore wind farms. Professor John Chaplin, who is leading the research, said: The Anaconda could make a valuable contribution to environmental protection by encouraging the use of wave power.’Snakes Alive! Each Anaconda could create enough electricity to power ‘a few hundred homes’
The snakes would be placed in water between 120 and 300 feet deep, and would be submerged under the surface
BUZZ: Rooftop Greenhouses
Posted by tich on May 28, 2008
Transforming useless, black rooftops into prosperous, green gardens — that is the goal of Dr. Paul Mankiewicz.
As director of the Gaia Institute, an environmental research group in New York City, he has designed a unique greenhouse which solves the complexities of gardening on rooftops and will provide fresh produce for thousands of residents below.
By using a lightweight soil, a simple steel-frame structure wrapped in plastic, and a unique planting and harvesting system, this new greenhouse could add a new facet to agriculture. And that has the biologist excited.
“If we have a system that can purify the air and lower the amount of traffic needed to ship produce — and have that system in cities where pollution problems are serious — that is certainly a big improvement for society,” he said. “And by having a new center of economic activity right in the cities, it makes for a much greater increase in wealth for those urban areas.”
After seven years of research and development, Mankiewicz has applied for a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to build a prototype greenhouse on a building owned by the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City’s fifth most popular tourist attraction.
Tied to the grant is New York City’s Recycling Division, which will help supply the ton of solid waste the greenhouse will use every day. Food scraps and other waste material will be composted in large bins, Mankiewicz said, then slurried up to the roof where the material will be used in both the soil and the nutrient system.
The greenhouse’s soil is the unique feature that makes the system work. Most soils are too heavy to use on rooftops, he said, and building additional reinforcement is too expensive.
However, he has created a super lightweight soil by using both synthetic and organic materials, including recycled styrofoam. The styrofoam works as filler — the purpose sand and clay serve in most soils.
Feeding the crops involves a series of underground tubes linked to a controller, which delivers precise amounts of water, nutrients, microbes, carbon dioxide and oxygen to maximize plant growth.
Covering the plants will be a lightweight steel frame covered with a thin glazing of plastic. By his calculations, Mankiewicz said the amount of petroleum needed to produce all the plastic used in the greenhouse would get a truckload of produce only 300 miles down the road from California.
For planting and harvesting, a space-saving gantry system will span the garden and roll over the top of the growing space. Workers will be able to work from above, he said, eliminating the need for aisles and increasing crop yields by 30 to 90 percent.
On a larger scale, Mankiewicz envisions rooftop greenhouses eventually adorning the tops of shopping malls. With tens of thousands of square feet available, a shopping mall greenhouse could supply all the produce for an entire community. And by increasing the profits of both store and mall owners, he said the technology could leap ahead, becoming a new green layer of the urban environment.
(Tip/Stat ) Composting can reduce solid waste by more than 15 percent.
Technorati Tags: rooftop greenhouses, environmental protection, pollution, recycling, green houses, environmental issues, earth news, earth news media
Source: environmental protection
Like this post? Publish It On Your Own Blog
BUZZ: Carbon Ration Cards
Posted by Laird on May 28, 2008
Carbon Ration Cards
Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’,
Say A group of British MPs (Member of Parliament).
Every adult should be forced to use a ‘carbon ration card’ when they pay for petrol, airline tickets or household energy, the MPs say.
The influential Environmental Audit Committee says a personal carbon trading scheme is the best and fairest way of cutting Britain’s CO2 emissions without penalising the poor.
Under the scheme, everyone would be given an annual carbon allowance to use when buying oil, gas, electricity and flights.
Anyone who exceeds their entitlement would have to buy top-up credits from individuals who haven’t used up their allowance. The amount paid would be driven by market forces and the deal done through a specialist company.
MPs, led by (conservative) Tim Yeo, say the scheme could be more effective at cutting greenhouse gas emissions than green taxes.
But critics say the idea is costly, bureaucratic, intrusive and unworkable.
The Government says it supports the scheme in principle, but warns it is ‘ahead of its time’.
The idea of personal carbon trading is increasingly being promoted by environmentalists. In theory it could be used to cover all purchases from petrol to food.
For the scheme to work, the Government would need to give out 45million carbon cards - each one linked to a personal carbon account. Every year, the account would be credited with a notional amount of CO2 in kilograms.
Every time someone makes a purchase of petrol, energy or airline tickets, they would use up credits. A return flight from London to Rome would, for instance, use up 900kg of CO2 credits, while 10 litres of petrol would use up 23kg.
MP Tim Yeo , says the scheme could be more effective at cutting Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions
The committee said personal carbon trading rewarded those with
a low carbon footprint with cash.
‘We found that personal carbon trading has real potential to engage the population in the fight against climate change and to achieve significant emissions reductions in a progressive way,’ he said.
“The idea is a radical one. As such it inevitably faces some significant challenges in its development. But it is important to meet these challenges”.
How the Scheme Would Work
Every adult in the UK would be given an annual carbon dioxide allowance in kgs and a special carbon card.
The scheme would cover road fuel, flights and energy bills.
Every time someone paid for road fuel, flights or energy, their carbon account would be docked.
A litre of petrol would use up 2.3kg in carbon, while every 1.3 miles of airline flight would use another 1kg.
When paying for petrol, the card would need to swiped at the till. It would be a legal offence to buy petrol without using a card.
When paying online, or by direct debit, the carbon account would be debited directly.
Anyone who doesn’t use up their credits in a year can sell them to someone who wants more credits. Trading would be done through specialist companies.
Like this post? Publish It On Your Own Blog
BUZZ: The Plastic Potato
Posted by tich on May 27, 2008
A potato that produces natural plastic may soon be a reality. But unlike the original plastic potato, Mr. Potato Head, this new plant will have profound impacts on the nature of plastic and its ability to exist in harmony with the environment.
Scientists now are perfecting a system of growing organic plastics rather than manufacturing them. Unlike typical plastics in use today, these new plastics are not petroleum-based and will biodegrade.
“It’s a new wave in the life sciences,” said Clinton Fuller, a biochemist and professor at the University of Massachusetts. “It will give us whole new parameters to solve problems.”
Fuller, who has been researching natural plastics for five years, said the work has broad scientific support because of its potential long-range practicality.
The idea is to manipulate certain types of bacteria to produce natural polymers in a process similar to brewing beer. When key nutrients are withheld, the bacteria produce the ..
Source: waste reduction
Like this post? Publish It On Your Own Blog
