Search Results for: cloud

• Super-Concrete to Store Solar Power in Works : TreeHugger

  Researchers at the University of Arkansas are working to develop a new way of storing thermal energy in concrete. They were given an award from the U.S. Department of Energy in the sum of $770, 000 dollars as part of the federal government‘s program to create inexpensive solar energy storage

  tags: energy store, concrete

• Fake Christmas Trees Not So Green | LiveScience

  Still debating on whether to go real or artificial for this year’s Christmas tree? According to Newswise, the winner is that old-fashioned, living, breathing, carbon-sequestering noble fir (or any living Christmas tree, for that matter).

  tags: christmas tree, carbon footprint

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• maribo: Is climate science strong enough for the courts?

  Myles Allen, a physicist at Oxford University, said a breakthrough that allows scientists to judge the role man-made climate change played in extreme weather events could see a rush to the courts over the next decade. He said: “We are starting to get to the point that when an adverse weather event occurs we can quantify how much more likely it was made by human activity. And people adversely affected by climate change today are in a position to document and quantify their losses. This is going to be hugely important.”

  tags: climate change, risk, courts

• Too late? Why scientists say we should expect the worst of global warming | Environment | The Guardian

  The cream of the UK climate science community sat in stunned silence as Kevin Anderson pointed out that carbon emissions since 2000 have risen much faster than anyone thought possible, driven mainly by the coal-fuelled economic boom in the developing world. So much extra pollution is being pumped out, he said, that most of the climate targets debated by politicians and campaigners are fanciful at best, and “dangerously misguided” at worst.

  In the jargon used to count the steady accumulation of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s thin layer of atmosphere, he said it was “improbable” that levels could now be restricted to 650 parts per million (ppm).

  tags: co2, co2 emissions, carbon dioxide, 450ppm, 350ppm, 650ppm, ipcc

• Global Temperature Increase on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

  This time series shows the combined global land and marine surface temperature record from 1850 to 2008.

  Taken from the UK’s Climate Research Unit (see www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/).

  tags: climate research unit, climate change, global warming, chart

• Banking on carbon assets – The McKinsey Quarterly – Banking on carbon assets – Strategy – Strategy in Practice

  For the foreseeable future, the global financial-services sector will be wrestling with the grim realities of credit losses, deleveraging, and challenges to traditional business models. With dramatic industry restructuring already underway and a clear need for players to concentrate on the here and now, it would be easy to lose sight of a nascent but significant long-term opportunity: facilitating carbon trading.

  tags: carbon trading, carbon, banks

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• The hidden cost of our growing taste for meat | Environment | The Observer

  As the west’s appetite for meat increases, so too does the demand for soya – used as animal feed by farmers. But the planting of huge tracts of land is causing deforestation and destroying eco-systems in developing countries.

  tags: soya, deforestation, paraguay, sustainable farming

• Energy Outlook

  Ever since last week’s announcement of a deal to roll out Project Better Place’s model for recharging electric cars in Hawaii, I’ve been curious about how it would work out, if the supplies of new renewable electricity needed to wean the Islands’ million or so cars and light trucks off of oil were not forthcoming, or at least didn’t materialize as quickly as the company and state hope. If I’ve done my sums right this morning, it appears that electrifying Hawaii’s passenger cars would still save large quantities of oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly, even if every kilowatt-hour (kWh) to run them was generated from the state’s oil-fired power plants.

  tags: better place, ev, phev, electric vehicle, hawaii

• America’s Addiction Fuels Desire For Coffee Ground Biodiesel : Gas 2.0

  Researchers are reporting they have successfully made a high quality biodiesel from spent coffee grounds. They estimate that the coffee ground biodiesel industry could generate as much as $8,000,000 in profits annually using waste from US Starbucks stores alone.

  tags: biodiesel, biofuel

• Arctic will have first ice-free summer in 2015: Researcher

  The ice that has covered the Arctic basin for a million years will be gone in little more than six years because of global warming, a University of Manitoba geoscientist said.

  tags: ice, arctic thaw, arctic ice

• Climate change: Sci-fi solutions no longer in the margins

  With political efforts to tackle global warming advancing slower than a Greenland glacier, schemes for saving Earth’s climate system that once were dismissed as crazy or dangerous are gaining in status.
  Negotiating a multilateral treaty on curbing greenhouse gases is being so outstripped by the scale of the problem that those promoting a deus ex-machina — a technical fix that would at least gain time — are getting a serious hearing.

  To the outsider, these ideas to manipulate the climate may look as if they are inspired by science fiction.

  tags: geo-engineering, climate change

• The Energy Roadmap – MIT announces breakthrough in fusion, but Holy Grail of energy ‘still decades away’

  Research on nuclear fusion continues apace…

  MIT researchers are keeping hope alive in the long quest for fusion energy. Researchers have advanced our ability to harnesses one of the most complicated forms of energy science in the universe, but add a word of caution that real scalable reactors could still be ‘decades away’ as all eyes now focus on the ITER in France.

  tags: fusion, nuclear fusion, nuclear power

• Defense Tech Briefs – Silicon Nanowires for Anodes of Rechargeable Li Power Cells

  Battery technologies are improving every day!

  Charge capacities could be increased substantially over those of carbon-based anodes.

  Silicon nanowires have been investigated as alternatives to the graphite heretofore widely used as an anode material in rechargeable lithium-ion power cells. The theoretical specific charge capacity of graphite, corresponding to the maximum Li content (at a composition of LiC6) is 372 mA•hr/g. In contrast, the theoretical specific charge capacity of Si corresponding to the maximum Li content (at a composition of Li4.4Si) is much greater — 4.2 A•hr/g.

  tags: lithium, lithium ion, nanowires

• IEEE Spectrum: The Price Is Wrong for Oil Shale and Tar Sand Tech

  Looks like oil isn’t going to go away any time soon without a fight!

  The huge run-up in oil prices over the last several years, reaching a peak of close to US $150 per barrel this past summer, has given energy companies a big incentive to find new ways of harvesting unconventional oil, especially in North America.

  tags: oil shale, oil

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Utility Products – ZigBee Smart Energy Technology Spurs Smart Grid Energy Conservation – ZigBee Smart Energy Technology Spurs Smart Grid Energy Conservation

  Extremely informative article on Smart Homes, HANs, NANs, Demand Response and ZigBee

  Homeowners desperately need new methods to conserve energy. Utilities desperately need a system with which they can improve service and manage peak demand problems.

  Enter the smart grid.

  tags: demand response, smart grid, smart meter, zigbee, han, nan

• IBM, Harvard tap compute cloud for solar research | Green Tech – CNET News

  Harvard University and IBM have launched a project to harness the computing muscle of thousands of computers to discover cheap solar energy materials.

  The initiative, announced Monday, is part of the IBM-sponsored World Community Grid, which seeks to speed up research on humanitarian challenges with a grid of connected computers

  tags: solar energy, world community grid

• Chilean glaciers retreating due to global warming: report

  Chile’s glaciers are on the retreat, a sign of global warming but also a threat to fresh water reserves at the southern end of South America, a report has found.
  In a November report, the Chilean water utility — Direccion General de Aguas de Chile (DGA) — said the Echaurren ice fields, which supply the capital with 70 percent of its water needs, are receding

  tags: ice, glacier melt, glacier, chile, global warming, climate change

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Memo to Gore: Don’t call coal ‘clean’ seven times in your ad

  Al Gore and a bunch of enviro groups have launched the “Reality” Coalition to tell the public there is no such thing as clean coal.

  Their inaugural ad violates a central rule of messaging, rhetoric, and psychology: Don’t keep repeating a strong word the other side is trying to push.That is not just a basic tenet of the 25-century old art of persuasion, but a well-demonstrated principle of modern psychology

  tags: clean coal, al gore, reality coalition

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Wal-Mart’s campaign to protect the environment, poor – Dec. 3, 2008

  Children who are forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan, farmers scratching out a living in Guatemala and salmon fishermen in Bristol Bay, Alaska, would not seem to have much in common. But all are feeling the global impact of Wal-Mart.

  As the world’s largest retailer, with $379 billion in revenues last year, Wal-Mart has long been a powerful force in the global economy – a bully, its critics would say. For years, they assailed Wal-Mart for squeezing suppliers over costs, driving mom-and-pop stores out of business or crushing efforts to organize its workers.

  These days, though, the company is winning praise for using its leverage – that’s a polite term for bullying – to protect the environment and help the poor.

  tags: walmart, sustainability

• SiliconRepublic.com: Green energy – how electricity 2.0 will be bigger than Web 2.0 – R&D

  You could be forgiven for thinking that the technology industry today is all about smart phones and Web 2.0. But the smartest minds in Silicon Valley have their eyes and wallets on a bigger prize, and it’s a century-old resource called electricity.

  tags: electricity 2.0, siliconrepublic, cix, wind energy, solar energy

• Hawaii to be 1st state with electric car stations – Yahoo! News

  Hawaii has unveiled plans to be first in the nation to roll out electric car stations statewide — a move the governor hailed as a major step toward weaning the islands off oil.

  tags: better place, hawaii, phev

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Save Toms not Tonnes!

  The average European creates 10 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

  The average American, 20 tonnes.

  To avert the dangers of Climate Change, we need to drop our CO2 production to 1 tonne per person.

  Problem: What is 1 tonne of CO2? How do you visualise it?

  Answer: You don’t! You change the metric. 1 tonne = 1 person’s annual CO2 production.
  1 average person. 1 Tom.

  Because it’s not about saving tonnes, it’s about saving everyone.

  For example, a 15 minute shower is 0.1% of a Tom, driving 100 miles in a standard car is 4% of a Tom and producing 1 laptop computer is 45% of a Tom.

  How many Toms have you consumed? Don’t waste your Toms.

  Save Toms, not tonnes!

  tags: megatom, save toms not tonnes, climate change

• Joel Makower: Two Steps Forward: Sustainable Business circa 2018: Will It Be Nasty or NICE?

  an intriguing new report from the U.K.-based Forum for the Future and the consultancy Capgemini. The free report, Acting Now for a Positive 2018, Preparing for Radical Change: The Next Decade of Business and Sustainability, examines four scenarios of what the world might look like from a sustainability perspective and offers advice on how to be ready for any of them.

  tags: Cap Gemini, forum for the future, sustainability

• Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Venice flooding provides glimpse of what’s to come

  One of the highest tides in its history brought Venice to a virtual halt, rekindling a debate over a plan to build moveable flood barriers in an effort to save the lagoon city from high tides.

  City officials said the tide peaked at 61 inches (156 centimeters), well past the 40-inch (110-centimeter) flood mark, as strong winds pushed the sea into the city.

  tags: climate change, sea level rise, venice, global warming

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• The 10 big energy myths | Environment | The Guardian

  The 10 big energy myths
  There has never been a more important time to invest in green technologies, yet many of us believe these efforts are doomed to failure. What nonsense, writes Chris Goodall

  tags: energy, wave energy, tidal energy, wind energy, renewables, solar power, electric vehicle

• MSN Autos Editorial Bashes Tesla Motors, skeptical of GM’s Volt

  Auto critic Lawrence Ulrich tells us to “get ready to pull the plug” on Tesla motors. Mr. Ulrich says that transmission glitches and the delayed roll out of its model “S” roadster is proof that the demise of Tesla is around the corner…. On the contrary, the revenge of the electric car is around right around the corner!

  tags: phev, ev, plug in hybrid, electric car, tesla, chevy volt

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Climate Change Opens New Avenue For Spread Of Invasive Plants

  Plants that range northward because of climate change may be better at defending themselves against local enemies than native plants.

  tags: invasive plants, climate change

• Los Angeles Unveils World’s Largest Solar Plan : CleanTechnica

  San Francisco is usually designated the green capital of California, but now LA is trying to take the City by the Bay’s crown with the world’s largest solar plan. Yesterday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a long-range plan to gather enough solar power to meet 10 percent of LA’s energy needs by 2020.

  tags: la, los angeles, solar energy, solar power

• Giant wind farms could steer storms – Discovery.com- msnbc.com

  Mega wind farms of the future could have a major impact on weather, clearing up cloudy skies and even steering storm systems, according to new research.

  tags: wind

• Frederick company creates ‘heat of the future’

  A clear glass toaster; a plane of glass that can heat a living room; a device that helps relieve arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome pain; a less-damaging, more energy-efficient hairdryer — these have all been created by Impression Technology, a nanotechnology start-up headquartered in Frederick and run in large part by three city residents.

  The young company has perfected a new, “green” technology it calls Pure Heat, which offers, among other benefits, a way to generate evenly distributed heat at a 70 percent electricity savings over conventional heating methods. The kicker is the technology can be applied to essentially any non-flexible surface, and it is entirely transparent.

  tags: nanotechnology, electricity saving, pure heat

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• maribo: Climate change’s third rail

  After a fisheries seminar this morning, someone asked what key issue the research and conservation community was missing. The immediate answer from a senior colleague was meat consumption.

  Given how growing feed and raising livestock is responsible for a large proportion of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, it is quite amazing that we don’t talk about it more.

  tags: meat, vegetarian

• WattHead: Blast! Coal Company Recieves Permit to Destroy Coal River Mountain

  the West Virginia Department of “Environmental Protection” (seems like a misnomer today!) granted Massey Energy a permit to begin blasting away Coal River Mountain as soon as the company is ready. Massey plans to decimate the mountain to extract coal using a destructive mining practice know as mountain top removal

  tags: mountain top removal

• Curtailment, Negative Prices Symptomatic of Inadequate Transmission – Renewable Energy World

  Negative electricity prices and wind energy curtailment are occurring with increasing frequency in several regions of the country, a telltale sign that expansion of the nation’s electricity transmission infrastructure is lagging behind the rapid growth of wind energy.

  tags: negative electricity price, curtailment

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.