This realtime simulation displays estimated CO2 emission for each country, along with their birth and death rates. Information is pulled from the CIA World Factbook and UN Statistics Division.
Archive for the ‘FYI’ Category
Cool New Site Displays CO2 Emissions
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009Top 5 US Cities for ‘Clean Technology Companies’
Sunday, June 14th, 2009FULL ARTICLE: Want to Start a Cleantech Company? Consider These 5 U.S. Cities
Cleantech companies are those that produce earth-friendly products, or companies that work to develop the technology necessary to make renewable energy more affordable and efficient.
Don’t feel like reading the full article? Here are the top five:
- Boston
- Denver
- Seattle
- Austin
- San Francisco
Eco-machine Makes Toilet Paper Out of Office Memos
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
Nakabayshi Toilet Paper Machine
Japan, home of every crazy tech invention, has created a way to recycle office paper right in the office — by turning into toilet paper. Now you can finally put those stupid memos to good use.
The machine is a new innovation by the Nakabayashi corporation and is set to be released for sale in August. The price is around $95,000.
This was just so quirky I had to share it.
REFERENCE:
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/06/eco-machine-tra.php
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/06/01/covert-documents-to.html
Miracle Water or Eco-Danger?
Thursday, May 21st, 2009Electrolyzed water cleans, degreases — and treats athlete’s foot. The solution is replacing toxic chemicals.
Full article at LATimes.com
I’m skeptical, but then I’m always skeptical. If it kills bacteria of the harmful kind, wouldn’t it also destroy good bacteria? Wouldn’t this lead to the kind of ‘resistant baddies’ we’ve all come to know about through the overuse of antibiotics and heavy duty cleaners? And then it is supposed to be safe to DRINK!? I don’t want to wipe out my gut flora, thanks but no thanks.
That and you can’t make it at home. I’ll stick to vinegar and peroxide.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Information on electrolyzed water is also available at Wikipedia.
For information on how to make your own cheap, eco-friendly cleaning solutions using vinegar, visit Vinegar as a Disinfectant
Fight to save the ‘Amazon of the oceans’
Sunday, May 10th, 2009Fight to save the ‘Amazon of the oceans’
With its pleasure boats dipping on the horizon and clustered tourist restaurants, the Indonesian island of Nusa Lembongan looks little like the edge of a great wilderness.
Five Feasible Renewable Energy Sources
Saturday, May 9th, 2009(PhysOrg.com) — President Barack Obama has made no secret of his desire to develop a “green economy” that includes renewable energy projects meant to benefit the environment. He has said that part of the economic recovery in the U.S. will come from money for, and jobs created by, renewable energy projects. Around the world, politicians, businesses and scientists are developing the technology that could improve the cost-efficiency of renewable energy. One would expect that — over time — the costs associated with renewable energy would go down. With fossil fuels, costs can only go up as the un-renewable sources dwindle and become more scarce even as demand rises. Here are 5 feasible renewable energy sources that could be developed to help meet world energy needs:
5 Feasible Renewable Energy Sources
Creating a ‘green economy’ is a solid government policy, but we need to do more as a people to lower our energy consumption. That is not a task for government (after all, no one really wants a total nanny state), but a goal of culture. We need to pull from island cultures, who in general tend to abhor waste. Earth is an island, in that it has limited resources and we all have to share to make it work.
Green Box: Pizza Box Turns into Plates & Storage Unit
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009Sigh, am having problems getting embedded vids to run in wordpress, so here’s the link.
World’s First Solar-Powered City Planned In Florida
Monday, April 13th, 2009New Florida City To Run On Solar Power
(PhysOrg.com) — A new Florida city, Babcock Ranch, will power 19,500 homes by solar power and cost the average customer’s monthly bill an additional 31 cents. This will be the first city on earth powered by zero-emission solar energy.
I looked into this deal, seems like there was a touch of wrangling with some local environmental groups who put this deal down to urban sprawl. Remember, this was a family run ‘ranch’ which included both prairie and wetlands. Florida stepped in to save a huge chunk of the land for conservation, while the rest is being developed into this city. How is the presence of all these people going to affect nearby wildlife (i.e. the Florida panther)? Will Florida continue to preserve this land in its natural state or will the area soon be whittled away under the pressures of population growth and development?
And how above-board were the plans for this city? Is anyone aware how much money Kitson & Partners paid to political figures? I know they were listed as one of the top ten contributors to Democrat Tim Mahoney’s 2008 campaign. They also gave a more modest donation to Republican Connie Mack in 2007. I checked into the history of this land deal, and very strongly recommend reading the article Dueling On The Ranch put out in the spring of 2006. Kitson is not the innovative green messiah you would think if you only read his press releases. It ended with Sierra club filing a lawsuit against the company, which was eventually settled. This land deal also has the heavy support of ‘eco-friendly’ Gov. Charlie Crist (who seems to have 2010 Senate ambitions). Gov. Crist also has a history of questionable campaign contributions. Of course, so does just about everyone.
My official word of warning: Remember that the business of being green in the U.S. is also ‘big-money business’. I’m not saying this is a bad idea, but we must be ever vigilant to ensure that the ‘green’ benefits we see include more than just the color of money.
REFERENCES:
http://www.kitsonpartners.com/index.htm
http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/Tim_Mahoney
Sierra, Kitson settle ranch lawsuit
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Sunshine-State-plans-world39s-first.5163102.jp
Sum of questionable contributions to Crist in ’06 may rise
http://www.eenews.net/public/Greenwire/2009/04/09/1
Mass Media Fails in Coverage of Global Warming
Friday, February 13th, 2009According to Stephen Schneider, climate researcher and policy analyst, the news media needs to employ trained reporters in covering global warming.
“Business managers of media organizations, you are screwing up your responsibility by firing science and environment reporters who are frankly the only ones competent to do this,” said Schneider.
For the full article, visit
Global Warming Could Create Giant Monsters
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
Image Linked from http://www.physorg.com/news152969011.html
Dr. Jonathan Block, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, estimated that a snake this size would have required an annual average temperature of 86 to 93° degrees F (or 30-34° C) to survive. Currently, the average temperature of Cartagena, Columbia is about 82° F (28° C).
But don’t load your shotguns yet, because today when we talk about Global Warming we no longer mean a rise in temperature. Some time ago scientists revised the outcome of pollution and carbon emissions to something they called “Global Climate Instability”, meaning more storms and erratic weather. The name never caught on, so we still use the misnomer “Global Warming” because it was familiar to us. Human technologies and overpopulation do warm the atmosphere a slight amount, but rather than everything turning to desert, we are more likely to first see storms and crazy weather as the planet tries to reset its climate. Likewise, my personally coined term of “Global Storming” never moved much past my weblog, but I continue to use it to describe climate change caused by pollution, etc. Stock up on masking tape and bottled water first, the hurricanes will wipe us out long before any giant reptiles appear.
REFERENCES: