Science & Technology
Posted Sat, 02/28/2009 - 17:38 by muenda
Image via: Getty Images
One of the many other "changes" (benefits?) to come our way, scientists now predict, is the growth in the worlds largest sand dunes, reports New Scientist this week.
Posted Sat, 02/28/2009 - 13:00 by muenda
photo: University of South Carolina
I have to admit that I was thrilled to see this story as I am a resident of Columbia, S.C. (home to USC) and we aren't often the "the world's first" at much related to the environment.
Posted Fri, 02/27/2009 - 19:34 by muenda
Part of Ford's "Green Strategy"
Ford is trying to adapt to the new car market (what's left of it, anyway) by bringing over European cars like the frugal Fiesta, and by building new more efficient engines which it calls "EcoBoost".
Posted Fri, 02/27/2009 - 15:00 by muenda
photo: Matthew McDermott
It's very tempting to think that sea level rise caused by climate change is something which won't be a problem for at least a couple of decades. And for some places that's probably true. However, for some islands around the world, sea level rise is either already displacing people or will be in not too long.
Posted Mon, 12/01/2008 - 18:41 by muenda
Andy Revkin of the New York Times at Columbia University on
Posted Wed, 11/19/2008 - 18:05 by muenda
Photo via Neeta Lind
National Geographics is launching into video games, something we’re a bit surprised hasn’t already happened considering the teaching potential behind them.
Posted Wed, 11/19/2008 - 14:30 by muenda
Image: ECHA
REACH Deadline Draws Near
Yesterday was a record day at the new European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki Finland. Chemical manufacturers and importers are in a panic to get data submitted. With less than two weeks left before the pre-registration deadline 1 December, ECHA has announced that the IT infrastructure has been enhanced, and an emergency back-up plan is in place in case the last-minute rush overwhelms the systems.
Posted Wed, 10/22/2008 - 22:05 by muenda
Photo via Joe Gets a Camera
A major component of Bioneers is the field of biomimicry.
Posted Wed, 10/22/2008 - 19:58 by muenda
2009 Fuel Economy Guide
The U.S. government's 2009 Fuel Economy Guide (pdf) is out and there hasn't been much movement at the top once again this year.
Posted Tue, 10/21/2008 - 02:31 by muenda
Watch more than 300 documentaries for free at SnagFilms, a Web site that is "committed to finding the world‘s most compelling documentaries, whether from established heavyweights or first-time f...
Posted Mon, 10/20/2008 - 20:45 by muenda
Electric Porsche 911
Ruf Automobile GmbH, a German automotive company that has been tuning Porsches for a long time, will make an electric version of the Porsche 911 called the eRUF Model A.
Under the hood, a 150kW (201hp) brushless three phase A/C electric motor that can generate an impressive 480 lb.-ft. of torque and a lithium-ion iron-phosphate battery pack made of 96 160Ah Axeon cells and a sophisticated monitoring system to make sure it doesn't overheat.
Posted Mon, 10/20/2008 - 18:08 by muenda
Announced at Bioneers 2008, the Biomimicry Institute is launching later next month an incredible website that will serve to spark imagination and innovation in the field of biomimicry - AskNature.org.
And you can be part of its creation. Read on to find out how. ...
Posted Mon, 10/20/2008 - 16:50 by muenda
photo: Maury Landsman
While I’m not sure that the claims by the owners of Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio olive oil farm that they will be the first farm anywhere to reduce their net carbon emissions to zero, without using offsite carbon offsetting projects, are be entirely true—I’d be surprised that some small farm hasn’t tried to do the same thing, just not publicized it as well—the efforts by the owners of this Umbrian farm are pretty interesting: ...
Posted Mon, 10/20/2008 - 16:17 by muenda
Photo via Bioneers
Many TreeHugger favorites made their way to Bioneers 2008. From carpets to paper, from solar to social networking websites, many TH friends permeated the exhibit hall.
Check out the huggable companies who made it out to the conference to show off their greener sides. ...
Posted Mon, 10/20/2008 - 15:29 by muenda
Photo via Bioneers
The opening speeches of Bioneers set the tone for the entire conference.
We’ve been acting like a rock star trashing a hotel room, and it’s the morning after.
Kenny Ausubel reminded us with this opening line that we have some serious reckoning to do, but, luckily, we can do it with a sense of humor, hope, and fun.
Posted Mon, 10/20/2008 - 15:05 by muenda
Bioneers is a pretty huge conference, and we know what kind of carbon footprint conferences can make, what with energy use, waste, water use and so on.
Posted Sun, 10/19/2008 - 14:48 by muenda
Norway has lots of reasons to back CCS - it already sequesters 1 million tons annually.
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) seems to give the power industry a warm, fuzzy feeling. Vattenfall, Sweden's state-owned power utility has embraced the technology and has opened a pilot plant in Germany, where it runs a number of coal-fired plants - 64 percent of its generation is from brown coal in Germany, just one percent from renewables (and it has zero coal-fired plants in Sweden).
Posted Sat, 10/18/2008 - 21:18 by muenda
Image courtesy of Backpacker
In an exclusive Backpacker Magazine interview, the presidential candidates discussed their prospective policies regarding a slew of environmental topics: global warming solutions, cap and trade policies, oil drilling, gun laws in national parks, and
Posted Sat, 10/18/2008 - 17:48 by muenda
Photo courtesy of RMI
After receiving a slew of applications, the Rocky Mountain Institute (a “Think-and-do Tank”) has chosen 12 colleges to send a team of energy researchers to in order to collaborate in a search for breakthroughs in the fight against climate change.
Posted Sat, 10/18/2008 - 16:00 by muenda
Photo courtesy of Science Notes
A common complaint registered against wind turbines is that they kill too many birds. This has been largely revealed to be a myth, but it turns out that birds’ nocturnal winged counterparts aren’t so lucky. Bats have been dying in surprisingly high numbers around wind turbines, according to recent studies.
Posted Sat, 10/18/2008 - 14:30 by muenda
Photographs by Agaton Strom
The American Museum of Natural History is unveiling its much anticipated Climate Change exhibit today, giving the public an opportunity to take an in-depth, engaging look at the most notorious and ill-understood environmental issue of our time.
Posted Sat, 10/18/2008 - 04:50 by muenda
Image from mikelens
I've started losing count of the number of times global warming skeptics have been proven wrong, but I'm sure the official tally must be fast approaching: skeptics 0, scientists 10,000 (give or take a few thousand).
Posted Fri, 10/17/2008 - 23:12 by muenda
If you’re a high school student with a passion for the environment and a way with words then we’ve got a contest that’s right up your alley. But you’d better hurry because the deadline for the Weather Channel's high school essay contest is just days away. ...
Posted Fri, 10/17/2008 - 19:19 by muenda
Image source: Cornell
Cornell University wants its students to all get zeros! Zeros in total emissions, that is. The university recently hired consultants to help develop a strategy to eliminate 320-kilo tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the university and get a perfect score in carbon neutrality. October 22, 2008 kicks off "Getting to Zero" Day on campus....
Posted Fri, 10/17/2008 - 16:00 by muenda
It seems like only yesterday that the only game in town when it came to biofuels was corn ethanol. When it was first introduced to the U.S. market, it was widely touted as the future of renewable fuels -- an alternative to gasoline that would help us move closer to energy independence. Despite its obvious disadvantages, corn ethanol was quickly embraced by the federal government, businesses and even some environmentalists.
Posted Fri, 10/17/2008 - 15:28 by muenda
Most everyone has a website nowadays, and we know that even though websites seem like they have zero impact, it takes a lot of energy to get one up and running, from data servers to computer energy used in managing the site, and even emailing.
We can add one more cool web host to the list of greener options out there.
Posted Fri, 10/17/2008 - 15:15 by muenda
Redemtech has released a case study that shows businesses can gain serious savings by reusing the IT equipment they already have laying around. This may be a big “duh” statement to greenies, but finally bigger businesses are taking note that with the dreary economy, reusing what you have is green and cheap.