What happens to your E-Waste?
…all kinds of wrong here
Filed under: Recycling | Tagged: Green Jobs, Public Policy, Recycling | 1 Comment »
Dividing up the Arctic Oil
Posted on March 9, 2009 by mastadonzq
There are many issues concerning what used to be the great white north. As global warming advances more and more of the arctic will become land without glaciers on top. This means that the environment will change drastically, essentially a new ecosystem is being born and life will colonize the new land. How much of that new life will be human remains to be seen.
All Countries bordering the arctic will lay claim to some portion but clearly this will mainly be a battle between the US and Russia. Both nations will take advantage of the vast untapped oil fields currently trapped under miles of ice.
Territorial disputes may lead to military conflict as some russian newspapers are preparing for but whoever ends up with the land, what they do with it will have a huge impact.
Oil spotted wasteland or refuge for the displaced creatures of the world?
Filed under: Global Warming | Tagged: Global Warming, Oceans, oil | 3 Comments »
Kite Power
Posted on March 5, 2009 by mastadonzq
So I will have to do some more research on the physics of wind generation but I was under the impression that the capture of wind was perfected by sailors in the last few centuries. Who says windmills as they are designed today is the best way to harness the wind’s energy?
We are about to put some significant investment into wind energy and I wonder if it really is the best way or just tradition.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2007/10/kitegen-follow-up.html
Filed under: Wind Power | Tagged: alternative energy, sustainable design, Wind Power | 2 Comments »
Green Gadgets part two
Posted on February 28, 2009 by mastadonzq
Here are some good examples of green design done right vs. completely misguided.
A computer made from light weight reusable and recyclable materials. Also if you are tech savvy at all you can just buy new components instead of a whole new system.
The Takeup:
A computer made out of cardboard. It’s true cardboard is easily recyclable but how long can a cardboard computer last? I certainly wouldn’t buy a computer that can be turned into mush by water.
Cardboardcase:
Filed under: Gadgets | Tagged: Gadgets, sustainable design | Leave a comment »
Blight the lighting shades
Posted on February 27, 2009 by mastadonzq
Today was the annual Green Gadgets Design competition. I think it’s fantastic that people are excited about being innovative for a positive purpose. Many of these products will contribute to a better world and others will simply waste time and money. We should be skeptical of these new inventions because while they all have good motives, some may do more harm than good.
Blight. I’m not behind the idea.
Taking the sunlight that shines on high tech venetian blinds and turning the shades into lamps at night seems like a great idea until we consider the cost of producing these complicated machines. Motors, circuitry, mini solar panels, paper thin lights are just a few of the things that go into the design.
I can also tell you based on long experience selling and owning Venetian blinds that they break easily, particularly when rolled up and down every day (yes even the high quality blinds).
These would do well marketed to the wealthy chic as an interesting lamp and conversation piece. I don’t think it should be widely implemented because the construction would be a waste of resources for incomparable gain.
Filed under: Gadgets | Tagged: Gadgets, lighting, Solar Power, sustainable design | Leave a comment »
Space Based Solar Power and Microwave transmission
Posted on February 23, 2009 by mastadonzq
A company called Space Energy Inc. has plans to collect solar enery in space and beam it back down to earth via microwave radiation. They are currently trying to secure more funding for a prototype to prove the concept works.
In theory this is something that can be done. We know the physics of the sun’s radiation and have been able to convert and transmit the energy from the radiation for some time. You may have seen that I am a huge proponent of Space based Solar and Orbiting Solar Arrays.
We should understand, however, that this is a very long term goal. Space energy inc does say that this energy supply will only become cost effective as the world’s fossil fuels run out and the prices go up. As such it may be difficult to raise the appropriate amount of investment because people generally want to see a return in their lifetime. It may be up to far thinking governments to shoulder the development costs.
The basic technology has been around since the sixties but it will take some serious commitment to make this a valuable alternative energy.
Filed under: Solar Power | Tagged: Companies, Solar Power | 4 Comments »
LED lights, Theory vs Practice
Posted on February 19, 2009 by mastadonzq
LED technology is the current favorite for lighting in the future. They use less energy than fluorescent lights and can emit more pleasing light. They also in theory do not need to be replaced for many years.
I worked at a hardware and furniture store when I was in college and we carried many different LED desk lamps over the years. That experience showed me that LED light bulbs break all the time and are often very difficult to replace.
Now it is certainly possible that these were cheap lights not on par with the LEDs of today but given the simple construction of the diode, I don’t think it should matter.
I understand why in theory these light would last longer, IE there is no filament to burn out etc. So are some types just better than others?
Filed under: Green Building | Tagged: Efficiency, LED, sustainable design | 8 Comments »
CO2 + H2O = energy
Posted on February 19, 2009 by mastadonzq
This is well written article on converting Carbon Dioxide and water into energy using nanotubes. The potential of nanotechnology often seems to good to be true and I really hope the promise pans out.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl803258p
Filed under: Solar Power | Tagged: Nanotechnology, Solar Power | Leave a comment »
My question about clean coal
Posted on February 18, 2009 by mastadonzq
What happens when the ground moves?
Quick background on clean coal (many seem confused by the ads): The idea is to pump the CO2 emitted by the burning of coal underground and keep it there forever. The underground storage containers would ideally be already existing geologic formations.
Say we found enough natural underground airtight spaces to put all our CO2 emissions, at what point does it leak back into the atmosphere? The earth’s crust will move as it inevitably does and decades of carbon emissions will go up all at once.
We should start accepting the fact that humans will eventually burn all the coal and oil and natural gas on the planet. We should strive to slow the pace at which we burn through all the life that existed before us but should also realize that we are rebooting the carbon cycle.
All the CO2 will go into the air eventually and given the extremely high costs of underground carbon storage, perhaps we should let it go up now and focus our energy on dealing with the consequences.
Filed under: Global Warming | Tagged: alternative energy, Coal, Global Warming | Leave a comment »
save the rainforest
Posted on February 17, 2009 by mastadonzq
If we run our cars on biofuels produced in the tropics, chances will be good that we are effectively burning rainforests in our gas tanks,” warned Holly Gibbs, of Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment.
Filed under: Bio-Fuels | Tagged: Bio-Fuels | Leave a comment »
GROG: green tech blog 