I liked "An Inconvenient Truth." But I didn't like it because it inspired me, or was even very interesting to me...I liked it because I thought it did a good job of conveying the magnitude of the climate crisis to a lot of people who hadn't thought much about it in the past.

But Al's recent talk at the TED conference is on another level of awesome. It's not about the problem, it's pretty much all about the solution. But the reason why we can't face the climate crisis, he says, is because we in America have to first face the democracy crisis. And I completely agree with him.

"As important as it is to change the light bulbs...it's more important to change the laws," he says. And we simply can't do that if Wal-Mart is a more effective leader on climate change than our own government. This problem will never be solved by individuals taking action in their own lives...we have to make global changes.

So, yes, change the light bulbs...but also consider the environment when you're choosing careers, education, investments and, possibly most important of all....voting. And tell your Senators that you think it's disgusting that the U.S. is the only developed country that doesn't have the balls to sign onto the Kyoto protocol.

And, most pressing right now, find your Senator's phone number, call them, and tell them to vote for the Solar Investment Tax Credit. It's what Al would tell you to do.

Oh...and also, if you watch the whole thing...you'll see him liken our exploration of low-quality oil shale to junkies finding veins in their toes because the veins in their arms and legs have collapsed. There has never been a more apt and frightening metaphor. The whole thing really is worth watching.

Toyota's Prius has a pretty enthusiastic fan base. It has become almost synonymous with the world hybrid. But now, Toyota is looking to create something new that will entice the hybrid fans out there. Enter the Toyota 1/X, the car that - according to the press release "redefines from its very roots the idea of what it means to be environmentally considerate". Strong words, indeed.

The key here is weight. Toyota is using a reinforced plastic for the body frame that's reportedly stronger (and of course, much lighter) than metals traditionally used in cars. Lighter seats and a roof made from bio-plastics also help get the car down to an impressive 926 lbs (420 kg). As a result, the fuel efficiency is twice that of the Prius. The car also saves weight by never carrying more than 4 gallons of fuel...which is fine, since those four gallons will take you over 600 miles.

Another big focus on this car is comfort and openness. The whole thing seems to be made of windows. Apparently, the roof insulates heat effectively, is translucent, reduces noise and gives the driver back rubs on long drives... well, maybe not the last part.

All in all, this seems like the perfect hybrid. Of course, concept vehicles often seem perfect. We'll have to see when/ if it actually gets to market.

Via Inhabitat and Toyota

Aerogel has been around for decades. It's the lightest substance ever created, being 99% air. It's strong, light, translucent and is excellent for sound-proofing. But the really exciting thing about aerogel is that it insulates 37 times better than fiberglass. Using aerogel as insulation in walls, ceilings, and (as it's transparent) even between double-pained windows, could drastically reduce the amount of energy used in heating and cooling.

Unfortunately, aerogel isn't easy to make. In fact, it costs about $1,300 per pound to produce. But a Malaysian researcer at the Universiti Teknologi, Dr. Halimaton Hamdan, has led a team of researchers who have created a way to produce aerogel that will be 80% cheaper.

What's more, the new aerogel is produced from rice husks, a discarded agricultural product. As you might expect, Malaysia has plenty of rice husks, so they're pretty excited about the possibility of turning them into something valuable. As such, the government has given Hamdan a $65 M grant to help develop a technique for the large-scale production of the new aerogels.

Hamdan's breakthrough was at first accidental. She wanted to do research on silica, but was having a hard time finding the raw material. One night, she saw a television program on the difficulty of disposing of rice husks. And rice husks, it turns out, are 20% silica. After eight years of work, Hamdan finally found a cheap way to produce pure silica from rice husks. And once the silica is acquired, making the aerogel is a cinch.

If Dr. Hamdan and her colleagues are able to use that $65 M to scale up production of this material, we should soon be seeing it everywhere. If that happens, the energy savings would be incredible. As a bonus; the production of Maerogel (short for Malaysian Aerogel) would also make use of an abundant natural waste product.

We don't deal all that much with death on Ecogeek, but sometimes something comes along that captures our attention, interest and - of course - our morbid fascination. A way of processing corpses called resomation is one of those things. Veterinarians have been using a similar process for years now, but us humans are now finally getting in on the action.

Within a tank called a resomator, the body is immersed in a 1:21 solution of potash lye and water. Gas-powered steam generators build up pressure within the tank as the temperature rises up to around 170 degrees celcius. Thanks to the pressure (and despite what the general news media would have you think) there is no boiling, only a chemical reaction that completely liquefies everything but the bone ash in our bodies. When the tank is opened, only the bone ash and any implants or prosthetics the person had remain.

Sounds pretty gruesome, eh? It kind of reminds me of that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. You know the one. That thing gave me nightmares as a kid. Why even do it, you may ask? Well, this is where our interest in this technology comes in. Through talks with Sandy Sullivan, the founder and MD of Resomation Ltd, I've found out that an average cycle in this tank of three hours will consume around 90 kWh, while a cremation will consume 250 kWh. According to Mr Sullivan, the total carbon footprint of a resomation is 18 times less than that of a cremation. Additionally, resomation is a 100% mercury-free process, something neither regular burial nor cremation can boast.

When the body has been fully liquefied, it has been separated into two main parts. The first is a bio-fluid that is basically a collection of all our building blocks: Salts, sugars, peptides, and amino acids. The nutrients in this liquid are still entirely intact and can be returned to the soil to help our plants grow. The second is basically a "shadow" of your bones called bone ash, pure calcium phosphate. This can be used in horticulture, ceramics, and even as a raising agent! In other words, getting resomated allows you to fully return your body to the Earth without worrying about adding a bunch of unwanted stuff to the soil at the same time.

Like I said, any implants or prosthetics the person may have had are also left behind, and are in fact in pristine condition. With further sterilisation and repackaging, expensive prosthetics can be put back into use. While what to do with these "leftovers" is still an open question, the folk at Resomation Ltd have considered donating them to third-world countries where such prosthetics would otherwise be completely unattainable.

So far, the process is only available in the United States, where more than 2,000 resomations have been performed so far, but the Glasgow-based company is only a year old, and Sullivan tells me that they are close to having the process specified as legal in the United Kingdom (bureaucracy at work!). Many local authorities in the UK are having trouble taking care of their dead, what with the FBCA's regulations on mercury emissions. Additionally, several green groups are championing this tech all around the world.

Don't worry, you can still have a dignified ceremony that doesn't differ much from cremation. The body is placed in a quite ordinary coffin that is lined with a silk bag that seals to become an enclosed silk coffin within the resomator. After the cycle, the soft bone ash can easily be powdered and put in an urn like you would after a cremation, with the added bonus that every single bit of ash is the body of the departed, not a mixture of whatever was in the furnace with the body. I can even think of a few additions to the lowering of the ashes that would make the ceremony all the more meaningful, like fertilising the earth that surrounds our dearly departed's ashes with a vial containing their own bodily remains. One life gone, new life welcomed.

Myself, I've always had different plans for my burial, and it just so happens that this process fits my plans perfectly! I have been assured by mr Sullivan that if I were so inclined, I could preserve the structure of the bones rather than powdering them. I would have my skull reinforced and then filled with soil (fertilised with my own bio-gunk). In that soil, I'd have them plant a seed for what would grow up to become a huge tree bearing fruit! A hundred years later, the neighbourhood kids would still be scared witless of that tree, where a crazy old fool was buried (Alive, the rumors say!) and then a tree grew out of his eyesocket! The ghost tree would be the stuff of legends, I say! Legends!

... Until someone cuts it down to build a Starbucks there, of course.

If you want to read more about the technology and the process, I suggest you check Resomation Ltd's official website or this very easy-to-read and accurate description of the process of resomation at Cremate Me.net. Personally, even if I can't have my elaborate plan set in motion, I'm sold on resomation.

Scientists at Purdue university recently did an extremely detailed analysis of the emission of CO₂ in the United States. They included every sector: power generation, manufacturing, transportation, etc., and then they used advanced atmospheric models to track the gas. It's part of a research project they're calling "Project Vulcan," presumably because Vulcan's looking down at our planet would either be unimpressed by our technology, or wonder how an entire planet could breathe.

The result is both staggering and unnerving. Watching our nation wake up in the morning in this way is just plain freaky. The CO₂ swells into the atmosphere, covering more of the nation hour by hour until folks start get home and start relaxing more, and consuming less.

I can proudly declare that my city in western Montana, in fact, remains completely unblemished by CO₂ emissions. Though, it's easy enough to spot the coal-fired power plant in south-east Montana that actually powers my house.

Via Wired Blogs

Let's say you're the happy owner of the excellent solar battery booster Freeloader, but it's just not getting you enough juice? Also, just for the sake of the argument, let's assume that you're too lazy to carry around the 2000 lb Powercube when you're on holiday.

Enter the Supercharger, an add-on for the Freeloader that you can attach to your bag or other such item to charge your Freeloader when you want some extra boost. The 1.5-watt solar cell will fully charge the little battery booster in four hours, giving you hours and hours of extra life on your iPod, phone, or whatever other little gadgets you may be carrying around with you. The enclosure for the panels is also hardy enough to withstand most of what nature can throw at you.

I've found that my solar charger can't really pull much power in this cloudy climate...so the Supercharger might be quite necessary for some of us.

Granted, many of you will probably scoff at the garish colours, but I bet you won't scoff at the price. You can get it for £20 ($40) from Solar Technology, or you could get the full-on, £50 globetrotter pack with the Freeloader, Freeloader carrying case and Supercharger.

Solar Technology via Engadget

One of the key stumbling blocks for supporters of solar energy is the fact that many of the planet’s sunniest spots lay in the middle of oceans or inhospitable deserts. Now a team from Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology have developed solar energy balloons as a means of harnessing the sun’s energy in exactly such remote areas.

The team argue that the devices may be a cheap way to power remote areas lacking either the land or the infrastructure to accommodate "traditional"-type large power stations.

According to the concept’s developer, Pini Gurfil, the idea is “to take advantage of the height dimension. When you do that, you save a lot of land resources and can get to places otherwise hard to reach.”

The helium-filled balloons, available from around spring 2009, are covered with thin-film solar panels, and can float at heights of up to several hundred meters. The electricity generated is fed via a wire cable into an inverter capable of converting it for household use.

Initial research has shown that a typical 3 Meter (10ft) balloon should cost around $4,000, and be capable of producing around 1Kw of energy. This roughly compares to the same output from 25 square meters (269 sq ft) of traditional solar panels, at a cost of $10,000.

However, critics suggest that the system may have only limited niche appeal, and point to the widespread availability of "free" space on city rooftops and relatively low cost land around many urban centers. Now if they could get them to ten or twenty thousand feet...above the cloud layer, that would be another story.

Via Reuters

You might not think of Volvo as a green car company. But their vehicles' ability to run (however poorly) for hundreds of thousands of miles with only basic maintenance has always kept me fond of the company. After all, a tremendous amount of energy goes into creation of a car...in some cases, nearly as much as is used driving the car around.

Now Volvo is, once again, pulling its green cred from unexpected sources:. This time, it's a hybrid garbage truck. They've been working on the project for a while now...we first wrote about it last August, but now they've got them functioning in the real world...and with 20% of real-world fuel savings.

There are two versions of the truck lurching around Sweden at the moment. They both use lithium-ion batteries that are charged when the vehicle makes its frequent stops. They both can operate without ever turning the diesel engine on, as long as the batteries stay charged and the trucks don't go faster than 12 mph. And they both turn their diesel engines off as soon as they stop.

But one of them has to turn its engine on to power the trash compactor. The other contains another grid-charged lithium-ion battery that powers the compactor, saving an additional 10% of fuel.

Hybrid technology is perfect for garbage trucks. Massive amounts of energy is needed to get them up to speed, only to be completely wasted as the trucks come to their frequent stops. Additionally, air quality is of particular concern in the urban environments where these dirty diesels spend most of their days.

But the question remains...will municipalities and waste management companies make the switch even if $4/gallon diesel remains cheaper than hybrid efficiency?

Source: Green Car Congress via TreeHugger

New CAFE standards are keeping auto companies extremely interested in any technology that will do anything to increase efficiency. Already GM has stopped developing its new V8 engine, and most car companies are slowing production of rear-wheel drive vehicles, because they're slightly less efficient.

So they should also be excited about a new kind of motor oil that Mobil says will increase the efficiency of cars by up to 2%. Now, really, 2% isn't all that much. Possibly not enough to get car companies excited at all, but, multiplied by the 1 trillion miles that our 21 mpg vehicle fleet travels yearly, that's about 2.8 billion gallons of gas...or nearly $9 billion dollars...saved per year.

The new lightweight motor oil spreads aroud the engine more quickly, reducing friction on startup and the oil pump doesn't have to work as hard moving it around.

The problem with the claim of 2% savings is that it's very difficult to quantify. Two percent of efficiency can easily be gained or lost depending on which way the wind is blowing, or what kind of road you're driving on. But for those of us who'll do anything to pick up a couple miles per gallon, we should definitely ask if they have any 0W-20 or 0W-30 "Advanced Fuel Economy" next time we're at the Jiffy Lube. According to Mobil...the fuel savings should offset the cost of the slightly more expensive oil anyhow.

Via EcoModder

OLEDs fascinate me. It's not just that they could possibly be both extremely efficient and extremely cheap...but they also create huge new possibilities for lighting.

Very simply, Organic Light Emitting Diodes are like LEDs in that electrons jumping across a diode emit photons. But instead of being a traditional diode, the OLEDs are actually a printed film. This means that the light comes from everywhere on the film simultaneously, and that the film can take on unique properties, like being flexible, light-weight, two-dimensional and transparent.

Before today, we didn't have anything but our own imaginations and some crazy experiments to try and figure out what an OLED lamp might look like. But Osram, a leading OLED manufacturer, recently partnered with well-known artist Ingo Maurer (who's extremely expensive LED Lamps were previously featured on EcoGeek) to produce the world's first true OLED lamp.

Osram gave Ingo ten small (132 x 33 millimeter) OLED panels to use to create his lamp. The result is actually pretty stunning (high res shots after the jump.) And since the panels are limited edition and Maurer is a very famous and respected artist, this might be the most expensive table lamp in history. But that doesn't mean I don't want one.

Here's what Ingo has to say about the OLEDs

They have a totally different look than traditional light sources. They neither require reflectors directing the light into the right direction nor large sockets. Their lightness allows the realisation of long-standing visions of mine

Osram has a team of over 50 scientists working on OLEDs right now. Though LED lights still have almost no market share, and OLEDs are more advanced and expensive than LEDs, Osram believes that their investment will pay off. There's one picture in the gallery below that really shows of the possibility of OLEDs.

I spent over a minute staring at the picture, trying to figure out where the lamp was. Then I realized, the semi-transparent windows were, in fact, the lamps. As OLEDs create 100% diffused, non-directional light on two-dimensional surfaces, they can fill a room with light without even seeming to be there. Other possible applications are skylights that become regular lights at night, or brake lights as part of a car's rear window.

And, of course, all the advantages while consuming a fraction of the amount of energy consumed by regular light bulbs.

High-res gallery below.

Via OLED Info (Thanks to Ron for the tip)

Full Press Release Here and Here

At around $100,000 each you’d be forgiven for thinking that the potential market for the Tesla Roadster "electric supercar" was a bit limited.

However, even though the company only started production at their U.S. facilities in March, the 2008 model is completely sold out, and there are already almost a thousand advance orders placed for the 2009 update. Now the company has announced plans to sell the model in Europe by the third quarter of this financial year.

According to CEO Ze’ev Drori, the move was mainly prompted by the weak dollar, but also by the shorter average distances driven by European motorists, and tax breaks offered to EVs and ZEVs in countries like Norway and Denmark.

The initial production target for the continent is reportedly set at 250 per month, with cars retailing at €100,000.

On the surface it appears that such bold moves suggest exciting times ahead for EV start-ups like Tesla and Fisker. However, some skeptics are starting to question the long-term viability of these operations, quoting doubts over issues such as performance capabilities, high prices, slow production, and battery life, as well as relative lack of technological and financial know-how, fierce competition and long-term market potential. See this TreeHugger article for a useful overview of the challenges facing the sector.

Source: Automotive Business Review

What contains the most energy per square meter in our solar system? The Sun? The Earth's Core? Uranium? No...not even close. Without a doubt...the most energetic object in the universe is the human child.

At least...that's what everyone who has ever had one of their own seems to be telling me. And I'm not about to try to argue with millions of moms, no matter what the laws of thermodynamics tell me. But, as with any source of raw energy, the question becomes how do we capture that energy. Unfortunately, five year-olds don't come with three-pronged sockets.

Well David Sheridan, a 23 year-old product design student from Coventry, England has designed a power generator that harnesses energy from children. The modified seesaw converts the movement of the kids into electrical energy which can then be transferred by an underground cable to a nearby classroom. Sheridan hopes to one day create a playground full of energy-producing playground equipment. His calculations show that after only 10 minutes of use, the seesaw could light a classroom for the evening.

This isn't the first time seesaws have been used for practical purposes though. The Gaviotas community in Columbia has a seesaw that is used to pump groundwater. And it's not the first time people have looked to children to create power: Sony has a line of upcoming kid-powered gadgets for Japan.

The question, of course, is cost. If wind or solar can produce more energy for less money, it's not all that useful. But Sheridan has won a $10,000 grant to develop the idea, so there shouldn't be too much trouble determining the feasibility of the electro-seesaw.

If it works out, and isn't too expensive...I might look into getting one for EcoGeek headquarters (my house.) My wife and I could work off some calories, have some fun and, of course, slow down the electricity meter for a while.

Via BBC

Image from Pittsinger on Flickr