Talking about carbon dioxide emissions and world population can be tricky. When comparing big numbers to other big numbers it's pretty easy to lose perspective. Bring time into the equation and your lucky if expert statisticians can explain the numbers to you. Thankfully, Stockholm-based Gapminder's Trendanalyzer software brings these facts into a new light, allowing numbers to tell the story of climate change rather than words.
This graph comparing the world's countries CO2 emissions per capita and percent urban population is quite powerful and informative at the same time. The X-variable can be changed and you can "Play" the graph to see the statistics movement over time. I highlighted a few noteworthy countries that come up often in the emissions debate, like India, China and the US. Take a look at the United Arab Emirates though and note that this is on a logarithmic scale; the increase in emissions with raising urban population is pretty disconcerting. In addition, measuring CO2 emissions per capita versus population displays the staggering speed that India and China's CO2 emissions are increasing relative to the rest of the world.
Without this kind of software, grasping these trends would be next to impossible. Even for those with a passion for the environment, the barriers to fully understanding information can be pretty high. Anything that helps people to see what is going on can be just as useful as any new innovation in eco-technology. Check out Breathing Earth for another great example of the power of visualized data.
Dell has been tearing up the environmental PR scene lately. We've been receiving so many press releases that it's been hard to keep up.
Just today we received a press release about their upcoming Earth Day Computer Recycling Drive, and last week it was a story about saving thousands of tons of paper. But, more important than those stories is Dell's constant expansion of their carbon offset program and their drive toward more efficient machines.
Recently, this program, called Plant a Tree for Me, began extending it's carbon offset program to include computers sold by it's competitors. Consumers in the US now have the option to offset the lifetime CO2 emissions created by powering notebook computers ($2), CRT monitors ($4), workstations ($13) and servers ($40), as well as a the ability to offset the 23 tons of CO2 produced by the average consumer in one year ($99). This offer will be extended to everyone in the world in April.
100% of the donations received will go toward planting trees in sustainably managed forests through The Conservation Fund and CarbonFund.org, non-profit organizations created with the aim of moving towards a sustainable, carbon-neutral future.
Now as we've noted before, this leaves all of the responsibility on the consumer to do the right thing. But it's not all Dell's doing to improve their environmental impact: as part of the Dell Earth program, and a move towards RoHS compliance, they have virtually eliminated the use of lead on their motherboards, power supplies and chassis.
Dell is also a leader in lifecycle management, offering computer recycling, regardless of brand, to all of it's customers for free. This leaves us wondering...is Dell the Green Computer Company? If an EcoGeek has to buy a new machine, is Dell the company to go to?
Well, we were lucky enough to get a chance to talk with Dell spokesman Sean Donahue about the future of green computing at Dell, and he had some interesting answers for us.
EcoGeek: What innovative components are being
included in new Dell PCs primarily for their low power consumption? Have any
major supplier decisions been influenced by power consumption in the past?
Sean Donahue: We incorporated Dell’s
HyperCool™ thermal-management technology to ensure better reliability and
quieter, cooler operations. All OptiPlex systems are designed to help customers
reduce electricity consumption and save money.
Applying the Dell Energy Smart
energy-efficiency settings of the new OptiPlex systems on all Dell desktops
could save enough electricity to avoid about 12.5 million tons of CO2
emissions, the equivalent of removing an estimated 2.5 million cars from the
road. The power savings also have the potential to save customers about $1.6
billion in operating costs. (Based on 2005 WW PC shipments and avg. US
KW/hr cost of $0.10)
I just spent the last hour getting used to my Second Legs, walking around Second Life attempting to dodge and duck my way through orientation. But I eventually achieved my goal. I found Second Chance Trees, an island in the virtual world of Second Life where you can buy and plant endangered trees.
When you buy a tree in Second Life (LD$300 is about USD$1.50) Converseon (the marketing company behind the scheme) will give 100% of the money to Plant It 2020, a non-profit organization that reforests endangered rain forests across the world.
I conducted a virtual interview with a representative from Converseon and he showed me the expanse of land that had been set aside for trees purchased by Second Lifers. It was significantly stranger than anything I've done in several months.
Being as this is the second environmental story to come out of Second Life in the last week, I almost want to laud platform. But, instead, I'd just like to bring to light the irony of using a virtual world to protect the actual world, and leave it at that.
We're all waiting for the hydrogen economy without really knowing where the hydrogen is going to come from. Most of the leading contenders focus on using fossil fuels to create hydrogen and that's...just not going to help.
Which is why I'm excited to report on the WINDHUNTER. It's more than just an amazing name for a mid-nineties Kevin Costner movie.
The WindHunter project proposes mid-oceanic hydrogen generation. Using far-off-shore wind generators has not been feasible because there's no way to transport the electricity to market. The people at WindHunter see the opportunity and say, "Why not just turn the electricity straight into hydrogen, and then ship the hydrogen where it's needed?"
There is a tremendous amount of power in oceanic wind currents just waiting to be harnessed with extremely minimal environmental impact. WindHunters would basically be off shore oil rigs but, instead of non-renewable oil, they'd be creating hydrogen from sea water, our world's most plentiful resource.
EcoGeek is willing to try a lot of weird stuff to cut back on use of various resources. But it's with mixed glee that we announce this next particular advancement--mixed because it sounds like a great idea, but EcoGeek's going to wait to see it work a few times before participating: planes in New Zealand will now be cutting the engine before landing because, hey, who needs to accelerate when you've got gravity on your side?
OK, so the engines won't be totally cut--they'll be idling--but the point is that the planes will be saving on energy and cutting back on emissions a bit. When you think about all the commercial flights in and out of any given airport on any given day, any small saving on each flight could really stack up.
According to The Age, it sounds like the most difficult part is actually changing the amount of time and space between planes landing, rather than any mechanical adjustments to the fuel-light landing.
This cool looking eco-toy caught my eye over on MetaEfficient. The Blow Light is marketed as the world's smallest wind generator, making it a great way to harness the power of your lungs.
To use it, you just... put your lips together and blow... on the rotor to light up the LEDs. When the rotor blade turns it creates electricity to power two blue and one green LED lights. Now if they could just get small enough that my neighbors wouldn't notice 10,000 of them covering my roof.
Jenesys Inc. has created a series of Flat Pack PreFab homes that are energy efficient, affordable and great looking. From their British Columbia studio they design first rate houses that are pre-fabricated by a local Structural Insulating Panel (SIP) factory. SIPs are pre-fabricated exterior wall and roof panels made up of a thick slab of foam insulation sandwiched between two layers of plywood or oriented strand board. The resulting SIP panel is very insulative and much stronger than "stick" or traditional stud construction.
Compared with Modular PreFab, Flat Pack PreFabs are much less finished. All interior finishes, stairs, plumbing and mechanicals need to be contracted for separately. What you get with the Jenesys system is a home design that has had many of the bugs worked out and the architectural design costs spread over many installations.
I particularly appreciate Jenesys showing some very nice smaller house designs that reduce the amount of raw materials used in construction and are more energy efficient.
Blazing Wings recently posted a list and great photos of twelve solar powered
airplanes. It is
worth a click just to look at all the different ways people solve the same
set of problems. One of the 12 solar airplanes is the Solar Impulse, brainchild of aero
pioneer Bertrand Piccard who flew the Orbiter 3 balloon around the world in
1999. His goal now is to fly non-stop around the world on only solar power in the Solar Impulse.
All of the solar airplanes at Blazing Wings look more like gliders than
fighters.They have long narrow wings so they can collect enough
solar power and narrow so they don’t add unnecessary drag.Let’s face it, the laws of physics are against solar
flight.We get only about 92 watts per
square foot of energy from the sun and even the best solar panels are only 40% efficient.
The Solar Impulse will sport an incredible 2,700 square feet of panels on a 231 foot wingspan (the same span as a 747-400) giving it about 65 hp. Piccard will use the prevailing winds at high
altitudes to assist propulsion, not unlike Orbiter 3.
The Solar Impulse is limited in part by the energy density
of the batteries.Piccard plans to
overcome this limitation by gaining altitude in daylight and slowly
gliding to a lower altitude at night.Basically, the Earth's gravity will be his power-storage device.
Advanced engineering of the energy systems and aerodynamics
for the Solar Impulse should lead to better photovoltaic systems for
terrestrial use as well as more fuel efficient airplanes.
When climate change reaches virtual worlds, that's when you know you're in trouble.
Last Wednesday, unannounced floods struck the lands of Second Life covering many areas of the online world and surprising residents. The event was meant to bring the message of the real environment to the users of Second Life. David De Rothschild of Adventure Ecology who aided in the event stated, "You may have a second life, but [you still need to] offset your second life in real life."
Adventure Ecology avatars in the flooded areas informed and educated Second Life participants that were around during the flooding. Users response seemed positive, with many residents helping out others and bringing up discussions of climate change around the virtual world.
With over 5.2 million inhabitants, any news in Second Life is bound to bring up a stir. Will this bring about a rush of users looking to offset their Second Life electricity use? Maybe not, but at least they're talking about the environment and better that this happens in the realm of computers than the realm of real life.
There are two ways to turn aqueous silicon into silicon crystals. First, build a multi-million dollar factory that consumes millions of gallons of water and several megawatts per day. Or, second, feed it to a sponge.
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara are imitating the techniques of marine sponges that naturally extract silicon from seawater to create their signature spiked bodies.
Currently the production of solar cells requires “high temperature and very low pressure, making it an expensive and energy-intensive process.” Nature trumps technology through the sea sponge use of an enzyme called silicatein to convert silicic acid found in seawater into silica spikes, all without high temperature or low pressure. While still at early stages, they have already imitated this process using zinc oxide to create solar cell semiconductors.
A low-cost alternative to current processes should forward the expansion of solar energy. Cheap EcoGeeks need their fix too!
This new tiny LED from Philips busts more than one LED record. This guy produces more light with a smaller footprint using less electricity than almost any other LED on the market. Even better, it does it for a much lower cost per unit of light.
And best of all, they're actually for sale right now.
While the Luxeon Rebel is still more expensive than CFLs and incandescent bulbs, the amount of light per square millimeter is dramatically higher as is the efficiency of the LED. While it probably won't start showing up in bulbs on store shelves for another year, chances are this technology is going to take lighting to an entirely new level while bursting the CFL bubble but good. The light these LEDs produce can be warm, cool, neutral or colored.
Finally, unlike CFLs these LEDs contain no mercury and, in fact, comply with Europe's Reduction of Hazardous Substances laws.
Saving paper while planting trees seems like a green dream but CheckFree Corporation and Sovereign Bank are making it a reality. In order to encourage consumers to switch to paperless e-bills, Sovereign Bank is donating $1 toward the planting of one tree for each new e-bill that their customers sign up for. The two companies partnered for a "Go Paperless" campaign, in which this is the first step to educatepeople on the benefits of paperless bills.
Over 800,000 tons of waste and 2.1 million tons of greenhouse gases are created because of hard copy bills. But the benefits of e-billing go beyond savings in energy, trees and waste however. E-bills allow easier access to current and past bills. Also the bills are received instantly online and are more secure since they don't sit unattended in a mailbox.
Speaking on behalf of the National Arbor Day Foundation, recipients of the donations, Kevin Sanders stated, "Obviously, businesses and consumers won't ever stop needing paper, but technology is helping make an impact to reduce unnecessary paper usage and waste." Yay technology! Gotta love the win-win.
European researchers have built prototypes of a combination solar cell and ultra-thin flexible battery. This technology could lead to cell phones that don't need rechargers or clothes that gather light and provide power to a variety of hungry accessories.
We're gonna have to face it, we're addicted to power. A lot of EcoGeeks already suffer from both "charger clutter" and “I’m on my last bar so I have to hang up” syndrome. To solve these problems, a thin-film organic solar cell has been combined with a new type of polymer battery, which can recharge itself when exposed to light.
The “Solar Battery” is not only thin, but also flexible enough to integrate with a wide range of electronic devices, including flat, bendable objects like a smart card and, potentially, flexible mobile phones and e-readers. The results of the research, part of the three-year, five-country European Polymer Solar Battery project, were recently published online in the journal Solar Energy.
Prototypes of the solar battery weigh as little as two grams and are less than one millimeter thick. The organic solar cell used in the prototype is based on a mix of electrically conducting polymers and Fullerenes. The cells can be cut or produced in special shapes and can be printed on a roll-to-roll machine at low temperature, offering the potential of low-cost, high-volume production.
Science, technology gadgets and...baby seals. We're in a bit of an eco-mess, but we've got the brains to lick any problem. And that's why EcoGeek.org publishes up to ten stories daily about innovations that are saving the planet.
And if that sounds interesting to you, then congratulations, you're an EcoGeek.
This new tiny LED from Philips busts more than one LED record. This guy produces more light with a smaller footprint using less electricity than almost any other LED on the market. Even better, it does it for a much lower cost per unit of light. 
