EcoGeek

Technology can be a force for evil, or for awesome. Those who shun technologies that could save the planet are just as guilty as those who ignore the environment. There's a safe balance, where the awesome can help nature as much as it helps us have a good time and live easier lives. EcoGeek devotes its pages to exploring the symbiosis between nature and technology. If you're interested in that, then stop by, and stop by often.

http://www.ecogeek.org/

Entries

Displaying entries 1 - 20 of 46 in total

  1. Offshore Wind Turbines Help Sustain Marine Life

    A study of offshore wind farms off Europe's coasts has revealed that the structures pose no threat to marine life, and in fact, they help sustain it. Scientists at Stockholm University's Zoology Department conducted the study and found that the turbine foundations acted as habitats for fish, crabs, mussels, lobsters and plants, creating a more diverse and dense population of marine life at wind farm sites than at control sites away from the farms. Like in the case of sunken subway cars or ships, the scientists said that the foundations were essentially acting as artificial reefs.  This study could potentially lead to wind and wave farm designs that foster this occurance.  Because wind farm sites are less suitable for bottom trawling, the farms could be built as safe zones for threatened species.

    from EcoGeek on 22 January 2010 | Direct link | Comment on this

  2. Three Cool Concepts For Urban Biking

    We've seen several bike-related concepts in the past few weeks. If, in fact, alternative transportation is on the rise, bikes will become a larger part of our transportation mix. To be really effective and to find wide acceptance, these three may help make bikes more of an option. Copenhagen Wheel A group of MIT researchers developed the Copenhagen wheel, a versatile electric bicycle wheel which was given its debut last month in Copenhagen during the COP-15 summit. The wheel combines a regenerative brake, a battery, an electric motor, and a variety of sensors and a bluetooth connection. Combining regenerative braking and electric assist acceleration helps make it easier for bike commuters to deal with starts and stops. With the Copenhagen wheel, the bike can also track speed and distance traveled, as well as monitoring local smog conditions and tracking the proximity of friends.

    from EcoGeek on 20 January 2010 | Direct link | Comment on this

  3. Printable Lithium Batteries Coming Soon

    First came printable solar cells, then printable OLED lights and now ladies and gentlemen, we have printable lithium batteries.  Japanese researchers have announced they've developed a way to manufacture the batteries with mass-output, roll-to-roll printing technology. The printed battery sheet is very thin (500 μm), flexible (allowing it to be attached to curved surfaces) and designed for use with a flexible solar battery, a combination that could be both a power generator and power storage unit.  The battery prototypes have an output voltage of 2V - 4V, but the battery capacity hasn't been revealed.  The benefit of the roll-to-roll printing is that it's highly efficient, meaning cheaper production. Unlike other prototype technology, this cool breakthrough isn't one that we'll have to wait 10 years to see in production. 

    from EcoGeek on 14 January 2010 | Direct link | Comment on this

  4. Starfish: Carbon Storage Heroes

    According to a new study by British researchers, starfish and their fellow echinoderms (sea urchins, sea lilies, etc) act as a significant sink for CO2.  The ocean bottom-dwellers store about 2 percent of annual human CO2 emissions. Researchers knew echinoderms store large amounts of calcium carbonate, some have bodies made up of 80 percent of the stuff, but they were still shocked by the results.  It turns out, the small animals capture about 0.1 gigatonnes of carbon per year, compared to the 5.5 gigatonnes of carbon human activity pumps into the air annually. The team came up with the figure by gathering carbon measurements of different echinoderms from various sample sites at latitudes around the world.  They combined their measurements with population data and mortality data for the different classes to figure out how much carbon the animals stored and how quickly that carbon was buried after death.

    from EcoGeek on 14 January 2010 | Direct link | Comment on this

  5. Map of Countries' Emissions, Pledges

    The AP Climate Pool kept us well informed over the course of the COP15 negotiations.  Part of that great coverage is contained in this interactive map of the participating nations' current emissions and the reductions they've pledged to make. You can find plenty of articles analyzing what was accomplished (or not accomplished) over the last two weeks, but this map quickly lays out the current emissions trends around the world. Some of the interesting things revealed by this map are the huge percentage increase in emissions by China (136.2 percent) - close to triple that of number two Turkey (58.8 percent) - and the nice size reduction in emissions by Russia since 1990 (23.8 percent).  The U.S. has actually seen a decline in emissions of 1.8 percent, but we're still the largest emitter per capita, so that's not saying much, which also makes our pledge of a 17 percent reduction less than adequate. I

    from EcoGeek on 22 December 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  6. NASA Unveils Amazing GHG Models

    NASA's Aqua spacecraft has been taking daily CO2 measurements with its Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument (AIRS) for the past seven years and now all that information gathering has led to beautiful and frightening maps and models of the concentration and movement of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Highlighting the importance of this new data set, NASA researcher Moustafa Chahine said: "AIRS provides the highest accuracy and yield of any global carbon dioxide data set available to the research community, now and for the immediate future," said Chahine. "It will help researchers understand how this elusive, long-lived greenhouse gas is distributed and transported, and can be used to develop better models to identify 'sinks,' regions of the Earth system that store carbon dioxide. It's important to study carbon dioxide in all levels of the troposphere."

    from EcoGeek on 22 December 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  7. Nanotech Breakthrough: Self-Cleaning Solar Panels

    Solar panels may have just become more low maintenance.  While conducting research on a cure forl Alzheimer's, scientists at Tel Aviv University ended up with a nanotech breakthrough that could mean no more worrying about keeping solar panels clean - they can clean themselves! The researchers were conducting experiments on ways to control peptide atoms and molecules (Alzheimer's sufferers have a particular peptide found in the plaques that form in their brains) and they found a way to get peptides to self-assemble in a vacuum.  The resulting arrangement of peptides acts as a dust- and water-repelling coating. Not only can the coating keep solar panels clear from debris, but it also could be used as a supercapacitor, meaning better lithium batteries.  Two boosts to clean tech with one discovery! If that's not enough, drug company Merck is funding continued Alzheimer's research at Tel Aviv University.  You can check out the abstract of the groups findings…

    from EcoGeek on 04 February 2010 | Direct link | Comment on this

  8. Going Greener by Going Bigger: Does it Work?

    Busses are greener than cars, and apartment buildings are greener than houses. But is a 747 greener than a Cessna? Is an interstate greener than Route 66? Is a 55 inch flat screen greener than a 20 inch tube television? Is a cruise ship greener than a pontoon boat?There's been some focus on going green by going bigger recently. But often, efficiency just becomes one more pathway to profligate waste.

    from EcoGeek on 09 December 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  9. Oregon Wave Project Under Way

    A project to build the country's first wave power station off the coast of Oregon is finally moving forward.  Wave power company Ocean Power Technologies just signed a contract with Oregon Iron Works to start building 10 buoys, with the first one to be deployed a year from now off the coast of Reedsport. This project will test the capabilities of the buoys in the area before the company goes forward with a 200-buoy project nearby.  Within two years all ten buoys should be deployed and generating power for PNGC Power, the utility that is purchasing all that clean energy.  The system will have a capacity of about 1.5 MW and OPT expects to sell the power for about 15 cents/kWh.

    from EcoGeek on 09 December 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  10. Wind Turbines to Power Cell Phone Towers

    Small-scale wind turbines can't produce the large amounts of power that their giant brothers can, but there's still room for them in the renewable energy landscape.  As an example, cell phone company Core Communications will begin using small vertical-axis wind turbines to power their cell phone towers.

    from EcoGeek on 13 November 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  11. Finally! A Recycling Plant for Dirty Diapers

    UK companies Versus Energy and Knowaste are partnering up to build the world's first diaper recycling plant.  Not only will the diapers collected stay out of landfills, but the plant will actually run on the organic matter contained in them.

    from EcoGeek on 13 November 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  12. Europe Testing Road Trains to Cut Fuel Use

    Have you ever been driving in rush hour and wished you could just zone out and read a book during your trip instead of stressing about the traffic?  Well, the EU is testing a way to make that possible while cutting fuel consumption at the same time.  The idea is that eight vehicles would travel as one "train," linked by wireless sensors.  It's believed that the system, called Safe Road Trains for the Environment (SARTRE), could cut fuel use by 20 percent for cars traveling in the trains.

    from EcoGeek on 12 November 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  13. Bacteria Could Rid the World of Packaging Waste

    Consumer and shipping packaging can be incredibly wasteful.  Some companies are downsizing their packaging, but many products sitll come wrapped and boxed in ridiculous amounts of plastic, paper, cardboard - you name it.  One designer has come up with a way to get rid of the waste by wrapping objects in bacteria, creating a biodegradable, custom-fitting shell.  Both gross and exciting!

    from EcoGeek on 10 November 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  14. Dell Plants Solar Trees in the Parking Lot

    Dell is doing it again, this time on-site, with a series of solar trees that will not only help power it's headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, but also serve to charge electric vehicles parked there. Of course, there aren't currently any electric vehicles parking in the Dell lot, but hopefully that will change in the next few years.

    from EcoGeek on 10 November 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  15. Let's Make This Clear: Vertical Farms Don't Make Sense

    The inside of a skyscraper is, literally, the most expensive "land" in the world. So it probably isn't the best place to grow our food. The idea of vertical farming (growing food in high-rise buildings in the middle of cities instead of out on farms) has been gaining a lot of interest lately.

    from EcoGeek on 10 November 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  16. Need to Measure Wind Speed? There's an App for That

    The potential of small-scale wind power is starting to be discussed more.  Soon, like small-scale solar installations, wind turbines will be springing up in backyards and on rooftops.  If you're thinking that you'd like to be one of the people with a turbine out back you'll need to assess the wind speeds around your house.  Luckily, as the commercials say, there's an app for that.

    from EcoGeek on 11 November 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  17. Solar Projects Battling for Water

    Construction of renewable energy projects has revealed some serious environmental issues that will have to be dealt with as we speed toward a clean energy future. 

    from EcoGeek on 12 November 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  18. Researchers Proposing Method for Determining Plug-in Mileage

    The Society of Automotive Engineers and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are recommending that the EPA come up with two different ratings for plug-in vehicles:  miles per gallon and electricity per mile. The two groups will finalize their proposal within the next six months, hoping to prevent the EPA from coming up with a rating that combines gas and electricity mileage like the sky-high MPG claims GM and NIssan recently came up with for their plug-in models. 

    from EcoGeek on 20 October 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  19. Recycling Your Cell Phone Just Got Easier

    While some cell phone companies are introducing convenient ways for you to recycle your phone once you're done with it, a new start-up is making it just plain simple.  EcoATM will be deploying kiosks at retailers around the country where you can drop off your old phone, have its value assessed and immediately get an in-store trade-up coupon or gift card.

    from EcoGeek on 20 October 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this

  20. Is Renewable Energy the Biggest Threat to Land Conservation?

    I'm a conservationist. I was a conservationist before I was an EcoGeek. There is very little land on earth left in a sem-natural state, and I believe that we should keep as much of that land as natural as possible forever. Unfortunately, that belief does sometimes collide with my belief that we need to increase renewable energy production as fast as possible. The Nature Conservancy estimates that renewable energy will occupy some 73,000 square miles of land by 2030, meaning that renewable energy could be the biggest threat to land conservation in America. The only thing that comes even close is real estate development.

    from EcoGeek on 20 October 2009 | Direct link | Comment on this