Comparative Planetology

Kim Stanley Robinson has some interesting things to say about mankinds effect on the environment and the badly thought out assumptions behind some ideas of sustainability.

It’s easy to imagine people who are bored in the modern techno-surround, as I call it, and they’re bored because they have not fully comprehended that they’re still primates, that their brains grew over a million-year period doing a certain suite of activities, and those activities are still available. Anyone can do them; they’re simple. They have to do with basic life support and basic social activities unboosted by technological means.

And there’s an addictive side to this. People try to do stupid technological replacements for natural primate actions, but it doesn’t quite give them the buzz that they hoped it would. Even though it looks quite magical, the sense of accomplishment is not there. So they do it again, hoping that the activity, like a drug, will somehow satisfy the urge that it’s supposedly meant to satisfy. But it doesn’t. So they do it more and more – and they fall down a rabbit hole, pursuing a destructive and high carbon-burn activity, when they could just go out for a walk, or plant a garden, or sit down at a table with a friend and drink some coffee and talk for an hour. All of these unboosted, straight-forward primate activities are actually intensely satisfying to the totality of the mind-body that we are.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

The XR-3 Hybrid

The XR-3 plug in hybrid is a self build project that promises between 100 and 225 miles per gallon (US gallons, US=3.785411784 Litres- UK=4.54609 Litres, according to this page). You can pre-order the instructions, $170 for the basic set, $200 for the deluxe version with lots of data on a dvd. There are plans to produce body and chassis parts within the year for those of us who aren't so adept at laying carbon or glass fibre.

via Jalopnik

Technorati tag: Green Transport

The Green car show

Wired went to the International Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exposition to drool over pollution free motoring and photograph lots of cool technology.

Technorati tag: Electric car

Wind power for all

Great Britain could get all its energy from offshore wind farms.

Technorati tag: Wind Power

The power of cheese

An Austrian cheese factory now gets some of its power from a gas burner that uses methane released when whey is heated. The system, created by a Rochdale business, is dual fuel, switching to piped natural gas when methane production is too low, and has helped the factory cut its carbon footprint by 30%.

Technorati tag: Renewable Energy

Chicago's green alleys

Chicago, which claims to have more square miles of alleyway than any other city, is starting to pave them with permeable materials that will reduce run off and cut the heat island effect. They'll also be installing low energy lighting. The initial costs are greater than just relaying concrete or tarmac but cut the risk of flooded basements and other knock on effects.

Perhaps the scheme could be extended to pavement outside the ally and other pedestrian areas. Far too many of the pavements around here drain off into huge puddles on roads or where there are dips. Take it another step further and let's have rules that require these materials be used in domestic paving to mitigate all the short sightedconcreting of front lawns that's become so prevalent.

via Common sense Agriculture, Conservation and Energy

Technorati tag: Drainage

Europe's trees are absorbing more carbon than expected

The forests of Europe are a more effective carbon sink than previously believed. Between 1990 and 2005 they absorbed nearly 11% of emissions, over twice the amount calculated in 1992. Forestation isn't going to solve all our carbon emission problems, but it has to help.

Technorati tag: Forests

Using Africa's sun to power Europe and provide fresh water

Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan has proposed a grand solar power scheme to the European Union. Using cheap land on the African and Middle Eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, a string of concentrating solar power stations could be constructed to generate power for local towns and Europe and run desalination plants to provide fresh water.

It's another grand scheme, and I'm dubious of grand schemes, but it has the benefit of being made up of lots of smaller components. Rather than waiting a decade for one big power plant to come online, as with nuclear or plans like the Severn Estuary barrier, saller plants can be built in shorter time periods and start making a difference immediately.

Technorati tag: Solar Power