Little polluters

The Environmental Agency has reviewed the relative ecological impact of disposable and washable nappies and found that, when water and energy used in washing has been factored in, they're equally as damaging. However larger, colder washes could reduce the environmental impact of reusable nappies.

Technorati tag: Nappies, Waste

Cool Roof

Obviously not of much use here in the UK, reflective roof tiles could be a boon nearer the equator when it comes to saving on air conditioning costs.

Technorati tag: Roofing

Dirty Old Town

Calcutta is India's most polluted city, with nearly 50% of its residents suffering some form of respiratory problem. As a first, major step toward cleaning up the local authorities have passed a law requiring cars built before 1990 be taken off the road or convert to cleaner fuel. An earlier law ordering cars made before 1975 off the road was overthrown when owners challenged it.

via Sepia Mutiny

Technorati tag: India, Transport

Think Local

City Life had an article in its last issue about local activist groups.

I used to be a regular at Critical Masses. Nowadays my involvement tends to be slapping myself on the forehead on the last Saturday of every month in a Homer-ish D'oh! kind of a way. There isn't a CM website listed in the article but ridemanchester, a collective dedicated to resurrecting abandoned bikes is mentioned.

Other links from the article-
Do Summat
Northern Arts Tactical Offensive
Indymedia
UHC

And one of my own-
Manchester Environmental Resource Centre initiative (MERCi)

Technorati tag: Manchester, Activism

EtOH

The US Patent Office's 5,000,000th patent is for a strain of E.Coli that can convert biomass to ethanol at 90-95% efficiency. Treehugger examines the pros and cons of industrialising this technology.

Technorati tag: Ethanol

Car Free

Car Free City USA

CarFree City, USA's goal is to provide Americans with an alternative: carfree cities. By creating new neighborhoods and cities or redeveloping existing areas on a scale that is for people and not cars, yields a host of personal, community and global benefits. It's an ambitious task, but not mere wishful thinking. It doesn't require futuristic technologies, just common sense and a willingness to try something new. And it's no more expensive than traditional development. The pages of this website describe how carfree districts work and the benefits and challenges of creating them. We hope that you will join with us in creating the first carfree city in the United States of America.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Transport

Nuclear Poll

52% of those questioned in a Newsnight poll said they don't think nuclear is the answer to the UK's energy problems. 57% said the renewable sources were the best bet. You could argue that nuclear has a future as a way of cutting down on CO2, but with that level of antipathy it's going to take so much longer to build the things that they'll be pointless.

Technorati tag: Renewable energy, Nuclear

Too much of a good thing?

Can too much sustainable development be dangerous? Yes, according to this opinion piece. However, Brian Gongol's argument would only make sense if we were all 'back to the land' hippies so it's a pretty obvious straw man argument. The average proponent of sustainable development is more in touch with comparative advantage than Mr Gongol thinks.

Technorati tag: Sustainable development

Camden

Another event I'm unlikely to get to because it's in London- the Camden Green Fair & Bikefest 2005.

via hippyshopper

Technorati tag: Green Events, London

Burn your own water filter

An Australian scientist has perfected a way to make an effective water filter from clay and coffee grounds (or other organic materials such as rice husks or tea leaves) and fired over burning cowdung. He hasn't patented it in the hope that its use will spread through the Third World and save lives.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Water filtration

Fluff

Fluff is household waste treated to become a stable and pathogen free composting material. It can also be compressed and extruded to form posts or sheet that can be used in buildings.

Technorati tag: Compost, Recycling

Clear Skies

I may have linked to this already- Clear Skies grants for households and businesses looking to install renewable energy systems.

Technorati tag: Grants, Renewable Energy

Tubes

One big problem with hydrogen fuel cells in vehicles has always been storing the fuel. A proposed system using carbon nanotubes doped with scandium could be the answer, doing away with th need for pressurised bottles.

Technorati tag: Fuel Cell, Hydrogen

Brazilia

Look to Brazil for a way to go over to a renewable energy economy.

Earlier this year, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said his country would become the world's largest producer of renewable energy. Brazil generates 43.8 percent of its power from renewable energy sources, including hydroelectricity, ethanol and biodiesel, according to Agencia Brasil, a government communications division. By contrast, the United States produced only 6 percent of its power from renewable sources in 2003, according to the Department of Energy's Annual Energy Outlook 2005.

According to the CIA's World Factbook, Brazil's economy is one-eighth the size of the United States', yet the country produces more ethanol, mostly from sugar cane.

Technorati tag: Renewable Energy, Brazil

Hot Air

With Tony Blair having made climate change one of the two major themes of his presidency of the G8 and the EU in June, it is a serious embarrassment to be told by the country's top scientific body that his claimed international leadership in the field is false, and that he needs to announce immediate action in the Queen's speech tomorrow to address the problem.

In fact. the scientists emphasise that most of the gains the UK has made in reducing emissions are nothing to do with Mr Blair, and happened because of the switch to gas before he came to office.

Technorati tag: Climate Change, Kyoto Agreement

It's clean, but is it really green?

Qatar plans to become the world's chief producer of Gas-to-Liquid diesel, which produces far less sulphur and a bit less CO2 when it burns. GTL fuelled city vehicles could greatly reduce smog, and it's being pimped as "green diesel". However, I can't help thinking that it's not, that it's simply "less dirty diesel", because the whole process still involves taking carbon that's been sequestered underground for millions of years and releasing it into the atmosphere. There's still a net addition to atmospheric CO2. Or am I missing something?

Technorati tag: Green Diesel

Two birds with one coconut

Tablas Island is one of the poorest parts of the Phillipines. It also has the highest harvest of coconuts. So a newly opened biodiesel plant that makes fuel from the coconuts serves two purposes- fuel independence and a cash crop from over production.

"We deliberately chose Romblon because it is an island province and it is coconut-producing. This being an island economy, diesel prices in the region are higher because of cost of transporting the fuel so it makes sense that the province look for an alternative fuel using the raw materials available, which is copra," [DOST Secretary Estrella] Alabastro said.

Technorati tag: Biodiesel

Best of the best

The Soil Association has announced its Best Organic Businesses 2005.

Technorati tag: Organic business

Screw you guys, I'm going Green

Showing that politicians at the local level can be sensible even if those at the top are idiots, 132 American mayors have signed up to abide by the Kyoto agreement in their areas.

The mayors, from cities as liberal as Los Angeles and as conservative as Hurst, Tex., represent nearly 29 million citizens in 35 states, according to Mayor Nickels's office. They are pledging to have their cities meet what would have been a binding requirement for the nation had the Bush administration not rejected the Kyoto Protocol: a reduction in heat-trapping gas emissions to levels 7 percent below those of 1990, by 2012.

On Thursday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg brought New York City into the coalition, the latest Republican mayor to join.

via Fab's Musings

Technorati tag: Kyoto

Blitz Spirit

Possibly not the best way to win the argument, even if you are technically correct- GLOBAL warming is a bigger threat to the world than Hitler, a leading historian has warned.

Technorati tag: Global Warming

Intermittent

The argument put forward for nuclear as the magic CO2 bullet is that energy sources such as wind power are intermittent and would therefore need to be backed up by coal or nuclear anyway. However, research at Oxford University has produced a plan for using these supposedly unreliable generation systems. A combination of wind, micro Combined Heat and Power and solar produces an overlapping and always on set of supplies (the wind blows the most at the times of year, and even the times of day, when it's most needed and the heating's on most at the same time as light is required). Throw tidal and wave energy into the mix and you're heading for a perfect solution.

Technorati tag: Wind Power, Renewable Energy

Cell Sufficiency

Off-Grid has a primer on how fuel cells work.

Technorati tag: Fuel Cell

UFO

Hippyshopper has been trying out the Eco Ball washing powder alternative and thinks they're an effective, perfume free and money saving option. If I had £35 (3p a wash) I'd give them a go.

Eco Balls

Technorati tag: Washing

Trickle up

"Middle Of the Road and Off the Grid." You could call them Moogs, Wired coins the term "hygrid". Ordinary households across the US are aiming for energy independence with solar power, wind turbines and wood burning stoves. They're still connected to the power lines, because sometimes they can't produce quite enough power and sometimes they have a surplus to sell back, but their bills have plummeted.

This is energy policy I want to see my government backing. One or two Smith or Patel families in each neighbourhood slashing their energy bills by over a half would do more to speed uptake of energy saving and micro generation than any amount of woolly promises Tony could make. Once again- don't waste money trying to sell nuclear power- fund a few power stations in Acacia Avenue and see the benefits roll in.

Technorati tag: Micro generation, Hygrid, self sufficiency

Native American wind

NativeEnergy, a leading national renewable energy company, is supplying Renewable Energy Credits or "Green Tags" to neutralize all carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution generated by travel and venue energy use for the 2005 Institutional Investors Summit on Climate Risk, the first "climate neutral" event ever held at U.N. Headquarters. Throughout the day today top institutional investors representing more than $5 Trillion in assets will discuss the financial risks and the investment opportunities posed by global climate change during an invitation-only summit at U.N. Headquarters in New York City. The Summit was organized by Ceres, the coalition of investor and public interest groups, who is co-hosting the event with the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships.

www.nativeenergy.com/

www.ceres.org/

Technorati tag: Green Tags, Renewable Energy

Rotary

The Rand Cam rotary engine is lighter, more efficient and easier to maintain, with only two moving parts, the vanes and rotor, compared to 40 in a simple four cylinder engine. It also works particularly well with clean burning fuels such as hydrogen and propane.

One of the most anticipated uses for the new technology is among the blossoming hydrogen-powered automobile industry. The development of the Rand Cam(TM) engine has sparked considerable interest among environmentalists and eco-friendly manufacturers because of its ability to operate using a clean-burning hydrogen fuel cell. "Hybrid electric vehicles and engines that run using cleaner-burning fuels such as hydrogen, propane and natural gas are the future of the automotive industry," said John Robertson, CEO of Reg Technologies and its US subsidiary, REGI US. "Our society has recognized the benefits of exploring hydrogen-based technologies, and we are happy to be contributing towards the development of more sophisticated engines that operate using hydrogen and other clean burning fuels."

via Jalopnik

Technorati tag: Transport, Fuel Efficiency

Know your enemy

Earth Shakers: The Counter-Enviro Power List
With "the death of environmentalism" being debated across the land—and with the mainstream movement under siege from without and within—it's time to meet the winning side in America's new green wars. Here they come, ready or not: the 20 most powerful voices leading the environmental counterrevolution.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Environmentalism

Grant

Biomass- coppiced willow etc.- is the UK's prime source of renewable energy. DEFRA even has a dedicated grant scheme.

Technorati tag: Biomass

Motes

Swarms of small, wirelessly connected sensors are to be deployed in forests and other habitats to provide deeper, more consistent readings of the environment. They'll give longer term data, can track animal movement through body heat and are to be deployed throughout America (maybe the rest of the world can roll out their own versions, I'd love to be able to log on to a real time sampoling of the barrier reef for example) for a "long-term investigation of temporal, climate or human impact".

"The potential for environmental science is amazing," said Dr. Alexandra Isern, a program director at the National Science Foundation. "With this technology, we can start to understand what is an event and what is normal. We're recognizing more and more how different processes in the environment operate at different frequencies. To comprehend that, you need to take measurements all the time."

Technorati tag: Environment

The Results are in

GreenHybrid.com provides lots of information about owning a hybrid vehicle, including fuel consumption figures garnered from over 5 million miles of driving. It looks like the Honda Insight is the way to go, with Ford and Lexus' offerings doing no better than a normal car (though, to be fair, the Lexus data is based upon the mileage of only two vehicles, a larger pool of data would be preferable).

via Slashdot

Technorati tag: Transport, Hybrid Vehicles

The long-time-coming crisis

Steven Grant has a sharp, if bleak, take on the US's prospects as far as fuel goes. It's about half way down the page.

If I appear to have no sympathy for this, it's because I don't. For a minimum of 30 years, we've known the energy crisis was the coming state of things, not just a brief blip during the Carter years.

This is also why I have no sympathy for tobacco companies or tobacco growers. There's an 1888 medical textbook that directly links tobacco to cancer, specifically lung cancer so the terminal health risks of the weed were known long before the '50s. Did tobacco companies expand into other areas and divest themselves of tobacco? No. Did tobacco farmers phase out tobacco crops in favor of other cash crops? No. If you have decades to deal with a problem, and you don't, when someone comes along and says "Take care of it right now!" do you have the right to bitch there's not enough time? Of course not.

Technorati tag: Transport

Everybody's windmill

It's not for everyone but the Scottish Executive is pushing to have local authorities allow residents to put mini wind turbines on their roofs. Personally, I'd find these five bladed turbines a pleasant and inspiring sight, and they're practically noiseless, but there will always be NIMBYs.

Gillian Bishop, a spokesman for Views of Scotland, an umbrella organisation representing wind farm protesters, said the devices would achieve little and could be more controversial than satellite dishes.

“It seems so much effort for so little power,” she said. “They are just twiddling around the edges and I think if these things are spinning around all over the place it could drive neighbours crazy.”

via Sustainablog

Technorati tag: Wind Power

New Clear

I can see, in the simplistic way that politicians have of viewing things, how nuclear power is an answer to CO2 emissions, but I can also see how it should be a long, long way down the list of things they can do. Government, and far too many activists and lobbyists, take a blinkered view of the problem. They can only think in terms of National Grid level generation. The first step toward cutting CO2 generation is making sure we use less. I don't have the figures in front of me, but I can confidently say that for the price of one nuclear power station we could install enough lagging, double glazing and low energy bulbs to save more electricity than the plant would generate. Hell, we could probably do it with the amount that's going to be wasted on the PR nightmare of selling nuclear power to the masses.

So here's my plan, if there are any politicians reading- increase the minimum insulation requirements for all new builds; give every new house a full set of low energy bulbs; offer the same for existing houses, and actually sell it rather than having it hidden in the documentary equivalent of a sullen mumble; expand the grants system for installing solar systems; and show you're committed by getting those Greenpeace blokes back on top of Prescott's palace to wire up the solar panels.

The plan will need finessing, of course, and it could be a hard sell. But think of it like this, if you can be the MP who saved householders hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year you know you're going to get re-elected. Leave the nuclear dreams to people with no imagination.

Technorati tag: Carbon Dioxide, Nuclear, Politics

Backyard Biodiversity

Wild About Gardens is a scheme to track the wildlife resident in Great Britain's 15 million gardens.

We'd like to build up a source of local knowledge about wildlife in gardens, and this is where we need YOU. You can provide us with valuable information about the wild creatures and plants in your garden. All you need to do is register and join our conversation.

via WorldChanging

Technorati tag: Wildlife, Gardens, Biodiversity

Two Wheels Good

Manchester Bike Week is from June 11th to June 19th.

Technorati tag: Manchester, Cycling

The biodiesel lorry is coming

Cambridge University has mounted a biodiesel refining plant on the back of a lorry so it can go to farms and convert rape oil to fuel at source. The portable refinery is the first in the world that can continuously produce fuel, rather than having to be emptied and cleaned after every batch.

A little bit at the end, however, has me pondering the mathematics of commercial biodiesel-

The government has made this market profitable by giving a tax rebate of 20p on every litre sold compared with commercial diesel. Tesco has begun selling a form of bio-diesel in some garages. It contains 5% bio-diesel and costs 2p a litre more than the 100% petrol version giving Tesco a substantial profit on each litre.

Unless I've read that wrong, or it's badly phrased, Tesco are taking advantage of a rebate and buyers' goodwill to gouge a profit whilst looking green. Surely they could make it a win-win by selling 5% biodiesel for a couple of pennies less and still make more per litre because of the rebate.

Technorati tag: Biodiesel

National Health

The sort of development you hope Tony was talking about when he said that public sector buildings would work toward sustainable development. A County Antrim hospital is to get a quarter of its electricity from a windmill.

Technorati tag: Wind power

Brightening

The results of a ten year study show that, in some parts of the world, a greater amount of sunlight is reaching the Earth's surface. This could be a sign that global dimming is being reversed due to stricter pollution controls and the collapse of the Soviet Union's dirty industries.

Of course, there isn't enough data to tell how this is going to affect global warming. I'm trying not to take the pessimistic view.

Technorati tag: Global Dimming

Sustainable Development

The Government's sustainable development site. If only they'd made more noise about it when I was looking into the green credentials of the three main parties I might not have been so damning of Labour. I still wouldn't have voted for them, but that's a different matter.

via Worldchanging

Technorati tag: Sustainable Development

Hydraulic SUV

As well as the hydraulic transmission system being developed by Vincent Carman it seems the US government, in the form of the EPA, is getting in on the act- Hydraulic Hybrid SUV.

via Jalopnik

Technorati tag: Transport, Fuel Economy

The other biofuel

Biodiesel's been getting all the press lately, but ethanol has been around as a fuel for cars since the early years of motoring. As more Americans realise how stupid and damaging their country's dependence on oil- foreign or domestic- is, the demand for alcofuel grows.

It's also being touted as a potential source of hydrogen because because the "fuel is more easily transported and is not limited to being produced in daylight hours". But Carbon Dioxide is a side effect of the process, an automatic and quite large negative mark.

Technorati tag: Ethanol

Elephant Poop

The Rosamund Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, NY, has a pack of elephants producing 1000lbs of dung a day. This steaming pile, with the output of all the other animals, costs $10,000 a year to take away and be dealt with. On top of that, the zoo has heating bills of $400,000 a year. In a bid to solve one problem and reduce another, they are looking into using all that shit to generate heat.

"Zoos are about conservation and stemming the loss of animals and habitat," Baker said. "But conservation also is about how people use natural resources. This is an opportunity to give visitors the whole picture."

Technorati tag: Biomass, Elephants

Slot Cone Generator

From Norway, a country with a long and rugged coastline made up of all Slartibartfast's squiggly bits, comes a design for harnessing wave power and using it to generate a steady, rather than tide-related, flow of energy. The Slot Cone Generator is a breakwater with four slots on its face. As a wave breaks over it, the water fills reservoirs through the slot. The system doesn't generate electricity directly from the wave's energy, but from the stored kinetic energy of the water carried up to the reservoirs, releasing it over a period of hours. To further increase the flexibility of the system, it's planned to use excess electricity to create hydrogen for fuel cells etc.

via sustainablog

Technorati tag: Wave power, Norway

Inertia

I seem to remember something about buses having a great big flywheel attached to their motors that spun up to speed whilst the bus was moving and effectively stored up energy to be used when it needed to accelerate from a stop. A much more elegant and efficient system has been developed by Vincent Carman. It uses hydraulic pressure to store up energy and transfer it to the wheels. The pressurisation means the engine can always be running at its most efficient without losing power through a geared transmission. Carman reckons his system, currently being tested in two cars, doubles fuel economy with no other changes.

Technorati tag: Transport, Fuel economy

Brief

I did a little investigating of the Green stances of the three major parties, now a CityHippy contributer has a look and lays their cards on the table.

Also: the BBC Election environment page

Technorati tag: Election

Bling

An Op-Ed piece the Boston Globe connects with, and expands upon, the idea of the GUPPY.

I'm not a professional, so I guess I'm just a GUY (some would argue that I'm not even that, more of a GU). But whatever the label, this is what How to Save the World for Free is about- finding a better way to use resources that also serves as a more rewarding, financially, physically and morally, way to live.

via Worldchanging

Technorati tag: GUPPY

Back to school

The Hockerton Housing Project is a residential sustainable development near Southwell in Nottinghamshire. Completed in 1998 it was built using organic and recycled materials and is made to be as near self sufficient and undamaging over the whole life cycle as possible. Now those of us who want to go down the same road can learn from Hockerton, as there is a master class and tour on July 14th. Off Grid has more information.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

GUPPYS

Green urban professionals who are young. A combination of younger families, higher paying jobs and ground and energy costs- and the fact that it's becoming trendy- has led to an upswing in the amount of energy concious building in the US' Northwest.

via Sustainablog

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Lifestyle

Pitching Green

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has launched Pitching Green, a guide for producers and consumers of Green products. Consumers can download a guide to what all the eco labels mean and suppliers can subscribe to a newsletter explaining how and why to pitch green products.

via CityHippy

Technorati tag: Green products

3 blades to the wind

In a way, the Navy are the obvious armed force to take to wind power. It is part of their heritage, after all. The US Navy has erected four windmills at its most controversial base.

Standing 275-foot tall, with blades spanning 177 feet, the Navy's four new 3-blade wind turbines are among the most noticeable features at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Each of the four turbines will generate 950 kilowatts (kw) of electricity. Together, the four turbines will generate 3,800 kw, and in years of typical weather the wind turbines will produce almost 8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. They will reduce the consumption of 650,000 gallons of diesel fuel, reduce air pollution by 26 tons of sulfur dioxide and 15 tons of nitrous oxide, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 13 million pounds each year.

Technorati tag: Wind power, Guantanamo

46 Reasons Why

Building Green puts forward a selection of benefits to, erm, building green, for architects to pick and choose the ones relevant to a project and make selling it to the client more likely.

To those of us entrenched in the green building world the benefits seem obvious. Why would anyone choose to build in a way that isn’t comfortable, healthy, and energy efficient? In the process of designing and building green, however, we keep running into others who are not yet as convinced. For those situations, it’s useful to be able to spell out the benefits.

The building owner ultimately calls the shots, so getting that person or group on board early is essential. But not every owner will find the same arguments compelling: a hospital board may opt for green because certain green features promote healing, a commercial office property holding company may incorporate green features to speed the lease-out and thus lower carrying costs, a federal agency may desire green features to improve employee morale and increase job retention.

Even within a single project, different team members often have different reasons for promoting a green agenda. The architect may promote environmental measures because she feels it’s the right thing to do. The facilities manager who will take care of a building may recognize inherent durability and maintenance advantages. And the owner may look strictly at bottom-line financial benefits of green.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Green building

Staying Current

Bring up the subject of banking and you'll quickly hear me moan about how shit NatWest are. Not so much the charges and other bullshit, because I expect those from any bank, but the repetitive incompetence that's seen me in negative feedback cycles of ever increasing charges and overdraft. I'm changing bank sooner or later and the Cooperative has been at the top of my list of potential new homes for my cash for a while.

Hippyshopper draws attention to the Coop's Privilege account, which is full of special offers designed to warm the Green heart. As with all premium accounts, you have to weigh up the pros and cons. Money off Ecotricity electricity is tempting, and an incentive to switch, but travel insurance deals aren't much use to me at the moment. And there's a charge, of course. Discounting the other benefits the interest rate on the account means you have to maintain a balance of over 5 grand to cover the expense of the account. If I had that much money to sit in a bank account I'd find one where it worked for me.

The Coop is still top of my list for my next current account, but I don't want their Privilege account for the time being.

Technorati tag: Banking

John "Solar Panel" Prescott

Tucked away at the bottom of this news piece about a defecting Labour MP-

Elsewhere, four Greenpeace activists tried to install a solar panel on the rooftop of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's home in Hull in protest at the government's energy record.

Update Ananova has more information.

[Ben Stewart, of Greenpeace,] said: "We have people up on the roof who have got the equipment to fit a solar panel.

"We want to draw attention to the Government's record on energy efficiency.

"We have unveiled a banner which says 'Oi Two Jags. Hit Targets, Not Voters'.

"I don't know if Mr Prescott is at home but we think his wife, Pauline, is inside."

Technorati tag: Solar Power, Election

Nuclear Future

Honourable Fiend has a compelling take on the recent upsurge in interest in Nuclear power as "environmentalyy friendly" and a good stop gap towards the zero carbon future.

It's also extremely bad news for the commercial entities which depend on that weapons-power-weapons cycle for their bread and butter. Hence the current US fad idea of building new nuclear power stations "to reduce CO2 emissions while renewables are too expensive". Which is obviously a complete crock of shit since it's only cheaper because it's subsidized to the lug'oles, and it's only subsidized to the lug'oles because it's required to maintain a weapons programme. Plus of course there's the minor issue of waste management.

I worked at Sellafield for a while in the early nineties and there was a certain smugness that must come from being a protected industry. The biggest example of which has to be the THORP programme, which went ahead before the main customer, Japan, had signed any contracts on the understanding that if anything went wrong then the Government would surely underwrite something that had already cost X hundred million pounds rather than risk BNFL collapsing.

Technorati tag: Nuclear Power

Wind/Gas

Another example of an experiment to use surplus wind power to make hydrogen for when the wind isn't blowing. This one is at a University of Minnesota campus that already generates a lot of its own electricity and sells its excess to the grid.

Technorati tag: Wind Power, Hydrogen

Hippy flats

The four flat block at 56 Tomlins Grove, E3 is very nearly self sufficient energy wise. The building has a silent wind turbine on the roof, solar panels and a conservatory for each flat that acts as a miniature power station.

Technorati tag: Energy Efficiency, Green building

Treehugger gets it

I took issue yesterday with the suggestion that Green is expensive, and today Justin Thomas at Treehugger says pretty much the same thing (only a little more eloquently). Got to keep pushing the message- "Saving the world makes you richer."

Technorati tag: Green, Money

That's old ice

A 900,000 year ice core sample should provide more data about the historical correlation of Carbon dioxide concentration to periods of global warming, further discrediting the naysayers.

Technorati tag: Global Warming

No Waste Like Home

It looks like the BBC has had an idea similar to How to Save the World for Free, and they're looking for volunteers to take part in the show.

Technorati tag: Waste, BBC

London Green Lifestyle Show

Scheduled for World Environment Day on June 5th, there is to be a big Green living show in Greenwich. It's a bit far for me to travel, I should check out what similar events MAnchester council has planned.

Londoners will be able to pick up tips on how to make changes at home, work or in their leisure time to help improve their own standard of living and protect and enjoy the environment.

The event is part of Mr Livingstone's aim of making London a sustainable city powered using renewable energy sources, where waste will be minimised and recycled, food waste will be composted and noise and air pollution will be reduced.

Technorati tag: Green Living, London

Hydrogen Village

One of the major complaints about wind power is that it isn't an "on demand" power source, you get electricity when the wind speed is within a certain range, which isn't always the time when the power is needed. A pilot scheme on Canada's Prince Edward Island may have the answer. It uses power from windmills to convert water to hydrogen, which can be stored and used as combustible fuel or in fuel cells. Though there are questions about the efficiency of conversion it does offer one possible solution. Possibly future wind farms could incorporate a small hydrogen power plant. When output is greater than demand hydrogen can be produced that would run the plant when output from the windmills dropped below a certain level.

Technorati tag: Wind Power, Fuel Cell, Hydrogen

Dry Ton

Biomass could provide up to one third of the US' fuel requirements, without requiring major changes in production methods, a scientific report has concluded.

Looking at just forestland and agricultural land, the two largest potential biomass sources, the study found potential exceeding 1.3 billion dry tons per year. That amount is enough to produce biofuels to meet more than one-third of the current demand for transportation fuels, according to the report.

Technorati tag: Biomass, Alternative Energy

It's only the future, no need to worry the voters with it

Greenpeace has attacked the three main parties for leaving the environment out of their election campaigns. I heard a bit about this on Today this morning and they kept coming back to the meme that the "average voter" didn't want to hear about having to reduce their living standards in order to tackle environmental problems.

There's a simple answer to that. Don't tell them they'll have to reduce their living standards. Because they won't have to, if the issue is tackled properly. Of course, when 50% of people think that saving energy is going to cost them money- because they have a stupidly short sighted outlook and can't calculate long term savings against upfront cost, it's going to be a hard sell. But that's one of the things I set up this blog for.

Technorati tag: Election, Environment

Shrinkage

A comprehensive study of the Antarctic Peninsula, using aerial photographs dating back to the 1940s and more recent satellite images, shows that most of the area's glaciers have been steadily retreating for the last 50 years. The rate of retreat has increased since the millennium. It can't all be explained by global warming, and some glaciers have grown (32, compared to the 212 that have shrunk), but man made effects have exacerbated natural climate variations.

Technorati tag: Global Warming

Fair trade mahogany

Following similar principles to those of Fair Trade coffee, a scheme run by the Rainforest Alliance hopes to make hardwood harvesting sustainable.

Technorati tag: Fair Trade, Forests

The people's solar house

Mother Earth News on the quest for cheap net-zero-energy houses.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Polysilicon

One knock on effect of the dot-com bust was an oversupply of polycrystalline silicon. The low prices gave a boost to the photovoltaic industry and increased margins and profits even as unit prices came down. Now, however, the price is on the way up again. The industry has two factors protecting it, the fact that a great deal of solar power installation is legislated for or subsidised and the increase in efficiency and systems that use no silicon at all.

Because of all the reselling, reprocessing, and recycling in the silicon industry, silicon producers don’t keep track of what happens to the silicon once they sell it, he said. “No one on the planet understands what is happening with the silicon supply,” [Rogol] said.

Technorati tag: Solar Power

If you happen to be on Fulton Street

No website for this, so, from the press release-

In an effort to promote environmental consciousness among NYC businesses, Habana Outpost is pioneering the use of solar panels as a primary energy source, and green products whenever possible (everything from eco-friendly detergents to environmental wood alternative wood benches).

(PRWEB) April 21, 2005 -- Cafe Habana is opening an outpost and new location on saturday, May 21, 2005 and run to Halloween from 12-8pm. Located at 755-757 Fulton Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the Outpost will include indoor and outdoor spaces.

The launch of Habana Outpost: Brooklyn, a new venture by entrepreneur/restauranteur, Sean Meenan (owner of Nolita’s Cafe Habana), the Outpost’s patented and famous grilled corn and other Cuban favorites, will be served to you from the Habana food truck. You have your choice to eat inside, or on the spacious patio. In an effort to promote environmental consciousness among NYC businesses, Habana Outpost is pioneering the use of solar panels as a primary energy source, and green products whenever possible. Everything from eco-friendly detergents to environmental wood alternative wood benches.

Technorati tag: Solar Power, Environmental business

Earth Day bump

It's Earth Day tomorrow, so a number of mainstream sources are doing themed stories, such as this one- Christian Science Monitor on green technology- and this one- looking at encouraging Green trends.

Technorati tag: Earth Day

Electric Dream Machine

The perfect solution for medium length commutes (between 10 and 20 miles as far as I'm concerned)- an electric scooter with added solar panels so it can recharge during the day. The owner reckons the solar cells generate enough charge over the 9 hours he's in the office to half top up the batteries.

Technorati tag: Electric scooter, Transportation

I want to break free

Next week is National Downshifting Week. I don't think I was ever in a high enough gear, but the principles of making your life simpler and cutting down on unnecessary expenses is in tune with what this blog is all about.

via hippyshopper

Technorati tag: Downshifting, Lifestyle

Wind time

I'd prefer a solar mobile charger, but this wind up one is cool and a lot cheaper. You could give it to kids to restrict the calls they made on their mobile and get them to exercise.

Though with one arm much more pumped up than the other, people might start to talk.....

via hippyshopper, who have a far more sensible idea of using it at festivals and other occasions when you don't want to be caught in a field with no charge.

Technorati tag: Recharge

Ethel

I've been neglecting the other source of biofuel for vehicles. Micro Fuel Plants produce ethanol stills for anyone wishing to run their cars on alcohol. Currently only available directly in the US and Canada, they do have a contact e-mail for those of us in other countries.

For the full Dukes of Hazzard effect, they also make moonshine stills.

Technorati tag: Bio Fuel

Forage

Digest- the Spinneyhead food, diet and health blog- will be launching later this week. Amongst the planned features, my sister is going to be writing up her experiences of growing food in a small city garden and the urban opportunities open to the keen epicurean. In the mean time, Off Grid reviews books dedicated to "Wild foods".

Technorati tag: Wild food

Saving the Earth, one room at a time

Green Remodelling, a guide to improving your home and lowering your ecological impact in easy stages.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Books

A+

It's going to be a long time before I can afford to build my own eco-house, or own an ordinary one to make more efficient. Until then I'll have to get by trying to green up rented places. This is a tricky prospect, because some of the most power hungry equipment is the stuff the landlord includes in the deal. I've purchased a washing machine for a flat, but the real baddie in the kitchen, it would appear, is that whitest of white goods- the fridge.

Technorati tag: Energy efficiency

Green bags

Hippyshopper points us all to alotoforganics, their favourite source for all things green and ethical.

Technorati tag: Organic

Value for money, part two

In a similar vein to my rant about energy efficiency and property values, Worldchanging reprints an essay about the hidden benefits of greening.

Technorati tag: Energy efficiency, Green business

Pro and Con

The Independent assesses the cases for and against various organic foods. Organic milk, pork and chicken are definitely better, whereas with fruit and veg the important thing is to eat, or freeze, them as soon after harvesting as possible.

Technorati tag: Food

Value for Money

One complaint I heard a couple of times yesterday was that the inclusion of energy saving features in houses, whether they be new builds or refurbishments, doesn't enhance their value. It has to be time to do something about this. Other, sometimes ludicrous, "improvements" can do wonders for a house's price, so why not ones that save money?

I was looking at gas boilers and found a Powergen stand touting the WhisperGen micro Combined Heat and Power system which I've mentioned before. Take up the company's offer and you can have the CHP installed for around £3000, with a special deal whereby you sell excess electricity back to them. They estimate the system will write off the greater expense of its installation, in saved electric bills and power sold back, within 4 years. But what if you want to move out in 2 years time? You haven't fully recouped the costs and the new owner will inherit £150 a year (PowerGen's figures) in electricity savings. Surely that has to be worth something on top of all the other factors that affect a building's cost? Even after you've passed into profit the presence of such money saving tech should add to the value of your house.

Surely anything that makes a house cheaper to run, from insulation through to full energy independence, should make it more valuable. A green home that's off the grid for most of the year has to be worth more to a buyer than an equivalent sized muggle house whose occupants are being charged to damage the environment. I don't know where we go to increase the value of green choices, but I say we start here.

Technorati tag: Housing, Combined Heat and Power

Zip

The BBC takes a look at Zipcar car rentals, short term, mostly urban and very high tech ways to get a car.

Technorati tag: Transport, Zipcar

Bug Out

Organic insect control methods.

Technorati tag: Gardening

The future's bright, the future's LED

Light emitting diodes could eventually pass the compact flourescent bulb as the energy saver's lighting of choice. Bulbs are made up of arrays of red, blue and green bulbs which can produce white light up to six times brighter than equivalent power incandescent bulbs. The levels can also be varied to produce mood lighting. At the moment unit costs are far too high for domestic use, but that used to be the main drawback of compact flourescent as well. Development and a growing market should bring them into sensible price bands soon enough.

via Slashdot

Technorati tag: Lighting

I can't drive for miles and miles

Volkswagen have halted development of a super efficient vehicle. The two seater had a 300cc diesel engine and super light frame and could manage 60 miles per litre. However it lacked luggage space and was going to be too expensive to produce. It's sort of a loss and not a loss. VW are still producing the Lupo TDI, which does 20 miles per litre. Combine that with biodiesel and you could be onto a winner.

via Jalopnik

Technorati tag: Fuel economy, Volkswagen

You are what you throw away

Around a third of all food in the UK is thrown away. The process starts with the need for perfect, symmetrical and clean groceries and continues all the way through the process to failure to reuse left overs and throwing out stuff that's a second past its sell by date. I couldn't calculate it, but I'd hazard a guess that Casa Spinneyhead's cost per capita in food waste is less than the national average of £420 per year, especially now we've started composting. (A matter for another time is just what the hell am I going to do with the compost when it matures? It's not like we have a garden or anything.)

Technorati tag: Food, Waste

The bride wore green

I doubt Greensage will ship to the UK, the shipping would negate any ecological benefits from the products, but if you're in the US and want an Earth friendly wedding, they offer a wedding list service.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: Green Shopping

Domespace

They look like a Teletubby home, but Domespace buildings are optimised to catch the sun, made from renewable nmaterials and can even turn to track the best light during the day. All you need to do is dress your Vroomba up as NuNu and you're sorted.

via Treehugger

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Six of one, half a dozen the other

With Chloroflourocarbons phased out the ozone layer may be safer, but the replacement chemicals are proving to be greenhouse gases.

"Initially, it was thought these were an ideal solution -- obviously that was not the case if they were contributing to another problem."

While CFCs contribute more per unit to global warming, the rapid increase in the use of replacement chemicals makes them now the greater threat to climate stability, Metz told the AP in a telephone interview.

Technorati tag: CFCs, greenhouse gases

Turkey Guts

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Big Bang at the ballot box

Call me a cynic, but Tony Blair's hinted renewal of support for the Metrolink smacks of electioneering to me. I'd like to see trams running in the south of Manchester but for the next few weeks I'm going to be even less inclined than normal to believe a word the PM says.

Technorati tag: Transport, Manchester, Election

Strange Days

National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth promises to offer simple ways for individuals to change the world and tackle issues ranging from climate change to invasive species.

(And it's hosted by Edward Norton, Fight Club fans.)

Technorati tag: Activism

Green Paper

The Green Party launch their election manifesto today, expanding beyond their obvious base into areas of social justice.

Technorati tag: Election

Reverse

It's a guilty pleasure, but I do enjoy Top Gear. I disagree with Clarkson on just about everything, but he is eternally watchable, and the Little Man is a Casa Spinneyhead favourite. I wouldn't go as far as Transport 2000 and say the programme should be scrapped completely, but there definitely should be a Two Wheels Good or How To Save The World For Free (two programmes I'd like to pitch) as balance.

Technorati tag: Transport

Flat Earth

The Flat Earth Awards, open for voting and to be awarded to the person judged the dumbest environmental naysayer. The website was set up by a bunch of college students as part of a class on climate change and activism

Technorati tag: Environmentalism, Climate Change

Energy Gap

Radio 4 has challenged a British family to live on the same energy as an Indian family and are tracking the results in a series of 15 minute programmes this week. The aim is to highlight the current difference between our countries and also consider the world's requirements as India and China catch up with the West. There's no dedicated page yet, but you can listen to Monday's episode via streaming.

Technorati tag: Energy

Swell Power

Treehugger examines the four main types of wave power, easily the least polluting and- with the two buoy variants anyway- least intrusive form of energy generation.

Technorati tag: Wave Power

Home on the NEC

On Friday, trains and other things permitting, I should be attending the Home Building Show at the NEC. It has a Green Village and, running alongside, the Smart Homes Show. I'll be dividing my time between the two.

Technorati tag: Self Build

Clean Green

It's all well and good going over to biodiesel as a way to free yourself from the oil industry, but you're still burning fuel and pumping something out the back. Is it actually any cleaner?

Yes, according to the study cited by WVOfuels.

Technorati tag: Biodiesel

Power Shower

Hippyshopper isn't happy with their water bill, and has some plans to cut it.

Technorati tag: Water

Not through my bars

A different take to wind power's NIMBY problem. The company running a windmill close to Whitemoor jail have agreed to turn it off early in the morning because flickering shadows from the spinning blades were aggravating prisoners.

Whitemoor contains prisoners it is best not to upset, including road rage killer Kenneth Noye, Jeremy Bamber who murdered his family, and Barry George, who killed television presenter Jill Dando.

Technorati tag: Wind Power