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Posts tagged "Environment"
fotojournalismus: An Indian man drives through a waterlogged street with his dog after heavy rainfall in Ahmadabad, India, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012. The monsoon rains which usually hit India from June to September are crucial for farmers whose crops feed hundreds of millions of people. [Credit : Ajit Solanki/AP]

fotojournalismus:

An Indian man drives through a waterlogged street with his dog after heavy rainfall in Ahmadabad, India, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012. The monsoon rains which usually hit India from June to September are crucial for farmers whose crops feed hundreds of millions of people.

[Credit : Ajit Solanki/AP]

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stoweboyd:

The Tata AirPod is a city car running on compressed air (as well as a battery-powered electric motor). The ease of converting air into an energy source using simple compressors means charging stations can be placed anywhere, and they require no provisioning — no trucks delivering gas, ethanol, or hydrogen — and they produce no emissions, just discharge of the air.

The AirPod can run 125mi (200k) at a top speed between 28 to 43mph (45 to 70kph). The car is intended for a single rider, and has a small cargo area in the back.

This is breakthrough design: it undercuts most of the negatives of the system it is designed to replace. And unlike other alternatives to traditional cars, it does not require an entire supply chain to exist before becoming practical in a single location. A city like New York could roll out a citywide fleet of AirPods Just like it is rolling out a bike sharing program (although the city’s bike share program has been delayed). It doesn’t need to build nuclear reactors, or deal with some hard-to-transport alternative fuel. In fact, New York City could simply repurpose existing gas stations or parking lots with compressors, and card readers. 

Totally awesome. Here’s the future. There Just need to make them stackable, like this:

Related articles

(via nickturse)

Photoset
If this is what it takes to get people to pay attention to global warming … (Image: Cover of the the August issue of Rolling Stone magazine.)

If this is what it takes to get people to pay attention to global warming …

(Image: Cover of the the August issue of Rolling Stone magazine.)

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pri-arts: Julius Popp’s “BIT.FALL” offers up a waterfall of words. (Photo courtesy of the Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin.) How BIT.FALL works: A machine creates words composed of tiny water droplets that fall like rain from the ceiling. The words may seem random, but they’re actually quite timely. A computer trawls news websites and uses a statistical algorithm to select the words. The installation is part of an exhibit called “Surface Tension” that focuses on water: its movement, its growing scarcity, its contaminants, and its power to heal. More.

pri-arts:

Julius Popp’s “BIT.FALL” offers up a waterfall of words. (Photo courtesy of the Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin.)

How BIT.FALL works: A machine creates words composed of tiny water droplets that fall like rain from the ceiling. The words may seem random, but they’re actually quite timely. A computer trawls news websites and uses a statistical algorithm to select the words.

The installation is part of an exhibit called “Surface Tension” that focuses on water: its movement, its growing scarcity, its contaminants, and its power to heal. More.

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Offshore wind turbines. (Photo from Living on Earth.) Five miles off the southern shore in Nantucket Sound beyond the sun, sand and surf, the wind blows steady and strong. For 10 years this vacation haven has been the scene of a knock-down drag-out fight over siting the nation’s first offshore wind farm. The Cape Wind Project – as it’s called – has come out the winner, having received all of the necessary state and federal approvals. The planned wind farm will spread 130 turbines across 25 miles. More.

Offshore wind turbines. (Photo from Living on Earth.)

Five miles off the southern shore in Nantucket Sound beyond the sun, sand and surf, the wind blows steady and strong. For 10 years this vacation haven has been the scene of a knock-down drag-out fight over siting the nation’s first offshore wind farm. The Cape Wind Project – as it’s called – has come out the winner, having received all of the necessary state and federal approvals. The planned wind farm will spread 130 turbines across 25 miles.

More.

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guardian: The US actor Maggie Q swims with a whale shark off Cancun, Mexico, as part of a campaign to publicise the plight of marine animals threatend by the demand for shark fin soup. China has announced a ban on shark fin from all official banquets Photograph: Paul Hilton/AFP/Getty Images.

guardian:

The US actor Maggie Q swims with a whale shark off Cancun, Mexico, as part of a campaign to publicise the plight of marine animals threatend by the demand for shark fin soup. China has announced a ban on shark fin from all official banquets Photograph: Paul Hilton/AFP/Getty Images.

(via silas216)

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The last house on Holland Island, in Chesapeake Bay. In 2010, the house collapsed and the island was completely submerged by rising water. (Photo: Flickr/CC BaldEagleBluff) A new survey of American coastal regions shows the hot spots where sea levels are rising fastest. Ben Strauss, who directs the program on Sea Level Rise at Climate Central, says much of the Eastern seaboard will see the most dramatic coastal flooding. Strauss points to a study that looks back over the last 60 years, which shows the sea level rise along the Eastern seaboard is 3-4 times the global average. More.

The last house on Holland Island, in Chesapeake Bay. In 2010, the house collapsed and the island was completely submerged by rising water. (Photo: Flickr/CC BaldEagleBluff)

A new survey of American coastal regions shows the hot spots where sea levels are rising fastest. Ben Strauss, who directs the program on Sea Level Rise at Climate Central, says much of the Eastern seaboard will see the most dramatic coastal flooding.

Strauss points to a study that looks back over the last 60 years, which shows the sea level rise along the Eastern seaboard is 3-4 times the global average. More.

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Euro trash wanted! Sweden’s waste-to-energy program converts household trash into energy, providing electricity and heating to hundreds of thousands of homes across the nation. But the program may be too successful; they’re now running out of homegrown trash to fuel the power plants.  Catarina Ostlund, Senior Advisor for the Swedish EPA, says the country is currently importing 800,000 tons of trash from other European countries. More. (Photo: The Vattenfall combined heat and power plant in Uppsala, Sweden. From Vattenfall/Flickr)

Euro trash wanted! Sweden’s waste-to-energy program converts household trash into energy, providing electricity and heating to hundreds of thousands of homes across the nation. But the program may be too successful; they’re now running out of homegrown trash to fuel the power plants. 

Catarina Ostlund, Senior Advisor for the Swedish EPA, says the country is currently importing 800,000 tons of trash from other European countries. More.

(Photo: The Vattenfall combined heat and power plant in Uppsala, Sweden. From Vattenfall/Flickr)

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america-abroad-media: Water security begins at home (via Tehelka.com) Instead of demanding water from the hinterland, mega cities like Delhi should first ensure equitable distribution. With ownership, responsibility and innovation will follow INDIA’S BIGGEST lies hide behind its per capita figures. Our average income is $1,219 (approximately 68,300) and we are ranked 142nd in the world. But with 55 billionaires, we also stand fourth in the list of the countries boasting the world’s richest individuals. Between these two true figures, two-thirds of us live on less than half a dollar a day and nearly half our children are malnourished. Find the full article here http://bit.ly/MvqPGp “The Global Water Challenge”: NOW on PRI’s America Abroad http://bit.ly/KeDU8l

america-abroad-media:

Water security begins at home

(via Tehelka.com) Instead of demanding water from the hinterland, mega cities like Delhi should first ensure equitable distribution. With ownership, responsibility and innovation will follow

INDIA’S BIGGEST lies hide behind its per capita figures. Our average income is $1,219 (approximately 68,300) and we are ranked 142nd in the world. But with 55 billionaires, we also stand fourth in the list of the countries boasting the world’s richest individuals. Between these two true figures, two-thirds of us live on less than half a dollar a day and nearly half our children are malnourished.

Find the full article here http://bit.ly/MvqPGp

“The Global Water Challenge”: NOW on PRI’s America Abroad http://bit.ly/KeDU8l

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america-abroad-media: Irrigation expert crosses religious, political lines to win World Food Prize An Israeli scientist who has reached across political and ethnic boundaries to help dozens of countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America improve agriculture with new methods of irrigation will receive the World Food Prize, the prize’s foundation announced June 12. Daniel Hillel, who is credited with developing drip irrigation methods that conserve water while allowing food to be grown in some of the world’s driest climates, was named the winner of this year’s $250,000 prize during a ceremony in Washington. He will officially receive the prize Oct. 18 during the annual World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa. The system Hillel developed, called micro-irrigation, carries water through narrow plastic pipes to plants, where it drips or trickles onto the roots in a continuous way. It has revolutionized agricultural practices in more than 30 countries over the past 50 to 60 years, helping thousands of farmers, said World Food Prize Foundation president Kenneth Quinn, a former US ambassador. Mr. Quinn, in announcing the award, talked not only about Hillel’s research but the fact that an Israeli found a way to work with leaders in Arab nations to improve food production. Read more here http://bit.ly/K2bvfIphoto: http://kopernik.info “The Global Water Challenge”: NOW on PRI’s America Abroad http://bit.ly/KeDU8l

america-abroad-media:

Irrigation expert crosses religious, political lines to win World Food Prize

An Israeli scientist who has reached across political and ethnic boundaries to help dozens of countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America improve agriculture with new methods of irrigation will receive the World Food Prize, the prize’s foundation announced June 12.


Daniel Hillel, who is credited with developing drip irrigation methods that conserve water while allowing food to be grown in some of the world’s driest climates, was named the winner of this year’s $250,000 prize during a ceremony in Washington. He will officially receive the prize Oct. 18 during the annual World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa.


The system Hillel developed, called micro-irrigation, carries water through narrow plastic pipes to plants, where it drips or trickles onto the roots in a continuous way. It has revolutionized agricultural practices in more than 30 countries over the past 50 to 60 years, helping thousands of farmers, said World Food Prize Foundation president Kenneth Quinn, a former US ambassador.


Mr. Quinn, in announcing the award, talked not only about Hillel’s research but the fact that an Israeli found a way to work with leaders in Arab nations to improve food production.


Read more here http://bit.ly/K2bvfI
photo: http://kopernik.info


“The Global Water Challenge”: NOW on PRI’s America Abroad http://bit.ly/KeDU8l

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