[ By Delana in Energy & Fuel & Food & Health & Technology & Gadgets. ]
Most of us can agree that fruit is an excellent source of natural energy. Have you ever considered that it might be useful for fueling more than just the human body? Two separate ad agencies have developed, more than a year apart, ad campaigns using the natural power of fruit to produce electricity. The ads take the time-honored “lemon battery” science fair project and turn it into a fun study of the power of nature.
Imperial Leisure developed this ad in 2010 for Jaffa oranges. The film shows a large array of Jaffa orange slices powering an iPhone, giving a unique perspective to the amount of energy needed to run not only our electronic devices, but our bodies as well. Metal spikes (usually zinc and copper) pierce the oranges and a chemical change takes place in the metal. This reaction produces a small amount of power; when lots of the tiny batteries are linked together they can actually produce a significant amount of electricity.
Much more recently, French agency DDB developed this short film for Tropicana. A similar fruit battery concept is used to power a neon billboard reading “Natural Energy.” Imperial Leisure, the British agency that developed the Jaffa campaign, argue that the Tropicana billboard can’t actually be powering the lights because when the oranges are pushed onto the spikes more than two electrodes (one positive, one negative) are piercing each one, meaning the battery would short out rather than produce any power. Whether the billboard is actually powered by oranges or not, both ad campaigns are a fantastic reminder of the energy our bodies can gain from eating natural foods.
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30 Seconds to Happiness
Being happier doesn’t have to be a long-term ambition. You can start right now. In the next 30 minutes, tackle as many of the following suggestions as possible. Not only will these tasks themselves increase your happiness, but the mere fact that you’ve achieved some concrete goals will boost your mood.
1. Raise your activity level to pump up your energy. If you’re on the phone, stand up and pace. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Put more energy into your voice. Take a brisk 10-minute walk. Even better…
2. Take a walk outside. Research suggests that light stimulates brain chemicals that improve mood. For an extra boost, get your sunlight first thing in the morning.
3. Reach out. Send an e-mail to a friend you haven’t seen in a while, or reach out to someone new. Having close bonds with other people is one of the most important keys to happiness. When you act in a friendly way, not only will others feel more friendly toward you, but you’ll also strengthen your feelings of friendliness for other people.
4. Rid yourself of a nagging task. Deal with that insurance problem, purchase something you need, or make that long-postponed appointment with the dentist. Crossing an irksome chore off your to-do list will give you a rush of elation.
5. Create a more serene environment. Outer order contributes to inner peace, so spend some time organizing bills and tackling the piles in the kitchen. A large stack of little tasks can feel overwhelming, but often just a few minutes of work can make a sizable dent. Set the timer for 10 minutes and see what you can do.
6. Do a good deed. Introduce two people by e-mail, take a minute to pass along useful information, or deliver some gratifying praise. In fact, you can also…
7. Save someone’s life. Sign up to be an organ donor, and remember to tell your family about your decision. Do good, feel good?it really works!
8. Act happy. Fake it ’til you feel it. Research shows that even an artificially induced smile boosts your mood. And if you’re smiling, other people will perceive you as being friendlier and more approachable.
9. Learn something new. Think of a subject that you wish you knew more about and spend 15 minutes on the Internet reading about it, or go to a bookstore and buy a book about it. But be honest! Pick a topic that really interests you, not something you think you “should” or “need to” learn about. Some people worry that wanting to be happier is a selfish goal, but in fact, research shows that happier people are more sociable, likable, healthy, and productive?and they’re more inclined to help other people. By working to boost your own happiness, you’re making other people happier, too.
Beth
12 Green Megastructures for an Eco-Fantastic Future
[ By Steph in Art & Design & Science & Research & Technology & Gadgets. ]
To tackle big problems – like overpopulation, desertification, lack of clean water and a need for cleaner energy – sometimes, nothing but big solutions will do. And these 12 sustainable urban living concepts are not just big. They’re massive megastructures that provide healthy high-density housing, capture or desalinate water, produce renewable energy and sometimes even create their own microclimates.
Living Mountain Skyscraper
(images via: evolo.us)
Could ‘living mountains’ save us from global warming-induced desertification? This concept for the 2011 Evolo Skyscraper Competition creates a livable oasis in one of the world’s harshest environments, the desert of Taklamakan in northwest China, creating a microclimate inside the man-made mountain. This superstructure includes 2,000-sq-ft ‘living pods’, man-made lakes produced by extracting water from the region’s substrate and rainwater collection. Eventually, multiple mountains could be linked using cable cars.
Waste-Recycling Underwater Skyscrapers
(images via: evolo.us)
Imagine using massive underwater skyscrapers to filter all of the plastic and other debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean. The ‘Lady Landfill Skyscraper’ consists of three main functions: trash collectors at the bottom, a recycling plant in the center and housing and recreation above the surface of the sea. The waste would be heated in the recycling chamber and converted into a gas which could then be stored in huge battery-like structures and used as energy. The shape of the structure was actually inspired by an upside-down Eiffel Tower.
Skeletal Skyscraper Harvests Energy from Lightning
(images via: evolo.us)
It’s an odd catch-22: if only we could figure out a less energy-intensive way to produce it, hydrogen fuel could be a great source of renewable energy. But the answer could come shooting straight down from the sky in the form of lightning. The Hydra Tower concept aims to harness those bolts of lightning and use them to literally smash molecules of water into hydrogen and oxygen. The skeletal frame of the tower is made from super-tough graphene, which is 200 times stronger than steel, so that it can withstand that kind of force. These towers would be placed in the tropics, which see 70% of all lightning strikes.
Green Tech City for Hanoi, Vietnam
(images via: inhabitat)
This incredible vision for an entire sustainable city within the city of Hanoi, Vietnam is actually being actively developed. Green Tech City, by SOM Architects, integrates two pre-existing villages to create a new sustainable urban center for 20,000 residents and incorporates both cutting edge modern technology and low-tech passive design customized to the culture and climate of Vietnam. The city will include a green corridor along the Red River with pedestrian-friendly residential neighborhoods located in close proximity to a towering commercial district. Canal water cooling, tri-generation plants, waste recycling and rainwater harvesting will help this city become a model for sustainable urban living.
Everrich 2 Apartments: Self-Sustaining Tower
(images via: designboom)
Another megastructure coming to Vietnam in the near future is the Everrich 2 Apartment complex by DWP Architects, a huge rolling curving structure that resembles an amusement park more than urban housing. Currently under construction, the complex contains 3,100 apartment units along with two floors of mixed retail and public space. The architects designed the structure to maximize daylighting and natural ventilation, and will use precast concrete and local masonry.
Flat Tower: High-Density Honeycomb Structure
(images via: evolo.us)
How can cities be more densely populated, without either dominating the skyline or spreading out to take up too much valuable green space? The Flat Tower concept packs in living space above ground level in an unusual honeycomb pattern, forming a sort of artificial hill. The green space below is left untouched, large openings let in plenty of sun and the structure is able to harvest both rainwater and solar energy.
PoroCity: Rehabilitation for Mumbai
(images via: evolo.us)
The triangular footprint in Mumbai currently occupied by the Dharavi slum – one of the densest in the world – could be transformed into terraced housing with PoroCity, a concept by Khushalani Associates. PoroCity would reorganize the housing of the slum, maintaining the small living spaces and communal living feel but making them more modern with built-in transportation including elevators and funiculars and including space for business and industry, eliminating the need for cars.
Reflections Development in Singapore
(images via: designboom)
Celebrated architect Daniel Libeskind will make a big splash on Singapore’s shoreline with ‘Reflections’, a controversial collection of curved towers containing 1,129 residential units that will be completed this year at Keppel Harbor. The six skyscrapers, connected by sky bridges and towering above low-rise villas, were spaced to allow views to the horizon. The structure won Singapore’s Green Mark Gold Award for significant energy savings.
Seawater-Filtering Skyscrapers from Old Oil Platforms
(images via: inhabitat)
Hundreds of disused offshore oil platforms could be transformed into livable skyscrapers that could desalinate sea water, providing a source of fresh water for millions of people who currently don’t have access to a clean source of this precious resource. The existing oil drill pipes would be used to draw up sea water and the water movement against the tower could provide enough energy to power the site’s facilities. Little pods on the structures would house workers as well as research facilities.
Solar-Powered Paris Triangle
(images via: luxist)
Paris is notoriously resistant to tall modern structures that would dramatically alter the city’s famous skyline, but after a ban on high-rise buildings was voted down, the door was opened for this 50-story glass pyramid called Le Projet Triangle at Port de Versailles. Designed by Herzog and De Meuron, the tower – powered by solar and wind energy – will be the third-tallest building in Paris. Construction has already begun and it’s due for completion in 2012.
KEPCO Green Energy Headquarters Concept
(images via: bustler)
When the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) announced a competition to design its new headquarters in a city near Naju, South Korea, one proposal stood out both for its size and its sustainable factors: a ‘Green Energy Theme Park’ that would not only serve as KEPCO’s home base but also as a way to show off renewable energy technology. The design consists of a 29-story tower on a landscape podium with a series of sloped green roofs, sun shading devices and a north side fully covered in moss which would catch water and naturally insulate the building. Winning third place, this design also includes wind turbines, greywater recycling, geothermal systems and solar panels.
Urban Trees Green Housing Projects
(images via: evolo.us)
With trunk-like central columns and trees growing on rooftop gardens, the Urban Tree project by Geotectura certainly lives up to its name. Housing units of various sizes are contained within ‘floating’ cubes, some of which even have projecting ‘sky terraces’ for outdoor living high in the sky. The result is lots of greenery and plenty of natural air flow, giving occupants healthier living spaces that feel more tied to nature and require less energy to heat and cool.
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Go With the Flow: Eco-Friendly Wind-Powered Street Lights
[ By Delana in Art & Design, Energy & Fuel, Technology & Gadgets. ]
True innovation comes from seeing a problem and coming up with a solution that is both simple and creative. That is exactly what this lighting concept does: it solves the problem of unsafe coastal cities by adding inexpensive, wind-powered lighting to the beaches where the electric grid does not reach. The concept from Hungarian firm Igen Design is called Flow, and it uses abundant natural resources to provide safety and beauty.
The basic design of Flow is a bamboo pole fitted with a number of bamboo “blades,” each equipped with an LED on the end. The blades are arranged in a spiral pattern and attached so that they will spin freely in the wind. With the turning of the blades, the entire setup builds up energy. The light posts are, in effect, wind turbines that use the wind energy they capture on the spot.
Every part of the Flow light post is biodegradable other than the LEDs and other electronic components like wires, but these components are designed to be recyclable at the end of their life cycle. Bamboo is quick-growing, abundant and inexpensive, making it the ideal material with which to build these tree-like structures.
According to the designers, in many coastal third world cities the beaches are full of life during the day but abandoned at night due to the lack of lighting and resulting danger. The electric grid does not reach all the way to the beaches, making traditional street lights impossible to install. Flow would make use of the near-constant wind in these locations to generate eco-friendly light.
(all images via: Igen Design)
The concept is not only safe for the Earth and for tourists, but beautiful as well. The spinning, dancing LEDs would make unique tracers against the dark night sky, painting mesmerizing shapes while helping to illuminate the beaches.
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Easy DIY Home Energy: 4 Ways to Plant a Solar Tree
(Image via: Zedomax)
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Our Fiend The Atom: INES Rates The Worst Nuclear Accidents
[ By Steve in Energy & Fuel, History & Trivia, Science & Research. ]
Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, joins a listing of 9 major nuclear accidents rated on the IAEA’s International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) as the worst the world has seen… so far.
Mihama Nuclear Power Plant, Japan, 2004 (INES 1)
(image via: Ayumu Kawazoe)
The INES scale introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is logarithmic, with each increasing level representing an accident approximately ten times more severe than the previous level – similar to the Richter scale used to judge the magnitude of earthquakes. Therefore our listing of the World’s Worst Nuclear Accidents begins with the August 9, 2004 steam explosion at Japan’s Mihama Nuclear Power Plant, given an INES rating of 1.
(images via: NY Times, SMH and China Daily)
The Mihama Nuclear Power Plant is located in Japan’s Fukui prefecture about 320 km (about 200 miles) west of Tokyo. The plant, which was commissioned in 1976, was the site of several small nuclear-related accidents in 1991 and 2003. On August 9 of 2004, a water pipe in a turbine building adjoining the Mihama 3 reactor burst suddenly as workers prepared to conduct a routine safety inspection. Though no radiation was released, the steam explosion killed 5 plant workers and injured dozens of others. Mihama’s notoriety increased in 2006 when 2 plant workers were injured in an on-site fire.
Davis-Besse Reactor, USA, 2002 (INES 3)
(images via: WKSU, Scientific American and NRC)
The Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, located about 10 miles (16km) north of Oak Harbor, Ohio, was commissioned in July of 1978 and is scheduled for final shutdown in April of 2017.
(image via: Ohio Citizen Action)
The plant has racked up a number of safety problems over its lifetime, including being struck by an F2 tornado in 1998, but the worst of those occurred in March of 2002 when a serious corrosion issue forced the plant to close for roughly 2 years.
During maintenance, plant workers discovered a 6-inch deep corrosion hole in the top of the carbon steel reactor vessel. Only 3/8” of steel cladding remained to prevent a catastrophic pressure explosion and subsequent loss of coolant. If nearby control rod mechanisms would have been damaged in the explosion, shutting down the reactor and avoiding a core meltdown would have been difficult to say the least.
National Reactor Testing Station, USA, 1961 (INES 4)
(images via: U.S. Militaria Forum and The ’60s At 50)
One of the earliest major nuclear power plant accidents occurred on January 3, 1961 when a steam explosion and meltdown killed 3 workers at Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One (SL-1). The reactor, located at the National Reactor Testing Station roughly 40 miles (60km) west of Idaho Falls, Idaho, was of a now-discontinued design that featured a single large, central control rod.
(images via: Wikivisual, U.S. DOE and Wikipedia)
A maintenance procedure that involved withdrawing the control rod about 4 inches (10cm) somehow went horribly wrong: the rod was lifted 26 inches (65cm) and the nuclear pile went critical. Three plant workers were killed in the resulting explosion and radiation release; one man was found impaled to the reactor building’s ceiling by one of the reactor’s shield plugs. About 1,100 Curies of nuclear fission products were released into the surrounding environment but any damage was mitigated by the station’s remote location in the Idaho desert. In the image above at top, you can see the damaged reactor core being lifted out of the containment building by a heavily shielded crane.
Jaslovské Bohunice, Czechoslovakia, 1977 (INES 4)
(image via: Kyberia)
Talk about accidents waiting to happen. At the Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant in Jaslovské Bohunice, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), all the ingredients for a nuclear disaster were already in place by 1977 when A1, the plant’s oldest reactor, overheated and nearly caused a large-scale environmental disaster. Where to begin? Let’s see… the model KS-150 reactor was of a unique and unproven design from the Soviet Union which was built in Czechoslovakia. Not a good start, and then it gets worse.
(images via: EnergyWeb and IAEA)
Construction of A1 began in 1958 and took an amazing 16 years! The untested design of the KS-150 reactor soon revealed numerous flaws that led to over 30 unplanned shutdowns in the first few years of operation. Two workers were killed by a gas leak in early 1976. Just over a year later a botched fuel changing procedure compounded by human error – workers forgot to remove silica gel packs from the new fuel rods – resulted in a core cooling emergency. It’s expected that ongoing efforts to decontaminate and fully decommission the A1 reactor won’t be completed until sometime in 2033.
Tomsk-7 Reprocessing Complex, USSR, 1993 (INES 4)
(images via: Jishi Xooob and Girasole Online)
The Siberian Group of Chemical Enterprises is a group of factories and nuclear power plants located in the Russian city of Seversk. Formerly a Soviet “secret city”, Seversk was until 1992 known as Tomsk-7, which is actually a post office box number. Though former Russian president Boris Yeltsin relaxed some of the restrictions on Seversk (including its name), to this day non-residents are not allowed to visit the city.
The Tomsk-7 Reprocessing Complex was one of the “enterprises” at Seversk, and on April 6, 1993, the facility achieved some very unwanted fame. Workers were cleaning out an underground tank at the Tomsk-7 Plutonium Reprocessing Plant using highly volatile Nitric Acid. The acid reacted with residual liquid inside the tank – liquid that contained traces of plutonium. An explosion then occurred which blew a reinforced concrete lid off the top of the tank, punched holes in the building’s roof, short- circuited the plant’s electrical systems and started a fire. Last and not least, the explosion released of a large cloud of radioactive gas into the surrounding environment.
Tokaimura Uranium Processing Facility, Japan, 1999 (INES 4)
(image via: LiveInternet)
Human error compounded by rash business decisions led to the so-called Tokaimura Criticality Accident, which took place on September 30, 1999, at Japan’s Tokaimura Uranium Processing Facility in Japan’s Ibaraki prefecture north of Tokyo. The facility, formerly operated by JCO Ltd., processed and purified Uranium fuel used by Japan’s many nuclear power plants.
(images via: BBC and SOS: El Planeta te Necesita)
The accident was caused by poorly trained workers at the Tokaimura plant taking shortcuts in the refining procedure. Under pressure to complete their duties on time, the workers skipped several steps in the process. Uranium Oxide powder and Nitric Acid were mixed in 10-liter buckets instead of several dedicated tanks, and ended up dumping 7 times the recommended amount of Uranium/Acid mixture to a precipitation tank. The mixture reached critical mass and a chain reaction lasting 20 hours then ensued. Two of the plant workers died from radiation exposure and dozens of others were exposed to above-normal levels of radiation.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japan, 2011 (INES 4+)
(images via: InventorSpot, LA Times and 2Space)
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, located 170 miles or 270 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the world with 6 nuclear reactors supplying power to the Tokyo megalopolis and the Japanese electric power grid. In the immediate aftermath of the devastating 9.0 magnitude Sendai Earthquake on March 11, 2011, power outages caused the reactor coolant pumps to stop. Backup diesel generators had been stored in a low-lying area and were damaged by the quake-related tsunami.
(images via: Edmonton Journal and SOS: El Planeta te Necesita)
By the time a working generator could be set up inside the building housing reactor #1, the core had begun to overheat and hydrogen gas built up to dangerous levels inside the containment building. A spark from the generator likely caused a hydrogen explosion that blew the roof off the containment building. The next day a similar, more powerful explosion occurred the next day in the building containing reactor #3, on March 14 yet another explosion shattered the containment building of reactor #2, and inside reactor #4′s containment building stored fuel may be on fire after water in a storage pool boiled off.
Here is a video of the first explosion:
福島第一原発 爆発の瞬間 Explosion at Fukushima nuclear plant, via Studiomu00
(image via: PopSci)
Though the INES has given the ongoing critical situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant a provisory rating of 4, France’s ASN nuclear safety authority has suggested the rating should actually be much higher. “Level 4 is a serious level,” commented ASN President Andre-Claude Lacoste, speaking at a news conference on March 14, 2011, but “We feel that we are at least at level 5 or even at level 6.”
Three Mile Island, USA, 1979 (INES 5)
(images via: EOEarth, How Stuff Works and Reason)
On March 28, 1979, coolant pumps in reactor TMI-2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, failed and a pressure-relief valve failed to close. Control room staff began to hear alarms and see warning lights. Unfortunately, faulty design of the sensors caused plant operators to miss and/or misread signs that the reactor core was first overheating, then actually melting.
(image via: Timemapped)
By the time the situation was brought under control, half the reactor core had melted and approximately 20 tons of molten uranium was slowly solidifying at the bottom of the reactor’s containment vessel. Venting of steam and gas from inside the containment building allowed significant amounts of radioactive material to escape into the atmosphere and surrounding environment.
(images via: OCRegister, From The Vault Radio, Sodahead and Pennlive)
The Three Mile Island accident caused no deaths or injuries to plant workers or residents of nearby communities but it still is rated as the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history. Extensive – some say sensationalistic – news coverage of the event, comparisons to the plot of the film The China Syndrome (released just 12 days before the accident), and a memorable sketch on Saturday Night Live all contributed to the incident’s prominent place in late 20th century pop culture. It’s no, er, accident that not a single new nuclear power plant has been built in the United States since.
Kyshtym Disaster, USSR, 1957 (INES 6)
(images via: Crashstuff, Wikipedia and Bellona)
In the Soviet Union’s frantic race to catch up with the USA in the post-war, Cold War nuclear arms race, corners were cut and mistakes were made. By far the largest of the latter occurred in September of 1957 at the Mayak nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the closed city of Ozyorsk, formerly (before 1994) known as Chelyabinsk-40. A cluster of reactors at the site produced Plutonium for Soviet nuclear weapons and, as a by-product, nuclear waste. LOTS of nuclear waste. The waste was stored in underground steel cisterns set in concrete and cooled by an unreliable cooling system.
(image via: Bellona)
In the fall of 1957, the cooling system around a vessel containing up to 80 tons of solid nuclear waste failed. Radioactivity quickly heated the waste to the point where the container exploded, sending its 160-ton concrete lid into the air along with a massive cloud of very dirty fallout. Approximately 10,000 people were evacuated from the affected region and about 270,000 in total were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. At least 200 deaths from cancer can be directly attributed to the accident and around 30 town names vanished from Soviet maps.
(images via: Bellona and Narod)
Though the full extent of the Kyshtym Disaster was not revealed by the USSR until 1990, the CIA was aware of the incident yet decided not to reveal any information as it might reflect negatively on the American nuclear power industry. Meanwhile in Kyshtym, the vast East-Ural Nature Reserve (also known as the East-Ural Radioactive Trace) remains heavily contaminated by radioactive Caesium-137 and Strontium-90 over a roughly 300 square mile (800 sq km) area.
Chernobyl Disaster, USSR, 1986 (INES 7)
(image via: Stuck In Customs)
As bad as the Kyshtym Disaster was, the Chernobyl Disaster was worse: 4 times worse, if dispersed radioactivity is the measuring stick. To date, the steam explosion and reactor meltdown of Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is the only nuclear accident to rate a 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
(images via: Scrape TV, Stockani News and Stormchaser)
The disaster began on April 26, 1986, when technicians at Reactor 4 were conducting an experimental power-down procedure. Human error led to a series of unexpected power surges that explosively burst the reactor’s containment vessel, starting a fire that impelled clouds of radioactive fission products and fallout into the open air. The cloud would eventually drift over large areas of eastern, western and northern Europe forcing over 335,000 people to be evacuated from a Zone of Alienation. Though only 53 deaths resulted directly from the accident, many thousands of other suffered (and still suffer) debilitating, chronic illness.
(image via: Funny Old Planet)
These days the area around Chernobyl exhibits a strange dichotomy: the abandoned towns of Chernobyl and Pripyat slowly decay while wildlife in the surrounding woods and forests is booming now that the human presence has been removed. Reports of lynxes and even bears, which have not been seen in centuries, prove the eminent resilience of nature and life’s ability to adapt and adjust to even the most hostile of conditions.
(images via: Maison Bisson, Pumachassures and Funny Old Planet)
Chernobyl is the poster child for nuclear accidents, with atomic power protesters warning of “another Chernobyl” as often as anti-war advocates advising against “another Vietnam”. As for the apocalyptically named Zone of Alienation, Ukrainian authorities are finding it difficult to keep self-styled “stalkers” from conducting expeditions into the area aimed at fun and profit. Word to those contemplating such an adventure: what you can’t see, CAN hurt you!
Radiation In Your Nation?
(image via: Market Watch)
Though the Chernobyl Disaster is the only INES-rated Level 7 incident on record, there’s no guarantee that another, even worse nuclear disaster will occur someday. Natural disasters, human errors and aging components are, unfortunately, facts of life (and death) for the nuclear industry. With nearly 500 nuclear power plants around the world in operation and under construction, the question isn’t IF another atomic accident will happen, but WHEN.
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Booming Industry: GM Recycling Oil Booms in Chevy Volt Parts
[ By Delana in Energy & Fuel, Nature & Ecosystems, Transit & Auto. ]
It is anything but news that the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was a truly devastating event. And though the well is now capped and the oil has stopped flowing, the environmental impact of the disaster will continue to be felt for many years and in many, many ways. Car-making giant GM is doing its small part in reducing the spill’s toll by recycling some of the booms used to trap oil into parts for its hybrid car, the Chevy Volt.
GM plans to use around 100,000 pounds of boom material in its innovative recycling scheme. But it is far from a solitary effort on GM’s part: a whole collection of organizations are involved in the plan. The boom material was collected by Heritage Environmental, then the oil and water were separated (via a high-speed spinning process) by Mobile Fluid Recovery. Lucent Polymers prepared the plastic before GDC, Inc. used it to produce radiator air deflectors for the Volt.
There should be enough materials available to produce radiator air deflectors for at least the first model year of Volts. There may even be enough for produce parts for other models, as well. If left to rot in landfills, the boom materials would take hundreds of years to even begin breaking down, so GM’s plan to give them new life does somewhat reduce the environmental fallout from the devastating BP spill.
The irony of using oil spill detritus to supply parts for cars which will ultimately perpetuate the use of petroleum products is not lost on GM or any of the other companies involved in the unusual plan. But when compared to using brand new, pre-consumer plastics, producing the needed parts from recycled oil booms is a smart move that might just win GM a few green credits in the hearts of environmentalists.
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Green City Rehab: 12 Eco Urban Makeover Concepts
[ By Steph in Art & Design, Home & Garden. ]
When creating a sustainable city from scratch, practically anything is possible, allowing architects, designers and city planners to come up with incredible solutions to everything from housing to transportation. But the fact is, we’re not going to raze the world’s existing cities – they’re just going to need green makeovers. These 12 sustainable urban concepts like trash-powered street lights and elevated bike rails make it easier for city residents to live a low-carbon lifestyle.
Invisible Streetlight
(images via: techpin)
Of course street lights don’t need to be electric, but couldn’t they also be unobtrusive, a part of the urban environment? This interesting design from South Korean industrial designer Jongoh Lee, called ‘Invisible Streetlight’, could be just right for areas like parks or tree-lined boulevards. The lights, which twine around branches, are waterproof and solar-powered with nano wire batteries that have 10 times more storage capacity than Li-ion batteries.
Trash-Powered Lamp Post
(images via: yanko design)
For treeless areas where street lights are unavoidable, perhaps these columns of light could be put to work in an unexpected way. Haneum Lee imagines a lamppost that not only incorporates a compost bin within its base, but is powered by the methane created by the waste as it composts. The bins are made especially for food waste, which could be hard to enforce when so many city residents don’t even put recyclables in the correct bins, but it’s definitely an interesting concept that deserves more thought.
Energy-Harvesting Kinetic Sidewalks
(images via: powerleap)
Think of all the kinetic energy that could be generated from the footsteps of thousands of pedestrians as they go about their daily routine in the city. Walk, run, hop, skip, jump, dance – all of these movements can be harnessed with what’s known as piezoelectric technology. If the energy’s already there, why not use it? One idea that could be translated to urban sidewalks is POWERleap, piezoelectric tiles created by inventor Elizabeth Redmond. “The project is not about hiding the infrastructure, it’s interactive, playful, flirtatious, and exciting,” Redmond told Metropolis Magazine. “I am calling on all humans to become responsible and sustainable self-generators for the communal grid.”
Human-Powered Monorails
(images via: gizmag)
More aerodynamic than a bicycle – not to mention protected from the elements and far above the chaos of urban traffic – these odd little pod-like human-powered monorail systems could be a real contender as a method of personal transportation in cities. The rider propels herself forward with the power of her own legs, just as on a recumbent bicycle, getting off at various points around the city just like any other mode of public transit. It might have a dweeby name, but the ‘Shweeb’ by designer Geoffrey Barnett has plenty of pluses.
“Here’s how it works,” Barnett explains. “You get up in the morning; descend to the second level of your apartment building where there’s a Shweeb port and empty Shweebs waiting for you. You cruise over the top of the traffic jams. You don’t pay parking. You’ve produced no pollution. You arrive at work fit, healthy and ready to go. You don’t own the Shweeb. You use it like a shopping cart.”
Street Signs Made from E-Waste
(image via: hoyasmeg)
Sure, it’s a small thing. But the materials used to create all of the street signs found in even a single city add up fast – as do the mountains of electronic waste that are all too often shipped to developing countries to poison their soil and water. E-waste company Image Microsystems has a novel solution for both problems: using the e-waste to create the signs. Made from 100% recycled e-waste, Image Microsystem’s signs look like any other standard street signs but divert all that toxic junk from the waste stream.
Solar-Powered Rickshaws
(image via: inhabitat)
Rickshaws have been used for centuries, but some of us have a hard time with the idea of a likely underpaid person lugging us (and our stuff) down the street with nothing but their own bodily strength. But the concept could be used to a similarly carbon-free effect without involving back-breaking labor. This solar-powered rickshaw by Solar Lab combines pedal power with rooftop photovoltaic panels. The rider gets an easy ride to their destination protected by the elements and the driver gets a break. It’s a no-brainer.
Bus-Charging Electric Bikes
(image via: chiyu chen)
Imagine renting a bicycle, enjoying a ride around the city and returning it to a kiosk where your pedal power is converted into electricity to run the city’s hybrid buses. This ingenious idea by Chiyu Chen provides dual-purpose public transportation that would drastically cut down both fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in cities around the world. It could be an interesting upgrade for existing bike-rental programs in cities like Paris and Washington, D.C.
Stackable Electric Cars
(image via: autoblog)
Imagine renting a bicycle, enjoying a ride around the city and returning it to a kiosk where your pedal power is converted into electricity to run the city’s hybrid buses. This ingenious idea by Chiyu Chen provides dual-purpose public transportation that would drastically cut down both fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in cities around the world. It could be an interesting upgrade for existing bike-rental programs in cities like Paris and Washington, D.C.
Elevated Bike Rails
(images via: arch daily)
Okay, so pedal-powered pods are perhaps not the best option for everyone, especially the claustrophobic. Those who still want to hang on to their own personal bicycles could get similar benefits from an elevated bike rail system. While the illustrated idea, called “Kolelinia” by designer Martin Angelov, looks a little dangerous, it’s likely just as safe as riding alongside speeding, swerving cars. This design utilizes a steel cable to provide a track for the bike, but making it a little wider with safety rails of some sort wouldn’t hurt.
Environmental Traffic Lights
(images via: core 77)
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to see for yourself what the air quality is like right there in your neighborhood, or just get super-localized weather info like air pressure and humidity? Hernando Barragan’s entry into the 2009 Greener Gadgets Competition would make that possible. ‘Environmental Traffic Light’ says much more than just stop, go or slow down.
“Just as there are traffic lights that help us regulate traffic vehicular and pedestrian, why not to talk about environmental signals that support decision making on environmental issues? They could give us information – not only phenomena but also the environmental state of our ecosystems. We can imagine these lights in different parts of the city, in parks – in contaminated or abandoned contexts.”
Vertical Farming: Fresh Local Food
(images via: rathaus, inka)
Of course, one of the most pressing problems with dense urban living is providing residents with a reliable local source of fresh food. That’s where vertical farming – of both the skyscraper and rooftop variety – comes into play. Vertical farming is an essential concept for the future of sustainable cities, putting food security back into the hands of the people and reducing the CO2 racked up by transporting food across the country. These two ideas – Sky Farm, envisioned for Toronto by Gordon Graff, and the Inka DIY vertical gardening solution, put unused urban space to work growing produce.
Compost-Creating Urinals
(images via: design boom)
Since the dawn of civilization, people (okay, mostly men) have been peeing in alleyways. It’s just a fact of urban life. And as much as we may wish that they’d take it to the restroom where it belongs, public urination is’nt going to stop anytime soon, so we may as well find a way to manage it. Designer Stephan Bischof experimented with a system called Wheelie Bins, placing them in strategic locations around London. They’re regular trash cans with built-in urinals that funnel liquid waste into a tray containing dried garden grass or wood-ash, where it eventually turns into nitrogen-rich fertilizer. While the need to pull out an unhygienic step-stool may not be the best option, and many cities would likely prefer to discourage peeing in public, the concept could be adapted to indoor urinals as well.
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(Images via: JFE Engineering)
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Social Entrepreneurship – Energy Investor Connector – Tyler Johnson
This is an idea for a social entrepreneurship that works to decrease the barrier to entry for alternative energy investing and to ultimately increase the amount of alternative energy sources. Investors would pool various sums of money together, which the company would use to install alternative energy sources. The company would sell the energy back to power companies and distribute the income among investors. In this fashion, alternative energy investing would become easier to do, less risky, and hopefully a lot more widespread.
It’s ALWAYS the Season for Caring
Barbie and Martin Maldonado’s first house burned down in 1996, and the roof on their current house leaked every time it rained. They have also had their share of trials and tribulations as they care for children and grandchildren with health problems. Recently, the family was nominated to “Season for Caring” by the nonprofit agency WBC Opportunities. Now, Jimmy Jacobs Custom Homes will build them a 1,294-square-foot custom home, accessible to people with disabilities. Green building techniques should help it qualify to be certified by the national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Read the story by Katy Ballard in the Austin American Statesman: www.statesman.com/life/season-for-caring
Beth
Hot Air Balloons that Soar Above the Rest
[ By Marc in Energy & Fuel, Technology & Gadgets, Transit & Auto. ]
I don’t know anyone who has been in a hot air balloon, but I know a lot of people who would love to give one a shot. Even the biggest hot air balloon haters would be intrigued by these delightful creations. In wacky and wonderful shapes, and out of personal pleasure and love for the craft, or for commercial gain, a variety of hot air balloons have graced balloon festivals around the globe. Here are some of the best of the best:
(Images via roclar, hotairbrand, ecolocalizer, chm.bris.ac.uk)
Animal balloons seem a little dull until you see the tiny box holding the hot air balloonist at the controls. One is quickly awed by the gigantic form of a polar bear as it soars slowly past its smaller, garishly colored peers.
(Images via strangetravel, laughingsquid, work-killer, work-killer, unusual-things)
Interesting hot air balloon shapes are limited only by the creativity of the designer. Enter a hot air mystic that looks suspiciously like Jesus, a wonderful cactus, space shuttle, and… Van Gogh’s head. Oh, don’t forget the bagpiper, at over 150 tall.
(Images via ushotairballoon, gonewengland, work-killer, qwickstep)
Monsters in the skies! Giant dinosaurs and ferocious faces are a bit more terrifying when blown up to colossal proportions. They soar over fields, delighting onlookers and making children cry out in fear.
(Images via murobbs.plaza.fi, meg, toxel)
Some of our favorite characters have been featured in this exciting medium. Darth Vader makes an appearance, along with Sonic the Hedgehog, and Michael Wazowski from Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc.”
(Images via flypepsi, piculous, flemington.injersey, pzrservices)
Companies love to find creative ways to push their products into the limelight, and hot air ballooning isn’t an exception. From alcohol to batteries, companies will find a way to catch your eye, even if they have to cruise the skies to do it.
(Images via specialshapes, annarbor, specialshapes, batw)
Everyone loves beer! At least, at hot air balloon festivals. Here are some of the coolest beer-shaped hot air balloons. I personally think bottles are the coolest, because they’re so different from the conventional hot air balloon shape.
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