Our Green Streets Blog

This post comes from Jennifer Shockley, writing for Green Building Elements.

“Home” Documentary Really Hits Home (via http://greenbuildingelements.com)

As an American, we are raised as consumers. We hardly question when or how our purchases and lifestyles impact the bigger picture. An eye-opening documentary entitled “Home” by Yann Arthus-Bertrand was released in 2009. This 2 hour video, which can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube, emphasizes…

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Hydrogen power has its fair share of naysayers, but the kind of thinking taking place at the Dearman Engine Company is what we need to advance the development of sustainable energy.

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Thankfully wood is a renewable resource. However, with our planet now home to 7 billion people and growing, guest writer Brittany Lyons believes we must be more careful in our use of this oxygen-giving resource, including the chopsticks with which we enjoy our chow mein. GRM

Disposable Chopsticks and Global Deforestation

Humans are eating up our wood resources at an incredible rate – so fast, in fact, that the forests don’t have ample time to regrow. The result? Loss of crucial forested areas. This creates more problems than just a lack of resources for wood products. Humans (and other species, too) depend on trees to create much needed oxygen. In addition, forests provide habitat for a variety of species, so without trees, these species are likely to become endangered or extinct. Finally trees help to soak up carbon emissions from human activity, which is yet another issue of concern.

What can be done to reduce deforestation? While this seems like a large issue to tackle, changes can be made by starting small. One way would be to stop using disposable chopsticks. Although people in some countries only use chopsticks occasionally, China’s growing population consumes roughly 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks per year, states Greenpeace China. China also exports another 18 billion pairs. The high demand for this simple and seemingly harmless product actually requires that 100 acres of forest be cut down every day.

A case study from American University claims, “If consumption continues at its present rate, valuable, non-replenishable resources such as the much-needed rain and temperate rainforests will vanish forever.”  Thus, reducing consumption of wood products like disposable chopsticks may be one of the best ways to tackle the issue of deforestation.

A number of organizations and national governments have already made the call to action, advocating against the use of disposable chopsticks. However, the movement faces strong opponents such as the potential loss of thousands of jobs in the manufacturing industry, and the increased costs to restaurants of reusable utensils.

While every issue has two sides, the repercussions of deforestation are incredibly far-reaching. Should society not be willing to pay a little more or shift some jobs to keep the very lungs of our planet intact? In this age of environmental degradation, we must become more forward thinking.

With a little education and effort, we can all create positive change. The more people around the world make the switch to reusable utensils, the more impact we can create and the faster this battle can be won. Make the vow today to stop using disposable utensils and join the movement to save our planet from deforestation.

Photo: nhanusek

Brittany Lyons aspires to be a psychology professor, but decided to take some time off from attending one of the top online PhD programs to help people learn to navigate the academic lifestyle. She currently lives in Spokane, Washington, where she spends her time reading science fiction and walking her dog.

FROM RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD (12/7/11)

“The solar industry got a turbo-boost of both name recognition and mainstream credibility on Wednesday as a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffett’s investment company MidAmerican Energy Holdings announced plans to purchase the Topaz Solar power development from thin-film PV module maker First Solar. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The 550-megawatt Topaz project in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., is among the world’s biggest solar farms under development, and many times larger than any project currently in operation. The First Solar project was not able to close its conditional loan guarantee with the Department of Energy prior to the Sept. 30 deadline, but it has gone ahead anyway. Construction on the project began in November and is expected to run through 2015. According to First Solar, it will create about 400 construction jobs.

The $2 billion project will include First Solar’s thin-film panels, and the company will build, operate and maintain the project for MidAmerican. Pacific Gas and Electric will buy the electricity under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

“Based in Iowa, MidAmerican, a subsidiary of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is already a big player in wind energy. Some analysts are saying that the company’s move into solar power could be linked to the expiring Production Tax Credit for wind power, which is set to go away at the end of 2012. The solar industry, which is hoping for an extension of the Treasury Department grant that expires at the end of this year, still has an Investment Tax Credit that runs through 2016. That could make solar a safer bet.

“Regardless of the reason, MidAmerican clearly sees the Topaz project as a financial opportunity even without federal backing. SolarCity recently took a similar route when it announced that Bank of America Merrill Lynch was helping it move ahead with its $1 billion Solar Strong project, which also failed to close on a loan guarantee from the DOE.

“The project “demonstrates that solar energy is a commercially viable technology without the support of governmental loan guarantees and reflects the type of solar and other renewable generation that MidAmerican will continue to seek to add to its unregulated portfolio,” said Greg Abel, chairman, president and CEO of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company in a press release.”

This is good news for renewable energy growth and its positive impacts on climate change!

Edward Linacre's Airdeop

Thanks to the inventive spirit of young Australian inventor Edward Linacre, there may one day be no such thing as a water shortage.

He recently won the £10,000 international James Dyson Award for a “low-tech” device – the Airdrop – that can draw water from the air, besting the work of 500 other inventors.

Linacre, a graduate of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, wanted to solve the drought problem afflicting farmers in parts of Australia suffering from drought conditions. His solution, Airdrop, can harvest 11.5 milliliters of water for every cubic meter of air in the driest deserts such as the Negev in Israel, which has an average relative air humidity of 64 percent. A small-scale prototype Linacre installed at his parents’ house created about a liter of water a day. Linacre will use his prize money for further testing on increasing the yield.

As reported in The Sidney Morning Herald, instead of using complex, energy-intensive methods such as desalination, Airdrop’s source of water is abundant – the air – and so it can be used anywhere in the world.

Linacre’s Airdrop can deliver water to the roots of crops in dry areas by pushing air through a network of underground pipes, cooling it down to the point where water condenses. The water can then be pumped to the roots of plants using drip irrigation methods.

This video interview  posted by gizmag helps explain the invention and the sound reasoning behind it.

Linacre said he was inspired by the Namib beetle, which survives in landscapes that get just half an inch of rain per year by consuming the dew it collects on the hydrophilic skin of its back. Similarly, the desert rhubarb can harvest 16 times the amount of water than other plants in its region by using deep water channeling cavities in its leaves.

“Biomimicry is a powerful weapon in an engineer’s armory,” said James Dyson, whose charity sponsors the award. “We chose Edward’s project because it was a very good and original solution to what has become a real problem.”

He said the device was a low-tech solution that could be installed and maintained by the farmers themselves. It powers itself using solar panels.

In addition to Linacre’s cash prize, a further £10,000 has been awarded to Swinburne University. Linacre said without the university’s help he would never have got his idea off the ground.

The James Dyson Award is run by the James Dyson Foundation and each year students of product design, industrial design or design engineering from around the world are invited to enter.

Photo: Arsineh Houspian, The Sidney Morning Herald