Obama Said that Climate Change Is a Fact, Top Reasons to be Hopeful

 

 

Here we have it, the top reasons why we can be hopeful that we will overcome climate change from The Guardian:

1) Barack Obama has made it one of his defining issues
2) China has ordered coal power plants to close
3) The cost of solar has fallen by two thirds
4) People are taking their money out of fossil fuels
5) Bangladeshi women are being retrained as solar technicians
6) Renewable energy will soon take the lion’s share of new power
7) European homes are using 15% less energy than they were in 2000
8) Cutting emissions has become a business imperative
9) Oil is becoming much more expensive to find
10) Electric car sales are doubling each year

There are also helpful data, details and visuals to see here:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/30/reasons-hopeful-overcome-climate-change-solar

What to read about the Greenhouse gas news this year so far in summary format? Please see:

https://mygreenhalo.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/americas-greenhouse-gas-news-this-year-so-far/

 

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The Biggest Factor in How Much We Recycle Is…

The number 1 factor that effects whether or not someone will or will not recycle is their knowledge about what can be recycled. Yolonda Wright conducted 200 surveys to see what factors play a key role in determining the likely hood that one will recycle.

Yolonda wrote about UC Berkeley’s first Recycling Summit, 2001 that promoted campus recycling by increasing access to recycling and refuse containers, the campus bought recycled paper and even established a materials exchange.

In addition to one’s knowledge (a distinction was made between general knowledge and “knowledge about what can be recycled), demographics, knowledge of recycling bin location, age, area of study and more factors were considered.

Our blog has a lot of ideas for those who are already motivated to recycle. We also talked about people in correctional facilities that recycle quite a bit thanks to the training that they receive during their positions. For more about sustainable jobs, please click here and Yolonda’s study can be found here.

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#WW Website Wednesday http://bit.ly/1xFVqXD http://bit.ly/1r4IVkt http://www.world.org/weo/environment

For Website Wednesday we have…

Green Building News: http://bit.ly/1xFVqXD

Green Building 101: http://bit.ly/1r4IVkt

and

100 Top Environmental Sites: http://www.world.org/weo/environment 

 

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Today at 9 AM PM or 12 PM ET a New #Weather #Nerdy Show Airs @WXGeeksTWC

A show produced by meteorologists for weather geeks is coming to our televisions on The Weather Channel Sunday morning which will actually make you want to watch the news on TV. WX Geeks has been called Big Bang Theory meets the weather by Mediabistro. It’s funny, quirky, nerdy, and educational. With so much talk about global warming and natural phenomena lately it seems like a great opportunity to learn more about the weather.  This Sunday the show will be about storm chasing and hopefully we can all catch it and talk about it on Monday!

Happy Sunday.

 

Source: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/07/18/wx_geeks_the_weather_channel_s_new_sunday_morning_talk_show_reviewed.html

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Bill Nye @TheScienceGuy, #NASA Chief Scientist and #JPL’s Europa Study Scientist talk about #Europa!

Bill Nye Did a Reddit #AMA (ask me anything) on Tuesday along with two others to talk about Jupiter’s moon Europa which might have had, or might still have extraterrestrial life! Bill fans have been talking all week about his inspiring answers, the way that he got them interested in science as youngsters, Europa and much anticipated new Bill shows that he hinted at!

The entire AMA conversation is here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2arlx5/i_am_bill_nye_the_science_guy_and_ceo_of_the/

Bill tells hilarious jokes, like this one:

 

And really sheds light on how important it is to discover more about Mars.

Bill also let people know what he’s been up to lately. Bill is the CEO of the Planetary Society, he’s talked about having another Science Guy show, his new book that comes out in November, and many more highlights that can be seen here:

Bill is a beloved teacher who’s series lives strong in classrooms. We’re eager to see what Europa has up its sleeve.

 

 

Source: http://www.themarysue.com/bill-nye-europa-ama/

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Website Wednesdays #WW

Website Wednesdays ( #WW )

A Collection of Awesome Resources and Web Design Appreciation

@ThePowerofBrain Videos and other ways to learn about science, constrtuction, design, technology, transportation and more… 
@SustainBrands Green business resources and other sustainable brand research to help the planet. 
http://www.rvapc.com/ inspiring architecture and web design. 

 

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#quoteoftheday

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

-Confucius

Huge innovation in low #energy #homes today is #FLEXLABS ‘s ribbon-cutting ceremony!

Bet you’ve never seen anything like this before…

 

The new FLEXLAB at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is open for business! It is the world’s first energy use lab that will help builders and manufactures test entire building systems down to the component level on a significant scale. The FLEXLAB’s ribbon cutting ceremony was on July 10, 2014.

Photo by Eric Soladay

According to the FLEXLAB, there is a problem that buildings are designed to be energy efficient, but once they are being used they end up using a lot more energy than was planned. A new study even pointed out that energy efficient buildings sometimes use more than twice the energy than was expected based on their design. This lab offers solutions for people who bring products to test out and want to use all of the lab’s equipment to do so, to people who want to bring their product to test out with their own machinery and equipment.

Current projects involve measuring energy usage for the Genentech building, PG&E and more!

The lab has 4 stations (shown in the video above) to accommodate a variety of testing scenarios including:

1. “Test-drive technologies”

2. “Individual circuits and meters”

3. “Lighting and plug-load elements”

4. “On-site training”

5. “Compression testing”

and more.

Here’s an except from the lab’s website about what they offer:

FLEXLAB is the first test bed in the world that can evaluate the energy efficiency of major building systems, as an integrated system, under real-world conditions. Stakeholders can evaluate energy-efficient building technologies individually or as integrated systems in advance of building projects or retrofits, in order to:

• Optimize integrated systems to maximize energy savings
• Ensure occupant comfort and user-friendliness
• Verify cost-benefit numbers
• Train building operators
• Build confidence in new technologies

( Source: http://flexlab.lbl.gov/ )

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“Poor Little Fishbowl Sink” #art

I consider this to be good art. Sad, but good.

Yan Lu’s piece “Poor Little Fishbowl Sink” is a visual reminder that if people use too much water, it kills living things around them. The sink has a fishbowl at eye level and the direct relationship between our water usage and the impact on the environment is clear.

The fish bowl and the faucet are actually separated so that the fish wouldn’t die from soapy water, and one can wash with clean water. Also, the fish bowl won’t actually ever drain completely but the idea is there and people will remember to turn off the tap!

(Source: http://magazine.good.is/articles/conserve-water-or-the-fish-will-die)

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The Production of Bio-products as a Source of #Energy and Waste #Water Treatment

The fifth International Engineering Invention & Innovation Exhibition (i-ENVEX 2014) in Kangar just wrapped up and the goal medalists beat out more than 87 entries with their project on the production of bio-products as a source of energy and waste water treatment.

The goal medalists are from the UCSI University chemical engineering and the students names are Jing Ren, Selvaraja, Chun Man and Shapnathayammal. The team, including Teoh Kai Wen developed an alternative fuel source that helps overcome fossil fuel dependence, and also reduces the pollution resulting from fossil fuel production. “It combines both the immobilization of cellulase enzyme (attachment of cellulase to a solid support) and functionalization (surface modification) of multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) processes,” Jing Ren explained. Jing Ren also said that: “The past few decades have seen cellulase enzyme being used as the catalyst in industrial processes but large quantities are often involved and the associated purchase cost for raw cellulase is very high”.

The raw material used in this project was palm oil sludge, which was usually disposed after palm oil production. The chemical engineers converted the waste into different products, “bio-oil” and “biochar” by processing the palm oil sludge with pyrolysis.

 

Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Education/2014/06/08/Kudos-for-turning-waste-to-fuel/

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