King County Parks, located in Washington State, took top honors for their eco-friendly cargo camping containers. When was the last time your camping experience included staying in a repurposed cargo container? King County Parks’ popular cargo container-turned-camping structure at Tolt-MacDonald Park near Carnation has been honored with the “Spotlight Award for Innovative Facility” from the Washington Recreation and Parks Association. The camping container has been a hit with visitors to Tolt-MacDonald Park and Campground since its installation among the tall trees and near the west bank of the Snoqualmie River. Campers have enjoyed the comfort and convenience of the container, including a double/single futon bunk and a futon cot-sized chair that converts to a bed. Radiant heat, LED lighting, a table and bench set, and food storage are among the additional indoor features, while outside there is a deck, picnic table and fire pit. Developed in partnership with the King County Solid Waste Division Green Tools program, the cargo camping container has been retrofitted with sustainable and recycled materials throughout the design. The work resulted in a facility that achieved the highest “Platinum” rating on the King County Sustainable Scorecard.
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June 2014
06/28/2014
Eco-Friendly Cargo Camping Wins Top Honors
06/25/2014
The Little Turbine That Could
Wind turbines might be an excellent source of renewable energy, but they have yet to become a residential feature due to one thing – the noise. Thankfully, a Rotterdam-based company called The Archimedes claims to have a solution that is not only quiet, but significantly more efficient that existing wind turbines. Modelled after a Nautilus shell, its inventors claim the Liam F1 Urban Wind Turbine can achieve “80 percent of the maximum that is theoretically feasible.”
“The Liam F1 generates an average of 1,500 kilowatt-hours of energy [per year] at a wind-speed of 5 m/s [16.4 ft/s], which resembles half of the power consumption of a common household.”
Although it’s not officially available until July 1st, the company states that it has already sold 7,000 of the turbines in 14 countries. When it does become available to the general public, it will sell for €3,999, which is about US$5,450.
Kiribati Pacific Oceanscape Takes Action To Preserve Tuna Stocks
On June 16, President Anote Tong of the Republic of Kiribati, an island nation in the Pacific Oceanscape, announced that his nation’s Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) will close to ALL commercial fishing on December 31, 2014!
Covering an area roughly the size of California, PIPA hosts some of the world’s most economically important waters. In fact, if you order a spicy tuna roll in the United States, chances are good that it was made with fish caught in the waters of the Pacific Oceanscape — which supports 60% of the world’s tuna catch.
Tuna numbers are dwindling, though, and the off-limits PIPA will be a globally important test case for large-scale conservation of the popular fish as well as other ocean resources.
06/21/2014
HAPPY SOLSTICE FELLOW EARTHLINGS!
We have good reason to celebrate this year's solstice according to Al Gore.
“At the turn of the 21st century, some scoffed at projections that the world would be installing one gigawatt of new solar electricity per year by 2010. That goal was exceeded 17 times over; last year it was exceeded 39 times over; and this year the world is on pace to exceed that benchmark as much as 55 times over.”
Gore says such growth is comparable to the industry boom of cellphones, which were predicted to only claim about 900,000 subscribers by the year 2000 when first introduced in the early 1980s. When the 20th century came to an end, there were over 109 million subscribers. Now there are 6.8 billion. And we have solar-powered cellphones.
06/14/2014
World Cup News
Amelia Urry of GRIST reports on the World Cup line-up from a different perspective. "If you want a better reason to root for a team than the color of their jersey (what, isn't that how you guys pick your favorites? #sporps) here's a bracket for you!"
World Cup competitors in this match are competing based on who can get the fartherst on the least carbon emissions. "The logic being, if you are going to pollute the atmosphere, you should make sure you get a lotta buck for your bank -- that is, wealth for your combustive energy."
"This bracket is our sloppy shortcut to see how much quality of life a country can wring out of relatively few carbon emissions. (Nerds, you can see our numbers here.) However, the biggest winner — Switzerland — also just happens to be the wealthiest. With only 5 metric tons of CO2 per citizen, and only about half its energy coming from fossil fuels, the alpine country is a middling competitor in the green game — but that $78,930 GDP per capita really pushed them over the top."
"A few other notable upsets: Uruguay had a particularly sleek team, with only 2 tons of CO2 per capita and a not-insignificant GDP per capita of $14,700. Meanwhile, Nigeria handily swept its group, with a typically low 0.5 tons of CO2 but a GDP only half as high as its closest competitor, and the bike-loving wunderkind Netherlands was still dragged down by the weight of those 11 metric tons of CO2."
06/10/2014
SOLAR ROADS & MORE
A small US-based company called Solar Roadways are developing a solar road surface that, if installed nationwide, has the potential to produce more renewable energy than the entire country uses. In fact, they’ve actually already developed a working prototype that’s been installed in a parking lot, and they’re now crowdsourcing funds in order to tweak the design and move towards production.
Solar Roadways, which was started by Scott and Julie Brusaw in 2006, designed and developed hexagonal glass solar panels studded with LED lights that could be installed on a variety of surfaces such as roads, pavements and playgrounds. These panels would more than pay for themselves and would benefit both businesses and homeowners as the energy generated from driveways and parking lots could be used to power buildings, and any excess can be sold back to the grid.
The panels also contain heating elements to melt ice and snow so are ideal in winter conditions, and LEDs to make road lines and signs which have been previously shown to reduce night time accidents. The surface could also be used to charge electric vehicles as oppose to fossil fuels, and future technology could even allow for charging whilst driving via mutual induction panels. Amazingly, the team also found that car headlights can produce energy in the panels, so cars driving around at night would be producing some electricity.
The team have done some calculations; there’s approximately 31,000 square miles of usable surfaces in the US, and if all of these were covered the Solar Roadways system could produce over three times the electricity that is used by the entire country. That’s an incredible potential that could lead to a huge decrease in dependence on foreign oil. It would also cut CO2 emissions by a considerable amount.
Read more at http://www.iflscience.com/technology/solar-roads-could-power-entire-country#U78YjMBfjet1zqbH.99
06/04/2014
JUNE 5th - World Environment Day (WED) - JOIN THE TEAMS
RAISE YOUR VOICES, NOT SEA LEVELS!
UNEP Goodwill Ambassadors Gisele Bündchen, Don Cheadle, Ian Somerhalder and Yaya Touré are sending an SOS to the world on behalf of Small Island Developing States.
Their message in the bottle: "We are all connected. The challenges faced by islands will face us all. So, every action we take to reduce waste and mitigate climate change counts. Join one of our teams and pledge to make a difference by taking action for WED."
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