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Green Your Ride in Just Minutes
It doesn’t actually take long to green your ride. Cars can be complicated but keeping them green… not so much. This month take a few minutes and make sure you’re driving in an eco-friendly manner.
5 minutes – call a friend: Take a few minutes and call a co-worker or stop for a chat at the water cooler and set up a ride-share. Carpooling is an excellent way to lower your footprint. NRDC notes that EVEN if you live just ten miles away from work you can save 236 gallons of gas annually by carpooling. That’s a lot of gas and [...]
Post from: Blisstree
Compressed Air Cars Less Efficient Than Electric Cars
It has been assumed that compressed air cars are cleaner than battery electric cars, but the reality is they are quite inefficient. A new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters reveals that while in theory compressed air cars seem like a potential competitor to EVs, when it comes to lifecycle efficiency, they just don’t make the grade.
The problem lies in the electricity needed to compress the air – a lot of it is lost as heat. The study concludes that even under ideal circumstances, the compressed air car is far less efficient than a battery-powered electric one and results in more GHG emissions than a conventional gas-powered car with our current coal-heavy energy mix. Lifecycle analysis showed compressed air lagged far behind electric vehicles in energy required, emissions and costs.
Lastly, battery technology is advancing everyday and is already well-tested and reliable. Compressed air technology is not likely to advance as quickly or as assuredly, meaning compressed air may still find a home in small urban vehicles, but its reach will be limited.
via Environmental Research Letters
Ten Green & Inexpensive Holiday Gifts
Green doesn’t always have to cost a ton of money. In fact you can get a green gift for everyone on your list without breaking your budget and you’ll have the added comfort of knowing that your carbon footprint is staying small and your eco-conscious clear. There are a ton of green gifts for kids to be had that don’t cost a lot so we’ll cover some of those in their own post soon. Today we’ll stick to adult-minded gifts. All of the green gifts below can be had for $40 bucks or less…
For your mom: You don’t always talk [...]
Post from: Blisstree
Wind Power Could be Stored as Ice
A perfect way of storing electricity generated by wind turbines has been elusive so far. Ideas like super-sized batteries, compressed air and hydroelectric storage have all been floated. One company though thinks the answer could be as simple as making ice.
Calmac has come up with a storage system called IceBank that uses the energy generated at off-peak night-time hours to make ice. That stored ice is then used for cooling purposes during high-demand daytime hours. The company claims that reducing electricity demand for cooling can cut energy costs by 20 – 40 percent. That reduction also means fewer emissions from power plants.
This a great solution for harnessing wind power that might otherwise go to waste during night-time hours. And it’s pretty low-tech – no need for lithium or rare earth minerals – just a souped up ice maker.
via Treehugger
Grab Some Green Holiday Coffee
It’s getting harder and harder to pick out a good green coffee. There are lots of coffee labels just aching to confuse you – it’s worse than trying to find ec0-friendly wine! However, if you break down the terms used for green coffee, it’ll make your selection easier. Good thing too for us coffee addicts (read me).
Roasted – this is a term you can safely ignore. ALL coffee is roasted what differs is the amount of roasting time and the level of heat used to roast. Roasting, unless a company is boasting that they use some sort of renewable energy [...]
Post from: Blisstree
Recycling your holiday wrap
After the holidays you’re bound to have some extra wrapping paper on your hands. No need to toss it though. Gift wrap can be recycled in many ways.
First things first:
First grab a big box and have it at the ready Christmas morning. You can toss wrap into the box as you open gifts – it’s also smart to have two smaller boxes for filler items like shredded paper or packing popcorn and another for reusable gift tags and bows.If you’re prepared it makes it easier to recycle as you go.
How to recycle your wrap:
Sort and save – sort out usable [...]
Post from: Blisstree
Lead found in common holiday toys
The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) recently tested about 250 toys and children’s accessories from local Bay Area and San Diego retailers, including Target, WalMart, TJ Maxx, Tuesday Morning, Sears, Walgreens and other stores this fall and then had said toys tested for lead (pdf). Although lead has been banned from toys here in the US, seven of the toys were found to contain high levels of lead including a seemingly innocent, Mattel Barbie bicycle accessory set and a Disney “Tinker Bell” necklace set.
While the bike accessories and necklace contained the most lead, the CHE also found levels of lead [...]
Post from: Blisstree
Best Backyard Compost Tumblers
Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of waste your household generates, plus there’s the added benefit of free fertilizer for your yard or garden. There are some nifty options for indoor composting on the market, but to do it on a larger scale you need to move outdoors. Here are [...]
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Fastest Computer in the World Focused on Climate Change
The Jaguar XT5 computer, housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville, Tenn. and owned by the Department of Energy was just named the fastest computer in the world by the TOP500 list. It has a performance speed of 1.759 petaflops or quadrillions of calculations per second and that power is being focused on solving the issues of climate change.
The Jaguar is an open science machine for performing peer-reviewed research. It is being used to create models and simulations for predicting regional climate change, studying enzymes for developing better ethanol and writing algorithms for fast nuclear reactors that would produce less waste. A billion hours of processor time have been scheduled for 2010 by users like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Argonne National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation.
If you’re thinking that the fastest computer in the world should be used for other problems too, don’t worry, the Jaguar along with the other supercomputers on the list are also being used for things like nuclear security, developing better medicines and examining the origins of the universe, among other things.
Oak Ridge hosts four of the supercomputers on the list, including Kraken which was number three in the world with a speed of 831 teraflops. Where the human brain’s processing performance ends, these supercomputers pick up, allowing tons of information to be sorted, processed and analyzed. With all of the challenges facing us in tackling climate change, it’s nice to have them on our side.
via AP
Thrown an Eco Wine & Cheese Party
In the last post we looked at how to start planning your eco-friendly wine & cheese party, including how to choose the cheese, wine, and other edibles. Now we’re going to tackle serving and set up, plus some bonus tips all meant to keep your wine & cheese party super green.
THE PARTY GOODS:
I hope I don’t have to say this, but make sure to use real dishes; like some cute little glass plates and real cloth napkins, not paper goods. There are also plenty of serving options available that will make your party an eco-friendly one. Above are some super [...]
Post from: Blisstree
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