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2010 -02- 08 22:42:49

Migrating Insects Use Wind to Travel Efficiently at Speeds of up to 60 MPH

Photo: Wikipedia, CC What Can We Learn From The Highways in the Sky Science recently published a study titled Flight Orienta… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Using Mobile Phone Towers to Reduce Sewer Overflow… What?

Photo: Flickr, CC I Feel a Great Disturbance in the Force Finding new uses for equipment that you already have is always satisfying (at least to engineers). One very cool example of this is the use of cell phone towers to measure rainfall in real-time; the rain interferes with the radio signals, and this interference can be measured with greater spatial resolution than traditional point measurements provided by rain gauges. How is this green? Well, in general it could provide better data about our planet and cha… Read the full story on TreeHugger

New US Federal Climate Change Service Launching - Will Unify NOAA Research Under One Office

NOAA responds to millions of annual requests for climate data vital to planning and operations. In vulnerable areas, infrastructure can be designed with a better understanding of projected sea-level rise, flooding and/or changes in hurricane frequency and intensity. Photo and caption: NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced that it will be unifying all its climate change research capabilities into a single office, the NOAA Climate Service. Agency head Read the full story on TreeHugger

Toyota to Recall the 2010 Prius in U.S. and Japan for Braking Problems

Photo: Toyota 311,000 Third Generation Prius Hybrids to be Recalled by Toyota It seems like Toyota has yet to hit rock bottom. Last week the NHTSA announced that it would investigate the brakes of the 2010 Prius, and now we learn that a large number of 2010 Prius hybrids are about to be recalled in both the U.S. and Japan (and probably other countries too, since they all use the same braking system). It s not yet 100% official, but the decision should be announced… Read the full story on TreeHugger

20 Clean Tech Pioneers to Watch: The British Invasion?

Image credit: Clean & Cool With electric vehicles taking over London, and record-setting wind energy installations in the US, it no longer looks like hyperbole when leading venture capitalists like John Doerr pronounce that the field of green-tech is the largest economic opportunity of the twenty-first century. P… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Historic Alaskan Glacier Melt Less Than Previously Thought… But Recent Retreat is Double the Average

photo: Frank Kovalchek via flickr. Here s one with a decided twist: Scientists from France s Laboratory for Space Studies in Geophysics and Oceanography are saying that previous studies of how much melting Alaskan and Canadian glaciers have contributed to sea level rise have overestimated the situation. However, melting since the mid-1990s is still double the historical average:… Read the full story on TreeHugger

42 Tons of Rat Poison to be Dropped on Island Paradise

Photo via truce The normally scenic blue skies over a tiny island paradise will soon be darkened as helecopters pour 42 tons of rat poisoning over the land. The reason for all this? Well, Lord Howe Island, 800 miles off the coast of Sydney and considered by many to be one of the most beautiful places in the world, has a rat problem. Island officials are willing to go to great lengths to exterminate the Read the full story on TreeHugger

3TIER Maps Show Effect of El Niño on US Wind Speeds in 2009

Wind speed variance from average across the United States for all of 2009 (above) and for the last quarter of the year (below). 3TIER was released a number of interesting maps and simulations for the renewable energy industry in the past, and now have released another set. They show how average wind speeds in the US have varied because of E… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Ocean Film Fest 2010: Roz Savage On What It Takes to Row Across Oceans (Video)

Photo via Flickr/Roz Savage Roz Savage is one of our favorite ocean activists. No ocean-oriented festival is complete without her, and luckily, the Ocean Film Fest 2010 was complete. The film Rowing The Atlantic by JB Benna of Journeyfilm is comprised of much of the footage shot by Roz during the row, with some hair-raising moments. It was shown on Friday evening, and Roz hopped up on stage after to answer questions. Check out a trailer of… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Ask Pablo: What Is The Carbon Footprint Of Tofu?

Image Source: Sifu Renka Dear Pablo: I eat a lot of tofu as part of my vegetarian diet but it seems to me that this may conflict with my concerns for the environment. What is the carbon footprint of tofu? Tofu is made from soybeans by curdling soy milk much like cheese is made from cow milk. The soybeans require very little, if any, irrigation and the fix about 1 pound of nitrogen in the soil per plant because they are legumes. The nitrogen put into the soil by the soybean plants reduces the amount of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer required for the crops, usually corn, that follow in the field … Read the full story on TreeHugger

Live Like Rent Free, Energy And Water Efficient, Jetsons

Photo: Energy Australia Want to live rent free for a year, and pay no costs for energy and water needs? Not enough incentive for you? How about the possibility of having a plug-in electric car in your garage, as well? This is the deal that Energy Australia is offering, in concert with Sydney Water. They ll be interviewing successful applicants, who will ideally be a family with kids to spend 12 month live-testing an energy and water smart home in the west of Sydney. The project that has been described by the NSW state government, one of the backers, as a bit like The Jetsons meet Big Brother. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

Global Warming Makes Trees Grow Faster

Photo via StoryCorps A report published last week offers a peek into the effects of global warming on the world s trees. As it turns out, early indications hint that rising temperatures and increases in CO2 em… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Feeding the Grid By Bike: Electricity Generating Gyms (Video)

Image credit: Green Power Science There s something very charming about Dan and Denise Rojas of Green Power Science. Not every energy project they pursue is the most practical in the world, but from huge DIY solar collectors to solar flash cooking an egg in ten seconds, you certainly couldn t blame these guys for a lack of experimentation. And now they are tackling one of those perennial questions that keeps poppin… Read the full story on TreeHugger

New Pictures of Earth Tweeted From Space

Astronauts can now use Twitter to send pictures like this, of the Maldives, with their new Internet connection in space. Photos via Soichi Noguchi In what is perhaps the final frontier for Internet access, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi shared photos he had taken of Earth from the International Space Station via his Twitter page. In addition to scenic locations and sprawling urban centers, Noguchi s photos provide some of the first looks of Haiti s capital, Port-Au-P… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Eastern US Could Feasibly Meet 20% To 30% Of Electricity Needs From Wind By 2024

From the cover of the EWITS. Scientists and engineers at the National Renewable Energy Lab are out of the huddle with a preliminary analysis of just how far Easterners can go with the wind. Per the recently completed Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (EWITS) [a pdf file], the eastern half of America, it is projected, can satisfy around a fifth of its future demand from wind power. This is not a plan by any stretch of the imagination; but, the study makes clear that both inter-state transmission line extensions and grid interconnections are… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Move Over OLEDs: Scientists Create Cheap, Fully Recyclable Lighting Material

Photo via Gizmag Swedish and American researchers have just developed a fully recyclable lighting component with what Science Daily is terms a new super material : graphene. Graphene is both inexpensive to produce and is 100% recyclable, and could be used to create glowing wallpaper made out of plastic–much like )LEDs could. But graphene appears to improve on OLEDs in some very big ways . . . … Read the full story on TreeHugger

RETECH 2010: Municipal Governments Fostering a YIMBY Culture

Image credit: bogenfreund/Flickr Not In My Backyard has been a rallying cry for homeowners upset with the aesthetic implications of renewable energy facilities and a distributed power grid. This attitude, combined with slow state and federal legislatures and now dwindling stimulus money… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Higher National Renewable Energy Standard Means Hundreds of Thousands More Jobs by 2025

A new study is out on just how many new renewable energy industry jobs could be created in the United States by enacting a national renewable energy standard. The RES Jobs Study, conducted by Navigant Consulting, says that with a 25% renewable energy standard (one quarter of all electricity coming from renewable sources) the US could generate 274,000 additional jobs as compared to not enacting the national standard. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

Wildlife Watchers Tap Into the Web

Elk sightings mapped on the WildObs website. Wondering which species of bird you spotted on the local lake the other day? Or what that little critter escaping into the woods might have been? The Internet comes to the rescue once again with a variety of applications that let wildlife watchers share their animal sightings — and help each other identify them — online…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

RETECH 2010: Negotiating the Bumpy Path to a Renewable Future

Image credit: David DeFranza Entrepreneurs, inventors, students, and politicians gathered in Washington, DC, this week to discuss the latest developments in and newest challenges facing renewable energy. Whether called alternative, renewable, or cleantech, the underlying consensus at RETECH 2010 was that clean energy and innovative technology is the futur… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Solar Powered Charger from Scosche Is Small…In More Than One Way

Image via Crunchgear The solBAT II from Scosche is the latest tiny solar charger to hit the market, boasting a 1500mAh capacity battery and 5-volt output. And it s priced at just $30. Not bad right? Other handheld chargers like this can go for anywhere from $50 to $100. So…what s the catch?… Read the full story on TreeHugger

NASA and Beekeepers Use Satellites and Scales To Monitor Climate Change Impact on Bees

Weighing hives on Pine Branch to help compile a national land use map and see if bloom rates are different than they were in the past. Using the weights of hives, NASA researchers can see if climate patterns are changing, and perhaps affecting the bees. Photo via Tammy Horn In order to study the effects of climate change on pollinators, NASA has turned to the bees. With their project Honey Bee Net, NASA and associated researchers are trying to answer questions such as: How will plant-pollinator interactions respond to climate and land use changes? Can modern ecosystem and climate models, based on extensive satellite observations, hel… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Tibet Temps Highest Since Chinese Records Began

photo: Michael Goodine via flickr. China Daily reports that average temperatures in Tibet were higher on average last year than at any point since records began in 1961. The average temperature in the region for all of 2009 was 5.9°C, 1.5°C higher than normal: … Read the full story on TreeHugger

The Hidden Life of Garbage Revealed in Minidocumentary (Video)

Screenshot via Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage Around 23% of the solid waste going to US landfills could be composted. Only around 11% of electronics are recycled…the rest heading to landfill. Except, there is no away - MIT has illustrated this vividly, and so has the Great Pacific Garbage Patch So what s the deal with dumps, t… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Pandas on a Plane: Super Fuel-Efficient FedEx Plane to Transport Pandas to China in Record Time

Photo: Wikipedia, CC. FedEx. A Panda Express Ride for Mei Lan (3 years old) and Tai Shan (4.5 years old) Mei Lan and Tai Shan are two US-born giant pandas that are about to leave their homes at the Washington D.C. Smithsonian Na… Read the full story on TreeHugger

French Using Sewage to Heat Their Swimming Pools

When water from the shower, dishwasher, or washing-machine is drained into the sewer-pipes, it s not just a waste of water, but a waste of the energy used to heat that water. In fact, the water in city pipes averages a temperature of 68°F–energy-produced heat that is simply wasted. This unused energy pestered folks in one French town so much that they decided to put it to good use… and now it heats their swimming pools. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

Amazon Rainforest Near Tipping Point - IPCC Projections of Decline Validated

photo: Alexander Torrenegra via flickr. Amazongate was a non-story from the outset, a question of sloppy citations rather than sloppy science. In fact a new piece in Tierraamérica which Mongabay is highlighting validates the original IPCC projection about how much of the Amazon rainforest could … Read the full story on TreeHugger

Spider Webs Offer Biomimetic Inspiration for Dew Catchers in Developing Countries

Photo via Niffty.. With the help of a scanning electron microscope, Chinese scientists have figured out the secret architecture to spiders webs that make them incredibly effective at catching dew. Cracking into the mystery could mean that the same structures can be duplicated in fog catchers for developing nations, creating effective yet inexpensive methods for helping communities with scarce or polluted water sources. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

Space-Age Tech Coming to a Building Near You: Aerogel as Insulation

Photo: Peter Tsou at NASA s JPL, Public domain. Frozen Smoke in My Walls Aerogel, also known as Frozen Smoke, is quite an interesting material. It has the lowest bulk density of any known porous solid, it is mostly transparent but feels a bit like Styrofoam to the touch, and it has remarkable thermal insulation properties (NASA has used it on the Mars Rover and space suits — Aerogel is a fantastic insulator — if you had a shield of aerogel, you could easily defend yourself from a flame… Read the full story on TreeHugger