Like a modern-day alchemist, Washington, DC-based Envion has developed a system to produce oil from waste plastic. Considering that the price of crude oil is once again on the rise, that’s not unlike turning rocks into gold. Envion, founded in 2004, is keeping the lid on the details of its proprietary technology, but does reveal [...]
A U.N. conference in Copenhagen next month is due to agree a new pact to combat global warming after mounting evidence that human activity is disrupting the climate. The following is a timeline of the discovery of global warming. 300 BC – Theophrastus, a student of Greek philosopher Aristotle, documents that human activity can affect [...]
People often talk as if warming temperatures are the only evidence of human-induced global climate change. But the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also has increased dramatically. For most of the past 800,000 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations ranged from about 180 to 280 parts per million. Today, it is 387 parts per [...]
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A new type of reflective coating can make solar panels far more efficient, soaking up nearly all available sunlight from nearly any angle, U.S. researchers said on Monday. Current solar panels — which convert energy from the sun into electricity — absorb only about two-thirds of available sunlight. But surfaces treated with [...]
Barack Obama should set drastic targets to force the US to switch to renewable energy in an effort to slow down climate change, according to the former vice president Al Gore. Gore said that one of Obama’s first acts as US president should be to demand a move to 100% renewable energy within 10 years. [...]
Ecopreneur recently asked Lisl Lain of Green Door Consulting to come up with an CARBON FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR adapted for the South African conditions. This calculator quantifies your household’s carbon emissions from the three most important sources: electricity consumption, car travel and air travel. The Eskom emissions factor used is from Eskom’s 2008 report (the figure [...]
This may seem a bit obvious if you live in what sometimes seems like the green bubble, but a new survey by Kelton Research, done at the behest of Schott Solar and the Solar Energy Industry Association, shows that 92% of US citizens think it’s important that the nation develop and use solar power. What’s [...]
1. War Image: manhattanproject.it Perhaps the most tragic man-made disasters stem from war. Whether it be the complete devastation wrought by nuclear weapons or an antique practice such as strewing salt in the earth of the defeated enemies, war is by its very nature destructive. From elephants stepping on landmines to contaminated water, to the [...]
