Articles tagged with: Greenhouse Emissions
Posted in Eco-Friendly, Efficiency, Fuel, Gas, Green, Pollution on 2 February 2008
After adopting the Kyoto Protocol way back in 1997, developed countries have reduced their carbon emissions drastically. However, reports suggest that global CO2 emissions have risen by 35%. Often we hear of developing nations being blamed for failure to enforce environmental regulations. But a new study in ES&T shows that 5.3 gigatons of the planet’s carbon emissions come from international trade. And most of this trade serves the consumers in the developed countries, which have become net importers of carbon emissions. Many developed nations have tries to reduce the carbon emissions but their uncontrolled consumption is turning their environment saving efforts futile.
This trend had been talked of in a paper published last year in ES&T. In this report, Scott Matthews and Christopher Weber of Carnegie Mellon University showed that U.S has outsourced its emissions to its trading partners like China. “It is bit obvious China is producing more to meet consumption in the U.S.,” says Glen Peters of the Industrial Ecology Programme at the Norwegian University of Science and author of the new ES&T study. “Otherwise, China wouldn’t be growing at such a rapid pace.”
Posted in Eco-Friendly, Energy, Environment, Global warming on 29 January 2008
This is the latest news on global warming. The Icy Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic is no longer half as icy as it used to be 50 years ago. And the warming temperatures are to be blamed. The latest research on the same by University of Colorado at Boulder claims that the island will vanish by the middle of the century. Geological sciences Professor Gifford Miller of CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research said: “Even with no additional warming, we are sure the ice caps will disappear in 50 years or less.”
Lying above the Arctic Circle, this island is located on the west of Greenland and is the fifth largest island in the world with an area of 196,000 square miles. The study also indicates two significant bursts of Baffin Island ice cap around 1280 A.D. and 1450 A.D. These findings prove that these eruptions were responsible for the Little Ice Age, which was a period between 1250 to 1850 and resulted in the cooling of Northern Hemisphere.
The Arctic’s temperature has been rising in the recent past due to the greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Apparently, the temperature has risen by seven degrees Fahrenheit since 1991.
Via NewsWire
Posted in Eco-Friendly, Eco-friendly products, Efficiency, Electric, Electricity, Energy, Environment, Products on 18 January 2008
Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Microcontinuum Inc. (Cambridge, MA) conducted a research that promises a method that will produce an inexpensive solar technology. It will draw energy even after the sun sets. The deal is to have solar cells imprinted on flexible materials with the help of special nanoantennas that are stamped on flexible materials like plastic. These nanoantennas can absorb 80% of available energy as compared to the current solar panels which covert less than 20% of usable energy into electricity.
Each nanoantenna has a spiral form with a diameter that is 1/25 of human hair enabling them to absorb energy in the infrared section of the spectrum. The sun radiates a lot of infrared energy, a part of which is absorbed by the planet and released after the sun has set. Nanoantennas take in energy from both sunlight and the earth’s heat. So, it is a more efficient solar product.
However, there is a catch. Manufacturing nanoantennas is not one of them. Actually, there is a problem of creating a way that can store and transmit the electricity produced by nanoantennas. This electricity has the frequency of current switching back and forth ten thousand billion times in a second. Now, this is too fast for electrical appliances that work on currents oscillating 60 times in a second.
Via Gizmag
Posted in Companies, Eco-Friendly, Global warming, Green on 18 August 2007
What made Sony target the reprocessing of one pound of e-waste for every pound of electronics sold under it? Following the footprints of Dell, the company has introduced e-cycling program globally to contribute its services to the environment by reducing electronic waste.
Sony believes in post-sales services and thus the company has inked pact with 75 Waste Management Recycle America eCycling drop-off centers across US to maintain the ecological-balance by protecting environment from e-waste.
The fact is that the usage of electronic products cannot be restricted to numbers as they have become the demand of the hour. So, the smart way is to recycle the used products to save our own lives.
Art Installation made by utilizing damaged computers
Survey done by the EPA in 2005 revealed that out of 1.9 to 2.2 million tonnes of electronic products used; only 345,000 to 379,000 tonnes are recycled. Unfortunately, the rest resides in landfills. This effort made by Sony is more than just doing away with this way of disposal as the process enables the reuse of the glass, plastic and metal. This ultimately reduces the need to extract fresh metals from the Earth, thereby cutting off the energy expenditure. Also, the emission of greenhouse gases can be put to an end to a certain extent.
The customer-friendly nature of the company is making them open sufficient drop-off locations, so that distance would never be an issue. Also, Sony customers’ do not have a spend a single penny to avail this service but yes recycling of other company’s products would demand the payment of market prices.
Via News Factor
Posted in Companies, Eco-Friendly, Electric, Energy, Environment, Gas, Global warming, Green on 18 August 2007
Save water, reduce greenhouse emissions; ride on the green road carved by Fujitsu
Japanese Electronic Giant Fujitsu plans to walk on a green road for its contribution towards the safety of the planet. Having bought a 200 KW hydrogen fuel cell from UTC, the company aims at providing power and heat to sprint the buildings covering its campus in California.
This single fuel cell is capable to offer two different types of energies to the plant. Hydrogen produced through burning methane with steam is flowed into a proton exchange membrane, thereby generating electricity that power computers and other electrical paraphernalia within the facility.
The process in turn produces heat when the hot water is cycled through the plant. The temperature of the water is too high that a small quantity of water has to be taken away as its temperature is unbearable for the internal working of the plant.
Likewise every move to have a green earth, reduce global warming; one cannot claim this option to be 100% eco-friendly option. But what catches eye and mind is the fact that the greenhouse emissions through this process are almost 35% of the normal. This simply means doing away with the 500 tons of carbon dioxide from the air along with saving about 800K gallons of water a year. Isn’t it a great move?
Against present 50% efficiency of the fuel cell, it can be 85% competent, if additional heat is captured from the process. This praiseworthy and efficient move of Fujitsu is aided by utility credits as the company has got a rebate of $500,000 ($2.50 rebate per watt) from Pacific Gas & Electricity. No doubt about the success of the Fujitsu’s initiative but yes success can go two-fold if the waste is minimized and cell works with its full efficiency.
Drawback: The installation of this system is accessible to the industry that works in a 24X7 environment. It is this feature only that Fujitsu doesn’t fall in a category to make the efficient use of its own invention.
Via NYTimes