Public Space: ‘Shower of colour! Artist creates illusion of floating umbrellas in vivid art installation’

From Daily Mail:

Suspended from mid air these stunning colourful umbrellas certainly put other art installations in the shade.

Looking as though they are floating above the ground the brollies are held in place by wires between buildings in Agueda, Portugal.

The installation is an initiative by the council, in the small town just south of Porto, and is part of an art festival call Agitagueda.

Check out the rest of the photos here.

The infographic accompanies the Globe & Mail article, ‘Switch off the lights, here comes the sun’, which highlights a promising solution to increase the energy efficiency of buildings:

Technology being commercialized in British Columbia aims to transform building interiors — providing practical, affordable illumination by harnessing the natural light of the sun. It’s light that will be brighter, more attractive, less expensive and more sustainable than electric light, according to Tony Formby.

Mr. Formby is president of SunCentral Inc., a company developing technology based on breakthroughs made by University of British Columbia physics professor Lorne Whitehead. That technology uses computerized collector panels located on the sun-facing exterior walls of buildings to gather and concentrate sunlight, which is transported and dispersed inside the building by special light guides.

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Infographic source: Globe & Mail)

A Short (Horror) Movie About Energy Waste

From Grist:

David Parker’s “Light” depicts light pollution and wasted energy as a sort of Blob, not necessarily malign but relentless and implacable. In the film, energy-burning lights start dripping goo that covers the ground and finally drives people out of their homes — but it’s all very quiet and eerie, like a Chris Van Allsburg drawing. Showing light as akin to an oil spill draws attention to the wastefulness of using artificial lighting when it’s not needed — wasting energy does basically cover the planet with a gross oily substance, just not necessarily locally and not right away.

From The Guardian:

China’s light bulb moment – a bright idea hovering over its collective head – is a desperately needed glimmer of hope in a world that appears unable to resist its headlong charge into climate darkness.

The commitment by the world’s workshop to end the manufacture of wasteful incandescent light bulbs comes on the same day as a record rise in greenhouse gas emissions was revealed, putting global warming ahead of the worst-case scenarios envisaged by the world’s scientists. The economy may seem to be barely flickering in the west, but globally it is on full beam.

While switching to compact fluorescent bulbs – 75% more efficient than incandescents – has become unremarkable in some developed nations, the significance of China’s move should not be underestimated. Almost 20% of global electricity is used for lighting and the pollution it causes is equivalent to half of all the cars on the world’s roads. And we should be hoping for more light in the world in the future. In India alone, 400 million people live without electricity, condemned to darkness when the sun sets.

With China churning out billions of efficient bulbs, costs will fall further. That means it will be possible to cut carbon emissions from lighting around the world – perhaps by as much as half – without denying the most basic of amenities to the world’s poor.

Lighting is one of the more visible ways that increased energy efficiency can be delivered. Despite being by far the cheapest way of tackling climate change – often paying for itself in months – efficiency measures are too often put in the shade by shinier, more attractive energy technologies.

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Photo credit: Reuters)

Solar energy: ‘Bringing light to the poor, one liter at a time’

From Reuters:

A bottled liter of water with a few teaspoons of bleach is proving to be a successful recipe for dwellers in the light-deprived slums of the Philippines. The simple technology is spreading sunlight in places where it has never been, and saving residents money at the same time.