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Notes Clean Energy Shift: 'Elementary School Students Crowdfund Their Own Solar-Powered Classroom'
From Clean Technica:
A class of elementary school students in Durham, North Carolina recently set out on a mission to make their classroom 100% solar powered. The fourth grade class started a Kickstarter campaign: Our Solar Powered Classroom for that purpose, and they greatly exceeded their goal. The class has stated that the extra funds will be used to purchase a larger system, which will then sell back electricity to the community.
Check out the rest of the article here.Photo source: Clean Technica
Related:
• ‘Crowdfunding Clean Energy’ (NY Times)
• ‘“Crowdfunding” Gives Boost to Renewables in U.S.’ (IPS News) -
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Notes"If it seems far-fetched to imagine millions of Americans becoming mini energy producers, just look at Germany, where 51 percent of the country’s clean energy production is owned by individuals or farmers, while major utilities control just 6.5 percent of it."A short paragraph from a recent New York Times article, ‘Crowdfunding Clean Energy’.
(Photo source: Inc.com)
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Notes It's Getting Hot in Here: 'China to Introduce Carbon Tax'From Xinhaunet:
China will proactively introduce a set of new taxation policies designed to preserve the environment, including a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, according to a senior official with the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
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China is among the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gas and has set goals for cutting emissions. The government has vowed to reduce carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of economic output, by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 in comparison to 2005 levels.
Check out the rest of the article here.Related:
• ‘China is getting serious about taming coal’ (Grist)
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NotesIt’s Gettin’ Hot in Here: ‘Weathergirl Goes Rogue 2: Still Hot, Still Crazy’
After the huge viral success of ‘Weathergirl Goes Rogue’, the folks at Deep Rogue Ram are back with another hilarious, but deadly serious weathercast.
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Clean Energy Future: ‘Artificial Waterfall Could Make 2016 The Greenest Olympic Games We’ve Seen Yet’
From The Creators Project:‘As Brazil readies itself for the upcoming 2014 World Cup, the honor and burden of hosting an even larger global sporting event still sits on the country’s shoulders. In conjunction with the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, several new structures will be erected in Rio’s cityscape. One of the many projects creating huge buzz is the Solar City Tower, an artificial waterfall designed to generate clean, renewable energy.
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The vertical structure’s design is conducive to multiple functions: its primary purpose is to capture and distribute solar power to the Olympic Village and to the city, but it doubles as an observation tower. The 345-foot structure will have solar panels around its base, used to store energy during the day, releasing it through turbines for use at night. For special occasions, the turbine will pump seawater into the tower and then shoot it back out to sea, creating a waterfall effect in the middle of the ocean.
Check out more pictures and the rest of the article here.
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Notes"We’ve got to somehow get everybody to understand that a different and better energy system is not only just possible, it’s inevitable."/Campaigns_Detail/clen-windmills-585-RC.jpg)
Michael Liebreich, CEO of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in an interview for The Huffington Post article, ‘Is Clean Energy Doomed If President Obama Is Not Re-Elected?’
(Photo source: Pew Clean Energy Program)
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Notes"How should we think about the relationship between climate change and day-to-day experience? Almost a quarter of a century ago James Hansen, the NASA scientist who did more than anyone to put climate change on the agenda, suggested the analogy of loaded dice. Imagine, he and his associates suggested, representing the probabilities of a hot, average or cold summer by historical standards as a die with two faces painted red, two white and two blue. By the early 21st century, they predicted, it would be as if four of the faces were red, one white and one blue. Hot summers would become much more frequent, but there would still be cold summers now and then.
And so it has proved. As documented in a new paper by Dr. Hansen and others, cold summers by historical standards still happen, but rarely, while hot summers have in fact become roughly twice as prevalent. And 9 of the 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 2000.
But that’s not all: really extreme high temperatures, the kind of thing that used to happen very rarely in the past, have now become fairly common. Think of it as rolling two sixes, which happens less than 3 percent of the time with fair dice, but more often when the dice are loaded. And this rising incidence of extreme events, reflecting the same variability of weather that can obscure the reality of climate change, means that the costs of climate change aren’t a distant prospect, decades in the future. On the contrary, they’re already here, even though so far global temperatures are only about 1 degree Fahrenheit above their historical norms, a small fraction of their eventual rise if we don’t act.
"A quote from Paul Krugman’s recent piece in the New York Times, ‘Loading the Climate Dice’. You can check out the rest of the article here and the James Hansen paper referred to in Krugman’s article here.
Related:
- ‘Record Summer Temperatures, By The Numbers’ (Climate Central)
- ‘Study: Many U.S. cities unprepared for future heat waves’ (Washington Post)
(Infographic source: Climate Central)
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Notes Clean Energy Future: 'The Solar Possibilities' (Infographic) -
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Notes Sustainable Cities: 'Solar-powered 'supertrees' breathe life into Singapore's urban oasis'
From CNN:
Singapore’s latest development will finally blossom later this month, with an imposing canopy of artificial trees up to 50 meters high towering over a vast urban oasis.
The colossal solar-powered supertrees are found in the Bay South garden, which opens to the public on June 29. It is part of a 250-acre landscaping project — Gardens by the Bay — that is an initiative from Singapore’s National Parks Board that will see the cultivation of flora and fauna from foreign lands.
The man-made mechanical forest consists of 18 supertrees that act as vertical gardens, generating solar power, acting as air venting ducts for nearby conservatories, and collecting rainwater. To generate electricity, 11 of the supertrees are fitted with solar photovoltaic systems that convert sunlight into energy, which provides lighting and aids water technology within the conservatories below.
Varying in height between 25 and 50 meters, each supertree features tropical flowers and various ferns climbing across its steel framework. The large canopies also operate as temperature moderators, absorbing and dispersing heat, as well as providing shelter from the hot temperatures of Singapore’s climate to visitors walking beneath.
The project is part of a redevelopment scheme to create a new downtown district in the Marina Bay area, on Singapore’s south side. Project organizers hope the completed Gardens by the Bay will become an eco-tourist destination showcasing sustainable practices and plants from across the globe.
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The horticultural oasis will be a contrast to the country’s extremely dense urban environment, forming part of the government’s overall strategy to transform Singapore into a “city in a garden.”
Check out the rest of the article here.
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Notes Clean Energy Future: 'Are we wildly underestimating solar and wind power?'
From The Washington Post:
Right now, renewable energy sources like solar and wind still provide just a small fraction of the world’s electricity. But they’re growing fast. Very fast. Three new pieces of evidence suggest that many policymakers may be drastically underestimating just how quickly wind and solar are expanding.
1) Solar is growing exponentially.
2) Official agencies keep underestimating the growth rate of renewables.
3) Using only current technology, renewables could technically provide the vast bulk of U.S. electricity by mid-century.
Check out the details and the rest of the article here.
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Plant a Garden: Reason #9
Help someone out -
- Plant a row for the needy
- Drop off extra produce at the food bank
- Share food...
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Third Year of Drought Threatens Southwestern Oklahoma! Meanwhile … O.K. Sen. Inhofe still says global warming’s a hoax @ State Impact
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Young Monk! by Mardy Photography
Siem Reap, Cambodia
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As our numbers increase, so space for other animals and plants decreases. Our skills and technological ingenuity seem to know no bounds. Having...
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The New York rapper’s political and layered rhymes have been pegged as “conscious rap,” a label that has now become pejorative. His latest album...
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Mather Work Incentive Poster
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Energy harvesting pavement powers its own streetlights.
London-based startup Pavegen has developed tiling that can harvest...
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New York City’s Sea Level Rise Task Force...
