A new Danish project model paves the way for more environmental friendly cities. The model was formed in cooperation between residents, organisations and companies with the Danish Technological Institute, Copenhagen Energy and Miljøpunkt Østerbro as the initiators. It all took place during the recently completed environmental project 2100.nu, and the results were so noteworthy that the project form is now to be spread to the entire capital. The savings potentials are enormous.
How big a furnace – whether it’s solar or fossil fuel energy based to you need for your home, living or even agricultural barn needs? It seems to be a state secret, highly guarded by the priests of heating and energy trades yet all in all it’s fairly easy and simple to work out and calculate yet its not all too complex a concept or set of concepts to understand, how can you easily understand and reduce your heating and cooling energy needs and requirements.
Almost everywhere in the United States and Canada a home without air conditioning can be effectively cooled by a single, powerful fan, mounted on the floor joists of an attic and controlled most simply and easily by a switch downstairs in the home . The fan pulls cool, fresh air into the house through open windows and in return as part of the circuit pulls cool fresh air through gables and soffit vents. Much less expensive and much more energy saving and efficient than central or room air conditioners the fan costs a lot less thermal generated electrical or hydro generated energy to run. Read the rest of this entry »
Scotland has become one of the world leaders in renewable energy production, and in the last few years the country has taken huge strides towards maximising the potential of its huge natural resource base. Concerns over climate change and peak oil production (essentially the time when global petroleum extraction reaches the maximum level before going into terminal decline) have pushed the subject of renewable energy to the upper levels of the political agenda, and the ambitious target set by the government in 2007 to have 31% of the country’s power generation produced from renewable sources by 2011 have already been exceeded. The long term aim is to have the share grow to between 50-80% by 2020, again an ambitious target but one which Scotland is already well on track to accomplish with a number of Scottish electric companies investing heavily in the new technology.
Every year it seems like gas costs more than it did the year before. Of course, your paycheck is probably not increasing at the same rate, so gas price increases can put a dent in your budget. If you are paying so much for gas that you are worried you are going to have to visit a cash for cars store, sell your car, and start walking everywhere, do not worry. There are five easy ways that you can save on gas while driving.
Earthsave.org has published a report about the connection between global warming and global meat consumption.
“By far the most important non-CO2 greenhouse gas is methane, and the number one source of methane worldwide is animal agriculture. Methane is responsible for nearly as much global warming as all other non-CO2 greenhouse gases put together. Methane is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2. While atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have risen by about 31% since pre-industrial times, methane concentrations have more than doubled. Whereas human sources of CO2 amount to just 3% of natural emissions, human sources produce one and a half times as much methane as all natural sources. In fact, the effect of our methane emissions may be compounded as methane-induced warming in turn stimulates microbial decay of organic matter in wetlands—the primary natural source of methane.”
Top hurricane forecasters Dr. William Gray believes the recent uptick in strong hurricanes is part of a multi-decade trend that will lead to dropping ocean temperatures in the next five to 10 years. Link
New solar cells developed by Massey University don’t need direct sunlight to operate and use a patented range of dyes that can be impregnated in roofs, window glass and eventually even clothing to produce power. Link
US set to ban incandescent light bulbs, hoping it will lower electric prices and shed coal plants faster. Unfortunately, it will do the opposite. Link
It looks like a colour-coded terror alert scale and meteorologically speaking, that’s exactly what it is. With climate change making conditions more unpredictable, national weather services from across the European Union have joined forces to create http://www.meteoalarm.eu a new website providing up-to-the-minute information on ‘extreme weather’ across the continent. The initiative, managed by Austria’s Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, is designed to give Europeans a single source for details on flash floods, severe thunderstorms, gale-force winds, heat waves, blizzards and other violent weather that poses a threat to life or property. It also issues 24- and 48-hour warnings for heavy fog, extreme cold, forest fires and ‘coastal events’ such as high waves or severe tides. Although the European site officially will launch in Madrid, Spain, on March 23 World Meteorological Day it is already live on the web in test form. The Network of European Meteorological Services includes 20 countries and covers land stretching from Portugal to Sweden. Not every nation in the region is contributing, but the site hopes to bring others online eventually.
At the moment there are code red warnings in the north-west corner of Spain for ‘Coastal Events’ and in southern Austria for heavy snowfall.
December 18, 2006 at 9:11 pm · Filed under Climate, Ecology
Planting forests to combat global warming may be a waste of time, especially if those trees are at high latitudes, new research suggests. Scientists say the benefits that come from trees reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide can be outweighed by their capacity to trap heat near the ground. Computer modelling indicates that trees only really work to cool the planet if they are planted in the tropics. Link
November 17, 2006 at 8:25 pm · Filed under Climate
An iceberg has been spotted from the New Zealand shore for the first time in living memory, and scientists are trying to determine where it and several other giant chunks drifting in the country's waters orginated from. Last year, icebergs were seen in New Zealand water for the first time in 56 years, but couldn't be seen from the shore. This year one was visible from Dunedin on South Island on Thursday. It has since moved away, driven by winds and ocean currents. The floating ice blocks have become a tourist attraction, as sightseers pay up to 500 New Zealand dollars (US$332; euro252) each to fly over the icebergs. Theories about where on the Antarctic coastline the icebergs originated have gripped the science community since they were first spotted. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Researc, says the iceberg could not spefically be linked to global warming.
The German environment research organization has just released their Climate Performance Index 2006 at the UN Climate Conference in Nairobi. The list only includes the 56 industrialized countres that each emits more than one percent of the global CO2.
Iceland wins this time, but they are cheating by using geothermal heating systems. We got the entire report as pdf in the reseach section. Link.
It looks like a colour-coded terror alert scale and meteorologically speaking, that’s exactly what it is. With climate change making conditions more unpredictable, national weather services from across the European Union have joined forces to create
An iceberg has been spotted from the New Zealand shore for the first time in living memory, and scientists are trying to determine where it and several other giant chunks drifting in the country's waters orginated from. Last year, icebergs were seen in New Zealand water for the first time in 56 years, but couldn't be seen from the shore. This year one was visible from Dunedin on South Island on Thursday. It has since moved away, driven by winds and ocean currents. The floating ice blocks have become a tourist attraction, as sightseers pay up to 500 New Zealand dollars (US$332; euro252) each to fly over the icebergs. Theories about where on the Antarctic coastline the icebergs originated have gripped the science community since they were first spotted. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Researc, says the iceberg could not spefically be linked to global warming. 
