Taking space-based solar one rather giant leap further, Japan’s respected construction giant Shimizu is recommending that Earthlings build a huge moon-based solar plant to power the entire world from a Lunar Ring.
After months of Tea Party-type astroturf attacks by the Australian coal industry, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has prevailed in introducing a comprehensive carbon tax on the top 500 polluters in the country to move the heavily coal-dependent Australian economy to a more sustainable future based on clean renewable energy, in the country’s most comprehensive economic reforms in a century. The support of the Green Party turned the tide, according to the Canberra Times.
The item being recycled: concrete tubes – the kind used for water and sewer lines. And for what use are these tubes being recycled? They are hotel rooms on the cheap — priced at $42 a night.
Some more clean (& dirty) tech policy and politics stories from the last week….
Forget the merely invisible, scientists at Columbia Engineering School have created a new material that behaves as if it doesn’t even exist, at least when it comes to light. The new material is a nanoscale structure that allows light to pass through as if it was traversing empty space. In very general terms, that means the light does not slow down or “bend” when it exits the material.
