Published on October 10th, 2009
The US Air Force has placed an order for 100,000 gallons of Camelina-based jet fuel, in addition to the 40,000 gallons the Navy ordered last month for $2.7 million, with delivery to begin this year. Sustainable Oils is supplying them with a biofuel grown in Montana with 80% lower carbon emissions than jet fuels now.
The US Air Force has ordered an additional 100,000 gallons of Camelina for their second round of flight tests starting next June. The DOD is trying to find a non food-competitive biofuel that can be blended with jetfuel to reduce carbon emissions and is running tests on several kinds of alternative fuels.
Read the rest of this entry »
Published on October 7th, 2009
A Woman’s Work…
The Governor’s Global Climate Summit ended with Oxfam America’s inaugural Sisters on the Planet Climate Leader Awards. Thanks to Karen Solomon at Opportunity Green, I was able to attend. The event showcased the work that women all over the world are doing to adapt to climate change. Sisters on the Planet is committed to exposing how livelihoods of the majority of the planet’s women are the most severely impacted by climate change. To quote the brochure:
“But if you remember one thing about Sisters on the Planet, make it this: Climate change is already having a disproportionate impact on poor people in the US and abroad, and it’s hitting women hardest.”
Oxfam is working with women all over the world to develop low-cost adaptation techniques relevant to the regions they’re in. Adapting to global warming requires a range of tactics, from helping families in flood-prone regions elevate their homes, build floating vegetable gardens, and store seeds and other necessities safely to helping farmers in drought-prone areas plant trees, drill wells and improve their irrigation techniques. Oxfam’s publication, Adaptation 101, shows the overall cost of some of these projects, and at what level they need to be carried out- in the community or nationally.
Read the rest of this entry »
Published on October 5th, 2009
Turkey farmers growing greenhouse tomatoes have been using this technology since 2005. California is going to get it before the end of this year.
LA-based ClimateMinder now completely owns the Turkish company Kodalfa and it is eager to bring some of its technology to the US. This company’s “new” climate-monitoring and control system helps greenhouse farmers to monitor their crops and adjust the conditions of their greenhouses with wireless technology. This helps farmers and consumers in numerous and significant ways.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:
agriculture,
California,
ClimateMinder,
crops,
farmers,
farms,
food,
greenhouse,
greenhouses,
GrowFlex,
Kodalfa,
M2M,
productivity,
tech,
technology,
Turkey
Published on October 3rd, 2009
Desert Hills Dairy of Nevada has joined with Carbon Bank Ireland, an emerging leader in cap-and-trade carbon emissions markets, to build the state’s first biogas facility to convert cow manure into electricity. Along with producing enough sustainable methane to power itself and other equipment at the second largest dairy in Nevada, the high tech digester will produce liquid fertilizer and mulch.
Carbon Bank Ireland specializes in harvesting certified emissions credits from sustainable energy projects, which can be traded in the European carbon markets. While some pundits claim that cap-and-trade is “socialism on a grand scale” (whatever that is), that doesn’t appear to bother the cows. It also doesn’t appear to bother Nevada, which sees a lot of green in its future. As reported by Nevada Appeal writer Kirk Caraway, interest in the state’s rich solar, wind and geothermal resources is surging, and it is becoming a desirable location for start-ups that are developing sustainable projects such as the capture of waste heat and the development of hi tech batteries. Green jobs, anyone?
Read the rest of this entry »
Published on September 30th, 2009
There’s a Bizarro World quality to this period in history. Anyone covering news in these Interesting Times cannot possibly chronicle all the news that really marks the journey as we careen into our unimaginably strange future. Add yours in comments, but here’s what I found:
California regulators decreed that, by law, your your car has to be cool. Also seaweed killed a horse on a French beach using just fumes and British engineers suggested that buildings be wrapped in slime to absorb CO2. A fossil fuel reduced our carbon emissions. British scientists taught agricultural runoff to clean up nuclear waste.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:
82% drop in corn by 2100,
abandoned cargo ships,
agricultural runoff,
buildings wrapped in slime,
dawn of the ecological civilization,
five tornadoes Maine,
fuel from forests destroyed by pine beetles,
grow crops salt water,
hard to breathe climate change,
new source of electricity,
no rain for a billion,
nuclear waste,
seaweed killing rampage,
smelly fish,
we stop growing crops,
xpcar
Published on September 21st, 2009
Iowa leads the US in the percentage of wind power on the grid. The local utility companies pay area farmers royalties of $3,000–5,000 per year so huge wind turbines can share their vast farmland acreage and feed the power to the grid. The arrangement has been so successful that 15% of Iowa’s power now comes from wind.
Read the rest of this entry »
Published on September 17th, 2009
Yesterday, I wrote about the new DH9 from DewPointe, one of the cool eco-innovations to be showcased at West Coast Green October 1-3 in San Francisco. The DH9 is capable of extracting water vapor from the air and converting it to (very) pure drinking water, at a rate of about 6.5 gallons per day. The technology is inspiring, in that this is a free-standing water manufacturer, needing no water supply, and conjures up images of moisture farms and growing forests where once there was desert. Indeed, even in 30% relative humidity, which is akin to some of the driest deserts in the world, the DH9 can produce 4 gallons of water per day from the air.
The big drawbacks are the cost ($1600 retail price) and the need for electricity. While standing, the DH9 uses 80 Watts, and while actively filtering, it uses 500.
Researchers in Stuttgart, however, have solved one of those two problems: their system is completely based on renewable, on-site energy. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on August 28th, 2009
With a startling green master-plan that will one day connect North and South Korea, Foster+Partners has won an international competition to design an extensive mixed-use scheme for two Korean islands near Seoul.
That it is bold, green and innovative is no surprise. Foster+Partners is known for visionary sustainable architecture - such as their Teatro Del Agua. It harvests sea spray and wind to naturally cool an outdoor amphitheater.
But this is perhaps their most extraordinary scheme ever. How often does an Architectural firm get to connect a communist and a capitalist country? With the world’s longest bridge? Incredible.
Read the rest of this entry »
Published on August 27th, 2009
Hundreds of thousands of tons of watermelons are tossed every year because they aren’t good enough for market. A new study finds that the juice from these watermelons could easily be used to create the biofuel ethanol and other helpful products.
Read the rest of this entry »
Published on August 25th, 2009
A leading California almond processor, the Minturn Nut Company, has completed the installation of a 403 kW solar power system on its main warehouse facility in Le Grand, California. The system was designed and installed by Cenergy Power, a specialist in agricultural solar applications. California supplies all - that’s right, all - of the almonds grown in the U.S. and almost 80% of the world’s almond supply. With Minturn handling more than 50 million pounds of almonds last year alone, it’s only a matter of time before other almond growers follow Minturn’s leap into sustainable energy.
Read the rest of this entry »
