Month: December 2014 (Page 2 of 3)

The Future of Elevators

This may change how cities are built; revolutionary

In this article by the Huffington Post, the author explores the possibility that the future look of cities may be different than what most expect because of this developing technology in the elevator industry. Why this technology is extremely relevant is because in the next century urban communities will be where roughly 80-90% of the world’s population and elevators play an imperative role in urban society. Furthermore, elevators have allowed humanity to built up rather than across, which has arguably hurt the environment by expanding society’s footprint.

In their current cable system elevators use a lot of electricity to function and are actually not all that efficient at doing their jobs. In this new proposed system, elevators would be run entirely by magnets (lower energy costs) and would cut down on time spend on the elevator. It is really hard to explain exactly why these new elevators would shift the shape of buildings, but as can be viewed by the above image it is extremely unique and unlike anything I have very seen before. In conclusion be prepared the elevator is in the process of evolving.

Halliburton’s Relationship with North Dakota

Currently, North Dakota is the epee center for fracking in the United States. This boom in the fracking industry has lead to North Dakota having the lowest unemployment and fastest growing economy of any state in the US. The economic growth fracking has brought North Dakota is unprecedented in their history and actually many of its citizens even with the harms of fracking being made more apparent still strongly support the industry. Even more perplexing many of these supporters are the ones experiencing the most environmental externalities like severe air and water contamination. Nevertheless, the scene has begun to change rapidly since a 2013 oil spill in the town of Tioga. Researchers now believe the hydraulic fracking site at Tioga is the largest land oil spill in the history of the US and has contributed to the many corresponding towns having extreme water contamination.  This fiasco has caused many residents to form a coalition of people trying to get Halliburton and other fracking company’s out of North Dakota, but their efforts have not been to successful yet due to a lack of power. It’s now important to wonder how much will it take for North Dakota to realize the harms of the Fracking Industry and actually do something on a governmental level.

Solar Energy in China

In this recent New York Times Interview, they sit down with the man currently leading the charge for solar energy development in China, Li Hejun. Hejun believes that once solar energy gets to the point where it rivals coal in terms of cost, it will lead to a new economic revolution globally. With this being said, Hejun also makes the point that China’s solar energy technology is actually a lot better than most people give them credit and believes China is essentially the third highest country investing and developing solar technology. If this is true then all the power to Hejun and his company Hanergy because it will take alternative mindsets like his to move China past coal-powered technologies, so that they can correct the immense environmental degradation they have caused. Also in wake of Obama’s most recent agreement with China, company’s like Hanergy make me believe China will be able to hold up to their end of the bargain.

This article is about the huge help efficiency could lend to reducing carbon emissions in our future. Of the largest economies in the world, Germany has been rated most energy efficient, yet scored a rating of merely 65 out of a possible 100. According to some numbers in the article, “efficiency will have to account for 40 percent of the emissions reductions if warming is to be limited to 2 degrees Celsius, as world leaders have pledged, Mr. Benoit said. That will cost $14 trillion between now and 2035, more than $600 billion a year, doubling the current rate of spending on efficiency. In addition, Environmentalists, though, are disappointed with an October agreement by European Union leaders to set a non-binding target of increasing the bloc’s energy efficiency by at least 27 percent by 2030.” So, we’ll see what actually happens. It could be interesting, but it is important within all our extreme innovation to take a look at existing technologies and see if it is possible to make them more efficient.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/01/business/energy-environment/energy-efficiency-may-be-the-key-to-saving-trillions.html?ref=earth

An investment firm in Latin america is beginning to invest in the land. “The region has lost some 36 million hectares, or 89 million acres, of forest and grasslands to agriculture since 2000, said Walter Vergara, a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute in Washington, one of the conservation groups supporting the project.” In addition, latin america accounts for 13 percent of the global food trade which is a number that could take off once the farmland is restored and made arable again. Overfarming has been a huge issue in these regions unfortunately, but this investment bank, which is Luxemborg-based, sees land as something that could attract more sources of income. Deforestation prevention is also part of their investment as the trees hold lots of value in erosion control and water absorbtion which can benefit farmland as well as pasture land.
My immediate response to this was finally! someone who is helping the often forgotten land of latin america. It will be interesting to see where this takes agriculture in the region and if more investment firms will think about investing here. In addition, I wonder if any environmental groups have been involved in communicating with the investment firm.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/world/americas/investors-recruited-to-restore-farmland-.html?ref=earth

Martin Litton, a lifelong environmentalist and active within the SIerra Club has passed away at the age of 97. I think this is a pertinent time, to take a look at those people who initially were vocal about human respect of nature. If it weren’t for them, we could be in a much worse place environmentally speaking. This article contains an interview where Litton explains his struggles with developers in being an avid environmentalist. David Brower relayed that Litton was the Sierra Club’s conscience most of the time he was involved with it, saying he had a bright and hopeful mind, willing to motivate people. One quote from Litton:
“Shall we fail to go into battle because it is hard to win?” he wrote. “Could not 22,000 Sierra Club members, without strain, turn out 22,000 letters a day for a week?” He continued, “There has never been a Congress, a president, a secretary of interior, a governor or a newspaper editor who would not sit up and take notice of that.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/martin-litton-fighter-for-environment-dies-at-97.html?ref=science&_r=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdLCMtvm43M

The tragedy that is the recent Eric Gardner verdict has spurred a lot of anger towards the government and  civil rights anguish  because many believe the case should have at least went to trial. In truth most people believe the courts got this one wrong, there was enough video evidence to at least justify a trial unlike in the Michael Brown case. With that said their are many who still believe what the cop did was right. One of those people, being the notorious Sean Hannity. In a recent video he fights with another conservative Rand Paul over the verdict and honestly by the end it left me speechless because its hard to believe a person could support such unnecessary police brutality like that. Even more appalling Hannity doesn’t even agree to the fact Eric Gardner did not need to die. In conclusion watch the video and become just as concerned about how stubborn people like this still exist in society.

India is set to reveal a new climate plan in January according to an Indian business publication. It is likely to include a “peaking year” for India’s GHG emissions. This announcement fits in with what the U.N. climate negotiators are hoping for. Countries are supposed to announce their emission reduction goals by March 2015 and then in December 2015, world leaders are supposed to commit to holding each other accountable to their goals.

Although this is good news, there are still a lot of questions. India is one of the biggest polluters in the world and currently 300 million of it’s 1.2 billion residents don’t have electricity. When those people get access, India’s emissions will most likely increase exponentially. Still, this year China, the U.S., the E.U., and now India have stepped up and demonstrated that they are willing to do something to tackle the looming threat of climate change.

http://grist.org/news/india-may-be-the-next-big-polluter-to-announce-a-climate-plan/

On Wednesday, a accident during maintenance work on the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline resulted in the spillage of million of liters of crude oil. The oil flooded 200 acres of a desert nature reserve about 12 miles north of the red sea. The leak stopped before the oil could cross the nearby Jordanian boarder but dozens of Jordanian nationals were evacuated due to complaints about breathing problems and dizziness. Rehabilitation will probably take months if not years according the the environment ministry general and will consist of drainage with suction equipment and removal of contaminated earth. On ministry official said this was the worst environmental accidents in Israel’s history.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Oil-spill-near-Eilat-is-one-of-worst-environmental-accidents-in-Israels-history-official-says-383615

Accidents like this make you wonder what is going to happen if they install the keystone pipeline….

A recent study completed by the utility-software maker OPower concluded that solar panels should be west facing instead of south facing. Most solar panels face south to receive the most amount of sunlight but electricity demand is the highest later in the day when the sun is in the west. Recent guidelines from the California Energy Commission state that systems facing west align highly with the needs of the grid. When people come home from the work or school later in the day, they turn on their TV, AC, lights and plug in their electronics. This uses a lot of energy but the energy is not coming from solar power any longer, it is coming from the grid. The problem is incentive. People with solar arrays get paid based on the net power they produce. If they put their solar pannels facing west, they will receive less overall power. To mitigate this problem, OPower suggests that utilities pay for solar power at varying rates to reflect the price of power at different times of the day. Also, solar trackers could allow the panels to follow the sun moving from east to west throughout the day.

http://grist.org/news/a-plan-to-get-solar-headed-in-the-right-direction-literally/

Although solar energy is a great way to save resources, they are currently incredibly expensive and not seen in very many places on the east coast. An Xiaolin Zheng, an engineer at Standford University may have an answer to that question. She has engineered sticker solar panels. They are skinny bendable cells that produce they same amount of electricity as the rigid ones. Furthermore, they offer cost benefits as they can be used over again and again. They are also easier and less expensive to install because they are lighter and are less expensive to produce. Zheng imagines a day when we will be able to buy these solar cells from a corner store (as you would buy batteries) and install them everywhere- windows, doors, sidewalks, roofs, even help power solar cars or planes.

The research is a long way from being applicable on a larger scale but it seems to hold promise for the future.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/141203-xiaolin-zheng-emerging-explorer-solar/