Some more aviation news for your edification. The British-built Zephyr is a solar-powered, unmanned aircraft that just flew for two weeks over the Arizona desert. That’s two straight weeks, mind you. It’s a triumph of engineering! → Read More
Is there a green movement in China? Maybe there ought to be, considering the numbers that have just come out. China is now the planet’s number one consumer of energy, overtaking the U.S. in the process. But at the same time, the U.S. has improved its energy efficient more so than China, meaning that the U.S. can get the same amount of work done while consuming less, say, coal or oil. → Read More
It’s summer here in the Northern hemisphere, and that means the solar-based industry in the US is in top experimental gear (to clarify: the company in question is British but the test flight is in the Arizona Desert). A few more months and they’ll hibernating or relocating to their Australian headquarters, but in the meantime, we’re getting a lot of solar-related news. It wasn’t long ago that the Solar Impulse proved it could stay in the air for 24 hours (26, in fact), and now we’re hearing that Qinetiq’s much-smaller craft, the Zephyr, will be going for a world-record 14 days. Of course, it already holds the world record, since it’s been in the air a good week or so already. It’s kind of like when you set the high score but the points are still rolling in. → Read More
New York City residents will now be able to track their water use in real time. The city has installed wireless meters in The Bronx (the program will expand in the future), and residents will be able to see how much water they’re using at any given moment. The idea is to encourage people to cut down on their water consumption. “Wow, I used X-Number of gallons of water during that shower, let’s see if I can make that X-Minus-One next time.” And so on. → Read More
A handy Greenpeace e-mail popped into my e-mail collector unit that reminded me of this: hey, Apple is a nice company to the environment! While the iPhone 4 may be a flawed hunk of junk, it is constructed out of Earth-friendly materials. Not a stitch of PVC plastic or BFR to be found. Meanwhile, Dell has waffled and waffled for years now, saying that, oh sure, our products will be totally green within a few years. That was in 2005. → Read More
A solar-powered airplane, named the Solar Impulse, means to prove, once and for all, that harnessing the energy of the Sun is a good and practical idea. I mean, why would we try to capture some of the energy put out by a completely free nuclear reactor hanging in the sky? The plane took off from Switzerland a little bit ago, and will try to fly for 24 hours without stopping. Here’s hoping it’s a great success. → Read More
Some auto racing news for your Wednesday morning. Formula One, the fancy circuit that, like soccer, is popular everywhere but the U.S., plans to cut emissions by some 15 percent within three years. That’s a remarkable goal seeing as though Formula One cars (and all supercars, for that matter) are about as green as a smokestack from 1900. → Read More
Did you know that, according to Electrolux, a Swedish appliance manufacturer, there are gigantic piles of plastic debris floating about our planet’s oceans? Some of these are as big as the state of Texas! Way to go, humans! So, Electrolux’s proposal? Collect all that trash, then turn it into vacuum cleaners. You couldn’t make that up if you tried. → Read More
Just now you were wondering, “how can I get more algae in my day-to-day life?” Well, maybe not then, but you are now. Now. Now. See? So now that you’re wondering it, I have an answer for you. I know! Such a lucky coincidence! Or maybe it was meant to be. You and this algae-powered lamp are a match made in the epipelagic zone. → Read More
I love National Geographic, but man, there are a lot of them out there. How many basement bookcases sag under the weight of 20 years of National Geographics? It’s one of those magazines that people tend to keep rather than recycle after reading — to its credit, no doubt, but perhaps it’s time to do something else with them. I don’t often approve of dismembering print media, but when it’s to make a bookshelf — well, then I can make an exception. → Read More
It’s too bad we didn’t hear about these before Bag Week. Feuer Bags is a German company that makes bags out of decommissioned fire hose. You better believe they’re tough. Plus, they have a beautiful worn-in look right out of the box. I know “pre-worn” is a bit of a cliché now, but there’s something beautiful about objects that are genuinely hard-used and have stood up to the punishment. That’s these bags to a thread. → Read More
Everyone loves the idea of solar energy. The three big challenges are that solar cells are expensive to produce, they’re not very efficient, and you need some means to store the energy collected. I’d heard of solar shingles before, which are basically roofing shingles with solar cells in them, but now word is coming out of solar cells printed on paper. As usual, the technology is still years away from a marketable product, but it’s an interesting development. → Read More
We like electric vehicles here at CrunchGear, from the Volt to the Leaf to the Eneloop to the U3-X. But fantasy electrics are one thing — what if you actually want to buy a real live electric bike? → Read More
Although we are moving towards a paperless society, that dream is still a long ways off, and a lot of Bics are going to be employed before it arrives. The pens we take for granted sell for a hundred a dollar in bulk, and they’re worth every penny. They also get thrown away, and I’m guessing from the price that high recyclability and sustainability aren’t really primary goals of the Bic corporation. This DBA Pen is the other way round: it’s designed to be thrown away — but in a different way. → Read More
NEC has developed an eco-friendly cooling system for CPUs, claiming the technology [JP] uses uses 60% less energy than a water-cooling system and even 80% less than an air-cooling system. The core of the system is a liquid chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) substitute, which circulates around the CPU to draw away heat and has low greenhouse effects. → Read More
If the volcanoes in Iceland keep pumping out ash, we may all need to start wearing face masks to protect our delicate lung tissues. Of course, standard fabric or paper masks aren’t enough for some people, as physical filtration may not be enough in some cases. So you have this concept face mask from designer Robert Ortega. → Read More
It’s Earth Day, friend reader. Not that you’d know it, what with a gazillion pounds of waste being thrown indiscriminately into holes and oceans every day. But while I am quite sure that we will eventually find a way to deal with that junk (fire it into the sun, am I right?), a more problematic problem is that of fresh water. Sure, your tap will pour out delicious, cold water all the time — but the cost of providing fresh water for population centers is getting… but you probably know all this. And you know what’s coming. Stop wasting so much water!
I try to minimize my own water usage, but sometimes there’s just no way to turn the tap on and off in a timely fashion — or is there? Yes, there is, and it’s existed for decades, you just don’t have one in your home yet. Time to get one. → Read More
Here’s a surprisingly green idea from a hotel in Copenhagen. The ultra-modern Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers has set up two stationary bicycles and attached them to generators, with an iPhone connected to the handlebars. Time to work for that dinner! → Read More
Lots of companies like to say they’ve made a “green” product. This ridiculous cardboard PC case comes to mind. But few actually do — usually it’s a matter of making their manuals and packaging a little smaller, using recycled plastic for this and that, but leaving all the toxic components and such in place. This Sprout watch from Armitron seems to be an actual green product, humble as it is. It’s not just a pretty face. To be honest, the face isn’t even pretty. → Read More
President Obama wanted his motorcade to be as environmentally friendly as possible. To that end, he requested his presidential limo be a hybrid. That’s nice of him. Unfortunately, the Secret Service said, “Um, no. That’s not going to happen, sorry.” → Read More
