Street food vendors are in a prime position to make use of solar power — they’re out on corners, on roadsides, and under under the glaring sun dishing out to-go meals all day. And many around the world still use charcoal or natural gas to heat their grills. Seems to me like a redundancy. It did to the Swiss inventor featured in the video above, as well — so he introduced solar powered street vending to Mexico. Watch: … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo credit: cdsessums / Creative Commons Making the transportation system more fuel efficient represents a huge opportunity to reduce national oil dependency and, according to most accounts—including a recent report from the Mobility Choice Coalition —can be accomplished with a few simple changes. The difficult part, of course, is making these simple ideas politically viable…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Image: volt.charitybuzz.com Recharging Detroit Public Schools GM is auctioning off the first Chevy Volt off the production line to raise money for the Detroit Public Schools Foundation . It’s a great idea, and so far it seems pretty successful. There’s still about 11 days left in the auction, and already the car with a MSRP of $40,280 has a bid for $180,000, and the next bid will have to be at least 5 grand higher to be accepted. Other car makers should steal this! How about a
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Photo: Jeda Villa Bali , Flickr, CC That’s the finding of a newly released report , put together by a trade group of over 20 associations around the world, that tracks the development of solar power around the world. According to the findings, by 2020, the world could easily enjoy 1,000 Gigawatts of solar power — if the proper incentives and support is given by world governments. You might also be surprised for the sunny future projected for US solar: … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Clever Electric Bus Prototype Combines 2 Battery Chemistries for Max Power & Range
December 3, 2010 No Comment
Photo: GE Dual Battery System FTW There are about 840,000 buses on the roads of the United States, and while they are a greener way to get around than individual cars (especially for commuting in urban areas – please people, if you live in the city, use transit), the vast majority of them are powered by non-renewable fossil fuels. Some use diesel-hybrid powertrains for better fuel economy and lower emissions, and others run on compressed natural gas to reduce smog-forming tailpipe emissions, but those are just partial solutions. Fully electric buses would be better, but current battery t… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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The intertubes were abuzz with the big news from NASA yesterday: Researchers announced they discovered a new kind of life that rearranges all our assumptions about life as we know it (but first they had to apologize that no, it wasn’t an alien ). This life form, a microbe that substitutes phosphate (heretofore a building block of all life on e… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …An Insider’s Look at the Formation of the NRDC and Birth of the Environmental Movement (Book Review)
December 3, 2010 No Comment
Photo credit: NRDC You’d be hard pressed to think of anyone or anything that has done more to protect the American environment over the last 40 years than John Adams and the organization he founded, the NRDC . The National Resource Defense Council may not boast a name that rolls off the tongue, but they do boast perhaps the most impressive legacy for using the law to stand up for the environment. Adams’ new memoir, A Force for Nature tells the story of that legacy. I… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Image credit: Gita Nandan, Tim ONeal of BoroughBees.com, via NRDC. Used with permission. Earlier in the week, the New York Times reported that bees in Brooklyn had started turning red , and their honey was looking like bright red goo. It turned out that the urban bees (the bee ban of New York having now been lifted) were hitting the corn syrup at the local Maraschino Cherry factory in record numbers. Now the
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Photo via Mission Blue The majority of the ocean is thought of as unowned. About 64% is ungoverned by any national law. And yet so much of it needs protections and regulations so that the wildlife can survive, let alone thrive. How do we go about making and enforcing laws that are reasonable and effective, and benefit both humans and marine life? Kristina Gjerde is an expert in this area and gave a talk earlier in the year during the Mission Blue Voyage. Here are here insights into how we might save the unprotected oceans from problems like bottom-tra… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …The Week in Pictures: Can Someone Own the Sun? Could Sand Power the World? And More (Slideshow)
December 3, 2010 No Comment
After what would appear to be a clerical oversight by the whole of humanity, the sun now belongs solely to a 49-year-old woman in Spain. More on that, and more popular stories from the world of green this week, including the news that Toyota is recalling 650,000 hybrids over coolant risk, GM is set to hire 1,000 engineers and researchers to develop electric vehicles, after the jump.
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