sustainability
Of all the unsustainable trends society is following, the global eco-debt is not only the largest, but is growing worse rapidly. This year, humanity officially consumed all the resources the world can replenish naturally as of 21 August … from here on, our consumption will push Earth’s natural systems into
energy
What can you do with the world’s most powerful X-ray laser? Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory hope it can help them create improved energy sources, better drugs and new applications in environmental sciences and material engineering. The image at left shows a
oil
Reports of the “death” of millions of gallons of spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico might be greatly exaggerated, as scientists have found an underwater plume of hydrocarbons that’s at least 22 miles long, more than a mile wide and 3,000-plus feet deep. That finding flies in
clean coal
What exactly does clean coal mean? We know that mining coal creates dust and releases methane gas. We know that burning it liberates CO2 and emits particulates including SO2 and NOx. And we know that it creates wastes that are often stored in unsightly and potentially dangerous slag heaps and
electricity
Globally, the energy and utilities industry is experiencing the most significant period of investment it has ever known. This is fuelled not only by the rapid rise of the developing nations, where energy infrastructure development has become a priority to support the booming economy, but also by the need to
energy savings
Why are businesses more interested in going green while individuals have become less so over the past two years? We’d say it all boils down to money. While greener lifestyles tend to raise consumers’ costs at places like the grocery shop (think fair-trade, shade-grown organic coffee vs. Maxwell House
carbon capture and storage
How can we get kill off the carbon dioxide that’s spewing into the atmosphere thanks to fossil fuels? The US Department of Energy (DOE) wants to bury it deep underground … without having to worry about zombie emissions rising back up into the air. The department today announced 15 projects
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” TS Eliot’s words are sharply relevant in this age of endless ecolabels and “product advisories.” And they might just strike a chord with shoppers. These days, everything from a packet of
food
While the idea of dumping your dinner scraps and mouldy bread into a kerbside bin labeled “food recycling” might sound disgusting, food recycling isn’t what you might think. No one will be forced to eat the edibles you’ve tossed. In launching its new food recycling programme this summer,
energy storage
How can a technology known to ancient potters and spinners help create a 21st-century smart energy grid? A company based in Massachusetts aims to demonstrate when it begins operating the world’s first grid-scale, flywheel-based energy storage plant in New York later this year. Beacon Power Corporation is currently building
Jurdy discovers a reason to get smart about energy …
The movement to shift away from fossil fuels and embrace renewable energy lost a champion this week when Matthew Simmons, 67, died suddenly on Sunday. Simmons, founder of the oil investment firm Simmons & Company, was an unlikely ally of green energy as a longtime Republican steeped in the fossil
