A great friend just pointed me to the Nature Conservancy Blog called “CoolGreenScience“ so naturally I had to add it as a link on this site for future reference.
This also got me thinking about the American Chemical Society and their Green Chemistry Institute. Their “ChemPower” site asks “What is Your Green Chemistry IQ?”
Have a look at both of these sites and enjoy!
Wired Magzine has issued an EARTH DAY challenge (cannot explain why they didn’t send me the e-mail until today but …):
In honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, Wired and YouRenew are challenging readers to recycle 40,000 consumer electronics in one month and get cash back.
From Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, through May 21, go to http://www.wired.yourenew.com and type in your used phone, digital camera, laptop, or even your old calculator to find out what it is worth.
Thinking $5, $10, $20? Think again. The average order is $65 and can go as high as $275 for an iPhone 3GS.
It’s easy. Send the used item(s) to YouRenew and they’ll send you what it’s worth; YouRenew refurbishes and resells the products, keeping them out of landfills, where they leak lead, cadmium and mercury into our environment and ultimately our drinking water.
Help us, help the Earth.
http://www.wired.yourenew.com
IBM used to be a computer company. Today they are a “knowledge economy” company. They will bring their enormous research talent to any problem any where on the planet. They will look for ways to make a solution that is “better, cheaper, and faster” than current technology, and water purification is an area where IBM is rapidly making a name for itself with nanomembrane technology.
This technology is a type of “bionano” technology.
An article about a great recycling effort in Greenville, SC and an example picture.
Ever-Green Recycling
A new Chinese law requires power grid operators to buy all the electricity produced by renewable energy generators, in a move that will increase the proportion of energy that comes from renewable sources in coal-dependent China. Rest at Reuters.
Forcing power companies to buy renewable energy will increase energy prices in the short-run but it will also shorten the “hump” in the price curve as increased use of renewables will continue the inexorable process of driving down the cost of producing such renewable energy.
We certainly are not there yet, but the opportunities are growing. Would you pay 15% more for a house if it helps to keep our planet from some of the worst outcomes of global warming? Interesting article in the WSJ a few weeks back entitled Builders Zero In on New Goal Of Energy-Neutral Housing.
MIT has improved on the bicycle wheel. Check out the CNET article and video here.
Green chemistry, also known as sustainable chemistry, is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. Green chemistry applies across the life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, and use. Read more at the EPA Green Chemistry Home page.