Blogs

PepsiCo Using Potatoes to Run UK Chip Factories

Image via The Guardian What are potato chips? They're slices of potatoes with the majority of the water taken out (and in most cases, a lot of oil added in). What happens to all the water - around 80% of a potato? Well, for four potato chip factories in the UK where water is an increasingly significant issue, the water will go straight toward processing the themselves. PepsiCo is planning to take the factories off the water grid entirely, and use the water from the roughly 350,000 tons of potatoes processed each year into products like Walker's Cr... Read the full story on TreeHugger read full article ...
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Wednesday,02 June, 2010 | Hits: 37

BP Denies Existence of Giant Underwater Oil Plumes

Image: NASA, public domain. Contradicting the Findings of Many Scientists It already has been a few weeks since scientists have detected large underwater oil plumes in the Gulf of Mexico, but BP is still denying that they even exist. Maybe they're saying that in good faith and truly haven't found them, but let's also remember that they have an incentive to downplay the scale of the spill beca... Read the full story on TreeHugger read full article ...
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Wednesday,02 June, 2010 | Hits: 149

Butterfly Biomimicry Can Curb Counterfeiting of Banknotes

Image via University of Exeter The iridescence of butterfly wings have been the source of inspiration for more energy efficient yet vivid displays, but their shine is proving useful for brightening up not just our gadgets, but the money we buy them with as well. Researchers are looking in to how biomimicry can foil the efforts of would-be forgers, using the radiant colors created by light rather than pigment.... Read the full story on TreeHugger read full article ...
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Wednesday,02 June, 2010 | Hits: 81

Cars and People Compete for Grain

Image credit: TheFriendlyFiend/Flickr At a time when excessive pressures on the earth's land and water resources are of growing concern, there is a massive new demand emerging for cropland to produce fuel for cars--one that threatens world food security. Although this situation had been developing for a few decades, it was not until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when oil prices jumped above $60 a barrel and U.S. gasoline prices climbed to $3 a gallon, that the situation came into focus. Suddenly investments in U.S. corn-based ethanol distilleries became hugely profitable, unleashing an i... Read the full story on TreeHugger read full article ...
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Wednesday,02 June, 2010 | Hits: 68

Mozart Makes Microbes Eat Sewage Faster

Image via hoasm It looks like Mozart has billions and billions more fans than we thought -- and much smaller ones, too. Evidently, sewage-eating microbes are major appreciators of the Austrian composer. One pioneering waste treatment plant in Germany has taken to playing Mozart on an expensive stereo to the microorganisms that break down sewage -- and it found that it greatly increased their speed and efficiency, and could save the plant thousands of dollars a year. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger read full article ...
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Wednesday,02 June, 2010 | Hits: 114

Google Offsetting 45,000 Homes Using Carbon Credits Made from Waste

Photo via Ellesmere FNC Google is a big promoter of green energy, from dreaming up possibilities of their own (like using wave power for data centers) to investing in and... Read the full story on TreeHugger read full article ...
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Wednesday,02 June, 2010 | Hits: 59

Scientists decry 'assaults' on climate research

More than 250 U.S. scientists on Thursday defended climate change research against "political assaults" and warned that any delay in tackling global warming heightens the risk of a planet-wide catastrophe. The scientists, all members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, targeted critics who have urged postponing any action against climate change because of alleged problems with research shown in a series of hacked e-mails that are collectively known as "climate-gate." ...
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Thursday,06 May, 2010 | Hits: 176

Solar Mission: More light needed

The government's focus on solar energy is driven by the need to demonstrate a commitment to renewable energy. But equity too is vital for the success of the National Solar Mission, writes Sujatha Byravan. Starting in the late eighteenth century, fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas have been extracted from the earth and burned in engines to feed economic growth. But, with growing awareness of the risk of human-induced global warming, there is pressure on all countries to increase their reliance on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. There is resistance to this - rich nations do not want to lower their living standards or change their lifestyles and poor nations would like some liberty to go on burning fossil fuels for a while if it helps to get more of their citizens out of poverty. ...
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Monday,17 May, 2010 | Hits: 226

For want of a drink - A special report on water

Finite, vital, much wanted, little understood, water looks unmanageable. But it needn’t be, argues John Grimond [ interviewed here ] WHEN the word water appears in print these days, crisis is rarely far behind. Water, it is said, is the new oil: a resource long squandered, now growing expensive and soon to be overwhelmed by insatiable demand. Aquifers are falling, glaciers vanishing, reservoirs drying up and rivers no longer flowing to the sea. Climate change threatens to make the problems worse. Everyone must use less water if famine, pestilence and mass migration are not to sweep the globe. As it is, wars are about to break out between countries squabbling over dams and rivers. If the apocalypse is still a little way off, it is only because the four horsemen and their steeds have stopped to search for something to drink. ...
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Wednesday,19 May, 2010 | Hits: 191

UK's first 'conservation credit' scheme launched

The first UK project allowing builders to buy "credits" in conservation schemes, to offset the damage they are doing elsewhere, has been launched.Conservation credit – or biobanking – schemes have been trialled in the US, Australia and South Africa and experts believe the industry could become worth billions of pounds in Britain. The initial step is the sale of shares in a £100m project to restore and reconnect fragmented wetlands, woodlands and grasslands around the headwaters of the river Thames in the west of England.The shares are being sold by the Environment Bank, a company that helps deliver "mitigation and compensation schemes associated with planned development". ...
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Thursday,27 May, 2010 | Hits: 528