
German engineering goes green with a fog-collecting system that serves the water needs of an arid Peruvian village.
Biologists Kai Tiedemann and Anne Lummerich are finding ingenious ways to help people living in arid regions find and develop new sources of water. Bellavista, a small, hillside settlement near Lima, Peru that is unconnected to the municipal water supply is enveloped in fog through most of the winter. There, the pair designed a fog-catching system that captures and collects fog-water for use by the local population. Built in 2006 by members of the community, the system delivers hundreds of gallons a day to its resevoir during the foggy winter months.
(via National Geographic, photograph by Anne Lummerich)
The surging popularity of e-readers like the Apple iPad and the Amazon Kindle has bookworms wondering if the days of the printed page are numbered. But which is more sustainable? Conventional wisdom (and tech research) might have you believe that e-books are the greener alternative, but it may not be so clear cut. E-readers are no different from other handheld electronics – they're made......read more
An experimental airplane with 12,000 solar cells and the wing span of a Boeing 777 passenger jet completed its first test flight of more than 24 hours on Thursday, proving that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the day to stay aloft all night. Pilot and project co-founder Andre Borschberg flew the Solar Impulse to 28,000 feet above the Jura Mountains, reaching top speeds......read more
Now, this is getting space-agey. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency says it has put solar panels on a spacecraft, which not only create power but they actively propel and maneuver it through space. The "Ikaros" solar sail absorbs photons from the sun that put pressure onto the solar sails reflective panels and propel the 700 pound craft. Ikaros is bound for an orbit around......read more
BBC Earth is ringing in its 50th birthday by dropping Life Is, an interactive site chalk full of epic nature images, videos and stories from the people behind the mindblowing DVD series Planet Earth and Life. The site's not up yet, but judging from the screenshots, it's going to be equally amazing. With access to BBC's incredible archive of images and video, site designers Fantasy......read more
Some green tech is so next-level that it's hard to believe. Like wallpaper that cleans the air. Yep, you read right. Inhabitat reports Bluecher Technologies has just produced a "breathable, glass fiber/polyester non-woven paper-like covering" with absorbants that capture harmful chemicals like PCBs, PCP, pesticides, and radon. The wallpaper, called Saratech Permasorb, might be the......read more
Researchers at Stanford University may have reached a breakthrough in their efforts to improve solar efficiency and affordability. According to Stanford University News, the scientists discovered that "by properly configuring the thicknesses of several thin layers of films, an organic polymer thin film could absorb as much as 10 times more energy from sunlight than was thought......read more
How's this for meta? The City of Toronto has launched the first of a fleet of waste collection trucks to be fueled by, well, collected waste. The garbage-eating truck will join Toronto's existing Green Fleet, created as part of a government effort to reduce the city's fuel consumption and protect air quality and health. The newly unveiled vehicle contains a Cummins Westport ISL G......read more
Cement production accounts for five percent of global CO2 emissions, which is double the emissions from all airline traffic. That spells a massive greenhouse gas problem, just so society can continue to build and expand its infrastructures. But there has to be another way, right? Cement is the glue that holds concrete together. Concrete is so ubiquitous as to be nearly invisible. Producing the......read more