@ a glance : Metals pollute waters near US coal ash spill:group

Preliminary water tests from rivers near a huge coal ash spill in Tennessee show elevated levels of pollutant. Full Story : Reuters.com……

Plug-in hybrid, From China

The new plug-in hybrid F3DM made by Chinese auto maker BYD is now on sale in China for 149,800 yuan ($21,200). BYD boasts the car can travel up to 100 km with a fully charged battery. The car can be plugged into any 220 volt wall outlet. The company also announced that it plans to begin exporting the F3DM to the U.S. in 2010. A plug-in hybrid is a hybrid car with batteries that can be recharged by connecting a plug to an electric power source.

Mobile App to Calculate Carbon Footprint.

Carbon Diem, a smartphone app which can calculate a person’s carbon footprint by monitoring the movement by using phone’s GPS. The software determines the mode of transportation from the GPS data and then calculate the impact on environment. The software proved to be 100% accurate when working out or when people were on airplanes or trains. But its only 65-75% accurate at guessing when people travel on buses. Carbon footprint is a measure of the impact that someone’s activities will have on the environment, measured in units of carbon dioxide produced. Reducing carbon footprint is beneficial to the environment. This kind of efforts will definitely help to reduce these footprints.

Secret Green Community Saved.

A secret Green community that was only discovered during an aerial survey of a Welsh national park,UK will not be demolished after it was finally approved. The inhabitants secretly built the sustainable village and lived there unnoticed until the aerial survey was carried out in 1998. The village relies on solar power and a wind turbine for electricity, and has compost toilets, reed beds, a workshop and a hay barn.

Toyota Testing Plugin Hybrid in Europe

Toyota and EDF (Électricité de France) has had a partnership to test plug-in hybrid Prius vehicles (PHEV) for over a year now. The testing is now expanding to the UK. The hybrids will be driven by EDF employees and tested under everyday driving conditions. To make charging the cars easier, EDF has helped install 40 charging stations across UK. The plug-in hybrid currently uses 60 percent less fuel than a conventional Prius during short trips (less than 25 km).

Human Virus : Cool Cartoon

Humans- Cool Cartoon!

In each and every way we act like parasites. Who knows the truth?

World’s Smallest Car : Toyota iQ

Toyota unveiled Toyota iQ at the Frankfurt Motor show. Toyota is promoting the iQ as the ultimate refined mode of transportation. Despite its small size Toyota iQ received a 5-star safety rating in Euro NCAP testing. According to Toyota the 1.0-liter gasoline iQ should record 54.1 mpg on the European driving cycle (99g/km of CO2). iQ will go on sale in Japan in October and few months later in Europe. The price is expected to be in the range of $13,000 - $15,000.

Leak Found in Earth’s Atmosphere

ESA’s formation-flying quartet of satellites, Cluster, has discovered that Earth’s atmosphere is constantly leaking Oxygen into Space. Charged oxygen ions, flowing outwards from the polar regions into space. The data collected by Cluster from 2001 to 2003 is used to find the phenomenon. Compared to the Earth’s stock of the life-supporting gas, the amount escaping is negligible.

Image Credit : http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQ8LKRQJF_index_0.html

The World’s Cheapest Car At Risk

The Tata group is threatened to move an important auto factory out of India. This move could delay the debut of the world’s cheapest car, pint-sized Nano, priced at $2,500. It was scheduled to go on sale by the end of the year.

Protesters are angry farmers who claim not to have received proper compensation for the 997 acres Tata acquired. The opposition party, which has led the fight against Tata, requested the company to return 400 acres to the farmers. Company chairman Ratan Tata said that he is prepared to leave West Bengal if the protests continue.

Google invests in Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy is the heat of the Earth, which can be tapped into to produce electricity. Even though it has great potential as a renewable energy source it doesn’t get much attention it deserves. 2% of the heat below the United States at depths of 3-10 kilometers would be supply 2500 times the nation’s current energy needs. Through its philanthropic division Google.org, Google will be investing nearly $10.5 million into three projects researching advanced geothermal power. The technology Google focuses on is called EGS. EGS produces heat and electricity by harnessing the energy from hot rock deep below the earth’s surface, expanding the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude.

Windspire : Backyard Wind Turbine

Windspire is a vertical axis wind turbine which can generate 25 - 30% of the power needed in a home. The design was inspired by a 3 000 years old wind mill used by Egyptians to grind wheat. The 9 meter tall devices can be plugged into household power. Customers can also view in their home computer how much power is generated by the Windspire.

Earth Hour Tomorrow

Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming. Millions of people in some of the world’s major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv will turn off the lights at 8pm March 29, 2008 for Earth Hour.

Japan can cut emissions by 11%

A study by Japan’s trade ministry says that the nation can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 11 percent by 2020 below 2005 levels. EU plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a fifth by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.

Tar Sands - Most destructive

A report by Environmental Defence calling the Alberta Oil Sands, the most destructive project on Earth. Some facts:

Oil sands mining is licensed to use twice the amount of fresh water that the entire city of Calgary uses in a year.
At least 90% of the fresh water used in the oil sands ends up intailing ponds.
Processing the oil sands uses enough natural gas in a day to heat 3 million homes.
The toxic tailing ponds are considered one of the largest human-made structures in the world. The ponds can be seen from space.
Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil.

Pollution a deadly sin,Vatican

The Vatican is definitely becoming greener under Pope Benedict. Pollution and gene-manipulation are a few of the modern sins the Vatican suggests should be added to the traditional seven deadly sins. The seven sins are pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth. It was reported on The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

Plastic in Whale’s stomach

Minkes are the smallest and fastest moving whales. There are thought to be fewer than 184,000 left in the Atlantic. Until recently whale hunters are considered as their biggest danger. But the 2lbs of plastic waste found in the stomach of a female whale washed up from the English Channel revealed another major threat has emerged in the plastic form. The 2lb haul included two plastic bags from English supermarkets, seven transparent plastic bags, and fragments from seven dustbin bags. This is a wake-up call for marine scientists, who realised that plastic bags and other waste were one of the biggest threats to the whales, dolphins and turtles.

(Photo Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk)

Water Wasted in bottles.

According to a research by the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, every liter of bottled water sold takes roughly 3 liters of water to produce. That’s not the only waste, more than 17 million barrels of oil were used to produce the plastic water bottles used by Americans in 2006. In addition to those wastes the 30 million plastic bottles discarded each day ends up in landfills causing permanent damage to the environment.

Energy efficient or Enviornmental Hazard

Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) use 66% less energy than incandescent bulbs and they last eight times longer. However CFLs contain 5mg of Mercury. Even though which is a very tiny amount compared to other common items including watch batteries (25 mg) or home thermometers (500 mg), if the old CFLs don’t disposed properly it may becomes a environmental hazard.

Is your home energy efficient?

- Ice damming or icicles forming on edge of roof

- Snow next to the foundation has melted

- Frost on edges of doors or windows

- Noticeable drafts around windows and doors

- Excessive use of fuel

These are the red flags that your house needs an energy evaluation. There are some useful tips here to use the energy more efficiently which helps save some money and this planet.

Buying energy efficient refrigerator? Tips

Consider the size - An over sized refrigerator will not only cost more to run, but will also be less efficient if you do not filled it to full capacity.