Water is essential for life. No living being on planet Earth can survive without it. It is a prerequisite for human health and well-being as well as for the preservation of the environment.

The 2013 theme (Water and Biodiversity) was chosen to coincide with the United Nations designation of 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation. The theme speaks to the important role of biodiversity and ecosystems in providing for water security, and therefore for sustainable development.

The United Nations General Assembly, by its resolution 55/201 of 20 December 2000, proclaimed 22 May as The International Day for Biological Diversity, to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. The date designated for the day was chosen to commemorate the adoption of the text of the Convention on 22 May 1992 by the Nairobi Final Act of the Conference for the Adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The day was first created by the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly in late 1993, and the UN General Assembly, by its resolution 49/119 of 19 December 1994, designated December 29th (the date of entry into force of the Convention of Biological Diversity) the International Day for Biological Diversity. However, it was difficult for many countries to plan and carry out suitable celebrations for the date of 29 December, given the number of holidays that coincide around that time of year.

Here’s the official word from the campaign organisers:

The theme Water and Biodiversity was chosen to coincide with the United Nations designation of 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation. Water and Biodiversity is the theme for International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) in 2013. Designation of IDB 2013 on the theme of water provides Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the public at large the opportunity to raise awareness about this vital issue, and to increase positive action. Read the notification.

Coincidently, the period 2005-2015 is the International Decade for Action ‘WATER FOR LIFE’.

So one car manufacturer is planning to go solar…on a mammoth scale, 213,000 square meters of panels, 40,000PV modules producing a massive 11.5 million KWh/year.

Hyundai has announced that it will build what will be South-Korea’s largest solar rooftop solar installation on its Asan factory, near the West coast of the country.

This isn’t small potatoes. We’re talking about 40,000 solar photovoltaic modules, 213,000 square meters (2,292,712 square feet, or 68% of the total roof area), a peak capacity of 10 megawatts, and an estimated yearly production of 11.5 million kWh, enough to power 3,200 households.

The Asan plant manufactures the Sonata Hybrid, as well as Sonata and Grandeur (Azera in some markets).

Hyundai writes:

To produce the same amount of electricity – 11.5 million KWh – a thermoelectric power plant releases 5,600 tons of carbon dioxide, emission that can be prevented by the use of the photovoltaic power plant. The reduction of 5,600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions is equivalent to the effect of planting 1.12 million pine trees on the environment. (source)

While I wish Hyundai would invest more into electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, this is a very good move. We have so many rooftops – residential and industrial – that are baking in the sun all day long, and with the falling cost of solar (see graph below or follow the link), we should definitely use them to produce clean electricity.

Source: Treehugger

Nature Near You A free environmental app developed with the Nature Conservancy to help amateur photographers find new areas to take pictures of the natural world around them. They can share their photos with other nature lovers as well as their friends and family. They can also explore a map where others have taken photos near their location.

Solar Panel Suitability Checker A rather new app as of 2012 that uses your GPS location to tell you if your selected location is viable for solar energy. It will produce an overlay telling you what positions are optimal for placement of solar panels, thus potentially earning you additional free energy.

Skeptical Science If ever you’ve found yourself in a heated debate about climate change with a skeptic, having this iPhone app around might help by laying the facts down on the table. Skeptic Science is designed to offer several responses to dead end statements like “climate’s changed before”, “models are unreliable”, and “Antartica is gaining ice”. It tackles these statements under three categories: It’s Not Happening, It’s Not Us, and It’s Not Bad. What’s more, you can upload your own encounters and arguments.

Good Guide This app is your digital partner to green shopping. Good Guide features a database of 50,000 products with their environmental certifications, approvals, and other credentials. While one popular product might have a perfect score on health standards, it might have a low score on environmental standards due to production, questionable sources, etc. A fair trade alternative might be a better choice. This app is perfect for shoppers who don’t have time nor inclination to read every fine print on every label while shopping.

Carbon Track Calculate how much carbon is emitted from business activities on a daily basis through this app. Together with the result, environmental impacts can be seen as well as green tips for improved efficiency of energy use.

ECODE For the green builder, ECODE offers information on green building resources and guidelines as well as ready support from certified green contractors. The app includes a guide on green building acknowledged by National Association of Home Builders Research Center. It also has a Green Contractor Directory, Carbon Footprint Calculator, and Ecode Blog.

Light It Right Put an environmental app on your kids’ iPhones, too. Light It Right is an interactive, multi-level game that teaches children to use lights properly and save energy through wise choices (hint: your pet cat has great night vision).

One Stop Green Mobile Aside from lots of green tips on living, One Stop Green Mobile also features a solar, wind energy, water, and lighting calculator. You can also do an energy audit on your own home.

Pollution This app can give you real time air pollution data from 1,380 cities around the world. It has added 100000 databases worldwide and has an improved search address for convenience. A great free environmental app whether you’re at home or traveling across continents.

These apps can only take a person so far in successful green living. It all depends on the individual’s commitment to be part of the solution, and to stay true to the commitment of green living. In the end, no fancy platform or cascades of threatening facts can dictate our action: it all depends on our choice and decision. Let us know if you’ve downloaded any of these apps and if they’ve been helpful, or let us know if you found any others that fit the ‘green category’ in the comment section below.

Source: theenvironmentalblog

In many ways, being green has never been easier, especially for politicians. The vast majority of Americans now say environmental protection is important to them, and few would vote for a leader who explicitly claims to be “anti-environment.”

But America’s highest office has long had a relationship to the planet that is anything but straightforward. Given enormous social, economic and political changes in our nation’s history, ranking presidents on green criteria is no easy task. This list couldn’t possibly reflect all the issues involved, but it is a subjective look at highlights in the evolution of environmental policy and protection.

1-Big Ted

To begin, when most Americans think of green presidents, they probably envision Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909). “TR” consistently lobbied Congress for wilderness protection, used the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 to set aside 150 million acres of timberland as public domains, and oversaw creation of the U.S. Forest Service. Roosevelt also created 50 wildlife refuges and five national parks.

Beyond those accomplishments, TR is well remembered as popularizing the ideas of good resource stewardship and respect for nature. That’s not to say everything was idyllic in those years of heavy logging, mining, urbanization and rapid human expansion, but seeds of consciousness were sown.

 
2-Jimmy carter

In response to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) created the Department of Energy in 1977, with a key goal being the establishment of a national energy policy that promoted clean and alternative fuels. Carter famously installed solar panels on the White House roof and set the mansion’s thermostats at 68 degrees to save energy.

Carter’s 1977 speech calling on the country to drastically ramp up energy efficiency and conservation is truly inspiring and ahead of its time. Backing that up, in 1979, Carter implemented “corporate average fuel economy” (CAFE) standards that mandated fuel-efficient cars — although those standards would soon be relaxed.

President Carter also oversaw passage of a number of other important laws, including the Soil and Water Conservation Act, the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, the Antarctic Conservation Act, the Endangered American Wilderness Act and the Superfund Act (remember when laws that sound green actually were green?). Tighter amendments were passed on the Clean Air Act, and the Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act conserved more than 100 million acres and 26 rivers in America’s Last Frontier.

Since leaving office, Carter has won world renown for his humanitarian work, particularly through Habitat for Humanity, which has recently been going green and promoting green building.

3. The Scientist, Philosopher and Idealist

The fuel-free craft weighs the same as a small car and flies at an average of 43 mph. The plane is a prototype for a larger solar-powered plane engineers hope will be able to fly round the world by 2015

Check out this breathtaking video of the solar flare over San Fran…

Contact the Local Utility Company

The local utility company probably gives free assessments to its customers, or at least an average usage for the last calendar year or so. Though you are not their customer yet, the people currently living in the house are and will have access to that information. You would need to set up a time with the current owners for the assessment anyway, so you may as well see if they would be willing to speak with the utility company to have a free assessment done. From there they can share the results or allow you to be part of the process.

Schedule an Assessment with Energy Service Corps

Energy Service Corps is a group that has an overall goal of saving energy, saving the environment and saving you money. This is a great free option because they not only come out and assess the energy efficiency of your home, but they’ll also seal cracks around windows and doors to block drafts, change out your older bulbs for energy-saving models and make other small adjustments that will lower the cost of your utilities right away. As part of the assessment, they will give suggestions on other changes you should make to see greater improvements in energy efficiency. However, you should be aware they are limited in where they can go to provide their services.

Do It Yourself

You can do some informal assessments yourself. Ask the current homeowner about their energy usage, or call their utility company for an average use from the previous year. Keep in mind, this method will not tell you what areas of the house need updating or changing in order to create a more energy-efficient environment. Some ways you can assess the energy levels yourself is to feel along the walls for cool patches to determine where more insulation is needed. Along those same lines, feel along the windows and door frames and note where leaks are. Another thing you can do is peek into the attic to see about the state of the insulation. If it’s on the skimpy side, put that on a list of things that would need updating. If the basement is unfinished, check to see if the ceiling has any insulation which will impede the coolness of the basement from seeping up through the floors of your main level rooms. After your self-assessment is finished, you can determine if you need to hire a professional to determine if there are larger issues or be satisfied with your findings.

Know Why an Energy Assessment is a Good Idea

Before you move into a home, you’ll want to get an energy assessment so you can either know what improvements you’d like the owners to make as part of your offer on the house, or so you know what changes you’ll want to make once you do move in. Some things that are more serious, such as needing to replace windows and siding, may be more convenient if they’re completed before you start moving. Other, less pressing items such as caulking your windows or adding insulation to your attic, can probably wait until after you’ve purchased the house and moved in. Updating your home in small ways can lower your electric bills year round and impact the environment by lowering it’s carbon footprint.

Learn What Assessors Will Look For

Some assessors do tests to see how air-tight your home is. They mark where air leaks through, and can tell you the best way to eliminate those leaks. Others may do what is called a thermographic inspection that will measure the temperature levels along the walls of your home. This can be done indoors or outdoors depending, depending upon the season.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that, in order to increase the efficiency of the home and lower your energy bills, you must make the changes suggested by the assessor. Most changes that can be made to lower bills are relatively affordable and easy to do on your own. Don’t consider a house to be a lost cause just because it is not currently living up to it’s full potential in terms of efficiency, as you may be able to make small adjustments that have a big impact overall.

Source: Whitefencesavings

The old stereotype? if recent figures are to be believed traffic jams like these could be a thing of the past

Doug Short, a financial analyst who blogs at Advisor Perspectives, has taken the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Commission most recent data from its Traffic Volume Trends and combined it with population data to put together a great chart.

And the surprising bottom line is: not only has VMT (vehicle miles traveled) continued to drop in a trend that started in 2005, we’re now in the U.S. back to driving stats of 1995.

As Short puts it: “Our adjusted miles driven based on the 16-and-older age cohort is about where we were as a nation in January of 1995.”

As both Short and the Washington Post observe, a big reason for the drop is the fact that the number of vehicle miles traveled by young people (16 to 34-year-olds) is falling pretty significantly, from 10,300 miles to 7,900 miles per capita—a drop of 23 percent.

The Washington Post notes that is also the aging of the baby boomers and the steadily rising prices of gas that are contributing to the shrinking driving stats. It is really the steadily rising cost of vehicle ownership, too. Gas is only part of the equation: cars cost a lot, sit around a lot, and cost a lot to insure and repair.

There’s also the effect that ongoing urbanism is having - the city versus suburbs battle. People who do live in dense urban areas seem to be biking and busing it more instead of fighting traffic in their cars.

The interesting question is whether the trend will continue if the economy continues to improve and gas prices drop. Frontier Group, which studied the question, thinks the trend of younger people driving less is ‘likely to persist’.

Do you have any good news green stories for us? Please let me know info@efergy.com

Source: Treehugger

Bicycle-mounted generators are nothing new – many of them are used to power bicycle lights, for instance. But what makes the Siva Cycle’s Atom generator unique is its removable battery, which means you can preserve the electricity you worked for and use it at your convenience

The Atom generator is meant to be attached to the rear axle of your bicycle. Once it’s installed, you can use it to charge pretty much any mobile device while you’re riding, as long as you have a USB cable for your device.

But as I said, the Atom also has a 1300mAh removable battery pack, so you don’t have to bring your device with you for the Atom to be useful….good idea? We think so, you get all the gubbins below, everything you need to get you upwardly mobile and charged up.

The Video

The Bits

Pledge at least $95USD (about 60 quid) on Kickstarter to get an Atom generator as a reward.

At time of publishing this crowd sourced start up had raised over $100,000, way over it’s original target of $85,000….that could say something!

Not too long ago I posted a graph by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) that shows all solar efficiency breakthroughs since 1975 on a single chart. I found it fascinating to see just how much progress was being made in all the various types of solar cells (from thin-film to triple-junction…). But what truly matters in the end is how much it costs to produce clean electricity from the sun, and how that compares to the price of dirty sources like coal & gas.

The graph above tells the tale. It only shows progress since 1980, but if the 1970s were included, it would look even more impressive. I was born in the early 1980s, so just in my lifetime, solar went from over $16 per watt (in constant 2012 dollars) to about $1/watt, and like Moore’s Law for micro-electronics, there’s no indication that the pace is slowing down. In fact, as you can see, it has actually accelerated in recent years (in good part due to massive solar investments in China). We might or might not keep that new rate of progress, but what is certain is that we’re headed for parity with fossil fuels (the gray area in the graph), and then solar will beat them.

Both those milestones will be historic for humanity, likely transforming our civilization rather rapidly. I can’t wait.

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Source: Treehugger

Here’s the designers blurb

‘The Window Socket offers a neat way to harness solar energy and use it as a plug socket. So far we have seen solutions that act as a solar battery backup, but none as a direct plug-in. Simple in design, the plug just attaches to any window and does its job intuitively.’

The designer show’s how the socket would be able to fix to the window and allow a appliance to be plugged directly into it. The designer says there wouldn’t be a battery with the unit, we think a USB socket, rather than a mains socket would be better.

So what do you think? Let us know your comments.

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Source: Yankodesign