Solar Wind can power the entire world

Posted on September 27, 2010 by quest

“Space the final frontier… these are the voyages of”- those words seem engraved in our time. The interesting thing though; think of all the cool gadgets that were being used in the sci fi tv series Star Trek that have come into reality. Dr Spock, Uhura and Captain Kirk were using wireless communicators like the iPhone, video and all. So the idea of using the solar wind to power the needs of the entire planet may not be just an artist dream. The solar wind is what blows the tails of comets back away from the bodies of comets as they go through the solar system.The solar wind is a stream of energized, charged particles, primarily electrons and protons, flowing outward from the Sun, through the solar system at incredible speeds and extreme temperatures.

Scientist say the solution to future energy issues may now be in harnessing of solar wind through satellites.
The conceptual satellite is named the Dyson-Harrop. According to the scientists, the energy yield from this method will meet the requirements of the entire world’s energy 100 billion times more than necessary

NASA – THE SOLAR WIND

The energy harnessed through the satellite will be beamed to the Earth. This receiver will also generate power for the satellite and its wire loop making it self sustaining. The energy absorbed by the satellite will be transmitted to the Earth via the means of an infrared laser. An infrared laser was chosen for a transmitter because Earth’s atmosphere is like a transparent material for infrared, therefore there is little or no chances of loss of energy when passing through the atmosphere. Some background at Times New World

Presidio goes for green neighborhood LEED

Posted on September 26, 2010 by quest

San Francisco continues to hold its own as one of the great green cities in the world. Up there with Vancouver BC, Portland, OR and Malmo Sweden. Malmo incidentally is Sweden’s third largest city and is known for its extensive parks and has been an “ekostaden” eco city for sometime now. Vancouver gets nearly 90% of it’s electricity from hydropower and was green long before the 2009 Winter Olympics which further showcased its green reputation.

Now one of San Francisco’s oldest neighborhoods, the Presidio is moving toward a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for the neighborhood; after decades of debate over the district’s future some of which had been off limits to the public. The once abandoned Marine Hospital and a handful of residences in the 42-acre district located at 15th Avenue and Lake Street on the southern edge of the Presidio, have now been converted.

Writing for San Francisco Press Victoria Schlesinger states “The district now contains roughly 170 new rentals units, the lion’s share of which are in the converted Marine Hospital. A row of tony new townhomes stand along Belles Street and 11 former physician residences on Wyman Avenue have also been restored.” The Presidio Trust just hosted tours of the new green neighborhood.

Green is Good

Posted on September 26, 2010 by quest

A new twist on the Wall Street “greed is good concept” made famous by Michael Douglas in the first Wall Street movie. This is pretty funny and drives home the point about recycling and being green. John Shegerian, CEO of Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), the nation’s leading recycler of electronics and e-waste said, “The ‘Green is Good’ video was filmed for laughs”“But the takeaway for the viewer couldn’t be more serious. Recycling is an integral part of preserving our natural resources and we hope that the video shorts we have created that are now floating around the internet will remind and inspire people to recycle responsibly.”
Oliver Stone recycles as himself director and Michael Douglas plays an apparently redeemed Gordon Gekko in the new feature film “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.”

Here’s Green is Good Radio

Sustainable vertical urban farms

Posted on September 25, 2010 by quest

Talk about keeping your head to the sky. Vertical farm visionary Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier sees a future where skyscrapers in urban cities like New York, Hong Kong or London will serve as skyfarms. Those urban farms could use renewable energy such as solar and wind and will use less space and waste fewer resources. In his upcoming book “The Vertical Farm“Despommier says that fifteen thousand years ago, there was probably not a single farm on the planet.

Today, farms occupy a landmass the size of South America. Dickson Despommier’s work on vertical farms has been featured on such top national media as CNN, “The Colbert Report,” and “The Tonight Show,” as well as in full-length articles in The New York Times, Time Magazine, Scientific American, and The Washington Post. At Columbia, he has won the Teacher of the Year Award eight times for his work in public health and environmental health sciences.

VERTICAL VISIONARY – DICKSON DESPOMMIER

Urban planners are paying attention to Despommier and others as they recognize population projections will squeeze already dwindling natural resources. According to the United States Census Bureau the world’s current population is estimated to be close to 6.8 billion. The world’s population is expected to reach between 8 and 10.5 billion between the year 2040 and 2050. That’s alot of hungry mouths to feed.

California leading the way in solar and wind energy

Posted on September 24, 2010 by quest

Even though Washington seems to be having a hard time putting a national energy plan in place, California isn’t standing by waiting. The California Air Resources Board today has set a new standard that one third of the electricity sold in the state come from clean renewable energy such as solar, wind and geothermal sources. The new 33% goal must be met by 2020. The regulation applies to all entities that deliver electricity, including investor owned utilities and publicly owned utilities including municipal utilities.

“This standard is going to further diversify and secure our energy supply while also growing California’s leading green technology market, which will lead to cost savings for consumers.” said ARB Chairman Mary D. Nichols. “It will help clean our air and bring new solar and wind energy facilities to California with thousands of jobs in construction, operation and spin off industries,”

Work on the standard began immediately following Governor Schwarzenegger‘s Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) Executive Order, signed on September 15, 2009. The goal of 33 percent renewable electricity was, adopted by the Board in December 2008 in a move toward fulfilling AB 32, the requirements of California’s climate change legislation.

The standard is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about the equivalent of 12 to 13 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year in 2020. In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the regulation will result in hundreds of tons of statewide reductions in smog-forming and toxic air pollutants by displacing the use of dirtier fossil fueled generation, providing a range of health related benefits. RES is one of many measures designed to reach the goals set out by AB 32, California’s law requiring the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. RDA

A Green State of Mind

Posted on September 24, 2010 by quest

by Richard Andrews: From Van Jones, Natalie Portman, Bill McKibben, Majora Carter, Prince Charles, Al Gore, Reverend Lennox Yearwood,Rickie Ott, Justin Timberlake and so many, many more people -including possibly you… are spreading the word.

And the word is “green” which is clarifying the relationship between environmental sanity, job development and to go real deep, human survival and sustainability on planet earth. What an incredible situation we find ourselves in…California, the nation, the world. To quote famous author Charles Dickens from, A Tale of Two Cities” It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of enlightenment, it was the age of foolishness.” Thomas Paine in a series of pamphlets, The American Crisis in late 1776 wrote, ” These are the times that try men’s soul.”

To get real we cannot, we must not leave the leading of this country to politicians, remember they’re supposed to represent us, the largest and most entitled group from which the most money flows…the American taxpayer. By now we can see what the industrial, military, money, media complex will do when they are left unchecked, or when they twist reality to serve the own agenda.

CHANGE YOURSELF – NOTORIOUS

Given the mental, emotional, intellectual and financial state America is in now, clean green empowering jobs are on everyone’s mind. These jobs represent an opportunity to bring an age of enlightenment to America...”a new green renaissance.” For this to happen though we will have to avoid eating the hate that is served up to Americans everyday by those caught up in self serving greed and divisiveness. As President Obama said on the campaign trail…”We are the change we seek.” And quoting from the hip hop movie Notorious ” We can’t change the world…until we change ourselves”

That’s going to require that we rethink and re- educate ourselves, friends and family. So it’s refreshing to see that Bank of America Foundation and Charles Mott Foundation are launching The Greenforce Initiative. It’s a start to a new green state of mind.