Month: April 2012

Getting Water from Air

- Adam Clare

With water wars becoming a concern for nations around the world a small French company has come up with a way to get water out of thin air. Well, humid air, and it’s for more than just providing peace it’s a way for many communities to get off the grid and become when more self-sufficient.

“This technology could enable rural areas to become self-sufficient in terms of water supply,” says Thibault Janin, director of marketing at Eole Water.
“As the design and capabilities develop, the next step will be to create turbines that can provide water for small cities or areas with denser populations,” he adds.
Eole Water is currently displaying a working prototype of the 24 meter tall WMS1000 in the desert near Abu Dhabi that has been able to produce 62 liters of water an hour, says Janin.

Read more at CNN.

Another company, Straus Water, specializes in a counter top water cooler.

Strong Climate Change Law Passes in Mexico

- Adam Clare

Of the three countries in NAFTA, Mexico seems to care the most about the environment. The country just passed a strong law that will product the environment and aim to cut carbon emissions.

The new law contains many sweeping provisions to mitigate climate change, including a mandate to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 30% below business-as-usual levels by 2020, and by 50% below 2000 levels by 2050.

Furthermore, it stipulates that 35% of the country’s electricity should come from renewable sources by 2024, and requires mandatory emissions reporting by the country’s largest polluters. The act also establishes a commission to oversee implementation, and encourages development of a carbon-trading scheme. Although there was initial resistance from Mexico’s steel and cement industries, the bill passed with bipartisan support.

Read more in Nature.

Get Fourth Wall on Tour and Online

- Adam Clare

Dave Meslin is a Toronto based awesome dude that wants to make Toronto a better place, and now he and the Fourth Wall team want to bring something cool to your town. The Fourth Wall exhibit was a project that looked at ways to get people more engaged in their local civic life. It was really great and puts on display some easy low-resistance ways that cities can get people better involved in improving the city.

Here’s a TEDx talk that Meslin gave that explores his inspiration for Fourth Wall:

For three months in 2011, “The Fourth Wall” exhibit explored 36 ideas about how to make city politics more accessible, inviting, relevant & participatory.

The response to the show was overwhelming.  Now the the exhibit is on tour, and we need funds for transportation and installations!  The exhibit also needs an online home complete with downloadable PDFs, videos, tour schedule, media links, scorecard, photo gallery etc,

Contribute at RocketHub

Manila Uses Paint That Cleans the Air

- Adam Clare

This is groovy, a paint is being used on the walls of Manila that cleans the air.

In the Philippine capital Manila, which is one of the most polluted cities in the world, a paint which it is claimed can purify the air is being used.

A local company has come up with the paint and in partnership with the government it is trying to use it to clean up one of the city’s most smog-choked roads.

Watch the video at the BBC.

Japan’s Largest Solar Power Plant: 70MW

- Adam Clare 2 Comments

Japan is about to build a new solar power plant and it’ll their largest one to date. The country is trying to improve their power grid and make it more sustainable after the nuclear disaster last year. Great to see progress!

The new plant, which will be called the Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega-Solar Power Plant, is expected to take up approximately 314 acres, though drawings show most of that space will be over water, either by constructing a floating barge or building up the seabed below. Once completed, the plant is expected to produce 70MW of electricity (enough to power 22,000 homes) which would make it Japan’s largest such facility, and perhaps more tellingly, would amount to 40% of Japan’s total current solar electrical output.

Read more.

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