Category: Environment

Greenbox for Green Driving

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Three fishing men from Northern Wales have invented a device that removes upwards of 95% of greenhouse gas emissions from an automobile. It’s called the Greenbox and it replaces the muffler of the car and is designed to be removable so new filters can be swapped in. The reason that the Greenbox needs to be swapped is because the gasses that it traps can be used to encourage algae growth – to make biofuel.

Can this invention get any better?

We’ve managed to develop a way to successfully capture a majority of the emissions from the dirtiest motor we could find,” Palmer, who has consulted for organizations including the World Health Organisation and GlaxoSmithKline, told Reuters

China is Greening Up

China, that raucous polluter is open about how badly they treat the environment, and they are also open about how they are trying to clean it up, particularly they are encouraging public organizations to pressure factories and politicians to clean up their acts. THe Washington Monthly’s article The Great Leap Forward looks at the growing green movement in China.

Green Camel Bell’s mission is the “protection of the Mother River,” a motto that evokes the history of the Yellow River basin as the cradle of Chinese civilization. Among other activities, the organization’s two paid staffers (Zhao draws no salary) and several dozen volunteers assemble the environmental records of factories across Lanzhou: culling newspaper articles, academic studies, and reports prepared by local environmental officials, many of whom Zhao knows. They send the information to a partner group in Beijing, which feeds it into the China Water Pollution Map (www.ipe.org.cn/english), a free online database that allows users to access information about water quality in their region. The site also publishes a list of factories that violate national environ- mental standards—including many state-owned enterprises.

Australia Looking to Protect Environment

Two pieces of good news from down under! Oddly (but goodly), Prime Minister Howard, who dosen’t like the Kyoto Accord, appears to realize the environment is important:

1. His government has announced that households that use solar power will get $1000 in rebates. This is to encourage less energy consumption.

2. At the same time Howard also announce that schools will be rewarded if they improve water and energy efficiency.

Clean Air for Cyclists

thanks Cory! We’ve looked at what cyclists can do to keep their lungs clean before and now there’s some futuristic looking bike helmets that can clean the air.

Smog is a concern for cyclists the world over, and indeed that maybe why they bike, I know it’s one of a zillion reasons that I bike. Recently, smog has started to eat away at my lungs or something according to my doctor so I went and bought a breathing mask. After buying my breathing mask I found out about the stormtrooper helmet & mask, which I’d love to wear. Then there’s this breathing apparatus that filters out 98.5% of pollutants in the air!

Both those helmets look like they’re from the future! I like how people are getting creative when combining a filter and a helmet. Seriously, I want that stromtrooper helmet.

Use FaceBook to Strut Your Greenery

FaceBook, that ever-popular socail networking tool has a neat application that you can add to your profile that outlines how green you are! It’s called I am Green and symbolizes how green you are by creating a leaf for you.

From Inside Facebook:

“I Am Green” is a networking application for facebook members about caring for the future of our planet by changing little things we do everyday. Members change small things about their every day lives, and share these ideas together. Some of the popular actions are using cold water instead of hot, switching to the right green products, and not using paper or plastic in many specific cases where habit draws us but it’s not needed. Members call their green actions ‘Leaves’ which they pile up. Their lists are displayed on their profile for all their friends to see and endorse or even copy. Its a smart way to find out about little things that will make a better tomorrow.’

It’s still in development so it’s limited in what you can add as a green-realted thing you do. For example, you can be vegan and not vegetarian. Even being vegetarian helps the environment, just eating less meat and more veggies is still a step in the right direction for the planet and your health.

Via Digg