Environment

Yahoo Greener than Google?

- Adam Clare

Internet users often use search engines, but have you ever wondered which of the two giant search engines is the greenest? Well, there is no clear answer but TechCrunch gives us a basic breakdown on greening the search engines:

Google:
They are also installing 1.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels at their headquarters in Mountain View. The panels will cover the roofs of the buildings, and Google says it is “the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the U.S.”

Yahoo:
Earlier this year, co-founder David Filo pledged that Yahoo would go carbon neutral, basically by purchasing carbon offsets for their massive electricity usage.

Canadians Have Less Gravitational Pull

- Adam Clare

yupApparently living in Canada ensures I weigh less because Canada has less gravity (and I thought I was naturally thin). Different parts of the world have endure different levels of gravitational pull, some even witness gravity waves. Neat stuff!

A German-American team has figured out why Canada has less gravity and it has something to do with the Ice Age. The results of the observations can be applied to more than the average weight of a Canadian.

Ultimately, scientists hope to use such data to learn how continents form and evolve over time. “With this information, people could infer better whether the North America plate is actually predominantly stable,” says C K Shum, an expert on the Earth’s gravity at Ohio State University in Columbus, US, who was not a part of this study.

Using this same set of data, researchers have also found that there were two ice domes in the ice sheet on either side of Hudson Bay, given the features in the gravity field that have been left behind. The way the thickness of any ice cover changes at different periods could be used by climate modellers to understand past climate change.

iSave Shower Power

- Adam Clare

I’m a sucker for nice long hot showers and I can’t help but think that it’s wasteful and an exercise of pure luxury that a lot of the world can’t afford. This all doesn’t stop me from spending 10 minutes enjoying hot water. A new invention may help me ween off my wastefulness though.

The iSave is a shower head (or a faucet fixture) that tracks how much water you’re using. It’s powered by the water itself, genius!

neat-o

City Likes to Blow

- Adam Clare

Toronto is looking to green their buildings, and what better place to start than city hall?

Putting small wind turbines on the roof at city hall was one of several ideas presented yesterday to reduce the building’s $3 million annual energy bill.

“Personally, I think it’s a really neat way of increasing the renewable energy footprint for the city hall,” consultant Paul Leitch told about 50 experts meeting yesterday to ponder ways of greening the 42-year-old twin towers.

Leitch said it would cost about $125,000 to install six of the devices – three on each tower – to produce enough electricity to power about nine homes.

Thanks, Lindsay!

Mmmmmm……house

- Cam Proctor

Last time I talked about Mushroom houses was when I watched cartoons. Ok, ok I still watch cartoons. Point is I never thought about using mushrooms to make my home. On the other hand, Eben Bayer a soon to be graduate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is trying to do it. Using mushroom spores Eben has developed a process to add insulation value and possibly even strong “growable” homes. According to CCNews,Mushroom Paper

“A dual major in mechanical engineering and product design and innovation, Bayer has developed an environmentally friendly organic insulation. The patented combination of water, flour, minerals, and mushroom spores could replace conventional foam insulations, which are expensive to produce and harmful to the environment.

“The insulation is created by pouring a mixture of insulating particles, hydrogen peroxide, starch, and water into a panel mold,” Bayer says. “Mushroom cells are then injected into the mold, where they digest the starch producing a tightly meshed network of insulating particles and mycelium. The end result is an organic composite board that has a competitive R-Value – a measurement of resistance to heat flow – and can serve as a firewall.”

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