Category: Environment

UK Readies for Biggest Wetland

The United Kingdom is going to make their largest human-made wetland to help endangered birds. Biodiversity is a fantastic thing and needs to be protected, so it is great to see such a large investment in helping birds live. It is also hoped that the wetland will help fish.

“Almost 115 hectares will be flooded at Wallasea Island, Essex, creating wetland, mudflats, saline lagoons and seven artificial islands.

The £7.5m government-funded project aims to replace bird habitats lost to development, improve flood defences, and create leisure opportunities.”

Empty the Landfils?

Recycling is becoming easier with new technologies, techniques and other innovations, which means that we can start reusing discarded items that have ended up in landfills. The recycling and reuse sector of the American economy has grown so much that it currently employs as many people as the auto industry!

“Without recycling, given current virgin raw material supplies, we could not print the daily newspaper, build a car, or ship a product in a cardboard box,” says Powell. “Recycling is not some feel-good activity; it is one of the backbones of global economic development.” To his way of thinking, recovering cast-offs and putting them to good use “are key ingredients to industrial growth and stability.”

Greener Chip Manufacturing Process

In a story that is making it’s way around the web, researchers at the University College London have devised a new way to produce computer chips.

computer chip

The production of computer chips currently takes a vast amount of energy to heat furnaces to 1000 degrees Celsius. The heat transforms silicon to silicon dioxide, a key ingredient of computer chips. The new process encourages this reaction using cool ultraviolet light instead of intense heat.

Computer manufacture is one of the most polluting industries out there. This is one step towards reversing that trend.

Building Green = $$$

A new study by the Real Property Association of Canada reveals that adding green features to a building equals better sale value!

“Rick Nevin and Gregory Watson found that people pay $10-$20 more for a home for every $1 reduction in annual fuel bills.

The Heschong Mahone Group found that ‘adding skylighting to the average non-skylit retail store would be likely to improve its performance by 40%’.

Pennsylvania Power and Light noted a conversion’s electricity savings amounted to a payback in 4.1 years with a 24% return on investment.However benefits from lower absenteeism and higher productivity meant a simple payback of just 69 days,a 540% return on investment…

Not only are green buildings good for the environment, provide healthier places to live and more productive places to work ,they can command higher rents and prices, attract tenants more quickly, reduce tenant turnover and cost less to operate and maintain.”

And in other building related green new, scientists have figured out how to use people power!

Bush Protects Environment???

With all the stories lately about the U.S. president avoiding important environmental issues, this recent news is a truely refreshing change. President George W Bush has recently established the largest protected marine area in the World, in Hawaii. The Northwestern Hawaiian Island Marine National Monument stretches 2,600 kilometers across the central Pacific Ocean and is home to a variety of species that are not found anywhere else on the planet. It is also the largest and healthiest coral-reef system in the United States.

Protection of the area will ensure that unauthorized passage of ships will be prohibited, as well as unauthorized recreational or commercial activity, removal of coral wildlife minerals and other resources or waste dumping.