Inspirational and good news.
Scientist at Ghent University in Belgium and University of Queensland in Australia are working on a prototype device that generates electricity from the solid waste that we humans produce every day.
The process works by harnessing the energy that waste-eating bacteria make and turning it into electricity.
Not surprisingly, the researchers are hoping to use the technology to power water treatment plants, but they say a domestic power plant is also possible in the future
Brazil is using the internet to ensure that policies are carried through. This includes monitoring the environment using the internet with the Agenda 21 System.
“The agenda also represents a new global development standard for the 21st century, placing priority on sustainable economic models that don’t harm the environment.”
The Beijing-based International Society for Digital Earth has been founded to compile data from all sorts of digital earth models in order to make the most realistic computer simulation of the planet as possible.
Research will focus on climate change and other global issues. The project will help us analyze a lot of data about this planet we live on and hopefully find some solutions to environmental problems. What’s more “the society is expected to recruit members from developing countries, particularly Africa and Latin America, to raise their awareness of the opportunities the project offers.”
Most countries compete for the gold medal, well China’s competing for one extra one that is green. We all know that China is building a green city and now they are trying to build a green olympics. China is implementing new technologies to try to get the coming 2008 Beijing olympics environmentally friendly. From the World Watch Institute:
“In mid-April, Beijing’s National Olympic Stadium signed a 10 million RMB (US$1.25 million) contract with domestic solar company Suntech Power to install a 130-kilowatt photovoltaic system at 12 stadium entrances. The installation will supplement the venue’s conventional power supply and make the stadium—also known as the “Bird’s Nest†because of its appearance—the world’s most environmentally friendly sporting arena. “The Bird’s Nest Stadium solar energy project demonstrates China’s commitment to clean, renewable energy and a green Olympics,†said Zhengrong Shi, Suntech’s chairman and CEO.”
A Japanese science team has predicted that soon the hole in Eath’s ozone layer will start shrinking and possibly be filled in by the year 2050. The scientist attribute the hole shrinking to reduction in chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting gases over the last decade.
“The findings are based on a series of numerical simulations carried out by Eiji Akiyoshi of the National Institute for Environmental Studies, near Tokyo, using projected emissions of chlorofluorocarbons and other gases blamed for the ozone hole.”