Some students have created an air conditioner that is more environmentally friendly than your common cooling unit. From the article: “[the students] won the first-ever Ricoh Sustainable Development Award in May when they competed against 1,400 other worldwide invitation-only entries at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix.”
More info on the Ricoh Sustainable Development Award.
Wal-Mart, known by most to be a horrible corporation, is trying to be environmentally conscious. CNN has an article on a new store Wal-Mart is opening that has a windmill and a roof that opens and closes based on sunlight.
Wal-Mart is doing this to save money and also to try to improve its reputation. I never thought that Wal-Mart would ever make it onto this site in this way, but it does make sense since energy is becoming more and more expensive. Wal-Marts have huge roofs that can be used for solar panels; their buildings are surrounded by huge parking lots that would allow wind to be generated for windmills.
A question that is rarely asked got answered recently:
What’s the best way to perform research in Antarctica?
The answer is to do it on skis.
A new research base will be elevated on skis so it can be moved around and allow the researchers sunlight (when it shines) because a major complaint from researchers was the lack of sun. It will also have some solar panels. It is a modular design to allow for quick construction, and I assume it would be easy to add new modules as things get better.
As the price of oil increases (because we are running out of the stuff) some smart people are realising that we need to look elsewhere for energy. It is only suiting that the shipping industry does this since renewable resources for energy (wind) have been used longer than human-made forms of energy. One company, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, has designed a ship that uses three forms of energy: wind, solar, and water.
The linked article also has a list of other innovate approaches that have been spawned by this boating project.
Thanks, Emily!
The 6th International Conference on Walking in the 21st Century will take place in Switzerland where walking is an established and significant part of everyday life.
EVERYDAY WALKING CULTURE will focus on the planned implementation of walking into daily life by technical, political and structural means