Technology

GPS Directions Help Save the Environment

- Adam Clare

One of the largest makers of consumer GPS devices has commissioned a study on fuel consumption in cars that have GPS devices and cars that lack the feature. The conclusion is that having a device that informs drivers about traffic can lower emissions. Of course, if you can avoid taking a car you should do so.

In a three pronged study which evaluated drivers without a navigation system, drivers with a navigation system, and drivers with a navigation system that included traffic, the results revealed that drivers using navigation devices 1) drove shorter distances and 2) spent less time driving. Conducted in two metropolitan areas of Germany – Dusseldorf and Munich – the study also showed that drivers with navigation devices had a 12% increase in fuel efficiency, as measured by liters of fuel consumed per 100 kms. Fuel consumption among those drivers using navigation fell from 8.3 to 7.3 l/100kms.
This increase in fuel economy translates to an estimated .91 tons (metric) decrease in carbon dioxide emissions every year per driver, or a 24% decrease over the amount that the average non-navigation user emits per year. Stated in terms of grams/km the reduction equates to 25 g/km per car. And with an annualized decrease in driving of nearly 2500 fewer kilometers per driver, 1.19 million tires would also be saved from disposal in Germany due to the decrease in wear and tear.

Google Earth Includes Oceans

- Adam Clare

Google Earth is a neat program, but what people can use it for is far more interesting than the software itself. Google has gone ahead and modified their program to now include information about the Earth’s ocean to make people aware of how the oceans are connected to our lives.

“I’ve been struggling my whole life to figure out how to reach people and get them to understand they’re connected to the ocean,” Dr. Earle said.

“But I go to the supermarket and still see the United Nations of fish for sale,” she said. “Marine sanctuaries are still not really protected. Google Earth gets all this information now and puts it in one place for the littlest kid and the stuffiest grownup to see in a way that hasn’t been possible in all preceding history.”

By choosing among 20 buttons holding archives of information, called “layers” by Google, a visitor can read logs of oceanographic expeditions, see old film clips from the heyday of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and check daily Navy maps of sea temperatures.

Climate Time Machine

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

Nasa and the JPL have created a climate time machine to quickly explain to policy makers the effects of climate change.

Because everybody is affected by the weather, it seems like everybody likes to improvise themselves a climate scientist. Amateur theories about global warming are a dime a dozen and, unfortunately, that can make it hard for the general public and policy makers to figure out what’s based on sound science and what has just been made up in 5 minutes by someone who doesn’t know anything about climate science.

That’s the problem that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is trying to help fix with Climate Time Machine. Read on for more details.

New Company Tracks Carbon Footprints for You

- Adam Clare

OpenTrace is a brand new company that is looking for funding so they can create a website to help you figure out the carbon footprint of certain goods. The math behind the footprints will be open to anyone and the information can be used for anything.

In the video below they demo the website, just skip to about a minute in as the video starts with them setting up their equipment and gossiping about people at the conference.

Dell is Carbon Neutral

- Adam Clare

Dell computers has achieved carbon neutrality as a company which will put pressure on other computer manufactures to do the same. Dell achieved this goal five months ahead of schedule. Greenpeace does a good job of tracking which electronics manufactures are kind to the environment and which are not at their guide to greener electronics.

How Dell Became Carbon Neutral
The big one is that they are now completely carbon neutral when it comes to their energy use, and 5 months ahead of schedule to boot! They even did things in the right order. First, they started with efficiency measures in their operations around the world, then they purchased green power (which can sometimes be limited by local supply, Dane Parker, Dell’s director of global environmental health and safety programs, told us on the phone yesterday), and then purchased verified emission reductions and renewable energy certificates for the rest.

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