Richard Branson has joined the fight to reduce global warming. Branson has pledged $3 billion over the next decade. The funds will be used to promote and develop alternate sources of energy. The announcement was made at the Clinton Global Initiative, a conference put together by the former president to fight global warming and help clean up the environment. The conference is attended by political, non profit and business leaders. This year’s conference has been far more successful than anticipated. Last year’s conference generated a total of $2.5 Billion in revenue directed at combating global warming; this year’s pledges already stand at $5.7 billion with 114 contributors. The ever charismatic Branson said he hopes the funds will help to preserve the environment for future generations.
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Primarily site news and things.
Introducing……Nikki
I’d like to introduce everyone to our newest writer Nikki! She made her first post yesterday about the Madrid fashion show. Please give her a warm welcome.
Nikki hails from Vancouver, British Columbia and loves Canucks and coffee. Originally from Africa, Nikki has travelled the world making a difference doing all sorts of journalistically good things. She doesn’t like how the mainstream media concentrates on the negative aspects of reality and she wants to change that. She also doesn’t like celery.
Look forward to great posts from Nikki!
Spare a few computing cycles?
ThingsAreGood is proud to announce a new team on the World Community Grid!
The world community grid helps you make use of your computer’s unused processing time. Let your computer crunch numbers for social good when you’re not surfing the web, playing games, or hard at work.
From the www.worldcommunitygrid.com website:
World Community Grid’s mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. Our work is built on the belief that technological innovation combined with visionary scientific research and large-scale volunteerism can change our world for the better. Our success depends on individuals – like you – collectively contributing their unused computer time to this not-for-profit endeavor.
To join the ThingsAreGood team, simply create an account at www.worldcommunitygrid.com.
Germany Crushes Competition in Solar Market
There really isnt much more to this story than what the title title says. Germany has heavily embraced renewable energy, especially solar power, in every appliciable measure.
Lets see how….
Germany generates enough power from the sun’s rays to meet the needs of households in a city of 590 000, according to the Solar Energy Association BSW.
Last week, a solar electric power plant, billed by its operators as the world’s biggest, went into service in the southern German state of Bavaria. More than 1 400 movable solar modules will collect the sun’s rays and harness them into energy for around 3 500 homes.
Germany accounts for 60% of the world market in solar energy, with some 5 000 firms exporting one-quarter of their products in a sector that employs 45 000
Germans last year invested €3.7bn in solar energy, one of the fastest growing sources of renewable energy along with wind power and biomass. Solar energy accounts for less than 1% of the country’s energy needs, but the figure is expected to grow to more than 5% by 2020, according to the BSW.
Flushing Rainwater
Clean, drinkable water is a precious resource, so why are we flushing it down the toilet? I ask this question almost daily (no joke). Well, LifeHacker has a great comment thread going on this very question.
The thread is part of a post about how one man actually uses rainwater to fill his water toilet basin. This is a great way to do to less harm to the environment, but some municipalities in Canada don’t like people doing this though. Other parts of the world, buildings are built incorporating rainwater collection.
“Domestic potable water collection requires effort, energy, and chemicals for purification and transport. Toilets use 20 to 25% of water consumed in a residential house. Why are we flushing drinkable water down the toilet? In some other countries of the world, rainwater harvesting on a residential level is a mandatory part of building codes.”