Environment

Countries Agree that Ozone Layer is Good

- Adam Clare

In what is deemed an historic agreement all the nations of the UN have agreed to speed up the pace of phasing out of a dangerous chemical compound known as HCFC. HCFCs replaced the more dangerous CFCs (they both cause damage to the ozone layer) many years ago and now are now ready to be replaced themselves. It’s good to see another damaging chemical will be used less and less with every coming year.

Governments of 190 countries, in addition to the European Commission, agreed to freeze production of HCFCs at average 2009-10 levels in 2013. That deadline replaces an earlier target of 2016.
Developed countries also have agreed to end HCFC production in 2020, instead of 2030. The pact also says that by 2010 they will reduce production and consumption of HCFCs by 75 per cent and then by 90 per cent by 2015, five years before their final phase-out.

Got Radioactive Waste?

- Cam Proctor

If you do have radioactive waste, i.e. any country with nuclear power, you probably have a really, really good plan to store that waste for millions of years. No? Well then you might be interested in transmuting the waste into different form that has a half life of 25 minutes. Using a high-powered laser, gold and some physics I don’t understand iodine can be transmuted making the material safer. If the process could be scaled up and cheaper it could pose an alternative to Yucca Mountain.

British scientists have “transmuted” iodine-129 into iodine-128 with a high-powered laser. Now, dropping one neutron might not seem like a big deal, but the half-life of iodine-129 is 15 million years while the half-life of iodine 128 is 25 minutes.

Fight for Your Right to Dry

- Adam Clare 3 Comments

This is an issue that I never put thought to before because in Canada we don’t have nearly as many as these bizarre closed communities and suburban housing boards. Anyway, in the states communities limit what you can do with your house in order to maintain an aesthetic of sameness. Environmentalists who want to air dry their clothing on clotheslines are getting in trouble becuase of community regulations.

Now there is a movement in America that is fighting for their right to dry.

The regulations of the subdivision in which Ms. Taylor lives effectively prohibit outdoor clotheslines. In a move that has torn apart this otherwise tranquil community, the development’s managers have threatened legal action. To the developer and many residents, clotheslines evoke the urban blight they sought to avoid by settling in the Oregon mountains.

Rent it Online

- Cam Proctor

How much stuff do you have sitting at home right now that you don’t use….but don’t want to get rid of it cause you might need it? Why not rent it out online? The Ebay for renting is finally here with RentMineOnline.com (still in Alpha testing). When you need a thing for 1 day out of 365 rent instead of buying and save a buck and the planet.

A good example of how this can work is landmovers. Why should everyone has their own mower if they will only use it a couple of hours a week and there is a perfectly good mover a house away? I would love to see streets organize themselves and collectively buy one mover for all residents. So I emplore those of you with needs for landmovers, drills, boats, whatever it maybe to check to rent it before you buy. The more we rent instead of buy, the less environmental impact we have.

Renting your home could save you money, especially if you take advantage of this rental rebate.

Green Computing is Open Source

- Adam Clare

Using opensource technology is better for the environment. Yay for free stuff and protecting that thing I love!

Free software is often usable on older hardware, more secure, more easily customized, less expensive, and available in more languages. These are substantial benefits, but they are all a natural result of the most important considerations—freedom and independence. The celebrated power of the Internet as a tool for political action depends on the ability of ordinary people to have uncensored control over the tools they use to participate in society. If the tools used by activists are proprietary, they will be inherently limited in what they can challenge and change by those who make and exclusively own the tools.

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