New Information Links Atlantic Ocean Warming To Stronger Hurricanes
Atmospheric scientists have uncovered fresh evidence to support the theory that global warming has contributed to the emergence of stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. But the trend doesn’t hold up in the world’s other oceans.
Scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, N.C., reported the findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The work should help clarify two studies last year that drew connections between global warming and increasingly intense hurricanes.
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Ask The Sietch - Easy Cheap Solar Heat
Do you have a question you would like to Ask The Sietch? Contact us or post your question in the Forums, and we will do our best to answer it.
Got this question a while ago.
Need help! Our fuel bill is $700 per month. Married empty nesters on modest income from Wisconsin U.S.A. Cannot afford gas to run our in-floor heating for house and new dog kennel.
how can we build cheap solar heat for us and new kennel. ?
j
Well J, you are in luck my friend. You have two things going for you right now, you have radiant floor heating, and you have a very high fuel bill.
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UK Approves 500MW Offshore Wind Power Project
A 500 MW wind farm with the power to supply clean electricity to over 415,000 homes, more than all the demand in Suffolk, was approved for construction last week. The project is being developed by Airtricity and Fluor. Comprised of 140-turbines the project will cut CO2 emissions by 1.5 million tonnes a year - the equivalent of taking 350,000 cars off the road.
Airtricity, one of Europe’s leading renewable energy companies, together with its joint venture partner Fluor, has been awarded a lease from The Crown Estate to build and operate the offshore wind park at Greater Gabbard in the United Kingdom.
The award of the lease to the Airtricity/Fluor joint venture is part of the second round competition for UK offshore wind farm developments by The Crown Estate. The sites available for offshore wind farm development are located in the three strategic areas announced by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in July 2003: the Thames Estuary, the Greater Wash and the North West (Liverpool Bay).
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Market Expanding For Solar Powered Homes
For so long solar panels have been for people who “get it” and have the funds to put them on their homes. Now it seems that the high end home market is starting to wake up to the idea of using solar power as a selling point.
Lennar, one of the nation’s biggest home builders, plans to install solar power systems in all its new homes in the Bay Area, representatives for the company said this week.
Lennar made the announcement at its high-end, all-solar development in the Milano housing community in Danville. Three projects in San Ramon set to open this year also will be solar-powered.
“Every home in Milano will come with a solar package,” said Peter Beucke, vice president of the Bay Area division of Lennar. “It’s now a standard inclusion in our homes.”
Lennar also is planning one of the largest solar communities, 650 homes, in two developments in Roseville.
Lennar is involved with the New Solar Homes Partnership, part of California’s Solar Initiative to install 400 megawatts of solar power in the next decade. To promote solar energy, the California Energy Commission offers incentives of $2.60 a watt for systems on new homes. Homeowners also are eligible for a one-time $2,000 federal tax credit.
“Historically, we’ve seen a low participation with solar in new-home construction. It’s been less than 2 percent,” said David Hochschild, who co-heads the solar homes partnership.
“The state builds around 150,000 homes a year. If we can get more builders interested, we could see as many as half of new homes being solar in five years,” Hochschild said.(via)
Because these systems are standardized, and because this company makes so many of them they can offer the solar systems at a much lower price. These homes have plans for a 2.3kw system coming in at 12-15 grand, a system like that retrofitted one home at a time would be 20-30 grand.
These homes are rather large costing 1.2 million dollars and up. Having the wealthy adopt this technology will help to change people perception about how solar power works. It will be both easy, desirable, and standard. Because every home in the development will include solar it instantly builds in a shared sense of doing something good, a consumer base for repair and maintenance technicians, and an example to others in what good green planning can do.
This is only the first step in making solar power cheaper for home owners. All new home construction should have some form of renewable energy technology installed by default. Almost every climate in the united states could benefit from solar power, or solar thermal panels. Making them standard will only drive down costs. Integrating these systems into home will also help low income residents. Having lowered fuel and electric bills because your energy is coming from renewable sources will allow people to spend that money on savings, food, health care, or more education.
Use Your Computer More Efficiently With Kyoto Potato
A lot of us leave our computers on 24 hours a day. Even with standby mode this could lead to a lot of energy usage while we are not using the machines at all. A much more efficient way to use that computer would be to make sure that while it is on and using energy we use it as efficiently as possible. Enter Kyoto Potato. Kyoto Potato is an application that records the time you are using your computer and the times you have left it switched on and are not using it. Idle time, the time you are not using your computer goes against you and decreases the amount of credits you get for trading.
Sort of a stock market, where the main trading commodity is computer usage time. The interesting idea about this game is the fact that it IS a game. Anytime you can get people to do something they think is fun, while at the same time doing something positive for the world, you have yourself a sure winner. In order to win this game you have to only use your computer when you are actually using it, this will give you the most credits so that you can have the biggest portfolio so that you can dominate the competition. All while reducing your energy usage, and teaching yourself about efficient use of resources.
Grey Tuesday? - Stock Market Drops More Than 400 Points.
On news that China’s red hot economy may need to cool down a little, sent some pretty serious waves through the world economy. At one point the selling was so fast and furious that the NYSE couldn’t keep up with the sell off, resulting in what should be another horrible day tomorrow as they catch up with the sell orders from today. This is the worst stock market plunge since 9/11.
hurtling the Dow down more than 400 points on a worldwide tide of concern that the U.S. and Chinese economies are stumbling and that share prices have become overinflated.
The steepness of the market’s drop, as well as its global breadth, signaled a possible correction after a long period of stable and steadily rising stock markets that had not been shaken by such a volatile day of trading in several years.(via)
At one point today the fall was over 500 points.
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Monday Confessional (On Tuesday)
I know I say this a lot but, wow have I been busy. So busy that I am having to write this Monday confessional on Tuesday. Better busy, than have nothing to do I guess. This last week shot past me like a greased pig. I spent the last couple of days out at the national seashore for an AmeriCorps retreat, and it was very nice. Busy but nice. The National Seashore on Cape Cod is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Its an end of the road kind of place. Any place where the road ends is special. A place where human beings realize that all things they have created end “here”. Its also a place where land, ocean, and sky come together.
I have lived near the ocean for almost three years now and yet every time I see or hear the waves breaking onto the shore I am amazed. Perhaps its the primal connection to our slimy past, or the fact that it’s just so damn big, but humans seem to be fascinated with the ocean. I am no exception. I could sit for hours and watch the waves roll in, the sound gently taking your mind to whatever place it wants. It makes me think about the world, and the wonder of it all.
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Procter & Gamble Co and Algae
My eyes perked up when I ran across this simple press release. Hmmm, says I, why such a low profile?
PetroSun, Incorporated (PINKSHEETS: PSUD) announced today that Gordon LeBlanc, Jr., CEO and Chairman, has been invited to address a Procter & Gamble internal symposium on April 19th in Cincinati, Ohio. The two day symposium is entitled “Innovation for Sustainability and Conservation.” Mr. LeBlanc will lecture on the past, present and future sustainability of oil and alternative energy fuels.
Chickee Poo
As every large industry moves to make its operations more efficient this chicken farmer isn’t about to be left out.
John Logan is basically a conservationist at heart. So, when the retired computer specialist and business man took over the eastern Mississippi chicken farm that had been in his family for seven generations, he wanted to try something new: growing a fuel crop. All he had to do was capitalize on the farm’s existing resource: chicken manure.
Students Enter Competition To Produce Zero-Emissions Snowmobile
Snowmobiles long ago replaced dogsleds for hauling people and cargo in the polar regions, particularly in remote research stations and field camps such as those on the Greenland Ice Sheet and in Antarctica.
But for all their utility, snowmobiles are not very environmentally friendly.
So, on March 19, 2007, four National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported teams will compete in the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge in Houghton, Mich., to produce a zero-emissions snow vehicle. The challenge attracts teams of undergraduate engineering students from across North America with the goal of designing a snowmobile with lower environmental impact, less noise, fewer emissions and a lighter footprint–all without sacrificing the performance snowmobile enthusiasts love.
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