One of the world’s biggest automobile manufacturers, the Volkswagen Group, doesn’t mind spending a few bucks occasionally in going green. And by a few bucks, we mean roughly about €10.2 billion! The company is investing more in energy-efficient and eco-friendly vehicles, to help lighten its own carbon footprint and give mankind cleaner ways to travel. Currently, the Volkswagen Group has 54 model variants to offer, each of which emit less than 100 grams CO2/km!
Radios might seem a little old fashioned now, but these devices that have kept the world entertained right since the transmission of digital signals were made possible, can prove to be quite handy in numerous situations. Technology giant Sony understands the usefulness of this friendly little device and has given it a green edge. The company now proudly boasts the ICF-B88, its first solar emergency radio that will be made part of a manually-powered device series.
It isn’t very often that a technology company begins to do things the green way. Panasonic has decided to break trends and has announced the world’s first loudspeaker using a diaphragm made from plant opals in bamboo leaves. Called the Bamboo Plant Opal Loudspeaker, the system is capable of producing clear sound with low distortion. This is made possible with the use of the hard, plant opal materials occurring in bamboo.
The never ending air pollution problems China has been facing since the last year seems to be constantly in the news. Most recently, a Chinese man living in Shijiazhuang, the capital of north China’s Hebei province, has filed a law suit against the city’s environmental protection bureau, stating that the authorities owe him money for the economic damages the pollution has caused. Li Guixin seeks about $1,635 from officials in Shijiazhuang in order to pay for the indoor treadmill he has been using and the face masks and air purifier he has purchased.
Beijing has been chocking off late given the fact that the quality of air in the city has been dropping to new lows. The record-breaking air pollution in this Chinese city has grabbed the attention of environmentalists and designers from across the globe, who’ve been pouring in solutions to the problem. Architects at London-based Orproject came up with the Bubbles project to help Beijing’s population breathe easy. The project involves the use of giant Bubbles filled with fresh air that cover open spaces like parks and botanical gardens.
While the rest of us prefer to jump aboard the green bandwagon and drive energy efficient and sparkly green Chevrolet Volts and the lovable Toyota Prius, a few car owners still prefer to stick to the more environment-chocking side of affairs. While looking at the statistics of some of the greenest cars around us recently, we decided to also draw up a list of the world’s most inefficient cars. Here it is!
Awful as it may sound, with the right amount of purification, sweat can be turned into potable water. To prove this theory right, Swedish designers built a Sweat Machine that literally uses sweat from drenched clothes and turns it all into pure and drinkable water! The machine is inspired by NASA’s astronauts who recycle everything they use in outer space to sustain their stay. Developed by the Deportivo PR Company and UNICEF, the machine turns the spotlight on important issues like water scarcity and famines.
The poaching of defenseless wild animals for their fur, skin, horns and tusks has never really been a noble deed and the world has spoken against these acts of cruelty quite often before. To join the brigade of those against elephant poaching, Prince William recently made a strong statement that has given environmentalists much to smile about. The Prince has stated that he’d like to see the entire royal ivory collection removed from the Buckingham Palace and destroyed!
What better place could you chose to play home to the biggest solar energy power plant in the world, than the sunny state of California, right? Well, that’s exactly why this plant in the Mojave Desert has begun operations off late, basking in the glory of the sun and powering up the grid with clean solar juice. Located 80 kilometers southwest of Las Vegas and is 14 square kilometers in size, the Ivanpah power plant sports over 300,000 rotatable mirrors (heliostats)!
Searching stuff on Google is a simple matter of a few clicks of a mouse and the miniscule effort you need to take to punch words on your keyboard. However, a simple search does consume astounding amounts of energy, given the fact that these queries sent by us hapless folk are sent across the internet to servers where they are processed and sent back to you with results within microseconds. This also obviously implies that being a search engine giant isn’t the most eco-friendly business in town, which is why, Google has been striving hard to keep the earth green.
