The NSA has been taking a lot of poop talk from people lately after the world realized that this American government agency has been peeking at our emails, telephone conversations and gaming history too! However, the NSA doesn’t seem to mind all the poop and has been eager to make use of it all in a smart and eco-friendly way! According to a recent report, the new NSA data center being built at Fort Meade in Maryland will use treated wastewater to cool computers.
The Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, has recently been sworn in and before pulling off the wrapping paper from his office desk, has decided to do his part nature! Blasio has decided to pull out horse-drawn carriages from doing the rounds of New York’s Central Park. The move includes these carriages being replaced with environment-friendly electric vehicles that’ll be used to drive around park visitors. The horse-drawn carriages have been around Central Park ever since this patch of green was opened in 1858 and will soon be replaced with antique-styled electric vehicles.
Here’s yet another reason to love London, the city gets its first all-electric mass-transit bus! Mass transit in the city is now sure to hit the highest green note as the authorities have begin putting out electric buses to do the rounds, with bellies full of batteries carrying clean juice. These buses will join the ranks of the hybrid and fuel cell buses that have been introduced in London a while ago and will help the city lighten its carbon footprint substantially. Chinese manufacturer BYD Auto predicts that the zero-emission buses will reduce running costs by about three quarters as compared to diesel-run vehicles.
Qatar may have been better known for its oil and pearls but this Arab state has never really had too much to do with greenery, untill now. Just a short way into the future, Qatar could soon play home to a one-of-a-kind self-sustaining botanical area dedicated to flora and fauna. Designed by Sanzpont Arquitectura, the Palace for Nature is literally what its name terms it to be, a place where biological creations can grow and thrive in the middle of a desert! A modern day rendition of an oasis, this “garden” is based on the concept of the Sidra Tree.
The Amazon has always been a place synonymous with greenery and the company that has adopted the name of this region has decided to follow suit too. in a move that has left us pleasantly suprised, Amazon has added a dash of green to its futuristically eco-friendly headquarters destined for Seattle. The building will house about 1,800 of the company’s employees and will make use of grenhouse-like domes. The structure uses three interconnected glass sphere, up to 30m tall, and will be surrounded by enough greenery.
Perhaps the world isn’t doomed to a future packed with pollutants in the air, dead trees and piles of junk! Perhaps, humankind could indeed mend its ways and step forwards towards a more energy-efficient and environment-friendly future! One of the reasons we’ve been thinking along these lines lately is because of the tidings we’ve heard from Scotland recently. As per reports, a record 40% of electricity used in Scotland last year came from renewable sources! UK Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) statistics proved that about 40.3% of energy consumption in 2012 was met by renewable energy alone.
The city of New York accommodates about 250,000 street lights. It goes without saying that these are heavy consumers of power and also a necessity that not city in the world could do without. Mayor Bloomberg and transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan recently announced that all these pretty city lights were soon to be replaced by LED lights in the next few years, which are more energy efficient. This isn’t something novel that has been adopted by a major city. Los Angeles and Buenos Aires are already on the way with their energy conservation efforts. Bloomberg’s PlaNYC could be one of the key inspirations for this move, with its original target of cutting down the city’s carbon footprint by 30 percent.
The fuel reserves in the world are depleting at an alarming rate. This means one thing for sure! We need a substitute. Given that most recent substitutes also need to salvaged from other sources, where production time is another barrier. So, the US Navy that depends more on fuels than most other offices is in the works of creating a fuel source out of sea water. The Navy has already pledged to cut down petroleum use by half in 2015 and create alternative sources for its jet fuel by 2020. Now, a team led by analytical chemist Heather Willauer ‘is currently developing technology that sucks up the gases necessary to produce synthetic jet fuel for ships right out of the seawater they tread.’
Adding to the electric muscle of cars around town is one drive that could well raise the bar. Tesla’s Model E will arrive as an all-electric sedan for mass production in a little over a year’s time. Franz von Holzhauzen, the Chief Designer of the Tesla Model E, let out some rather intriguing details about the upcoming electric car. He told AutoBild that the car is almost ready with just the aerodynamic subtleties to be tackled.
We’ve all been to science fairs where smart folk would demonstrate how lemon juice or the sort could comfortably charge batteries. The time has passed and we are now we have now seen those geniuses grow and their science projects with them. Some of these have found themselves at The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair. This time round, their powering-up trick has extended to lighting up an entire Christmas tree, with the power of Brussels sprouts. The inspiration for this was quite obvious. The typical Christmas menu is decked up with some rather interesting eatables, the Brussels sprout being the least liked. So, the scientists took a 5-power cell battery, each with 200 sprouts surrounding them, making it a thousand sprout-strong battery that lights up a beautiful tree.
