Climate Change and Your Food: What you don’t know will…

Is it how most of us are thinking?

It was amusing but at the same time disturbing reading the below article, so I couldn’t resist to comment. It put me in such writing mood that comment became an article in its own right, so I decided to publish it on my blog.
Please, read the article and if you find it interesting come back to read my reply.

 
Article published by The Technocon on 4 February 2011 by Reverend De Lorie
 
Too many people deny that climate change is a problem and from a base point of view you could argue that things happen in nature. Ordinarily that would be fine if climate change was a philosophical discussion as in “Is man ethical?”. Whether or not climate change is naturally occurring or the product of man’s apathy, the effects it is having on our planet is upsetting the balance. It could be possible that no matter what we do now, it is already too late. The first domino has begun to fall and the inertia is too great to stop. We have been talking a lot about green and conservation and how to live a greener lifestyle but the future is going to demand more than that from your family. If you are to survive, you will have to adapt to the changes in our environment.

 

Here is the thing. If you could see a train heading straight towards you. Would you move or wait until the train smashes you into bits? If you know climate change is having an adverse effect on our way of life and you are not taking precautions. Is it not the same thing as standing on the tracks waiting for the train to crush you?

As the threat becomes more apparent …


Bamboo is a bust as a green product

Bamboo IS natural material, different issue is how was it grown?

When nobody knows what is going on, it is in most cases about money. It could be political agenda too. Either way, I have a feeling that there is someone behind this issue.
Claiming that production is not entirely pesticides free sounds like a joke in light of mega-tones of pesticides and herbicides being used by farming industry to produce “healthy and organic” food.
Any way, read the article and have your own opinion.

 
Article published by Star Tribune on 17 February 2011 by JOHN EWOLDT
 
Five years later, the “it” eco-material is hard to find in stores. What changed?

When Matt Joyce of Woodbury tried to find a replacement set of his favorite bamboo/cotton sheets at Target recently, he left empty-handed. Target no longer carried them. Neither did Kohl’s, Macy’s, Wal-Mart or Lands’ End stores.

“I thought bamboo was supposed to be so versatile,” he said. “What happened?”

Once described as the perfect raw material, bamboo has many desirable properties. It’s strong and versatile. It also grows much faster than trees, requires little water and fertilizer, and doesn’t require replanting after harvesting.

By 2006, consumers …


Flat pack homes are the future

Is the recycled plastic good material for eco-house?

For me, it is not the first or even the third choice of material to build a house from. My preference takes also recycled but natural one such as wood. It can be reused in many ways.
The problem with plastics is that they are … plastics, artificially crafted non-breathable products; in many cases containing unhealthy ingredients. Of course, house can be eco-friendly designed and all that make it as such could be implemented, however. How eco-friendly is plastic on its own? It is recycling, yes but is it using plastic as building material the best way of utilizing it? Not for me, but you may have different point of view.

 
Article published by Waste Management World on 28 January 2011
 
Flat pack homes which cost as little as £20,000 and properties made out of recycled plastic hold the key to solving the UK’s housing shortage, a report says.

 

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said traditional building methods must make way for more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly designs in order to tackle the current housing crisis.

It called on the house building industry to make use of off-site construction methods, recycled materials and innovative structural designs to enable homes to be put up quickly and cheaply.

The group said that modular homes …


Three reasons wind power could wane

Published by IEEE Spectrum on January 2011 by Peter Fairley
 

Wind turbines wring energy
out of a free-flowing fuel ­supply that may be losing some of its punch. Surface winds appear to be weakening across the Northern Hemisphere, including in the United States, Western Europe, and China—the world’s top three markets for wind power. And climate change threatens to weaken them further during this century as faster warming over northern ­latitudes trims the temperature gradients that energize airflows.

 

China could be the hardest hit, according to modeling by University of Texas–Austin research scientist Diandong Ren in the November issue of the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy. He projects a 4 to 12 percent decrease in wind speeds in China for the last three decades of the 21st century (compared to the corresponding decades of the 20th). Since the energy in wind increases with the cube of the wind speed, Ren estimates that the slower winds would trim power from Chinese turbines by at least 14 percent.

There is now little doubt …


Geothermal system heats and cools shopping centre

Published by The Engineer
on Thursday, 20 January 2010
UK property developer Land Securities has revealed that its new shopping and leisure centre in the City of London is being heated and cooled by a novel geothermal system.

Underneath the financial district’s so-called One New Change shopping centre, 60km of pipework — enough to wrap around the London Eye 140 times — will warm and cool the building by transferring heat to and from the ground itself and two water wells 150m below the surface.

Coventry-based …


2013 Ford Focus Electric Car

Published by EuroTuner
on Tuesday, 11 January 2010
 
Ford Motor Company has unveiled its all-new Focus Electric – the company’s first all-electric passenger car.


The zero-emissions, gasoline-free version of Ford’s popular small car is the flagship of the company’s growing fleet of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles coming to North America and Europe by 2013. The Focus Electric will launch in late 2011 and is designed to offer enough range to cover the majority of daily driving habits of Americans. It will offer a mile-per-gallon equivalent better than Chevrolet Volt and be competitive with other battery electric vehicles. A full recharge is expected to take 3-4 hours at home with the 240-volt charge station – half the time of the Nissan Leaf.

Focus Electric introduces new features and technologies – including a unique version of the MyFord Touch driver connect system for electric vehicles, a new value charging feature powered by Microsoft, and a smartphone app called MyFord Mobile that helps plug-in owners control their vehicle remotely.The stylish five-door hatchback leverages Ford’s global C-car platform shared by the gasoline and diesel-powered Focus models, which debuted at the 2010 North American International Auto Show and were launched at the Paris Motor Show in September.

Both the Focus gasoline and electric …


Do a Good Deed for the New Year


The New Year is traditionally a time for get rid of some old ghosts in the closet and move on to pastures new.

So as we move into 2011, how about getting rid of your old banger whilst doing a good deed for the environment and also charity?

The social enterprise website Giveacar allows you to do just that. Scrapping a car can be traditionally very bad for the environment. Only around half of all decommissioned cars are treated at authorised treatment facilities (ATFs), where cars are disposed of the many pollutants associated with cars in a safe, secure and environmental manner.

However at Giveacar, depending on the vehicle’s state of repair, it will either be disposed of in this way or sold at auction. Either way, the profits of the vehicle’s sale will be donated to a charity of the vehicle owner’s choice.

To find out more about Giveacar, please visit their website: www.giveacar.co.uk. They are able to collect any car, anywhere in the UK, at no cost to the donor. Over 250 charities are affiliated with the scheme.


Eco-friendlier cleaning products marketed

Published by AZ Central
on Thursday, 6 January 2010 by Mary MacVean
LOS ANGELES – Maybe 2011 is the year a clean start means returning to Grandma’s scrubbing ways and getting down on hands knees with simple baking soda and vinegar. Or maybe it means staring down that supermarket aisle of cleaning products and making better choices about the dizzying selection of powders and liquids that claim not only to clean but also to be healthy for people and the planet. Sustainable, Earth-friendly, green, renewable – what do the words tell a shopper? 

“The last 24 months was a real sea change as large traditional brands are introducing greener or green versions of products. I believe that trend will continue,” said Jeffrey Hollender, author of a new book, “Planet Home,” and former chief executive of the cleaning products company Seventh Generation.

“On the industry side, …


Top 10 renewable energy technology breakthroughs in 2010

Published by EcoFriend
on Wednesday, 29 December 2010
 

With our planet in a desperate need of new eco-friendly energy generating systems, researchers over the globe have been working hard to develop systems that can power the world of the future in a sustainable fashion.
The year 2010 saw some great breakthroughs in the field of renewable energy technology, which when fully developed, could help create a better world. Here we have compiled a list of 10 such breakthroughs that are bound to have a significant impact in the future.

MIT’s Concentrated Solar Funnel …


Huge Eco-Friendly Self-Build

Published by Homebuilding & Renovating
on Saturday, 18 December 2010
At 1,550m2, just how does John and Leigh Croft’s self-built Cotswolds home justify our Award as Britain’s Best Eco Home? 

If ever a self-build project could be deemed ambitious, it’s the new 1,550m2 (yes, it’s some 21 times larger than the UK average) home of John and Leigh Croft in the Cotswolds, east of Cheltenham. For the big story here is not just that it ever managed to happen in the first place – the planning process wasn’t particularly run of the mill – but that it can also claim with some justification to be an absolutely A1, top-of-the-class, eco-friendly home, despite its whopping size.

This being a plot within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in the middle of open countryside in the Cotswolds, John and Leigh’s vision of building a contemporary family home was always likely to meet resistance.

It was actually the conservation officer …