renewable resources

Water resources in the world are scarce and unevenly distributed. In deserts, the only source of water is groundwater, often saline and of poor quality. This limits agricultural activities. In those places where farming does occur, groundwater levels have dropped dangerously due to overexploitation. However, a group of European scientists has come up with a method to green deserts. Gypsum, a rocky mineral abundant in desert regions where fresh water is usually in very short supply, could become a new resource out of which trillions of liters of clean drinking water can be extracted.

Most biodiesel today is made from soybeans or recycled vegetable oil and does not offer the same performance as petroleum-based diesel. A California startup engineers microbes to transform them into molecular oil refineries, digesting sugar to produce low-carbon equivalents of petroleum based fuel.

Biodegradable plates from VerTerra (true to the Earth) are a great alternative to yucky paper or plastic dishes. These plates are made from organically-grown palm tree leaves from India. The fallen leaves, which would traditionally have been burned on the roadside, are collected, sterilized, steamed and pressed into plates. The process uses no chemicals, glues or bonding agents, and over 80% of the water employed during the steaming and pressing process is recaptured and recycled.

Doug Selsam has invented tiny turbines that pack in quite some power. These wind turbines just measure fourteen to twenty inches in diameter and are meant to be bunched up together to produce electricity. The secret behind the technology is the use of modern day high-strength carbon-fiber materials. According to the tests done, a full set of thirteen 18-inch rotors could generate 200 watts in a 20 MPH wind. Stronger winds mean more power. More rotors mean more power as well.

Turning plants such as corn, soybeans and sunflowers into fuel uses much more energy than the resulting ethanol or biodiesel generated, according to a Cornell University and University of California-Berkeley study. The World desperately needs a liquid fuel replacement for oil in the near future, but producing ethanol or biodiesel from plant biomass is the wrong way to do it, because you use more energy to produce them than you get out from the combustion of these product.

Forget about rechargeable batteries that are plugged to a nearby electrical outlet - there are now Pee Powered batteries that are being tested in Japan. Dubbed the NoPoPo (Non-Pollution Power) Aqua Batteries, these will come in AA and AAA form factors. They are environmentally friendly and do not contain mercury or other harmful materials.

We think of human pee as gross and something that ought to be vigorously “cleaned up” or sanitized. However, human urine is actually sterile (unlike faeces, urine is bacteria-free). This liquid by product of our daily lives can be a rich food source if it gets into the RIGHT part of the right ecosystem. Now, most human urine travels untreated into the waterways and the excess Nitrogen and Phosphorus in our urine overfeeds algae (like Red Tide) and effectively suffocates fish.

Ever wished you could charge your cell phones and laptop on the go - in your car, on a train, or just walking around? There are many new gadgets for mobile renewable energy and one of the the most future-forward new mobile renewable energy device is the kinetic energy charger from M2E Power, Inc.

There are so many countries in the world that, despite being surrounded by ocean, suffer a serious lack of drinking water. A windmill designed at the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands is capable of turning salt water into pure, clean drinking water.

At San Francisco's Cleantech Forum, a conference of investors and innovators focused on the green technology business, a boatload of early stage startups seek to carve off a slice of the billions of dollars venture capitalists are investing in green tech. One participant, Leviathan Energy, based in Los Angeles and Israel, has created a turbine that would create power from the downward flow in municipal water and sewer systems. In other words, whenever you flush, you'd be helping generate electricity.

Rain in one of our main supply of fresh water and has a tremendous importance in the distribution of plant and animal life in this planet, but in congested, over-paved metropolitan cities, most of this precipitation is wash down gutters and wasted. Rain collection has been one method used to gather this gift from the sky. A new method tries to capture the kinetic energy associated with the falling raindrops.

The U.N. estimates that 1.1 billion people currently lack access to safe drinking water which is expected to rise. Although we have normally relied on rain, snow or other forms of precipitation for water, it turns out that Australian physician and inventor Dr. Max Whisson has found an alternative route. He’s chosen to make water from thin air.

emPivot is the first online media site tailored to meet the growing demand for environmental and green video content. The site allows users to share, search, and connect to a vast online video and media content related to the environment and the green economy. The site hosts environment-related videos, including how-tos, interviews, congressional floor speeches and flash videos on wave energy. It also features a search engine tailored to return the most relevant green-related video results.

Every year, tens of millions of trees are cut down in the production of books, and the $40 billion book industries have demonstrated limited concern regarding the impact on the environment. Anything we can do to save on paper use can help alleviate these problems, not to mention saving resources like water and energy, and two of the easiest ways are shown here.

In the agricultural fields of the US heartland, wheat straw and sunflower hulls are plentiful. These annually renewable materials, which can be made into particleboard and specialty panels, actually are byproducts and/or waste materials from local farmers. Also known as 'agrifiber particleboards', they are made from harvests residue fibers.