Déjà Vu All Over Again: Offshore Oil Platform Explodes in Gulf of Mexico [Update]
Image: Google Maps
Thankfully, No Deaths This Time
An offshore oil platform exploded and caught fire today in the Gulf of Mexico. It is located about 80 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the site of BP’s massive oil spill. All 13 people who were on the rig were evacuated and only one was injured, reports the U.S. Coast Guard….Read the full story on TreeHugger
The South Gets its First Certified Passive House (Beats California to the Punch)
Images: Green Building Advisor
Born in Boston and living in Nashville, I’m continually struck by the fact that Southerners expect air conditioning to be everywhere and running at all times. Enduring the summer swelter just isn’t the way it’s done down here. New Yorkers and Bostonians, on the other hand, seem almost competitive over who can endure more heat. Corey Saft, an architecture professor at the University of Louisiana, has built himself a home that will keep him cool, eve…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Is Anaerobic Digestion Needed to Avoid Massive Famine?
Image credit: AgCert
Peak oil is a subject that has gained much traction (even inspiring some sexy if pessimistic dancing from Oily Cassandra). After all, it’s hard to ignore the fact that our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels leaves us vulnerable to supply shortages or sudden price hikes. But it’s less well known that we may face a simultaneous, and equally troubling shortage of another key resource—phosphorous. …Read the full story on TreeHugger
Blimps Could Replace Airplanes in 10 Years, Scientist Says
Image via Cargolifter.com, via the Guardian
The role of airplanes have long been a tough piece to fit into the puzzle of transitioning to a low-carbon future — the huge amounts of jet fuel they burn make them some of the most notorious emitters on the planet. But, industrialized societies have also grown accustomed to the convenience of air travel, and many rely as well upon air freight. So how to reconcile a heavily polluting staple of modern human and goods transportation with a need to reel in emissions? Simple, one scientist says: Trade them in for helium-powered blimps. …Read the full story on TreeHugger
Rhode Island Offshore Wind Farm Takes Step Forward – And Some Environmentalists Are Upset?
photo: m.prinke via flickr
The race to build the first offshore wind farm in the United States continues with Rhode Island taking one more legislative step towards beating its neighbors. The Providence Journal reports that the state legislature has enacted a new law that speeds the time it takes to get regulatory approval between wind power developer…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Personal Fuel Cell Offers Pocket-Sized Power from Water (Video)
Image via Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies
With off-grid charging for mobile devices set to be a $2.3 billion industry, it’s no wonder that practically every company specializing in personal off-grid power is trying to shrink down their products to something purse-sized. Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies is known for their innovation in small scale power, showing off a <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/ces-2010-horizon-brings-hydrogen-fuel-cell…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Powering Medical Devices with Your Organs
Image via Vintage Collection and Technology Review
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Generating power via the motion of our bodies has captivated researchers for some time now. Scientists are working on developing everything from fabrics that can be sewn into energy-ha…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Luna Ring: A Giant Solar Power Plant on the Moon
Image: Shimizu
One of These Days, Alice. Bang! Zoom! Straight to the Moon!
Big problems need big solutions, and the Shimizu corporation in Japan certainly can’t be blamed for thinking small. It has made plans to provide enough clean energy to all of humanity by turning the moon into a kind of anti-Death Star, a giant solar power station that brings life instead of death. It might sound like complete science-fiction now, but who knows what will be possible in a 100 years (if we ma…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Who Will Answer Our Clean Energy Wake Up Call?
Image credit: Leilani Münter/YouTube
This post originally appeared on Huffington Post.
After spending a week in Venice, Louisiana getting an up close view of the BP gulf coast oil spill disaster, talking with locals whose livelihoods are over, and seeing dead wildlife, I am trying my best to look at the positive side. Keep in mind that I just got off the phone with one of my boat captains in Louisiana and he told me he saw six dead dolphins and ten dead turtles in the past few days. So the idea of looking on “the brigh…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Microsoft Bing Features Solar Panels
Image: Bing screen grab.
And Today It’s an Oil Pipeline…
Statistically, most of you reading this are probably using Google to search the web, and so you haven’t seen the image above. It’s a screen grab of Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. Not quite a Google-killer, but it will soon power Yahoo search and has about 10% of the search market in the US. A couple days ago, Bing featured on its homepage a photo of solar panels, with links to articles explaining <a href="http://www.bing.co…Read the full story on TreeHugger
