Déjà Vu All Over Agai...

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 Here is the original post:  Déjà Vu All Over Again: Offshore Oil Platform Explodes in Gulf of Mexico...

Swarms of Floating Mari...

Advocates say harnessing the Gulf Stream could create one-third of Florida’s energy needs. Image: NASA While most marine power projects rely on turbines or other power-generating devices in relatively shallow water, researchers from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University are attempting a new spin on the concept: Creating swarms of floating turbines, tethered to the sea floor or on movable undersea platforms, and deployed in the Gulf Stream hundreds of feet be… Read the full...

Tapping the Energy Belo...

Image credit: lydurs /Flickr The heat in the upper six miles of the earth’s crust contains 50,000 times as much energy as found in all the world’s oil and gas reserves combined. Despite this abundance, only 10,700 megawatts of geothermal electricity generating capacity have been harnessed worldwide…. Read the full story on TreeHugger The rest is here: Tapping the Energy Below the Earth’s...

Sigourney Weaver Decons...

Image via Ecorazzi Brazil has received a whole lot of negativity regarding the Belo Monte dam. The $17 billion complex would divert nearly all of the flow of the Xingu River, a massive river known for its biodiversity, to generate hydroelectric power. A new video narrated by Sigourney Weaver illustrates through a 3D tour using Google Earth video the catastrophic social a… Read the full story on TreeHugger Read more here: Sigourney Weaver Deconstructs Disasterous Belo Monte...

USGS Confirms Himalayan...

Small debris-free plateau glacier with glacier lakes at Gangrinchemzoe Pass at 5,200 m, south of the main Himalayan divide, Bhutan. Photo via USGS In case you were convinced otherwise by the quasi-scandal of ‘Himalayagate’ earlier in the year: The US Geological Survey has released a new report on the state of glacier retreat in the Himalaya and it makes perfectly clear the situation, “Many of Asia’s glaciers are retreating as a result of climate change. This...

Like a Good Neighbor, t...

Since 1970, the Clean Air Act has been the EPA’s most effective tool for combating air pollution. When it was first enacted, the Clean Air Act only covered five pollutants. But over the last 40 years it has been amended to protect the public from dozens of additional dangerous pollutants. But air pollution doesn’t stop at state lines, and as a result people throughout the country are forced to breathe unhealthy air. EPA’s proposed Good Neighbor Rule will help states...

How Can the Green Movem...

Image credit: OedipuSphinx (Creative Commons) A few years ago I got into a heated debate about Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth with a green-minded friend of mine. My hippy friend couldn’t stand the movie—not because of anything it said, but because of the ‘hypocrisy’ of flying around the world to preach about climate change. “Doesn’t he know this sends his carbon footprint through the roof?!” exclaimed my irate drinking buddy. “He...

River-Powered Personal ...

Image via Earthtechling When we see personal chargers, they’re almost always based on absorbing energy from the sun . Once in a great while, we also hear of new personal wind-powered chargers . But we almost never hear about water-powered personal chargers. This concept device, called the Vena Microhydro System by designer Danial Hull, bridges a gap in options for the outd… Read the full story on TreeHugger See more here:  River-Powered Personal Charger Expands Energy...

More Pumped Hydro Stora...

Photo: PG&E Currently the Largest-Scale Form of Grid Storage Available Last week, California’s PG&E filed a request with regulators to study the feasibility of building a new “pumped hydro storage” facility in the Mokelumne River watershed in Amador County. It would store energy by pumping water from a low reservoir to another one that is at a higher elevation. This is done when there’s a surplus of energy, such as when the wind is blowing hard at...

A Place For Everything ...

Taking minimalism to the limit, designer Burkhard Schäller has reduced the kitchen to bent wire with a place for everything. And if somebody gives you a weenie roaster you can give it right back, because if it isn’t in the design there is nowhere to put it. That puts an end to clutter…. Read the full story on TreeHugger Go here to see the original:  A Place For Everything in The Minimalist Magdelena Gravity...