At my house we have a solar hot water heater on our roof, so this doesn’t apply directly to us, but there’s a review for a Tankless Water Heater at Goto Reviews. It’s cheaper than heating up a whole tank of water, and it uses loads less energy.
Sustainable Mobility 9/3/06
Another week, another “The Week in Sustainable Mobility” from WorldChanging.
Desalination/Agriculture
Treehugger has a post about this innovative “Seawater Greenhouse” that enables cultivation of crops in arid coastal regions quite efficiently. Great concept, really cool. Don’t know that it’ll solve any major environmental problems, but how much can we really ask of any one project?
Green home network
Find green homes, and professionals who can help you make a new green home or greenify an old one, all at Modern Green Living. Via Eco Street Blog
Floating Wind Turbines
From What’s Next Network, a story about this innovation of putting wind turbines far, far offshore by making them float in the water, tethered to the ocean floor, rather than on trusses. It would be a lot cheaper, and enable their deployment at farther distances from shore, which would be A)less aesthetically objectionable (silly nimbies) and B)more productive of energy. I think this is the future of large-scale offshore wind energy.
Windcrofting
Another introduction of wind turbines: windcrofting, from Eco Street Blog.
Some links
Here are a few that I’ve had kicking around for a week or two, waiting to be blogged. Here they are:
Singapore has a car tax of about $10,000 per car, which is there to combat their traffic congestion problems, and which goes toward their highly efficient mass transit system. Good thinking, south Asian brethren!
A couple useful clarifications about hybrid cars.
Changemakers has a contest with $5000 prizes to come up with ways to provide affordable housing. I’m interested in how to make affordable sustainable housing, so this is part of that.
A links page to government sites with recommendations for things we can do to fight climate change.
Two sites, Eco-Labels and Greener Choices related to Consumer Guide that provide info on more environmentally friendly products.
A blog post about planning and building cool cities (instead of the heat islands we have now).
Sustainable Mobility
Here’s this week’s post from WorldChanging.
Six Steps to Less Greenhouse Emissions
US PIRG has a study about six simple steps to cutting our greenhouse gas emissions. In a nutshell, they are:
1. Drive less (and making driving less plausible)
2. Make cleaner cars (->40 mpg standards)
3. Increase percentage of biofuel, and more availability (+10%)
4. Use less electricity (-10%)
5. Get more electricity from renewable sources (->20%)
6. Don’t increase emissions in other areas
Simple? Perhaps. Possible? Certainly.
Z-Squared
I want to live here. More at WorldChanging.