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By Michael Schirber, Special to LiveScience New houses are being built to be more energy efficient all the time. However, the majority of existing U.S. homes were built more than 30 years ago when efficiency standards were much lower. Researchers are looking at how to make these energy-wasting old-timers more thrifty. About one-third [...] Greenpeace activists have turned to Beijing’s historic Yongding gate to call on the government for immediate action on climate change. Activists turned one of Beijing’s ancient city gates into a gigantic countdown clock marking the time left till the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. Greenpeace is calling on Chinese President Hu Jintao [...] Fuel from food and already overstressed terrestrial ecosystems is immoral and unsustainable. The Obama administration must start by rejecting the proposal to increase the corn ethanol fuel blend limit from 10-15%. TAKE ACTION! Please support US environmental and social justice groups calling upon the new Obama administration to halt financial and policy support [...] Our bottled water habit has a huge environmental impact, including the amount of energy it takes to make the plastic bottles, fill them and ship them to thirsty consumers worldwide. A new study breaks down just how much energy is used at each step of the process. An estimated total of the equivalent of 32 million to 54 million barrels of oil was required to generate the energy to produce the amount of bottled water consumed in the United States in 2007, according to the study, detailed in the January-March issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters. Of course, this is but a third of a percent of the energy that the United States consumes as a whole in a year. In 2007, the last year for which global statistics were available, more than 200 billion liters of bottled water were sold around the world, mostly in North America and Europe. The total amount sold in the United States alone that year (33 billion liters) averages out to about 110 liters (almost 30 gallons) of water per person, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation. Since 2001, bottled water sales have increased by 70 percent in the United States, far surpassing those of milk and beer. Only sodas have larger sales. The energy required to produce bottled water is particularly of interest now, at a time when many nations are looking for ways to reduce their energy use and associated climate impacts. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan research institute, and his colleague Heather Cooley recently realized that no one had done a comprehensive survey of the energy use involved in the complete production cycle of bottled water, so they took on the task. Continue reading The Energy Footprint of Bottled Water Related Reading:”It promises to be largest demonstration of public concern about climate change ever attempted”, according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He’s not talking about something like an international series of protest marches, a coordinated shift to buying greener goods, nor a boycott of cars in favour of public transport. What he wants is simply for you (and at least a billion other [...] Since the days of Thomas Edison, finding a way to effectively store electricity has been one of the “Holy Grails” for power companies. While it won’t be an overnight revolution for electricity, eventually plug-in electric cars and trucks will be a step toward the elusive goal, said Ted Craver, chief executive officer of [...] Could a constant search of the Internet help protect the environment by picking up early hints about pollution or signs of climate change such as desertification, droughts or heatwaves? A study issued on Thursday hints that it could. A scuba diver in the South China Sea off Malaysia (above, picture by David Loh of Reuters News) might [...] |
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