La forêt brésilienne, au cœur d’une âpre bataille avant Rio+20. C'est un conflit de longue date qui vient de monter d'un cran. Depuis deux semaines, les défenseurs de l'environnement exhortent la présidente du Brésil Dilma Rousseff à mettre son veto à une loi controversée ouvrant la voie à une déforestation accrue en Amazonie. Mercredi, 1,7 million de personnes avaient signé une pétition contre ce texte qui embarrasse le pays, presque un mois avant le sommet Rio+20 sur le développement durable.
La mobilisation, entraînée par des OGN écolos, des réalisateurs (comme le cinéaste Fernando Meirelles) ou des hommes politiques (à l'instar de l'ex-ministre de l'environnement Marina Silva), s'est accélérée le 26 avril, lorsque la chambre des députés a définitivement approuvé, à une large majorité, une réforme du code forestier du pays, dans la foulée du vote du Sénat en novembre, mettant ainsi fin à près de trois ans de discussions et revirements. En 2009, le gouvernement a en effet promis de réduire de 36 % ses émissions de CO2 d'ici à 2020. Audrey Garric. 2011: The Year Data Centers Turned Green | Wired Enterprise.
Iceland plays its geothermal ace in the high-stakes green data center market. Photo: Verne Global The amount of data the world stores is on an explosive growth curve. According to research outfit IDC, the digital universe will grow 44 times larger over the course of the decade, thanks to the rise of worldwide obsessions with things like social media and cloud computing.
And that means more data centers. But this data center boom comes at a time of high energy prices and heightened concern about carbon emissions. The days of cramming truck loads of servers into a room and firing up a bunch of industrial air-conditioners to cool them are over. Data center operators are gaining control of their energy bills and earning green points by increasing data center efficiency, from server processor chips to warehouse-size buildings. 2011 was a banner year for green data centers, with dozens of state-of-the-art facilities opening for business. Facebook: Prineville, Oregon PUE: 1.05 to 1.10. Study Shows People Are Clueless About Energy Savings – Here’s What Actually Works. Quick, name one of the best things you can do to save energy at home. If you said “turning off the lights,” you’d be wrong. But you are not alone, most Americans say the same thing. A new survey shows most people have misconceptions about what works best to save energy.
Keeping lights off isn’t a bad idea in itself, but it has significantly less impact than swapping out the bulbs for more energy-efficient ones, says Shahzeen Attari, who published a paper on the survey. In some cases, leaving energy-efficient lights on may actually be more effective: according the the Department of Energy, the lifespan of compact fluorescents, or CFLs, is decreased by being frequently switched off and on. If you are leaving the room for less than 15 minutes, it is actually more efficient to keep a CFL on for that time. If you will be gone for more than 15 minutes, however, it is more efficient to switch the light off. Perceptions were often inaccurate. In another report, Gerald T. 1. One Hundred Months. Rotating Solar House Generates Five Times The Energy It Consumes.
What’s cooler than a rotating house? One whose solar panels produce five times the energy the house uses. That’s pretty incredible, considering that even zero-energy structures are rare. German architect Rolf Disch built the home, called Heliotrope, to follow the sun throughout the day. The structure features triple panes of thermally insulated glass to strike a balance between letting light in and keeping the house cooler inside. A giant 6.6-kilowatt-capacity rooftop solar panel called the Sun Sail slurps up the rays of energy, pumping them into the home and grid. Solar thermal collectors on balcony railings act as water heaters and radiators. The Sun Sail itself rotates separately from the house, adjusting itself to the best possible position at all times. The house is green inside as well. Is it nice to live in?
This video tours the house inside and out. Hat tip to Inhabitat. Solar Roadways: The Prototype. Solar Roadways - A Real Solution. Smarter Planet. Introducing the World’s Most Powerful Supercomputer for Climate. NASA Satellites' View of Gulf Oil Spill Over Time. NASA Satellites' View of Gulf Oil Spill Over Time Two NASA satellites are capturing images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began April 20, 2010 with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
This short video reveals a space-based view of the burning oil rig and, later, the resulting spread of the oil spill. This version updates a previous version of the video through July 14th. The timelapse uses imagery from the MODIS instrument, on board NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. The oil slick appears grayish-beige in the image and changes due to changing weather, currents, and use of oil dispersing chemicals.
The oil slick only appears clearly in MODIS imagery when the sun is a a particular angle in relation to the satellite's position as it orbits over the Gulf. In areas where sunlight reflects off the ocean's surface toward the satellite, oil-slicked water usually looks brighter than cleaner ocean water in the region. Green.