Boyan Slat “Human history is basically a list of things that couldn't be done, and then were done.” Boyan Slat (Delft, 1994) combines environmentalism, creativity and technology to tackle global issues of sustainability. Currently working on oceanic plastic pollution, he believes current prevention measures will have to be supplemented by active removal of plastics in order to succeed. “It will be very hard to convince everyone in the world to handle their plastics responsibly, but what we humans are very good in, is inventing technical solutions to our problems. Besides leading The Ocean Cleanup, Boyan is an Aerospace Engineering student at the Delft University of Technology, and is an avid photographer and diver. At age 14, he was awarded the Best Idea of South-Holland award, and a Guinness World Record.
More Americans Work in Solar Power Than for Apple, Facebook, and Google Combined In Brief Following an amazing 30-fold increase in PV sales over the past nine years, the solar industry in the U.S. now employs more than 260,000 workers nationwide. That’s more workers than Apple, Facebook, and Google combined. Numbers Don’t Lie Anyone watching the solar market has seen an amazing increase in solar photovoltaics (PV) sales over the past nine years, and GTM Research reports that the industry is still growing during the first quarter of 2017. In just under a decade, the solar market has experienced a 30-fold increase, and 2016 alone saw a notable surge in annual global PV demand in excess of 50 percent over the previous year. At one point in March, the share of California’s power demand going to solar actually topped 50 percent for the first time. Solar Power Delivers Jobs As of 2016, California had just over 100,000 solar jobs — a one-third increase over 2015’s figures. Climate change predictions are absolutely grounded in scientific data and process.
Society of Petroleum Engineers, Delta Section The Ocean Cleanup WOW! This Woman Walked the Equivalent of Half of Earth's Circumference to Raise Awareness About Water Pollution - One Green Planet When Josephine Mandamin, an elder of the Anishinaabe Indian tribe, decided to take a walk around Lake Superior in 2003, it was much more than just your average stroll: Mandamin set out to journey around the lake with the goal of spreading awareness about how human actions are polluting our water, thus making it and, in turn, ourselves sick. Since then, the amazing Mandamin has walked an estimated 25,000 kilometers — the equivalent of half of Earth’s circumference — to promote the importance of saving our water. In recent years, her unending devotion to educating people on how fracking, pollution, and other human activities are jeopardizing one of our most precious resources has inspired many others to walk along with her. Following in her footsteps, Mandamin’s niece, Elizabeth Osawamick, and another First Nations elder named Shirley Williams now organize annual Nibi (Water) Walks designed to raise awareness about the urgent need to restore the health of our water. Related
2169-3358-2011-1-365 19-Year-Old Student Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World's Oceans 19-year-old Boyan Slat has unveiled plans to create an Ocean Cleanup Array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans. The device consists of an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms that could be dispatched to garbage patches around the world. Instead of moving through the ocean, the array would span the radius of a garbage patch, acting as a giant funnel. At school, Boyan Slat launched a project that analyzed the size and amount of plastic particles in the ocean’s garbage patches. Slat went on to found The Ocean Cleanup Foundation, a non-profit organization which is responsible for the development of his proposed technologies. It is estimated that the clean-up process would take about five years, and it could greatly increase awareness about the world’s plastic garbage patches. + Boyan Slat
Genius 6th grader invents device that hunts for ocean microplastics As one of 10 finalists of the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, 12-year-old Anna Du will now get the chance to bring her invention to the seas. One day while visiting Boston Harbor, young Anna Du noticed bits of plastic in the sand. She tried picking them up, but there was so much, she tells Boston25 News, that "it just seemed impossible to clean it all up." What's a 12-year-old animal lover concerned about the impact of ocean plastic to do? Which is exactly what Anna has set out to do. © Anna Du (used with permission) Her creation is an underwater device that uses light to detect harmful pollution in the ocean – or, a "Smart Infrared Based ROV to Identify and Remove Microplastics from Marine Environments" – and it does so without harming living organisms. Anna chose to use infrared in her ROV device because it can help scientists distinguish microplastics from other, nonhazardous materials underwater without having to send samples to a lab. Right on, sister!
Gulf's dolphins pay heavy price for Deepwater oil spill | Environment | The Observer A study of bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, showed that many of the marine mammals were suffering from lung and liver disease. Photograph: Alamy A new study of dolphins living close to the site of North America's worst ever oil spill – the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe two years ago – has established serious health problems afflicting the marine mammals. The report, commissioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], found that many of the 32 dolphins studied were underweight, anaemic and suffering from lung and liver disease, while nearly half had low levels of a hormone that helps the mammals deal with stress as well as regulating their metabolism and immune systems. More than 200m gallons of crude oil flowed from the well after a series of explosions on 20 April 2010, which killed 11 workers. Another study confirmed that zooplankton – the microscopic organisms at the bottom of the ocean food chain – had also been contaminated with oil.
Groundbreaking 'spinning' wind turbine wins UK Dyson award | Environment A ‘spinning’ turbine which can capture wind travelling in any direction and could transform how consumers generate electricity has won its two student designers a prestigious James Dyson award. Nicolas Orellana, 36, and Yaseen Noorani, 24, both MSc students at Lancaster University, have created the O-Wind Turbine which – in a technological first – takes advantage of both horizontal and vertical winds without requiring steering. Conventional wind turbines only capture wind travelling in one direction, and are notoriously inefficient in cities where wind trapped between buildings becomes unpredictable, making the turbines unusable. In 2015 the controversial “Walkie Talkie” skyscraper on London’s Fenchurch Street was thought responsible for creating a wind tunnel which knocked down shop signs and even toppled pedestrians. Using a simple geometric shape, O-Wind Turbine is designed to make the most of multi-directional wind, generating energy even on the windiest of days.
Emails expose BP's attempts to control research into impact of Gulf oil spill | Environment A clean-up operation on Queen Bess Island, June 2010. BP pledged a $500m fund for independent research into the consequences of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP BP officials tried to take control of a $500m fund pledged by the oil company for independent research into the consequences of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, it has emerged. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show BP officials openly discussing how to influence the work of scientists supported by the fund, which was created by the oil company in May last year. Russell Putt, a BP environmental expert, wrote in an email to colleagues on 24 June 2010: "Can we 'direct' GRI [Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative] funding to a specific study (as we now see the governor's offices trying to do)? The email was obtained by Greenpeace and shared with the Guardian. Those concerns go far beyond academic interest into the impact of the spill.
Human Poop-Powered Bus Hits UK Roads You wouldn’t think that human poop has many uses, but it turns out that the UK is using brown to go green. As of today, Britain’s first “poo bus” will be shuttling passengers between the city of Bath and Bristol Airport. And yes, you guessed it: it’s powered by human waste, alongside food waste. This “Bio-bus” runs on biomethane gas, which is produced from the treatment of human sewage and food that is unsuitable for human consumption. The gas is generated using anaerobic (oxygen hating) bacteria, which break down the waste into methane-rich gas. Just one person’s annual food and sewage waste is enough to fuel the bus for 60 kilometers (37 miles). The company behind the gas, GENco, produces approximately 17 million cubic meters of biomethane annually, which is enough to power around 8,300 homes. [Via BBC News and The Guardian]
A Revolution in Heavy Oil Technology Canada's oil and gas industry is committed to responsible water use and we have made significant progress in reducing our use of fresh water. In situ, or underground, production technologies have been used in the oil sands for decades to extract bitumen that’s too deep to mine – a full 80 per cent of the resource in Northern Alberta lies deep below the surface. Other in situ production processes, such as steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) use natural gas to heat water into steam which is pumped through a horizontal well underground to heat and loosen the bitumen. The bitumen drains into a second horizontal well and is pumped to the surface. While some water is lost in the process, most of it is recycled. Petrobank Energy and Resources has spent the last three years field-testing a new process for in situ production that doesn’t require much water or natural gas. The THAI™ process combines controlled combustion with vertical and horizontal wells.