Green Options

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Majestic and serene, Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy is one of Canada’s natural marvels. Every tidal cycle, about 100 billion tonnes of seawater flows in and out of the Bay. With some of the highest tides in the world (it has a rivalry with the Leaf Basin in Ungava Bay), there are multiple opportunities to generate electricity from this natural wonder. These high tides provide an opportunity to generate power from the tidal energy in a similar manner to modern hydroelectric dams. And just like with hydroelectric dams, the question arises: is this energy really renewable and green?

The phone went the other day. Nice chap at the other end – a press contact. And he thanked me for the coverage I’d given this story in the past. Very rare in this game.

It turns out that Lyme Bay – just an hour’s drive from here has had the victory we’d all hoped for.

One of the UK’s finest marine wildlife sites is set to be protected from damaging scallop-dredging, thanks to the introduction of a 60sq mile exclusion zone.

Paul Gompertz, Devon Wildlife Trust’s director, said: “This is one small step for marine but one giant leap for marine-kind. It finally acknowledges that our seas need vital life-support systems like Lyme Bay reefs.

“It’s taken 18 years, hundreds of thousands of fundraised pounds, the energy and dedication of many people - and a host of setbacks and heartache along the way. But it has all been worth it - to see a new day dawn for the future of marine conservation in this country. The Government is to be congratulated on a bold step. Now we need to see the exclusions enforced.”

StatoilHydro, a state-run oil company in Norway, recently announced a 2 year test of a floating 2.3 MW wind turbine off the coast of Norway.

Cables will be used to transmit the power to shore for this $80 million pilot project. The turbine has a height of 65 meters above the sea surface and a weighs 138 tons and will be mounted on a buoy 6 miles off shore.

This technology is unique because the turbine will not be stationary. Three anchors will secure the turbine to the sea floor and can be used at depths ranging from 120 to 700 meters.

“We have drawn on our offshore expertise from the oil and gas industry to develop wind power offshore,” says Alexandra Bech Gjørv, head of New Energy for StatoilHydro.

There are various ways to travel the sea in style. One of the most environmentally friendly ones would certainly be using sails alone. I mean, wind is free, right?

Well, a Japanese man named Kenichi Horie is attempting to be just as environmentally friendly but without the sails.

How does he do it? With a wave-powered boat. Wave power has been discussed quite a bit recently, with a lot of applications including traditional grid energy generation. However, Kenichi is taking things to the next level by powering his ocean going vehicle with the very thing it bobs atop.

It’s summer in the Antarctic Ocean and many whale species have migrated to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, an important feeding ground. One would think that in an internationally recognized sanctuary at the ends of the Earth, these whales would be safe from the boating, fish netting, noise pollution, and other man-made hazards.

However, Japanese whaling fleets have already left harbor to hunt the whales for meat in this sanctuary as they have done increasingly since 1997 in defiance of international bans on whaling.

Each year, Japanese whalers slaughter more and more whales. This year, the Japanese whaling industry has vowed to kill the greatest number of whales yet, about 1000 in all. These numbers will be made up of near-threatened Minke whales and 50 endangered Fin whales.

But this year, they will not be alone on the rough seas against the Japanese whalers. Australia’s new government is joining Greenpeace in saying “enough is enough.” As Josh Hill writes, this pressure is already beginning to bear fruits. Japan has agreed to suspend–at least for the moment—its plans to kill an additional 50 threatened humpback whales.

Australia is sending ships usually reserved for tracking down marine poachers to monitor the whaling vessels. That’s not all. There will also be eyes in the sky as an Australian surveillance plane record the whaler’s every action from above. This is all just part of a larger effort that Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, hopes will help put an end to Japan’s horrible whale hunt once and for all.

The current conditions Australia, my birthplace and home, are facing at the moment do not make it one of the “Greatest Living Condition” contenders of the world. Various levels of water restrictions ranging from level 3 to 5 make life very difficult. However, that is nothing compared to the problems being faced by our farmers. Crop failures and livestock loss are adding up to millions and millions worth of dollars lost.

As I said, it’s [...]

I’ve found once or twice over the past several years that ideas are popping up that will one day go down in history as groundbreaking, and possibly world-saving. They are the important discoveries, steps forward and goals that you pin up with those such as JFK’s manned moon mission and the advent of the internet.

And while this idea may be just short of the computer in terms of overall impact, it very well

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In this day and age where, to term it lightly, everything is going to hell in a handbasket, it is a blessing to see some countries taking active steps to avert the "nastiness" in store for us. Sadly though, we simply do not see enough of these steps, especially in relation to what needs to happen.

That aside, India is looking towards the future, and with a population estimated to sit at 1.12 billion

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According to the USDA's annual statistics survey, 10 billion animals are killed for human consumption every year in the United States. (Worldwide, I believe it’s 45 billion.) However, it is more accurate to say that “10 billion land animals are killed for human consumption every year"; otherwise, we’re disregarding the billions of aquatic animals killed for the same purpose – to satisfy human appetites. Although the number of aquatic animals killed for consumption in

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