Green Options

Yesterday, we took a look at how piezoelectrics— crystals or ceramics that generate voltage when mechanical stress is applied— could allow cell phones to be powered by sound waves. Now the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) has announced that it is installing piezoelectric elements in the floors of its Tokyo station in an attempt to generate power from passengers passing through ticket gates.

A Georgian train station in Abkhazia has fallen into disrepair — or is it natural repair? — since the years that the elite of Soviet society used it en route to luxurious retreats. It is The World Without Us in action.

Related post:

The Case of the Missing Humans: Alan Weisman’s ‘The World Without Us’

Sources: Design Under Sky and Environmental Graffiti