Green Options

An ecologist and an engineer at Michigan State University are working together to create robot fish that can better monitor various factors in aquatic environments.

Combining the brilliance of nature with some top-notch engineering, these two scientists are on to something and getting the funding for it.

The researchers are breaking ground with this and looking to raise water monitoring to another level.

Have you noticed how all sorts of high end resorts and hotels have started converting their chlorine pools to salt water? And it’s not just the health and hospitality industry that wants to figure out a way to purify their water without resorting to chemicals. Other industries, including the food and beverage, dairy, aquaculture and municipal drinking water providers need to ensure that the water they use contain no micro-organisms or pathogens of any kind. A company based in Israel, Atlantium has developed what may be one of the first industrial-grade solutions to water micro-organism purification without chemicals.

In a memorandum issued last Thursday, Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), stated that “water in the United States is not meeting public health and environmental goals. Too many of our streams, lakes and rivers do not meet our water quality standards.”

When President Obama signed the American Recovery Act, he alloted 20% of the funds to be used for developing a green infrastructure, water and energy efficiency improvements and other environmentally innovative projects. And Delaware’s aging water infrastructure is smiling because of it.

A foul stench rises from the grey-black water as I wait for the riverboat. Kids jump in and climb back out, laughing a screaming. Old tires line the floating dock to protect the boats. I look down into the water toward my reflection, but it isn’t there. The grey water swallows everything. This is Bangkok’s Khlong Saen Saeb.

Khlong, or canals as they’re more popularly called, run throughout the city of Bangkok, giving Bangkok the moniker “The Venice of the East.” These Khlong were built centuries ago for transportation and trade. Khlong Saen Saeb was constructed in 1837 as a means of transporting soldiers during times of conflict.

When they caution people about sitting in the “splash zone” at SeaWorld San Diego, believe it.  Really.  They should call it the soak zone.  It’s a great way to cool off on a hot day, but it can ruin any electronic device you own not placed in a watertight case.

My family and I had an opportunity to visit SeaWorld San Diego this past January.  Among the most popular attractions in San Diego, SeaWorld San Diego welcomes over 4 million visitors a year with their sea animal performances, aquariums and a few amusement rides.  SeaWorld San Diego’s aquariums feature more than 5,700 fishes representing 434 species.

While SeaWorld San Diego has a long way to go to earn the distinction of being an ecotourism attraction, the park uses revenues from its admissions to actively implement conservation and animal rescue initiatives, even if they’re only softly mentioned throughout the park in signs and during announcements before animal performances.  After all, we can’t start caring about nature if we don’t have an opportunity to interact with it.  And for that, SeaWorld has honed its craft to capture the imagination of young and old alike and rekindled for many an awe and wonder that many of the avid conservationists and naturalists enjoy daily.

Instead of volunteer docents associated with living history museums providing interpretive programs, highly trained communicators and performers narrate the story of Shamu and friends as well as other exhibits throughout the park.  In a world where a connection to nature couldn’t be more important, SeaWorld can jump start a greater appreciation of it, even if our understanding comes with splashes and tricks.  Like they say at the Shamu Show: “We belong to the same family…”

There’s a lot to fascinate a small child or family at SeaWorld San Diego.  But I was more amazed by what most visitors never witness, at least not directly, in the park:  the SeaWorld Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Program and a water filtration system that actually makes the water cleaner than when it first enters the park.

Where does your bottled water originate? Is the company bottling public water and selling it for profit?

Most water companies try their hardest to hide this information, but if a new bill that just was approved by committee today in the California state assembly takes hold, the companies would be forced to sing a different tune.

Sunday March 22, 2009 is World Water Day. With the world water crisis representing one of the most significant public health issues facing the world today, we need to find ways to conserve this precious resource now more than ever.

The UN expects that 3.4 billion people will be living in countries defined as water-scarce by 2025. When water is scarce, people are forced to consume contaminated water.

Here are ten simple things you can do to cut down on your water consumption today:

SustainLane, a San Francisco based green media company has just announced its brand new U.S. city rankings today. Starting in 2005, SustainLane went through an exorbitant examination of sustainability initiatives in U.S. cities looking at a variety of factors: average traffic commutes, affordable housing, waste diversion, green space, energy usage, green buildings, natural disaster risk, air quality, water quality, public transportation, local food sources, and government innovations. James Elsen, the founder of SustainLane explains it in his article What’s A [...]

SustainLane, a San Francisco based green media company has just announced its brand new U.S. city rankings today. Starting in 2005, SustainLane went through an exorbitant examination of sustainability initiatives in U.S. cities looking at a variety of factors: average traffic commutes, affordable housing, waste diversion, green space, energy usage, green buildings, natural disaster risk, air quality, water quality, public transportation, local food sources, and government innovations. James Elsen, the founder of SustainLane explains it in his article What’s A [...]

Researchers turn to international cooperation to save Asia’s 7′th longest river.

Urbanization, growing slums, intensive farming, damming, and warring political ideologies are just a few of the hurdles that researchers from Helsinki University of Technology will need to overcome to protect the Mekong River, one of the most important water sources in Southeast Asia.

Luckily, they have a plan. To save the river, researchers have developed what they are calling the ‘3E principle’: the idea that “waters should be used to provide economic well-being to the people, without compromising social equity and environmental sustainability.”

Putting this principle into practice means working closely with each of the countries that benefits from the Mekong River (China and Tibet, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam) to safeguard the river’s life-giving water.