Green Options

A team of researchers have developed a color-coded bacteria that will make it much easier to detect oil-spills and other forms of environmental pollution.

During a recent sea expedition the team successfully used the bacteria, which contains a protein that glows blue when viewed though a simple light-detecting device, to detect oil.

The Q Drum, developed in South Africa, is aiding water transportation for those in poorer nations with distances to trek just to gain this most basic resource. The design allows relatively easy towing of 50 liters of water across reasonably flat terrains.

Sources: Green Upgrader

Image: Q Drum

Last week, I took a trip down to San Jose for West Coast Green, an environmentally-focused conference with an emphasis on sustainable building. One booth stood out from the crowd—Magnetic Air Cars, Inc.. The San Jose-based company claims that it is working on the world’s first fuel-less car (as opposed to the World’s Most Fuel Efficient Car).

The two projects, which each include 20 underwater turbines, will be finished within three years and will provide power to 40,000 homes.

ScottishPower Renewables will apply for planning permission next year to build the two farms in Northern Ireland’s seabed. The turbines will be manufactured in Scotland in an intentional boost to the country’s green-collar job market.

To prevent toxic runoff from flowing down storm drains and into the rivers or ocean, Washington hopes to ban washing cars in driveways throughout the state.

While residents complain that washing cars is a family pastime that they should not be required to give up, officials say that the at-home car wash is too harmful to the environment to ignore. “I understand this is something people have done for a long time,” said Bill Moore, a water specialist with the Washington State Department of Ecology, which enacted the ban. “It’s not something we should be doing any longer.”

Local Indian governmental officials have announced that a new 100-million liter per day desalination plant is nearing completion. Located on India’s southeastern coast, the plant is currently 80% complete, and expected to begin operations January 2009.

The plant will process a hundred million liters per day, the equivalent to 26-million US gallons.

With so much of our planet covered in the stuff, it is a surprise that water does not receive the attention that renewable technologies like wind and solar do. Nevertheless, with renewable energy being the catchphrase of many countries at the moment, advancements are being made towards a future where our oceans will provide us with electricity.

After two years, an oversized yellow buoy floating five miles off the southern tip of Long Beach Island has definitely proved its technology feasible. With the rise and fall of each wave, pistons slide up and down inside a cylinder within the buoy, generating electricity.

Earlier this week, Portugal debuted the world’s first commercial wave energy farm. Wave energy at the Agucadoura station is converted into electricity with the use of three red “sea-snakes”, or cylindrical wave energy converters, that are attached to the seabed off Portugal’s northern coast. Energy captured by the sea-snakes is carried to an undersea cable station, where it is then fed into the electrical grid.

A woman who set-up a simple system to catch and purify rainwater from her rooftop says that she gathers nearly enough water to avoid using the tap in her Austin, Texas home.

On average, humans need approximately 13 gallons of water a day. In the U.S. the average family uses 245 gallons per day!

If you did your homework and purchased the Blue Planet Run book as I suggested last week, then you will find most of what I’m about to share in the beautiful charts and graphs on page 174 and 175.

American missiles are not the only threat to Iran’s physical stability. A geological study has found that the nation’s groundwater is running so low from decades of over-use that many parts of the country have sunk dramatically, causing damage in both agricultural and urban areas.

Fifty percent of the country’s water is sourced from the wells and only ten percent of the population is able to survive on rainwater alone. The groundwater level has decreased by 1.5 feet annually for the past 15 years, and with little rain and increased water use for Iran’s growing population, the aquifers have had no chance to refill. As a result, some areas have been sinking up to 20 inches a year.