Category: Environmental

Environmental Tech

Heat-sensitive solar cell could lead to much more on-demand energy

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As reported on Engadget. BY JON FINGAS It’s tough to build solar cells that capture both heat and light — most of these multi-talented devices can’t trap more than one percent of the energy they receive. However, MIT has just blown past that limitation with a prototype chip that absorbs warmth through an outer layer of carbon nanotubes. The tubing heats up photonic crystals so much that they glow with an intense light, giving an attached solar cell more energy than…

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Environmental

Poisoned: why West Virginia’s water crisis is everyone’s problem

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As reported on The Verge. By Matt Stroud How regulators allowed chemicals to literally slip through the cracks and threaten the water supply When 35-year-old Jason Eldridge arrived home last Thursday from his job as a systems administrator with a healthcare company in Charleston, West Virginia, he acted no differently than he normally would: he made dinner (that night, it was tacos) for his wife, his two-year-old daughter, and himself. Then the trio sat down to…

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Business Environmental

Power play: why your electric bill may be changing soon

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As reported on The Verge. By Adrianne Jeffries In the near future, power companies may have to decouple electricity use from prices Americans are buying bigger homes, using more appliances, and firing up more data centers than ever before. You’d expect electricity demand to skyrocket accordingly, but the trend is actually the opposite. Total electricity use in the US has actually declined in the past four out of five years, according to a new government study, and…

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Environmental Mobile

Upp is a $199 hydrogen fuel cell for USB devices that lets you fill up instead of plugging in

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As reported on Engadget. By Sharif Sakr Hydrogen fuel cells have been helping astronauts for nearly half a century already, so it’s about time they became small enough — and cheap enough — to be of use to everyone else. That’s exactly what Intelligent Energy claims to have achieved with its the latest fuel cell system, called the “Upp.” At 500 grams and with a retail price of $199, it’s not meant to compete with regular lithium ion…

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Environmental

Dead meat: how to raise livestock in a post-antibiotic era

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As reported on The Verge. By Katie Drummond When will American farmers put antibiotic drugs out to pasture? We’ve been warned for years that our reckless use of antibiotics threatens to render the drugs useless — ushering in a public health crisis that could see once-benign germs become deadly. But overzealous prescriptions for human patients are only one part of the problem: experts increasingly agree that antibiotics in animal agriculture contribute to resistant infections in people.…

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Environmental Military

The Next Agent Orange.

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As reported on The Verge. by Katie Drummond To an unsuspecting eye, the Torres family home is indistinguishable from the other bungalows that line a flat, treeless stretch of road somewhere off US Route 77. Under an unforgiving Texas sun, the family’s golden retriever runs in circles around the parched lawn, pausing for breath in the shadow of an SUV parked out front. And inside, life appears perfectly normal. Framed photos of Rosie and Le…

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Environmental

CLEANING UP ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST POLLUTED CITIES

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As reported on The Verge. By Matt Stroud A Pittsburgh-area steel town fights for clear skies In 1995, the Monongahela River Valley’s air was among the most polluted in the United States. This collection of municipalities, about 10 miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh, sat downwind from the Clairton Coke Works, which is a giant factory engaged in one of the dirtiest industrial processes known to civilization. It had been established decades earlier that people who grew up close…

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Automotive Culture Environmental

Two-way street: electric cars of the future could give power back to the grid

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As reported on The Verge. By Sean Hollister The batteries inside EVs might pay dividends On September 23rd, the city of Palo Alto, California decided to embrace the electric car. Inspired by one resident who fought to install a public charging station, the city councilvoted to mandate that every new single-family home be wired to support EV chargers. That might be good news for Palo Alto’s wealthy, environmentally conscious populace — not to mention Tesla Motors,…

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Culture Environmental

A CITY IN FLAMES: INSIDE DETROIT’S WAR ON ARSON

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As reported on The Verge. By Jesse Hicks Understaffed and with few resources, Detroit-area firefighters battle a plague of abandoned, burning buildings For eight long years, the firefighters of Highland Park, Michigan, worked out of a warehouse. There was no red-bricked facade, no lanky Dalmatian. No freshly washed engines gleaming in the sun. No second-floor fire pole to descend in the dead of night to wailing sirens. Whatever idealized vision you have of firefighting, Highland Park…

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Environmental News

Another Fukushima mishap leaks highly radioactive water into Pacific

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As reported on The Verge. By Amar Toor TEPCO comes under fire from Japanese authorities after second breach in less than two months Radioactive water leaked out of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant late Wednesday and has likely spilled into the Pacific Ocean, authorities announced today. As Reuters reports, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) discovered that contaminated water was overflowing from a storage tank yesterday, and officials estimate that more than 100 gallons may have leaked…

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