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POPSHow Parking Lots Can Beat the Heat & Gain Energy On hot, sunny days when air conditioners threaten to overload the power grid, solar power generation makes a lot of sense. Parking lots in asphalt-rich cities have great solar potential because the panels can be oriented to optimize power production during summer afternoons when electricity is most valuable. Google, for example, has installed solar canopies on its parking lots to satisfy 30 percent of its headquarters' power demand. Because the parking lots for most commercial buildings are bigger than the buildings themselves, economies of scale for large installations can further reduce the cost of the solar panels. We shouldn't wait until the next heat wave to think about getting solar power from our parking lots.
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POPS12 Ways to Build with a Smaller Carbon Footprint Buildings consume 76% of electricity generated & they create 48% of our greenhouse gases. Main Points: * Every brick in building required the burning of fossil fuel in its manufacture, every piece of lumber was cut and transported using energy * Aim for a complete ban of formaldehyde use in building products * Building demolitions account for 48% of the waste stream (65 million tons a year), renovations account for 44% and renovations account for 8% * A solar water heater can save $ 450 a year and keep a ton of CO2 emissions out of the air; multiply that by 80 million houses in the USA * While smaller is better almost every city has minimum floor area requirements * The losses are higher in AC than in DC because it grounds so easily * The average 1950’s house was 983 sq feet; by 1970 it was 1500 SF; last year it was 2350 SF * We can no longer afford to lose agricultural land close to our cities and towns
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POPSWhat Ideas Will Shape our Future? The 10 Ideas of the 21st Century "More than money, more than politics, ideas are the secret power that this planet runs on." "The 21st century will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life. The 20th century saw the end of European dominance of global politics and economics. The 21st century will see the end of American dominance too, as new powers make their voices heard on the world stage." "The challenges of sustainable development—protecting the environment, stabilizing the world's population, narrowing the gaps of rich and poor and ending extreme poverty—will render passé the very idea of competing nation-states that scramble for markets, power and resources." "The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet." "6.6 billion people living in an interconnected global economy producing an astounding $60 trillion of output each year."
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POPSFather of India's Green Revolution Prepares for Evergreen Revolution
“In every crisis is an opportunity” Swaminathan is once again agitating for revolution -- this time a perpetual one. In the early ‘60s, India grew 12 million tons of wheat every year. Starvation was rampant and the country imported much of its food. Swaminathan, an agricultural geneticist, developed new strains of high-yield wheat for his country and the programs that led to an India that exports food. Today, India grows some 70 million tons of wheat and has become the world's second-largest wheat producer. He says that today India has reached a plateau in production and productivity because a problem of under investment in rural infrastructure. His M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Development follows a pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation to a job-led economic growth strategy in rural areas through harnessing science and technology for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable development.
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POPSPorridge: A Good Source of Energy For Your Body & Your Factory A FIFE factory is to become one of Scotland’s greenest when it begins generating all its own energy from oat husks. Quaker, which produces Scott’s Porage Oats at its Uthrogle Mills plant near Cupar, is to invest £6 million in a combined heat and power biomass boiler which will make it carbon neutral. The husks, removed from the oats during the milling process, will provide 9,709 MWhrs of electricity and 10,902 MWhrs of steam a year, reducing its emissions by 9,000 tonnes a year. “This innovative approach by Quaker to cut carbon emissions through investment in new low carbon technology will be a powerful signal to other businesses that reducing carbon emissions and looking for sustainable energy sources makes business sense.”
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POPSMake it Right: With Over 80 Homes Sponsored, It's Time to Build! Over 12 million dollars raised so far: "We hope to see a huge change here in the next six months" said Brad Pitt on Sunday, when hundreds of volunteers began wielding shovels and rakes, preparing the land for homes. For hours, they cleared overgrown grass and weeds that were covering street drains and sidewalks. "We're working to get the grounds ready so construction can begin." "Make it Right" is committed to: 1) Building 150 houses in the Lower 9th Ward, 2) Ensuring a green, affordable, sustainable, and replicable community to serve as a model for further rebuilding and 3) A finance plan that ensures that residents who wish to return to the Lower Ninth Ward can do so without further financial hardship. The Lower 9th Ward was one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods in New Orleans when Katrina struck on Aug. 29, 2005.
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POPSBeyond Zero-Energy: The World's 1st Positive Energy Building Generates more energy than it consumes. The building’s aggressive approach to sustainability enables it to offer the lowest energy consumption per square meter for its class. The complex will utilize sustainable materials and feature integrated wind turbines, outdoor air quality monitors. In addition to serving as the Masdar headquarters, the building will accommodate private residences and ‘early bird’ businesses starting up in the city. The Masdar development will be constructed over seven phases and is due to be completed by 2016.
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POPSIKEA Village: A Community of Affordable Pre-Fab Homes Ikea is currently building a village of pre-fab homes in the UK: Creating a community of affordable homes. These homes will be like nothing else seen before in the UK and will play an important role in helping first-time buyers who have until now been unable to get on the property ladder due to the spiralling costs of buying a house. While Ikea will market the houses, Live Smart @ Home will build them. It will ask buyers to prove they are within the set income bracket and to register their interest online. Demand is expected to be so high that a lottery will then determine who becomes the first "Ikea villagers".
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POPSIsland Wood: City Kids First Visit with Nature & Environmentalism An environmental learning center—nestled into a rustic 250-acre nature preserve—plays a dual role as symbol and teaching tool. "We envision a future in which all people view themselves as lifelong learners, and share an extraordinary bond of stewardship for the environment, for their communities and for each other." Raising of environmental consciousness, one child at a time. “The center is primarily for inner-city kids who don’t have an opportunity to connect with the natural world. And when kids are uncomfortable, they’re not open to learning. So we wanted them to be as comfortable here as possible.” The mission of IslandWood is to provide exceptional learning experiences and to inspire lifelong environmental and community stewardship.
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POPSUnderground City? The Future of Amsterdam Dutch engineers have proposed building an underground city 6 floors under Amsterdam's picturesque canals, which would be drained section by section during construction. It is both feasible and sustainable, creating a city beneath the city is not futuristic, it may be a necessity in this day and age. And what will this city hold? Parking, shopping and "leisure". Should they be digging up Amsterdam for parking and shopping, OR should they have added public transit and bike lanes instead? Construction could last up to 20 years.
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POPSNo Traffic? Michigan to Build Interstate Traveler Hydrogen Super Highway Michigan to build the country's first Maglev public transportation system: to be constructed between Detroit and Ann Arbor. Interstate Traveler Hydrogen cars will carry people, cars (drive on/off) and cargo. Construction is set to begin this year (2008). Interstate Traveler Hydrogen Super Highway? It is a collection of vital municipal utilities bundled into a Conduit Cluster: a public transit network built along the right of way of the US Interstate Highway Systems, and any other permissible right of way where such a machine would be of benefit. It will be a integration of solar powered hydrogen production and distribution with a high speed magnetic levitation ( MagLev ). A Maglev, or magnetically levitating, train is a form of transportation that suspends, guides and propels vehicles (predominantly trains) using electromagnetic force. The first commercial Maglev was opened in 1984 in Birmingham, England.
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POPSTurquoise Mountain: Invest in Afghan Arts To Save Kabul Battered by over two decades of war, limited access to new materials and cheaper imports from China and Pakistan, there is an urgent need to support the rural craft communities of Afghanistan. The Foundation has developed a Sustainable and Authentic Crafts Standard, which guarantees the authenticity and ethical value of any Afghan products it promotes. The Foundation will establish a permanent resource and research center where it plans to build a gas kiln, a workshop, a laboratory for testing glazes, and a library. This improvement in training and resources will be matched with valuable access to the visiting tourist market.
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POPSA Green Utopia: World's First Zero-Carbon & Zero-Waste City Abu Dhabi: Masdar City aims to be the world's greenest city....and the most sustainable city. The Masdar development is a 6 km sq, car-free “walled-city” scheme. A challenging design that promises to question conventional urban wisdom at a fundamental level. Masdar promises to set new benchmarks for the sustainable city of the future
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