The future of the Earth could rest on potentially dangerous and unproven geoengineering technologies unless emissions of carbon dioxide can be greatly reduced, the latest Royal Society report has found.
The report (published 1st September, by the Royal Society(1), the UK’s national academy of science) found that unless future efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are much more successful than they have been so far, additional action in the form of geoengineering will be necessary if we are to cool the planet.
Geoengineering technologies were found to be very likely to be technically possible and some were considered to be potentially useful to augment the continuing efforts to mitigate climate change by reducing emissions. However, the report …

Far ahead of legal and market standard in fulfilling material, energy consumption and recycling requirements
Fujitsu announces the extension of its successful Green IT labeling scheme to the enterprise business, covering storage products under the ETERNUS brand. The Green IT label provides buyers a reliable and easy way to evaluate the “greenness” of IT products and introduces new standards far ahead of current legislation. Choosing storage products that are more energy-efficient can result in significant energy savings as well as lower replacement costs with cooler components lasting longer.
Fujitsu has been developing environmentally conscious products and processes for more than 20 years. In November last year it introduced its pioneering new Green IT label, initially covering PCs …

PNNL’s advanced heat recovery method makes most of low-temp ‘hot rock’ resources
A new method for capturing significantly more heat from low-temperature geothermal resources holds promise for generating virtually pollution-free electrical energy. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will determine if their innovative approach can safely and economically extract and convert heat from vast untapped geothermal resources.
The goal is to enable power generation from low-temperature geothermal resources at an economical cost. In addition to being a clean energy source without any greenhouse gas emissions, geothermal is also a steady and dependable source of power.
“By the end of the calendar year, we plan to have a functioning bench-top prototype generating electricity,” predicts PNNL …

General Motors has many difficult decisions to make in the coming days and weeks. Already GM has made decisions that will essentially remove Saturn, Saab, Hummer, and Pontiac out of the GM umbrella so that the automaker can focus more on its remaining core brands.
These decisions may result in new ownership for these brands, but could also dissolve them forever. Despite this dramatic outcome, these brands have passionate customers and owners. Among them, Saturn has long been synonymous for customer service and in its short history the brand has developed a dedicated and loyal customer base. Denver Saturn dealers points out that Saturn currently offers a fresh lineup and includes the elegant Aura, sporty Sky, …

The efficiency factor of solar cells is crucial for the success of generating electricity from sunlight. Systems in which light is concentrated 400-fold through lenses onto solar cells are proving to be particularly advantageous.
This concentrator technology enables expensive semi-conductor material to be replaced with cheaper lens systems, and greater efficiency to be achieved. In his thesis, physicist Marc Steiner from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg presented a way of increasing the efficiency of these concentrator solar cells even more.
The contacting of the semi-conductor layers plays a crucial role here, and Marc Steiner’s new simulation program optimizes the structure and configuration of the metallic contact fingers. These calculations yielded unprecedented efficiency …

Catalan scientists have shown that using mud from waste water treatment plants as a partial alternative fuel can enable cement factories to reduce their CO2 emissions and comply with the Kyoto Protocol, as well as posing no risk to human health and being profitable. These are the results of an environmental impact assessment.
Dependency on oil and coal could be coming to an end. Researchers from the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) have analysed the environmental and human health impacts of an alternative fuel that solves various problems simultaneously. This is the solid waste from the water treatment plants of large cities.
The scientists have carried out the first study into this method at a cement plant …

The Australian Government has realized how important solar energy is to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and to the increase in usage of renewable resources. Their realization saw the introduction of a solar rebate, which ended on 9 June 2009. It was means tested and was available to households with an annual taxable income of less that $100, 000.
In place of the solar rebate the government has introduced the Green Loans, which will be available from 1 July 2009. The Green Loan gives households a four year interest free loan of up to $10, 000 to assist them with improving energy and water efficiency in their homes.
The Green Loan differs from the Solar Rebate …