Thursday 27 August 2009

'Artificial trees' to cut carbon

Engineers say a forest of 100,000 "artificial trees" could be deployed within 10 to 20 years to help soak up the world's carbon emissions.
The trees are among three geo-engineering ideas highlighted as practical in a new report.
The authors from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers say that without geo-engineering it will be impossible to avoid dangerous climate change.
The report includes a 100-year roadmap to "decarbonise" the global economy.

Launching the report, lead author Dr Tim Fox said geo-engineering should not be viewed as a "silver bullet" that could combat climate change in isolation.
He told BBC News it should be used in conjunction with efforts to reduce carbon emissions and to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Many climate scientists calculate that the world has only a few decades to reduce emissions before there is so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that a dangerous rise in global temperature is inevitable.
full article

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Energy suppliers overcharge customers by £100

Customers are being overcharged by £100 a year to heat and light their homes as suppliers fail to pass on price cuts, research by the Government's consumer watchdog suggests.Britain’s energy companies are paying much less for the power they supply, as prices on the wholesale market have halved in the past 12 months to reach the lowest levels in almost three years.
But despite the reductions, household electricity and gas bills are still higher than they were last summer, averaging more than £1,200 a year.
Consumer experts say the high prices charged to British families mean there is still room for further cuts, of as much as 10 per cent on gas bills and 3.5 per cent on electricity bills, bringing annual savings of £96.40.
Energy firms are estimated to be making an extra £2.2billion by failing to pass on the discounts to every household.
Pressure on suppliers is being increased by Ofgem, the industry regulator, which has given them until next week to explain why they have not passed on wholesale savings to their customers.
full article

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Filtration system that lets you drink your own SHOWER water


Eco-thinkers have come up with an amazing new way to create drinking water - by putting plants in the bottom of a shower.
Designers Jun Yasumoto, Vincent Vandenbrouk, Olivier Pigasse, and Alban Le Henry came up with the concept when looking for new ways to recycle precious H2O.
After you have washed in the special eco-shower the water passes down into a series of physical filters and is treated by plants such as reeds and rushes growing around your feet.
'Using a natural filtering principle called phyto-purification, the bathroom becomes a mini-eco-system by recycling and regenerating the wastewater.
''With this project, we tried to combine the pleasure of taking a shower with the satisfaction of recycling water. We wanted the recycling process to actually interact with the use of shower.'


The waste water passes into a chamber below the shower floor where it goes through a maze of filters.
Included in the network is sand, reeds, rushes, a mesh filter, water hyacinths and lemnas, and finally a carbon filter.
full article