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Posts Tagged Envioronment

Sidewalk Pavers That Can Clean Polluted Air

Sep 2

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New Air Clean paving slabs use special technology to clean the air in polluted cities.

ScienceDaily

The concentrations of toxic nitrogen oxide that are present in German cities regularly exceed the maximum permitted levels. That’s now about to change, as innovative paving slabs that will help protect the environment are being introduced. Coated in titanium dioxide nanoparticles, they reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide in the air.

In Germany, ambient air quality is not always as good as it might be — data from the federal environment ministry makes this all too clear. In 2009, the amounts of toxic nitrogen oxide in the atmosphere exceeded the maximum permitted levels at no fewer than 55 percent of air monitoring stations in urban areas. The ministry reports that road traffic is one of the primary sources of these emissions. In light of this fact, the Baroque city of Fulda is currently embarking on new ways to combat air pollution.
sciencedaily.com

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Lemonade stand raises $800 for Animal Rescue League

Aug 30

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By Michele Morgan Bolton, Town Correspondent

After raising funds to help animals 25 cents and 50 cents at a time, two young brothers have handed over $800 to the Animal Rescue League of Boston.

Jack and Eric Linari’s Pirate Lemonade stand has been a staple most weeks at the Dedham Farmers Market this summer. It was the third year that Jack, 9, and Eric, 6, sold homemade drinks and then donated all the proceeds to a local cause they care about.

The first year, the Linaris raised money to help replace a stolen sign at a local playground near their home. The second year, the Dedham Food Pantry was the recipient of their efforts, and this year funds go to help animals at the league’s Dedham shelter.
boston.com

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Teen raises $1 million for hospital

Jul 20

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by JAMIE STENGLE

MCKINNEY, Texas — Ben Sater had vowed that before he went off to college, he would raise $1 million for the Dallas children’s hospital where he had received free treatments as a child.

After eight years’ worth of fundraising golf tournaments for kids, the soon-to-be Austin College freshman has reached the goal, with nearly $19,000 to spare.

Organizers announced Monday that they’ve raised $1,018,842 for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, an orthopedic center that treats patients free of charge.

“We got it,” the now 18-year-old told the group of kids gathered in McKinney on Monday for the second KidSwing tournament of the summer.
msnbc.msn.com

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Water and life return to Iraq’s ‘Garden of Eden’

Jul 13

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Juliette Jowit
guardian.co.uk

Saddam Hussein’s draining of the Mesopotamian marshes of Iraq – recorded as the Garden of Eden in the Bible – was one of the most infamous outrages of his regime, leaving a vast area of once-teeming river delta a dry, salt-encrusted desert, emptied of insects, birds and the people who lived on them.

But nearly two decades later the area is buzzing and twittering with life again after local people and a new breed of Iraqi conservationists have restored much of what was once the world’s third largest wetland to some of its former glory.
guardian.co.uk

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Road Surface Purifies Air by Removing Nitrogen Oxides

Jul 10

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ScienceDaily-Road surfaces can make a big contribution to local air purity. This conclusion can be drawn from the first test results on a road surface of air-purifying concrete. This material reduces the concentration of nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 25 to 45 per cent, said prof. Jos Brouwers in a recent inaugural lecture at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.

The tests were carried out in the municipality of Hengelo, where the busy Castorweg road was resurfaced last fall. As part of the project, around 1,000 square meters of the road’s surface were covered with air-purifying concrete paving stones. For comparison purposes, another area of 1.000 square meters was surfaced with normal paving stones.
sciencedaily.com

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Britain Curbing Airport Growth to Aid Climate

Jul 5

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In a bold if lonely environmental stand, Britain’s coalition government has set out to curb the growth of what has been called “binge flying” by refusing to build new runways around London to accommodate more planes.

Citing the high levels of greenhouse gas emissions from aviation, Prime Minister David Cameron, a Conservative, abruptly canceled longstanding plans to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport in May, just days after his election; he said he would also refuse to approve new runways at Gatwick and Stansted, London’s second-string airports.

The government decided that enabling more flying was incompatible with Britain’s oft-stated goal of curbing emissions. Britons have become accustomed to easy, frequent flying — jetting off to weekend homes in Spain and bachelor parties in Prague — as England has become a hub for low-cost airlines. The country’s 2008 Climate Change Act requires it to reduce emissions by at least 34 percent by 2020 from levels reached in 1990.
nytimes.com

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Rome gets hotel made from rubbish

Jun 10

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Save the Beach Hotel, taking guests for four days only, is adorned with debris from the world’s beaches.

Its five rooms and reception are lined with 12 tonnes of rubbish, including toys, cans, car exhaust pipes.

Danish supermodel Helena Christensen, who has stayed at the hotel, said it was a striking work of art.

“When you’re inside the house, there are walls as there would be in a normal house, but they are all made of inorganic waste,” Ms Christensen, who is also an environmental campaigner, told the BBC.

“And then the outside… is completely covered in everything that we throw on beaches.

“And so you can basically just go around the house, and look at a lot of very personal objects, and some of them make you really wonder what made a human being throw this away on a beach.”
bbc.co.uk

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As Part of Growing Trend, UPS Adds 200 Hybrid Trucks

Jun 7

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United Parcel Service this week is rolling out 200 new hybrid gas-electric delivery trucks in eight U.S. cities. Over the course of a year, the 200 new hybrid trucks are expected to reduce fuel consumption by roughly 176,000 gallons and cutting CO2 gases by nearly 1,800 metric tons.

The move by UPS is part of a growing trend, identified in a new report from Pike Research about the global market for hybrid medium and heavy-duty trucks and buses. Pike forecasts an increase from 9,000 vehicles sold globally in 2010 to more than 100,000 vehicles in 2015.
matternetwork.com

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Compost Startup Helps Restaurants Cut Costs

Jun 1

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by AVISHAY ARTSY

A new green startup business in New Hampshire collects compostable material from local cafes and restaurants. The company’s business model is to help restaurants be more eco-friendly — and save money on trash removal.

At the Black Trumpet restaurant in Portsmouth, N.H., chef and co-owner Evan Mallett says he’s long wanted to compost, but no one could offer regular pickups, and their tiny restaurant has no extra space for storage.
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A passion to clean up the Pacific Ocean’s great ‘garbage patch’

May 20

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Avid sailor and educator Mary Crowley is recruiting help to clean up the North Pacific Trash Gyre, a ‘garbage patch’ of plastic and other trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

By Paul Van Slambrouck

Mary Crowley would rather be at sea. But she’s not. Instead, she is in a small conference room at a roadside Marriott in this landlocked town north of Sacramento.

Around her are mainly men, many with beards, and many with baseball caps pulled down low and arms crossed tight. They are listening. Many of them would also rather be at sea.

Can these wishes be joined? We shall see in the next month or so.
csmonitor.com

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