Archive for 2008

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Sea Shepherds Use Any Measures to Protect Their Flock

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Almost ten years ago, Time Magazine proclaimed Paul Watson as one of the major environmental heroes of the 20th century. During the 1970s Watson was part of numerous Greenpeace campaigns against whaling, but he always felt that these placid confrontations had little result against saving whales. Some of these graceful animals even died from attacks with Greenpeace Zodiacs swarming around whaling vessels.

According to Watson’s biography, everything came to light in 1975, as he was forced to watch a sperm whale die a few feet from his boat after it had been harpooned by Russian hunters. This was just not acceptable.

Watson didn’t mesh well with Greenpeace and felt that more extreme measures were necessary for actual results, but his strong opinions didn’t win him any favors: He ended up expelled from the board of directors when he was 27, with only a single vote opposing the decision - his own.

Watson used this opportunity to found the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society which, unlike Greenpeace, uses more aggressive tactics to stop whaling. This doesn’t come without a price, though, and Watson has found himself in jail a few times on charges ranging from attempted murder to intentionally sinking a ship. Sea Shepherd does admit to having sunk at least ten ‘pirate’ whaling ships since 1979 and it is no surprise that a few nations look at this group as a kind of terrorist organization.

The newest ship, named after famed
Australian conservationist Steve Irwin.
(Photo: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society)

If nothing else, the current exploits of the Sea Shepherd is excellent television and it is now part of a more controversial reality TV show airing on Animal Planet. This show, adequately titled ‘Whale Wars’, aired a few months ago and already has millions of devoted fans.

Laws have been set into place to ban whaling, but it remains an issue in countries where whale meat has been a staple for centuries. Japan is one of the major players in the Whale Wars game. Every part of the whale is valued in one form or another by the Japanese, and it is hard for an entire nation to accept a law that interferes with ancient traditions. Japan has tried to find loopholes to allow whaling, such as painting ‘Research Vessel’ on the side of obvious whaling ships, but even these boats seem to turn around when confronted with Watson’s ‘terrorist’ ship.

It will be interesting to see how much of an influence organizations like Sea Shepherd have on the environment where politics have failed. Many people feel that they give environmentalists a bad rap, however it is hard not to respect a man who has given up everything to save a species he cares for deeply.

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Posted in Animals, Politics | 8 Comments »

BioVigilant-Always Know What You’re Breathing

Monday, December 29th, 2008

When it comes to testing for contaminants-whether in your lab, production facility, or even in your own body-nothing is more excruciating than the wait. Current testing methods are painfully slow: It takes about a full week to get results from most labs, and there is nothing you can do but gnaw at your fingernails and plan for the worst.

BioVigilant has developed a unique tool that automatically detects a variety of contaminants such as mold, bacteria, dust and smog almost immediately. This is incredible news, since lab testing for the same contaminants is typically time consuming, costly and labor intensive (often requiring the growth of a substance on petri-dishes and identifying contaminants by squinting through a microscope).

While waiting for lab results, companies lose incredible amounts of money since they need to halt production. Not only that, but items such as medicines or water are wasted, since even the slight chance of exposing people to contaminants like bacteria, mold or a biohazard (like anthrax) is not a risk worth taking.

The IMD-A 220-4 can sample
28.4 liters per minute.
(Photo: BioVigilant Systems)

BioVigilant explains that their “systems detect-instantaneously and in real time-particulate count, size, and biological status. Unlike other rapid microbial methods, BioVigilant’s optically-based systems require no staining, no reagents, no waiting period, and little human intervention.”

The instruments developed by BioVigilant work non-stop (hence the name). They continuously sample the air in a specific area and screen for particles as small as 0.5 microns. Real time data is then presented on a computer screen for easy viewing. The fact that data can be analyzed and viewed over real time is important: This way, it is easy to determine the precise time an area became contaminated or to analyze how air quality has changed over time.

The Biovigilant systems come in two varieties: The portable version weighs only 30 pounds and draws in around 1 liter of volume per minute, while the larger version can sample around 30 liters per minute and is specifically designed for larger testing areas.

The technology was originally developed for the U.S military who used the systems for the sole purpose of testing the air for bio-agents like anthrax. This is definitely an important cause, but the technology can now be used for other purposes as well. For one thing, they ensure that production is taking place in the cleanest of environments. Not only that, but the technology is also essential in keeping surrounding environments stable by ensuring that no contaminants escape.

At this point, waiting for results is no harder than turning on a monitor, and hopefully what you see is good news.

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Posted in CleanTech, Water | 1 Comment »

Outdoor Air Conditioning

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Sitting on a beach is the last thing most of us think about in the cold month of December, but it is an appealing escape. Beaches are the most popular destination spot and who could blame the millions of tourists whose tension is washed away by warm waves, exotic drinks and sunny skies. Nothing is ever perfect, though. The ocean may be too cold, and the sand is often scalding hot. It is just the nature of the beast and humans have to accept the fact that we cannot control everything. Yet, designers in Dubai may disagree.

The Palazzo Versace Hotel, breaking ground on Dubai’s coastline, is planning on creating its very own climate. The hotel’s sand will never burn sensitive soles thanks to a network of heat absorbing pipes under the beach and 820sq foot refrigerated pool will always refresh guests trying to escape the rising temperature. Not only that, but whenever temperatures become uncomfortably hot, fans may be placed around the hotel’s beach to force a cool breeze towards lounging guests.

Making outdoors indoors…

In addition to the one-of-a-kind beach, the 10-story hotel will incorporate indoor pools in some of the 213 rooms. For a more detailed list of the hotel’s guest features click HERE.

It comes as no surprise that environmentalists are not happy with the situation. It is also a slap in the face to countries facing the current economic crisis. A climate controlled beach seems like a waste of money, and the energy required to control an outside environment is immense. Not only that, but it is not even necessary: certain variables may be unappealing but they add to the charm of visiting a natural area.

Soheil Abedian, founder and president of Palazzo Versace, argues that luxuries like this can also be sustainable. Rather than forcing cool air onto the sand which requires more energy, for example, the heat will get sucked out. Unfortunately, the exact plans for the project are still unknown.

Dubai is already home of the world’s top resorts and countless luxury hotels, the most famous of which is Burj al’Arab-the first hotel ever to boast a 5 star rating. Abedian is simply following UAE tradition and attempting to compete with countless other hotels that have offer such amenities as private butlers in gold plated rooms that can cost up to $40,000 a night. He hopes that the climate controlled beaches will provide the edge to lure high class tourists through his hotel’s doors which are planned to open in 2010.

via The Australian News

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Posted in Buildings | 2 Comments »

Moses Project Planned to Part Venice Floods

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Venice floods more than one hundred times a year. At the beginning of this month, Venice was caught in another onslaught, as the sea level around the city rose higher than most people can remember. The last time locals and countless visitors had to wade through water this deep was over thirty years ago. It is floods like the most recent one that make it clear how important a flood barrier really is.

Things were different a century ago when floods occurred at an average of ten times a year, but Venice has always been sensitive to changes in water levels because the city itself is built on hundreds of small islands. It doesn’t help that Venice is sinking a few centimeters every year, as well.

One proposed solution comes in the form of a barrier that would use hydraulic pressure to raise steel plates that cut off the rising water flow. This controversial Moses Project-named after the religious figure who parted the red sea-was originally shelved because of the 4.2 billion dollar price tag and the millions (if not billions) of dollars it would take to maintain the structure annually. The hefty price tag isn’t the only cause for concern,  environmentalists worry that the artificial barriers will harm protected ecosystems. They claim that closing off the tide flow will cause water to stagnate and kill off marine life.

In an in-depth article by the Times, journalist Richard Owen explains that  the project “involves 79,300-tonne hinged steel panels or “buoyancy flap gates”, which most of the time will lie beneath the water but will fill with compressed air when the high-tide alarm sounds, closing off the three inlets. There are 700 workers at the three construction sites, a workforce due to double as completion approaches in 2012. A €1.5 million simulator at Malamocco shows how the locks will allow shipping to pass when the lagoon is blocked off.”

Any barrier that affects the natural flow of floods and tides will obviously have an impact on the underwater ecosystems. The question is how much of an effect? Not only that, but shouldn’t the ancient historical architecture be protected as well? Either way, Moses is currently scheduled for completion in 2012.

Overall land subsidence in the region surrounding Venice has
been 1.5 to 2.0 meters during the past 70 years, making high
tides far more problematic (ref. Wessex Institute).

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Posted in Buildings | No Comments »

Turning Air into Water

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

40 percent of the world is dealing with a water shortage. This means that over 2 billion people have to survive in barren and often unsanitary conditions, while everything crumbles around them. Nothing can survive without water. Plants dry up, cattle starve to death, and people succumb to the ailments associated with drinking unsanitary water.

The irony is that water exists all around us. Water droplets shining on leaves in the morning seem to appear out of thin air. This is where companies like EWA Technologies and Air2Water will collect water.

EWA gives a rough estimate of how much water there actually is in our atmosphere: “Air humidity, an unlimited renewable natural resource, is available to all mankind, except in few extreme climatic regions where the temperature is bellow 4oC or extreme arid zone. One cubic kilometer of air contains 10 to 40 tones of life-giving water. Nature continually recharges the atmosphere with humidity by evaporation from the world’s oceans, seas and fresh water bodies.”

Both companies use similar technologies. Air is pulled into a machine where it is condensed into water after passing through a filtration system that removes airborne particles and bacteria. Air2Water also applies UV light to the collected water to ensure that consumers won’t sip up any bacteria or viruses as well.

More than one billion people currently
lack adequate or sufficient drinking water.
(Photo: EWA Technologies Group)

EWA prides itself on using as little energy as possible in the process. By using both residual water and solar heat to power their products, the price of producing water comes to about 5 US cents per cubic meter!

EWA is focused on providing the liquid to nations hit the hardest because of economic hardships and location; like rural villages nowhere near a river and without pipelines.

EWA uses a desiccant material to attract moisture. (Silica Gel and Rice (often found in salt shakers) are examples of desiccant materials that absorb moisture from the air.) The water is then collected through processes involving wind drying, heating and vacuum. EWA has a variety of models, all using the same technology, ranging from devices that produce a few liters to larger machines that pour out a whopping 1000 liters on a daily basis. Combining a few of the larger machines could fill up a swimming pool in no time!

Water has been a topic of debate for decades. WaterAsia is hosting their 9th international conference and exhibition this month, which focuses entirely on the water industry. Companies like EWA and Air2Water are sure to make an appearance alongside representatives of breweries, power stations, oil refineries, fiber plants and countless other companies that depend on water to function. It seems like everyone could benefit from a little more water at their disposal.

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Posted in Water | 1 Comment »

Dynamic Tower-Room with a Rotating View

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

An apartment with a view is coveted property. After a hard day at work, sitting down in front of a panoramic window while sipping a glass of wine is a wonderful way to unwind.

A decent view is hard to come by. Not only that, but when actually given options, it may be hard to decide between the ocean view, city view, west side, or east side facing apartments. The answer: Individual rotating floors. Just make a choice and viola! The apartment slowly turns to face whatever you are in the mood to see that day.

Dubai, home to 1/3 of the world’s cranes, is constantly expanding. High rise buildings, hotels and skyscrapers are popping up like daisies. The latest technology and newest ideas are often used in the building process here, so it is no wonder that the revolutionary, rotating Dynamic Tower, designed by architect Dr. David Fisher, will break ground in Dubai.

The 420 meter (1,380) high tower will be constructed of 80 individual floors, which are divided into luxury apartments, small villas, offices and a hotel. Each section will rotate at various speeds, depending on the owners specifications. This amazing building will take on a life of its own as the individual sections slowly turn next to one another, constantly revolving and never looking exactly the same.

The Rotating Dynamic Tower
(Image: Rotating Tower
Technology International Ltd.)

This skyscraper isn’t just going to look pretty, either: It is meant to generate electricity thanks to the wind turbines that will spin between each floor.

The construction technique is yet another feat in itself, making the complicated design amazingly quick to build. Fisher explains that the Dynamic Tower will be “the first skyscraper to be built entirely from prefabricated parts that are custom made in a workshop, resulting in fast construction and substantial cost savings. This approach, known as the Fisher Method, also requires far less workers on the construction site. [To put things into perspective, 2000 workers are typically needed on sites as big as this, but only 80 technicians are required for the tower].” In the end, it only takes 7 days to complete each floor!

Dynamic Tower should be opening its doors as soon as 2010.

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Posted in Buildings, Energy | 1 Comment »

A Mammoth Project-Recreating the Extinct

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Most of the world’s caverns, rivers and boulders were carved out by glaciers hundreds of thousands of years ago. Massive ice sheets-often 3 kilometers thick-flowed over the earth’s crust, eroding and crushing the land underneath. Animals evolved to deal with the harsh climate, the most famous of which is arguably the woolly mammoth.

This hairy pachyderm roamed the tundra in search of grasses, oblivious to the cold, thanks to a large layer of fat, wool (hence the name) covered in course hair and sebaceous glands that secreted insulating oils through the skin. Eventually though, the ice-age passed and the glaciers melted away, leaving behind only bones as evidence of the animals that once lived in the region.

It is unclear whether hunting, climate change, or disease killed off the animals that flourished during the ice age and this has been the topic of dispute between scientists for decades. Sergey Zimov, Director of the Northeast Science Station, has gone so far as to start a Pleistocene Park in Siberia, to prove his theory that hunting eliminated all wildlife as opposed to a natural disaster being the culprit. Yakutian horses, bison, reindeer and musk ox have been brought into the area. But the biggest surprise is that this park may eventually also be home to a wooly mammoth?!

A frozen mammoth recovered from Siberia has provided researchers at the Pennsylvania State University Genome Project with a genetic sample for recreating the animal’s genome. The result is being compared to the DNA sequence of the closely related African elephant to make sure that everything is order.
post resumes below image


The Woolly Mammoth
(Photo: Wikipedia)

 

The project is discussed in detail via press release: “The researchers suspect that the full woolly-mammoth genome is over four-billion DNA bases, which they believe is the size of the modern-day African elephant’s genome. Although their dataset consists of more than four-billion DNA bases, only 3.3 billion of them - a little over the size of the human genome - currently can be assigned to the mammoth genome.  

Some of the remaining DNA bases may belong to the mammoth, but others could belong to other organisms, like bacteria and fungi, from the surrounding environment that had contaminated the sample.  The team used a draft version of the African elephant’s genome, which currently is being generated by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, to distinguish those sequences that truly belong to the mammoth from possible contaminants.”

Obviously there are still a few kinks that need working out, but the big news is that a woolly mammoth may eventually get born into the 21st century.

Reintroducing the mammoth species to the world may provide an insight to what causes extinction but not without controversy: The natural process of extinction happens for a reason (and isn’t always caused by the human factor). However, many positive thinkers are wondering if the genome project symbolizes a hope that recently extinct or endangered species may have a chance to survive thanks to the cloning process.

As of right now, the genome project has provided a greater insight to the world of an animal that has fascinated children, adults and scientists since its discovery, and this mammoth task is definitely something to keep an eye on.

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Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

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