Innovations In Building Intelligent Cities ||

An artistic rendition of the Thermoheliodome, a pavillion that cools itself via evaporation using mirrored panels that reflect heat toward water-cooled pipes. It is one of several energy-saving concepts from Forrest Meggers, who is jointly appointed in Princeton’s School of Architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Cities sprawl and tangle, juxtaposing ancient public squares and glistening skyscrapers. They provide homes for half of humanity, and economic and cultural centers for the rest. 

 READ MORE: 

The Sustainable SITES Initiative |

Land is a crucial component of the built environment and can be planned, designed, developed and maintained to protect and enhance the benefits we derive from healthy functioning landscapes. SITES helps create ecologically resilient communities and benefits the environment, property owners, and local and regional communities and economies. Administered by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), SITES offers a comprehensive rating system designed to distinguish sustainable landscapes, measure their performance and elevate their value. SITES certification is for development projects located on sites with or without buildings—ranging from national parks to corporate campuses, streetscapes to homes, and more.

READ MORE |

'Whole Building' Design | Balancing Security, Safety And Sustainability Objectives

The gateway to up-to-date information on integrated 'whole building' design techniques and technologies. The goal of 'Whole Building' Design is to create a successful high-performance building by applying an integrated design and team approach to the project during the planning and programming phases.

Seeing Justice in Sustainable Light:

The new Alfred A. Arraj United States Courthouse in Denver, Colorado serves as a model for designs that balances openness, security, and sustainability. The building showcases innovative sustainable strategies, such as photovoltaic cells and daylighting using light shelves, while also being one of the first U.S. courthouses to meet the new "GSA Security Design Criteria" standards.

The lighting design provides a dramatic improvement in energy conservation and environmental performance over a conventionally designed courthouse. Most importantly, it provides a healthy, safe and productive working environment in courtrooms.

Read More:

Photosystem II molecule, which plays a central role in photosynthesis |

Using ultrafast imaging of moving energy in photosynthesis, scientists have determined the speed of crucial processes for the first time. This will help scientists understand how nature has perfected the process of photosynthesis, and how this might be imitated to produce fuels by artificial photosynthesis.     Read More |

 FUEL FOR LIFE

Coral Walls 'Mesophotic Reefs' Reveal New Type of Photosynthesis |

Now, researchers have discovered that the corals that inhabit this "Mesophotic zone" have a never-before-seen adaptation that enables them to eke out enough light energy to survive. The photosynthetic algae that live on and power these corals have unusual cellular "machinery" that enables them to conduct photosynthesis more efficiently than species that live at shallower depths ...             READ MORE

Researchers discover feedback mechanism in photosynthesis that protects plants from damage by light |

This new knowledge could have important repercussions on the
quest to improve photosynthesis for more sustainable agriculture |

Textbook: Bicarbonate is formed when carbon dioxide dissolves in water, so its concentration
is related to the amount of carbon dioxide in the local environment. As well as low carbon dioxide levels causing electrons to build up and trigger the release of bicarbonate, the study also suggests the possibility that the level of carbon dioxide itself in the local leaf environment could
impact on the bicarbonate binding. "This is such an intuitive feedback mechanism at the heart of biology that I think it will go into school textbooks," said lead author, Professor Bill
Rutherford FRS from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial.

"Now that we understand this new mechanism in the lab, the next step is to define when it kicks in out there in the field - not to mention the forest, greenhouse, plant pot, sea, lake and pond."

Read More:

Signs suggest recent dramatic drop in price for solar panels:

Factors that have led to the low price quotes include incentives for work in China and the high number of sunny days typically found in Dubai, but industry analysts have suggested that the lower prices are a signal that prices for solar panels are significantly lower than they have ever been & some have suggested that the drop is likely to continue. 



READ MORE |

The irony of the Anthropocene |

It has become increasingly commonplace to suggest that humans now dominate the planet. Perhaps the Anthropocene’s greatest challenge will be forcing us to think beyond our strictly human needs and to understand those of the ecological systems in which we are embedded. It may just be that our lives depend upon it.

Read More |

How warmer seas are changing our planet |

September 20, 2016
Source: University of Sheffield
Professor Grant Bigg, from the University's Department of Geography: "Many people may associate warmer seas with the pleasant weather conditions they're used to experiencing while on holiday, but the fact of the matter is that an increase in sea temperatures is having a huge impact on the world's weather.
"Our study has shown that severe hurricanes, storm surges, melting ice in the Arctic region and changes to El Niño are all being caused by sea temperatures rising across the planet. These are all things that can have a devastating impact on the way we live our lives.         Read More |

Researchers create the first practical design for photoelectrochemical water splitting |

Date: September 9, 2016
Source: Forschungszentrum Juelich

Scientists from Forschungszentrum Juelich research institute have developed the first complete and compact design for an artificial photosynthesis facility. This is a decisive step towards applying the technology.

Massive wind harvesting project to go up in Iowa |

September 2, 2016
 Iowa is currently the state with the second-largest production of wind-powered electricity (generating 15 MWh) behind only Texas, which generates 36 MWh. In Iowa, that accounts for a leading 31.3 percent of all electricity consumed.
 Unique to the project is a promise made by Des Moines-based MidAmerican that the installation costs of the turbines will not affect consumer energy bills, nor will the state be asked to pay for them—instead, MidAmerican will be footing the $3.6 billion cost itself. It is a utility company offering electricity and natural gas to customers in Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois and of course, Iowa. The company has set a goal of getting the state off coal completely and expects this new project to advance that goal—they project that once the project is fully operational, and other projects go forward as well, fully 85 percent of the electricity used in Iowa will come from wind powered turbines by 2020.

Refocusing the full potential of science & technology for achieving sustainability goals |

Harnessing the full potential of science and technology to promote sustainable development requires that more researchers target a significant portion of their efforts on sustainability problems, and that those efforts become more effective in producing knowledge that is truly useful - and used - for achieving sustainability goals.  Read More:

Water plays a major role for our planet, not only at the surface, but in the atmosphere too |

Water plays a major role for our planet not only in its liquid form at the surface. In the atmosphere too, it considerably affects our lives as well as weather and climate. Clouds and rainfall are one example. Water vapor, the gaseous form of water, also plays a prominent role on Earth. It is the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, without it the Earth would be a frozen planet.
 ~This knowledge is also of paramount importance for the general climate research. The temperature of the tropopause decides on the input of water vapor into the stratosphere: The higher the water vapor content in the stratosphere; the higher the surface temperatures increase. Anthropogenic climate change also has an effect on the temperature of the tropopause, and this effect could become more evident in the coming decades.
Read More:

An unprecedented study combining projections of future climate |

Trees can slow the warming of our planet by taking carbon out of the air, but only if they’re healthy:

Predicting long-term trends in forest growth requires accurate characterization of how the relationship between forest productivity and climatic stress varies across climatic regimes. Using a network of over two million tree-ring observations spanning North America and a space-for-time substitution methodology, we forecast climate impacts on future forest growth. We explored differing scenarios of increased water-use efficiency (WUE) due to CO2-fertilisation, which we simulated as increased effective precipitation. In our forecasts: (1) climate change negatively impacted forest growth rates in the interior west and positively impacted forest growth along the western, southeastern and northeastern coasts; (2) shifting climate sensitivities offset positive effects of warming on high-latitude forests, leaving no evidence for continued ‘boreal greening’; and (3) it took a 72% WUE enhancement to compensate for continentally averaged growth declines under RCP 8.5. Our results highlight the importance of locally adapted forest management strategies to handle regional differences in growth responses to climate change.

AAAS.org

Newsweek

There is intense interest in creating artificial photosynthesis as an alternative energy source |

Identification of a gene needed to expand light harvesting in photosynthesis into the far-red-light spectrum provides clues to the development of oxygen-producing photosynthesis, an evolutionary advance that changed the history of life on Earth. “Knowledge of how photosynthesis evolved could empower scientists to design better ways to use light energy for the benefit of humankind,” said Donald A. Bryant, the Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University and the leader of the research team that made the discovery.
  READ MORE:

Artificial photosynthesis is considered a promising element of a sustainable future energy supply |

Chemists from the Universities of Basel and Zurich have come one step closer to generating energy from sunlight: for the first time, they were able to reproduce one of the crucial phases of natural photosynthesis with artificial molecules.

READ MORE |

Energy, Climate And Society |

Many technical fixes for this problem have been explored, but these studies often rely on stylized assumptions about the ways individuals, communities, countries and companies behave. An integrated approach that engages the social sciences alongside the physical and natural sciences and engineering will be necessary if society is to clean up energy production, cut consumption and ensure that humans interact with energy systems in a sustainable way.

Fracking’s Total Environmental Impact Is Staggering, Report Finds |

The body of evidence is growing that fracking is not only bad for the global climate, it is also dangerous for local communities. And affected communities are growing in number. The report, released Thursday, details the sheer amount of water contamination, air pollution, climate impacts, and chemical use in fracking in the United States. “For the past decade, fracking has been a nightmare for our drinking water, our open spaces, and our climate,” Rachel Richardson, a co-author of the paper from Environment America, told ThinkProgress.

Fracking, a form of extraction that injects large volumes of chemical-laced water into shale, releasing pockets of oil and gas, has been on the rise in the United States for the past decade, and the sheer numbers are staggering.  
Read More:

Discovering more efficient storage of green energy |

“Today on a solar farm or a wind farm, storage is typically provided with batteries. But batteries are expensive, and can typically only store a fixed amount of energy,” says Sargent. “That’s why discovering a more efficient and highly scalable means of storing energy generated by renewables is one of the grand challenges in this field.”

This device efficiently splits water into its component elements, hydrogen and oxygen, storing energy as H2. The key is a new catalyst based on abundant metals tungsten, iron and cobalt, that is three times more efficient than the current state-of-the-art.

  Read more at:

Desert cactus purifies contaminated water for aquaculture, drinking and more |

Farm-grown fish are an important source of food with significant and worldwide societal and economic benefits, but the fish that come from these recirculating systems can have unpleasant tastes and odors. To clean contaminated water for farmed fish, drinking and other uses, scientists are now turning to an unlikely source—the mucilage of cacti.
  READ MORE:

School buildings designed as 'teaching green' can lead to better environmental education |

The energy used to create electricity to power lights, heating and air conditioning, and appliances within buildings causes nearly 50 percent of all fossil fuel emissions in the United States. Educating children about the importance of having environmentally friendly, or "green," buildings could be a key factor in whether they grow to up to own and operate buildings that are green. Read more

Severe drought no longer caused just by nature |

Scientists at the University of Birmingham are calling on drought researchers and managers around the world to consider both human activity and natural phenomena in their battle to preserve increasingly scarce global water supplies. The experts say that severe droughts experienced recently in countries such as China, Brazil and the United States can no longer be seen as purely natural hazards. Changes to the way people use the water and the landscape contribute to extreme water shortages. Read More:

Traces of the First Stars in the Universe Possibly Found

"The reason why we care [about the first stars] is intricately related
 with the air we're breathing right now," study co-author John O'Meara,

 of Saint Michael's College in Vermont, said last week at a press  conference at the 227th Meeting of the American Astronomical  Society in Kissimmee, Florida.
 "Early on in the universe, we did not have
 heavy elements [such as oxygen] at all."                  
  Read More|

Living in the Anthropocene |

The era known as the Industrial Revolution and the changes that occurred during this period, were from 1760 to 1850. While the first industrial revolution was centered on iron, steam technologies and textile production, the second industrial revolution called "The Age of Synergy" in which most of the great innovations were developed, happened during the period of 1867 to 1914. It revolved around steel, railroads, electricity, and chemicals. We are, in all probability, in a repetitive cycle of such motions. It doesn’t happen in one day, one year or even ten years. It just doesn’t happen overnight. The first industrial revolution lasted for about 90 years.
 Original Wordpress Post 

Since the time of the Industrial Revolution, 
what impact has humanity had on ecosystems

Taking land out of food production and putting it into climate regulation |

New research into the potential for sparing land from food production to balance greenhouse gas emissions has shown that emissions from the UK farming industry could be largely offset by 2050.

READ MORE:

In the quest for sustainable alternative energy and fuel sources |

Through photosynthesis, plants convert sunlight, water, and CO2 into sugars, multicarbon molecules that fuel cellular processes. CO2 is thus both the precursor

to the fossil fuels that are central to modern life as well as the by-product of burning those fuels. The ability to generate synthetic liquid fuels from stable, oxygenated carbon precursors such as CO2 and carbon monoxide (CO) is reminiscent of photosynthesis in nature and is a transformation that is desirable in artificial systems. In the quest for sustainable alternative energy and fuel sources, one viable solution may be the conversion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) into liquid fuels.

Read more:

Scientists measure the smallest indivisible amount of matter which retains identity .. during reactions |

For the first time, scientists have accomplished a feat long thought impossible — they have measured the energy of incredibly short-lived arrangements of atoms that occur as chemical reactions are happening. The chemical reactions responsible for life, death and everything in between involve molecules transforming from one kind to another —

READ MORE:

Fourteen Passionate Young Leaders Inspiring a Just and Thriving Planet |

Project Green Challenge engages youth by uniting them in a commitment to cultivate a healthy, just and thriving planet. PGC is comprised of 30 sustainability-themed challenges, focused on topics relevant to our daily lives including food, zero waste, fair trade, body and non-genetically-modified organisms (GMOs).

Here are some profound words from an incredible group of young and mobilized leaders:

"My peers, seeing me make changes in my own lifestyle, want to join me in being sustainable. We care about preserving the Earth.” —Kendra, Jericho High School, Jericho, NY Read More --->

A Perfect Storm | Climate Change & National Security

Paris (AFP) - Violence has cast a long shadow over a climate summit opening in Paris on Monday, two weeks after 130 people were killed in a coordinated jihadist onslaught on the French capital. As more than 150 world leaders prepared to meet under heightened security, analysts warned of an increasingly war-torn future facing humanity if they fail to limit global warming. Read More Climate change root cause of Syrian war: Prince Charles

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Prince Charles has pointed to the world's failure to tackle climate change as a root cause of the civil war in Syria, terrorism and the consequent refugee crisis engulfing Europe | Continue Reading

Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have created analog and digital electronics circuits inside living plants |

The article featured in the journal Science Advances demonstrates wires, digital logic, and even displays elements - fabricated inside the plants - that could develop new applications for organic electronics and new tools in plant science. Early efforts to introduce electronics in plants were attempted by Assistant Professor Daniel Simon, leader of the LOE's bioelectronics team, and Professor Xavier Crispin, leader of the LOE's solid-state device team, but a lack of funding from skeptical investors halted these projects. Thanks to independent research money from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in 2012, Professor Berggren was able to assemble a team of researchers to reboot the project.

Read More |

Photosynthetic Power Cells May Be the Green Energy Source for the Next Generation |

A team of researchers from the Optical Bio Microsystem lab at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, have invented and developed micro-photosynthetic cell technology that can harness electrical power from the photosynthesis and respiration of blue-green algae. This novel, scalable technology enables economical ways of generating clean energy, and may be the superlative, carbon-free power source of the future .. 

                                    Can scientists hack photosynthesis?

Oct 7, 2015 | Forests and oceans naturally take carbon out of the air, but CNN's Rachel Crane finds engineers are trying to copy Mother Nature's work.

Accelerated Photosynthesis

Price of solar energy in the U.S. has fallen to 5¢/kWh |

Solar energy pricing is at an all-time low, according to a new report released by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Driven by lower installed costs, improved project performance, and a race to build projects ahead of a reduction in a key federal incentive, utility-scale solar project developers have been negotiating power sales agreements with utilities at prices averaging just 5¢/kWh.                              Read More: 

These prices reflect receipt of the 30% federal investment tax credit, which is scheduled to decline to 10% after 2016, and would be higher if not for that incentive. By comparison, average wholesale electricity prices across the United States ranged from 3 to 6 cents/kWh in 2014, depending on the region.

A new NASA study shows that trees and plant-life are essential to keeping our cities cool |

As our cities grow, and green spaces are replaced with more impervious surfaces, their temperatures rise too.  The answer is pretty straightforward: more trees and plants means cooler cities. And more trees also mean a more pleasant city environment for those living there.
Read More |

Solving mysteries of the interstellar medium |

Date:   August  2015
This artist's conception symbolically represents complex organic molecules, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, seen in the early universe. These large molecules, comprised of carbon and hydrogen, are among the building blocks of life. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is the first telescope to see polycyclic aromatic nitrogen heterocycles so early ... 10 billion years further back in time than seen previously.  

Despite intense research efforts over the last few decades, an assignment of the DIBs has remained elusive, although indications exist that they may arise from the presence of large hydrocarbon molecules in interstellar space. Recent experiments lend novel credibility to this hypothesis.

Read More |

Price of wind energy in the United States is at an all-time low, averaging under 2. 5¢/kwh

Date:

August  2015

Source:

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Summary:

Wind energy pricing is at an all-time low, according to a new report. The prices offered by wind projects to utility purchasers averaged under 2.5¢/kWh for projects negotiating contracts in 2014, spurring demand for wind energy.

Read More:

In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, consumers pay as much as 20-50 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The global average is close to 10 cents.

Redesigning photosynthesis to sustainably meet global food and bioenergy demand |

Can scientists hack photosynthesis?   

The world’s crop productivity is stagnating whereas population growth, rising affluence, and mandates for biofuels put increasing demands on agriculture. Meanwhile, demand for increasing cropland competes with equally crucial global sustainability and environmental protection needs. Addressing this looming agricultural crisis will be one of our greatest scientific challenges in the coming decades ... Abstract
Full Text

Pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere [artificial air capture] might not be prudent.

Effects of Changing the Carbon Cycle | The Earth Observatory:    

Terrestrial Uptake from the Atmosphere | University Corporation for Atmospheric Research: 

                                                    Photosynthesis Accelerated 

Researchers observe and control light wakes for the first time |

For the first time, Harvard researchers have created similar wakes of light-like waves moving on a metallic surface, called surface plasmons, and demonstrated that they can be controlled and steered. The discovery, published today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, was made in the lab of Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). Read More :

Sunlight Striking Earth’s Surface in One Hour Delivers Enough Energy to Power World Economy for the Entire Year

In April 1954, top scientists gathered in Washington, D.C., to hear something new: voice and music broadcast by a solar-powered radio transmitter. Scientists at Bell Labs in New Jersey were demonstrating their invention, the first practical solar cell, which was made of silicon. This breakthrough paved the way for the solar revolution taking place today on rooftops and in massive ground-mounted solar farms around the world. Read More |

As solar power installations spread, it is worth remembering a point often made in the energy literature to convey the sheer scale of the solar resource: The sunlight striking the Earth’s surface in just one hour delivers enough energy to power the world economy for one year.

Washington, DC claims crown of greenest U.S. city |

With its installation of 1.2 million square feet of green roofs in 2014, Washington, DC can quite literally claim the crown of greenest U.S. city.

This is according to a new report from the nonprofit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC), which has ranked the top ten North American metropolitan regions that have installed the most square footage of green roofs last year. Green roofs aren’t just good for the environment. A new study from the University of Melbourne found that observing nature for 40 seconds or more can prominently increase attention and productivity levels.
              Read More |

Closing in on the secrets of plant photosynthesis |

The new technique essentially has brought the picture into sharper focus. What the technicians see is a system in which "antenna" proteins capture light and feed them into a kind of molecular reactor. One difficulty with fully understanding the process is that, unlike the parts of a solar panel, which are rigid and designed to last, the crucial proteins in the photosystem of a plant are dynamic, and don't last very long before they fall apart. The plant then regenerates these structures. "Even though nature has had millions of years to develop and optimize photosynthesis, there are still outstanding and unknown questions about how photosynthesis operates. It's truly a scientific challenge."

Read More |

4 Reasons Climate Change Affects National Security |

In a new White House report, President Obama makes a powerful case that 

climate change has far-reaching national security implications.

Read More |

SolaRoad cycle path electricity yield exceeds expectations |

Looking to the future, TNO project manager Wim ven der Poel said, "Using this energy to charge electric cars while they are driving over the road is a beautiful dream, which might become reality. SolaRoad acts as a step towards a closed ecosystem. From mobility through energy back to mobility – which makes the circle complete." Read More |

Vatican Climate Change Summit to Frame Action as Moral Imperative

Pope Francis urges action on climate change | 

Rare meeting between scientists and representatives from all major religions will highlight moral duty to combat climate change |

Pope Francis has already said that he believes global warming is mostly man-made and that a Christian who does not protect God’s creation “is a Christian who does not care about the work of God”. He has also linked environmental exploitation to social and economic inequality, saying: “An economic system centred on the god of money needs to plunder nature to sustain the frenetic rhythm of consumption that is inherent to it.” The summit – which will include speakers and representatives from all major religions – has brought about a rare meeting of minds between scientists and religious officials on climate change, even if they frame their arguments in different ways.
Read More |

Pope Francis thanks US nuns after 'radical' claim | 
Islamic leaders join growing religious outcry over climate change |
Eastern Orthodox, Anglican Spiritual Leaders Join Pope Francis Climate Change Appeal In New York Times Op-Ed
The New Yorker | Pope Francis declares the climate to be “a common good, belonging to all and meant for all” |
The Pope’s Five Most Important Environmental Arguments ---->
Pope Francis: ‘If We Destroy Creation, Creation Will Destroy Us’ |

Climate Denial Is Immoral, Says Head of U.S. Episcopal Church | The highest ranking woman in the Anglican communion Katharine Jefferts Schori has said climate denial is a “blind” and immoral position which rejects God’s gift of knowledge.

Photosynthesis has unique isotopic signature |

Photosynthesis leaves behind a unique calling card, a chemical signature that is spelled out with stable oxygen isotopes, according to a new study in Science. The findings suggest that similar isotopic signatures could exist for many biological processes, including some that are difficult to observe with current tools.

"We've found a new type of biosignature," said co-lead author Laurence Yeung, an assistant professor of Earth science at Rice University. "We show that plants and plankton impart this type of biosignature on the oxygen they produce during photosynthesis. "Yeung, who joined Rice in January, conducted the study with colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles. Isotopes are versions of an element that differ in their atomic weights. For example, most oxygen atoms contain eight protons and eight neutrons and are represented by the symbol O-16. More than 99.9 percent of Earth's oxygen is O-16, but two heavier oxygen isotopes exist in trace amounts: O-17, which contains one extra neutron, and O-18, which has two extra.

"Looking at oxygen through the lens of clumped isotopes will give us a lot of new information about how oxygen is made and consumed by plants," said study co-lead author Jeanine Ash, a graduate student at UCLA. "I'm very excited about what this approach holds for the future." Read More | Isotopes of oxygen | There are three stable isotopes of oxygen that lead to oxygen (O)
having a standard atomic mass of 15.9994(3) u. Also 10 unstable isotopes have been characterized.
Using stable isotopic analysis, Laurence Yeung, Jeanine Ash, and Edward Young discovered that plants and plankton impart a unique biosignature on the oxygen they produce during photosynthesis. Credit: Doug Rumble Continue reading |