Green buildings must go beyond conserving energy ||

Studies show that LEED buildings are typically 30 percent more efficient than other buildings and have other benefits like reduced air pollution indoors. And at least one study suggests people working in LEED buildings are more productive, according to Delmas. “There is an increase in rent for those that have LEED buildings—about 50 cents per square foot annually,” says Magali Delmas.

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THE ROLE OF BUILDINGS AND WHOLE BUILDING DESIGN ||

Buildings are deceptively complex. At their best, they connect us with the past and represent the greatest legacy for the future. They provide shelter, encourage productivity, embody our culture, and certainly play an important part in life on the planet. In fact, the role of buildings is constantly changing. Buildings today are life support systems, communication and data terminals, centers of education, justice, and community, and so much more. They are incredibly expensive to build and maintain and must constantly be adjusted to function effectively over their life cycle.  

How Downtown L.A. Finally Arrived ||

The emergence of Downtown Los Angeles, dubbed DTLA, is no news flash: The area has been on the rise since the late 1990s. But that was the start of a long uphill climb. By 2009, it had already undergone the transition from bleak badlands to vibrant cultural mecca, thanks to early pioneers like the L.A. Live entertainment complex and the Standard Hotel.  Since then, a slew of new hotels, restaurants, and museums have joined, and the neighborhood is showing no sign of slowing down.

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How solar power can protect the US military from threats to the electric grid ||

The first threat to the electricity grid comes from nature. Severe weather disasters resulting in power outages cause between US$25 billion and $70 billion in the U.S. each year – and that’s average years, not those including increasingly frequent major storms, like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Without electricity from civilian power plants, the most advanced military in world history could be crippled. The U.S. Department of Energy has begged for new authority to defend against weaknesses in the grid in a nearly 500-page comprehensive study issued in January 2017 warning that it’s only a matter of time before the grid fails, due to disaster or attack. A new study reveals the three ways American military bases’ electrical power sources are threatened, and shows how the U.S. military could take advantage of solar power to significantly improve national security.

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Workplace stress costs American businesses up to $190 billion every year in healthcare alone ||

Incorporating nature into the workplace can take many different forms including living green walls, indoor trees and planter boxes. Just being able to see nature has been shown to increase both self-esteem and mood, particularly among younger people.                    
[Attention and concentration is not the same thing. Concentration is exclusion while attention excludes nothing] 
 ~Attention restoration theory suggests that looking at nature can cause the brain to shift into a different mode of processing. Researchers studied brain scans of people who were randomly assigned to look at pictures of a green meadow or a concrete roof for 40 seconds. Even this brief glimpse of nature was enough to shift the brain into a more relaxed mode.

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How a Hydraulic Boardwalk Is Giving Istanbul Its Waterfront Back ...

For all their vaunted proximity to the seas that have shaped their ancient city, locals feel the absence of nature keenly in Istanbul. A master plan by Gensler and U.S.-based design firm Dror will reintegrate Istanbul's waterfront within the ancient city's urban fabric for the first time in centuries.

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Tour Venice with a Virtual Time Machine |

A thousand years of Venetian records, maps and images could digitally reconstruct this city's deep history, giving researchers insight into urban life, from disease patterns to trade trends.

Machine-learning project will analyse 1,000 years of maps and manuscripts from the floating city's golden age. The ‘time machine’ reconstructs ancient Venice social networks. PDF File

PLASMONICS || NEW LIGHT SOURCES

The emerging field of plasmonics may usher in new clean & sustainable technologies & desalination systems to avert a future global water crisis. Plasmonic materials contain features, patterns & elements that enable unprecedented control of light by harnessing clouds of electrons called surface plasmons. The name plasmon derives from the physical plasma as a state of matter in which the atoms are ionized.

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With More Bang for the Buck, Renewables Providing Most New Power ||

Renewables were the biggest new source of electricity last year as the cost of building new wind and solar farms fell. Clean energy provided 55 percent of all new capacity added worldwide, the most ever, and total investment was about double the amount for generators driven by fossil fuels, according to a report published Thursday by UN Environment, the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre and Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Investment in clean power dropped 23 percent from 2015 to $241.6 billion, meaning that the new capacity installed came at a lower price. The average capital expenditure for a megawatt of wind and solar fell more than 10 percent, according to the study, and they are some of the cheapest sources of electricity in some countries. “Renewables are much more competitive than they were five years ago,” Angus McCrone, chief editor at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in an interview. “In an increasing number of places, wind and solar may be the cheapest option.”

Read More At Bloomberg:

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. 

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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.

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'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.

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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."

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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. 



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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.

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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.
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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.
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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.

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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.  
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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.
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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.

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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.

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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 —

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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.

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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.
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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.

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