Urine: Waste product or future power source?

Researchers in the UK are looking into the use of urine as the ‘fuel’ for microbial fuel cells (MFCs), which use bacterial cultures to break down ‘food’ to create power. MFCs are a developing technology used to power autonomous robots. Science Daily

Human Urine Is Shown to Be an Effective Agricultural Fertilizer

Researchers say our liquid waste not only promotes plant growth as well as industrial mineral fertilizers, but also would save energy used on sewage treatment. Scientific American

New Biofuels Processing Method for Mobile Facilities

Chemical engineers at Purdue University have developed a new method to process agricultural waste and other biomass into biofuels, and they are proposing the creation of mobile processing plants that would rove the Midwest to produce the fuels. Purdue University

DIY Air Conditioning

Cool off with SuChin Pak and Daniel Sieberg as they demonstrate how to create your own renewable air conditioning system. Planet Green

Farming Kicked Up Dust in West Africa

Dust from the Sahara desert can warm the atmosphere, increase the production of clouds, and prolong drought conditions. Now, researchers have found evidence that intensive farming is responsible for a significant portion of that dust. Experts are cautious, but the connection suggests that factoring in dust production could lead to better global climate models. Science

image: increased dust in the Sahel, which can spread far out to sea (inset), has been linked to agriculture. Credit: J. Leyrer/NIOZ (photo); NASA (inset)

Heat Waves Could Be Commonplace in the US by 2039

Exceptionally long heat waves and other hot events could become commonplace in the United States in the next 30 years, according to a new study by Stanford University climate scientists. "Those kinds of severe heat events also put enormous stress on major crops like corn, soybean, cotton and wine grapes, causing a significant reduction in yields," said Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford and the lead author of the study. Physorg.com

Bamboo Houses to the Rescue

Bamboo houses combat climate change, encourage economic growth and protect the poor from natural disaster. Why aren’t there more of them? Elizabeth Best, Miller-McCune

Poop Piki Piki for a Biogas System

This gadget was created to solve a real problem with biogas – getting the dung to the system quickly and efficiently. Motorbikes are the taxi’s of Africa so why not? Before I tell you about the above gadget I just want to remind you about the problems we have been having to solve to get the biogas to work at home. AfriGadget

Prepare for Hotter and Drier Southwestern US, Climate Experts Urge

Two prominent climate experts, including one from the University of Arizona, are calling for a "no-regrets" strategy for planning for a hotter and drier western North America. Their advice: use water conservatively and continue developing ways to harness energy from the sun, wind and Earth. ScienceDaily

image: NOAA

Push for 'Great Green Wall of Africa' to halt Sahara

African leaders are meeting in Chad to push the idea of planting a tree belt across Africa from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east. The Great Green Wall project is backed by the African Union and is aimed at halting the advancing Sahara Desert. BBC News

Nipton - The Most Solar Town in America

While it used to be called the Gateway to the Mojave National Preserve, Nipton is being called something entirely different these days. The small historic desert town in California has a new, greener moniker - the “Most Solar Town in America.” With a population of 20 to 250, more or less, Nipton will soon generate about 85 percent of its electricity from solar power. Energy Boom

A Desert Grows Where an Emperor Once Hid

Centuries ago, a young Chinese emperor fled to Guangdong to escape the Mongols. Now China's most populous province is facing a different sort of enemy -- itself. 13.7 Billion Years

Climate Change a Growing Humanitarian Challenge

Weather-related catastrophes brought about by climate change are increasing, the top UN humanitarian official said Sunday as he warned of the possibility of "mega-disasters." Agence France-Presse

image: vegetation anomalies in East Africa in February and March 2006, visualizing the drought in the region at this time (NASA)

UNCCD Organizes Land Day 2

The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) organized Land Day 2 on 5 June 2010, in parallel to the May/June Climate Change Talks in Bonn, Germany. The event sought to heighten the attention of policy- and decision-makers to the importance of land issues in the ongoing climate change negotiations, and to foster a dialogue that could strengthen an agreement regarding the post-2012 period for climate change policy. Climate-L.org

Food in Dry Times: How to Grow What We Need With Less Water

An old North Dakota farm has become a laboratory for growing food when water runs short. Frederick Kirschenmann, YES! Magazine

image: dl91m on es.wikipedia

Inventor Uses Biomimicry to Create Dew

In harsh and inhospitable environments, with hot days and cold nights, this invention creates a temperate and moist earthen nursery for protecting and nurturing seeds into trees with a self replenishing source of drip irrigation. Scientific American

image: Luc Viatour

Hundreds Die in Indian Heatwave

The death toll is expected to rise as India faces record temperatures of up to 122F in the hottest summer in the country since records began in the late 1800s. London Guardian

IMAGE: A train passenger quenches his thirst in Allahabad as temperatures in the Indian city soared above 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Photograph: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images

What to Do When the Earth Warms Up?

Given humankind's lackadaisical response to climate change, a museum in Hamburg is presenting fanciful visions of how humans might adapt to disaster. "Climate Capsules," an exhibition starting Friday, imagines people of the future in oceangoing cities and other artificial, self-contained environments. Spiegel Online

Additionally, Dan Bloom, founder of the Polar Cities Research Institute and the Virtual James E. Lovelock Museum of Climate Retreat Living Pod Images has been developing his concept of Polar Cities, underground cities made up of "climate retreat pods" envisioned in Norway, Russia and Alaska in the year 2121 A.D.

IMAGE: In case rising seawater swamps low-lying parts of the world, architect Vincent Callebaut has dreamt up Lilypad, a floating island for climate refugees. (credit: Vincent Callebaut Architectures)

20th Century One of Driest in Nine Centuries for Northwest Africa

Droughts in the late 20th century rival some of North Africa's major droughts of centuries past, reveals new research that peers back in time to the year 1179. The first multi-century drought reconstruction that includes Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia shows frequent and severe droughts during the 13th and 16th centuries and the latter part of the 20th century. An international team developed the tree-ring-based drought history. ScienceDaily

IMAGE: Ramzi Touchan of the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research takes a core from an Altas cedar, also known as Cedrus atlantica, in Morocco. (Credit: Photo courtesy of R. Touchan, University of Arizona)

China Building “Biggest Solar Energy Production Base” in the World Read more: China Building Clean Energy Park To Rival Silicon Valley

Construction is in the works for what China is calling “The Biggest Solar Energy Production Base in the Whole World,” or more simply, Solar Valley. The base will be a clean energy technology hub that China hopes will rival Silicon Valley in California. The ambitious plans for the park were launched by Himin Solar Energy, whose headquarters is located at the Sun-Moon Mansion, which is currently the largest solar powered office building in the world. The planned development outside of Dezhou, China is expected to cost $740 million and accommodate 100 tenants. Bridgette Meinhold, Inhabit

Schooling Fish Offer New Ideas for Wind Farming

The quest to derive energy from wind may soon be getting some help from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) fluid-dynamics expert John Dabiri -- and a school of fish. As head of Caltech's Biological Propulsion Laboratory, Dabiri studies water- and wind-energy concepts that share the theme of bioinspiration: that is, identifying energy-related processes in biological systems that may provide insight into new approaches to -- in this case -- wind energy. ScienceDaily

Path to Freedom Urban Homestead

Path to Freedom is a grassroots, family operated, original urban homestead located in the midst of Pasadena. Surrounded by urban sprawl and just a short distance from a freeway, the Dervaes Family have steadily worked at transforming this ordinary city lot into an organic and sustainable micro-farm. Path to Freedom Urban Homestead

So Far, 2010 Warmest Year on Record

Last month, NASA issued a report that predicted 2010 would likely end up as the warmest year on record, due to the combination of global warming and El Niño. Doyle Rice, USA Today

Cheap Photovoltaics Wins M.I.T. Clean Energy Prize

A team from Stanford University took the annual M.I.T. Clean Energy Prize, and $200,000, for coming up with a cheap, flexible photovoltaic electrode. Cynthia Graber, Scientific American

IMAGE: Solar cells on a photovoltaic panel at the National Solar Energy Center, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, in the Negev Desert, Israel of . (credit: David Shankbone)

From India, Six Lessons for Creating a Sustainable Local Food System

We must retrofit our corporate, globalized food system to produce healthful food for local communities. But where do we start? Last year, Tuula Rebhahn, food security advocate spent some time in India, and in this country -- which is stereotyped by the Western world as starving and impoverished -- discovered a traditional food system that might make “locavores” back home drool. Conducive

IMAGE: Women working in a plantation north of Chapora river (Goa, India). (credit: Dominik Hundhammer)

Humans Won't Survive on Half of Earth by 2300

Average global temperatures, that have been rising for a century already, due to anthropogenic climate change, won't suddenly stop rising in 2100, say Australian and US scientists in a study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Susan Kraemer, Scientific American

IMAGE: The Taklimakan Desert in northwest China is a vast region of sand desert sitting in a depression between two high, rugged mountain ranges. Seen in this true-color MODIS image from October 27, 2001, the Taklimakan's rolling sand dunes stretch out over about 125,000 square miles in the Xinjiang region of China. The desert is hemmed in to the north by the snow-covered Tien Shan Mountain range and to the south by the rugged Kunlun Mountains. At the lower left corner of the image is the Karakoram Mountain range, where the world's second highest mountain, K2, casts a blue shadow. At the bottom of the image lies the Tibetan Plateau. Desertification and shifting sand dunes are a major concern for the farmers and grazers who live at the desert's edge. (credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSF)

Algae from Wastewater

Algae is a promising source of renewable fuel, but producers often use greenhouse gas-producing fertilizers to feed their aquatic crops. Now researchers see a possibility for clean energy in dirty water. Bridget Macdonald, Living On Earth

Aerogel: The Future Material of Today

Aerogel, AKA frozen smoke, at first sounds like something out of a science fiction book, but it has been around since 1931. The product was created by Samuel Stephens Kistler in an attempt to replace the liquid in jellies with gas without causing shrinkage. The material is comprised of 90-94% air with the rest made generally of silica (a non-toxic, environmentally-friendly compound), though other common types are from alumina or carbon [Source: CNET]. This allows the gel to not only be good at insulation but also has its use in cleaning oil spills. Jasmine Greene, Care2 News

Sunlight With Cooling Factor

Although it sounds like a contradiction in terms, using the power of the sun for refrigeration is proving to be an original energy concept. In Tunisia and Morocco, research scientists are using solar energy to keep perishable foodstuffs such as milk, wine and fruit fresh. ScienceDaily

Roots Meshed in Waste Materials Could Clean Dirty Water

Plant roots enmeshed in layers of discarded materials inside upright pipes can purify dirty water from a washing machine, making it fit for growing vegetables and flushing toilets, according to horticulturists. ScienceDaily

Cactus Gum Could Make Clean Water Cheap for Millions

Forget expensive machinery, the best way to purify water could be hiding in a cactus. It turns out that an extract from the prickly pear cactus is effective at removing sediment and bacteria from dirty water. New Scientist

Design Porn: Throwing Stones in Grass Houses

Flavorpill presents images of grass houses. Flavorpill

Vertical Farming

By the year 2050, 80% of the world will live in urban areas. But how will they eat? There's one cutting edge technology that could make the difference.

Rolling fields of farmland spread out over acres and acres of land, but in urban areas, there's no place to go but up.

"The vertical farming idea is kind of a perfect storm because it's the solution for so many problems that we're facing in this country," says environmentalist Bobby Kennedy, Jr. WUSA-9

House With an Edible Wall: Runs on Sun, Wind, Rain and Wastes

Students and researchers are constructing a house to run on solar power, as well as harness wind, rain and the building's wastes. Its also features include an edible wall. ScienceDaily

Morocco to Solar-Power Nearly Half its Kingdom

Morocco will invest $9 billion upfront to build 2 Gigawatts of solar power, distributed between 5 solar power plants, by 2020. Scientific American

Solar Pebble Offers Eco-Friendly Lighting For Rural Africa, Urban London

Plus Minus Design, a team of innovative designers in the UK which look to have done some design work for the Solar Aid charity around the Solar Orb [PDF], now have another solar design idea unleashed centered around their new Plus Minus Solar mission of being “dedicated to the design and development of innovative humanitarian products for the developing world.” This one, being shown on one of the designer’s Flickr accounts, is called the Solar Pebble. EarthTechling

Recycled Paper Prefab Home Offers Shelter for Refugees and the Homeless

It’s called the Universal World House, or the Wall AG, and although it may not look like much, this eco-friendly, earthquake-proof and easy-to-assemble home could be the answer for affordable shelter in impoverished and war-torn countries. It might also be a glimmer of hope for millions of people in need of shelter in America. Greenopolis

Vietnam: Millions to Be Hit by Drought

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry's Department of Water Resources Management, warns that climate "change" and the rise in sea water will impact both the quantity and quality of the nation's water VietNam Net

Race to Introduce Genetically Modified Maize to Stave Off Climate Change Impacts in Africa

A better-yielding variety of corn that has been genetically modified is coming to sub-Saharan Africa, but can it stave off hunger? Scientific American

China: Worst Drought in Living Memory

Crops are failing and clean drinking water is inaccessible to more than 16 million people as southwest China grapples with a devastating drought. Scientific American

How Farmers in Kenya Might Adapt to Climate Change

Kenya is struggling to emerge from a drought that saw at least 10 million people facing starvation. Even in a nation dominated by an arid and semiarid climate, rising global temperatures are ending what little predictability farmers could count on in the past. Scientific American
(photo: United States Agency for International Development (USAID))

Plant Hormone Increases Cotton Yields in Drought Conditions

A naturally occurring class of plant hormones called cytokinins has been found to help increase cotton yields during drought conditions, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. ScienceDaily
(photo: David Nance)

Can Wastewater Save California's Parched Farmland?

Although three years of drought have led to below average reservoir levels and had harsh consequences for more than 25 million Californians and the farms that produce half the nation's fruits and vegetables, a new saltwater conversion technology may hold the answer for the state's parched farmland. Care2

50 Best Farm and Agriculture Blogs

Many of us don't spend too much time thinking about where our food came from, but the agricultural and farming industries form not only an important part of our economy, but of our daily lives as well. Through these blogs, agricultural sciences students, farmers and those just plain interested in learning more can find a wealth of resources at their fingertips including news, scientific publications and much more. Online Degrees

Environmental Refugees and Global Warming

Climate change and environmental degradation are likely to trigger increased migration in Sub-Saharan Africa with potentially devastating effects on the hundreds of millions of especially poor people, according to a paper in the International Journal of Global Warming.

Environmental changes are especially pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), explain Ulrike Grote of the Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade, at the Leibniz University of Hannover, and Koko Warner of the United Nations University Institute of Environmental and Human Change in Bonn, Germany. Today, degradation is a serious problem for 32 countries in Africa, and a third of a billion people already face water scarcity. ScienceDaily

10 Predictions for the Future of the Home

Along with food, clothing, water, and air, one of the very basic necessities of living ever has been and ever shall be the home. As a fundamental aspect of life itself, shelter understandably must undergo changes both minor and major in order to cozily accommodate mankind’s perpetually shifting needs and wants. Take a peek at current technologies and studies that may serve as veritable crystal balls for what may be in store for future construction projects. Keep in mind, of course, that these are merely predictions and not steadfast declarations. Time will tell whether or not they eventually come to bear fruit or current technologies veer humanity on an entirely unexpected course altogether. Construction Management Degree

Storing megawatts: Liquid-metal batteries and electricity

Liquid-metal batteries could mean big things for storing electricity as well as for generating it from renewable but intermittent resources such as solar and wind, which rely on storage when the sun don't shine or the wind dies. Scientific American
(photo: David Gilooly)

Colorful Approach to Solar Energy

An artist's representation shows how a cost-effective solar concentrator could help make existing solar panels more efficient. The dye-based luminescent solar concentrator functions without the use of tracking or cooling systems, greatly reducing the overall cost compared to other concentrator technology. Dye molecules coated on glass absorb sunlight, and reemit it at a different wavelength. The light is trapped and transported within the glass until it is captured by solar cells at the edge. Some light passes through the concentrator, and is absorbed by lower voltage solar cells underneath. [Note: Graphic is not to scale.] National Science Foundation

image: Nicolle Rager Fuller, NSF

Will Politics Slow the Wind?

Not many years ago, there wasn't enough wind power coming from the Great Plains to worry about. Now there is, and lots of people are worrying.

A group of mostly East Coast utility companies calling itself the Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy fears that the prime conditions in the Great Plains will make the region's wind power too cheap for its members to compete with, unless developers there are made to pay the costs of moving wind power eastward. Peter Behr/Scientific American

image: kwerdenker

Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront

March 24–October 11, 2010

MoMA and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center joined forces to address one of the most urgent challenges facing the nation’s largest city: sea-level rise resulting from global climate change. Though the national debate on infrastructure is currently focused on “shovel-ready” projects that will stimulate the economy, we now have an important opportunity to foster new research and fresh thinking about the use of New York City's harbor and coastline. As in past economic recessions, construction has slowed dramatically in New York, and much of the city’s remarkable pool of architectural talent is available to focus on innovation.

An architects-in-residence program at P.S.1 (November 16, 2009–January 8, 2010) brings together five interdisciplinary teams, including Architecture Research Office (ARO), to re-envision the coastlines of New York and New Jersey around New York Harbor and to imagine new ways to occupy the harbor itself with adaptive “soft” infrastructures that are sympathetic to the needs of a sound ecology. These creative solutions are intended to dramatically change our relationship to one of the city’s great open spaces.

This installation presents the proposals developed during the architects-in-residence program, including a wide array of models, drawings, and analytical materials.

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Organized by Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design. The exhibition is made possible by The Rockefeller Foundation and is the first of five exhibitions in the series Issues in Contemporary Architecture, supported by Andre Singer. Rising Currents @ MoMA

image: Aerial view of Palisade Bay. Courtesy Palisade Bay Team: Guy Nordenson and Associates, Catherine Seavitt Studio, Architecture Research Office