“Scarcity is not a result of us not having enough, it is because of the way we use it.” So says Martin Liefhebber, who was doing green architecture before there was a name for it; 12 years ago he designed Toronto’s Healthy House that remains cutting edge; we have also covered his Wilson House. He was at the 2008 Heritage Conservation conference decrying the loss of a midcentury modern hospital in Toronto, calculating its embodied energy and the cost of the demolit…
Original post by By ELAINE GLUSAC
Image courtesy of Stig Nygaard via flickr A flashpoint of international contention in recent months, the race to lay claim to the Arctic’s resources finally came to a head this past week when Greenland hosted a meeting between the five Arctic nations to resolve the dispute, The Guardian’s Julian Borger reports. Lambasted as a “carve-up”deal by critics for barring several nations and environmental groups from participating, the U.S., Norway, Russia, Denmark and Canada agreed to abide by the 
Original post by By ELAINE GLUSAC
![]()
We know the hunt for better methods of removing CO2 from the atmosphere has been on for some time now. But a group from Columbia University in the U.S. believes that they have a novel device, which can grab a tonne of carbon dioxide from the air every day in a device that will fit inside a trans-modal shipping container. The technology doesn’t come at a knock down price - they estimate a unit will cost £100,000 - but we’re sure by the time the Far East has a chance to “rob-n-duplicate” it and engineer out the cost, they could become a useful tool in the fight against climate change.
The group responsible is quick to highlght that there is no such thing as a “magic bullet,” but with reports from Mauna Loa that the CO2 concentration in our air has crossed 387ppm (40% higher than before the great industrial revolution, where profligate use of coal turned the wheels of industry), the need for solutions is highlighted.
The team feels they can build a protoype within two years that would successfully capture a ton of CO2 from the air per day - the equivallent of a passenger flying form New York to London. But if a Boeing 747-400 accommodating 524 passengers in a typical two class layout, is flying from New York to London with each passenger responsible for releasing a ton of CO2 into the atmosphere, it would take a whole lot of “magic machines” to off-set the flight. And let’s not forget how much CO2 is generated while waiting on the runway.
Moral: Don’t stop getting them energy saving lightbulbs…
While it’s an exciting development, we at EcoGeek won’t be giving up the day-job - climate change is far from solved; however, if this technology can be scaled up, made cheap and stamped out cookie cutter style all over the world, it could be another tool in our armory in the ‘War on Climate Change’…. did I sound like G.W.B for a minute there?
…and you can click here for the worldwide patent for the device.
Via The Guardian
Original post by Gavin D.J. Harper
The mounting number of foreclosures is taking a toll on condo owners associations. Many condo owners are now facing higher association fees and doing some of the building maintenance work themselves as more and more of their fellow residents default. This New York Times article calls the development “collateral damage” in the housing bust. Compounding the problem is the fact that new condo units are being added to an already flooded market. One researcher predicts the condo market will not …
Original post by blogs@bobvila.com (Dave)
This sounds too good to be true: a machine that can vacuum the equivalent of a ton of atmospheric carbon dioxide a day in a cost-effective way. We’ve seen our fair share of CO2 “sucking” devices in the past — everything from modified plastic membranes to industrial-scale paper mill “scrubbers” — but they’ve typically tended toward the expensive or unwieldy. So how does this particular devic…
Original post by Gavin D.J. Harper