January 30, 2009 Agriculture, having gone through its own Green Revolution that increased yield and growing efficiency to unprecedented levels, still uses a massive amount of inputs to produce its abundant harvest. Oil-based fertilizers, gas-guzzling tractors, and vast irrigation needs- the very inputs that made the agricultural green revolution possible – are now being questioned. [...]
Archive for January, 2009
Zeba: Making Agriculture Truly Green
January 31st, 2009 
2ndgreenrevolution 
Posted in Justin Manger, Sustainable Development 
Tags: Agriculture, Water Conservation, Zeba 
No Comments »Book Review: Peter Senge’s The Necessary Revolution
January 30th, 2009 Eric Wilson In his 2008 book, Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World, Senge and his team at the Society for Organizational Learning, discuss the importance of creating a sustainable world. Several large businesses, including GE, Nike, Alcoa, Costco and Dupont, among others, partnered with non-profits to develop and in [...]
Posted in Eric Wilson, Sustainable Development Tags: Book Review, GE, Necessary Revolution No Comments »GE, Recession, and Opportunity
January 30th, 2009 2ndgreenrevolution Jeff Immelt, the Chief Executive of GE, and Jonathan Lash, President of the World Resources Institute, co-wrote an opinion piece that appeared in the Financial Times yesterday. They mentioned that 3 years ago they decided to start on a quest for what they called “the challenge to develop clean energy.” In 3 short years, various [...]
Posted in Justin Manger, President Obama, Renewable Energy Tags: Clean Energy, GE, Renewable Energy No Comments »Solar Panels, Efficiency and the Faltering Economy
January 29th, 2009 admin As reported recently in both USA Today and The New York Times, the downturn in the economy has caused a recent increase in manufacturers’ inventory of solar panels. According to USA Today’s story, prices have decreased 15% for the materials, with labor costs remaining unchanged. Projections include a further 20% drop in prices. At a [...]
Electricity Management and the Smart Grid
January 28th, 2009 2ndgreenrevolution Networking giant Cisco Systems has entered the electricity management sector with its new software, EnergyWise. This program will eventually help monitor the consumption of electricity by various sources from IP addresses to building systems, including heating and cooling. Much of the work that has been undertaken in “greening the grid” or making a “smart grid” [...]
The Masdar Initiative: Abu Dhabi’s Zero-Waste City?
January 28th, 2009 admin One of the seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) along the Persian Gulf, Abu Dhabi has grown prosperous through oil and gas production. While not as well known as Dubai, UAE’s headline-grabbing desert boomtown building palm shaped islands visible from space, Abu Dhabi has shown that it can think big. In [...]
IRENA: International Renewable Energy Agency
January 28th, 2009 2ndgreenrevolution Monday marked the beginning of a new era. The first international consortium of countries focused on finding renewable, sustainable energy options, IRENA, was formed in Bonn, Germany. Much like the world-renowned CERN, this organization aims to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing our global society. The International Renewable Energy Agency has the stated [...]
The Promise of Electric Cars
January 27th, 2009 Justin Manger The Tesla Roadster is a beautiful car. It turns heads, drops jaws, handles well, and packs serious punch. It’s not a gas-guzzling sportscar but an all-electric roadster that uses no gasoline. While rumors may fly about what the secret start-up EEStor is doing with its batteries, there is no doubt that Tesla Motors has delivered [...]
Posted in Justin Manger, Transportation Tags: Cars, Chevy Volt, EEStor, Electric Vehicles, Tesla No Comments »The Hydrogen Economy
January 26th, 2009 Eric Wilson Several carmakers have hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in various stages of development. From BMW’s Hydrogen 7 and GM’s The Sequel to Honda’s Clarity FCX, which is now available on a limited basis in Southern California, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been touted as a potential replacement for gasoline, internal combustion engines. The Clarity is currently [...]
Posted in Eric Wilson, Transportation Tags: Electric Vehicles, Honda Clarity, Hydrogen Economy No Comments »41.1% Solar Photo-Voltaic Efficiency
January 26th, 2009 Eric Wilson One of the major obstacles to PV (photo-voltaic) installations remains the current inefficiency of converting radiant solar energy into electrical energy. German researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg recently released results that they have attained an energy conversion of 41.1%, far beyond that available in commercial systems (around 20%). [...]
