Researchers from the University of Texas have developed a new gel film which can grab gallons of drinking water from thin air every day. The new tech, dubbed SHPF, is also cheap and easy to make, which suggests that this could be a breakthrough process in the AWH (atmospheric water harvesting) field.
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Really clever idea. A new service which lets you stream a simple 31 sec ‘song’ (actually just a short description read aloud) in your playlists which earn enough money after 100 plays to plant one tree. The world’s first MP-Tree. Yeah clever, like we said. This Song Plants Trees is basic, easy to understand and a really interesting way to raise awareness of the need to tackle climate change.
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This enterprising project from Italy, called Tecla, is the world’s first 3D printed raw earth house. What does that mean? Well for one thing it only took 200 hours to print. For another there was no need to bring any materials on site. They just dug up some earth as the source. Clever eh?
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Scientists have come up with a new form of plastic which can be recycled back to a pristine state for resuse a huge number of times. This makes it a big contender to help stop the mountain of plastic trash we waste every day. The new material, PDK – which stands for polydiketoenamines – come with a penalty though. It’s very expensive to make. Something to do with one particular chemical component which costs a lot. However once PDK is…
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So the race is on to wean us all off meat and turn us into happy little plant eaters. Leading the charge is Beyond Meat (disclosure: recently tried their Beyond Burger and it is astonishingly good), closely followed by a bunch of alternatives. Among the most interesting is California based Eat Just, which recently announced that it’s lab cultured chicken had won approval for commercial use in Singapore. Why Singapore? We’re not sure. Anyway the bottom line is that our…
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Hempearth, a Canadian cannabis company, has announced plans to build an airplane using hemp as a key component. There’s little argument that hemp is the wonder plant of the ages. Despite being associated with its naughty cousin, marijuana, hemp has been put to thousands of vital uses over the ages. Not only has it been used for rope, but also fabric, medicine and a super food. But this latest incarnation is taking things to a whole new level.
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There’s just too much plastic in the world. We’re drowning in it. But an enterprising French company hopes to change all that with the invention of a compound called Evanesto. The enzyme based material is added to conventional PLA plastic at the manufacturing stage, which then turns it into something which can be composted in less than 200 days. Proper compost. The company, called Carbiolice, claim that the enzymes can be used for all forms of plastic packaging, tableware or…
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Zedpods are a clever new take on modular, ready made housing. The blocks are prefabricated in a huge factory warehouse in central England, then shipped on-site for assembly. What makes them extra interesting is the fact that one version is designed to sit on top of car parks, using a stilt type system. This leaves the car par open for use by the public, while offering affordable eco housing above. Very neat. The first installation has already gone up in…
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If you haven’t heard of the Energy Charter Treaty, that should be no surprise. It’s a semi-secret international treaty which grants corporations in the energy sector enormous power to sue states at international investment tribunals for billions of dollars, for example, if a government decides to stop new oil or gas pipelines or to phase out coal. And boy are they using it. It was set up in the mid 90s and in the last decade alone there have been…
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OK so we’re not huge fans of clever marketing disguised as environmental action, but the pedigree of this new initiative seems sound. The Ecosia people – who plant trees when you use their search tools – have just released a new free debit card called TreeCard. The idea is that for every $60 you spend, they will plant a tree in your forest. It’s cute, and while some may consider it a gimmick, the fact is that Ecosia has already…
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It’s hard to be a responsible citizen nowadays. No matter how hard we try, there’s always a chance that we’ll buy the wrong product by selecting something which can harm the environment. Here’s where the Beagle Button comes in. Rather like those coupon finding browser extensions that litter the landscape, the Beagle tool is there to help us make better buying decisions. Only it’s not about saving money, but saving the planet. It sits in the browser and pops up…
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The old tea clippers of the 19th century may have been slow, but they had one big advantage over modern freighters. They ran on wind. Now an enterprising Swedish company is attempting to combine modern technology with good old renewable wind energy to turn the environmental cost of shipping goods around the world on its head. The Oceanbird is a huge cargo ship which can carry up to 7000 cars (electric we hope), and will be able to cross the…
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Photo-Me, the mega passport photo booth people, have just announced a new edition to their portable launderette products for the high street. The Revolution Container is a recycled shipping container which holds four washing machines and two dryers capable of offering launderette services from supermarket, gas station and other forecourts. The 5.5 tonne box – which fits into 2 car parking spaces – is designed to be functional rather than beautiful, but the owners hope that it will provide a…
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Your local park is important and as the climate warms up, you should fight to keep it. Green spaces are crucial, especially in urban environments, in the fight against climate change. They have a ton of social and health benefits for people but they also have some pretty good benefits for the planet.
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Plastic is everywhere. Really. Thanks to microplastics, smaller fibers and such, plastic is being carried by all sorts of weather patterns to the furthest reaches of the Earth and this isn’t great news but it does illustrate how pervasive the problem has really become.
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