The Chesapeake Bay and other locations are facing a new kind of problem: giant crabs, which are growing beyond normal size due to carbon pollution. Such large crabs have the potential to disrupt the ecosystem, and are joined alongside lobsters and shrimp, which are also growing. Adding to the problem, however, is that the same pollution is stunting oysters.
This creates a peculiar issue of too much appetite, not enough food, since crabs eat oysters. As the carbon pollution levels in the ocean – which is caused by vehicles, factories, and other modern realities – continues to rise, the affected creatures will grow larger. Scientists estimate that blue crabs, in particular, could grow large enough in 75 – 100 years to disturb the ecosystem in the Chesapeake Bay area.
The problem grows from there (pardon the pun), with the carbon pollution-affected crabs putting their energy into the formation of new shells to the detriment of flesh. As such, there could come a time when crabs reach a giant size, yet contain little meat, leaving seafood lovers starkly disappointed. According to one study, blue crabs grow at about four time their normal rate when in carbon polluted waters.
During an interview, the University of North Carolina’s Aquarium Research Center’s Justin Baker Ries said: “Higher levels of carbon in the ocean are causing oysters to grow slower, and their predators — such as blue crabs — to grow faster.” It also affects lobsters and shrimp, and in a manner similar to oysters has a detrimental effect on coral.
The popular decorative trend of displaying beautiful taxidermy animals throughout the home hasn’t slowed in 2013. Inventors were quick to jump at the chance to get a piece of the taxidermy décor craze by creating stunningly impressive one-of-a-kind animal-inspired inventions that are guaranteed to be completely cruelty free. My top five animal-free taxidermy innovations are just a click away!
A tiny washing machine on my kitchen counter? It’s more likely than you think, if you live in a tiny Japanese apartment. The Swash Petite Laundry model LA5 from King Jim saves time, money and water if very small loads are all you need to wash.
While fitness sensors are cool, there are plenty of other uses for remote sensors. These environmental sensors allow you to keep track of indoor spaces in your home.
CubeSensors can record environment conditions and send them to the cloud, which will allow you to access them via any mobile device. An app sends you notifications about how to better tailor your environment for better productivity or comfort. Each cube can sense temperature, humidity, noise, light, air quality, barometric pressure, and even vibrations.
They can be used at home or at the office, and are designed to be relatively unobtrusive. The CubeSensors will be released this summer and are available for pre-order for $250(USD) for a pair with their base station, or $350 for a set of four. Additional cubes retail for $99 each. You can reserve your set for just a $10 down-payment.
Based on the latest reports, the company once chided for making too large an impact on Mother Earth is now claiming that a full 75 percent of its energy is being sourced from renewables. Apple’s chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, informed Reuters this week that all of its data centers — including the gargantuan facility in Maiden, North Carolina — are now fully powered by renewable energy from onsite and local sources, while three-fourths of the energy used by the whole company is pulled from green sources. For those wondering, that includes solar, wind, hydro and geothermal, and the 75 percent mark is a stark 40 percent uptick from just two years ago. As for what the future holds? According to Apple: “We won’t stop working until we achieve 100 percent throughout Apple.” Alrighty then.
Today Apple has updated their environmental page collection and have issued a new Facilities report, showing that at this point in history, global corporate facilities inside the Apple family are at a whopping 75% renewable energy use. Apple also reports that many of their facilities are running on 100% renewable energy, including data centers in Newark, CA, Prineville, OR, and Maiden, NC. These bits and pieces are part of a report that, on the whole, shows Apple to be heading directly toward a fully renewable energy future – one we’d all like to be a part of.
According to the report released this week, Apple has increased the renewable energy use at Apple corporate facilities worldwide by 114% between fiscal 2010 and 2012. Over the last three years, Apple’s now-75% global corporate facilities using has risen rapidly from the 35% it was three years ago. One example Apple is using as a key location where they’ve made significant progress is in Maiden, North Carolina.
Above: The nation’s largest end user-owned solar photovoltaic array providing renewable energy to Apple’s data center in Maiden, North Carolina.
Apple notes that their data center in Maiden is the only data center facility of its size and type to have earned full LEED Platinum certification. According to Apple, they’ve implemented the following in their Maiden data center location for the furtherance of energy efficiency and green building:
• A chilled water storage system to improve chiller efficiency by transferring 10,400 kWh of electricity consumption from peak to off-peak hours each day • Use of “free” outside air cooling through a waterside economizer operation during night and cool-weather hours, which, along with water storage, allows the chillers to be turned off more than 75 percent of the time • Extreme precision in managing cooling distribution for cold-air containment pods, with variable-speed fans controlled to exactly match air flow to server requirements from moment to moment • Power distributed at higher voltages, which increases efficiency by reducing power loss • White cool-roof design to provide maximum solar reflectivity • High-efficiency LED lighting combined with motion sensors • Real-time power monitoring and analytics during operations • Construction processes that utilized 14 percent recycled materials, diverted 93 percent of construction waste from landfills, and sourced 41 percent of purchased materials within 500 miles of the site
It would appear that Apple is moving in the right direction when it comes to environmental and “green thinking” concerns, especially when you compare the raw numbers they present. The one significant up-turn that can be seen in their fiscal 2012 report is in electricity usage by business unit, with their Corporate segment staying essentially equal to fiscal 2011 while both Data Centers and Retail Stores, moving from 138 million kWh to 217 million kWh for the former and 122 to 159 for the latter.
Apple has also reported that the commute their employees take on the way to work has continued to decrease both for worldwide employees and for intercampus employees. Apple offered a transit subsidy for U.S. employees in fiscal 2012 that offered employees up to $100 USD a month for carpooling, also offering them special carpooling parking spots as a bonus. Over 11,000 Apple employees took part in this program in 2012.
This report also shows that Apple has achieved the fabulous 100% renewable energy usage goal in the following locations: Austin, Texas; Elk Grove, California; Cork, Ireland; Munich, Germany – and most Apple facilities across Australia. Apple’s Infinite Loop location in Cupertino also, of course, runs on 100% renewable energy at this time.
Head in to our massive Apple hub right this minute to get more information on the goings-on in the Apple universe and stay tuned as the 2013 product range comes raining down over the next few months – we’ll let you in on it all from top to bottom! Also make sure you have a peek at Apple’s Environment Pages to see what they’re up to in the green universe.
The Middle East is known for their vast amounts of oil, and of course the money that comes from that oil. However, the region is also getting into renewable energy and alternative methods for providing electricity, most specifically the United Arab Emirates, which is now home to the world’s largest solar power plant, located in Abu Dhabi.
Shams Power Company has opened the new Shams 1 concentrated solar power station that has a capacity of 100 MW and can power up to 20,000 homes and save up to 175,000 tons of CO2 every year, which according to Shams, is the “equivalent to planting 1.5 million trees or taking approximately 15,000 cars off the road.”
The Shams 1 CSP plant uses over 258,000 parabolic mirrors that collect sunlight and concentrate it onto oil pipes that flow through the center of the mirrors. This heats the oil, and after being moved on to a heat exchanger, the heat creates steam that powers turbines that generate electricity. The entire plants covers just over 1.55 square miles.
Of course, this isn’t the first CSP plant to be built. These types of solar power plants date back to the 1980s where the first ones were built in California in the US. However, it wasn’t until today when the Shams 1 plant took the crown for the world’s largest CSP plant. Of course, we’ll most likely see larger ones being built in the future as green tech becomes more popular.
It’s always interesting to learn how certain rocks are formed, and gold is one of those elements that is so precious and rare, yet very few people have any idea on how it’s formed in the Earth. According to a study conducted by a group of Australian geologists, 80% of the world’s gold deposits are actually formed in the blink of an eye thanks to earthquakes.
The process is called “flash vaporization,” which happens deep below the Earth’s crust, going down as far as 18 miles below, fault cavities from earthquakes fill up with fluids and are subject to extremely high temperatures and pressure, which leads to instant vaporization of these fluids that contain dissolved substances like gold and silicate minerals.
This process has always been theorized, but it’s been unclear as far as how drastic the pressure changes are. It turns out that an earthquake can create a dramatic drop in pressure, which forces the fluid to expand to as much as 130,000 times its original size — all of which happens in a split second, hence “flash vaporization.”
Of course, the link between gold deposits and earthquakes is nothing new, but the study finally quantifies how drastic the pressure changes are far beneath the Earth’s surface. About two-thirds of all known gold deposits consist of gold veins that are formed deep underground and can be mined directly, with 45% of the world’s gold mostly coming from South Africa.
Since 2010, the James Dyson Award has prodded engineering and design students from around the world to create and share their unique innovations with the ultimate goal of solving problems, and they’re gearing up to see what 2013 has to offer the planet…
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