Browse and be green!

In my last post I talked about Ecocho, but really wasn’t that convinced by it! Well today I came across something that I am totally convinced about; Eco-Flock.

I’ve been using Flock as my preferred browser for quite a while now, not only because it’s based on Firefox, but also you can blog directly from it (as I’m doing with this post) as well as keep up to date with all your social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. It also ties in nicely with YouTube and Flickr. All in all I’ve been very happy with Flock, it’s not the speediest browser I’ve tried but it’s far from the slowest and seems to run rings round IE7.

Today, in honour of Earth Day, Flock have released the Eco-Edition of Flock, which is basically the same as the great normal edition but with a green slant coming pre-configured with many green sites to keep you informed of global changes as they happen.

But the really great thing about this new browser is the fact that Flock will be donating 10% of its revenue generated by searches to green organisations. So the more you search using Eco-Flock the more money they will donate. At the end of the year the Flock community will then vote on which environmental charity the money goes to.

Installing the browser is a sinch and importing your current favourites etc. is simple, in fact as I was already using Flock I didn’t even have to go through this process.

So go ahead and use the Eco-Edition of Flock from today and make a real world of a difference.

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Tags: Flock, Eco-Edition, green browsing, green searching, environmental charities, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr

What a load of hot air!

When I first got into cars at a fairly young age there was a great, what I believed to be, urban mith. It involved an, I think Canadian engineer who developed a car that ran on water. Well, apparently when the oil companies found out about this, the man was paid a large amount of money and the car that ran on water disappeared.

It appears that the oil companies may have missed this one, and now it’s too late!

I can’t believe how amazing this is! A car that runs on nothing but AIR, with zero emissions is about to go on sale with the help of Tata Motors the Indian company who brought us the worlds cheapest car.

The car was developed by a French inventor and Formula One engineer who has now teamed up with Tata Motors with what is said to be ‘an environmentally friendly and scalable technology’. The idea can be used in cars, commercial vehicles and even power generation.

The engine uses compressed air stored in a tank at a pressure of about 300 bars to pump the pistons much in the same way a combustion engine does. The range of the tank is about 60 miles at 50 mph. The tank can be refilled at home using a regular outlet, which takes about 4 hours, but if you can find an industrial compressor capable if 3500 psi (like those found in scuba shops) the job can be done in a few minutes and cost between £1-£2. If the pressurised air can be heated then the car can drive for nearly 500 miles.

Tata, it is speculated may have an Air Car on the road by the end of 2008. Well I don’t know about anyone else but I want one. Of course there are those that think I talk alot of hot air anyway.

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Tags: air car, compressed air, Tata motors, zero emissions

We are sailing, even with engines!

I didn’t realise until today that the fuel burnt by cargo ships accounts for 4% of all global CO2 emissions, that’s almost twice as much as the aviation industry produces – why is it that we’re not told this? Why is the aviation industry being held up as the big bad carbon producer, is it because they’re an easy target?

Well, in a great attempt to combat these emissions the Dutch company SkySails GmbH has joined forces with Beluga Shipping to make a maiden voyage from Germany to Venezuela using a 160sq m, computer-controlled kite. This state-of-the-art kite will hopefully help reduce the carbon emissions by as much as 20%. This could have an amazing impact on global warming as reported by the BBC!

The high-tech on-board computer allows the kite to harness the full power of the wind, and hopefully over the next few months a few more practical tests of the technology will be able to show significant reduction in fuel consumption, and therefore cost and emissions.

A spokesman from SkySails said, ‘nevertheless, it differs very much from traditional sailing, as we do not have any bothersome masts on deck which might be a hindrance to cargo-loading operations.’

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Tags: cargo  ships, kite, fuel reduction, sailing, carbon emissions, global warming, skysails

Green Music (no not Kermit singing!)

Music is a very personal thing, and I’m sure many people don’t particularly like Jack Johnson, but I kinda do. I’m not sure if it’s all about the music or that and a combination of the ethics and lifestyle Jack has. The idea of lazy days and afternoon surfing sessions and then singing a few songs is really appealing, just not having to be a slave to the work and mortgage treadmill.

But that’s not what this post is about. The reason for this post is just to say how impressed I am that the new album ‘Sleep through the static‘ was recorded at Jack’s own environmental studio using nothing but solar power.

With the sunny places so many of the current bands seem to hang out in, why are there not more albums recorded like this. Even better they could then all be sold via download at a cheaper price and so avoid all those carbon emissions from distribution.

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Tags: Jack Johnson, music, solar power, lazy days

Let’s go digital!!!

Or, at least that’s what those poxy adverts on TV keep telling us to do.

Apparently, you need to go out now and buy a digital TV, with the digital tick and a whole host of extra digital stuff. If you don’t buy one of these new TVs now, you’ll never be able to watch TV again, and probably limbs ‘ll fall off and everything.

Well, it’s all a crock!

Even if you do want to go digital now rather than wait until 2012 (the official digital date) your current TV will be fine. All you need is either a satellite receiver (such as Freesat – £150ish installed) or a Freeview box (£25 – self-install), both of which will connect to a normal TV. It doesn’t even need to have a SCART connection, both of the options can be connected using a standard RF aerial. The picture and sound quality will be fine, the programme choice the same mix of unfunny comedies and repeats.

The choice of going digital or not is entirely up to you. So don’t be bullied into buying a new TV, it’s just not necessary and if anyone tells you it is they’re lying!

I realise that certain areas can’t get digital TV yet but this is just a rant because I’m really getting cheesed off with untruths being told to us just to increase TV sales. Here’s an idea, ‘why don’t you switch off television sets and go and do something less boring instead’!

That brings back memories.

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Tags: digitaltv, satellite, freeview, digital change over, why don’t you

Have you seen the light!

For those of you that know me this isn’t going to be a long lament about the superb guitar attributes of a certain Mr Jeff Heally. It’s all a load of bulbs!

I think I’ve blogged about this before but over the last few months we’ve been changing all of our light bulbs to be energy efficient. This has had quite a positive effect on our electricity bills!

But, it appears in the future things might be getting even better. Apparently at Glasgow University the boffins have been working on a super efficient LED, which is much brighter than a standard one and uses a lot less energy than any of the currently available energy saving light bulbs.

They have developed a cheaper and more efficient way of making small holes in the diodes which allow them to emit more light and so now become a viable option for household lighting.

Let’s see how this progresses and see if we make even further inroads in to reducing our carbon emissions.

 
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Tags: LED’s, energy efficient, carbon emissions, enrgy saving bulbs

School Kids get more energy!

One of my local Junior schools (in fact the one I went to) is about to become one of the greenest schools in the country. All thanks to a great new scheme from the Co-Operative. The National Green Energy for Schools Scheme will give a fund of £1m to up to 100 schools nationally. This pot is then match funded by the Governments, Low Carbon Buildings Programme.

The Photovoltaic (PV) panels are worth about £20,000 for each school and as well as providing clean, renewable and sustainable power, it is hoped that it will help educate the children. It is planned that each school will also receive leaflets and information to distribute to the children. The panels should generate about 3,240 kWh of electricity per year and reduce Carbon Dioxide production by about two tonnes, as well as help move away from the schools reliance on fossil fuels.

A monitor screen will be placed in a main area of the school so that teacher and pupils alike can see how much electricity the panels are generating and also how much carbon dioxide they have saved to date. There is also the facility to access the data online. This might be of particular interest in the summer holidays when the school is not in use but electricity is still being produced, especially if they have done a deal with their energy supplier and excess energy is sold back to the national grid!

Ocklynge Junior School is set to be one of the first schools in the country to use this scheme, so a big well done to everyone involved and lets hope this help influence the whole community.

Tags: Solarpower, photovoltaic, co-op, low carbon, renewable energy, school kids

Is it the HMRC that are the Fraudsters?

I know that I’ve tried to make this blog have an Environmental slant, but today I just have to get this off my chest!

If you live in the UK, or indeed probably the rest of the world, you’d have had to have been hiding under a rock to have missed the great data loss.

Somehow, and no one really seems to know how, or at least are admitting to, Her Majesties Revenue & Customs have lost two disks containing 25 million peoples information. The list of data affects everyone who is claiming ‘child benefit’ or ‘working tax credit’ and was supposed to be an interdepartmental transfer. The information on these disks contains, NI numbers, Name (parents & childrens), Address, DOB, Partners details and Bank account details.

Now, the chances are, mine and my families details are on one of these disks, and this really pisses me off. Like everyone that uses the web we spend a lot of time trying to keep our information secure, especially when surfing, just to have some idiot let it out into the pubic domain.

But this just adds insult to injury, only two weeks ago I had a letter from our wonderful government telling me that I was was one of 15 million people who have opted out of SERPS with Standard Life, who have had our all our data on a disk which has been lost.

It seems to me that the chances of identity fraud are pretty high for anyone on any of these disk and that really concerns me!

Anyway, not a lot I can really do but thank you for letting me vent.

Tags: HMRC, fraud, data loss

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No ditch for the Dutch!

A little while ago I posted a link to a piece of video about the great solar car race accross Australia, I also said I would be keeping an eye on things, unfortunately time ran away with me and I’ve only just go back to it! But, here it is, traveling over 3000 miles the Dutch team finally one the race by over one hour.

Well done, and lets hope the technology eventually works its way down to us lesser mortals!

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Starters Orders!

Despite the disapointment for Lewis Hamilton over the weekend, there today starts a race that hopefully will be great for everyone in the future.

I’ll keep an eye on this and inform you as the days go by. They should finish in about four days time!

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