waste
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Critical List: Shale gas could squash renewables; scientists fiddle with photosynthesis
New York City promises to double the percentage of waste diverted from landfills within the next five years.
Increasing shale gas production could squash renewable energy development.
The Obama administration released a draft plan for protecting the country's oceans.
Scientists are fiddling with photosynthesis in order to make biofuel. -
This electrical socket spits out your power-sucking plugs
The PumPing Tap does not like wasted power. It's an electrical socket with a spring-loaded ejector seat, which pops plugs right out if they're slowly sucking energy when not in active use.
The idea is to combat vampire power, the massive amount of energy slowly sapped by idling gizmos, like microwaves that aren’t cooking or chargers that aren’t charging anything. The PumPing Tap (which is still in the design stage, sadly) monitors the flow of energy, and if you don't use a device for 10 minutes -- ptooie! -- it's unplugged.
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The spookiest horror film about energy waste you’ve ever seen
David Parker's "Light" depicts light pollution and wasted energy as a sort of Blob, not necessarily malign but relentless and implacable. In the film, energy-burning lights start dripping goo that covers the ground and finally drives people out of their homes — but it's all very quiet and eerie, like a Chris Van Allsburg drawing. […]
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My holiday wish? Ixnay on the iPod
The author’s beloved crap.Photo: Thomas HaydenCross-posted from Last Word on Nothing. Black Friday is behind us, and Cyber Monday too. But those are just start dates: The pressure to buy, buy, buy isn’t going to let up for another month at least. And that has me thinking about one of my favorite gadgets — a […]
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Karen Luken: A one-woman waste management authority
Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the […]
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‘Human centipede’ business model saves 39 million tons of CO2
One company's trash can be another's treasure — for instance, a server farm produces excess heat, making heat a waste product, but a greenhouse runs on heat and considers it a necessity. The U.K.'s National Industrial Symbiosis Program (NISP) helps match up companies that produce waste with companies that need it. Essentially, it's a Human […]
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Go, fight … green? Can sports teams save the planet?
Photo: IscanWhen the 2011 Major League Baseball season got underway last April, teams rolled out the usual promotions for fanatical fans: giant foam fingers, T-shirt giveaways, beer in unbreakable, aluminum bottles. The Seattle Mariners took a slightly different tack. At two separate Monday night home games, 5,000 fans were given bags of gardening soil, composted […]
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Drain-eye shaman puts sensors in New York’s sewers
Grist is proud to present the Change Gang — profiles of people who are leading change on the ground toward a more sustainable society and a greener planet. Some we’ve written about before; some are new to our pages. Some you’ll have heard of; most you probably won’t. Know someone we should add to the […]
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What happens when a whale dies?
What happens when a whale dies? Little ocean beasties get a feast, as illustrated in this video, the most beautiful and least icky illustration of decomposition you may ever see.