Using UV radiation is known to be an effective way to sterilize water. Why? Because the radiation kills the DNA of any living organisms in the water, thus making them unable to reproduce in the human body- or anywhere else, for that matter. The micro-organisms aren't dead, but they can't make any more of themselves!! Hahaha
And if you think about it, what do many of the African nations have plenty of? Well, I'm in Ghana right now, and I would argue that it is SUNSHINE. Plenty of UV…
Continue
Added by Teresa R on March 31, 2010 at 10:00pm —
4 Comments
i have seen skyscrapers used for housing people, housing offices heck even housing plants and animals but housing plants that make freash water that a first.
(in order to facilitate water purification, the tower will be made up of
several circular tanks filled with
brackish water
(water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as
seawater), which will be enclosed in spherical greenhouses. Using…
Continue
Added by steve ward on March 31, 2010 at 9:59pm —
No Comments
I picked an organization that was started in my own hometown called Water 4 Water. This organization raises money by selling plastic and metal water bottles to provide children in Africa with water. Thier organization is very inspiring and simple. A portion of thier profits go to the play pump mission in Africa. These play pumps are wells that are in the form of a children's playscape. When children play on the play pump, they pump water up from underground. These play pumps also offer a spot…
Continue
Added by kaitlyn helfrich on March 31, 2010 at 9:54pm —
No Comments
By applying information technology to the worlds water challenges IBM aims to make the planet smarter - more efficient use of water, better water quality management, storm water management, real time monitoring of natural environments to improve ecosystem services, understanding embedded water in products and enabling cities to understand their water metabolism and minimize water use and its associated energy:…
Continue
Added by Ian Abbott-Donnelly on March 31, 2010 at 9:53pm —
No Comments
"Don’t fight culture (If people cook by stirring their stews, they’re not going to use a solar oven, no matter what you do to market it. Make them a better stove instead.)" This rule is incredibly useful and can apply to almost any situation. You cannot simply exchange a people's previously used items for newer, foreign things; they…
Continue
Added by Jimmy Mulpeter on March 31, 2010 at 9:43pm —
No Comments
Ten years from now, I will be a lead game designer in a studio specialized in creating live action pervasive, roleplaying and alternate reality games. My personal goal as a designer will be to allways have some kind of message and story in our games. This way, we will have enabled the players of our games to experience various critical situations from many points of view and aslo to take action in order to change them.
In the process, I will have uplifted and enlarged the slovak…
Continue
Added by Tomas Kozlik on March 31, 2010 at 9:42pm —
1 Comment
For my ACT4 post, I decided to write about
Grameen-Veolia Water Ltd., a joint venture between Grameen's health and hygiene subsidiary and Veolia Water, a French company. Operated as a social business venture (similar to the joint venture between Grameen and Danone I would imagine) the water purification plant provides water to the area at a nominal cost, which helps to maintain the facility and plan expansion into…
Continue
Added by David Perner on March 31, 2010 at 9:40pm —
No Comments
There's some things you hear and have a hard time really processing, and using urine as a source of cheap hydrogen fuel via electrolysis is far up on the list.
Quick stats: Potentially 90 miles to a gallon. Water takes 1.23 volts to be split and release hydrogen, while Urea only takes about .37 volts, making it more efficient for hydrogen production.
Original Article Here:…
Continue
Added by Shane M. Wheeler on March 31, 2010 at 9:33pm —
2 Comments
Not long ago the US Military working in conjunction with TARDEC (Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center) designed a system that allows Army vehicles to
create perfectly drinkable water via the condensation of the engine exhaust system.
The system creates on average 3.5 gallons per day.
Imagine implementing this system world wide.
There are over…
Continue
Added by Joseph Stanley on March 31, 2010 at 9:28pm —
1 Comment
Geothermal heating/cooling is a great way to regulate temperature inside buildings without using a massive amount of energy on the A/C system.
This is an example of what geothermal heating in a building would look like. The pipes are filled with a type of liquid that absorbs heat--so in the summer, unwanted heat is absorbed into the liquid and stored there. In the winter, the pipes draw heat from the earth around it to warm up the…
Continue
Added by Emily Zhao on March 31, 2010 at 9:08pm —
1 Comment
Economy tops environment as bigger concern!
As the millennium children wake up out there stupor from all mindless media, they will one day realize todays news of exanding oil drilling over any cost of more destruction to the enviorment is something they will never forget.
AT WHAT COST!… Continue
Added by Dharma Dog on March 31, 2010 at 9:02pm —
No Comments
While the future is uncertain, and my vision of it more warped than that of a branch underwater, I will hazard to imagine. If we cannot imagine, and dream how then are we human?
In 10 years I hope to be a professor of philosophy. At the moment I am on track, I will be attending a MA program in philosophy at CSULA beginning this fall. Hopefully I will kick but and leverage myself into a PHD program, and finally a professorship.
How will I utilize…
Continue
Added by Evan Harkins on March 31, 2010 at 9:02pm —
No Comments
"Understand by observing the environment, infrastructure, culture and lives of people by being there." -- from…
Continue
Added by Joshua Z on March 31, 2010 at 9:00pm —
5 Comments
You will never be
one of us.
You may have better education than us,
you may have better ideas than us,
you may be more skilled than us,
But you will never be
one of us.
You will never taste freedom like
one of us.
You will never feel secure like
one of us.
We send you…
Continue
Added by Raymond M. Kristiansen on March 31, 2010 at 9:00pm —
4 Comments
I started
this discussion over on the discussion board - I have a calculation to put together hence bringing it back to my blog. It's demonstrated that
worms fix carbon. Do they fix enough to make a serious difference to
the "overflow" of the carbon bathtub? Please do check…
Continue
Added by Starling on March 31, 2010 at 9:00pm —
11 Comments
So, I was tasked to follow a hero of mine. Or rather a social innovator. Instead of choosing one of the many persons assisting in Africa, I picked someone who aimed a little higher. I decided to follow Aubrey de Grey, and his attempt to stop aging. Aging kills 100,000 people a day. It seems to me, that all things equal it is better if 100,000 people do not die.
Now there is the issue of birth, or rather how can we stop death, and maintain birth. This is a huge problem that…
Continue
Added by Evan Harkins on March 31, 2010 at 8:57pm —
1 Comment
While generally I don't like the idea of water desalination (I'm a fan of learning how to make the most of what's available instead of forcing the system to work for you) I recognize that at least in the short term it may become a necessary part of life around the world. To that end, why not try to make this process as benign as possible?
I found a company,
Water Standard, who is trying to do exactly that. Their idea is to get a tanker-type…
Continue
Added by David Perner on March 31, 2010 at 8:55pm —
No Comments
While I don't actually celebrate Christmas, I do enjoy the lights and all the festive decorations around my neighborhood. It has been some time since virtually all Christmas lights phased to LED bulbs, but even with the massive reduction in power consumption, when a couple million people decide to string out hundreds if not thousands of lights a piece, you have to get more energy from somewhere.
With the short days, solar isn't really an option. Fortunately, the winter season…
Continue
Added by David Perner on March 31, 2010 at 8:42pm —
No Comments
When I think of 2020, I see solar power being the prominent source of energy in America. From working in sports, I
see many of the stadiums that go unused throughout the year as a major provider
of solar energy. Imagine if the
seats that were in those empty stadiums were able to capture the power from the
sun and send it back into the grid.
Not only would the…
Continue
Added by Tom Hinrichs on March 31, 2010 at 8:34pm —
No Comments
So it's not completely new, but I would want to design my own homemade wind turbine. I've seen a couple people on the EVOKE network give it a shot, and I've found a couple website that have plans such as
My DIY Wind turbine,
TheBackShed.com and
Instructables.
Where my idea would differ from these plans would be cost…
Continue
Added by David Perner on March 31, 2010 at 8:31pm —
No Comments