"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
Air conditioning??? Creative, sustainable ways to power our everyday lives?
Air conditioning???
Who else is inventing creative, sustainable ways to power our everyday lives?
Let’s talk Air conditioning. Here are a few URLS for consideration with a brief overview
There are many avenues being pursued. I go in this direction to highlight the coming problem of Global Warming. Ways to cool workers, protect crops, grow crops in hot desert environments will become vitally important if the doomsayers are correct and we lose any of the world’s main agriculture areas. Research is currently focused on conservation of energy, but is likely to become focused on how do we find ways to enhance worker productivity, make farming/crop development feasible under extreme heat, and feed the world in new ways. Energy innovation, use and development will become the corner stone.
Panamanian provider of efficient air conditioning wins Energy Innovation Contest
"The goal is to enable the winners to turn their idea into commercially viable solutions to the energy problems facing the region."
"A few summers back, researchers went door to door in a Southern California neighborhood to see what it would take to get folks to turn off their air conditioning and prevent power blackouts. They tried appealing to greed (“You’ll save money”) and guilt (“It’s better for the Earth”). Neither message made a dent. But when residents were told that most of their neighbors were cutting back on the AC, energy use finally plummeted. Nobody, it seems, wants to be the biggest energy hog on the block"
http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/out_greening_your_neighbor/
(need subscription, but the blub they share gives an idea of energy conservation)
"Rather than entailing higher construction costs, smartly designed buildings can often actually cost less, a phenomenon Lovins refers to as "tunneling through the cost barrier". This is part one of a two-part presentation on “Energy Efficiency in Buildings”. It is also the first in a series of five talks on Energy Efficiency by Amory Lovins and is brought to you by MAP. "
http://sic.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3265.html
Hitachi airconditioning made a move in 2009 according to this press release(pdf file)
http://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/090728c/20090728_social_en.pdf
"The Boston Innovation Prize challenge was to “radically improve efficiencies in space cooling and dehumidification” and to “identify breakthrough technologies and/or designs which will provide cooling and dehumidification with dramatically higher energy efficiency than current room or window air conditioning units, while maintaining affordability.” No small task. Large companies have been working on this for decades. To put this challenge in perspective, air conditioning technology has already doubled in efficiency since 1970."
What are your thoughts?
Views: 21
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Comment by Elastika on March 20, 2010 at 6:25pm
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I like your insight how the best tool for changing behavior is social comparison "Nobody, it seems, wants to be the biggest energy hog on the block".
Unfortunately this doesn't always work. On my street all the houses have a joint recycling bins. And you know what, from all the 7 houses, we are the only house who separates organic waste. It seems that in our block people don't mind being the biggest hog on the block...
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Comment by John D. Boyden on March 21, 2010 at 5:32pm
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lol I understand, Elastika. I suspect some changes require laws and punitive fines to work. Financial benefit could be an encourager. Somehow IF those other 6 houses saw good reasons and benefits or if the process was easier there might be increased compliance. I wonder what others see as a pathway to encorage compliance
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Comment by Starling on March 25, 2010 at 8:37pm
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I think different factors come into play at different levels. Social connection helps people change. The more social connection you have with others, the easier it is to pick up habits from each other.
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