Sustainability Momentum Sdn Bhd

19-year-old Boyan Slat has unveiled plans to create an Ocean Cleanup Array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans. The device consists of an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms that could be dispatched to garbage patches around the world. Instead of moving through the ocean, the array would span the radius of a garbage patch, acting as a giant funnel. The angle of the booms would force plastic in the direction of the platforms, where it would be separated from plankton, filtered and stored for recycling.

Recently, the China National Administration (CNSA) announced an ambitious plan to export the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions to Mars. This move is viewed as an extension of China’s $16 billion plan to combat air pollution in its cities. China is currently the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases – its annual emissions total 8.9 billion tons. The unprecedented plan would greatly reduce emissions on Earth while warming the climate on Mars, causing the planet’s polar ice caps to melt and eventually creating an atmosphere capable of sustaining life.

Link: http://inhabitat.com/china-announces-plans-to-export-greenhouse-gases-to-terraform-mars/

The largest hydroelectric project to come into service in Ontario for the past 50 years, the Niagara Tunnel Project is a significant provincial achievement. The project is estimated to provide clean power for 100 years. The new tunnel is more than six miles long (10 km) and channels additional water from the Niagara River to flow to the Sir Adam Beck Generating Station at a rate of 500 cubic metres (132,086 gallons) per second. This will supply Ontario with enough clean, renewable electricity to power 160,000 homes.

Date & source: March 28, 2013, The Energy Collective

The Lazarus Project, University of New South Wales has successfully revived and reactivated the genome of the Rheobatrachus silus, an extinct Australian frog. The extinct frogs last seen in 1985 have been revived through the technique known as somatic cell transfer where a dead nuclei preserved in a conventional deep freezer since 1970 was placed into donor eggs replacing the egg’s nuclei. Early embryo stage was achieved yet none of the embryos have lived more than a few days. Professor Mike Archer, the lead researcher believed the hurdle to overcome for resurrection of Lazarus is technological and not biological as now they have fresh nuclei preserved in cryogenesis for future cloning experiments.

Dutch Architect, Arend Groenewegen in his ingenuity turned a 1800’s barn used to store hay and run machinery into a modern eco-friendly office that anyone would want. It features a biodegradable roof made from local dried plants, keeping its original gepotdekselde façade and beams, he was able to turn it into an airy, modern office equipped with toilets, a pantry and a cloakroom.

Peder and Julie Norby from Denmark only pay $500 a year for electricity for their 4,600 square foot house and two EV vehicles. All this is possible with the installation of 35 solar panels on their roof which produces 50 kilowatts a day during the summer and 24 kilowatts a day during the winter. The installation of the solar panels since 2007 has thus paid for itself and has been saving them $9000 to $10000 a year in gasoline and utility cost.

Link : http://cleantechnica.com/2013/03/18/driving-on-sunshine/

Date & source : March 18,2013 , Clean Technica

The nature of Styrofoam’s packaging that is made from petrochemicals and not biodegradable will soon be solved, biologist at New York’s Union College have teamed up with Ecovative Design to produce totally biodegradable, environmentally friendly packaging from agricultural by-products like cotton gin waste; seed hulls from rice or other plant materials that are glued together by growing a matric of fungal mycelia in a mould. It would then be subjected to heat to kill off the fungi and is safe to be used in packaging. Biologists at Union College have manipulated one strain of fungi in various ways and have been able to produce fungi that could complete its job in five days.

Link: http://txchnologist.com/post/45278234612/a-fungus-among-us-check-your-packaging

Date & source: March 13, 2013, TXCHNOLOGIST

Scientists said that rainforests might be more resilient to global warming effects than previously thought. Scientists, from Britain, US, Australia and Brazil and a group of tropical ecologists are studying the response of tropical forests to rising temperature using computer simulations. The study found that because carbon dioxide also acts as an airborne fertiliser, forests were less susceptible to dying off. However, other factors such as fire and deforestation are not included in the study. Uncertainties on forest ecosystems’ response to global warming is also yet to be answered.