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Sony pledges to be 30 percent 'greener' by 2020
Like the epic vomiting session after a long evening in Las Vegas, climate change is inevitably coming for us all. Sony has decided to show off its greener side by pledging to shrink both its carbon footprint and the amount of power that its devices guzzle. The company has launched a "Green Management 2020" project that aims to make its products 30 percent more efficient by the end of the decade. At the same time, executives are committing to a target of having no impact upon the environment at all by 2050.
These seven climate science projects could save the world
The human race is doomed, and it's all our own fault. With the quantity of carbon in our atmosphere now well beyond the safe limit, it's almost certain the planet's temperature will continue to rise. Climate change is causing natural disasters of biblical proportions; a situation that's only going to get worse as time progresses. We all need to work harder to improve this situation by using less energy and behaving more responsibly. But since some people will never be convinced the Earth's rapidly approaching the end of its humanity-hospitable era, we're now in dire need of alternative options to save us from ourselves. To help get the word out, we've compiled a list of some of the most exciting scientific projects we've seen of late that could, if successful, undo some or all of the damage we've caused. [Image: Lisa Werner / Alamy]
CIA shuts down program using spy satellites to track climate change
For most of the past two decades, a handful of climate change scientists have had the CIA's MEDEA (Measurement of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis) program as an ace in the hole: they could draw on classified info from spy satellites and subs to study global warming in extreme detail. However, they'll now have to make do with alternatives. The agency has shut down MEDEA, saying that its projects to study the security implications of climate change "have been completed." While the CIA says it'll still "engage external experts" on the subject, it won't be providing consistent access to its extremely accurate and rare data.
Earth's ozone improves while CO2 levels worsen
Good news: the hole in the ozone layer is shrinking. Bad news: worldwide levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide has reached another terrifying milestone. First up, NASA's Goddard Space Center is promoting a scientific paper from December that claims that Earth's ozone layer is gently beginning to repair itself. With data from the agency's AURA satellite, scientists believe that the hole in the ozone, which currently measures 12 million square miles, will drop below that figure by around 2040.
Obama orders 40 percent cut in federal government's carbon emissions
No matter how hard his opponents try to ignore or deny climate change, President Barack Obama won't back down. That's why the commander in chief has signed an executive order that'll ensure the federal government cuts its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent in the next decade. In addition, agencies will be required to increase the amount of renewable energy it uses up to at least 30 percent in the same period of time.
Florida governor bans officials from using phrase 'climate change'
Believing that climate change isn't real is a bit like believing that you don't need a parachute to skydive; charming, but ultimately lethal. Let's just hope that Rick Scott is afraid of heights after reports have emerged that Florida's governor banned state officials from talking about the environment. According to the Miami Herald, the republican issued an unwritten ban on phrases like "climate change and "global warming" since he took office in 2011. Apparently his reasoning was that he didn't want employees to discuss anything that was "not a true fact," forgetting about those special truths that only empirical science can discover.
NASA's drought-predicting satellite is almost ready to begin work
According to environmentalist Lester Brown, droughts are going to be increasingly prevalent over the next few years. At the same time that he was making these claims, however, NASA was activating a spacecraft that it's hoped will do something about that. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite is designed to orbit the Earth, measuring global moisture levels in soil.
Lawmakers in charge of NASA and the environment don't understand science
Well, this is more than a little depressing: The politician who tried reducing NASA funding (and successfully shut it down for over two weeks) is now in charge of the senate subcommittee that effectively controls NASA. More than that, one of the most vocal climate-change detractors is now in charge of the United States Senate's Environmental committee. Let's let that sink in for a minute, shall we? Despite all the progress we've made so far with things like unmanned, deep-space space-flight and our efforts toward limiting the negative effects that humans have had on the environment, any future plans are now up in the air. Any major scientific progress is now at the mercy of Republican senators Ted Cruz and James Inhofe. With their actions and words over the recent years, the pair have proved just how little they understand about each area they're now controlling.
Climate change deal has 194 countries cutting emissions
Deals to reduce greenhouse gases (such as 1997's Kyoto Protocol) have been in place for years. However, they've typically limited the reductions to richer nations -- poorer countries have objected to previous attempts to broaden the scope due to requirements they see as burdensome. At last, though, a truly global deal is underway. A total of 194 United Nations member states have agreed to submit plans for emissions cuts, with those who are ready delivering their plans no later than March. The terms have countries setting emissions targets beyond their "current undertaking," and wealthier countries will support less fortunate counterparts that are "vulnerable" to financial losses stemming from climate change. Should everything go according to plan, the UN will have a full-fledged pact within a year.
Rockefeller fund to move its fortune from oil to green tech
If you're in any way familiar with the history of energy, then the name Rockefeller is synonymous with oil. That's why it's such a surprise to learn that the Rockefeller Brothers fund, worth $860 million, has pledged to dump its remaining investments in fossil fuel production over the next five years. The Rockefeller fund is the most notable name in a list of billionaires and funds that have pledged to shift anything up to $50 billion away from coal, oil and gas and into renewable energy as part of the divest-invest movement. It's a timely announcement, too, designed to coincide with the Tuesday's UN summit on climate change, designed to galvanize green activity in the face of the recent, damning, scientific evidence.
Street View cars used to sniff out gas leaks, plots 'em on a map
Gas leaks are huge trouble. Leaky pipes are not only prone to exploding (which is already terrible, of course), they also spew out methane -- a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide in contributing to climate change. The bad news is, nobody's been monitoring gas leaks closely, so Google Earth Outreach and the Environmental Defense Fund teamed up to do the job back in July. Now, the results for the project's pilot tests are out, and they confirm what everyone suspects: old gas pipes do leak a lot more than new ones. In order to effectively survey large areas, the pair attached methane-detecting sensors to Google's famous roving vehicles: Street View cars. They then sent these dual-purpose vehicles to Boston, Indianapolis and Staten Island, whose results you can see in the images after the break.
Google Street View cars have mapped methane gas leaks in big US cities
Google's Street View cars aren't just useful for scouting out a locale in advance -- they might be saving the planet, too. The vehicles have just helped the Environmental Defense Fund publish methane gas leak maps for Boston, Indianapolis and New York City's Staten Island. The Google cars roamed around cities using sensors that could detect both the location and scale of one of the dangerous leaks, driving by at least twice to make sure the results weren't a fluke. Depending on where you live, the data is either reassuring or scary; the older pipes in Boston and Staten Island have an abundance of leaks, while Indianapolis' more recent infrastructure is keeping the problems to a minimum.
Google and Microsoft are using the cloud to track climate change
Data.gov is getting a whole lot greener thanks to its new section dedicated to climate information. The new channel is the product of President Obama's Climate Data Initiative (PDF), and pulls information that can help predict the effects of climate change and prevent any damage that may result. The raw data comes from the likes of the Department of Defense, NASA and the US Geological Society, but probably isn't easy to grok for the average person. To help with that, Google and Microsoft have stepped in. Mountain View is donating 50 million hours of its Earth Engine's computing power -- the Global Forest Watch's backbone -- and is partnering with academics in the western US to produce a near real-time drought map and monitoring system. Redmond, on the other hand, has developed a tool (dubbed FetchClimate) that can both recall historical climate data and forecast future weather trends based on the stockpiles of information stored in Microsoft's Azure back-end. For example, the software giant says that this could allow state planners to predict extreme rainfall, preventing flood damage to infrastructure and transit lines as a result. These are still early days for the Initiative, but, as times goes on, more applications using its wealth of info will surely surface. For now, though, it's nice to see tech companies exploit government data instead of the other way around.
International science panel 95% sure global warming is humans' fault, urges 'substantial and sustained' greenhouse gas reduction
Global warming is almost certainly the fault of human beings, a new report by the United Nations climate panel states. It offers 95 percent certainty of that assertion, based on "some 2,500 pages of text and...millions of observations and over 2 million gigabytes of numerical data from climate model simulations," and it cites over 9,200 scientific papers (75 percent of which are from the last three years). The report also suggests "substantial and sustained" efforts to reduce greenhouse gas production; greenhouse gases (everything from water vapor to nitrous oxide) are the primary cause of the greenhouse effect, which destroys the Earth's protective ozone layer. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the main culprits causing the Earth's ozone to deteriorate. CO2 levels have risen by 40 percent "since pre-industrial times," much of which was absorbed by the Earth's oceans (about 30 percent), resulting in rising acidity levels. Moreover, due to that absorption, the oceans -- specifically the upper ocean (0 to 700 meters) -- have been warming since the 1870s. As one might expect, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the UN's climate change panel) suggests a greener lifestyle worldwide to help roll back the compound effects of global warming. A Tesla for each of us, perhaps? But even if we all go super green and massively cut back on greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, it sounds like humanity won't see the positive for quite some time. "As a result of our past, present and expected future emissions of CO2, we are committed to climate change, and effects will persist for many centuries even if emissions of CO2 stop," co-chair Thomas Stocker says.
Study says wind turbines raise surrounding area temperature, but only at night
Who said the butterfly effect couldn't apply to renewable energy? Though wind farms are considered pretty green on the energy-generating spectrum, it looks like they, too, have an impact on the planet. According to a study published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, turbines can raise the local temperature -- albeit slightly. From 2003 to 2011, researchers monitored satellite data for west-central Texas, which is home to 2,350-plus turbines and four of the world's largest wind farms. In that decade, scientists observed a temperature increase of 0.72 degrees in wind farm regions compared to areas without turbines. That warming trend was especially marked at night, when the temperature difference between the ground and the air is highest. The temperature increase was also higher in winter; researchers say that these cooler, windier conditions cause turbines to generate more electricity and therefore create more heat. Since the study didn't find any change in daytime temperatures, it looks like we don't have to ring the global warming alarm just yet.
Daily iPad App: NASA Visualization Explorer
The NASA Visualization app is your window into the world of NASA research. The app presents the latest NASA research news in an easy-to-digest format. Each article is written for the lay person and amateur scientist with images and video to complement the writing. Topics range from space-based exploration to climate change, another popular area of NASA research. The app itself is pleasantly arranged and can be viewed in either portrait or landscape mode. Each article has a captivating headline image pulled from NASA's impressive photography library. Articles can be viewed by selecting from an index or browsing the headlines individually. Navigation among articles is a bit awkward if you use the arrows,but you can always use the more familiar swiping gestures. The arrows are large and easy to tap, once you get used to them, though. The content is great. The articles are scientific enough to keep the amateur scientist interested, yet basic enough for the average person to understand. They are also topical and not obscure; you get to read about glaciers and solar flares! New articles appear every 2-3 days and a badge tells you how many new articles are available to read. Articles also include extra images and even video clips. The video supports Airplay so you can watch the clips on the big screen if you own an Apple TV. The NASA Visualization app also lets you share content via Facebook, Twitter, or email. You can copy the article's URL and even read it using Mobile Safari. The NASA Visualization app is a must-have for the NASA fan or science buff looking for something to read in their spare time. The app is available for the iPad only and requires iOS 4.3 or later. You can download it for free from the App Store.
Earth Hour starts at 8.30PM tonight, asks for sixty minutes of natural living
Time to don your eco-warrior armor, strap on your nature-loving helmet, and flick that big old... light switch. Yes, in honor of the WWF's Earth Hour, countries around the globe are tonight switching off non-essential lights and appliances for sixty minutes, with highlights including Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Burj Khalifa, and the Empire State Building all going dark in the hope of helping the planet stay green. Timed for 8.30pm your local time, this unorthodox event has already commenced with Australia, New Zealand, China and others doing their bit -- videos after the break -- and is just now hitting Eastern European borders. So, fellow earthlings, will you be among the projected one billion souls that go au naturel for an hour tonight? [Thanks, Pavel]
Diffus pollution dress is turned on by CO2, prefers a clean environment
We've seen LED-laced dresses before -- though sometimes we'd rather we hadn't -- but this one here is almost refined enough for us to consider wearing. Stitched together using conductive embroidery, hundreds of LEDs are connected to a CO2 detector and react to its input with anything from a slow pulsating glow to a blinking signal of doom. No mention of Morse code messages, unfortunately, but this is run by an Arduino chip -- which means programming malleability (read: near-limitless possibilities) should be built in. Just know that when you see the next Bond girl communicating with Daniel Craig via her haute tech outfit, we had the idea first. A closeup of the dress and processor awaits after the break.
MIT's Copenhagen Wheel turns your bike into a hybrid, personal trainer
You really can't fault MIT's branding strategy here. Debuting at the biggest climate change conference since Kyoto, its Copenhagen Wheel is a mixture of established technologies with the ambition to make us all a little bit greener and a little bit more smartphone-dependent. On the one hand, it turns your bike into a hybrid -- with energy being collected from regenerative braking and distributed when you need a boost -- but on the other, it also allows you to track usage data with your iPhone, turning the trusty old bike into a nagging personal trainer. The Bluetooth connection can also be used for conveying real time traffic and air quality information, if you care about such things, and Copenhagen's mayor has expressed her interest in promoting these as an alternative commuting method. Production is set to begin next year, but all that gear won't come cheap, as prices for the single wheel are expected to match those of full-sized electric bikes. Video after the break.
Rutgers' underwater roboglider crosses the Atlantic, claims to be on business trip
The so-called Scarlet Knight robot has this week completed a 225-day journey from the shores of New Jersey to the sandy beaches of Baiona in Spain -- fittingly the same port Christopher Columbus returned to after his first visit to the Americas -- aided only by a battery, ocean currents and its innate intelligence. Built by Rutgers University, the youthful robotic trailblazer performed a number of data gathering tasks as it went along, furnishing climate change researchers with more info on temperature levels, water salination and currents within the Atlantic Ocean. Now that it has been handed back to the US, the machine will be put up on display in the Smithsonian, so if you want a peek at the future of globetrotting that'll be the place to go.
