Meanwhile, for every post submitted, 10 trees will be planted with the goal of planting enough trees for a forest.

Basically, all you have to do is write about something green and submit it to the competition. They will plant 10 trees for you and you’ll go in the draw for $1000 and one of 3 Aveda gift packs (checkout Aveda).

To get involved, head over here for more information and a link to sign up.

Let me know if you submit any green articles.

An article which I read the other day was quite telling. A technology blog did a study into power consumption on servers running Windows and Linux operating systems. After some energy efficiency software tweaks, Linux came out to be more power efficient than it’s counterpart. Up to 12 percent as a matter of fact. When talking about servers, that represents a lot of energy!

Finding Energy Efficient Linux Hosting

As a webmaster and voracious nerd, I like to know that my industry is pulling its weight when it comes to the environment and building a sustainable future. Rackspace is a company that is doing just that - they’re selling environmentally friendly web servers to people. Dubbed as “Green Configurations”, these hosting packages use around 30 percent less energy.

Not only does the hardware consume less power, but the operating system is configurable to use a lot less power also.

Take a look at Greenspace for more information.

At first sight, this appears to be a great method for producing oil but since uptake on this source has been slow and relatively under the bridge, I’m a little skeptical about it. Nevertheless, many sources indicate that this source of oil is the only feasible way to replace petroleum completely.

Since I’m interested in this, I did a little reading to find out the benefits and downsides to this form of algae production. These are derived from Oilgae.com. Let’s take a look at the benefits first:

Advantages to Algae Oil Production

• No need to use crops such as palms to produce oil.
• Algae Oil Extracts can be used as livestock feed and even processed into ethanol.
• High levels of polyunsaturates in algae biodiesel is suitable for cold weather climates.
• Grows practically anywhere.
• Can reduce carbon emissions based on where it’s grown.

Disadvantages to Algae Oil Production

• Produces unstable biodiesel with many polyunsturates.
• Relatively new technology.
• Biodiesel performs poorly compared to it’s mainstream alternative.

Oil Produced by Algae Looks OK

So far, from what I’ve read, it appears as though this is a relatively safe source of oil and it’s nice to know that we do have a backup plan for when oil reserves run out.

For more information about algae oil production, have a read of these sites, or refer to my related posts:

Algae Oil Extraction

Algae Bio-diesel Produces Efficiently

Back a few months ago, mybabytree.org started selling the opportunity to buy a tree and watch it grow from Google Earth. I decided to buy one, and now I have just recieved confirmation that it has been planted.

This is really cool. Not only do I get the fuzzy warm feeling that I had a tree planted - I also get to watch it grow on Google Earth.

For instance, I know that it was planted at 6:39pm (Australian Eastern Standard time), it was approximately 23 degrees celsius and overcast when they did it. It was also planted in the Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan. However, I also get its exact coordinates! Check this out: (click to enlarge)

If I dig even deeper, I can even find out what the sky looked like that time:

Incredible isn’t it?

I’m really going to go and buy a tree from these guys next year if they do something similar.

How to Plant Your Tree

It’s really simple, just head on over to mybabytree.org and you can pay a couple of bucks to have your tree planted, under your name in the Indonesian rain forest.

Did You Plant a Tree?

Tell us about it in the comments, share your name so we can find your tree!

It’s obvious with this ad that the war continues between marketing consumerism and the mighty environment. Despite it’s strength, we’re slowly erroding away at the environment - so, who do you think will ultimately win?

Oppinion Time: Who Will Win Between Marketing and the Environment? Leave Your Comment Now…

ANZ, which was the source of funding of the $2 Billion dollar project (yes, $2,000,000,000), cut funding today as it recognised the toxicity of the project on the environment the inhabitant around the area. For those of you who don’t know about this, the Pulp Mill in Tasmania has caused a lot of environmental problems in the area. Let’s take a look at what the Pulp Mill does for the environment:

• Consumes millions of tonnes of logs each year
• Clears native forests
• Pollutes the air around the area
• Contributes massivley toward greenhouse gas emissions
• Releases organic and inorganic toxins into the Bass Strait

Now, you may think this seems a bit like me heralding doom and gloom, but it is very real and it’s affecting people around this area in unexpected ways.

• Nearby farms have been shutdown due to toxins in the area
• Forests have been consumed and many animals’ habitats have been lost - notwithstanding those of endangered species
• Respiratory diseases have increased, resulting in illness and even death of many people in the area
• The pristine environment of Tasmania has been tarnished as the quality declines
• Fisheries are put out of business as toxins leak into nearby bodies of water which harbour fish

There is a lot more to this case than I will cover here. SO I recommend you check out the Tasmania “No to Pulp Mill” website. Thankfully, since the funding has now been cut, things should recover. Let’s just hope the scarring of this pulp mill will not continue to impact the residents and habitats of those living down in Tasmania.

Why bother with face to face meetings when you can have a perfectly good holographic meeting? I mean, it reduces travel costs, means you can have a meeting on demand and you can reduce the amount of energy you waste in flights, car travel and taxiing. Perfect solution!

Petrol Prices and Fossil Fuels

It’s no surprise that petrol prices are climbing steadily from a diminishing supply. If we continue to use thes recources they will run dry - no doubt about that. We need to make the switch from combustion engines over toward renewable energy and environmentally friendly sources of energy. Since telecommunication networks all run on electricity, it’s possible to run them from alternative energy sources.

Renewable Energy Alternatives

If you encourage work from home, you can effectively power your operations from renewable energy sources. I’m assuming your energy company uses a portion of renewable energy sources as a part of its plan. Here are a handful of sources:

Solar Power

Solar Power can be based off solar stills or solar arrays. Whilst these babies cost a mint to setup, deploy and maintain, they produce no emissions whatsoever.

Hydro Power

These plants are quite noisy but as a renewable and clean source of energy, the trade off is quite simple. You local government can get free energy by installing hydro power turbines in their dam.

Fuel Cells

As I’ve covered before, this relatively new technology makes use of the abundant resources such as methanol and hydrogen. They’re ultimately clean and they provide a lot of power from batteries, that can power laptops and other communication devices on the road.

Wind Power

Perhaps the ultimate in renewable energy, wind turbines generate power from the wind. Currently China is trying to implement a fair amount of renewable energy in their power grid.

Carbon Offsets

If you still decide to travel around the country or the world for business, you might even like to take on carbon offsets. You can position yourself as the green choice in the market and create a sense of corporate responsibility.

STA Travel does carbon offsets over at their website, now.

The Verdict on Reducing Travel Energy Waste

So, try and see how your business or the business that you work for can effectively reduce travel costs and maximise the use of new telecommunications advances. I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised. It’s a cool new way to live, work and conduct business across the world.

Cooking Weeds and Tasty Recipes

This really intrigued me, so I decided to look into it myself. I came across a number of interesting sites that all discuss cooking with weeds from your garden. Some look kind of tasty but for the most part they look … err… interesting. Here’s a list of links that I found helpful:

Eating Weeds for Health - How weeds are good for your health

Edible Weeds and Recipes - A great article about weeds that are healthy and tasty

Species of Weed and Cooking Instructions - Types of weeds, recipes and how to cook them.

These sites were really very helpful in my search for weeds to eat. They provided hope for me that I could find a veritable farm in my backyard. Not so…

Don’t Eat Weeds You Can’t Verify

I did a bit of looking around and I couldn’t find a single website around weeds in my backyard. The weeds I found on these sites were all vastly different to what I have encountered before. So naturally, when I ventured into my backyard, all I found were the usual bunches of crows feet and other not-so-tasty looking plants. Since I couldn’t find any information about what Australian plants to eat, or positively identify the plants from websites, I decided to do something intelligent.

Not Eat Them. If I did, I could end up quite sick.

Eating Australian Weeds

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any websites out there that specifically dealt with Australian Weeds. That’s a pity for me as the Australian environment hosts a lot of poisonous plants and animals. Particularly those that have been introduced by European settlers.

Forward Australian Weed Eating Articles Onto Me

I realise this is a bit of a weird call to arms, but if you happen to find any information about eating weeds, please let me know via my contact page. I’ll happily post about it and give you credit for your help.

Rob
Your Local, Native Weed Eater

The days are numbered for the old internal combustion engine, that runs off petrol. Today we’re working towards adopting a new fuel that is renewable and bountiful. That fuel is methanol.

Efoy have developed a range of fuel cells for the environmentally concious market. They’re relatively light, portable and accessible to anyone willing to fork out $3500 Australian Dollars (minimum) over at Neco. Unfortunately, for the purpose of this article, I was unable to obtain an Efoy fuel cell for testing, but that doesn’t stop me from shedding a bit of light on this powerful new technology.

What the Efoy Fuel Cell Does

This brand of fuel cell doesn’t use the traditional hydrogen fuel as a source of power but methanol, a by-product in the production of ethanol. This means sugar cane farmers and sugar companies across the world will be the new OPEC for this type of fuel cell.

Basically, the fuel cell generates power and charges batteries located within the system. This provides stable power on demand.

No Need to Worry About Hydrogen

If you’re concerned about taking a tank of volatile hydrogen with you, you can probably feel a bit safer with the Efoy fuel cell technology. Since you’ll just be taking a bottle or two of methanol, you don’t have to worry about it any more than you do with petrol. That said, methanol does scare me in some regards.

Taking the Efoy Fuel Cell, Camping?

As a self confessed internet addict, this would be a perfect accomplice for taking camping. You could bring your laptop along with you on a trip and

Plane Trips / Cafe Visits Efoy Fuel Cell, Style

Unfortunately, this is not one of those things you can take with you down to the local cafe to power your laptop. Fuel cells are still, much too large for every-day practical use, despite recent advancements (namely Toshiba’s smallest fuel cell). Realistically, you’re not going to cart around an 8kg package and methanol containers to match.

Let’s not even talk about the practicality of taking this through an airport terminal! After liquids have been banned, they’re certainly not going to let you aboard with 10 liters of methanol.

Who Needs an Efoy Fuel Cell?

If anyone needs one of these cells, it would have to be the outdoor tourism business. If you’re needing to power a computer, lighting setup, communications system or any other electrical component that chews through serious power, one of these Fuel Cells is for you.

Next on the list would be people using mobile homes. Stick one of these babies in your caravan and you’ll be powered on methanol for days. Combine that with solar power and you have a pretty solid system in place.

Where to Find the Efoy Fuel Cell?

Efoy has a website which you can browse around here. Although, if you’re looking to purchase one of these, you should take a look at neco. Neco is one of my favourite eco-super stores.

One of the hot topics on for debate over the past decade or so has been genetically modified foods.

People claim they’re bad for you and others claim they’re bad for the environment, whilst another group argues for Genetically modified foods. I’m going to have to take stance with those arguing FOR GM foods. But first, let me explain:

Bad For The Environment?

Sure GM foods can be more resilient and over-take their non GM counterparts, but surely it’s not too bad a problem if these crops are to be liscensed out to specific farmers. As long as those farmers keep it under control we shouldn’t have any problems that reduce global biodiversity.

Bad For Your Health?

Next, they can’t really be bad for you either, they’re fundamentally based on nature and scientists put these plants through rugged testing and it’s all based on solid research and empirical knowledge. If anything, they are probably better suited to us, if scientists take the necessary measures to get them right.

So, why are people so worried about Genetically Modified foods?

What is your stance on the issue?