Jenny Cottle
A UN study launched in recent days has given some good news – changing to a world of clean energy is extremely affordable. To quote Professor Ottmas Edenhofer who led the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “It doesn’t cost the world to save the planet.”
Even the CEO of international corporation Unilever has said that without “determined climate action by government and business, corporations will find their profits under pressure.”
One of the cheapest ways to put the brakes on climate change is to stop using fossil fuels, but while we are in this transition we need to make efforts to reduce our use. This includes reducing waste, because apart from energy used to make many products, there is also the energy to transport them for sale and transport them for disposal.
Here are some recent innovations which could help reduce climate change.
Subway wind power. In a pilot study the Los Angeles Metro rail system harvested enough wind energy to power 12 Californian homes for a whole year, preventing the release of more than 27 tonnes of CO2 in emissions. This was from just one turbine, in one location – imagine if they could be placed in multiple locations in subway systems around the world!
Thorium salt reactors. Nuclear reactors which run on liquid salt can be fuelled using nuclear waste. These reactors can be built in all sizes, can produce large amounts of energy and can not melt down.
And speaking of waste, technology is helping deal with our most intimate waste, sewage. It starts in the toilet, which in their current form are not sustainable, as water and sewage inferstructure use electricity as part of many sewage processing systems.
In 2011, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation lauched the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge. Innovative thinkers have come up with systems that don’t connect with public sewer systems or use imported water or energy.
The Sol-Char toilet, developed by the University of Colorado is a solar powered oven that incinerates waste and turns it into a safe charcoal that could be used in barbeques.
A toilet developed by a Beijing company uses super bouncy balls to mash the solid waste which is then dried by a solar heater to turn it into fertilizer.
The National University of Singapore developed a toilet which is flushed and flattened by a conveyor belt powered by a turnstile door used to enter and exit the toilet. It is then exposed to solar powered heat and converted into fertilizer.
An all in one toilet, bidet and sink developed by the California Institute of Technology breaks down waste into hydrogen and fertilizer which can be turned into fuel cells.
And finally, whilst it may not prevent climate change, a lovely use of technology, children, who are too sick to leave a hospital in Texas, have been lent Google Glass so that they can take virtual tours of Houston Zoo.
thoriummsr.com/intro/facts-about-thorium-molten-salt-reactors/
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