Whole Travel Blog

The Obama administration released a report last week that outlines anticipated temperature, rainfall, sea level and other environmental changes for the rest of the century. Not only does the report cover the usual agricultural and food production problems, it discusses heat-related illnesses and deaths, weather patterns, wildfires, and flooding. What is currently predicted as a 100-year storm will likely occur every 10 years, significantly overcoming our engineering safety designs. One section reads:

“Escalating exposures to catastrophic weather events, coupled with private insurers’ withdrawal from various markets, are placing the federal government at increased financial risk as insurer of last resort.”

Every 10 years instead of every 100??

With all the political noise-making recently about global climate change, let’s hope the world gets a plan in place to help mitigate these risks and potential impacts. You can download the entire report here.

General Electric and the Idaho National Laboratory announced last week that they have received $2 million from the Department of Energy to further research and develop a technology that converts heat from industrial engines into electricity, potentially making engines 20-40% more efficient and reducing carbon emissions.

Don't waste that waste heat!

Researchers in Germany and New York have been working to improve the Organic Rankine Cycle so that they may effectively capture and convert waste heat, but technology to date has not been cost competitive. By using an evaporator instead of a working fluid, GE’s new design can capture heat from relatively small sources and convert it to electricity for a wide range of applications.

Energy-saving measures like turning off the lights when you leave a room, turning down the air conditioning in the summer or throwing on a sweater instead of turning up the heat in the winter, are some pretty simple, hassle-free habits to adopt to keep costs down and your carbon footprint light.

However, unplugging and replugging appliances, televisions, and power cords before and after each use can admittedly become a dreaded practice and seem like it’s more trouble than it’s worth. A great solution is the Smart Strip Power Strip which can ’sense’ the flow of electricity and can then turn off appliances that aren’t being used.