<![CDATA[io9: Mega Environmentalism]]> http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: Mega Environmentalism]]> http://io9.com/tag/mega environmentalism http://io9.com/tag/mega environmentalism <![CDATA[Planet Hulk's Mad Genius Has A Radical Solution To Global Warming]]> We loved Greg Pak's robot-themed anthology film Robot Stories, and now he's crafted a bizarre, clever short film set in our eco-apocalyptic near future. "Mister Green" is one of 11 movies about future America that you can watch for free. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5488593&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Splendor of Greenland's Ice Sheet Crumbling Away]]> For the past several years, scientists have been tracking the transformation of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Now it's shrinking faster than ever, and a new study proves it has lost 1500 gigatons of mass from 2000 to 2008. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5403828&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Future of Vancouver Takes Shape]]> In the misty distance is the gleaming sphere of Science World, and in the foreground is Vancouver's ultra-green Olympic Village, which planners say will hold 16,000 people by 2020. They'll eat food grown on roofs and drink reclaimed rainwater. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5401894&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[10 Ways To Rescue The Climate, According To Science Fiction]]> Hot enough for ya? Our crazy fossil-fuel orgy is driving the planet's temperatures through the roof. Good thing science fiction books and movies have come up with 10 can't-fail solutions (well, maybe they'd work) for stopping global warming. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5352437&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Let's Start the Offshore Logging Lobby with Robots]]> Lumber companies are calling for offshore clear-cutting, logging forests that have been underwater for decades. And environmentalists have discovered the only loggers they could love. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5124211&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Massive Flood of Toxic Ash Swallows Tennessee Area, Heads to Mississippi River]]> A pond of fly ash sludge at a Tennessee coal plant was breached earlier this week, and the toxic ash flooded out over 2.6 million cubic yards of the local landscape. This makes it officially larger than the Exxon Valez spill in terms of sheer size, though there's a big difference between the effects of this fly ash slurry and those of liquid oil in the ocean. The levels of toxins in fly ash and liquid oil are comparable. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5117972&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Photon Farming in the Vast Solar Fields of Northern China]]> This is an aerial view of China's future — vast solar farms that developers hope will fuel the industrial nation, as well as cut down on its choking smog problem. This solar photovoltaic power station, the largest of its type in northwest China, is currently under construction in Xining of Qinghai Province. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5075133&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Get Those Electrons Into A Seminar, Stat!]]> Environmentalism is such a downer, with all the doomsaying and finger-wagging. So maybe it's a good thing that globalization's cheerleader, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, has turned his upbeat, can-do goshdarnit style to green issues with his latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need A Green Revolution — And How It Can Renew America. Friedman faces up to the downside of a global surge in the energy-guzzling middle class, and offers a variety of solutions, including using the U.S. Army's experience in "out-greening Al Qaeda." But my favorite Friedman gee-whiz idea: the "Energy Internet." More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5069480&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[A Fleet of 1500 Cloud-Seeding Ships Could Stop Global Warming, Say Scientists]]> Using a fleet of 1500 wind-powered ships that cruise the oceans autonomously, spraying massive plumes of salt water into the air, we could reverse the effects of global warming within years. So says John Latham, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, U.S., who has worked with colleagues to develop a fairly extensive plan for reengineering the climate. How would salt water spray lower the temperature of the oceans enough to make a difference? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5046852&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Scifi's Greatest Space Builders — And How We'll Copy Them]]> Click to viewOne day, when you hear someone is a construction worker, you'll have to ask whether he or she wears a spacesuit on the job. We're already assembling massive structures in space - like the International Space Station and Dextre, the "monster" robot that got built in space this past spring - but space construction will soon become more and more common. So it's a good thing science fiction is full of awesome examples of space construction, from Asimov to Star Trek. Space construction from science fiction: Science fiction is full of lavish descriptions of objects being built or assembled in space, from small robots to structures the size of a solar system. And many mega-structures described in science fiction must have been built in space, since they're too big to have been put together inside a gravity well. Probably the most famous instance of outer space construction comes from Star Trek. There's a huge controversy over whether the USS Enterprise NCC 1701 (without any bloody A, B, C, D, or E) was built in space or not. And the long-simmering debate was boosted into a roaring flame-war by the teaser trailer for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie, which appeared to show the starship being constructed on Earth. There's evidence on both sides: supposedly Trek creator Gene Roddenberry stated the Enterprise was built in orbit, but there are also sources that said it was built in San Francisco. But we do know the earlier Enterprise, the NX-01, was built in space, and so were the NCC-1701-D and USS Voyager. Here's a picture of the Utopia Planitia shipyards, from Memory Alpha:There are also tons of other shipyards in space, including the famous "Mon Calamari Shipyards" and several other orbital shipyards in Star Wars. Pictured at the top of this post are the orbital shipyards of Kuat, from the Wookiepedia. And of course, the massive Death Star had to be constructed in space. Science fiction is full of space elevators and other "megastructures" that must be built, at least partly, in space. Arthur C. Clarke's Fountains Of Paradise and Charles Sheffield's The Web Between The Worlds both involve a kind of "skyhook" or orbital tower, which connects the Earth's equator to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. In the Clarke book, eventually five more "spokes" are built from Earth, to form a structure resembling a ship's wheel. Other space megastructures, such as ringworlds, discworlds, Dyson Spheres and artificial planets, would be impossible, or near-impossible, to build inside an existing gravity well. In the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, we get to see the massive planet-building area hidden in hyperspace and accessible through an opening in the planet Magrathea: In Asimov's I, Robot, the robot QT (aka Cutie) deduces that he's superior to the humans, partly because he has no memory of being assembled in space, from parts built on Earth. As far as he knows, he just turned up in space, fully formed.
"Something made you, Cutie," pointed out Powell. "You admit yourself that your memory seems to spring full-grown from the absolute blankness of a week ago. I'm giving you the explanation. Donovan and I put you together from the parts shipped us." Cutie gazed upon his long, supple fingers in an oddly human attitude of mystification. "It seems to me that there should be a more satisfactory explanation than that. For you to make me seems improbable."
In R. Cordwainer Smith's "Think Blue, Count Two," he specifies that the massive solar sails which people use to sail across the universe were constructed in the vaccuum:
Before the great ships whispered between the stars by means of planoforming, people had to fly from star to star with immense sails - huge films assembled in space on long, rigid, coldproof rigging.
Real-life applications: So what are the real-life applications of the idea of building in space? We've already proved we can put together a space station in orbit, but we're not likely to be building dozens of those any time soon. It's entirely possible that more robots like Dextre, with complex and multi-jointed arms, will be built in space to handle satellites and space junk. We're definitely not likely to be building space elevators, Dyson Spheres or orbital stations any time soon. But here are a few other ideas that are being batted around for big space construction projects. Some of them relate to mega-environmentalism. Some people claim we can halt global warming in its tracks by building mega-structures, such as space mirrors, or giant nanofiber "sun shades," in orbit. These would deflect some of the sunlight reaching Earth, and they'd need to be constructed in space. Also, a mooted solar power satellite, which would collect solar energy from orbit and beam it back to Earth, would almost certainly need to be constructed in orbit. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency wants to have one of these up and running by 2030. Also, when we get around to building long-range spaceships to explore or colonize outside our solar system, we'll have to build them in space. Some observers argue that these large ships could be constructed using some Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) as raw materials and maybe also as a shell for human habitats. But a lot sooner than that, big and expensive satellites may be constructed in orbit, to save on launching costs. Last year, some small Japanese "spider robots" successfully crawled out along a net linking three satellites in orbit. They only functioned for a short time, but scientists saw the test as an important proof of concept. In a few years, we could be launching big antennas and solar panels into space in pieces, using small, cheap rockets. And then tiny robots could assemble them in space. So for the sake of the human race, let's hope J.J. Abrams' Trek movie comes down on the side of the Enterprise having been built in orbit. Our future as a species may depend on getting people used to the idea of large-scale outer space construction. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5038091&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Earth Systems Science Agency — To the Rescue!]]> Members of the Earth Systems Science Agency can predict the future, monitor the weather and control satellites. They have a loosely-defined connection to the U.S. government and several cutting-edge labs, and possess "geologic, biologic, hydrologic and geospatial expertise." Whoa, is this new super-team going to knock the Avengers and JLA right out of the sky as they defend the Earth? Nope, the Earth Systems Science Agency is actually real. U.S. scientists and federal officials hope it will become a mega-environmental group that can mobilize and quickly respond to ecological threats. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5022043&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Eco Nightclub Powered by Boogie Energy]]> A nightclub opening early next month in England is going to save the future — but only if you boogie as hard as you can on their energy-absorbing dance floor. The floor is made from a flexible material that bends as people pound it with their dancing feet. As you can see in this image, the dancing squashes special blocks under the floor that convert motion into into energy that powers the club's lighting and sound system. So maybe Emma Goldman was right about how revolutions should always include dancing? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5018477&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Public Transit Projects that Should Have Been]]> Urban history is littered with the dead bodies of scrapped public transit projects. When eager commuters and car companies turned the automobile into the most popular form of transit in the world in the twentieth century, many cities set aside plans for expanding their public transit systems, such as the electric tram system planned for regions feeding into Melbourne, Australia. In some cases, city planners actually ripped out existing transit systems like Los Angeles' once-enormous cable car network. What would these cities and others look like if their public transit systems had continued to thrive and we lived in a world without cars? We've got five alternate urban histories of public transport for you below. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=380666&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[A Solar-Powered Death Ray]]> A Spanish company has built a "Solar Power Tower" near Seville that could easily become the world's first orbital solar death ray. It generates electricity via sunlight without photovoltaic cells, using 624 mirrors called heliostats to focus sunlight on a receiver at the top of the tower. The system generates temperatures hotter than the surface of Mercury. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=379226&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Power Your Home with Helium Balloons]]> Need to get some quick-and-pretty solar energy to your house, but don't want to mount a bunch of heavy solar panels on your roof? Now you can start powering up with these gorgeous, lightweight solar balloons. As long as you've got a helium tank handy, says inventor Joseph Cory, just one or two of these balloons made with photovoltaic solar cells could power your whole house. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=378537&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Time Travel for Eco-Tourists]]> If you could time travel back 400 years to see the thick, green forests and clear streams of pre-urban New York City, would it change the way you feel about the environment today? Ecologist Eric Sanderson thinks so. In preparation for the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's arrival in New York's harbor, he's been putting together a series of computer-generated images of New York as it was four centuries ago, based on old maps and extrapolations from ecological data. He calls it Project Manhatta, and you can see an image from it above, showing Times Square 400 years ago and today. Why would an ecologist want to time travel rather than recycle? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=363901&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Giant Machines That Eat Garbage (and the People Who Feed Them)]]> Garbage disposal factories are the unsung heroes of the giant machine world. With everybody excited about Pixar's upcoming garbage robot flick Wall-E, it's time to meet some real-life garbage machines. Some are glistening high tech towers, like this waste disposal/power plant in Vienna. Others are surprisingly low-tech. Check out our gallery of fantastic and grossomatic waste disposal factories — and the workers who tend them — from around the world. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=354504&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[A Water Bottle for Giant Monsters Showed Up Yesterday in Sao Paulo]]> No, it's not really a wine cooler for Cloverfield. It's an art installation by Eduardo Srur on the banks of Sao Paulo's most polluted river, which was also the recent site of a toxic fashion show. Srur doesn't want to make the Tiete river chic, though — he wants to warn people of the dangers of pollution from non-biodegradable stuff like plastic bottles. We've got more images of this cool mega-art below. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=351291&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Giant Tree-Powered Machine Supplies Energy, Air to Madrid]]> This industrial environmentalist building/machine in Madrid is packed with solar cells and trees, and will apparently generate enough energy to sell to local electric companies. Called an "Air Tree," and created by Urban Ecosystems, the mega-device is supposed to have a significantly beneficial impact on the climate. Plus it just looks seriously badass, as you can see in these wide-angle views. More »
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