Green Diary

Lamborghini is a killer. It stands out. It’s a hobby. But still, the sales are depleting; it doesn’t matter even if the luxury charm of the car is intact. Now, as per the general reaction all over, the sculptors of one of the world’s most talked-about cars seems to be piggybacking on the green tag to save it from drowning along with the other auto giants.

Green Luxury

The Italian luxury sports carmaker has made certain changes by improving their V12 engine combustion - making the car lighter, introducing “stop/start” systems and reducing friction. By introducing the improved engine it can reach a maximum speed of 350kph, and by 2015, it is likely to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 35%. In addition to this, its main factory at Sant’Agata Bolognese near Bologna is being equipped with 17,000 square meters of solar panels on the roof, and other measures are being taken to cut the factory emissions by 30%. In the emission test drive, the car emits 495g of CO2 per kilometer, which is three times more than the emissions produced from a typical saloon and five times that from the lowest carbon petrol cars.

Talk about harvesting electricity wirelessly has been in the air for some time now. Apparently, it appears that it will become a reality sooner than expected.

Earlier this year, Joshua Smith at Intel and Alanson Sample at the University of Washington in Seattle had developed a temperature-and-humidity sensor which can be powered with the help of the signal emitted by 1 megawatt TV antenna which is 4.1 kilometer away and can generate 60 microwatts. And now, researchers at the Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, UK are working on technology that can charge Nokia phones from ambient radio waves, also known as electromagnetic radiation, from antennas, Wi-Fi transmitters, television broadcasts, microwave ovens and others as a source of power. The antenna and the receiver circuit are designed to pick up the frequencies as low as 500-megahertz up to 10 gigahertz and would convert the electromagnetic waves to an electrical current, and the second circuit takes the current to the battery to charge it. The energy produced is enough to keep a cellphone on standby mode. The current prototype of the device can harness up to 5 milliwatts of electricity. Researchers are eyeing a short-term goal of 20 milliwatts for now, which still is too little in comparison to the 50 milliwatts actually needed to power a cellphone.

What do you do when your old garments or clothes are not wearable? We normally throw them away, don’t we? Have you ever thought of reusing your old clothes to make a quilt out of them? In earlier times, people had enough money to buy new fabric from the stores but nowadays people are more environmentally friendly. Instead of
throwing out old torn clothes, people reuse them to make new clothes, quilts or other products. Recently Mary Emma Allen has reused the fabric from her daughter’s clothing to make a quilt out of it. Nowadays, people have rediscovered this art of making quilts and clothes from old garments.

As trash is increasing from year to year, it has been a worry for many countries. According to an article written in Foreign Policy magazine which covered the trash statistics, the world is throwing out 2 billion tons of garbage every year and the high-income residents generate 3.1 pounds of garbage per day and in Australia 1.6 million of computers are thrown in the landfills. That’s a lot of trash, isn’t it? This is the main concern for many countries to stop the trash going into the landfills, so proper guidelines should be made for trash and recycling. Recently San Francisco has taken an initiative to adopt strict guidelines for trash and recycling. If any person is seen throwing their stuff in a landfill, they will be charged a $500 fine from the trash collector.

Our green (so-called) celebrities are, actually, not as green as they claim to be. Since it’s always difficult to tread along the lines you never forget to preach to others, they’re no exceptions. Posing nude for a magazine, filing undeserved comments without ever realizing the worth, traversing overseas to attend environmental conferences, or just owning a hybrid vehicle is what they can do. Here, we’ve listed some of those most unwilling to walk the talk:

Celeb: Paul McCartney

Image: Amazonaws
Green Laurels: Paul, the advocate for environmental causes and animal rights, suggests vegetarianism to be the solution to cruelty and famine. Going vegetarian is a powerful tool to combat global warming and save the planet.

Not so green credentials: Paul invited huge criticism for having a Lexus LS 600h flown to him in Britain. It would have been sensible to ship it rather. The carbon emissions during this flight matched trekking the globe three times at least, says Gary Rumbold, the director of the British branch of co2balance. Perhaps accidentally, Paul missed the other side of environmentalism.

Earlier, most of the teenagers were not even in touch with words like “invention” and “innovation.” However, apparently, it is now the New Age mantra rightly proved by 15-year-old Javier Fernandez-Han. Javier has invented a complete algae energy system named Versatile. The main aim of his innovation, which has fetched him Ashoka’s Invent World Challenge award, is to meet the basic needs of the world’s poor.

The system comprises 12 technologies in six subsystems, which has the potential to treat waste, produce methane and bio-fuel, and is a source of livestock and human food production. In addition to this, it also generates oxygen, restores greenhouse gases and can be very beneficial to save the environment. The best part of this system is that it takes the waste from one part and uses it for another.

Due to the high prices of oil, one needs to find the alternative to petrol in future. Many engineers are working on it and some of them have succeeded. Recently four students of the Mohandas College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram have developed a Hydrogen Ethanol Combustion system (HECS), which is an alternative fuel system to do away with petrol. It took two months for the system to develop completely. The development of this system will help to increase the economy of India. The main aim of developing this system was to replace the fossil fuel as the system has high-energy content and delivers high output without compromising on efficiency.

The World Naked Bike Ride, scheduled on June 13, is sure to gather huge attention as eco-freaks decide to pedal the oil-crisis out in their respective first birthday suits. So the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR), organized and supported by various groups, urges all to be naked on their bikes on WNBR Day. With civility thrown to airs, marauding law and order just to satisfy personal whims, they’re sure to deter the masses away from driving the gas-guzzling autos. Though body-art is something to dispel the onlookers, I still believe that a sane visualization of nudity in an insane milieu is just impossible. Last week Miranda Kerr did it, this time whole of the world seems to catch the contagion.

Recently Sven Sauer has designed a stylish Blue-Crystal architecture on the offshore of Dubai, which gives you an idea of bright variety of water and its beauty. Sauer in his architecture has included ballrooms on five levels, underwater lounges and restaurants, designed into a three- dimensional iceberg, which connects water, light and sound together.

After letting you seep through the recycled shipping containers and the beer bottles, now it’s time to add wings to your imagination. Eco-fanatics, in a way or the other, keep on morphing discarded objects into something useful but, have you ever thought of airplane restitution. Isn’t it worthwhile to lend the dumped air-crafts with some utility even after they’ve stopped ruling the skies? Here, we’ve listed some of such salvages that are sure to inspire you:

1) Boeing 747 Restaurant:

Better Days: It was the second Boeing 747 ever made and the first one to take a commercial flight.

Now: While getting a makeover, the Boeing was reassembled to be used as a restaurant. The cockpit is converted into a seating space and has a bar trinket also. Though it’s not in a perfect shape even now, it still stands proud following a fabulous remodel.

Location: Seoul, South Korea