Green news from today’s papers.
Street directory goes green. Map publisher UBD has begun selling what it calls Australia’s first green street directory – with strong sales apparently, according to The Sydney Morning Herald:
In the 2009 Sydney directory, the standard road maps are printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink, which has a reduced carbon footprint. The covers have biodegradable laminate coating. Motorists can read energy-saving tips developed with the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change….
In an interesting move for a company that relies on motorists for sales, the directory, with a 30,000 print run, “also includes a ‘no excuse zone’ covering central Sydney outlining cycling times to the CBD.” By appealing to the two wheel brigade, perhaps they’re carving a smart new niche for themselves.
Seeding the ocean… maybe not such a good idea after all. Ever eager to find new ways of absorbing carbon from the overloaded atmostphere, people have started looking to the seas. But the science behind the already contentious idea of artificially boosting the ocean’s carbon-sucking abilities by promoting algal growth is being questioned. New Scientist explains:
A new study confirms that iron-enriched waters do, as hoped, encourage more carbon to be stored on the ocean floor. But the efficiency of artificial iron fertilisation could be as much as 50 times lower than previous estimates.
In some oceans, the Southern Ocean in particular, phytoplankton growth is limited by the amount of iron in the water. The hope is that by dumping iron into the water, we could stimulate plankton blooms that will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When the plankton die and drop to the ocean floor, they should drag carbon down with them.
The question is, how much carbon gets dragged down and stored on the sea floor and how much is recycled higher up in the water column?
Bodacious renewables. Looks like a datacenter powered by the tides isn’t too far off from being a reality, saysTreehugger. “No, it doesn’t include floating an offshore datacenter – but it’s still a cool idea”
4 Comments
Actually if you pursue some googling of Michael Mobbs you will see some clever thinking on really turning actual streets in suburbs green.
Not only his famous sustainable house in Chippendale where he disconnected the water mains (!), but apparently he’s busy working on an eco development at Dunbogan on the Camden Haven River. He talks about lowering the temperature of streets with tree cover – how true, just cycling it’s too damn hot out of the shade in Sydney. Tree cover, massively under rated method of mitigating thermal islands. Green roofs too are well past time.
Dunbogan interests me alot because there were 3 attempts to build over koala habitat there on the serene Camden Haven and I was a lawyer rep for the Total Environment Centre back in 1992 when a Commission of Inquiry refused a canal development. Then Bob Carr on election 1995 killed it off for good.
I thought of how Mobbs was getting a green building consultancy climbing on our collective backs when he was talking on ABC radio. Anyway he’s earned it – so good luck to him.
Here’s a few handy links I have just noticed:
http://www.camdenhavenecovillage.com.au/contact.html
http://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/
Can’t vouch for them but Mobbs has a good rep.
I did Google Thanks Tom and found an SMH article that talked about Mobbs planting edible plants on nature strips.
Must say, it’s an appealing concept with raspberries, rocket, native mint and passionfruit vines apparently climbing up telephone poles. Mother Nature asserting herself in the urban jungle.
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