Children's Association for Nature » Sustainable Technology

Wind Power

Mina — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:37:43 +0000

Everyone has seen pictures of wind turbines— those sleek, white, three-bladed giants, usually standing in a group in a green field. When you hear about wind turbines, unless those are specifically implied, that is not what should come to mind. They are noisy eyesores which, though producing renewble energy, take a ton of energy to build. Also, it is not sustainable to have a whole field of them , spaced so widely apart so they have turning space. It comes to mind that they have similar problems to monoculture farming, for example: Monocultures (crops of only one plant) use up only the water and nutrients from a specific soil depth, and only the space from a specific height. Likewise, that type of fixed-height wind turbine uses only the space and the wind from a specific height.

There are many cutting edge wind technologies out there; most of them are silent, beautiful, able to be installed in an urban setting, and do not kill migratory bats and birds. The majority of these cost hundreds of dollars and can power a whole house.

Another option is making your own turbine, maybe even from recycled materials for that extra greenness. There are many places you can find instructions. MAKE: magazine, Instructables, and many more locations on the ‘net. Sometime I’m even going to post wind-turbine making instructions right here on the CAN website!

If you want to learn about the inner workings of wind turbines— ALL turbines, in fact, click here.

Permeable Sidewalks

Mina — Fri, 22 May 2009 04:22:56 +0000

Why are permeable sidewalks (sidewalks that allow water to drain through them) a sustainable option?

With normal sidewalks, water washes off all of the chemicals that lie around on our roads and sidewalks. Then all this dirty water goes back into the water system. If the sidewalk is permeable, water filters through it dispersing the chemicals in a way the environment can cope with them and returning, clean, to the water system.

Our sidewalks collect air pollution that was taken out of the skies by rain, rubber and other materials that make the soles of our shoes (ever wondered where the soles of your shoes go when the wear away?), they collect gasoline from cars and they collect loads of other nasty stuff.

Permeable sidewalks help to preserve water, our #1 most important and crucial resource. Without it we would never have come about, and without it we are in serious trouble.

Biomimicry

Mina — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:53:42 +0000

Biomimicry is basically developing technology that mimics, or copies, what we find in nature. There are many examples of this, some are old ideas and some are very modern. The first ideas to build flying machines came from birds, but that was a long time ago. Now people are coming up with ways of making solar panels that mimic photosynthesis (the process through which plants produce food using sunlight and water).

As well as inspiring amazing inventions, biomimicry is also a source of practical solutions to everyday problems. One example of this is how when concern arose of calcium buildup causing blockage in water pipes, the solution was found in shellfish. The shellfish build up their shells from calcium, and because their shells stop growing at some point they are able to stop the calcium buildup using proteins. This, when applied to the water pipes, worked.

Biomimicry does not always involve things in nature that are visible to the unaided eye. The use of cell-structure geometry has both aesthetic (pleasing to look at, beautiful), ergonomic (made for comfort), and economic (saving money) virtues.

Perhaps nature offers us the knowledge of how to protect it if we care to look.