karen chen, author at planet forward - 克罗地亚vs加拿大让球

throwback thursday: hurricane katrina’s impact

thu, 03 sep 2015 16:00:00 +0000

this august marks the 10-year anniversary of hurricane katrina, which remains one of the deadliest and costly hurricanes to ever hit the united states. when the hurricane hit, the resulting surge breached the levees of new orleans and caused flooding in 80 percent of the city. katrina’s environmental impact continues today: the region’s wetlands were heavily damaged, and many coastlines were rearranged as beaches were washed into the sea and dunes leveled. thousands of homes, businesses, factories and other infrastructure were damaged, broken into enormous piles of solid waste, and toxic chemicals and heavy metals were released from destroyed household bottles, industrial drums, shattered pipes and more. oil and gas also were spilled from broken ships, toppled drill rigs and vehicles. it resulted in 1,800 confirmed fatalities and one million people displaced over six states, and $108 billion in damages. as new orleans resident and comedian harry shearer explains in a compelling interview with planet forward, extreme weather events now occur more frequently than ever before. this means that communities must now adapt to risks of water contamination, flooding and sea level rise. supporting innovations in green infrastructure is a good place to start.

(image at top: flooding in new orleans four days after hurricane katrina made landfall on the gulf coast. credit: u.s. navy photo by gary nichols/wikimedia commons)

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your tuesday tip: how to make friends — and help the planet

tue, 01 sep 2015 16:00:01 +0000

looking to become a sustainability leader on your campus? one way to get hands-on is to join or start a student organization. it’s easy to get involved in groups such as campus kitchens, which prepares and delivers meals to the community after recovering food from cafeterias, and net impact, which provides a network and resources to inspire emerging leaders to work in jobs dedicated to bringing a social and environmental lens to traditional business roles.

from organizations focused on energy action to sustainable development, there’s something out there for you. the association for the advancement of sustainability in higher education has this list of student-focused campus sustainability organizations.

another way to help — from any campus? contribute to planet forward! anyone can be a storyteller. check it out!

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six things you missed this summer

mon, 31 aug 2015 16:00:00 +0000

if you were out watching summer blockbusters, enjoying outdoor concerts or lounging in the sun while on holiday, and haven’t kept up with the news the past few months, we’re here to fill you in! here are six stories you might have missed this summer:

1. community-funded journalism could be a boon for sustainability reporting through report for america

(image: roger h. goun)

a proposal, funded by the ford foundation, introduced the concept of “report for america,” a new model for local journalism that would borrow from the tradition of national and community service programs like teach for america and peace corps. this is important because the current ad-based business model supports content generation in a way that fails to encourage reporting that has limited appeal to advertisers and readers — for example, a series of articles about brownfield redevelopment may have high civic value even if it generates few page views. if funded, a program like this would support community-based coverage and fill gaps in media in an efficient manner that benefits everybody.

2. more than half the world’s biggest aquifers are disappearing

ground-water flow paths vary greatly in length, depth and travel time from points of recharge to points of discharge in the groundwater system. (image: t.c. winter, j.w. harvey, o.l. franke and w.m. alley, courtesy of wikimedia commons)

new nasa satellite data shows that 21 of the world’s 37 largest aquifers are being depleted faster than they are being replenished. aquifers supply 35 percent of the fresh water used by humans worldwide. but underground water availability is not infinite, and aquifers can take thousands of years to fill up and only slowly recharge with water from snowmelt and rains.

3. the pope gives a moral call to climate change action

(image: korean culture and information service by jeon han, courtesy of wikimedia commons)

a papal encyclical released in june called for unified global action on environmental degradation and climate change through a radical transformation of politics, economics and individual lifestyles. in the 184 page document, pope francis describes exploitation and destruction of natural resources, and critiques the “throwaway culture” created by modern consumerism. he explains the bible teaches humans to “till and keep” the world — that humans must cultivate and protect, rather than claim absolute dominion over, the earth.

4. the earth is in the middle of the sixth mass extinction, but this time it’s our fault

the quagga is an extinct sub-species of plains zebra that lived in south africa, until it was overhunted in the late 19th century. (image: frederick york/wikimedia commons)

extinctions are a natural part of life on earth — background rates of extinction are typically 9 vertebrate extinctions per 100 years. however, due to deforestation, overhunting and pollution, the global climate today is changing faster than ever before. because of these insurmountable challenges to life on earth, even the “fittest” of animal and plant species cannot adapt quickly enough to survive. since 1900, around 500 types of vertebrates are believed to have gone extinct — this means the earth is losing mammal species 20 to 100 times faster than usual.

5. climate change is a ‘medical emergency’

the air pollution hovers over cairo in 2008. (image: nina hale)

a new report from the lancet commission on health and climate change argues that climate change could undermine the last 50 years of gains in global public health. the report outlines direct effects of changing climate patterns such as heat waves and extreme weather events, as well as indirect impacts such as changing patterns in the spread of vector-borne diseases such as malaria. after explaining the urgency of the issue, it also outlines mitigation strategies that could minimize the health impact of climate change, such as making cities more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly.

6. james hansen and other nasa scientists publish an eye-raising report on sea level rise

one prediction of where rising sea levels will end up at cottesloe beach, perth western australia. (image: go_greener_oz)

nasa scientist james hansen and 16 of his colleagues published a bombshell paper arguing that just a 2 degree celsius increase in global temperature would raise the possibility of a more rapid rate of sea level rise in this century than forecast by the u.n.’s intergovernmental panel on climate change. the study states that this faster rate of sea level rise could lead to a number of climate change “feedbacks” that would shut down the oceans’ circulation, stratify the polar seas with warmer waters trapped below cold surface layers, increase the temperature difference between low and high latitudes, and ultimately generate stronger storms.

(image at top: grand velas riviera maya)

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4 areas of solar tech to get excited about

tue, 21 jul 2015 19:41:39 +0000

when it comes to renewable energy, solar energy really shines. for example, the u.s. energy information agency projects that in the u.s., utility-scale solar capacity will have increased by 90% between 2014 and 2016. in fact, in 2014, a record 40gw of solar power was installed globally, pushing the world’s total solar capacity to 100 times the level it was in 2000. that being said, . as the solar industry grows, scientists and businesses have been thinking up new ways to reduce cost, increase efficiency, improve aesthetics and create options for off-grid solar. i researched some of these innovations, and here’s what i’ve found.

1. harnessing new materials to lower cost

(a fine perovskite specimen for magnet cove. this miniature piece is covered with highly lustrous and sharp, pseudocubic, brown crystals to 5 mm. old-time material. ex. edward braiman collection. photo by rob lavinsky, irocks.com.)

people in the solar energy industry have been grappling with apparent tradeoff between efficiency and cost — for example, second generation “thin film” pv cells are cheaper to produce than first generation crystalline silicon ones, but are less efficient. one material that’s been creating waves in the scientific community is perovskite, a crystalline organometal, comprised mostly of calcium titanate. perovskite deposits are found all over the world, and it costs significantly less to obtain than silicon does. however, its light absorbing and semiconducting capabilities are potentially even more efficient than silicon — traditional silicon-based solar panels use materials that are at least 180 micrometers thick, but perovskite panels that are are less than one micrometer thick can capture the same amount of energy.

2. innovations to increase efficiency

over the past decade, researchers have focused on making strides in efficiency for solar cells — mass market pv panels have on average 15-16% efficiency, while conventional electricity generation converts about a third of a fossil fuel’s potential energy into usable energy.

tandem solar cells use more than one semiconductor material to convert the sun’s light into electricity more efficiently than a single semiconductor would: for example, silicon is good at absorbing photons at the top of the solar energy spectrum, while perovskite tends to capture lower infrared photons. combining the two, then, allows the cell to absorb a larger range (up to 50% more!) of solar energy. similarly, researchers at the university of utah, too, placed a layer of gallium indium phosphide and a layer of gallium arsenide — a “polychromat” — on top of a conventional photovoltaic device, which increased efficiency by 16 percent.

efficiency is also linked with flexibility: the more surfaces you can place solar cells on, the more possibilities there are to harness the power of the sun.

(highly dense vertical arrays of nanowires made from silicon and titanium oxide, measuring 20 microns. photo by lawrence berkeley national lab.)

researchers have been looking into using flexible solar cells made of nanowires, which are like tiny hairs made from various rare materials that are 10 to 100 nanometers wide and up to five microns long. due to its radial geometry, producers have greater design freedom in creating pv cells using this material system, while also taking advantage of the fact that cells made of nanowires can maximize light absorption and could theoretically achieve 40 percent efficiency.

(final installation and layout of uni-solar ovonic’s thin film flexible solar pv panels. photo by fieldsken ken fields.)

another breakthrough is in thin film technology: second generation “thin film” pvs harness thin films of various minerals to maximize efficiency, and these panels have gone from low single digit efficiencies to nearly matching silicon. perovskite in particular has shown promise because of an upcoming “spray-on process” which would allow perovskite to be applied in a thin uniform layer on almost any surface, meaning solar panels could be mounted on non-flat surfaces that would not be possible with silicon panels — from small personal electronics to cars.

3. transparent solar

(michigan state university doctoral student yimu zhao holds up a transparent luminescent solar concentrator module. photo courtesy yimu zhao/msu today.)

another barrier to large-scale solar power is aesthetics: solar panels can be pretty intrusive, and ugly.

researchers at michigan state university have worked to create a fix for that. they’ve made transparent solar panels by utilizing a transparent luminescent solar concentrator, which consists of organic salts that absorb non-visible wavelengths of uv and infrared light and guide this light to the edge of the concentrator, where thin strips of conventional pv solar cells then convert the light to electricity. as of april 2015, an mit startup, ubiquitous energy, is working to bring these transparent panels to market.

another company, solarwindow, is developing coatings made of organic materials which create electricity on see-through glass and flexible plastics. these coatings are still in development and not on the market, but have been undergoing testing of their durability in an effort to meet or exceed warranty periods for commercial-grade insulated glass units installed on tall towers.

4. alternatives to the grid

one of the biggest problems with large-scale solar is that not only are the batteries used to store electricity (grid energy storage) expensive, but also a lot of electricity is lost in transmission from the solar panels to external storage. researchers at ohio state have created an elegant solution to this problem: a lithium battery that recharges via a built-in solar cell. according to the researchers, using this battery will be 25% cheaper and 20% more efficient than traditional grid energy storage.

(housewives in a rural area of nepal use a solar tuki, a rechargeable solar lighting system, which they use in the early morning as they milk cows and in the evening as they prepare evening meals. photo by environmental camps for conservation awareness, via globalgiving.)

perhaps the biggest advantage of solar power is its potential to be used in areas without wider energy infrastructure in place. this is especially important in the context of humanitarian relief infrastructure, which still relies heavily on gasoline and diesel generators that require a steady supply of fuel to keep running and can be a fire hazard. after a disaster, it’s nearly impossible to reach out to loved ones with a dead mobile phone, and equally difficult to administer relief without light, so these off-grid solar lights and charging stations are essential. in light of the april 2015 earthquake in nepal, a local solar company, gham power, launched a campaign called rebuild with sun that aims to distribute as many solar power systems and microgrids to affected areas as possible.

from tandem solar to small microgrids and solar rechargeable batteries, there are many ways solar technology has evolved to increase efficiency and accessibility. we’re looking forward to what’s next.

(photo at top: new solar panels on a household roof in germany. photo by bernd sieker.)

how do you 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 ? share your thoughts in the comments below, tweet us @planet_forward or contribute to the conversation with your own story via idea central.

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innovative ideas, both big and small, to solve the drought crisis

tue, 30 jun 2015 19:46:43 +0000

as a golden state native, i won’t get offended if you call californians shallow. it’s true; our water supplies are quickly dwindling.

as an area of the country critical to the agricultural sector of the u.s., the drought has become an increasingly important issue to californians — and the country as a whole. water use and availability is also a huge issue in arid regions of the world, as well as in areas that don’t have widely available water infrastructure.

in response to the crisis, i explored some of the innovative ways people are finding clean, potable water. here’s what i found:

water catchment

perhaps the easiest way to get access to water is to harvest whatever forms of condensation and precipitation are available in the surrounding environment — without, of course, pumping from underground resources. typically this means local rainwater catchment in the form of drains, canals, stormwater collection ponds, and reservoirs. some savvy homeowners even collect condensate from their air conditioning units using nothing more than a bucket and reuse that water in the garden.

one really cool innovation in the realm of water catchment is warka water, an invention by italian industrial designers arturo vittori and andreas vogler. these 30-foot-tall, vase-shaped towers named after a fig tree native to ethiopia integrate biomimicry through its design to extract gallons of water pulled literally out of the air.

water reuse/recycling

another way to increase access to water is to simply recycle water. and yes, the thought of bathing in — much less drinking — what used to be in someone’s toilet might ick you out at first, but we already have incredible technology that can be used to treat water of any quality. for example, singapore has a water management strategy that involves high-grade reclaimed water, produced from treated used water, which is then purified further using advanced membrane technologies and ultraviolet disinfection. this means that singapore’s reverse osmosis reclaimed newater is ultra clean and safe to drink.

(source: newater visitor centre)

most cities, however, don’t have extensive wastewater recycling facilities. what the typical homeowner can do, however, is install a gray water system that takes used water from sinks, showers and washing machines and puts it to use for toilet flushing or irrigation. since the water would become dirty and be flushed away anyway, it makes sense to reuse old water instead of using perfectly clean water for these purposes.

energy-efficient desalination

a view across a reverse osmosis desalination plant. (source: james grellier)

many cities across the west coast and eastern seaboard have turned to desalination — getting the salt out of water taken from the ocean — as a source of water. the current process of treating seawater is reverse osmosis, which uses polymer membranes to filter saltwater. however, this process requires a lot of water pressure, which therefore uses a lot of energy. to address this issue, some scientists have started working on graphene membrane technology, which are thinner and more porous versions of today’s reverse-osmosis filters. as mit news writes, the key to energy efficient membrane filtering is having very precise control over the size of the holes in the graphene sheet in order to hit the “sweet spot” where salt molecules are blocked but water molecules can pass through. the pressure needed to push water molecules through these membranes is much lower, meaning energy requirements are lower, too.

reducing water use/increasing efficiency

finally, it’s important to make the distinction between the goal of increasing water availability and conserving water through use reductions. while the former is absolutely crucial, especially in arid regions of the world, conservation-focused strategies are the easiest — and perhaps most cost-effective — ways for individuals to get involved in drought solutions. some common fixes are to switch out old fixtures with low-flow showerheads, high efficiency toilets and aerators on faucets. for california readers, dropcountr is an app that connects people and their utilities by presenting information on their current water consumption, showing them if their usage is above average, and helping them set a reasonable water budget.

dropcountr from dropcountr, inc. on vimeo.

another area where water conservation can happen is in your front and backyard. did you know that 30 percent of water used for lawns and outdoor landscaping is lost to evaporation? that means it makes a big impact when decorative grass is replaced with drought-resistant native plants. another low-tech shortcut to water-efficient gardening is to use a terra cotta olla irrigation pot. these pots are buried beneath the ground, with just the opening at the ground’s surface. it’s then filled with water, which gradually seeps through the pot’s micropores into the soil. the speed at which water seeps through to the soil is regulated by soil moisture tension created by nearby plants. this means that without any timers or sensors, the soil is kept moist and not over-watered. these pots are also efficient because not only do they collect rain, but little to no water is lost to evaporation.

an olla pot is used by burying it in the ground near plants to offer moisture as needed directly to the roots. (source: moccasinlanding)

some really cool upcoming apps, which came out of la futurethon, also might make conservation fun and easy: for example, terracotta and garden gnomy are future apps for sustainable landscaping and gardening that analyze your yard layout, keep a plant inventory and make it easy to reduce irrigation use. dewgood is an upcoming atmospheric water condenser and irrigation device that will pair with an app connecting users to resources and assisting them in removing turf from their yards, and add or take care of drought-tolerant native plants.

to recap, there are a lot of simple and interesting technological solutions to the drought crisis ranging from water catchment, water reuse/recycling, desalination and water conservation. to solve the problem, we’re going to need to make use of all these ideas, as well as encourage innovators to build upon these as well as implement new ones.

(photo at top: a dry and cracked riverbed in california. / source: national oceanic and atmospheric administration)

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dc climathon tackles food waste problem

tue, 23 jun 2015 19:30:11 +0000

by karen chen
planet forward intern/gwu student

about 40 percent of food in the u.s. is either tossed out or left to rot. this food waste adds up to about $165 billion every year. on june 18, climate-kic (knowledge & innovation community), europe’s main climate innovation initiative, hosted “hackathons” simultaneously in 16 cities around the world. each of these “climathons” were held with the aim of fostering innovative solutions to sustainability related issues. the inaugural washington, d.c., climathon was hosted by climate-kic in conjunction with the george washington university’s office of sustainability, school of business’ institute for corporate responsibility, and gwupstart social innovation lab. this year’s event focused on finding a solution to the food waste problem within the district of columbia, where 15,000 tons of food are wasted annually.

over the course of 24 hours, participants broke out into teams, brainstormed new ideas to tackle the food waste problem, and, finally, pitched their solutions to a panel of experts from organizations such as the district department of the environment and world resources institute.

participants were encouraged to focus on making viable public-private partnerships that would reduce waste and carbon emissions, producing cost savings, and create new sources of revenue through food waste management. successful teams had innovations that focused on spurring behavioral change — getting people to go the extra mile and work on minimizing food waste and donating the extra food that they can’t use.

the winning ideas and teams from the d.c. climathon are:

healthydiversion, created by abhijit khanna and matthew snyder, will be a smartphone application which uses an artificial intelligence system to provide users with an overall health assessment, a personalized nutrition plan, and a strategic push notification system to help shoppers keep track of expiring groceries and connect with local food banks.

shannon kennedy and todd mcgarvey proposed a year-round mobile produce service, called lettuce move, which seeks to link d.c.’s low-income neighborhoods with local supermarkets by bringing in a mobile produce van to increase accessibility in food deserts.

raw food rescue, led by christina bowman, candace chandra, harrison fung, james ingle, joseff kolman, quinn o’hanlon & rohin daswani, will be a logistics management organization devoted to rescuing and repurposing raw food resources within the d.c. area. by sourcing the commercial sector, partnering with nongovernmental organizations for transportation needs, and connecting the dots for end-user consumers, raw food rescue aims to create jobs in local communities, with target groups including veterans, returning citizens, elderly and disabled individuals.

frank fritz iii, celeste aguzino, and sabrina freese showcased the pilot program of the washington compost, which initially was launched last academic year at gw’s hensley hall. these team members hope to expand their residential composting initiative to d.c. public schools and other universities in the metro area.

the four winning teams will each receive up to a $500 grant and assistance from the gw office of sustainability and the d.c. city government. they now will enter a coaching trajectory to further develop and implement their idea. one of the four teams selected at the event will travel to paris for a global showcase of climathon initiatives. the showcase will take place in december at the same time as the united nation’s cop21 (conference of parties) climate conference. there, the winning team will have the opportunity to showcase their developed business model/prototype and seek investment and further support.

(all photos by karen chen/gwu.)

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5 things we learned at greengov

tue, 16 jun 2015 14:42:10 +0000

did you know the federal government is mandated, by executive order, to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent from 2008 levels by 2025? because of this, the council on environmental quality created an initiative called greengov that’s focused on federal energy and sustainability efforts. the council hosted a symposium at gw’s jack morton auditorium on june 10, where a number of senior administration officials and other sustainability leaders showed off strategies to green the supply chain, improve water management, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and waste, and increase energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy.

here are the top five interesting updates in federal sustainability we heard about at greengov:

1. the general services administration (gsa) just issued a proposal request to have solar roofs installed on 18 federal buildings throughout the national capital region.

the photovoltaic array on top of the u.s. department of energy headquarters. (source: national renewable energy laboratory, u.s. department of energy)

this is part of the capital solar challenge that has federal agencies competing to see whose buildings can become most efficient. if approved, gsa will enter a power purchase agreement contract with a single contractor to purchase electricity generated from these photovoltaic systems for a base period of ten years.

this is awesome because a large capital investment from a buyer such as the government gives the renewable energy sector leverage to expand and extend further opportunities in solar to other agencies, big companies, and small businesses alike. with solar the second fastest growing energy sector, this is great news for the climate.

2.the u.s. navy has an all-electric ship, the uss zumwalt ddg 1000.

the zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer ddg 1000 is floated out of dry dock at the general dynamics bath iron works shipyard. the ship, the first of three zumwalt-class destroyers, will provide independent forward presence and deterrence, support special operations forces and operate as part of joint and combined expeditionary forces. the lead ship and class are named in honor of former chief of naval operations adm. elmo r. “bud” zumwalt jr., who served as chief of naval operations from 1970-1974. (source: u.s. navy, photo courtesy of general dynamics)

the uss zumwalt’s microgrid generates and distributes electrical energy everywhere in the ship, so its propellers and drive shafts are turned by electric motors instead of being directly attached to combustion engines. this could pave the way for future integration of biogas and other renewable energy sources in military vessels and vehicles. hopefully these electrical systems and energy efficiency innovations will then trickle down into the next generation of civilian electric vehicles.

3. by 2022, the u.s. aims to become the first nation in the world to produce plug-in electric vehicles (evs) that are as cheap and convenient as gas vehicles.

an all-electric nissan leaf charging at an event in washington, d.c. (source: national renewable energy laboratory, department of energy)

the ev-everywhere challenge, announced by president obama in march 2012, calls for collaboration between the private sector, the federal government, states and communities, national laboratories, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and individual consumers to modernize the grid, increase charger accessibility, and generate larger demand for evs and ev infrastructure.

4. federal agencies are required to buy eco-friendly bio-based products such as hand soap derived from soybeans, furniture from sunflower hull wood or disposable spoons from potatoes.

soy-based products. (source: united soybean board)

where purchases exceed more than $10,000 per fiscal year, federal agencies are required to give preference to the products with the highest percentage of bio-based content (these items can be made with biodegradable plastics and adhesives, construction materials, paper, plastics, plant and vegetable inks, and more). this green purchasing program, in substituting bio-based products for fossil energy-based products, will increase demand for domestic crops and feedstock. because there are less synthetic chemicals involved in the production, consumption and disposal of these items, they’re a lot better for the environment.

5. retrofitting in one gsa building on the virgin islands is going to create net-zero energy consumption and save $500,000 in the first year.

christiansted, st. croix, us virgin islands. facing north. photo taken on the slopes of recovery hill. (source: jason p. heym)

as part of the deep retrofit challenge, gsa went into a 19-year energy savings performance contract with schneider electric to upgrade the almeric christian federal building. they upgraded the building’s chilled water and automated energy metering systems, made improvements to interior and exterior lighting, heating and cooling systems to maximize efficiency, and added solar photovoltaic panels. these changes will result in a savings of 962,916 kilowatt hours per year, which provides enough energy for 100 percent of the building’s baseline usage.

in order to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk. the u.s. government is making strides to lead by example, as shown by these, and more recent federal sustainability initiatives. to see more on the greengov symposium, visit the event website.

(photo at top: kathleen merrigan, far right, moderates a q&a on executive order 13693 with christy goldfuss, managing director for the white house council on environmental quality, and kate brandt, federal chief sustainability officer for the council on environmental quality. merrigan is the executive director of sustainability at the george washington university. / source: eleanor davis/gwu)

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