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    Bill Gates Warns of the Dangers of Trucks, Cement and Cow Farts

    Bill Gates Warns of the Dangers of Trucks, Cement and Cow Farts

    This year’s letter from Bill and Melinda Gates focused on nine things that surprised them. For the Microsoft-cofounder, one thing he was surprised to learn was the massive amount of new buildings the planet should expect in the coming decades due to urban population growth. “The number of buildings in the world is going to […]

    World’s First Road That Recharges Vehicles While Driving Opens in Sweden

    World’s First Road That Recharges Vehicles While Driving Opens in Sweden

    Sweden inaugurated on Wednesday the first road of its kind that can recharge commercial and passenger car batteries while driving. The eRoadArlanda project consists of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of electric rail installed on a public road outside Arlanda Airport. The innovation was funded by the Swedish Transport Administration and is part of the government’s […]

    Stanford University Scientists Produce Electricity From Sewage

    Stanford University Scientists Produce Electricity From Sewage

    Scientists at Stanford University produced a battery that generates electricity from an unlikely resource—sewage. Their microbial battery won’t be powering neighborhoods, but they believe it could aid the power used to treat wastewater, which accounts for about 3 percent of energy in developed nations like the U.S. The researchers hope the prototype, which is about the size […]

    Energy Efficient Process Discovered to Turn Seawater into Freshwater

    Energy Efficient Process Discovered to Turn Seawater into Freshwater

    By Nathan August Seawater desalination with nothing more than a small electrical field? A simple new method of creating freshwater from seawater—that uses far less energy than conventional methods do—has just been developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Marburg in Germany. A prototype “water chip” developed by […]

    Biomass Energy May Accelerate Global Warming

    Biomass Energy May Accelerate Global Warming

    Southern Environmental Law Center A new study of southeastern forests in the U.S. finds that in the long run, burning wood instead of fossil fuels to make electricity can reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but not soon enough to prevent worsening the conditions leading to global climate change.    The study also shows that […]

    Two Ways to Move Beyond Oil

    Two Ways to Move Beyond Oil

    We can end America’s oil addiction, but two key events—yesterday and last week—tell us a lot about the challenges we’ll face as we make it happen. Last week, the delay (and potential cancellation) of the Keystone XL pipeline showed we can meet the challenge of organizing a grassroots-driven coalition to stop destructive oil development. That […]