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10 Fixes For the Planet

Scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs are focusing on ways to help the environment. Some of our favorite ideas.

By Anne Underwood | NEWSWEEK
Apr 14, 2008 Issue

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  • Posted By: GreenSmith @ 05/12/2008 12:54:46 PM

    Comment: Although I do agree that some parts of this article was a little under researched I highly agree with the number one fix, zero waste. But in order for us to even begin to move in the right direction consumers need to begin purchasing their everyday items more green conciousily. If people start purchasing things that will not harm them or the environment it will no only help with reducing waste but also assist in tackling other environmental problems. I shop at GREENHOME.COM. I buy all of my eco friendly products there. GREENHOME has everything.

  • Posted By: ItMatters @ 05/04/2008 10:19:37 PM

    Comment: In a publiciation as widely read as Newsweek, it is sad to find poor research behind a story. In this one, it allows an industry-based organization to wear its self-created cloak of green, all in pursuit of greenbacks. The organization named Audubon International, is cited in the story as setting a good example. Organized by the golf course industry, it has no relationship with the National Audubon Society nor any other non-industry environmental organizations. Rather than use the best available science, it uses the science that best serves its business without public input nor consideration of the impact a course has on local ecosystems. Mother Nature never created mowed turf.

  • Posted By: ItMatters @ 05/04/2008 10:18:48 PM

    Comment: In a publiciation as widely read as Newsweek, it is sad to find poor research behind a story. In this one, it allows an industry-based organization to wear its self-created cloak of green, all in pursuit of greenbacks. The organization named Audubon International, is cited in the story as setting a good example. Organized by the golf course industry, it has no relationship with the National Audubon Society nor any other non-industry environmental organizations. Rather than use the best available science, it uses the science that best serves its business without public input nor consideration of the impact a course has on local ecosystems. Mother Nature never created mowed turf.

  • Posted By: ItMatters @ 05/04/2008 10:06:14 PM

    Comment: In today's world, everyone is wearing a cloak of green, too often in pursuit of greenbacks. Such is the case of "Audubon International" cited as the authority for Fix #3. This organization has no connection to the National Audubon Society. It is wholly organized and supported by the golf course industry. Its "sanctuaries" do not use the best available science but the science that works for golf courses, regardless of how those businesses impact local ecosystems.

  • Posted By: Houscat @ 05/03/2008 8:32:15 AM

    Comment: We do not need imported gas and oil or clean coal or nukes to provide our electrical power. I just looked over a MIT 2007 DOE report. It turns out that useable geothermal power exists nationwide and could provide 2000 times the annual consumption of primary energy in the US in 2005 and could be ten times that with technology improvements, which would cover our energy needs for centuries. It will come as no surprise to you that the greatest impediment to the utilization of this resource is the lack of meaningful interest by our government.

    • Posted By: Houlbelat @ 05/08/2008 11:48:49

      Comment: Good idea. Consuming Geothermal energy for generating power has an added advantage. It will also cool the earth temperature, eventually balancing and thereafter, cooling the earth and in process, removing the fear of Global warming.

  • Posted By: ToadTreeHugger @ 05/03/2008 7:38:44 AM

    Comment: From the NYTs:

    "Exelon is the country???s largest nuclear plant operator and one of Mr. Obama???s largest sources of campaign money.

    Since 2003, executives and employees of Exelon, which is based in Illinois, have contributed at least $227,000 to Mr. Obama???s campaigns for the United States Senate and for president. Two top Exelon officials, Frank M. Clark, executive vice president, and John W. Rogers Jr., a director, are among his largest fund-raisers.

    Another Obama donor, John W. Rowe, chairman of Exelon, is also chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry???s lobbying group, based in Washington. Exelon???s support for Mr. Obama far exceeds its support for any other presidential candidate.

    In addition, Mr. Obama???s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, has worked as a consultant to Exelon. A spokeswoman for Exelon said Mr. Axelrod???s company had helped an Exelon subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison, with communications strategy periodically since 2002."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/us/politics/03exelon.html

  • Posted By: bravenewworld? @ 05/02/2008 5:47:05 PM

    Comment: www.friendsofscience.org Just spend a few minutes from your day reading that website; it may shed new light upon your preconceived notions.

  • Posted By: bravenewworld? @ 05/02/2008 5:46:39 PM

    Comment: www.friendsofscience.org Just spend a few minutes from your day reading that website; it may shed new light upon your preconceived notions.

  • Posted By: bravenewworld? @ 05/02/2008 5:41:42 PM

    Comment: Stop reading this mindless propaganda, global warming is a falacy. Over 19,000 scientists recently signed a petition which stated that global warming is made up. There is no real evidence, and before you believe soemthing you read in a biased magazine do your own research. Solar and wind energy sources are highly innefficient and quite frankly are the failed technology of the past. Stop living in your liberal dreams and realize something, carbon dioxide has yet to actually be proven to be a pollutant. It is sad how the veiws of a nation can be swayed by a based media. Wake up and do your own research, there is another side to the story. In the past weeks scientists who have come forward with the truth of global warming have recieved death threats and even lost their grants and funding. If you dont believe me search yourself.

  • Posted By: bob II @ 05/01/2008 8:45:44 PM

    Comment: Stop the Big Oil War Machine! Killin and Drillin is killin us in Iraq, Azerbaizan, Niger Delta, Ecuadorian Rainforests and on and on. Take your country back from the corporate gestapo.

  • Posted By: phiomalibumalibu @ 05/01/2008 6:03:41 AM

    Comment: Found great system for my house at SunLightTech.com

  • Posted By: Houlbelat @ 05/01/2008 4:42:54 AM

    Comment: Solar Towers for Alternate Energy.

    In the context of the future planning for a sustainable source of power generation, fossil fuels are very small temporary source. Solar energy is definitely the only inexhaustible source to develop for the world's future. It is amazing to know that, burning the entire fossil fuel deposits on earth can only equal about 40 minutes' of heat intercepted by earth from Sun. This can give an idea about the limit of scant fossil fuel available. World urgently needs to find durable and sustainable fuel to meet its energy demands, for all times to come.

    Solar energy perhaps, is the only immediate answer, which can be harnessed in a variety of manners. Oil mining has already peaked and down hill journey has its definite end. The world must therefore work fast to discover alternates before hitting the end of oil luxury. Recent development of power generating Solar Towers in Australian which adopted the concept of Experimental Solar Tower Power Generation Plant of Spain, should be an example for further work to develop it on world-wide basis.

    A 50kW prototype Solar Tower power generation plant was constructed in 1982 and successfully operated in Manzanares, Spain, with involvement of its German designer, Professor Jorg Schlaich, and the Spanish Government. The prototype operated for seven years and conclusively proved viability of the concept. Data obtained from the prototype provided the basis for a scaled up 200MW generation plant being built in Australia. Being a clean, green, renewable and environment friendly source of power generation with added advantages of integral " Green House Farming", it is a system uniquely suited to many potential geographical locations, for dual purpose of producing Green Power and well as growing extra food at most inhospitable places. The idea surely deserves a place in the "10 Fixes for the Planet".

  • Posted By: Dilume @ 04/30/2008 4:21:22 PM

    Comment: It would have been good to mention in the article that LED's are going to be much cheaper in the future. One reason for the price is this. To get the most light from an LED minute holes need to be made in the glass covering it, a slow and expensive process. But now there is a way to put the holes on the glass at a fraction of the cost, which will greatly reduce the cost of the LED's.

  • Posted By: Dilume @ 04/30/2008 3:53:49 PM

    Comment: Wind generators on ships - the problem is that they work by the wind blowing against them, and that extra drag slows the ship more than the energy provided could increase it. The ship would have to be stopped and anchored, so it cannot be pushed backwards by the wind, for that to work. So there is no point to that at all, they are not designed to stop, they are designed to keep going.

  • Posted By: djermano @ 04/29/2008 7:16:19 PM

    Comment: Why not windgenerators on ships with electric motor and propeller? Why not more Geothermal Electric with bouyed electric lines that span across the ocean, guiding and supplying the power to ships to their destinations. Nuclear Power should be banned.

  • Posted By: djermano @ 04/29/2008 7:16:11 PM

    Comment: Why not windgenerators on ships with electric motor and propeller? Why not more Geothermal Electric with bouyed electric lines that span across the ocean, guiding and supplying the power to ships to their destinations. Nuclear Power should be banned.

  • Posted By: Bearinator @ 04/28/2008 2:49:42 PM

    Comment: Nuclear Energy.

  • Posted By: fiber artist @ 04/27/2008 2:28:47 PM

    Comment: #1 way to help the planet - population control. Zero Population Growth. We're finally getting around to neutering our pets, let's neuter our humans as well.

  • Posted By: fiber artist @ 04/27/2008 1:41:35 PM

    Comment: #1 way to help the planet - population control. Zero Population Growth. We're finally getting around to neutering our pets, let's neuter our humans as well.

  • Posted By: fiber artist @ 04/27/2008 9:06:17 AM

    Comment: #1 way to help the planet - population control. Zero Population Growth. We're finally getting around to neutering our pets, let's neuter our humans as well.

  • Posted By: fiber artist @ 04/27/2008 9:05:44 AM

    Comment: #1 way to help the planet - population control. Zero Population Growth. We're finally getting around to neutering our pets, let's neuter our humans as well.

  • Posted By: fiber artist @ 04/27/2008 8:55:18 AM

    Comment: #1 way to help the planet - population control. Zero Population Growth. We're finally getting around to neutering our pets, let's neuter our humans as well.

  • Posted By: turfgrassguy @ 04/17/2008 7:27:12 PM

    Comment: Hi fellow environmentalists! Just a note to let you know that here in Michigan we have a program to enviromentally certify golf courses that meet a rigorous enviromental standard. It's a cooperative program between government and industry that really works. I'm one of the field evaluators and can tell you that member course do a great job in becoming enviromentally certified.

  • Posted By: eddie_krassenstein @ 04/14/2008 1:02:26 PM

    Comment: The Aptera should be number 1. It will be the car to revolutionize efficiency. If you're look for more info on the Aptera, check out http://apteraforum.com

  • Posted By: eddie_krassenstein @ 04/14/2008 1:01:14 PM

    Comment: The Aptera is my favorite. Check out http://www.apteraforum.com
    Good stuff

  • Posted By: Solshapiro @ 04/09/2008 9:51:54 PM

    Comment: GEOENGINEERING should be prominently part of how to combat global warming. It's rather ridiculous that the media do not UNIVERSALLY put it as a high prority. Most of you probably have not heard of geoengineering. It is a process which can stop global warming in short order. In one form, it would emulate the colling effect of large volcanic eruptions to reduce incoming solar flux by about 1 1/2 to 2% by placing particulates with a lifetime of several years into the upper atmosphere. Study and deployment as needed has been endorsed by prominent scientists over the past 30 years including the predient of the National Academy of Science.
    With geoengineering we will buy the century or more we need to change its energy base without first suffering serious rise of ocean level and increased catastrophic weather.

  • Posted By: rb arfy @ 04/09/2008 2:49:57 PM

    Comment: A lot of ecofriendly ideas sound great, but unless they are done by a large number of people they don't contribute much overall. When someone comes across a helpful, easy to do thing and they don't tell anyone else about it not much is changed. More important than devising new ways to cleverly reduce waste is spreading those ideas to other people. In many other countries this kind of community organization has greatly reduced environmental waste or destruction. So for everyone out there who thinks more should be done to help the environment don't just wait for big companies and the government to do something, take the initiative and help all your friends reduce their impact. Then tell them to help all their friends do the same.

  • Posted By: More Sunshine Please! @ 04/07/2008 1:08:38 PM

    Comment: Isn't it interesting that hundreds of years ago we used sails to move our ships from one destination to another, and now here we are hundreds of years later going BACK to using sails. Very interesting, just goes to show technology and being in a hurry does not pay.

  • Posted By: sirhc @ 04/05/2008 7:50:42 PM

    Comment: THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS VERY REAL. I TRIED TO DENY IT BUT WHEN YOU HAVE AL SHARPTON MAKING COMMERCIALS WITH PAT ROBERTSON AND NEWT GINGRINCH DOING COMMERCIALS WITH ANNCY PELOSI ALL FOR THIS-THEN THAT'S A LOUD AND CLEAR SIGNAL. Go to www.dakshidin.com for the environment uptick on other energy source(mainly air and wind-I saw on Glen Beck about the air powered car-HOPE SO!)and www.greenglobeint.com for the companies that specialize in tourism and traveling in the most green way because traveling is very, very much a pollutant as people discard and tarvel more frivilous than when they are home.

 
 
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