Running Out of Resources: Countries Need To Learn How To Do More With Less, Says The U.N.

The greatest threat to most countries, today, doesn’t come from outside forces as much as it comes from their own internal economic stresses caused by depleting resources. The world is already running out of high quality natural resources such as oil, cooper, and gold, says a new report by the United Nations Environmental Program.

A South African palladium mine. Photo by Precious Metal News.

The report found that the best and most easily accessible mineral ores and fossil fuels are being exhausted at an extremely rapid pace. It estimates that by 2050, humanity could devour an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuel, and biomass per year – three times the current consumption rate.

These findings represented an unsustainable future in terms of both resource use and emissions. Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N.’s environmental program expressed his views in a speech saying, “People believe environmental ‘bads’ are the price we must pay for economic ‘goods.’ However, we cannot and need not continue to act as if this trade-off is inevitable.

“Transitioning to low carbon, resource efficient, green economies is needed in order to stimulate growth, generate decent kinds of employment, and eradicate poverty in ways that keep humanity’s footprint within planetary boundaries.”

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Businesses In Cold Weather Regions Harnessing Solar Power To Bring Down Utility Costs

A Minnesota man cleaning his solar panels. Photo by cleantechnica.com.

When most people think of the northern latitudes, they think of cold harsh winters, short days, and this year - tons of snow. This isn’t what most people would consider suitable climate for generating solar power, but major companies are betting otherwise.

While the common assumption is that solar power needs a lot of sun and hot weather to be worthwhile – this is only partly true. Like with other electrical devices, heat isn’t a solar panel’s friend.

Brightstar Solar, a New England-based company that designs and installs photovoltaic systems, explains it this way:

As temperatures rise, the efficiency of solar panels decreases. Heat causes electrical resistance to the flow of electrons. On days where the temperature is more than 75 degrees, the electrical resistance makes the voltage fall and thereby producing less kilowatts per hour.

Photovoltaic systems still produce energy on cloudy days. The electricity production may not be as high as on a sunny day, but your system will still produce electricity because there is still some irradiance. Under a light overcast day, panels might generate about half as much power as under full sun.

When a home or business is also connected to a power grid, the photovoltaic system works with the grid, so the utility makes up for the electrical shortfall. The reverse is also true. When the photovoltaic system generates more energy than the building requires, the excess power is exported to the utility grid, reversing the electrical meter – effectively giving you money back from the utility company.

All this has become increasingly common knowledge to businesses looking to lower their utility bills. Already around the world are some solar projects in the works that are definitely worth mentioning.

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A Carbon Diet For Your New Year's Resolution: Frugality That'll Save Your Wallet and the Planet

Over the last couple of years, there has been a lot of talk about how people need to lower their carbon footprint, but outside the eco-community, most people don’t even know what a carbon foorptint is. When the topic comes up, the questions are always: What is it and how does it affect me? Here’s an attempt to answer those questions.

Stock image.

At its most basic level, a carbon footprint is the total impact one person’s activities has on the environment during any given day. A big part of it has to do with how much unrecyclable trash is generated, and power used - generating greenhouse gases - to operating things like household appliances and systems, electrics, and transportation.

The family carbon footprint is important for two reasons - slowing the outflow of money from the household budget and preserving the global environment.

The health of the global environment directly affects every wallet in many ways, including the cost of food. What most people eat that isn’t locally grown, and if the climate shifts where that food is grown, it either won’t be available anymore or become a lot more expensive.

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PNC Achieves New Green Milestone: The Largest Living Wall in North America

Photo courtesy of Living Green Technologies.

The word ‘green’ when associated with the banking industry has always meant money. While that will always be true, we can now add eco-conscious and energy efficient to the word association.

PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. has just completed the installation of a six story living green wall, which the company claims is largest such structure in North America.

“The PNC wall is a living, breathing wall of plants spanning 2,380 square feet on the south side of the bank’s Pittsburgh headquarters. The wall is made up of 602 two-foot square panels, each containing 24 evergreen plants,” according to Green Living Technologies, which built the living structure. The company is a privately owned international provider of living green walls and roofs.

There are two types of green walls, with one called a green façade, composed of climbing plants, such as ivy, adhering to a building. The other type, which PNC has, is a living wall that is separated from the actual building structure by anywhere from a few inches to a foot, and is composed of modular panels of vegetation with irrigation systems.

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