Not all countries think more biofuels are the answer. At least not yet.

There’s Japan, the United States, Brazil…the major biofuel-producing countries.

The beef, um, corn is that biofuel output is causing food prices to soar. Biofuels are made from corn, sugar cane and other food stuffs.

At the just closed U.N. Food summit Japan argued for promotion of second generation biofuels, those made from nonfood sources like grass. (But, then the cows, horses and such are likely to want some input.)

The final U.N. declaration called for supplying seeds, fertilizers and such to low-income food-deficit countries. The overall goal “to eliminating hunger and to securing food for all, today and tomorrow.”

Here! Here!

In the end, however, lots of doublespeak and vague wording. The importance of ”in-depth studies” and ”international dialogue.” To be sure, while everyone is talking, nothing is being solved.

The next round of hot air blowing (another cause of climate change?) the G-8 meeting in Hokkaido next month.

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Barack Obama will be the democratic presidential candidate. Yeah, yeah, the first black American to have a major party’s backing for president.

Black, white…what we really need to know is whether or not Barack Obama is green? And what shade?

It reminds me of an old not so funny story.

A bus driver during the fight for civil rights days was hauling some kids, black and white. The kids started fighting. Suddenly the bus driver got mad, stopped the bus and told them all to get off the bus.

He lectured them - “You all are not black and white. Stop fighting. From now on, all of you should think that you are green. You got it?”

The kids smiled at each other and at the bus driver and nodded their heads.

The bus driver then said, “Now get back on the bus. I want the dark green in the back and the light green in the front.”

I don’t wonder what color green Obama is. I wonder what he will do with that fist when it comes to punching green. We may find out soon enough.

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A university research team in Japan has developed a new type of green LED that is equally as energy-efficient as the existing LEDs.

What’s different is these new LEDs can be made for one-fourth the cost.

Energy efficient, good for the world and cheap.

The LED uses:

1. cheaper material

2. a relatively simple process of thermal diffusion

3. involves a much lower initial investment in equipment.

Confusion starts here:

Green LEDS are made with gallium phosphide. This costs $500 per 25-gram ingot. The method is known as molecular beam epitaxy. The equipment costs about $3 million.

The new green LEDS use zinc telluride, costs $100/25-gram ingot and the diffusion causing equipment costs half that of MBE.

Simplicity returns.

The goal is to have a commercial version within 2-3 years.

The new green LED will be five to 10 time more energy-efficient as existing products.

The world will be a happier place, IF we are saving energy and money at the same time.

Let’s all say thank you to the Saga University research team in Japan.

“Thank you!!!”

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In the do it yourself category we have Ma Yanjun, a farmer in Mizhi county, Shaanxi province in China, that managed to build a solar water heating system using empty beer bottles. The reason he did it, was to allow his 73-year old mother to take a warm bath every day.

Since there was no warm water in the area and he couldn’t afford paying the big bucks for a hi-tech solar panel, Ma had to be innovative and instead of photovoltaic panels he used dozens of beer bottles. He finished work in 2006 and ever since, he attracted the envy of 20 other local farmers, which needed his help and skills.

We don’t care who emptied those beer bottles and want to congratulate Ma for his achievement.

Imagey by drawdenizlop

The US government, along with many investors such as Chevron, Goldman Sachs, and Google, is confident that solar power could become much cheaper than coal within the next 12 years. Taking into consideration tax incentives, carbon-capping legislation and the rising prices of natural gas, experts think that solar power is going to be more economical than coal by 2020.

“Chevron, Goldman Sachs, FPL, PG&E and other companies have filed more than 50 applications with the Bureau of Land Management to lease government-owned desert property for solar power systems. Google’s philantropic division put $10 million into eSolar, a start-up in Pasadena, California.” –Greg Chang, Bloomberg.

Along with the good progress of photovoltaic panels towards becoming cheaper and more efficient, investors are getting more excited about the potential of solar thermal technology. Implementing mirrors to direct sunlight to power turbines in desert areas could cover at least 50-percent of the local power requirements.

In the Mojave Desert, Sun Microsystems developed a thermal solar plant which contains 550,000 mirrors that tie together the sun’s energy and convert it into enough power to supply about 112,500 houses in the Los Angeles area. Though the costs are much higher than coal, this power station certainly shows the effectiveness of solar energy.

Sooner or later, it is going to happen.

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via CleanTechnica

Yuichioro Miura, a 75-year-old young man from Japan managed to climb the world’s largest peak, Mount Everest. His health and the age did not deter him from taking on that adventure.

Image via Snow Dolphins

Since China wants to bring the Olympic torch on the Everest, no one was allowed to climb the mountain and Miura was delayed a few days. Determined and aware that he’s able to do it, he started climbing on May 20, from his 17,400 feet high base camp accompanied by his doctor. After three days and 10,000 feet higher, he reached the peak.

Though Yuichioro Miura was an adventurer and a great skier who knew what to expect while climbing the Everest, he still had to undergo a very rigorous training schedule. Despite the fact that he had heart condition since childhood, doctors agreed that he’s looking like a 40 year old and allowed him to accomplish his long wish of climbing the highest peak in the world.

However, Miura is unhappy that he’s not the oldest person ever to win the Everest because Nepalese, Min Bahadur Sherchan managed to do it one day earlier. Sherchan is going to be 77 years old soon.

Although bamboo is not a modern material for structures, often considered to be poor man’s timber, it is one of the most flexible and light materials to build houses. Though there are sophisticated materials available on the market, bamboo isby far the best that would be able to withstand an earthquake.

Around 70-percent of the people in Bangladesh live in bamboo houses because they are easy to build and because the simple structure plays a vital role in safeguarding people’s lives in case of natural calamities.

Studies have shown that only 60-70 bamboo trees are required to build 1,000 houses whereas nearly 600 trees would have been destroyed to build the same houses using timber. Bamboo provides pillars, walls, window frames, rafters, room separators, ceilings and roofs.

Because of its light weight and rubber like properties, the bamboo houses can withstand 7+ ((Richter scale) magnitude earthquakes. The 30 houses that survived the earthquake in Costa Rica (7.6) stand as evidence. People in the Yunnan Province in China still prefer to live in bamboo houses since the officials encouraged them to built such infrastructures and homes.

Bamboo could play a vital role in the future civil engineering. It could be the future steel which could safeguard anyone from the natural calamities such as earthquakes.

Source via Treehugger

It doesn’t matter if you’re a star, have a huge bank account or if your name is Pamela Anderson, because high gas prices shouldn’t be ignored.

The paparazzi recently caught the blonde actress in Malibu, California, pedaling on a pink bicycle with some Starbucks goodies in her hand.

We at Greenpacks are going to take a bow to Pamela Anderson, and no it’s not for the uggs and the short shorts she’s wearing, but for the fact that she really makes a difference: stands up for animals, isn’t afraid to ride a bike and raises money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

She’s doing great work that gets heard, so good luck with all your projects Pam. We’ll keep an eye on you.

via Ecorazzi

After completing their $6 million capital raise the Australian company, BioPower Systems, is working hard on testing what could be the undersea equivalent of a wind farm that will turn wave energy into clean, eco-friendly, renewable electricity. Using a lightweight design in harmony with the ecosystem, the bioWAVE and bioSTREAM devices will reside beneath the water surface, moving and swaying in tune with the ocean’s forces.

The concept looks great, but I wonder who’s going to do the cleaning after a couple of months of staying underwater. Would it affect the whole process of creating energy? Probably, buy I trust these guys with coming up with a solution.

Here’s a video on NationalGeographing where they test the whole concept.

Gasoline prices continue to rise and since we don’t expect it to go down, here’s a great song to listen to. Assume the position if you still need (expensive) fuel for your car or let’s pressure car companies to make electric vehicles sooner. What do you think guys?

via Celsias