Saving Planet Earth

Threatened by extinction due to global warming, Polar bears might just get it through troubled times.  Thanks to goose and duck eggs, polar bears might have found a new food source.

The eggs are possibly coming in due to a rising goose population in the Hudson Bay area providing food for the polar bears whose natural habitat have been melting in the past years.  The ice has been melting forcing some bears either farther north or down south – towards land.  Those who go down are forced to survive on its own fat reserves because they’re not adept to hunting on land.

But scientists don’t think the new food source might last long because polar bears would need to consume 43 nests of eggs to replace the energy provided by the seals they used to hunt.  On the other hand, some say that polar bears are very adaptable and might just survive.

They might not be called polar bears anymore though when they’re no longer in the polar regions.

More about this at LiveScience.com

I was searching the net for ways to make use of water flow to generate electricity and I came across a very interesting video on YouTube.  The video demonstrates in both animations and actual videos how the natural flow of water can be used to pump itself up without the use of any moving parts.

Before I talk about anything else, I’d like you to watch the video first.

Now, how do I think can it help save the planet? Well, as I mentioned, I am currently quite interested in water power mainly because I noticed that our city’s drainage system has continues flow of water everyday. This made me think, “How can I use this nearly constant water flow to generate electricity?”.

As usual, the first idea that came to mind was to build a water turbine (most probably a Pelton Wheel) that will then turn dynamo. Then, I thought what if I can somehow increase the force of the flowing water by pumping it up to a reservoir and dropping it down on the wheel? That started my quest to find an eco-friendly pump which ended up on the video shown above.

If I can use the same water flow from the drainage system to power a pulser pump, then I can fill my reservoir with water which in turn will boost the rotation of my pelton wheel.  More rotation = more power.

Problem is, I’m not an engineer and just about any construction/engineering project I try ends up in disaster.  (I once a dog house for our puppies which was too weak that the puppies teared it apart in a day).  Anyway, I think I’ll need to ask my friends for some help here (ok, lots of help).

Wish me luck!

It’s good news for animal lovers and definitely a moment of joy for its caretakers when a pride of rare white lions including two adult males and two juvenile females were released into the Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in South Africa’s Western Cape Province after a years-long White Lion Project, which was sponsored by the Shamwari Dubai World Africa Conservation team.

But why are White Lions white?

The white lions, also known as blonde lions, are actually the same species as the African lions (a.k.a. Panthera lions). The reason for their whitish color is attributed to a recessive mutant gene. Two copies of this gene and you get a white lion cub. Get just one copy and you just pass it on.

How did the White Lion project make them white?

To boost the genetic integrity of captive-bred white lions, researchers from the White Lion project bred the offspring of white lions with the tawny-colored variety. This is better than inbreeding because inbreeding eventually results to weaker immune systems among the animals.

And where are the lions now?

The white lion pride is being closely monitored by members of the Shamwari Dubai World Africa Conservation team. It is highly possible that pride members may separate and wander but the pride released at Sanbona Wildlife Reserve’s 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares) will ultimately reunite, the Sanbona scientists say.

The Tamaraw (Mindoro Dwarf Buffalo) population appears to be in recovery as it was able to maintain a stable population of 200 since 2001. Officials however believe that there could be more than 1,000 Tamaraw’s in the wild.

Endemic only to Mindoro, the Tamaraw was threatened with extinction back in 1975 for various reasons. Its original population was estimated to be around 10,000 but now only 269 (official headcount) have been seen in the wild.

I sure hope that the government agencies involved, the people of Mindoro will continue their efforts in making sure that the Tamaraw population will grow back to its original size. In fact, I hope that everyone who sees this article will help spread awareness for this endemic species.

Sources: Inquirier.net, Wikipedia

The black-footed ferret is among the most endangered animals in the world and though they ferrets were said to be making a comeback in 2006 they still continue to struggle for their existence. But there’s some hope…

Within the confines of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, black-footed ferrets gave birth to two kits sired by males who died in 1999 and 2000. Yep, you read that right. The fathers of these two newborn ferrets died 8 years ago but scientists managed to get some semen from the two dead males, froze it and artificially inseminated the mothers with it resulting to the two new kits last June.

Black ferrets once inhabited the grasslands of the western Great Plains but their population declined with the loss of the North American prairie ecosystem according to the zoo scientists. Prairie dogs are the ferret’s primary prey, and only 2 percent of the original prairie dog habitat remains today. Adding to their misfortune, a recent outbreak of sylvatic plague (a.k.a. bubonic plague) in a prairie dog population in South Dakota also threatens to decimate ferret populations there.

Luckily, in the Zoo’s Black-Footed Ferret Genome Resource Bank keeps frozen semen from the most valuable males. The bank’s contents help maintain and even enhance genetic diversity by infusing new genes into the population because a genetically healthy and diverse population has a greater chance of survival in the wild.

Electric and hybrid cars are getting fast into the limelight as more and more people get concerned with the environment. That I say is a good thing. However, there are those who, for the sake of profit, try to oppose “green things” by spreading lies saying that hybrid and electric cars will cause more problems than solutions. Well that’s all they are – lies.

Fact is hybrid cars are very effective in defending this planet against global warming. So, how do hybrid cars help the environment? They help by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere as well by reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. They also help individuals financially by getting more mileage for each gallon of fuel used. Honestly, the only thing I can think of that doesn’t benefit from hybrid cars are the oil companies and the corrupt government officials who milk the oil companies for money.

Believe it or not, hybrid technology has been around for decades and we’ve been watching it on the news for a long time now. Is it a mature technology? By all means it is and the only reason why we’re not seeing it a lot is probably because governments around the world don’t want it to be seen – again for financial reasons.

Is it bad for the economy? Of course not! The only thing that it’ll damage are the personal financial gains of a few people who depend on the oil industry to sustain their vampire-like blood-sucking habits.

So I say let’s do our best to get rid or at least reduce our dependency on oil. Let’s go and convert our cars to hybrid! A couple of sites that might help you in this are:

• Burn Water – with Video
• Water Car Pro – with Video

Watch the videos on these sites and see water power in action.

Though I can afford to buy a car, I still haven’t decided to do so mainly for environmentally reasons. I keep on telling people that the car I want to buy is either an electric car or at least a hybrid. Problem is none of these two are being sold in my country at an affordable price which made me think. What if I just buy an ordinary gasoline powered car and convert it to a hybrid? The question therefore of how to convert a car to a hybrid came to mind.

I made a few searches online and found two different approaches. The more traditional method is to have a small electric generator installed to your car that charges a set of batteries while running on gasoline. When enough power is stored in the batteries, it then switches to “electric mode” by turning off the gasoline engine and switching on the electric motor. The problem with this is that there’s no way to do it easily.

The other method on the other hand can be achieved by installing a device to the car engine that extracts hydrogen from water and mixes the produced hydrogen with the existing fuel-air mixture. This approach is way lot easier and can be done by any experienced mechanic. The idea behind this method is based on the fact that hydrogen is a flammable gas that is abundantly stored in ordinary water. The beauty of this method is that it does not require much modification to the car that is to be converted.

There are a few who offer such a device on the internet. I’ve listed a couple below just in case you’re interested:

• Burn Water – with Video
• Water Car Pro – with Video

So, how do you convert your car to a hybrid? Apparently, it’s not that difficult. With proper knowledge, the right tools and some water, it can actually be done.

Who’s Daniel Dingel? Well he’s just another ordinary Filipino with a very extra-ordinary dream! 30 years ago, he created what I believe is the first water-powered car in the world only to find out that his government (which is also my government) won’t support him in his dreams because of some agreement with the IMF and the World Bank. He’s got an invention that works and holds lots of promise not just to the Filipinos but to the world.

[youtube vPq1exwMaUs]
Daniel Dingel and his water-powered car

It saddens me to hear that a German company is the one supporting him and not one of the huge Filipino companies. Nonetheless, kudos and thanks to Ethos World GmbH Schweiz – the German company who so kindly helped Daniel Dingel realize his dream. Through a strategic alliance between the Daniel Dingle Foundation and Ethos, Daniel was finally able to sell his products.

I think this is a wake-up call for Filipino inventors and investors alike. I think we should finally take action and not just reminisce in the success of fellow Filipinos. I think we should be pro-active in turning this third-world country called the Philippines into an economic giant.

But what can we do? Is that your question? My dear kababayans, there are a million things that you can do to help this country get up on its feet. No help is coming from the outside because we have all the help we need. You can start by changing the way you think.

One of the most common problems in electric cars today is the fact that an 8-hour charge can only travel about 40 miles. While that would suffice for city-driving, it’s not enough for most drivers. But those days may be gone pretty soon as a student from University of Delaware managed to create an electric that travels 150 miles for only 2 hours of charging!

According to Scott Baker, a graduate student of the University of Delaware said that this car will cost only 3 cents per mile of travel while typical gas vehicles would cost 10 to 12 cents per mile. That already is a good incentive to drive this electric car. It’s name is Scion and it costs $70,000 at the moment but mass production will probably lower the price dramatically.

Is the car a hybrid? No, it’s a full electric car that gets plugged into an ordinary outlet for charging. Part of the reason for its awesome 150-mile range is the fact that its brakes actually recharge the battery while driving. (Honestly, I’ve already been thinking about that before). An added prep is that you can use to make money because it also becomes a storage device for the power grid when you plug it in and you’d be surprised to know that the power companies would actually pay you to store their energy in your car until they need it. The income from that could add up to $2500 or more per year.

Umm, now where do I get one?

Click here for info on How to Build an Electric Car

Story based on NBC News

How does one make the world a better place to live in? Have you ever thought of that question? As for me, I’ve been asking this question from time to time in my life, especially in moments when I am alone and pondering on my family’s future. How do I help make the world better?

Upon thinking on the things that I can do, I came up with the following criteria. It has to:

• be easy for me to do
• be something that my family can participate in
• have a visible impact in my community
• be viral
• be either cheap or free to do

Based on the above criteria, I came up with the following ideas:

• Clean up our front yard and our neighbor’s front yard
• Give food to the poor people nearby
• Tell people about global warming
• Conserve water and electricity
• Recycle household junk and either re-use them, sell them or give them to friends

These are the top 5 items on my list which I think I can do to make the world better. What about you? What’s in your “How to Make the World Better” list?