5 Types of Eco-Friendly Inventions

1. Solar cars/electrically propelled cars

Solar and electric cars are great environmental substitutes that can potentially replace traditional fossil-fuel-powered cars. A solar car utilizes the energy of the sun and an electric car runs on battery power. Both cars can help lessen the use of leads and emission of carbon dioxide and thus reduced pollution.

Renault Partners With L’Oreal For Zoe Z.E. Electric Concept Vehicle

Toyota Solar Power Car

2. Algae to replace oil

There are many alternative fuel ideas,renewable fuels and alternatives fuels that exist.

It is becoming more important everyday to move from using gasoline in our vehicles to using an alternative fuels programs. You will see this year the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt electric cars hit the US market and there will continue to be electric, hydrogen and other alternative fuel ideas that get introduced.

One area that does not usually get a lot of attention is using Algae as renewable fuels. There have been hundreds of millions of dollars invested in using algae as an alternative fuel source. Many top scientists and Venture Capitalists are betting on algae as a replacement to oil.

3. The (Almost) Waterless Washing Machine

This washing machine is called Xeros’s eco-friendly washing machine that saves up to 90% water. It is achieved by using nylon beads that tumble wash clothes using 90% less water as well as less detergent as compared to the usual washing machines.

The technology builds on research out of the U.K.'s University of Leeds and has been applied in a concept washing machine with the help of Cambridge Consultants.

The man is holding nylon beads used in Xeros' washing process

4. Eco night lights

It is called the solar power and energy-efficient LED lamp. This eco-friendly nightlight doesn't use batteries, bulbs or electricity.

The orange one is called the Sun Jars collect solar energy during the day and emits a warm amber glow at night. Containing an energy efficient LED and a rechargeable battery, the Sun Jar will give light for up to 5 hours with each charge.

The blue one is called the Moon Jar is a frosted mason jar with a solar panel and an LED light inside. Put it on your windowsill to soak up the sun rays during the day, and at night the Moon Jar will illuminate your room with a soft cool glow — no cords or electricity required.

5.Biodegradable food packaging

Biodegradable food packing are made from a renewable resource- sugarcane. After the cane juice is extracted from the plant, the stalk is ground and made into paper pulp. The paper pulp is then made into a variety of products, such as compostable plates, biodegradable bowls and eco-food containers. These products are heat stable, grease-resistance and microwave safe. Better yet, it is usually less expensive.

Haiti Earthquakes

The Haiti earthquakes occurred around the 12th of January, 2010 knocking down buildings and power lines. This earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0 and it is the most powerful earthquake hit Haiti in a century. The earthquake destroyed houses, schools, hospitals, and even the National Palace in Port-au-Prince. Roughly 3 million people were affected and 230,000 people had died, 1,000,000 people were homeless and loss their property.

According to BBC news, when the earthquake happens, "Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Mr Bahn, who described the sky as "just grey with dust". He said he had been walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake. "I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just heard a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."

Area affected by Haiti earthquake:

Earthquake really is terrified as it happens without any warning. Unlike flood and fire where people still have time to escape, earthquake happens in a blink of eyes, people even doesn't have any time to escape. After seeing this incident in Haiti, my heart is filled with pain for the people of Haiti. I hope organizations can donate money and give help to them in terms of rebuilt their home and fulfill their basic needs in order for them to live on.

More pictures on Haiti Earthquake:

Bhopal disaster

27 years ago, back in December 3 1984, happened a terrible tragedy. The lethal gas methyl isocyanate (MIC) alongside other noxious fumes had been released to the city of Bhopal and killed thousands of people, which is approximate 25,000 lives. Gross negligence by Union Carbide is widely viewed as the cause of the tragedy.

Figure 1: Overview of events that led to the Bhopal disaster

The Bhopal disaster was the result of a combination of legal, technological, organizational, and human errors. The toxic gases had been escaped from the plant to the surroundings in liquid and vapor form. The early effects were vomiting and burning sensations in the eyes, nose and throat, and most deaths have been attributed to respiratory failure.

The following video by National Geographic has shown the real situation of Bhopal disaster happens in 1984:

I think that the party that need to be responsible is the Union Carbide India limited company (UCIL). This is because UCIL attempts to reduce expenses and thus affected the employee's working condition. UCIL also does not have good equipment tight safety regulations and thus causes this incident to happen. Therefore, UCIL should be fully responsible of this incident as they causes many people in Bhopal died. This can also be a reference for other chemical factory or company so that they must have a safety regulations and always take care of the employees so that the same incident will not repeat again.

More pictures on Bhopal Disaster:

Oil Spill in US

At April 20 2010,US experienced the worst oil spill in their history. There were approximately 15,000 of oil bring spewed each day into the Gulf of Mexico. This incident was caused by British Petroleum (BP) company and caused the creatures in the sea died as a result of lack of oxygen under the sea. The oil always caused the gulf unable to fly and being stuck in the sea and unable to search for food to survive.

President Obama has been pressurizing BP to do all it can to stop the leak as soon as possible. BP tried to stop the oil spill with the method known as "top kill" which involved the injection of heavy drilling heavy mud into the leaking well. The effect of this "top kill" method were positive.

The following video shows the oil spill incident happens in Gulf of Mexico:





The following video shows that the oil spill has causes many birds and sea creatures suffered and died.



From this incident, I feel angry and disappointed with the BP company which caused this incident happened. I think BP company should be more responsible and pay more attention to make sure there will not be any leaks happens because the effect of the incident of oil leaks will causes many life to be sacrificed. Thousands of innocent sea creatures and birds were died and it will gives a big impact to our ecosystem. It may eventually causes distinction of those animals.

More pictures on the oil spill incident:

Environment Slogans

I come across an quite interesting website that actually shares his thought on environment slogans why we should do something to guard our home- earth.

Here are the 20 environment slogans:

20. You Must Be the Change You Wish to See in the World

19. Every Time History Repeats Itself the Price Goes Up.

18. Where Do You Think the Environment Is?

17. What Would Nature Do?

16. I Object to NOT Saving our Planet

15. Can You Hear the Eco?

14. Hear the Trees Falling?

13. Ignore It And It Will Go Away

12. What Will Your Children Breathe?

11. What Will Your Children Drink?

10. See Green, See Life

9. Melting Ice – A Hot Topic!

8. Delivering Environmental Innovation Through Sustainable Practices.

7. Kick the CO2 Habit – That was used for the 2008 World Environment Day and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said it may be easier than you think.

6. Green. That’s how we’d like the world to be.

5. Good Golly, Go Green Girl

4. It’s Cool to Be an Eco-school

3. Green for Bikes

2. Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

1. Will Work for Trees

We have only just one Earth. Therefore, we must protect t

he earth that give us a home to live. If the pollution and global warming issues continued became worst, human will be the next living organisms to face extinction. Save our Earth!!!!! Starts to reduce, reuse and recycle before it is too late!

Heavy snowfall in Europe

According to NewsSecond, snow storm has started to hits Europe in December 17,2010. This incident causes over 800 flights forced to be canceled which include countries such as Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. This heavy snowfall has affected the operation of transport in Europe. Beside that, Winter vegetable crops such as cauliflowers and potatoes are threatened by the icy temperatures, and harvesting of other vegetables such as carrots, turnips, sugar beet and parsnips was delayed as fields are completely frozen. This will definitely give a big impacts on Europe's economy.

Take example for Moscow,one of Moscow's two main airports, Domodedovo, has suspended all flights after the electricity went off due to the icing-up of power cables. Roads and cars in the capital are covered with ice after rain. Several districts in the Moscow region have also been left without power, with over 100,000 people affected. City authorities of Moscow are urging people to stay at home.

The seriousness of snowfall in Europe can be seen in the following pictures:

Heavy snow strikes China

Beside Brazil and Australia experienced flood, many other countries also encountered natural disaster.China on the other hand struggling to cope with the worst snow storms its seen in 50 years since December 20. Snowstorms and freezing temperatures have hit the northern parts of China including Hebei, Hubei, Henan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Shandong, Shaanxi and Shanxi.

This heavy snow has strikes the area of northern China, paralyzing traffic on major roads and forcing the cancellation of dozens of flights. Besides that, more than 2.2 million pupils in Beijing and nearby Tianjin enjoyed a day off as the government closing thousands of schools despite of the bad weather.

According to The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs ,the heavy snow storms that hit northern China have killed 32 people excluding those who dies in snow-caused traffic accidents,devastated almost 300,000 hectares of crops, and caused economic loses amounting to 7 billion yuan or approximately one billion US dollars .The following video shows the situation in China:

More pictures on heavy snow in China:-

No Plastic Bag Day

Recently, Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry has made ‘No Plastic Bag Day’ Saturdays applicable throughout the country. At the past, ‘No Plastic Bag Day’ was applied already in the state of Selangor and Pulau Pinang. If the customers still need plastic bag, the customers will need to pay 20 sen for each plastic bag.

There are also many people agreed to this activity. One of them is Elizabeth Wong, which claims plastic bags are ‘massive’ environmental problem. This is because plastic bag can become dangerous if they are not properly handled. Some people tend to burn them and the fumes is highly toxic and will danger our health. Besides that, plastic bag takes up to 1000 years to decompose in land and resulting in accumulation of rubbish on the earth.

I found that this activity is quite meaningful and should be practiced. Actually, in other foreign countries, they have been started this activities a long time ago. It is a very simple steps we can take in order to reduce the amount of rubbish being produced and at the same time protecting our earth from pollution. It also the best time to educate the public to start their effort in saving our environment and prevent it becoming worst.

Flood in Australia

Beside Brazil, Australia also faces a serious flood in their country where the flood starts in late November across the waterlogged state of Queensland. Australia's third largest city, Brisbane's rivers are rising forcing people to flee both suburbs and skycrapers. The flow of water is terrifying and powerful where it carried away cars and people.

Accroding to the news at wordpress.com,"The water was literally leaping, six or 10 feet into the air, through creeks and over bridges and into parks," Kowald, 53, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "There was nowhere to escape, even if there had been warnings. There was just a sea of water about a kilometer (a half-mile) wide." Other than that, the flood even crushed the office window, causes the car crashed into the tree and washed away the bridges and sidewalks.

We can see the situation of Australia through this video:

The floods have caused many people deaths and missing in Australia since late November. Helicopters and other emergency vehicles were moving into the flood area to rescues the victim. However, the death toll would likely to rise as the flood situation has getting worst. For more information on the development of flood in Australia, can refers to the articles about Queenlands Flood Disaster 2010/2011, it shows the situation at Australia from 30 November 2010- 5 January 2011.

More pictures of flood situation in Australia:

I think this time the flood incident happened in Australia really give an big impacts to Australia whereby not only the huge number of victim is scarified, it also caused big impact on the Australia's economy. Besides that, all the everyday activities and the basic needs also been affected since the road and transportation system are all dysfunctional due to the flood. However, I hope the flood incident will be better as time goes along. The victim's family must be positive and be brave facing this difficulties.