http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/ Green Tool: Community, Tools, and Resources for a transitional world. en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss GuppY v4.5.19 greentool@gaiagate.com (J.D. Fulkerson) greentool@gaiagate.com (J.D. Fulkerson) http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/news.php?lng=en&pg=262 Growing kale and tilapia--and brewing beer--in an abandoned stretch of Chicago. http://www.popsci.com/science/gallery/2012-01/plant-closer-look http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/news.php?lng=en&pg=261 It's official: Gardeners and farmers can count on warmer weather. If that's you, it might be a good time to rethink those flower and vegetable beds for this year's growing season.http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=145855948 http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/news.php?lng=en&pg=258 In a new study, engineers have designed a new device that can convert light of infrared (IR) and visible wavelengths into direct current by using surface plasmon excitations in a simple metal-insulator-metal (MIM) device. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-plasmonic-device-electricity.html http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/news.php?lng=en&pg=257 Research at Rice University bolstered a long-controversial theory that massive amounts of carbon from methane hydrate caused the Earth to warm 56 million years ago and drastically change the ecosystem. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-methane-million-year.html http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/news.php?lng=en&pg=256 Grantham concludes that the world has undergone a permanent "paradigm shift" in which the number of people on planet Earth has finally and permanently outstripped the planet's ability to support us.http://www.businessinsider.com/jeremy-grantham-commodity-prices-2011-6?op=1 http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/news.php?lng=en&pg=255 This was posted in August, before the Hurricane and Tropical Storm hit the Northeastern U.S. So it's a lot higher now.http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/billion-dollar-weather-disasters-2011 http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/news.php?lng=en&pg=254 A grain of salt or two may be all that microbial electrolysis cells need to produce hydrogen from wastewater or organic byproducts, without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere or using grid electricity, according to Penn State engineers.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110919151317.htm http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/news.php?lng=en&pg=253 How about a safe, inexpensive neighborhood Thorium reactor?http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2011/09/11/is-thorium-the-biggest-energy-breakthrough-since-fire-possibly/ http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/news.php?lng=en&pg=252 Honeywell’s wheel-shaped WT6500 takes an entirely new approach. Magnets mounted near the tips of its 20 blades sweep through an outer ring of copper coils to produce a current, making the entire wheel the generator. Because this arrangement traps energy from the fast-moving blade tips and eliminates the heavy central generator, the WT6500 can pull a current from winds as slow as two miles an hour (most home turbines need 8mph gusts).http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2011-09/personal-turbine-makes-your-rooftop-wind-farm http://www.gaiagate.com/greentool/news.php?lng=en&pg=251 Using water and bleach, reusing soda bottles to distribute light into dark homes during the day.  Similar to the old "deck prisms" used on sailing ships.http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-bottle-brighten-millions-poor-homes.html