Current Facts 33

Coal Plant Energy
The average coal-powered electrical plant can convert only 35% of coal’s energy into electricity – the rest is lost as waste heat.
Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.13.

Game Console Standby Mode
If left on standby mode all the time, a Playstation 3 has an energy cost of $134 per year and if unplugged when not in use it drops to $12. An Xbox 360 costs $103 and unplugged $11. While the Nintendo Wii is $10 and unplugged $3.
Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.180.

Computers
1. Exabytes - In 2006 the world produced 161 exabytes of digital information, 3 million times the amount of information contained in all the books ever written. Next year, the world will produce 988 exabytes of data.
2. Emissions - It is estimated that by 2020 computer servers will produce more emissions than air travel. Every Google search emits about 0.2 grams of carbon emissions.
3. Largest Data Warehouse - Operated by Sybase Inc & Sun Microsystems, the largest data warehouse contains one petabyte (1000 terabytes) of raw data.
4. Every day approximately 133,000 computers are thrown away.
The Week Magazine, 4.17.09, v.9, i.408, p.16. Uncle John's Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.40, 172, 252. BBC Knowledge, June 2009, v.1, i.5, p.83.

Zero Waste
In 2003, Kamikatsu, Japan, a town about 2,000 people banded together to reduce waste output. Separating 34 categories of recyclables, in 2008 they recycle 80% of all the trash generated in the town. They plan to be at Zero Waste in 2020.To compare – In America, the national recycling rate is 32%. 20% of the 400 million tons of municipal waste comes from homes, the rest is mainly manufacturing, construction, agriculture, and oil, gas and mining extraction.
Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.10 & 207.

Animal Technology
1. Puffball Sponge “Chips” - This orange sponge does not have organs, digestive systems, or circulatory systems. The skeleton is a series of calcium and silicon lattices, similar to what we use to make solar panels, microchips and batteries…except without using tons of energy and toxic chemicals. The sponges release enzymes into the water that oull out the calcium and sillicon and then arrange the chemicals into precise shapes. University of California Professor Daniel Morse copied the technique in 2006 and has made a number of electrodes using clean, efficient sponge technology.
2. Lobster “X-Ray” – X-ray machines are large and clunky because x-rays don’t like to bend and are hard to manipulate, so a huge device is necessary to bombard radiation all at once. Scientists have been researching how lobsters use their own x-ray vision, creating the Lobster Eye X-ray Imaging Device (LEXID). This handheld “flashlight” can see through three-inch thick steel walls by shooting low-power X-ray. The returning bounce back signals funnel through the tubes to create an image. The Department of Homeland Security has invested $1 million in LEXID designs in hopes of finding contraband.
3. Sharkskin “Wrap” – 100,000 Americans die each year from infections picked up in hospitals. Unlike other large marine creatures, sharks don’t collect slime, algae or barnacles on their bodies – or even E. Coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Engineer Tony Brennan was trying to design a better barnacle-preventative skin for Navy ships, and while investigating, he discovered shark skin is covered in tiny bumpy scales (like a carpet of tiny teeth). His research inspired the company Sharklet, which began creating a coating to repel germs. They have produced a plastic wrap they are testing with reported success on most used hospital surfaces, light switches, monitors, handles…and plans forthcoming to work on catheters.
4. Bat “Cane” – England’s Leeds University led to the invention of the Ultracane, a walking stick for the blind that vibrates as it approaches objects. It lets off 60,000 ultrasonic pulses per second and listens to bounce back. It can also sense distance as well as low hanging items.
5. Toucan Bill “Car Panel” – A toucan bill is large, thick and hard enough to chew through the toughest fruit shells, sturdy enough as a weapon against other birds, and amazingly only as dense as a Styrofoam cup. The bill is made of a complicated network of tiny scaffolds and thin membranes. The scaffolds are made of heavy bone, but spaced apart in such a way that the entire bill is only one tenth the density of water. Professor of Engineering at the University of California Marc Meyers thinks that copying the pattern could create car panels that are stronger, lighter and safer.
6. Humpback Whale “Pwer Boost” - Frank Fish, a fluid dynamics expert and marine biologist at Pennsylvania’s West Chester University studied the softball sized bumps on the forward edge of Humpback whales flippers. These tubercles defy physics and are actually more aerodynamic because they are positioned in a way that they actually break the air/water passing over into pieces, like a brush running through hair. This “tubercle effect” as seen on fins and flippers can work on fans and blades – cutting through the air about 20 percent more efficiently than standard onews. Fish has launched a company called Whalepower to manufacture these ideas, and he hopes to revolutionize blades for wind energy.
7. Earthworm "Contamination Fighters" - In 2008 researchers at the University of Reading in England discovered an unknown type of earthworm. These worms eat toxic waste, including lead, zinc, arsenic and copper residue from mining. After they metabolize the waste, the poop is less toxic.
8. Bonus: Bacteria "Detoxing Energy" - Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina resported in 2005 that some freshwater pond bacteria consumes harmful pollutants, including; PCBs and chemical solvents. Upon consumption they also generate electricity at levels that could be used to operate small devices 24 hours a day.
Mental Floss, May/June 2009, v.8, i.3, p.54-59. Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.17-18.

Eco Technology
1. Pollution Eating Road - In 2006 the company Italcementi invented TX Active, a cement laced with titanium dioxide. THrough photocatalysis it transforms pollutants (such as caarbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and benzene) into harmless substances like nitrates and water. The cement is self cleaning with by-products washed away with rainwater. Testing a paved street in the town of Segrate showed up to 60% reduction of air pollutants.
2. Fly Ash Bricks - Fly ash is fine ash produced by birning coal and is high in mercury content.Coal plants typically captureas much of it as they can in chimney stacks and store them in slurry ponds. In 2007 Dr. Henry Liu of Columbia Missouri invented a process to safely turn the ash into bricks. Made at room temperature, they are 100% fly ash only and do not leach mercury - they actuallly absorb ambient mercury from the air (acting as pollution eaters).
3. Bio Sugar Battery - In 2008 Sony announced they designed a battery that runs on sugar. The battery takes advantage of electrons freed during the breakdown of sugars by enzymes. Four of the one and a half inch square batteries provide enough power to run a small mp3 player, which currently is the most power ever produced by a bio-battery.
Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.105-106.

Metal
Over 70% of all metal is used only once, then discarded.
Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.13.

Boeing 737s Electric Motors
Boeing 737s are to be fitted with electric motors that will propel them when they are taxiing. It’s been estimated that the change could cut over 400 tonnes of carbon dioxide per plane per year. The system has been developed by WheelTug, a subsidiary of UK-based Chorus Motors, and Delta Air Lines is expected to take delivery of the 737s equipped with the electric motor in 2010.
BBC Knowledge, June 2009, v.1, i.5, p.23.

Flat Screen TV Energy
A flat-screen TV uses 43% more energy than a traditional TV.
Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.268.

Kraft Foods Energy
Kraft Foods is turning used whey, a by-product of the manufacture of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, into biogas, hoping to replace a third of the natural gas they use for energy – equivalent to what it takes to power 2,600 homes.
Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.211.

Toilets
Toilets made after 1992 are water-efficient using as little as 1.3 gallons per flush. Pre-1992 toilets use between 3.5 and 7 gallons per flush. Caroma Indistries in Australia designed an efficient toilet with two buttons to flush. 1 for liquid waste which uses 0.8 gallons of water and one for solid waste using 1.6 gallons of water – which in Australia reduced consumption by 67% or about 9,000 gallons per toilet per year.
Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.13 & 34.

CEO Salary
The median salary and bonuses for the CEOs of 200 large US companies fell 8.5% in 2008, to $2.24 million. It's the second pay decline since 1989. Corporate profits fell 5.8% over the same period.
The Week Magazine, 4.17.09, v.9, i.408, p.38.

Beijing Commuters
Beijing commuters who use bicycles, declined from 60% in 1998 to 20% in 2002.
History Magazine, Apr/May '09, v.10, n.4, p.5.

Cost of Trash
On average it costs $30 to recycle a ton of trash and $50 in a landfill.
Uncle John's Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.72.

Aluminum to Energy
In 2007 Americans recycled 54 billion aluminum cans, the energy equivalent of all the gas consumed in the US in a single day.
Uncle John's Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.98-99.

Pesticides in the Body
80% of commonly used pesticides have been found in human breast milk.
Uncle John's Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.146.

Recycle Bits
1. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, built in 2008, is made of 50% recycled plastics.
2. If all American newspapers were recycled, it would save 200,000 trees a week.
3. A recycling operation creates 6 times as many jobs as a landfill.
4. You can get a tax credit donating DVDs to a library.
Uncle John's Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, 2009, p.9, 22, 171, 210.

Murder Rate
The US has a murder rate which is still the "highest among civilized nations." In March, over 50 deaths involved guns. The Second Amendment speaks of a "well-regulated militia" not an armed free-for-all in which angry loners and the insane can easily buy assult weapons made for military use.
The Week Magazine, 4.17.09, v.9, i.408, p.16.