Golden Shower

New advertising campaign in Brazil encouraging it's citizens to conserve water by peeing in the shower. The Brazilian environmental group SOS Mata Atlantica uses humour to reduce the number of toilet flushes which if everyone avoids once a day could save up to 1,157 gallons of water per year for every household.

TEDGlobal 2009 : Thursday

More thought provoking talks from the live video streams of TEDGlobal in Oxford yesterday courtesy of Wieden & Kennedy. The TED website has become such a global phenomenon of spreading ideas that they have now added a translator covering up to 40 different languages. With Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Arabic being the most popular.

Paul Romer, a new-growth economist, suggests building more cities to reduce the human footprint. His argument is that cities are higher concentrations human populations. Currently, humans populate 3% of the world's arable land. Any extra billion people would only take up another 1% if housed in cities. Hong Kong is a perfect model for a successful economy as a special administrative region which should be copied in places such as Guantanamo Bay.

Michael Pritchard, an inventor, has created a new syringe whose plunger breaks after use to prevent infection from spreading through reuse. Apparently, 64% of all injections in India were considered unsafe because of badly recycled syringes. Another notable invention is his new water bottle called the LifeSaver, that can filter elements as small as 25nm. The Polio virus is about 50nm. The global cost to provide the world with clean drinkable water is $20bn. The UK alone spends $12bn on foreign aid.

Rob Hopkins of transitionnetwork.org, an open source network of ideas. He champions resilience as being more important than sustainability. The globalisation of the world has concentrated our dependence on a few elements making us very vulnerable to any sudden changes in climate or economy. He suggest a spread of this risk through microeconomics.

Tim Brown of IDEO wants a return of big design which should inclusive of people by asking the right questions.

Misha Glenny, an BBC journalist says one industry bucking the trend of the credit crunch is organised crime, which accounting for 16% of the world's GDP.

Loretta Napoleoni, a Macroeconomist, says organised crime launders $1.25 trillion globally, double that of the UK GDP. She says that there is no escaping our relationship with crime which has permeated our society and economy.

The moving story of Emmanuel Jal, from a war child soldier to Hip Hop artist.

Ross Lovegrove, an Industrial Designer, references nature to create minimally efficient & organic design. The new design discipline of Bio-mimicry.

Nick Veasey's amazing X-Ray photography shows the hidden beauty of everyday objects from clothing to Jumbo Jets, the later of which took 2 painstaking months to complete.

Eric Giler, of MIT: 40 billion disposable batteries are made every year to satisfy our need for mobile energy. WiTricity hopes to change this with wireless power using Resonance Energy Transfer.

Parag Khanna, a geopoliticalist: a 100 new countries have been formed since the end of WW2. Contrary to current beliefs, the world is actually fragmenting due to artificial borders collapsing. But he suggest that conflict can be overcome with shared cross-border infrastucture.

Zeitgeist, The Movie

'Zeitgeist - The Movie' and 'Zeitgeist: Addendum' are two fascinating documentaries about alleged historical and modern conspiracies including the origins of Christianity, the 9/11 attacks and the banking system.

Both have won the Artivist Film Festival & Awards dedicated to recognising activist efforts by filmmakers around the world.

Silent hybrids to turn up the volume

The Japanese government is having a re-think about the dangers of silent hybrid cars. The Transport Ministry reported that vision impaired pedestrians feel their safety is being ignored because they are unable to hear the cars coming.

The panel may force manufacturers of hybrid cars to fit noise making devices to alert pedestrians of their presence.

It seems the Japanese have listened to my experience posted a few days ago. Perhaps I should have patented this idea last week.

Universal chargers for mobiles by 2012

The mobile (cellular) phone world joined hands today with the announcement that 10 companies including Apple, LG, Motorola, Nokia and Sony Eriksson, have all agreed to use the Micro-USB format by 2012.

This is good news for consumers and environmentalists as the universal chargers will not only reduce thousands of tonnes of electronic wastage from the disposal of obsolete chargers, but be more energy efficient by reducing carbon emissions by 13.6 million tonnes to 21.8 millions tonnes a year.

Manufacturers had been under increasing pressure from the European Commission to create a standardised charger. EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen told German radio station Deutche Welle that there were more than 30 different kinds of chargers in use across the 27 nations of the European Union.

The GMSA, an umbrella association for the industry, estimates the potential of eliminating up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers.

Read the article at the Guardian Online.

Eco cars get sexy

So, I'm walking down the street and decide to cross the road. But before I do, I casually glance either way and listen out for any cars coming. Upon hearing nothing, I proceed to cross only to jump from surprise at the sound of a horn. A Toyota Prius had sneaked up on me with it's stealthy electric motor.

There are some things I despise about eco cars. One, they are so pig ugly, it'd be too embarrassing to introduce them to your mother for fear of making her eyes bleed. Second, if it's an electric car, I suspect the streets will be littered with roadkill pin-striped in bio-degradable rubber, unless those canny Japanese add external speakers blaring out the rumble of a V8.

But it's the first reason that really irks my sense of aesthetics. Why, of all things do manufacturers of eco cars insist on believing tree-huggers have the vision of Stevie Wonder? Do hippies not enjoy things of beauty as well as saving the planet? Are these two mutually exclusive?

Well, it seems the fledgling industry is waking up to cool eco designs. Take a look at these beauties and see if you will ever look at the humble Duracell in the same light again.

Check out the beauties and the beasts of the green car world.