Scientific American

• Is the Sun Setting on Solar Power in Spain?, 10/20/2008 [image]
  On the outskirts of Seville, Spain, 600 rotating mirrors send shafts of light to a collector atop a soaring 380-foot- (115-meter-) tall tower. Its scalding 480-degree-Fahrenheit (250-degree-Celsius) steam drives a turbine generating a peak capacity of 11 megawatts (MW) of electricity for the national grid. This "power tower" is the first of nine to be built by Spanish engineering giant Abengoa Solar, which all told will produce enough electricity for 153,000 homes by 2013. more...
• How to Reduce Car-Made Pollution? Tune Up the Existing Technology, 3/4/2009 [image]
  Projected carbon dioxide emissions from cars could remain level at three gigatons through 2050 despite many more personal vehicles on the road with only minor and affordable changes to existing engines, chassis and systems, according to a new report. more...
• Blooms Away: The Real Price of Flowers, 2/12/2009 [image]
  Roses are red.... They are also fragile and almost always flown to the U.S. from warmer climes in South America, where roughly 80 percent of our roses take root; to warm the hearts of European sweethearts, they are most often imported from Africa. They are then hauled in temperature-controlled trucks across the U.S. or the Continent and locked up overnight in cold boxes before their onward journey to the florists of the world. According to Flowerpetal.com, which tries to limit the environmental impact of flower purchases, sending the roughly 100 million roses of a typical Valentine's Day produces some 9,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from field to U.S. florist. So what's a lovesick, albeit "green," beau to do? more...