Verdiem’s Edison PC Power Management Software makes it easy to do just that. This software is offered free by Microsoft Environment.

Verdiem’s Edison software makes is easy to control when to shut down your monitor, hard drive, and when to put your computer in sleep mode. The software gives you a slider control that moves from “Save Less” to “Save More” and displays a chart that shows your yearly savings in money, energy and CO2.

The software also lets you set a work day schedule to set a different power scheme for running during the day and during the evening.

This great software can save you an average of $15 a year per computer in power consumption. For a large family with more than 1 computer at home, this could be a very noticeable savings.

By definition, climate change impacts the globe as a whole. That being said, is it possible to predict specific results in various regions of the world? While there is no definitive answer, the impact on third world countries in Asia and Africa has been the subject of much discussion. Let’s take a look.

Africa is considered a third world continent because a vast majority of the African countries have underdeveloped economies and living standards. Unfortunately, Africa is also believed to be one of the most heavily impacted areas when it comes to climate change. Over half the people in Africa live in rural areas with agricultural economies. These communities rely heavily on naturally occurring rain resources and planned irrigation is minimal. This unfortunately results in the horrific famines we see on tv. Climate change is predicted to devastate Africa because it is believed the greenhouse effect will reduce the amount of rain received on the continent. As the Sahara Desert expands, less land will be available for farming and the problem will grow worse. Malnutrition from famines will lead to weak immune systems and disease will be prevalent. If the predictions are accurate, Africa could become a living nightmare.

If climate change trends continue, they will be saying goodbye to large chunks of Asia. Cities such as Jakarta, Tokyo and Bangkok sit at sea level. If the melting polar caps result in a two foot rise in sea levels as predicted, these cities will be underwater. Countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh are expected to lose 37,000 square miles of coastline under a similar situation. Over 34 million people will suddenly have to move to already congested population centers. Economies, health care and food supplies will undoubtedly reach critical levels.

Climate change could devastate Asia. You might be surprised to learn that over 60 percent of the human population lives in greater Asia. This mass of people has stretched agricultural and health resources to the maximum. To top it off, large population centers sit right on the coastline in flat areas only a few feet above sea level.

Is there any nice news when discussing the third world and climate change? Surprisingly, yes. The first step is to put regulations in place that reduce greenhouse gases. This is what we’re counting on at the UN meeting in Copenhagen. Second, proactive planning must be done to account for these potential effects of third world climate change.

Just living on this planet generates its own set of carbon footprints by virtue of our use of natural resources, even back in the cave man times. As time went on & tools were introduced into society, ostensibly to make life easier on humans, humanity’s carbon footprint increased proportionately. Now we experience troubling events like climate change brought on by human activities.

Your Carbon Footprint Defined

What exactly is a carbon footprint? The accepted definition is the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the activities of individuals & organizations as well as their consumption of natural & man-made products. Wow, what a definition! It’s really expressed in terms of the quantity of carbon dioxide & other greenhouse gases emitted. Today, global warming can be attributed to over 90 percent of human activities & products. The need to diminish our carbon footprint takes on more meaning & urgency.

Causes of Our Harmful Carbon Footprints

There are many of causes to the increase of our harmful carbon footprints. For one thing, they cause so much land, air & water pollution by our excessive use of natural & man-made products as well as our activities like dumping garbage without thought to recycling & reusing them. Another thing, many people still refuse to embrace alternative sources of energy & ways of living. We stick to fossil fuel when we have water and electricity to power our cars and we use commercial personal hygiene products containing environmentally harmful ingredients when we can make our own homemade products.

Solutions to Diminishing Your Carbon Footprint

Fortunately, you can reverse this deplorable trend by adopting green living habits. These are practical tips that only need careful consideration & thoughtful execution until you do them automatically in your every day life.

* Reduce your use of man-made products by sticking to the basics of modern life. Buy new things only when you must & only when you are assured these are eco-friendly. Reuse your old stuff to make new stuff. You’ll add one less piece of garbage to the landfills & incinerators. Recycle your junk & perhaps even make money out of them by re-selling them.

* Use solar power to provide energy & light to your home. If solar panels are expensive for you now, start with solar lights for the garden & pathways as well as portable solar water heaters.

* Get moving by walking to your destinations, using the stairs & riding your bike, all of which will also make you healthier in mind & body.

* Be mindful of your food consumption & waste – can fruits & vegetables, reheat leftovers & cook only what you can eat.

* Pick organic & natural products for your home & office as well as personal hygiene & foods.

* Switch to energy-efficient home & kitchen appliances as well as make your home more eco-friendly like planting deciduous trees near windows receiving the most sunlight.

It’s also a great idea to keep up on the latest in conserving the environment. As time goes on, more and more knowledge toward this end is being discovered and it is up to each one of us to adopt them to reduce our carbon footprint and save the environment.

The designer of the diesel motor, Rudolph Diesel saw the potential that renewable biofuels had as early as the late 1800’s. In fact he was adamant about using them in his engines and understood how vital it was that we not become completely reliant on fossil based fuels. He was very particular with proving how renewable biodiesel was better. His biodiesel was used in his engines until the 1920’s!

It’s strange how more people don’t know that biodiesel was used regularly and was the only product used in the diesel engine up until the 1920’s. This was when the production of petroleum based fuels became more prolific. Henry Ford was a profound supporter of the theory of biofuels as these fatty acids are able to produce ethanol and methanol to drive engines. In fact he believed this was the future of fuels and built a special factory for the manufacture of these fuels. He believed that every vehicle he produced could be driven by this fuel.

He was at the top of his game when he built this factory and went as far as to enter into partnerships with natural oil manufacturing companies. In the 1940’s, fossil fuel companies who manufactured petroleum based products, started mass marketing and advertising campaigns that showed their products were cheaper than biofuels which soon stopped the production of alternative fuels.

Biodiesel was originally produced with oils which did not allow a very high yield of fuel, making this fuel expensive. Then they discovered hemp oil. Hemp had been grown for a long time in the US for its many useful purposes. When tested, hemp oil was found to be stable and also able to produce a greater yield of fuel. Henry Ford went back to the drawing board on manufacturing fuel for his vehicles from hemp oil.

At the same time the discovery of oil had started in the US and entrepreneurs owned these. They also became very rich by supplying oil to petroleum companies. These entrepreneurs did not want Henry Ford to have a share of this market with his hemp oil fuel and campaigned against it, calling the fuel Marijuana. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hurst became engaged in a campaign to negate this product and was instrumental in getting the Marijuana Tax Act enacted.

The Act prevented anyone from possessing Hemp without an appropriate license and on top of that, the Government wouldn’t issue the licenses. This Act effectively stamped out the production of biofuel, as the man in the street was afraid they would be breaking the law if they were in possession of it. This in brief is the history of Biodiesel.

Interested in making your own biodiesel at home? It’s surprisingly cheap and easy. Take advantage of the cost savings and saving the environment.

Solar energy comes from rays generated from the sun. Solar energy is environmentally friendly. However, sun rays dilute when it enters the earth’s atmosphere

We’ll start with the cons. Dilution of solar energy is the biggest fault in this source of power. This means you need several solar collectors installed around your home. Paying for solar energy may be very cheap, but buying the solar collectors are relatively expensive and require proper maintenance in order to work properly.

Your house roof may not be at a good angle for collecting solar energy, which would make installation on your roof less effective or in some cases, not possible. This can pose a big problem for those wishing to convert to solar energy.

There are many benefits in using solar energy too! Solar energy is possibly the best solution if you live in a remote area with no power-lines. There are remote areas where power companies have no means to access your home. Solar power is a great way to generate energy for your heating, electric and even cooking needs.

Desalination of water is a great use of solar energy if you are in an area where fresh water is scarce. Solar energy evaporates brine and leaves the salt crystals in the bottom of the basin. Water then condenses back into another basin, where it becomes drinkable.

A big advantage of solar energy was a law passed a couple years ago that allows the selling of excess power back to utility sources, lowering or eliminating your bills. This means you can save several hundred dollars a month just by selling back extra energy you collect!

Nuclear Reaction – A Greenpeace blog about nuclear power: Nuclear …

Instead, the project has become a multibillion-euro money pit that serves as a cautionary tale for incoming members of the nuclear energy club, including the UAE. In 2005, Finland broke ground on the world’s most advanced reactor, …

Botanical Gardens » Blog Archive » Is Nuclear Power Really The Answer?

And we sometimes forget that the government spent billions of dollars developing nuclear energy, and continues to subsidize it. What if we took the $500 billion we spent in Iraq and used it for a Manhattan Project style crash program to …

NEI Nuclear Notes: The Whole Shocking Truth About Nuclear Energy

In a small piece, Mariah Blake shows that the nuclear energy industry would really like nuclear energy to be considered amongst other technologies in the energy bills going through Congress – shocking, we know, but true enough – and is …

What You Should Know Green Energy

Nuclear power plants claim that they produce green energy as well, though this source is fraught with controversy, as we all know. While nuclear energy may be sustainable, may be considered renewable and does not pollute the atmosphere …

Greenpeace | Retire Vermont Yankee

Nuclear energy is dangerous, dirty and expensive. That’s why Greenpeace is drawing attention to Vermont Yankee. The nuclear reactor is nearing the end of its 40-year operating permit, and the company is seeking a 20-year license renewal.

Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste

The popular conception of nuclear power is straight out of The Simpsons: Springfield abounds with signs of radioactivity, from the strange glow surrounding Mr. Burn’s nuclear power plant workers to Homer’s low sperm count.

Sources that are readily available and better for our environment include water, wind, and the sun’s rays. These sources will never run out if we use them responsibly.

When it comes to water, there are several ways we can use it for our energy needs. Many of us are familiar with dams like the Hoover Dam which creates energy by running power through the dam. You can actually create electricity with the current of the river. There is also current research in the power of the ocean’s tide and waves for energy production.

Solar power is another energy source that comes to mind when thinking of green energy alternatives. We use the sun’s rays to produce electricity through solar panes for our homes or even a large solar plant to produce electricity for a whole town.

Windmills have been around for many, many years but today’s wind turbines are far more sophisticated than the scenic windmills we’ve seen in the past. Wind is a powerful energy source and we’re now seeing many wind farms popping up and even individual wind turbines for family homes.

Biomass is an energy source few people are familiar with but is now becoming another great source for our energy needs. Biomass is any biological material that is living or recently dead. Wood and sugar cane are examples of biomass energy sources because they can be replanted, however; they do release carbon dioxide into the air but in their live versions, they also absorb it.

When looking for an alternative source for energy, green power is the best source to use. There is still a lot of research to be done when coming up with solutions to our future energy needs but hopefully the research will increase and produce more clean and renewable energy for our future.

If yours is a larger household, then you already know how the electric bill can eat into the rest of your budget. We all want to keep these costs down and some go so far as to put off purchases of appliances since they are concerned with the amount of electrical power these items will use.

In addition, the current resources that people rely on mainly compose of fossil fuels and non-renewable resources. This means that one day these resources will be depleted, leaving it up us to research new ways to generate electricity. The best way to preserve these resources is not through changed habits, as that will greatly affect productivity, but by using an energy alternative.

Thankfully, there are clean and renewable energy sources that you can use to reduce your consumption of non renewable fuels and lower your electric bill too. There are solar and wind power generation plants already, with hydroelectric and geothermal energy being worked on as other alternative energy sources, however; solar and wind power are the best known and most viable of these energy sources at present.

It would be great if regular households can take advantage of these new technologies so they can one day become fully energy independent and provide themselves with clean energy that is renewable and environmentally friendly. Having that renewable energy means huge savings since electric bills will no longer be of concern.

While solar power is a good alternative energy, that is known to work well, it’s also far too expensive to be a realistic alternative for most people. Solar panels are not exactly cheap and if you want to power your home this way, you’ll need quite a few panels.

Wind turbines are different because they can easily be made by acquiring materials that can be found online or in the local junkyard. There are also a lot of resources on the internet that show the benefits and ways to become energy independent with wind turbines. Once you have all the materials and know-how in building a wind turbine, you can build lots of them to power your entire household. If you live in a rural area, you get even greater advantages from wind turbines.

Wind power has a very bright future ahead of it and they are easy and inexpensive to build, providing a lot of energy savings in a short time. This alternative energy source is just as environmentally friendly and effective as solar energy, but at a fraction of the cost.

Want a video guide that’ll teach you how to make your own residential wind power easily and quickly? This is a great place to start. You’ll see how you can build wind generators in your yard to save your hard earned dollars.

1 – Full of great advice and instruction

Efficient planet just became the most comprehensive DIY energy guide on the market. With over 175 pages of fantastic step-by-step instructions and advice that are easy to follow, it is well worth the small price tag of $49.97.

2 – Additional free gifts

When you buy the Efficient Planet guide, not only do you get the plans on how to make your own home solar and wind power system, but also a number of free extras. This includes a 50 page manual on how to easily save energy at home and video and audio interviews with other DIY fanatics that make their own power at home too.

It also comes with some useful, but irrelevant extras, such as a 12 part study kit on efficiently running your own home business; and some other “undisclosed bonuses”.

3 – Solid Advice:

What we liked was the way they broke the guide up into 3 volumes:

The first one is devoted to teaching you about solar power and how to make your own solar panels at home but it also goes on to discuss the various types of solar you can employ at home including solar heating and solar roofing.

The second volume focuses on wind power and how to build a home wind turbine. It also exposes 10 common myths about wind power by giving you the cold, hard facts.

The final part is devoted to showing you how to easily save power at home and thus reduce your power bill. Although we knew most of what it tells you to do, it really complemented the rest of the Efficient Planet series, with the goal of becoming more energy efficient.

Dislikes

1: Lack Of Video Tutorials

Initially we thought Efficient Planet is the most complete set of solar and wind power instructions but we noticed that it has no video tutorial that shows a working system being built in real-time. This makes it harder for the average, everyday person to build their own working solar and wind power generator, without getting stuck. Yes, the diagrams did make it easier, but it makes more sense in this day and age to provide step-by-step video instruction.

2: Nothing really unique about it

Efficient Planet seems to be the same old rehashed information. DIY energy guides are appearing all over the place these days, and this guide doesn’t seem to be any different than the rest, however; with that being said, where Efficient Planet excels is that it gives customers a number of free extras that makes it a better value for the money as compared to Homemade Energy or Homemade Power Plant.

Conclusion:

The Efficient Planet guide is one of the most comprehensive sets of instruction and advice on making your own power and becoming more energy efficient. Yes, the average person will be able to build their own working home wind turbine and solar power generator, but it may you longer longer than expected. The useful free gifts make it good value for money, but it comes in 2nd place, after Earth4Energy because no step-by-step video tutorial are provided.

Nowadays hydro-power is generated in 3 different ways: hydroelectric power, tidal power, and wave power.

Hydroelectricity:

Hydro-electric dams produced up to 90% of the world’s alternative energy, so it plays a vital role. Here, dams release water through huge turbines, which are spun by the force of the water.

The benefit to this type of hydro-power is the dam serves two purposes – to store water and to produce power. In fact, the water has so much stored energy, that it is capable of generating thousands of megawatts of power to light up an entire city.

There are number of environmental and social concerns, however; with building these large dams. They affect the spawning patterns of various fish, they can wipe out entire communities as they flood the land, and destroy natural vegetation.

Tidal Energy:

With tidal energy, hydropower is generated as the tides come in and go out.

This has been achieved by France and Russia since 1966 in areas with a large tidal range, such as bays and estuaries. One of the systems of tidal power works by trapping water at high tide with a tidal barrage, then releasing that water in one quick burst at low tide. This gushing water drives turbines to produce power.

Because it works with the tides, the system is very predicable, however; this is also its pitfall, since it only works every 6 hours when the tides changes.

Another, more modern tidal energy system works where large turbines (that look like wind turbines) are sunk in the shallows and are spun by the shifting tidal currents.

The advantage of this system is that it is an adaptation of an already technologically advanced wind turbine – so all the refinement has been done. Furthermore, the dense water is far more efficient than wind at spinning these turbines. Thus even slow-moving water is just as effective as a strong wind.

The disadvantage with this tidal power system is that it can only operate in a shallow area. This is usually where other economic activities, such as oyster farming, take place, and also where marine life thrives.

Wave Power:

Harnessing the power of the waves is the newest type of hydro-power. The system works where surface waves, are used to displace air, which is then compressed and released through turbines, that then spins to make electricity. Two types currently exist – the first is built along the shore-line, where waves constantly break, and the second is built on floating devices in the deep oceans.

Although this technology is relatively new, it has been estimated that there is enough energy in ocean waves to produce up to 2000 Megawatts of power.

However, wave power systems do have environmental concerns. Their hydraulic fluids could leak out into the ocean, causing water pollution and the fixed structures on the coastline can damage the natural plant and animal life on the seafloor.

Man has developed innovative techniques to harness the power of water to produce electricity, but like most renewable energy solutions, there will always be social and environmental impacts.