An article in the Guardian the other day ‘How trees might not be green in carbon offsetting debate’ discussed some of the latest research done by Govindasamy Bala, an atmospheric scientist at the US Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Apparently if you are going to off-set your carbon emmissions by planting trees then this may not be as effective at reducing global warming as first accepted. It depends on whether the trees are planted in tropical rain forest areas or not. Forests generally tend to trap sunlight and therefore add to global warming. Tropical rain forests, by their nature generate clouds above them, whose cooling effect helps to lower overall temperatures.

So I was wondering if the real way to reduce one’s carbon footprint was simply to focus on energy conservation. A colleague at work (Riello UPS) now turns off every appliance in their home nightly. Not only does this help to offset their carbon footprint but they say, their home seems strangely quieter without the constant low-level hum from electrical devices on standby.

So what we really need is electronic devices that can last say 8-12 hours on a small internal standby power system, with plugs (or socket outlets) that can be remotely controlled or automatically set to turn on/off at preset times – the intelligent home of the future perhaps.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 9:18 am and is filed under Alternative Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.