Goldman Sachs, Google and Chevron are betting on solar power to become a cheaper energy source than coal by 2020. The three corporate giants are investing in a 1000 acre solar power facility in southern California’s Mojave Desert that will provide enough energy to power 112,500 homes at full capacity. The facility will run off of the solar thermal power system with 550,000 carefully positioned mirrors boiling water into steam which will turn turbines to generate electricity. JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo invested in the facility, with Google and Chevron funding research and Goldman Sachs seeking land to lease for the fast growing project.

The costs for the technology will fall below those of coal by the year 2020 according to US Government estimates given the increasing demand for energy and rising natural prices and emissions limits. A US Department of Energy report says solar thermal electricity prices could fall below 3.5 cents per kilowatt hour within 12 years under the right conditions. However significant obstacles still remain including the development of better energy stoarge and transmission capability and continued government support of the technology through tax credit and research and development funding.

Read the rest of this entry »

Your chance at getting 4 Free iTunes benefiting Darfur begins today…

Help us change the world for the better! We’re asking our users to help us define what our next phase is going to be. In addition to reading this blog, hopefully you’ve all checked out our alpha site over at TakePart.com, where users can take part (couldn’t resist) in the social action campaigns for Participant’s movies - everything from organizing your community around Darfur Now to learning the facts about immigrant detention from The Visitor.

Now we’d like your opinion on how to take this site to the next level - click here to take our survey and let us know how we can better serve our users and make change in the world. Just in case you need the URL, the survey is located at poll.takepart.com

Thanks for your help! Exciting things to come…

You’ve likely heard about the long-anticipated 3G iPhone being announced (and hopefully released) in a few days. You may already own an iPhone, or have been waiting for Apple to release “Version 2.0″ of the device so you won’t feel like a guinea pig. Either way, if you’re in the queue lusting after the latest magical mobile wonder, you’re probably not giving much thought to your existing phone. In fact, you probably can’t wait to roll over it with your car on the way home. You know your phone; it has a couple lame games, a blurry camera, an annoying rap ringtone that your darn kid put on and you had to manually enter all your contacts using that dorky multi-press technique on the numbers. You got it for free when you signed up for your mobile plan. At the time you thought it was a good deal, but now you feel like a Luddite watching all the cool people with their iPhones swiping, pinching and tapping their screens. Before you chunk your old phone in the garbage, please consider the following:

1. Erase all your personal data. This should be common sense, but you’d be amazed at how few people actually do this. Would you hand pictures of your kid to a complete stranger? Many people do. Erase the contacts, text messages (created, drafts and sent), call lists, favorites, photos, music, games, and calendars. If you need help, check the manual that came with your phone, or look it up on the manufacturer’s website in case you tossed that too.

Read the rest of this entry »

For the first time ever, a tribe indigenous to the forests on the border of Brazil and Peru has been photographed. The photos were taken by aircraft, and the native people are shown firing arrows at the plane. The expedition was led by José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles, Jr., an expert on native affairs in Brazil. Though the number of native people seems strong, Meirelles has a warning against those that would destroy the ecosystem the tribe resides in. From the UK’s Daily Mail:

Logging is driving uncontacted tribes over the border and could lead to conflict with the estimated five hundred uncontacted Indians already living on the Brazilian side.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today, Friday, at 7 pm EDT/ 4 pm PDT, you can takepart and join in on a live call with Darfur Now director, Ted Braun.

Ecorazzi wrote yesterday that The Huffington Post is taking a new eco approach to their reporting by introducing their new “HuffPost Green” site, which will be partnering up with Discovery´s Planet Green and Treehugger.com for much of their content. Here´s more from the official release:

“HuffPost Green will focus on eco news and trends–from style and eco-conscious celebrities to green lifestyle tips and the latest scientific findings and expert analysis,” a release from the company explained, hinting that we will likely see photos of Leonardo DiCaprio with his shirt off in addition to the latest grim findings on climate change. “The section will also feature advice on sustainable investing and highlight eco-friendly businesses and sustainable business sectors such as renewable energy, green building, recycling and organics.”

Read the rest of this entry »