Hoping to be regarded more for affluence rather than effluence, Italy’s Latina Province, has called upon an MIT professor to help redesign the Pontine Marshes to filter pollution from upstream factories and farms. Professor Alan Berger, founder of P-REX, seeks to improve the severely damaged wetlands by:

Redirecting water flow, moving hills, building islands and planting new species to absorb pollution, to create natural, though artificial, landscapes that can ultimately sustain themselves.

While increased regulation are needed to reduce the high levels of pollution, Professor Berger’s approach serves as an excellent model for addressing the environmental damage caused by humans. Because the farms, factories, and resorts in the area cannot be completely shut down, this approach offers ecological remedies that take into account the economical rewards of the area.

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An MIT Scientist has made a breakthrough discovery in the practice of energy storage that stands to revolutionize the practical application of solar power.   The amount of energy the Earth receives from sunlight is vast, by some calculations there is enough solar power hitting this planet within a single to power all human energy consumption for an entire year.   However the technology to be able to store this enormous amount of energy, which directly or indirectly powered all life on earth until the advent of fossil fuels, has been woefully inadequate…until now.

MIT Professor Daniel Nocera has found a simple solution for electricity storage that requires nothing but abundant, natural, non-toxic materials.   The concept was inspired by the most widespread energy integration process in the history of the planet: photosynthesis.   Nocera and postdoctoral fellow Matthew Kanan created a way to use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen which may then be later combined within a fuel cell to power homes, businesses and vehicles.   That’s it, a process inspired by plants that can eassily be applied to power all of our needs has arrived.

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As long as we’re talking about Canada these days on the site here, I’ll go ahead and mention that Ottowa has approved construction of a facility that will turn 400 metric tons of garbage into 21 megawatts of electricity every day. I didn’t even know this technology even existed, but it seems like it’s the best idea ever.

Technology Review (published by those fancy-pants at MIT) reports today that this plant, to be constructed by the PlascoEnergy Group, would be the first large-scale gas-to-energy facility in North America. Technically, the process is called “gasification,” and

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Just yesterday, I posted about Greensburg, Kansas being rebuilt into a model green community. I believe the words “the model green community” might have even been used. Well, Abu Dhabi caught me moving after it yelled red light and has sent me back to start. The nation that sits on 10% of the world’s oil reserve is building what has to be considered the model green city. Sorry, Greensburg, you got served.

The city will be known as Masdar City, and costs are anticipated to begin around $22 billion. However will they find the money?

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