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Short of spending $18 billion of your hard earned cash on speculative research, there are things that each us can do to reduce our impact on the environment. Yes, you can walk to work and stop using toilet paper, and those are certainly admirable and possibly uncomfortable efforts if combined, but let's be practical: most of us just aren't going to do that. So we wanted to take today to announce that 40tech will be starting a monthly column on environmental technology. We’re calling it Green Tech to Save Some Green. But wait! Didn’t we just say something about $18 BILLION on speculative research? Ohhh yes! Read on!
Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
On Tuesday world governments met to discuss future funding for ITER, which is a machine that many believe will be able to produce energy through nuclear fusion (the process of slamming hydrogen atoms together to produce helium, and tons of energy). Advocates for the technology argue that if they can just get enough funding, they can create miniature suns here on Earth to do all of our work for us (it's the process that fuels that yellow guy in the Jimmy Dean commercials, as well as every star known to us). This promise is tantalizing because nuclear fusion apparently produces no negative by-products like spent nuclear fuel, CO2 — or the occasional environmentally devastating spill, leak or release. It sounds like the perfect technology except that ITER is now expected to cost $18 billion USD and it is doubtful that this will be the final number. Oh… and we have no idea if it's possible for us to replicate the process without using far more power than it generates on a non-star-like scale.
Interesting, no? Maybe just a wee bit impractical for every day use, though.
I should note that 40tech is focused on the “technology porn of life”. This is not a column about making you feel guilty about leaving your computer on over-night while it defrags, or debating if climate change is the end of civilization or all in Al Gore's head. We simply want to highlight technology that you can use to save some green while greening up your everyday life. And hey if we can help you to save enough money to build your own nuclear fusion reactor, we like gift cards to any tech outlet!
By the way, on the topic of toilet paper, are you a Paris Hilton guy or Chuck Norris? Also, are there any environmental technologies, websites or applications you'd like us to write about in the coming months? Let us know in the comments!
