What better way to work out the best way of solving the energy crisis than to get some scientific americans on the case? Scientific American's editors have put their heads…

Ooms Avenhorn Holding. The name alone fills Greenbang with joy. But Ooms has done more than provide aural pleasure - the civil engineering company has invented a way of using…

And you thought salt was just for putting on chips or annoying slugs with. That's so salt 1.0. Pah. Salt has far more in its future. Salt could one day…

Greenbang avoided a call she didn't want to take this morning - saw it come in, recognised the number and ignored it. And because she didn't want to listen to…

It's an empty box... A recent trip to Storage Expo last month (the highlight of the year for the UK’s data storage community) has left Greenbang feeling a bit cynical… Everybody who’s anybody in the IT space is now boasting about their eco credentials – so no one was surprised to learn that this year’s Storage Expo had a distinctly environmental theme. As soon as delegates entered Olympia’s National Hall, the first impression was one of overwhelming “green-ness.” Almost every IT company present had revamped its stand and painted it green – and asked all of its staff to wear matching green polo shirts. They were all giving away spongy little green and blue Planet Earths, green pencils, green shopping bags, green baseball caps, green T-shirts, green USB keys – even little green Mini Coopers! The piece de resistance was the Green IT Zone, an area sponsored by a few renowned vendors, which consider themselves to be authorities on the topic. They had come together to provide a programme of educational key note speeches, designed to educate the IT community and have us all running back to our offices to slash our carbon emissions in half. Yet – somewhere along the line, the meaning behind all this green propaganda seems to have been entirely forgotten… or ignored. To start with, the walls of the Green IT Zone were covered in literature racks, which each of the sponsors (bar the LTO Program – could this be the only IT company that gets it?) had dutifully filled with pamphlets, brochures, press releases and other papers. None of the collateral was printed on recycled paper. None of it was interesting. And we doubt that any of it was read – by anyone!

Dye-sensitised thin-film could make solar energy a viable renewable energy option, the manufacturer, G24i, argues. It combines material science and nanotechnology to generate renewable power in a process much like nature’s…

Here's a company trying to sell cheaper, sorry "affordable" solar kit to UK folk. The big deal with this, if it works as well as they claim, is that you don't need planning permission to install it. That saves a lot of time. The news story here is that a DIY presenter called Tommy Walsh (who he?) has installed one. Here's a release from Green Frog:

Nu-lok, the award-winning global roofing company, today announced the launch of its new sustainable energy division, Green Frog Solar, which will deliver affordable, easy to install solar solutions - including PV (photovoltaic) panels and a new hot water system - to homeowners throughout the UK. Tommy Walsh, the UK's favourite DIY TV presenter, has already selected Green Frog’s fully integrated solar PV (photovoltaic) roofing system for his brand new TV series Tommy Walsh’s Eco House, which starts tonight on Discovery Real Time at 9pm. This series sees Tommy and his team attempt to build a new home in 60 days for £60,000. Based in March, Cambridgeshire, the house is also being built in the most eco and cost-friendly manner possible, using construction materials which take into account eco benefits, cost, availability and ease of use. Tommy Walsh commented on today’s Green Frog announcement: “Like many other people, I couldn’t get a government grant for installing solar panels on my Eco House. It is a widespread problem. Fitting Green Frog Solar via a NICEIC approved electrician overcame the dilemma, allowing us to install solar quicker and more cost-effectively than going through the government grant process. Green Frog Solar, when used with Nu-lok’s innovative roofing system, is a wonderful solution, enabling builders to install solar seamlessly – and the end result looks fantastic!”

CHINA WATCH  The Chinese government plans to raise the tax on environmental pollution, because it thinks current taxes are too low to stop firms polluting. As Chinadaily reports:

"The taxes and fees on environment are insufficient and nonstandard to rein in the use of fossil fuel," said Chang, a research fellow with the law institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Without an effective tax system, pollution monitoring authorities tend to randomly charge "pollution fees", usually "a small amount" compared to the lucrative business of major polluters, said Chang.

By Simon Forge, Ptak Noel & Associates 1 Where are we now? Natural climate change is part of our environment. Extreme variations have occurred during the past 60…