Robot farmhands prepare to invade the countryside

From ploughs to seed drills to tractors, evolving technology has brought about radical changes to agriculture over the years. Now the sector is poised for another shift as robotic farmhands gear up to make agriculture greener and more efficient.

Three things now make mobile agricultural robots a real possibility in the near future, says Tony Stentz, an engineer at Carnegie Mellon University's robotics institute.

Firstly, mobile robots have now proved able to cope with complex outdoor environments; secondly, the price of production has fallen; and, finally, society should now see robot laborers as a benefit not a curse.
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Daryl Hannah - Eco Nerd

Daryl Hannah divides her time between California and Colorado, and in both places she lives "off the grid", with her own sources of water and power. Her homes are powered by solar panels, her toilets are compost, her cars run on leftover grease from fast-food restaurants. One of them a Chevrolet El Camino pick-up painted a Batman-esque matt black has become something of a signature. She grows her own food and brings what she can't eat to a farmers' market; she keeps bees and makes honey, she knits, she sells teepees on her website. She gets excited about battery storage and new designs for low-profile wind turbines ("I'm a little bit of a nerd," she admits). She wears recycled necklaces made of boiled-down shotgun casings. She has more than 20 animals - horses, alpacas, chickens, dogs, cows - all of which are rescues.

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News Links You May Have Missed This Week

You probably won't find these headlines on the front page of your local papers but they are steps in the right direction. As for our absence yesterday, it was World Environment Day so we did our part by shutting down for the day.

Tidal Power Keeps on Truckin
Nature Walks Make You Smarter
Wind-Powered Drive-in Movie Theater
Hemp homes to be built in government drive
Target calls it a wrap on plastic
Green Pest Control: Not an Oxymoron
Cash for Clunkers: A Fair Trade for the Environment

Next week Green Works Links will take a look at a long overdue project in New York City.

China to Expand Hemp Fiber Acreage in Yunnan

Xishuangbanna of Yunnan province in China is set to expand its hemp growing area from 30 000mu to 100 000mu by the end of this year. Industrial hemp is environmentally friendly as it requires little to no pesticides or herbicides. Producing 250 percent more fibre than cotton, hemp farming can also control topsoil erosion.

Green energy overtakes fossil fuel investment, says UN

Green energy overtook fossil fuels in attracting investment for power generation for the first time last year, according to figures released today by the United Nations.

Wind, solar and other clean technologies attracted $140bn (£85bn) compared with $110bn for gas and coal for electrical power generation, with more than a third of the green cash destined for Britain and the rest of Europe.

The biggest growth for renewable investment came from China, India and other developing countries, which are fast catching up on the West in switching out of fossil fuels to improve energy security and tackle climate change.

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Grey Water Recycling Project Launched in Middle East

Grey water recycling has become a hot topic around the world, with water-strapped countries like Australia and others installing such systems. In Israel, the Health Ministry has generally prohibited grey water recycling because of the unacceptably high bacteria count in the water. Grey water is the leftover water from showers, sinks and washing machines, as opposed to black water - the water from toilets. With the proper treatment to reduce bacteria, it can be reused in toilets or to water gardens. A pilot project in Jerusalem, initiated by the environmental organization Shomera for a Better Environment, would only focus on reusing shower water. If the pilot is successful, the government would consider permitting systems in the public sector and in businesses to recycle shower water for flushing toilets or watering gardens.

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Regular Light Bulbs Made Super-Efficient with Ultra-Fast Laser

An ultra-powerful laser can turn regular incandescent light bulbs into power-sippers, say optics researchers at the University of Rochester. The process could make a light as bright as a 100-watt bulb consume less electricity than a 60-watt bulb while remaining far cheaper and radiating a more pleasant light than a fluorescent bulb can.

The laser process creates a unique array of nano- and micro-scale structures on the surface of a regular tungsten filament—the tiny wire inside a light bulb—and theses structures make the tungsten become far more effective at radiating light.

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