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Cisco's new networks: Highways, airports, and city streets

Cisco Systems' new market is urban management.

The router and switch kings are teaming up with cities like Seoul, Lisbon, Madrid, San Francisco and Hamburg, Germany, on energy efficiency experiments. It will then take the successful ones and export them around the world.

In San Francisco, for instance, Cisco has rigged up a municipal bus with wireless Internet access so commuters can get their e-mail, browse the Web, or get information on when their connecting bus or train is coming in. The idea is to make public transportation more attractive and popular, which in turn reduces carbon dioxide emissions by … Read more

Cisco CEO takes jab at climate change deniers

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, is one of the least controversial CEOs in the tech world. Unlike Craig Barrett (former Intel CEO) or Cypress Semiconductor's T.J. Rodgers, he doesn't generally take potshots at Washington politicians. Cisco provides its opinion on issues like immigration, open access, and foreign competition, but the company rarely insists on playing the leading role in these controversies.

Chambers even wisely plays both sides in campaign contributions. He's donating to John McCain's presidential campaign, but also gave to Senator Harry Reid and the Democratic National Party, among others, according to this … Read more

Another carbon sequestration idea: Turn it into chalk

BP has proposed capturing carbon dioxide underground. A start-up in Texas called Skyonic says it can capture the gas and turn it into baking soda.

And now Carbon Sciences says it will turn carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and factories into calcium carbonate, otherwise known as limestone or chalk. The company combines the gas with fine calcium powders in a way that doesn't require a lot of heat and pressure, or that much calcium for that matter. For every ton of carbon dioxide, you only need three tons of raw materials, says CEO Derek McLeish.

The good news … Read more

Popping the cork spills carbons too

Making champagne is by no means carbon neutral, as tree-hugging teetotalers might like to note. Carbon dioxide causes the bubbles, after all.

To be exact, champagne makers have determined that making each bottle of bubbly causes the release of 200 grams of carbon dioxide.

Some champagne makers want to shrink emissions by 25 percent within 12 years and up to 75 percent by 2050. They announced the goals Tuesday at the Bordeaux Carbon Initiative, one of many recent events by vintners seeking to green their craft.

The figures do not include all sparkling wine, such as Spanish cava, made outside … Read more

Will thin clients rebound with higher power prices?

MENLO PARK, Calif.--The global rise in power consumption isn't bad for all species, it turns out.

Sun Microsystems is seeing increased customer interest in its Sun Ray, a thin desktop client, as electricity prices climb, said Subodh Bapat, vice president and chief engineer in the Eco Responsibility office at Sun. Bapat's comments came in a presentation during Sun's global media day taking place Wednesday.

Thin clients like the Sun Ray consume far less electricity than conventional desktops, he said. A Sun Ray on a desktop might consume 4 to 8 watts of power. That's because … Read more

Coal, once stable, zooms in price

Demand in China and a host of other factors are pumping coal prices to new levels, according to the Wall Street Journal.

As a result, coal prices could begin to push up the price of electricity, food, imports and other products that directly or indirectly rely on coal-burning power plants. (Coal supplies 40 percent of the world's electricity and roughly 50 percent of the U.S.'s electricity.) Demand is growing so fast that China in fact imported more than it exported in the first half of 2007 last year. Oil has already contributed to rising prices.

Thermal coal … Read more

Lake Mead may go dry by 2021

There is a 50 percent chance that Lake Mead, which was created by the Hoover Dam and the Colorado River, will go dry by 2021 because of escalating human demand and climate change, according to a study by Tim Barnett and David Pierce of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego.

Lake Mead straddles the Arizona-Nevada border, and Lake Powell is on the Arizona-Utah border. Aqueducts carry water from the system to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other communities in the Southwest.

By 2017, there is a 50 percent chance that the … Read more

Don't blame high food prices completely on ethanol

It's become a staple of conventional wisdom that increased ethanol production has caused food prices worldwide to skyrocket.

Unfortunately, many experts and crop data say that's not a complete answer. Granted, production of corn ethanol has surged in the U.S. and has boosted pricing pressure. Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute noted in a recent column on Cleantech.com that demand for grain by ethanol distillers jumped from 54 million tons in 2006 to 81 million tons in 2007. That jump of 27 million tons effectively doubled the annual growth rate. Brown said that ethanol creates … Read more

Super Tuesday is Super for a US based cap and trade system

One things for sure, post Super Tuesday with Governor Mike Huckabee far behind, Mitt Romney out, and McCain the all but crowned Republican nominee, the US is getting a cap and trade system for carbon. The question is which one. I thought I'd track a little of the candidates' various positions.

The major differences that are left between the parties are on how to do it. In general the Republicans favor US based systems, the Democrats favor a Kyoto based approach. The Democrats favor 100% allowance, the Republicans favor a slower adjustment scheme (The Kyoto mechanisms today are actually … Read more