HAVE YOU HEARD OF EARTHHOUR? MARCH 27TH 20:30 hrs.

Saturday 27 March 2010 at 8.30pm
We want a billion people around the world to switch off their lights for one hour, WWF’s Earth Hour, to show they care about people
and wildlife threatened by climate change. WWF’s Earth Hour provides a fun and effective way of giving students a voice in tackling
climate change, and your participation is crucial to its success!
Watch this WWF-UK video to find out more: http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/about_earth_hour/aboutearthhour/

What do you think of these initiatives?

Do you take part in them?

Are they useful to make people aware of what's going on?

Please send your comments!

MORE ON ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES by our students

Two of our students have sent very interesting information to our practice forum for unit 2, which I'd like to bring here as well, for you to read.

Sandra Karina Romo Quezada told us about this amazing " stadium in Japan that collects people's vibrations and then generates energy":

Misako Park Stadium, stadium capable of generating energy through the vibrations of the fansPosted Mar 10, 2010 by Ken
Several systems are currently used to generate energy cleanly from the most popular based on solar panels or windmills to others not so famous, such as those that are fed by vibration.
(UpVery.com) Mar 10, 2010 -- Several systems are currently used to generate energy cleanly from the most popular based on solar panels or windmills to others not so famous, such as those that are fed by vibration.An example of this type of system (implemented recently and still in testing) can be found in the football stadium Misaki Park Stadium in Kobe (Japan), home of Vissel Kobe, which uses the vibrations produced by the fans for energy . You what?Let me explain. What they have done is install a number of special plates located at the foot of fans able to collect the energy generated by their jumps and other movements (eg, a stomp of anger caused by a red card) which is stored for later use. The numbers obtained in the first test is not bad, in a match that lasted produced 8400 watts per second on average and the completion of the flow continued, there were 2320 watts per second.Although not the final solution seems like a great idea, are using the energy generated by the home crowd with its vibrations to feed on the same stage and thus reduce the consumption of energy generated from other less environmentally friendly. To see if hopefully the example is copied by other countries in the world man.

http://www.web-soft-design.com/misako-park-stadium-stadium-capable-of-generating-energy-through-the-vibrations-of-the-fans/

On the other hand, Cristina González Angos told us in the same forum "yesterday I talked with a girl from Oregon about alternative energies (...) and she said to me that in her country there is a gym where you can generate energy when you are running in the machine. I was amazed and she gave me the web page: http://rerev.com/howitworks.htm

The gym environment is an ideal setting to capture a large amount of consistent kinetics with little up front cost by utilizing existing infrastructure.
HUMAN ENERGY Kinetic energy from your workout is converted to DC (Direct Current) and sent to the ReRev System.
CURRENT CONVERTS ReRev converts the DC current into AC (Alternating Current), the form of electricity used by homes and businesses.
RENEWABLE ENERGY The electricity can then be used to power the building.

Thanks for your gripping contributions, it's good to check we are all thinking of alternative energies and ALREADY using them in some places not to exhaust, our so much battered planet!

FLY in the future with an electric self-launch sailplane

source:http://www.glider-one.si/

FLY in the future with an electric self-launch sailplane Electro Apis EA1

ELECTRIC APIS EA1 is one of the first sailplanes in the world and the first one in Slovenia EU (the first flight was 18. April 2005), which can take off with an electromotor and climb up to altitude 1800m at 50%DOD, even to altitude 3000m at 90%DOD. The altitude depends on the percentage of the discharging of the Li-Poly batteries. The best recomended discharging of the batteries is about 50%DOD. In this case the altitude is app 1800m and the batteries can give 1500 cycles http://kokam.com/english/product/kokam_Lipo_01.html

In the future solar cells on the wings will give enough nature energy for many take offs next day and to climb much over than 3000 metresof the altitude.

Have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt8ISQC7aVY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydFo67O3dmw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPGeDAZHxMo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm3mliPyeeM


Electric sailplanes... the future?
Will they pollute less?
Is this kind of energy better?

ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES

"Alternative energies? What a bore! What can one say about it?" This is what most students say about unit2. I think it is a very important topic so why not try and look at it in a funnier way to get the most of it and learn?

Up there you have some cartoons which can give you some hints to write and here you have a funny video:

The Alternative Energy Comedy Show rocks! Stand-up comedy about wind power, solar panels and biofuels ain't funny unless your host is a big, beer swilling guy like Chuck Roy.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/eab860b25e/the-alternative-energy-comedy-show-guest-jeff-wozer-from-renewablecomedy

What's your opinion on this?

Do you think these energies will improve our enviroment? Why?

Share a joke, a funny anecdote or anyway, drop us a line!!