A group of students at Cornell University in Syracuse, New York have
designed a car that will go 100 mpg. Cornell’s AXP team formed in the
spring of 2007, are hoping to take home the 10 million dollar prize offered
by Progressive Insurance. The students claims that the car should be ready
to go by as early as May 2009! Some of the sponsors are GE, Lockheed Martin,
Toyota, Popular Mechanics, Tektronics, and Exide. (more…)

Dear Readers,

Forced Green has grown tremendously over the last several months and none of that
growth would have been possible without your energy and support.

We want to make sure that we’re on the same page that you are as we move forward
together in future posts.

Can you take a moment to tell us how you think we’re doing?

This brief survey is something like a progress report, and is meant to gauge how
satisfied you are with the work that we do. It will help us understand where we stand.
Your answers will help us plan our future, so we’re counting on you to give us the
unvarnished truth. If we need to be doing better work in a certain area, we want to know
it. Going Green is not hard but we have to start somewhere.

Thank you for your continued support!

Research and development in the area of OLED’s has been fast and furious
in the past few years. Numerous universities and corporations have leaped on
this exciting green innovation. OLEDs are organic light-emitting diodes,
organic because it relies on carbon-based polymers and molecules rather than
inorganic semiconductors such as silicon (like the standard LED.

Even the U.S. Department of Energy has jumped into the fray, which reports
approximately 22 percent of the electricity consumed in the United States goes
toward lighting. It’s a $58-billion-a-year bill and growing.  Through its
solid-state lighting research program, the energy department hopes to develop
commercially acceptable lights that will need 50 percent less electricity (more…)

Research scientist at two different universities are on the same path to
developing an inexpensive process that will allow you to paint on or print
out your own solar cells. Imagine, a simple and inexpensive energy alternative
for households around the world.

Last year it was reported that researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology
(NJIT) developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on
flexible plastic sheets. Lead researcher, Professor Somenath Mitra said, “The
process is simple, someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these
solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap (more…)

End of March

Marilyn Brown signed a contract on July 7, 2007 with Alfred Soleck, a Oklahoma
contractor from her mother’s church, to build her home.  After starting the build
and needing more and more of the money up front, he left them high and dry. Mr.
Soleck was arrested in Oklahoma on federal charges that included 6 criminal counts
of home repair fraud.  Volunteers have been helping the Browns in building the
house and when the volunteers have to leave, well, its one day at a time. (more…)

Here, have a slice of great news to go with your morning coffee :

Out of the water leaps the humpback whale, like the Phoenix rising from the fire,
they’re baaaack! The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has
revised its classification of the whales from “vulnerable” to “of least concern”
on its latest annual list of endangered animals. Literally on the brink of
extinction, down to under 1500 in 1966. Their numbers have increased since
international and federal protections were put in place in the 1960s and ’70s
and a international commercial whaling ban was imposed in 1986. The population
is now estimated to be 40,000 mature adults and 15,000 juveniles. Still low, for
these 50 foot majestic creatures that once roamed all the Earth’s oceans were at
240,000 strong in pre-whaling days. But now, they are on the road to recover and (more…)

Source: Focus Earth - Planet Green Channel

The Endangered Species Act protects over 1,300 animals and plants listed as
threatened or endangered with specific rules on how to do that. The Bush
Administration intends to change those rules and environmentalist are accusing
the White House of “putting a fox in charge of the ‘endangered’ hen house“.

It was only in May of this year that the polar bear joined the list of
endangered species. Conservationist declared a victory because global warming
threatens the bear’s habitat and now federal agencies must consider climate
change and it’s impact on Artic ice before approving new projects like highways
and bridges. This typically involves an independent review from scientist at (more…)

According to Focus Earth, astounding results in a poll conducted by ABC News,
Planet Green, and Stanford University, “puts a whole new spin on American
environmentalism”. Every black cloud has a silver lining. The black cloud of
energy costs and gas prices has produced a silver lining of mass consciousness-
raising over global warming, the health of our planet, and our own personal
carbon footprints. Albeit it economically driven, I will certainly take having
people wake up and smell the coffee due to a stressed bank account instead of a
terminally ill planet. Surveyed from all over the nation, here are some of the (more…)

Magnetic Levitation, or Maglev

Ever wonder what happened to the jet packs, that was going to have us jetting
through the air like the Jetsons? Well, turns out they couldn’t get past the
20 second fuel limit. Then there was the monorail, or the updated version, the
maglev. Those futuristic, sleek, cool trains that glide almost silently over
head atop modern concrete superstructures. (more…)