Solutions

Posted By Kathy Gilbeaux read more

In trial run for hurricane season, South Miami’s solar-powered mayor went off the grid

Apr

Solar panels on the roof of South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard’s energy-efficient home in South Miami on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Stoddard went off the grid for seven days to test the house’s readiness for hurricane season and used only solar panels and two Tesla wall batteries to power his home. Daniel A. Varela ***@***.***

miamiherald.com - by Linda Robertson - April 15, 2019

Hurricane season is coming and Philip Stoddard is ready . . .

. . . Stoddard, a champion of solar energy and green living, took his family on a trial run in preparation for the next Irma or Andrew . . .

. . . He turned off the main power switch located in a panel on the side of his house . . . For the next seven days, he and his family were able to operate the central air-conditioning unit during an unseasonably hot March week, all appliances, computers, lights, TV, solar water heater with an electric on-demand booster, and backyard pond pump, and charge the car without once running out of juice.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ0j6kr4ZJ0

Posted By Kathy Gilbeaux read more

Kiribati: a Drowning Paradise in the South Pacific

Dec

DW Documentary - November 8, 2017

Climate change and rising sea levels mean the island nation of Kiribati in the South Pacific is at risk of disappearing into the sea.

But the island’s inhabitants aren’t giving up. They are doing what they can to save their island from inundation.

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Posted By Kathy Gilbeaux read more

One Concern Uses AI to Streamline Disaster Relief Efforts

Nov

Image: One Concern

fastcompany.com - by Katharine Schwab - November 15, 2018

. . . One Concern is launching a machine learning platform that provides cities with specialized maps to help emergency crews decide where to focus their efforts in a flood. The maps update in real-time based on data about where water is flowing to estimate where people need help the most. It’s the latest in a wave of AI-powered tools aimed at helping cities prepare for an era of severe, and increasingly frequent, disasters.

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Our platform provides unprecedented situational awareness and actionable insights for decision-makers.

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Posted By Kathy Gilbeaux read more

Zoom Meeting Notes: Oct 2, 2018

Oct

Tuesday, Oct 2, 2018 Zoom Call Link to Recording with Chat notes

Notes by Jan Booher

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Conference Call

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Posted By Jan Booher read more

Webpage created for the Resilience Volunteer Youth Corps

Sep

The Interfaith Climate Actions Network gave us permission to create a webpage on their website. Here is the URL: https://fl-ican.org/resilience-volunteer-youth-corps/

Note that the text at the top of the page is automatically inserted by the website theme. As we get into the project, we will be able to link to flyers and to insert pictures of trainers and of events.

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US - SouthEast

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Citizens

Disaster Response

Disaster Risk Reduction

Education

Resilience

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - Chem - 14.1% Efficient Monolithically Integrated Solar Flow Battery

Posted By Jan Booher read more

How a ‘Solar Battery’ Could Bring Electricity to Rural Areas

Sep

New solar flow battery with a 14.1 percent efficiency. Photo: David Tenenbaum, UW-Madison

theverge.com - by Angela Chen - September 27, 2018

Solar energy is becoming more and more popular as prices drop, yet a home powered by the Sun isn’t free from the grid because solar panels don’t store energy for later. Now, researchers have refined a device that can both harvest and store solar energy, and they hope it will one day bring electricity to rural and underdeveloped areas.

The problem of energy storage has led to many creative solutions, like giant batteries. For a paper published today in the journal Chem, scientists trying to improve the solar cells themselves developed an integrated battery that works in three different ways.

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CLICK HERE - The GrowHaus

Posted By Kathy Gilbeaux read more

This woman was struggling to find fresh food. She never expected this solution.

Sep

Image via Upworthy

upworthy.com - by Sam Dylan Finch - August 31, 2018

How do you get healthy food on the table when you can't find any?

This is a question that Ortilia Lujan Flores had grappled with many times before.

She wanted affordable, nutritious food, but lived in a neighborhood that didn’t have an accessible grocery store.

Flores couldn't drive, which limited the few food options she had. "There was nowhere to go," she explains.

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United States

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Agriculture

Food

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of sodium powder as electrode additive to improve cycling performance of sodium-ion batteries

Posted By Kathy Gilbeaux read more

Super Cheap Earth Element to Advance New Battery Tech to the Industry

Sep

Purdue researcher Jialiang Tang helped resolve charging issues in sodium-ion batteries that have prevented the technology from advancing to industry testing and use. Credit: Purdue University Marketing and Media

phys.org - by Kayla Wiles - September 19, 2018

Most of today's batteries are made up of rare lithium mined from the mountains of South America. If the world depletes this source, then battery production could stagnate.

Sodium is a very cheap and earth-abundant alternative to using lithium-ion batteries that is also known to turn purple and combust if exposed to water—even just water in the air.

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Posted By Kathy Gilbeaux read more

Mainland Miami Ponders Returning Neighborhoods to Nature In Order To Survive Rising Seas

Sep

The annual king tides are rising in South Florida, causing some flooding in coastal areas. By Joey Flechas

miamiherald.com - by David Smiley - June 9, 2017

. . . In order to save Shorecrest, where million-dollar homeowners mingle with middle-class families and blue-collar renters, government officials across the region are now asking whether it ought to be redesigned rather than simply reinforced. Where climate change poster child Miami Beach is investing $500 million in pumps, streets and sea walls in order to fight for every inch of dry land, municipalities on the mainland are exploring what some communities would look like if they were made to accommodate rising seas rather than simply fight them.

One idea likely to be both controversial and expensive: demolishing properties and returning developed areas back to nature.