^ I tend to align myself to a Buddhist religion (if I"m religious at all) so like you, I try to be as environmentally friendly as I can and I'm pretty in sync with some of the technologies and ideas out there. I've mentioned this a few times, but China is looking to lead the world into these environmentally friendly cities, though it looks like the idea is going to die (Dongtan).
The idea:
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.p.../article/7330/
Quote:
Dongtan, a new city development (three quarters the size of Manhattan Island) was to have been built on Chongming Island, near Shanghai, in the Yangtze River Delta. The first phase, comprising a city of 25,000 people, was due to have opened for the Shanghai Expo in 2010. By 2030 it was intended to house 500,000 residents. In Western terms, this sort of ambition is impressive, but in terms of China’s own plans to create a further 20 cities a year over the next 20 years, Dongtan was small fry. But, of course, an eco-city is not meant to be intrusive.
Dongtan has been variously credited for its planned zero-carbon footprint, encouragement of biodiversity, low car-usage, and low-consumption ideals. Peter Head, director of the engineering firm Arup, which was in charge of the project, said: ‘It is no gimmick. It is being led at the highest levels of the Chinese government. They are very committed to developing a new paradigm of economic development.’ (1) It was claimed that while ‘Shanghai has a typical ecological footprint of 5.8 global hectares per person… Dongtan eco-city will be 2.6’. Dongtan had been feted for so long that it is remarkable to some people to learn that it hasn’t already been built. It’s even more incredible to learn that it probably never will be.
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As far as new technologies go, I know a few major IC design companies are looking to debut a set suite of technology that will harvest energy from the environment for a target of 2015-2020 or so. This, more than any other stupid protest, will make a big impact on reducing our carbon footprint.