As soon as I go home, I lock the door. Eventually, I close the blinds and curtains. I also lock the doors of my vehicles and fences. I keep my wallet to myself and no one really knows how much is in my credit union account. But when it comes to social media, Baby, I’ll
If we had a show of hand right now, how many would say they completely trust their computers, handheld devices, smart TV, and other smart devices? Chances are high that practically no reader would say they do. And when it comes to the future of mobility, privacy is something we never hear much about. Ethics
As we reported recently, an ex-security analyst at Uber had written a letter to the company’s in-house lawyer back in May that spoke of a unit that existed “expressly for the purpose of acquiring trade secrets, codebase, and competitive intelligence,” and also of a separate unit that “frequently engages in fraud and theft.” Uber execs
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last Thursday approved a June 6 application from Apple’s energy subsidiary to sell electricity in six regional power markets around the country at market rates. “Based on your representations, Apple Energy meets the criteria for a Category 1 seller in all regions and is so designated,” Steve Rodgers, director
In search of low-cost, fixed-rate electricity, great wind energy deals are swaying Fortune 500 companies and other major players to throw their money “into the wind.” Signing contracts for over 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity, big brands, high-tech companies, and other non-utility customers represented 52 percent of wind energy generating capacity in 2015. An Emerging
Originally published on Solar Love. As we wrote months ago when it launched, Google has a free online service that uses its mapping information and partner offers from solar installers to provide fast estimates of how much a homeowner might save by investing in a solar power system. Dubbed “Project Sunroof,” it also provides information on things like
Four new 100% electric community shuttle buses have hit the road in the beautiful Silicon Valley city of Mountain View, California. The four electric shuttles are free to the public, thanks to Google, and are equipped with seating for 16 passengers, a wheelchair lift, space for two wheelchairs, Wi-Fi connectivity, and bicycle racks on the outside
A couple of sparkly infographics tout Google’s improvements to its public transit maps today. Over the years, the information giant has been pretty thoughtful in publishing transit information for those who don’t or can’t travel by car. Apparently, that’s 70% of the world’s population, although just over 50% of Americans are carless, er, car-free, and
As the next stage of development for Google’s self-driving car project, its self-driving vehicles have been hitting actual city streets… and all the unexpected obstacles that jump out into them. Well, I guess the point is that they aren’t hitting those obstacles. Apparently, they’re doing that better than humans themselves. “Since our last update, we’ve logged
Internet and solar giants Google and SunPower announced a useful break for power customers (and a small climate change deterrent) yesterday by entering a $250 million partnership in clean US home energy for the future. A new fund ($100 million from Google and $150 million from SunPower) will help finance residential rooftop solar leases for
Drones are no longer known as mere weapons of war. At least, that’s how Google, Facebook, and other online giants like Amazon appear to be thinking. Google has just acquired Titan Aerospace, a promising solar-powered drone maker, as part of its plans to globalize wireless internet. Titan’s website provides news that the company is working
If you want to get a sense of just how rapidly the world is being deforested, and words aren’t enough for you, well, now there’s a new online tool that can help you with that. The Global Forest Watch — backed by Google and more than 40 other business and conservation groups — is a
Summer solstice 2013 is here. Among other things, that means it’s hot! It also means a lot of people are headed to the beach to enjoy the sun and also cool off in the ocean… or sea or lake or whatever you have in your area. Google has commemorated the annual event with a cool
Google, which has a history of investing plenty in large-scale renewable energy projects, just announced that it has invested $200 million in a Texan wind power project. The project is called the Spinning Spur Wind Project, which is a 161MW wind farm that was originally built by EDF Renewable Energy. It is powered by 70 2.3MW
How would you like to have a conference on a 7-person bike? Well, if that sounds like a dream conference, you might like to look into a job at Google. The ConferenceBike it uses actually has its own website (conferencebike.com),.. a rather retro-looking website. As the website states: “It’s no joke: the ConferenceBike is a revolutionary
I want to start covering clean energy news much more here on Planetsave, but as they say, “so much to do, so little time.” Also, since we cover that extensively on sister site CleanTechnica, I just sort of assume you all can easily pop over there and subscribe to that page for news on this
Some of the biggest sites on the internet are taking strong action today to oppose SOPA (and PIPA). Huge sites like Wikipedia and reddit are blacking out, as are many others. Why? What is SOPA? To put it simply, SOPA is a huge threat to your internet and your freedom of speech (more on that
Some more green news of the week: 1. The Weekly Standard Does Horrible Job Covering “Climategate 2”. The full post The Weekly Standard apart over on Media Matters is worth a read, but here are the key points from the piece (note: Hayward is the author): Hayward Cites Email About Page Limits To Claim That
More than three million megawatts of green power are waiting underground if the United States are willing to go looking for it, says a new study. The new research was funded by Google.org and conducted by scientists from the Southern Methodist University and showed there is 10 times the installed capacity of coal power plants
Well, I’ve been a pretty big fan of Google for awhile — it’s a clear climate change and clean energy leader; I love its services; and that whole “do no evil” thing is pretty cool. So, when I just read that it has denied a request by the police (unknown agency) to remove videos containing
The Internet uses more electricity than the entire auto industry’s production of cars and trucks combined. IT companies and users need to discover renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power to provide electricity for the Internet.
I have spent hours researching how to turn my community green. I suppose I’m a little too anxious to create change. I went directly for who I should contact locally for changing laws and such. Again, I was reminded that all things take time. One of the first things pretty much every site said about community change was that you should form a group. And it’s true, there is great strength in numbers, so here’s how to go about it.
The latest post on “Click it for Good” is up and it’s offering to offset your internet searches for one year if you ‘like’ or ‘+1’ or ‘tweet’ or ‘stumble’ the post. Plus, you can have even more impact by ‘liking’ the “click it for Good” Facebook page:
Check out these top green living stories of the past day or so:
Google Earth has always been a fantastic tool, and it has not become even more useful, as Google – in collaboration with Columbia University – has added more ocean seafloor to Google Earth than has ever been available before. As a result, you can now explore half the ocean area that has ever been mapped – an area larger than the size of North America – from the comfort of your own home.
Google is a clean energy leader (if you haven’t heard). It’s made a number of big clean energy investments in the past year or two and I recently decided to compile a little list of 7 of its biggest over on CleanTechnica. Check them out…
Google’s product portfolio has now expanded from search engine power to solar power.
Despite a large majority of scientists with intimate knowledge of the planet’s climate agreeing that climate change is real and human-induced, the public still persists in distrusting the majority at the hands of a few wayward sceptics.
This is not surprising, but a new study conducted by Caren Cooper, a research associate who works on citizen science projects at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, sheds some light on just why the public insist on letting the minority influence their opinions on this matter.
Whether you want to do your bit for the planet or you just want to cut down your electricity bill, ensuring your house isn’t leaking all that warmth outside is going to be good for your pocket, and good for the environment.
Japan was struck by what is now known as a magnitude-9 level earthquake, which took place on March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m. local time (05:46 UTC) off the east coast of Japan. The epicenter was 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai, and 373 kilometers (231 miles) northeast of Tokyo, and has been labeled
Top news & resources on Japan earthquake & tsunami
In case you weren’t aware, Google Earth has been used to create a number of great climate change tours in the past year or so. From climate change effects to rainforest tours about solutions to it, there’s some really good stuff available. Google has a short video summarizing and highlighting some of its climate change
11:149. This is basically the ratio of pro- and anti-climate legislation lobbying expenditures in 2009. The oil and gas industry put in $175 million. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce put in $123.3 million. And pro-environmental groups put in $22.4 million. ExxonMobil, alone, spent more money on lobbying than all pro-environmental groups spent in total, $27.4
As Director of Climate Change Initiatives for Google over the past three years, Dan Reicher has been an inexhaustible, high-profile symbol of Google’s interest in energy policy: participating in congressional hearings, and speaking at energy policy events. But starting today, he’ll no longer lead the search engine giant’s climate change initiatives, and has jumped ship
Professors Christakis and Fowler explore the nature of Social Networks (SN) and reveal the rules that govern how these networks form. Knowing these rules allows us to predict, and possibly prevent, new disease epidemics.
Two ecologist discover that by adapting Google’s Page Rank algorithm they were able to “reverse engineer” the collapse of food webs, and thus determining which species in a given web are most critical to the web’s existence.
Protect your right to free and fair information. Sign a Net Neutrality petition (or two) today. There is a huge, fundamental 1st Amendment issue that is being threatened right now in the U.S. It is called “Net Neutrality.” Right now we have net neutrality (more or less), but if Congress doesn’t act to stop certain
Using peer-reviewed science and Google Earth technology, a new map shows what will happen if the global average temperature goes 4°C above the pre-industrial average. Climate change is very abstract, even to those who think, read, and write about it a lot (ahem…). Creating visuals that show what will happen (or is happening) as a
How long did the idea that green issues and the economy were in competition proliferate the US? For decades. Now, top-of-the-world entrepeneurs, the President of the United States, leading representatives in Congress, and research institutes are saying that green jobs and a green economy are the way to a healthy economy. Recent statements by Barbara
Geared towards raising awareness of endangered ocean habitats, a new online tool allows viewers an in-depth peek at underwater reefs around the world. Google Earth has taken us up and out into the universe, and now they are taking us down and under the surface of the sea. The new Google Earth ‘layer’ will allow
Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant and author Michael Pollan agree to disagree over the world’s food crisis…kinda. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/I9I1IkbcHNE&hl=en&fs=1] In an unlikely pairing, both Michael Pollan and Monsanto’s CEO Hugh Grant sat down with Google.org and YouTube for a discussion on the world’s food crisis. The two had met and became friends upon visiting the Doomsday Seed
Just how green is the Internet? Going virtual has the potential to save significant amounts of energy, with a recent study predicting that Internet services could reduce carbon emissions by staggering 1 billion tons. But look beyond the green hype, and the web has a dark secret – at the other end of your Internet
