If, like me, you sometimes despair that behavioral change sufficient enough to avert ecological disaster is possible, then the only hope is technical innovation. Finding more innovative ways to maximize the utility of our dwindling set of natural resources may compensate for humans’ seeming collective inability to place long term sustainability over short term gratification (or, at least, delay the inevitable). Pessimism aside, scientific discovery is truly amazing and has to be one of the defining characteristics of human civilization. The article in the url below is a good example of how science continues to amaze and offers hope among the daily gloom of corruption and ineptitude:
“All Vibrations are good vibrations in the world of energy harvesting. Whether it's a road under heavy traffic or commuters pounding the sidewalk pavement, micromovements on any surface can be converted into clean energy by power-scavenging devices fitted with piezoelectric (PE) crystals. … So a PE layer slotted beneath a supermarket parking lot could, for example, use the movement of customers' cars to power checkout conveyor belts or pump that free electricity back into the grid.”
Take care
David
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment (2e)
© Sage Publications, 2011
http://www.sagepub.com/strategiccsr2e/
Instructor Teaching Site: http://www.sagepub.com/strategiccsr/
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Fast Company Magazine
How Everyday Behaviors Can Produce Clean Energy
How to generate energy from sidewalks, roads, railways -- and every breath you take.
From: Issue 146
June 2010
Page 38
By: Theunis Bates
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/146/supertiny-power-plants.html
