The United Nations Environment Programme has published a policy brief titled, “Global Green New Deal.” UNEP argues that the multiple crises that we currently face can be compared with those faced by FDR when he launched his “New Deal” in the face of the Great Depression.

FDR’s New Deal included a series of wide-ranging programs to provide employment and social security, reform tax policies and business practices, and stimulate the economy. The Global Green New Deal proposes similar leadership at the global level, while addressing the environment.

UNEP argues that while governments are devising new ways to solve the present crisis and prevent future ones, they should take the opportunity to address the impending crisis and sweeping impact of climate change.

One of the rationales UNEP provides for its GGND proposals is that dedication of even a small part of the enormous fiscal resources being released could achieve a critical mass of investment and employment to initiate sustainable environment programs.

UNEP presents three primary objectives for its GGND: (1) Make a major contribution to reviving the world economy, saving and creating jobs, and protecting vulnerable groups; (2) Reduce carbon deficiency and ecosystem degradation, putting economics on a path to clean and stable development; and (3) Further sustainable and inclusive growth, and end extreme poverty by 2015.

The policy brief suggests that a substantial portion of government “stimulus” funds around the world be directed toward creating a critical mass of infrastructure needed for an environmentally sustainable economy. Projects might include (1) retrofitting public buildings to become energy efficient, (2) greening and weatherizing homes and offices, (3) developing energy-efficient less-polluting mass-transportation modes, (4) using “greener” vehicles, (5) developing renewable energy infrastructures, and (6) investing in sustainable agriculture and freshwater systems, in particular in developing countries.

Some countries – at the national level – are already meeting or exceeding the one per cent suggested target.

For example, Republic of Korea, according to the report, is already spending $36 billion on “Green New Deal” projects, or around 3 per cent of GDP. The ROK claims that one million jobs will be created.

“The energy conservation and green building investments that form part of ROK’s Green New Deal amount to 0.5 per cent of GDP and the full, low carbon strategy accounts for 1.2 per cent of GDP,” says the report. The ROK will spend $7 billion on mass transit and railways over the next three years and $5.8 billion in energy conservation in villages and schools - 170,000 jobs

China, frequently a used by some as a punching bag on environmental issues, is expected to spend $140 billion or around 2 per cent of its GDP (about a quarter of the nations entire stimulus package) on green investments.

The report cites a study by the Peterson Institute of International Economics and the World Resources Institute that estimates that green energy investments in the United States could save the economy an average of $450 million a year for every $1 billion invested.

And that every $1 billion of government spending in this area will create around 30,000 job years and reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by close to 600,000 tons from 2012-2020.

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Freeze drying causes gaps to form between the layers of clay. Credit: Suneel Bandi/Case Western Reserve University

The sustainability of a product often is found in applications not originally considered. A case in point is AeroClay, a product developed by Case Western Reserve University professor David Schiraldi.

AeroClay is a patented foamlike and environmentally friendly clay-based polymer. AeroClay materials feel and act like foam, without injection of gas bubbles or environmentally unfriendly CFCs.

The clay aerogels are produced in a wide variety of shapes using a freeze-drying technique. If the aerogel is later fired to 800ºC, it undergoes a chemical transformation. Depending on additives, the AeroClay can become a hard, lightweight ceramic, a bendable material, a superlightweight magnet, an electrical conductor, or a catalyst.

Schiraldi’s group recently combined clay, water and milk protein (casein) found in wastewater from the cheese-making process. The result was a high-temperature polymer that withstands temperatures to 300ºC. The new material has the potential to insulate pipes that carry high-temperature materials throughout refineries.

They also experimented with the seaweed protein alginate, but the casein resulted in a better product.

Schiraldi told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he’s formed a company, AeroClay Inc. to try to market new AeroClay products. One he mentioned is a light-weight cat litter.

“Grandma goes to the store and has to carry this 30- or 40-pound tub back,” Schiraldi told the newspaper. “What if you could get the same function, and instead of 30 or 40 [pounds], it was 3 or 4? Would you pay an extra dollar for that tub? A lot of people would.”

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Angela Belcher holds a display of the virus-built battery she helped engineer. The battery - the silver-colored disc - is being used to power an LED. Credit: Donna Coveney

But don’t worry. It is a common bacteriophage. It can infect bacteria but is harmless to humans.

You might find this virus someday in the battery of your plug-in hybrid car.

What has happened is that MIT researchers now can genetically engineer viruses to build the anodes and cathodes of a lithium-ion battery. These batteries have the same energy capacity and power performance as state-of-the-art rechargables being considered for hybrid automobiles. They also might be used to power personal electronics.

The new batteries could be manufactured using an inexpensive and environmentally friendly process, at and below room temperature, and without harmful organic solvents. In fact, all of the materials in the battery are nontoxic.

Three years ago, an MIT research team led by Angela Belcher engineered viruses that could build an anode by coating themselves with cobalt oxide and gold and self-assembling to form a nanowire. Cathodes are more difficult to build because they must be highly conducting to be a fast electrode. MIT professors Gerbrand Ceder and Michael Strano genetically engineered viruses that first coat themselves with iron phosphate, then attract carbon nanotubes to create a highly conductive material.

Incorporating carbon nanotubes increases cathode conductivity without adding much weight. The new batteries can be charged and discharged 100 times without losing capacitance. This is fewer cycles than current lithium-ion batteries, but Belcher expects them to be able to go much longer.

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Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute tell us of a discovery that might lead to new systems for cooling and displacing heat from computer chips, a critical issue in the semiconductor industry.

The RPI researchers say they have linked heat transfer and bond strength of materials. Their study is based on the idea that the speed at which heat moves between two materials that are in contact with one another is a potent indicator of the strength of the bond between them. The study, in this case, of one solid and one liquid, also shows that the heat flow from one material to another can be altered by painting a thin atomic layer between the two materials. The changed interface changed the interaction between the materials.

The co-leaders of this study are RPI professors Pawel Keblinski and Shekhar Garde. Their study was published in Physical Review Letters.

Kablinski and Garde used molecular dynamics simulations to measure the heat flow between solid surfaces and water. They simulated surface chemistries and discovered that thermal conductivity was proportional to how strongly the liquid adhered to the solid. Garde says, “We can use this new technique to characterize systems that are very difficult or impossible to characterize by other means.”

The results have implications for heat-transfer applications and processes, including boiling and condensation as well as the behavior of water at various sold interfaces. The study helps researchers better understand how water sticks to or flows past a surface.

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Depiction of chromophores attaching to a transistor made from a single carbon nanotube. Credit SNL.

Research being conducted at Sandia National Lab might eventually be applied to an optical detector with nanometer-scale resolution, ultra-tiny digital cameras, solar cells with more light absorption capability and a better device for genome sequencing. However, the near-term purpose of the research is basic science.

The Sandia researchers report they have created the first carbon nanotube device that can detect the entire visible spectrum of light. This might allow them to study single-molecule transformations, how the molecules respond to light and change shape as well as other fundamental interactions between molecules and nanotubes.

As with many other recent studies, the researchers went back to nature, in this case the human eye, and they improved on the model. A cascade of chemical and electrical events that ultimately trigger nerve impulses occur when light strikes a chromophore on the molecules in the eye’s retina. Likewise, when light strikes a chromophore in the nanoscale color detector, it causes a conformational change in the molecule. This, in turn, causes a threshold shift on a transistor made from a single-walled carbon nanotube.

“In our eyes the neuron is in front of the retinal molecule, so the light has to transmit through the neuron to hit the molecule,” says Sandia researcher Xinjian Zhou. “We placed the nanotube transistor behind the molecule - a more efficient design.”

That carbon nanotubes are light sensitive has been known for a long time, but earlier efforts using an individual nanotube were only able to detect light in narrow wavelength ranges, and then only at laser intensities. The Sandia team nanodetector is orders of magnitude more sensitive, down to about 40 W/m2, which is about 3 percent of the density of sunshine reaching the ground. “Because the dye is so close to the nanotube, a little change turns into a big signal on the device,” says Zhou.

Zhou and his colleagues François Léonard, Andy Vance, Karen Krafcik, Tom Zifer and Bryan Wong created the device, which they described in a paper published in Nano Letters. Zhou and Krafcik created a tiny transistor made from a single carbon nanotube. They deposited carbon nanotubes on a silicon wafer and used photolithography to define electrical patterns to make contacts. Meanwhile, Vance and Zifer synthesized molecules to create three types of chromophores that respond to either red, green or orange bands of the visible spectrum. Zhou immersed the wafer in the dye solution until the chromosphores attached themselves to the nanotubes.

“Detection is now limited to about 3 percent of sunlight, which isn’t bad compared with a commercially available digital camera,” says Zhou. “I hope to add some antennas to increase light absorption.”

The team is now working on detecting infrared light. “We think this principle can be applied to infrared light, and there is a lot of interest in infrared detection,” says Vance. “So we’re in the process of looking for dyes that work in infrared.”

“A large part of why we are doing this is not to invent a photo detector, but to understand the processes involved in controlling carbon nanotube devices,” says Léonard, author of The Physics of Carbon Nanotubes, published September 2008.

The next step is to create a nanometer-scale photovoltaic device. Such a device on a larger scale could be used as an unpowered photo detector or for solar energy. “Instead of monitoring current changes, we’d actually generate current,” says Vance. “We have an idea of how to do it, but it will be a more challenging fabrication process.”

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