Solar power sparks innovation in oil-rich Qatar

Deutsche Welle, 31 December 2012

Sunshine is abundant in Qatar. All that untapped solar power could create a new energy economy in this oil-rich nation. Researchers are already testing solar-powered cooling systems and water desalination plants.

Researcher Nesrin Ozalp slides on a pair of big, black, UV resistant sunglasses and enters her lab in the research facility at Texas A&M University in Qatar's capital city Doha. In the center of the room bright rays of light beam from what looks like a baking over. It's Ozalp's solar simulator.

"It generates high-temperature radiation that is exactly like the solar energy, which we need for our experiments," she told DW.

A dirty business

Ozalp is an associate professor with the university's mechanical engineering program. She is developing a reactor to utilize solar power. But this system isn't intended as a power source for machines. She uses the concentrated solar energy to break down natural gas into its two components: carbon and hydrogen.

Natural gas is an extremely valuable commodity that can be burned to heat homes or fuel cars. So it may seem odd that Ozalp is destroying it. But, she explains, on the global markets for chemicals, hydrogen and carbon are in high demand.

Ozalp's team uses solar energy for
industrial chemical production

Several million tons of carbon are produced worldwide every year in the form of carbon black - very fine carbon particles. Among other things, carbon black is used to make car tyres, conveyor belts, printer inks, and batteries.

"Carbon is one of the most commonly used commodities in the industry," Ozalp says.

Carbon can be produced without solar energy, but the process is quite dirty. Mineral oil is partially combusted at very high temperatures. The result is not only carbon, but also a series of harmful byproducts like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur compounds.

The production of hydrogen is also harmful to the environment. Most hydrogen is made by reacting steam with coal or natural gas, which are not renewable resources. The byproduct here in CO2.

A clean solution

Nesrin Ozalp's research is focussing on how to make the process cleaner. "We take natural gas and we use concentrated solar energy to directly breakt it down into its components. There is no other byproduct," she says.

Natural gas flows into a metal box - the reactor - which has a single pane of glass. The solar beam, or concentrated natural light, enters the reactor through the glass and heats it up.

As a result, natural gas is split into carbon and hydrogen which are blown out of the reactor. The solid carbon can be filtered out of the hydrogen flow. Natural gas is still used at this point, but Ozalp explains that this is just a temporary solution until researchers come up with an even greener process.

"It is much more reasonable to move from a fossil fuel economy to a renewable energy economy one step at a time," she explains. "It is like a child trying to crawl first before taking its first step."

Solar-powered air conditioning is planned for Qatar's new World Cup stadiums

Solar stadiums and water sanitation

The state of Qatar seems to take a more ambitious view. Plans for a huge polysilicon production factory are already underway. The plant is intended to fill an expected spike in demand for silica for solar panels in the future. One way the panels will be used is to power air conditioning systems when the Gulf state hosts the Football World Cup in 2022. The plan is that all stadiums will be equipped with new solar systems.

There is also research underway on solar-powered water desalination plants. Nadia Amar Aboul Hosn of the Qatar Sustainability Network told DW that Qatar has almost no fresh water and is completely dependent on the desalination of sea water. It's a process that uses a lot of energy.

Using a process called reverse osmosis, large pumps press sea water through very fine pores, so that the salt stays behind. The pumps are energy intensive and it can be expensive to power them. At the moment, most machinery relies on fossil fuel. But Aboul Hosn says the sun may offer an endless supply of energy for water desalination.

Qatar is experimenting with solar-
powered water desalination

Early Days

"The Qatar Environmental and Energy Research Institute is undertaking a pilot project for solar energy desalination, where we generate electricity with solar energy and at the same time do solar desalination," Aboul Hosn told DW. "In a few years, when this technology is truly developed, it will save Qatar 75 percent of the energy used in desalination."

However, like so many plans concerning renewables in Qatar, solar air conditioning and solar desalination are still in the early stages of development. There are some serious challenges ahead. The sunny Gulf state seems to be the perfect place to install solar panels. But solar panels tend to malfunction in high temperatures and the dusty conditions may cause problems as well. But with investment increasing, the researchers remain hopeful.

Related Articles:

Saudi Arabia reveals plans to be powered entirely by renewable energy

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version) 

“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much….”

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"THE TIMING OF CREATION " - (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

Kryon.com, August 12, 2012

This live channelling was Given on the Hawaiin Cruise

Lee Carroll

To help the reader, this channelling has been revisited [by Lee and Kryon] to provide even clearer understanding. Often what happens live has implied energy within it, which carries a kind of communication that the printed page does not. So enjoy this enhanced message given in Hawaii, 2012.

Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service. There should be no reason for any anxiety that my partner would feel in a channel such as this. In the hundreds of times he has sat in the chair and used the portal through which his Higher-Self comes in, a clean and clear message from a messenger he is very familiar with comes through. Yet there is anxiety - there always is when he is in the shadow of the mountain of Lemuria [Hawaii]. For this is an energy which he recognizes, but he does not recognize the things that are hidden from him, which are in his Akash.

Therefore, the energy of where you sit now is ripe for information that I wish to bring and that my partner is nervous about, only because he's home and has his most profound Akashic remembrance here. For the listener and reader, we shall tell where we are sitting so that you will understand. First of all, we are upon the water. But in this particular situation [the ship is docked], we are not moving. The past channels on board these vessels have been easier for my partner because he and the others were moving [the ship was under way]. That is to say, there was no grounding element at all [totally separated from the land]. But here and now, although you are floating and although you are anchored, it is a dichotomy you might say that you are indeed grounded by being in the "static" [not moving] presence of the Crystalline Grid. This is a combination that produces an energy that is unique, for the water is reflective and so the energy is indeed similar.

Today it's a reflective energy of the past, reflective of history, and reflective of you and the part you might have played in this place where you literally sit "in the shadow of the mountains of Lemuria." If I could take you back in time, there would be no harbor here. As we have indicated before, the peaks of these mountains were far, far higher than they are now. For a geological anomaly involving the hot spot [the attribute of the Hawaiian mountain chain] took place, which created a bulge in the crust of the earth that pushed this mountain higher - not quite all the way out of the water, but enough so that the peaks that you now call the Hawaii Islands were always covered with snow and ice. Even glaciers formed here in Lemuria (up to 30,000 ft. high) and the peaks of these mountains were where the work was done that is considered sacred, and today it gives an entire different feeling to the tropics that you now experience. Back then it was COLD!*

So now my partner gets information about himself that he does not know. Perhaps that is why he is apprehensive. He doesn't like the cold, even to this day. He has selected those areas of his life, literally for hundreds of lifetimes, that would never again put him in a situation where he would experience frozen winters. He knows the lifetimes that have been showed him by the readers (past life readers) of where he's been and what he has done, even to the next lifetime of where he is going! None of them have frozen winters because of what happened right here (Lemuria). For my partner, the one who sits in the chair, the Human Being who is the Lemurian you are looking at was a messenger. The job of the messenger in Lemuria was to run up and down these hills from those areas which were not so cold to the areas that needed communication up high, for there was no other way to communicate efficiently. So he was constantly cold. There are places that he has not visited on this island today for that very reason. The pathways bring up too much of a memory for him of being uncomfortable, and it carries through to his Akash from the time he was Lemurian to this day. So now you know why he is a "warm weather man."

The Times of Lemuria

This shifting energy is now ready to reveal many things about the earth, about Lemuria, and about how things transpired here. Each year that goes by seems to clear the communication on the Crystalline Grid, allowing for something to be given that is more succinct for you, so you will have a better understanding of the plan that took place on this planet and when it occurred.

This sacred plan was in place in other areas for a very long time. It's a galactic plan, and it graduated to an energy which then included you. It, therefore, started something in this very place that was different from any other place on the planet. This sacred plan was brought to Earth, and it was implemented all at once and was "planetary wide." But here is where it was sequestered and matured at a rate that created a civilization that could not occur any other place. It was confined to this mountain, and the Humans here couldn't leave. And so literally thousands of years went by when this particular mountain was pushed up out of the water and the civilization lived upon it, which literally helped create what we will call the soul seeds of the Cave of Creation.

There are a lot of Lemurians awakening as old souls on this planet who had a turn taken [had a lifetime] on this mountain, and the ones who sit in the chairs today are among them. You [the ones in the group in front of Lee] will feel it at some level; you feel it. There are some things that are hiding in the scheme of this planet, including the real consciousness of Gaia itself, that have to do with you. Now, I've just shown my partner what we are going to do and now he's even more anxious. For when we get into the history and the dates and the concepts that he has not seen before, he gets nervous. He wants it be correct, accurate, and true to the information given him. So I say to him, "Just stay clear. The words will come out perfectly. They will come out logically, for this is the promise and always has been, that the synthesis of a multidimensional being-energy called Kryon will meld in a confluence of thought and energy that creates a three-dimensional structured conversation. This is his gift - accurate and grounded translation of Spirit."

The Timeline

I wish to again give you the timeframe of the seeding of this planet and honor your spiritual parents, those who you would call the Pleiadians. It has been confusing in the past, so not only do I give you the timeframe that will help unscramble the puzzle from previous channels, but also I'm going to give you a fact that we have never spoken of, which starts to explain something on the planet - a question that never was asked. It's one of my specialities, bringing up things no one thinks of, due to a 3D bias of "the way things are." We have said recently that 200,000 years ago was the approximate timeframe of the seeding of the planet Earth with enlightenment. But a few years ago, we also told you that Lemuria was only 50,000 years old and that the seeds of it were here in Hawaii. We've also given you information about what happened 100,000 years ago (actually more like 90,000 years ago). These things would seem to be contradictory to each other if you felt that the descriptions were of the same attribute, but they are not. So we start slowly. The question that is never asked is this: "Why is there only one kind of Human Being on the planet, when there are dozens of kinds of other mammals? What changed in the evolution of Humans that would cause this?"

The Pleiadian Involvement

About 200,000 years ago, when the Pleiadians first came to Earth, humanity was a group, a variety like all the other evolution on the planet. The mammal called Human Being had many varieties of forms. Like other mammals today, variety insured survival. Up to 26 kinds of Humans were present, but were eventually reduced to 17 kinds before the Pleiadians got here (through normal evolutionary processes). This was the puzzle for the Pleiadians, for in the seeding of the planet back then, the DNA had to change to allow for the spiritual, Pleiadian DNA complement. Humanity needed to end up with one kind of Human Being, the kind that you have today, but also to have the "DNA of the cosmos." That kind of Human has no variety like the other mammals of Earth, as you may have noticed or not. It's the way you are today.

So you are unique in an evolutionary way to everything you see around you. This process created a 23-chromosome Human Being, when all around you there were the 24 of conventional mammals. So the fusing of portions of your DNA to create the 23 was the element of the Pleiadian who came in and gave you their DNA. In the process, many things happened simultaneously.

When a farmer looks at his field and decides to grow corn, he surveys it in a different way than those who would eventually eat the corn. For the eater of the corn would ask, "When does the corn exist for consumption?" He would then be told, "It exists when the stalks are high and it is then collected, cooked, and provided on the table." That would be the story of corn for the consumer. It starts with the collection of grown corn. But the farmer looks at it differently. He looks at the raw land that has to be ploughed and fertilized, and perhaps turned over a few times with other crops to allow nitrogen in the soil until the dirt is ready. Perhaps he would plant it and then take the seedlings as they came up and turn them into the ground again; you know the story. So the farmer would have an entirely different idea of the story of corn.

So you have at least two questions and scenarios, don't you? When did corn begin? The eater gives you one answer and the farmer another. So which is which? It depends who's asking - the consumer of the corn or the grower of the corn. Now, there's a third question: What about the conceiver (creator) of the corn? Who made corn? When? I give you this as an example as to why the dates are different, and I'm going to give you all of them. Then I'm going to tell you what happened. I'm going to be succinct and I'm not going to draw it out.

The First Look

About 200,000 years ago is when it literally began. The concept of the "divine seeding" of planet Earth happened at that point, and the fields metaphorically started to be ploughed. There is an issue and we're going to call it the way species work with Gaia. This is something that happened simultaneously with the grid creation of Gaia. For now we give you something that no one has thought about. When we speak of the grids of the planet, you make an assumption that these grids always existed on the planet. For the planet is old and you might say, "Well the grids have always been there." But I'm here to tell you that only one was always there, and that's the magnetic grid. But it was spiritually void. That is to say, it only had that which was created from the Earth's core movement. Today, when we talk about the grids of the planet, our conversation involves the consciousness of humanity, which is imbued upon the magnetic grid. We also tell you about the Crystalline Grid and about the Grid of Gaia consciousness. Both of these react to Human compassion.

Now, here is the puzzle: If you don't have divine Human consciousness, then what about the grids? Do they exist without the Human Being? The answer is that they needed to be created simultaneously with the seeding of divine DNA. So what the Pleiadians did was not only to start the seeds of humanity's change into divine DNA, but they created the conscious grids of Gaia as well. They had to, for the conscious grids of Gaia are a confluence of humanity's decisions brought to Gaia's energy. The consciousness that we are talking about is the spiritually sanctioned Human Being that exists with a piece of God inside him, and with DNA that has 23 chromosomes instead of the common 24 that all the others have through biological evolution.

Let us back up and say it again and make it simpler, my partner [admonition to Lee to speak more plainly]. The triad of grids on this planet that we have spoken of over and over are the consciousness grids of Gaia, and were created at the same time as the seeding of humanity with Pleiadian DNA. For all the teachings we've been giving, especially about the Crystalline Grid, these grids have been reacting to Human consciousness and compassion. Therefore, the very essence of the current Gaia energy is also related to the creation of humanity.

These are the attributes of the Pleiadians work 200,000 years ago, and it was done quantumly in ways that you have no conscious awareness of at the moment. For these things are beyond your ability to understand right now, since you are still in a single-digit dimensionality. But the result back then was "a conscious Gaia." So you might say Gaia itself was actually created quantumly from the Seven Sisters energy, just like you.

The Gaia that existed before then was still Gaia, but not as it is now. It was a Gaia that was creating the dirt on the earth and the energy of biological life of the earth. It was the mother of all life on the planet, but not a Gaia that responded to Human consciousness. That's very different. So Gaia greatly expanded when the Pleiadians came, and that was by design.

It took 110,000 years for this to settle itself, and for the ground to be ready for more than 16 species of Human Beings to leave so that only one was left. When that occurred at approximately 90,000 years ago is when you can start calibrating who Humans were and who they became.

The Others

Now, what about all of those other types of Humans, and how did they leave? I'm  going to give you an attribute of something that exists even today. This is difficult for my partner, for he has not heard this before. This information has not been brought in this fashion before. Go slowly, my partner.

The variety of species on this planet comes and goes accordingly as they are needed for the energy they create. So one of the tasks of Gaia is to create and eliminate species. When they are no longer needed for the purpose of Gaia's development, they cease to exist and they die out. If new life is necessary, if new concepts of life are needed, Gaia is cooperative and they are then created. The actual creation of species is something that environmentalists have not clearly seen. That is to say the mechanics of how it works is not fully recognized as something that is strongly coordinated with your weather. But you have already seen the mechanics of some of this in your long-term studies, for you have already noted the coming and going of many species through the ages. It's ongoing.

The Appropriateness of the Elimination of Species

Now, along come Humans and they see all this coming and going of living things, but they want to save them all - all the species that exist. For in their linear mind, all species should remain and exist, since they are here. The attribute of Gaia, however, is to eliminate them, cull them out, to bring in new ones. I just gave you the mechanics of the reasons species come and go. It's appropriate and is a natural building process for new species.

When the Pleiadians started to create the grids of the planet, Gaia cooperated in what was to come, knew the purpose, and what was needed for survival of this new spiritual Human. Gaia knew this since the energy of Gaia had seen it before [reason given below]. So the old attribute, which needed many kinds of Human Beings, slowly died out. It was natural. There was not a war. There were no horrible plagues. There were no volcanoes or tsunamis that consumed them. Through attrition, appropriateness, and 110,000 years, they disappeared.

So approximately 110,000 years ago, there was only one kind left, and this is science, for everything that you study will bear this out, and anthropologists have already seen it and have asked, "What happened back then at this time that would have eliminated these other kinds of Human variety?" It's a puzzle in science that I have just answered, for science looks only for physical events as triggers. But instead, it's the marriage of Gaia consciousness that you call "Mother Nature," which facilitated this. It's the same today when you see a variety of species diminish as Humans take over a greater portion of the earth. I'll call this "the appropriate elimination of unique life forms, which allow for the growth of global awareness and quantum evolution." Some species only exist to allow others to climb the ladder of nature, then they disappear. Gaia knows what the ladder looks like. You don't.

The Spiritual Link

So historically, this "creation of one kind of Human" also started the esoteric engine of the pattern of spiritual life on the planet, where you could then start to measure the soul energy, a quantum energy of spirituality that is allied to Gaia. It's the very work that you're attempting today as you try to track the history of spirituality and what the intuition was of the creator of that system. Human consciousness is a quantum energy and it is the sum of all souls.

Now we're at 90,000 years ago. We are looking at the Human Being who has 23 chromosomes... the ones of the Seven Sisters. It then took another 50,000 years for this Human to develop into a quantum, sentient Human Being who could put together a civilization without any previous organization model. It takes generations of trial and error for this, even though it seems normal to you today. All cooks know that it takes a very long time to cook a quality meal. Without a recipe or any training, how long would it take a Human who had never seen a kitchen or food ingredients to create a truly gourmet 7-course meal through trial and error only. It's similar, and things did not move as quickly as they do today. This was the very beginning of humanity trying to figure out how to make things work for groups of Humans together.

Wisdom is learned this way, and time is the stove of the wisdom meal. The attributes of consciousness that the Pleiadians put in place through a 23-chromosome Human Being created growth, and every single generation got wiser with time. Eventually, far beyond Lemuria, Human DNA would develop an efficiency that would allow for what you see today - the divinity inside a Human Being that is recognized and sensed almost at birth and a population of almost 7 billion people, where more than 80% believe in the same God and even the afterlife [today's civilization].

Lemuria's History

Now we're at 50,000 years ago. It took another 20,000 years to build the Temples of Rejuvenation and have the old souls begin to appear, the kind that you were part of.

Now we're at 30,000 years ago. This truly is the timeframe of the Lemuria we speak of now when we say, "The civilization of Lemuria." For that's a mature Lemuria, and one that had developed spiritually far more than any civilization on the planet at that time. The island has created a pure group of spiritually seeded Humans. We've told you the rest of the story. When the bubble of the earth's crust began to subside (which had lifted up the land), the mountain of Lemuria slowly started to sink. Lemurians scattered and took to boats, not knowing if there would be any land left.

While Lemuria was in its prime, there were thousands of years where this mountain contained an unchanging Lemuria, and it was like a pressure cooker of information, lineage, training, and experience. It never changed, and that which was learned here was different from the other places of the planet. In other areas, Humans could go forth and do whatever they wanted. All they had to do was pick up and leave! But not here (Lemuria). So here, they were forced to find ways to deal with the common problems of living together.

So this became the place where the Akash of humanity chose to train old souls. Humans would come in only one time, then go back and incarnate to another place on the planet. Therefore, there were a lot of souls who came through Lemuria within the last 20,000 years, who lived at the base of these very mountains where you are currently floating. It also explains why there are so many Lemurians on the planet now - think of it as a Pleiadian school.

The Lemurian Awakening

There is an awakening going on, dear ones, and the awakening right now on this planet involves your brothers and sisters who spent time running up and down these hills. Many of the old souls today spent time here, and they are all over the planet.

There was a special group of Lemurians who were able to use the Temple of Rejuvenation (at the tops of the mountain) on a regular basis. It greatly extended their lives. I have discussed this for years. They were the royalty and the "keeper of secrets." They outlived most of the other Lemurians by up to three times, but they needed to, since they were the ones with the original knowledge. This was the way of preserving the ancient ways in Lemuria and keeping the sacred information pure.

As I told you, my partner gets cold easily. He was in the Temple of Rejuvenation many times, and this is his association with Yawee (Dr. Todd Ovokaitys), and some of you know who this is. For as a messenger, he was the one who carried sacred information - the secrets - back and forth to the Temples. The Lemurians of the day did not want to share those secrets with many. Therefore, my partner had a very, very long life. He continued to be rejuvenated in the temples as many times as even those of royalty. This messenger lived a very long time and he spent lifetimes as one soul here, and the whole time he was here, he was cold. Now, for the first time, I've given my partner the reason he comes here, and why he feels so connected to this land - and doesn't like being cold!

Gaia is Part of You

Gaia and the consciousness grids of this planet were all created at the same time you were, through the same energies you were, from the same source you were. Today, if you could go to a special exiting planet in the constellation of what you would call the Seven Sisters, a constellation which to this day is celebrated on this island [Hawaii], and talk to them, you would see something you recognize. They have a name for the energy of their planet. It's not the word "Gaia," but it's close. They also have a Crystalline Grid and, of course, a magnetic grid. They have a Gaia-like grid. They had to, for all of that was quantumly transported here! The very grids of this planet, the ones that we are calling the consciousness grids, are also Pleiadian! Now you know, and perhaps this is news you didn't expect, given to you in an energy that can only be given as we sit here in the shadow of the mountain that used to be cold.

That's enough for today. It's your history, Lemurian. So here's the invitation for those who sit in front of me: I want to challenge you right now to feel what is here. This is for only one reason - so that you will be spiritually rejuvenated and so your Akash can be activated as it remembers. Let your body emotionally validate what you already suspected: You're an old soul and there's a reason why you're awakening now and why you're on this particular journey [the cruise].

Oh there's more, but that's enough for now, that's enough for now.

And so it is.

KRYON.

Related Articles:

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)

"Spiritual Logic" - Oct 15 2011 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) 

(Subjects: Benevolent Design, Channelling, Holy scriptures, Higher self, (Old) Souls, Universes, Big Bang, Galaxy/Solar system build for life, Astronomy, Life on Earth tried to start 5 times/ 5th time life started, Large Animals/No Humans,  Asteroid belt, 7 Sisters / 100.000 year ago Pleiadian Brothers and Sisters seeded Humans on earth, DNA, Humans Ascensiont with Pleiadian DNA, Lemuria (Hawaii), 21-12-2012, 26.000 years cycle, 1987 - Harmonic Convergence (11:11), Shift of Human Consciousness, Gaia, The Humanization of God, 1991 Russia falls, 1994 started 36 years galactic window (Precession), Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Lemuria (Hawaii) center of the Earth time,  Love (Mother & Child),  Religion, Higher self, Global Unity,..... etc.)

Light-powered magnetic levitation could create ‘new class’ of solar energy

The Raw Story, Stephen C. Webster, December 28, 2012 

In a breakthrough that could one day revolutionize transportation and electricity generation, scientists at the University in Kanagawa in Japan demonstrated this month a disc that spins at over 200 rotations per minute when placed over a magnet in direct sunlight, saying the discovery could help create a wholly “new class” of solar energy.

Professor Jiro Abe and Dr. Masayuki Kobayashi presented their discovery in the December issue of Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Speaking a reporter with Phys.org, Abe said their research represents “the first time in the world” that humans have been able to achieve “real-time motion control” of inanimate objects without individual parts of the machine coming into direct contact.

The study goes on to explain that it works because the light slightly changes the temperature of the graphite, which causes subtle fluctuations in the material’s “magnetic susceptibility.”

Video of the discovery published to YouTube earlier this month showed scientists moving a tiny disc over an array of small magnets by firing a laser at it. Additional footage also featured that same disc levitating over a single magnet, rapidly spinning in place when placed under direct sunlight.

“Because this technique is very simple and fundamental, it is expected to apply to various daily living techniques, such as transportation systems and amusement, as well as photo-actuators and light energy conversion systems,” Abe reportedly said.

It is unclear how long such a discovery will take to be implemented into a practical mass-transportation system, if ever. It remains questionable if the discovery will lend itself to a device that generates enough electricity to become self-sustaining.

This video was published to YouTube on December 19, 2012.

Recycling food for Brazil's high rollers

Deutsche Welle, 28 December 2012

Huge amounts of food are thrown away every day in the restaurant and hotel industry, especially in the boom cities of Brazil. Now, one very famous Rio de Janeiro hotel is taking the lead with a unique, food waste plan.

The setting at this restaurant is simply too good to be true. A musician plays the piano as diners sit and enjoy a meal next to an open-air swimming pool situated in the middle of a gleaming white, Italianate-style building. The surrounding lights shimmer in the clear blue waters.

This is not just any restaurant. It's located in one of Rio de Janeiro's best known hotels, the Copacabana Palace, in the glamourous suburb of the same name. Many of the greats have stayed here, including Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Princess Diana and Mick Jagger.

But the Copacabana Palace isn't resting on its laurels. In an age of disposable culture, they want to promote sustainability. They are turning the waste produced by the hotel's restaurants into something useful.

The Copacabana Palace hotel has won prizes for its leadership in
sustainable business practices

In Brazil, as in other countries, there are strict laws preventing restaurants from giving away food to poor families or homeless shelters. So the Copacabana has begun its own composting program, which it hopes will lead the way across the city of Rio de Janeiro.

'At the Copa, Copacabana'

Launched in 2008, the hotel's restaurant waste management and recycling program is well and truly up and running. More than seven thousand liters of cooking oil and fifty tons of bottles are recycled each year. In addition, the hotel also composts most of its food waste too.

Paulo Andre Pozzobon, Director of Engineering at Copacabana Palace, implemented the system. "It started out for economic reasons, but it is also supposed to be environmentally friendly and socially fair," he told DW in an interview.

"We started researching and found that the cost of managing waste was high and we wanted to reduce the volume of waste to reduce costs. We then bought a machine to crush the organic waste produced by the restaurant, which reduced 88 percent of the volume," he said.

Treasures in trash

The Copacabana Palace was awarded a sustainability prize in 2009 from the Brazilian Association of Hotels and is now considered a leader in green business. Green practices have spread from its restaurant into other operations. The hotel now recycles just about everything, including buckets and other plastics and even unused waste from pineapples and coconuts.

Although Pozzobon says recycling can be profitable, many restaurants in Rio de Janeiro continue to dump their food and other waste products directly into the trash. The city's larger restaurants produce between 200 and 1,000 kilograms of food scraps each day.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization says 1.3 billion tons of food
is wasted worldwide each year

Green entrepreneur Álvaro Oliveira runs a composting company from Rio de Janeiro called VideVerde. He sees a niche market for his services in Brazil.

"We went to Japan to study how they manage their waste and we visited a composting site and studied the technology," Oliveira said in an interview with DW. "We wanted to bring it to Brazil, where we realized there was a big demand in composting."

Sprinkling bacteria on top

Oliveira's company collects the organic leftovers from restaurants and turns them into healthy composting material.

"This is a bio-transformation of organic waste into compost using microorganisms, or bacteria if you will," he explained. "When we receive the organic waste, we spread bacteria on top."

"Everyone that works with it is excited when they see the organic waste arriving - even though it looks like garbage and smells a little, too," he said. "Then, in 45 days, which is the time that we manage to decompose organic waste, they see pure organic compost."

The result of the process can be seen, for example, in the gardening section of supermarkets in Rio de Janeiro, where the compost is sold as fertilizer in biodegradable plastic bags.

"You see people buying it, and then sometimes, when I go back a month later, I hear people who have bought the organic compost going on about it to their friends, praising it and suggesting they buy it," Oliveira said. "It very satisfying. It's even better than payday for us - knowing that the product works and everyone really accepts it."

Role models for change

Engineer Paulo Andre Pozzobon, of Copacabana Palace, hopes examples like his and Oliveira's will catch on throughout the Rio de Janeiro. He wants composting and combustion plants installed city-wide.

"We could change the whole profile of organic waste management," Pozzobon said.

Pozzobon believes that companies can improve their profits when they divert waste away from landfills and thereby build a green reputation for themselves.

"The landfills will also have a longer lifecycle too, which is good for everyone," he said. "It's not trash, it's not waste, it's reusable, it's recyclable, it's going back into the earth again."

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Dutch Government gets tough on illegal wood

DutchNews.nl, Thursday 27 December 2012

The maximum punishment for timber merchants caught with illegally-felled wood will go up to two years in jail or a fine of €79,000 from March, the economic affairs ministry said on Thursday.

In addition, traders risk having their businesses closed down, the ministry said in a statement.

The change in regulations stems from European law aimed at combating illegal forestry. From March 3, traders will have to prove they bought their timber legally. Joinery firms will also have to provide proper certification for their wood on request.

Some 5,000 firms fall under the new Dutch rules.

Orangutans are among the animals threatened by illegal
logging in Indonesia

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Organic pioneers in Ivory Coast

Deutsche Welle, 26 December 2012

Some four years ago, German importer Biotriopic introduced organic farming to Ivory Coast. Investment in Africa has not always been easy, but so far it's been a success story.

There's a scent of lemon in the cold storage complex outside of the German city of Duisburg. Boxes and shelves with bananas, mangos, coconuts, lemons, oranges and pineapples fill the halls from floor to ceiling. At the open gate, a forklift is piling goods onto a waiting truck.

Biotropic is one of Germany's largest importers of organic fruits and vegetables. It all started back in 1997, with organic bananas from the Dominican Republic. Today it's anything from kiwis, nuts, dates to oranges - shipped from all corners of the earth.

Pineapples from Ivory Coast

It all started with pineapples grown
in the Dominican Republic

Four years ago, Biotropic began campaigning for organic pineapple to be grown in Ivory Coast. The German company worked with the local cooperative Ivoire Organics. "We only had a few earlier attempts in a few other countries such as Cameron, where it didn't work out," explained Kuemkwong Siemefo, head of Africa operations at Biotronic.

"Then we went to Ivory Coast where the infrastructure was excellent. We were lucky that the farmers we worked with have a long tradition of growing pineapple," Siemefo added.

Since the 1970s, the West African country has been one of the largest pineapple producers for the European market. But around the turn of the century, production shrunk by more than 20 percent. The civil war scared off investors and buyers, and especially smaller producers had trouble getting their goods onto the international market. For many farmers, this meant unemployment.

Creating jobs

Thanks to the cooperation with Biotropic, plenty of jobs have been created, said Paul Stephane Goa Pegnene, CEO of Ivoire Organics. "We've recruited people from the villages for the work. The smaller producers used to not have the resources to continue growing pineapple. But with the investments of Biotropic, we were able to support them."

The German company got help from Sequa, a development cooperation organization in Bonn, Germany. In 2008 and 2010, Sequa helped with know-how, and above all with money.

Investments in Africa bear a high risk, said Siemefo. "Sequa was the right partner to minimize those risks. Without that financial backing we would not have made that step," he added.

Organic cocoa production is next on the list of new projects for Biotropic

Goals left to reach

For Sequa, it was not just about pineapples, but also about knowledge transfer. A new institute founded at the Abodo Adjame University was supposed to spread technical organic farming expertise across the country. But the cooperation with the university failed for political reasons, said Susanne Sattlegger of Sequa. Nonetheless, she still concludes, positively, that cooperation with the local farmers has worked out well.

"The reason why not all of the development policy goals were archived here, was because of such extreme factors like environment, climate, and also the problematic cooperation with the university for political reasons," Sattlegger explained.

"But those are all things that neither we nor Biotropic would have been able to influence one way or another," she said.

Despite problems, Biotropic has extended it's investments in Ivory Coast. It started with 10 employees and an area of just two hectares some four years ago - today there are around 50 farmers working 70 hectares for Biotropic. An additional 20 small farmers sell their produce to Ivoire Organics.

Biotropic supplies the cooperative with seeds and machinery, and finances the organic certification process. Aside from pineapple, the farmers now also grow cashew nuts, mangos and coconuts for Biotropic. Soon, bananas and cocoa will be added to this list.

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Saving the rhino with surveillance drones

South African farmer plans to put 30 drones in the air to help combat poachers

The Guardian, David Smith in Johannesburg, Tuesday 25 December 2012

A white rhino. Photograph: Thomas Hall /Getty Images/Flickr RF

A rhino farmer in South Africa is planning to use surveillance drones designed for the US military to combat poachers who are driving the animals towards extinction.

Clive Vivier, cofounder of the Zululand rhino reserve in KwaZulu-Natal province, said he has been granted permission by the US state department to buy the state-of-the-art Arcturus T-20 drone.

He is now seeking clearance from local civil aviation authorities to put 30 of the drones in South African skies.

Radical solutions are needed, he argues, at the end of a year which has seen a record of more than 650 rhinos slaughtered for their horns to meet demand from the Far East.

Vivier believes the true figure may be closer to 1,000, a significant dent in a population of around 20,000. "We're now eating into our capital of rhino," he said. "From here they are heading rapidly towards extinction. Despite all our efforts, we're just historians recording the demise of a species. We don't have the numbers on the ground to see people and stop them killing the animals."

Around 400 rhinos have been killed this year in the world-famous Kruger national park, which spans 2m hectares – impossible for a limited number of rangers to guard effectively. Vivier estimates it as the equivalent of a town with one policeman for every 100,000 houses, "all with the doors and windows and open and rhino horn inside".

He continued: "We need to change the rules of the game. We need technology. The only thing that can see these people before they do the dirty deed is surveillance drones."

The answer, he believes, is the unmanned Arcturus T-20, which, with a 17ft wingspan, can fly for 16 hours without refuelling at a height of 15,000 feet. Its lack of noise and infrared camera would be invaluable for spotting poachers at night. "It can tell whether a man is carrying a shovel or firearm and whether he has his finger on the trigger or not," said Vivier, 65. "We can see the poacher but he can't see us. We're good at arresting them when we know where they are. Otherwise it's a needle in a haystack."

Vivier has spent two years in talks with civil aviation officials and is hopeful that he will soon get the green light for a six-month trial. He proposes 10 of the drones for Kruger park, and a further 20 for other vulnerable reserves in South Africa.

He estimates that each drone would cost roughly $300,000 (£184,445) to keep in the air for two years, making a total of around $9m (£5.53m).

"The drones are economical to fly and will get us information at a very low cost. We need this technology to put us in a position to catch the guys. We need to do it before they kill rhino. The drone is, in my opinion, the only solution. It is highly sophisticated and can see things no other technology can."

After the worst rhino poaching year on record in South Africa, air technology is seen as a crucial preventative step. Earlier this month, a reconnaissance plane with surveillance equipment including thermal imaging began patrolling over Kruger park.

But Vivier believes such alternatives lack the Calfornia-built Arcturus T-20's capability. "The smaller ones are like using a bucket to put out a fire at the Empire State building. We need fire engines. We're now an inferno. If we don't wake up and do something, the world will lose the rhino."

He appealed for the US, UK or other countries to help raise the necessary funds. "The company making the drone has to be paid and we don't have the money. We need the best technology because the criminals are sharp. We've had approval from the US state department and we're trying to work with them. It's a world problem and the rest of the world needs to help us."

Vivier is among a group of rhino farmers who believe that legalising the trade in horn would thwart the black market and reduce poaching. Several conservation groups disagree and call for measures that will reduce demand in countries such as Vietnam, where horn is seen as a delicacy with health benefits.

Ike Phaahla, a spokesman for South African National Parks, welcomed moves to put eyes in the sky. "In the past three months that is a strategy we have decided to use," he said. "We are able to use the intelligence to intercept the poachers, although you can't have a silver bullet for this kind of thing."

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