This Algae Battery Could Power A Tesla With 200X The Charge

TechCrunch, Sarah Buhr, May 31, 2014

In a small lab, near a lake at the edge of West Berkeley, sits the prototype of what could revolutionize battery power as we know it. The secret to this power? Algae.

OK, just hang with me here. Lots of research has already been done on algae’s possible power capabilities. Prototype creator Adam Freeman says this new kind of battery, the one he’s working on, could power even a Tesla. And he says it could do it 200X greater than the current lithium-based battery used today.

He’s created a research company called alGAS that aims to prove just that.

Freeman says the algae battery also charges faster and lasts longer than current ion batteries used in, say, your cell phone, iPad… or a Tesla. As Freeman explains, paper-thin fibers in algae provide an easier surface for ions to get through, resulting in a charge in as little as 11 seconds, not minutes or hours.

Here is how a current battery charges, using lots of rare earth minerals that may be going extinct or, worse, cause cancer:

Though there isn’t much by way of illustration to show how this works for algae, Ryan Bethencourt, founder of the Berkeley Biotech Labs, was able to send me this brief video that sort of explains the process.

Previous tests proved algae has a charge and could theoretically work as battery power, but what’s not known is how much of a charge and how much of it will be needed to power, say, a car. Freeman believes he’s figured out the answer. What he needs now is the funding to bring it into mass production.

Those rare earth materials currently used in ion batteries (cell phones, etc.) — 95 percent of which are shipped from China — are hard to extract. This makes them quite expensive.

Tesla pledged to use U.S. materials only, which does cut the cost. Still, it’s got to be more than what it costs to grow and use algae powered batteries, right? Right. Freeman only needs $1,500 for the prototype and says he can have his algae battery ready for mass production for a mere $5,000 by this summer.

The implications for this go beyond cars. In theory you could power your entire house. Yes, a living, breathing algae plant could make your house “go.” A French biochemist already powered a streetlight with the stuff.

What makes Freeman’s prototype different from previous tests is the use of a bio-safe polymer. The polymer is a critical element that binds the fibers together to create a better interaction with the electron charge.

While the prototype is still basically just a bunch of jars full of algae on the shelf of some lab, the potential, according to Freeman, is very big.

“Think of driving your car on a living battery that charges in seconds with a battery that costs almost nothing and is actually good for the environment.”

Related Articles:

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Sony's bio battery turns waste paper into electricity

Air Power

Delft University scientists 'teleport' information over three metres

DutchNews.nl, Friday 30 May 2014

(NOS/ANP)

Scientists at Delft University are claiming to have managed to ‘teleport’ information over a space of three metres, according to a report in scientific journal Science.

The researchers say computers were able to exchange information despite not being connected to each other in any way. In addition, information did not travel across the three metre space between them, broadcaster Nos reports on Friday.

In order to transport the information, the researchers used a phenomenon known as ‘entanglement’, which researcher Ronald Hanson describe as ‘possibly the weirdest and most intriguing consequence of the laws of quantum mechanics.’

The information which was transferred was stored on diamond quantum bits, which could eventually be used for developing quantum computers and quantum internet. The advantage of such a network is that information can be sent in total security and there is no way of eavesdropping.

The researchers plan to try to repeat the experiment this summer using a distance of 1,300 metres. However, Nos points out, the teleportation of objects such as people, remains impossible according to the laws of science.

Scientist Ronald Hanson tries to explain how teleportation works,

(Niek Froma/NOS)

Related Articles:

Google and NASA's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab

Scientists Report Quantum Teleportation Breakthroughs

China looks to quantum mechanics to protect secrets from US hackers

"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human, Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

"..... The Only Sustainable Quantum Energy on the Planet

Let me take you to an experiment over a decade ago. Two men in Scotland were involved - a physicist and a medical doctor. The medical doctor is Dr. Todd Ovokaitys, my partner's colleague. What a coincidence these two men of science met in this lifetime [Kryon smile]. The physicist and the medical doctor were the first to co-develop a sustainable, coherent, controllable, repeatable, quantum event. That is to say, they have an invention that creates quantum energy that can be sustained, repeated, and used. They've done it by opposing laser energies out of phase through what we would call a quantum holographic lens arrangement. An actual shift of time occurs and that coherent quantum soup, although very small, is controllable and can be repeated, manipulated, and delivered where they want it to go.

Now, they're not the first Humans on the planet to create quantum energy. But they're the first ones to create one that is designed and repeatable. The first Human to create quantum energy was Nikola Tesla. He couldn't control it, but he knew it was there and had seen it over and over within his magnetic experiments.

What the physicist and the doctor did over the next decade showed the quantum factor, for they then applied this designed quantum soup that they had invented to biology. Every time they imbued this energy into a biological test or experiment, they got healing! Think of it. What are the odds that you would develop some kind of an energy on the planet and wherever you pointed it, it healed? What are the odds of that? It's like rolling six and then six and then six. Are you starting to see a pattern?

When this quantum energy is able to be reproduced in other laboratories, there will be those (and there always are) who will try to weaponize it. Here is something you should know: It will be the first energy every discovered that won't allow this. It can't be weaponized because it is benevolent. Imagine, a quantum energy that's just simply physics, but which has an attitude! What does that tell you? It should show you that there's something going on within high physics that is more than math and attributes of matter.

In time, the quantum factor will be discovered on this planet. When it is, it will be highly controversial, and it's going to fly in the face of logic and 3D and the way things work via the scientific method. The ramp-up to all this is difficult. The old souls in front of me have signed on to work this new energy and they've waded through lifetimes, just waiting for this. What would you do as a scientist if the experiments before you had "a mind of their own"? What would you think if magnetics, gravity and light could only be assembled in a certain way that created healing and never a destructive alignment? All this is going to redefine some of the basic forces in the Universe. Intelligent design is only the first, and even today many astronomers and physicists still think it's an anomaly. 

That will be the next largest discovery on the planet. It's been held back from you because it takes a higher vibrating consciousness to create and understand it. When any planet discovers a quantum energy and is able to use it, you could go to that planet and know that you will meet high-consciousness entities. This has never been given to you before that, for within the quantum factor contains the secret of interplanetary travel using large, entangled states. There are ways of doing things you never thought could happen. You can throw away your rocket ships. You're on the edge of that.. ..."

"FUTURE AND PHYSICS (#)" - May 16-17, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New

(#) New major Discoveries (This channel will become a historical channel in the future, prove that Kryon is a real communication to humanity from the Source)

1 To see and measure multi-dimensional/quantum physics, instrument (super coaling quantum plasma lens)

2 Two more laws of multi-dimensional physics revealed: explanation of dark matter & acknowledgement of free energy (controlling mass)

3 God in the atom. God has - provable - part in physics. Intelligent/benevolent design. (Will bring religion and science together.)

4 Human Consciousness is an attribute of physics. (Pleiadians - Humans ancestors / Humans free choice only planet in the Milky Way Galaxy. Other galaxies have their own spiritual systems and physics)

5.Coherent DNA. Multidimensional DNA coherent between dimensions will give Enhanced DNA

Indonesia to Start Work on World’s Biggest Geothermal Plant in June

Jakarta Globe, Fathiyah Dahrul and Fergus Jensen, May 29, 2014

Indonesia has only exploited around five
 percent of its world-leading geothermal
potential. (JG Photo/Rezza Estily)

Jakarta. Indonesia will begin construction next month of its long-delayed $1.6-billion Sarulla project, the world’s biggest geothermal power plant, the country’s chief economic minister said on Wednesday.

Southeast Asia’s largest economy, home to the world’s largest geothermal resources, is racing to meet power demand growth of more than 7 percent a year, with plans to add 60 gigawatts of capacity to its existing grid by 2022.

But the sector has struggled to attract investment because of complex regulations and difficulties securing project finance. A government plan to derive 12 percent of the country’s energy mix from geothermal power by 2025 seems unrealistic.

“The Sarulla groundbreaking will be very soon,” Coordinating Economic Minister Chairul Tanjung told reporters, adding that the project had reached financial closing and the government expected construction to begin next month.

He declined to give further details.

The project was originally initiated in 1990 but ground to a halt during the Asian financial crisis in 1997. Its first phase is expected to begin operation in 2016, with the next two phases to follow within 18 months of the first phase.

The 330-MW Sarulla project is envisioned to provide clean power to an Indonesian grid dominated by fossil-fuel energy. Sarulla is expected to reduce 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year when completed in 2018.

The financing of the project has been heralded as a breakthrough for Indonesia’s largely undeveloped 29 gigawatts of geothermal potential.

The banks involved in the financing are the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) along with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, ING Bank NV (a unit of ING Groep NV ), Societe Generale, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corportation, Mizuho Bank Ltd and National Australia Bank.

The project is sponsored by Itochu Corporation (25 percent), Kyushu Electric Power Company (25 percent), Medco Power Indonesia (37.5 percent), a unit of Medco Energi Internasional and Ormat International, a unit of Ormat Technologies (12.5 percent).

The Sarulla plant’s recent financial close makes it Indonesia’s first geothermal project to gain financing since Star Energy’s 227-MW Wayang Windu plant commenced in 1997.

Related Articles:

ADB Supports Renewable Energy by Investing in Indonesian Geothermal Plant

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“... Japan

Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen." One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.

Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."

Nuclear Power Revealed

So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.

It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.

We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.

This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.

So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise.  …”

Australian brings reef fight to Deutsche Bank

A tourism operator from the Great Barrier Reef has come halfway around the world in a last-ditch attempt to save his business. He's hoping to convince European banks not to fund a coal terminal expansion on his doorstep.

Deutsche Welle, 28 May 2014

Signage of a protest against the proposed coal port at Abbot Point, reading Reef In Danger, at the Great Barrier Reef

Tony Brown is a long way from home. Dressed in a navy blue suit, he's sitting in the breakfast room of his Frankfurt hotel, a boiled egg and Brötchen on his plate.

The last time Brown came to Germany, he was in his 20s and the Berlin Wall was still standing. Now a specific mission has brought him back. In a few hours he's planning to address more than 4,000 shareholders at Deutsche Bank's annual general meeting.

"I think our story is compelling, and I think it's important that the banks hear it," he tells DW.

For the past 11 years, the 51-year-old has worked as a tour boat operator in the town of Airlie Beach on Australia's tropical north-east coast. His company takes visitors on sailing trips to the paradisiacal Whitsunday Islands and world-famous Great Barrier Reef.

"There are pristine waters and it's a beautiful place to take people snorkeling and diving, because you can walk straight off a beach into the fringing reefs," he says.

But the expansion of a controversial coal port at Abbot Point, on the reef's doorstep, could put the health of the ecosystem - and Brown's livelihood - at risk.

Tony Brown: 'It's important the
banks hear our story'

The development would make Abbot Point the biggest coal terminal in the world, and involve dumping three million cubic meters of dredged sediment into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

"That's enough spoil to build a five-meter high, one-meter wide wall from Hamburg to Munich," he says. "If this volume of spoil was dumped in the Black Forest, imagine the response from the people of Germany."

Taking on the banks

This is where the banks come in. Deutsche Bank was one of three lenders to help Indian conglomerate Adani Group refinance the lease on the 30-year-old coal port. Adani is now trying to raise billions more to expand the terminal.

In a final effort to stop the project, Brown bought shares in potential investors - including Societe Generale, Deutsche Bank and HSBC - and travelled to Europe to urge the banks to stay away.

Brown has just come from Paris, where the Societe Generale AGM didn't go quite as planned. He's disappointed, he reports, because the board wasn't interested in what he had to say.

"I'm not going to profess that I'm the oracle on this, but I certainly have looked into this deeply, and tried to understand what is going on here," he says. "Presenting that information is important. At least I'm putting some balance into the discussion."

Reef in trouble

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral structure in the world, home to 1,625 types of fish, and an abundance of other marine species, including turtles, whales, dolphins and dugongs.

Brown says he's already seen an increase in shipping traffic in the area, and he worries dredging could have an irrevocable effect on water quality and marine life.

"I'm a business person who's concerned about his business, and I have other operators out there who are concerned about their business and livelihood," he says. "Sea dumping is not best practice, and it needs to be changed if we have any hope of turning around the recovery of the Great Barrier Reef."

 

There are 600 different types of coral and an abundance of marine
life in the Great Barrier Reef

The reef is already under threat from climate change and bleaching coral. UNESCO has also expressed concerns about increasing development along the coastline and is threatening to list the reef as World Heritage "in danger."

Last resort

After breakfast it's time to go. Brown is optimistic about the meeting, and he has some local support behind him. In the past few days more than 180,000 Germans have signed a petition calling on Deutsche Bank not to back the mega coal project.

Heffa Schücking, director of German NGO Urgewald, arrives to accompany Brown to the AGM. It's the one place, she says, "where they have to listen to you."

"If there's anyone out there who does care about this, this is the only way we can reach them. Our experience has been that sometimes at AGMs surprising decisions can be taken to move away from a project."

Making the case

The massive convention center hall at Messe Frankfurt is almost full. Several hours pass, and a string of shareholders speak, before Brown's name is finally called.

He's prepared a statement, but as it has to be in German, an interpreter is on hand to read a translation.

He tells shareholders how the Great Barrier Reef's tourism industry provides almost 60,000 jobs, and annually generates more than 6 billion dollars for the Australian economy.

He also tells them that more than 2 million people visit the reef each year - including 200,000 tourists from Germany.

But before Brown's speech is over, there's some good news. Jürgen Fitschen, one of the bank's co-chief executive officers, turns on his microphone and confirms that the company will not finance the development without an assurance that it would not damage the Great Barrier Reef.

"As there is clearly no consensus between the Australian government and UNESCO regarding the impacts of the Abbot Point expansion on the reef we will not consider financial applications of an expansion," Fitschen says.

Mission accomplished

Back at his hotel, hurriedly packing a suitcase (He has a plane to catch), Brown is pleased with how the day has gone. But he admits there will always be more investors who could step in to fund the coal port.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living
 structure on Earth, spanning 2,300 kilometers
(1,430 miles)

"We know the reef's in trouble and needs strong steps to be managed into the future, and Deutsche Bank made those strong steps today," he says.

Heffa Schücking isn't so sure. "As an organization which has over 10 years experience with watching Deutsche Bank, we do have to be careful and stay on our toes," she says. "We will monitor where Deutsche Bank sends its money. We don't want to see indirect financing going towards that harbor or anything else that would destroy the reef."

Next stop on the European tour: the HSBC AGM in London. Brown is hoping he'll have some more good news to take back to his colleagues who live and work on the reef.

Related Articles:

Australia Approves Plan to Dump Dredge Spoil in Barrier Reef

UNESCO expresses alarm, warns Australia over Great Barrier Reef

Time running out for Great Barrier Reef: scientists

Japan prepares to mark three years since devastating quake

Islanders afraid to go home 60 years after Bikini Atoll H-bomb


"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Fukushima / H-bomb nuclear pollution / Oil spills ...  > 20 Min)

Dutch company launches 'sexy' wind turbine in different colours

DutchNews.nl, Tuesday 27 May 2014

A mini wind turbine with roof appeal. Photo: De Archimedes

A Dutch company is on Tuesday presenting a small wind turbine to the public which it says is virtually silent and produces half the electricity used by the average household.

The Liam F1 Urban Wind is a man-sized turbine in the shape of a nautilus shell which can be erected on a rooftop. It is priced at around €4,000, which the makers, a Rotterdam company called The Archimedes, say can be earned back in eight to 15 years through lower energy costs.

Richard Ruijtenbeek, one of the Liam's designers, told broadcaster Nos the Liam will make sustainability 'sexy', which is why it comes in several different colours.

Small 'design' turbines are being developed and there are ideas for gold-coloured turbines for the Middle East. 'This will turn small turbines into must-have objects with the advantage that they save energy,' Ruijtenbeek said.

The first Liam has already been installed, on the roof of the port offices in Rotterdam. The turbine measures 1.5 metres across and weighs just 75 kgs.

Liam F1 Urban Wind is positioned at the port office in

Rotterdam. (NOS/Henrik Willem Hofs)

Rwanda's deadly methane lake becomes source of future power

Yahoo – AFP, Stephanie Aglietti, 25 May 2014

A man looks towards the hills of Rwanda on the eastern edge of Lake Kivu from

 the Democratic Republic of the Congo's eastern city of Goma on May 28, 2012

(AFP Photo/Phil Moore)

Karongi (Rwanda) (AFP) - Beneath the calm waters of Lake Kivu lie vast but deadly reserves of methane and carbon dioxide, which Rwanda is tapping both to save lives and provide a lucrative power source.

Plans are in place to pump out enough gas for power that would nearly double Rwanda's current electricity capacity, as well as reducing the chance of what experts warn could be a potentially "catastrophic" natural disaster.

The glittering waters of the inland sea, which straddles the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, contain a dangerous and potent mix of the dissolved gases that if disturbed would create a rare "limnic eruption" or "lake overturn", expert Matthew Yalire said.

Levels of carbon dioxide (Co2) and methane are large and dangerous enough to risk a sudden release that could cause a disastrous explosion, after which waves of Co2 would suffocate people and livestock around, explained Yalire, a researcher at the Goma Volcano Observatory, on the lake's DR Congo shore.

A man fishes on the edge of Lake Kivu on

 May 28, 2012 near the city of Goma in

 North Kivu province in the Democratic

Republic of the Congo (AFP Photo/Phil

Moore)

"Right now the lake is stable, but for how long?" asked Yalire, who believes that extracting potentially explosive methane is one way to help "stabilise" the lake.

Near the town of Rubavu, a pilot project of the Rwandan government is already producing about two megawatts of electricity from the methane in the lake.

But a new, additional plant is being built on Kivu's eastern shore, where the US-based power company ContourGlobal plans massively to boost production.

"Our team is focused on extracting methane from the lake to generate electricity that will expand household access to power, lower costs, and reduce environmental hazards," ContourGlobal said.

Its 200 million dollar (145 million euro) "KivuWatt" project aims to lessen the natural threat of an explosion, while turning the deadly gas into a source of energy and profit.

Two million people at risk

On the lake's Rwandan shoreline and at the foot of green hills dotted with banana plantations, hundreds of construction workers are building a platform due to be installed on the lake by the end of the year.

Rather than being a drill platform, it will instead suck up the methane trapped in the depths.

"There is no drilling, gas is pumped from the lower layers of the lake that are saturated with methane," the KivuWatt project's chief, Yann Beutler, told AFP.

"From the moment when the water rises to the surface, it releases gases that are collected."

The methane and Co2 are separated, with the methane sent to a plant on the shore and the Co2 re-dissolved and returned to the depths of the lake.

"The structure of the lake, and the flora and fauna, are not changed," Beutler added.

The project's first phase is planned to generate over 25 megawatts of energy, with production to be multiplied four times in the second phase to 100 MW, almost doubling Rwanda's current national production capacity of about 115 MW.

The scheme is largely financed by private capital, though some 45 percent of the funding takes the shape of loans from international development institutions.

ContourGlobal has signed a 25-year concession with the Rwandan government and an agreement with the country's national power producer and distributor.

Lessons from Cameroon

The electrification of Rwanda is a top objective of Kigali's government, which aims to more than triple access to electricity from a mere 18 percent of the population today to 70 percent by 2017.

The methane will also help Rwanda fulfil the further goal of diversifying energy sources.

Today, almost half of its energy comes from fossil fuels, with the annual bill for imported fuel topping some 40 million dollars (30 million euros).

Kivu is not unique: two other lakes in Cameroon -- Monoun and Nyos -- have similar high concentrations of the gases. In 1984, a limnic eruption killed 37 people around Lake Monoun, then in 1986 a similar disaster at Lake Nyos claimed more than 1,700 lives. These tragedies have been seen as dire warnings for people near Lake Kivu.

A view from a UN base on the edge of Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic

 of the Congo's eastern city of Goma on May 28, 2012 shows the hills of Rwanda

in the background (AFP Photo/Phil Moore)

"It is essential to extract the gas from the lake," said Martin Schmid, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag).

"If we let the gases accumulate for a long time, we should expect at a catastrophic eruption of gas."

Stretching over 2,370 kilometres squared (915 miles squared) and plunging to some 485 metres (1,590 feet) deep, the lake holds some 60 billion cubic metres (2,118 billion cubic feet) of dissolved methane gas, and some 300 billion cubic metres (10,594 billion cubic feet) of carbon dioxide.

With some two million people living close to the lake shore in both Rwanda and DR Congo, any eruption could be disastrous.

An active nearby volcano, Mount Nyiragongo, which smothered part of the Kivu lakeshore city of Goma with lava in 2002, highlights the real risk that geological activity in the lake could trigger an explosion.

Both the lake and volcano are located on Africa's continental Rift zone, where the Earth's tectonic plates are very slowly being pulled apart.

Related Articles:

BP spill: Sea methane persisted after microbe cleanup

"Fast-Tracking" - Feb 8, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Reference to Fukushima / H-bomb nuclear pollution, Oil Spills...  )  (> 20 Min)

The Solar-Powered Pump System That Could Bring Clean Water to the 800 Million People Without It

EcoWatch, Brandon Baker, May 20, 2014

         

An Austrian company hopes to play a large role in ending the water crisis with a technology powered by renewable energy.

Pumpmakers created the NSP Solar Pump system with hopes of brining clean and safe drinking water to the nearly 800 million people around the world without it. The United Nations estimates that 6 to 8 million people die each year from water-related diseases. That’s equal to about 10,000 deaths per day, with most under age 5.

“There are two main obstacles faced by the communities in this crisis—either communities have no access to clean drinking water at all or they have to rely on water pump systems that require a lot of maintenance, which in many cases is simply not available locally,” Dr. Birgit Stuck, field researcher for Pumpmakers, said in a promotional video.

Pumpmakers’ inexpensive system incurs no running costs while using solar energy to pump water from as deep as 300 feet, even on cloudy days. The company, which began working on the project in 2011, used “maintenance-free” materials to make it easy to construct and use.

While the solar pumps have been providing clean water for the people of Ndzofuine, a remote village in Mozambique, since 2012, Pumpmakers now envisions people and other companies strengthening their own local economies by providing the systems to their communities. Most of the components for the pump can be manufactured locally. Once Pumpmakers latest round of crowdfunding is complete, the company will be able to offer some of the hard-to-find components on its website, like the gear unit.

About 800 people in Ndzofuine get clean water from the pump with a capacity of up to 5,000 liters that are pumped from a depth of 262 feet each day.

“Our goal is to establish Pumpmakers.com as the platform that connects local pumpmakers with underserved communities and with organizations such as NGOs and private supporters,” according to the company video.

“With the power of the crowd, we can create a meaningful tool to prevent the shortages of water and poverty worldwide.”

Related Articles:

Wind-powered desalination project targets world market

Alfredo Zolezzi: how a plasma water purifying system is saving lives

Fairtrade accused of failing to deliver benefits to African farmworkers

Study claims wages on officially certified markets are below what is paid by comparable employers

The Guardian, The Observer, John Vidal and Claire Provost, Saturday 24 May 2014

Millions of British consumers have bought Fairtrade coffee harvested
in Uganda. Photograph: Simon Rawles/Getty Images

Sales of Fairtrade-certified products from Uganda and Ethiopia are not benefiting poor farmworkers as profits fail to trickle down to much of the workforce, says a groundbreaking study.

The Fairtrade Foundation is committed to "better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world". But a UK government-sponsored study, which investigated the production of flowers, coffee and tea in Ethiopia and Uganda, found that "where Fairtrade flowers were grown, and where there were farmers' groups selling coffee and tea into Fairtrade certified markets, wages were very low".

Christopher Cramer, an economics professor at the University of London and one of the report's authors, said: "Wages in other comparable areas and among comparable employers producing the same crops but where there was no Fairtrade certification were usually higher and working conditions better. In our research sites, Fairtrade has not been an effective mechanism for improving the lives of wage workers, the poorest rural people."

Researchers who collected detailed information on more than 1,500 people said they also found evidence of the widespread use of children being paid to work on farms growing produce for Britain's leading ethical label.

Fairtrade, started in Britain 25 years ago by development and consumer groups including Oxfam and the Women's Institute, has grown into one of the world's most trusted ethical schemes, with 1.24 million farmers and workers around the world. Fairtrade products contribute to the funding of schools, health clinics, sanitation and other "social projects" in rural areas. To join the scheme, farmers must agree to meet social, labour and environmental standards. In Britain it is a £1.78bn enterprise backed by government, Comic Relief, churches and supermarkets.

Fairtrade tea and coffee from Ethiopia and Uganda have proved popular with millions of British consumers. Starbucks, the House of Commons and Virgin Atlantic are among many organisations advertising that they serve Fairtrade produce from these countries.

Generally, the study found, wages were higher on farms that were larger, commercial and not Fairtrade-certified. Even comparing different smallholder sites, wages were generally lower in the areas dominated by Fairtrade producer organisations.

Social projects, paid for partly by the Fairtrade premium, were found not to provide equal benefit to all. The researchers reported that many of the poorest did not have access to facilities. In one Fairtradetea co-operative the modern toilets funded with the premium were exclusively for the use of senior managers.

The study also found that young people were widely used as labourers on both Fairtrade and other farms. "When wage workers aged over 14 years were interviewed, a very large proportion of them said they had been working since the age of 10, or even earlier," it said. "What is clear ... is that very significant numbers of young, school-age children are having to work for wages in the production of agricultural export crops, including Fairtrade-certified commodities."

The authors said a combination of idealism and naivety could explain why Fairtrade did not reach the poorest people in Ethiopia and Uganda. "One possibility is that Fairtrade producer organisations are always established in significantly poorer, more marginalised areas where an accumulation of disadvantages means smallholder farmers are unable to pay even the paltry wages offered by smallholders in other areas without Fairtrade producer organisations," they said.

"Fairtrade attempts to support and subsidise co-operative groups of 'smallholder' producers on the remarkably naïve assumption that the benefits of this support are distributed evenly amongst the group. This assumption about egalitarian distribution is unwarranted."

Fairtrade International said the report's conclusions were unfair and generalised. "In several places it compares wages and working conditions of workers in areas where small-scale Fairtrade-certified tea and coffee farmers were present with those on large-scale plantations in the same regions," it said in a statement.

"The report itself identifies farm size, scale and integration into global trade chains as major factors influencing conditions for wage workers, but then its conclusions appear to be based on unfair and distorted comparisons between farms and organisations of dramatically different size, nature and means.

"When comparisons are based more on like-for-like situations, such as the study's own analysis of Ugandan coffee in small scale coffee production set-ups, it finds key areas where workers in areas with Fairtrade-certified farmer organisations in fact had better conditions compared with those in non-certified, such as free meals, overtime payments and loans and wage advances for workers. This is in sharp contrast to the more generalised conclusions being presented by the School of Oriental and African Studies team."

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