iPhone App for Wildlife
With around 14,000 miles of coastline along the Gulf of Mexico, even the best rescue workers can’t be everywhere at once. So a University of Massachusetts research team has created a new iPhone application that allows users to submit the location and photos of oiled birds and other wildlife to rescue workers. This technology has the potential of saving endangered animals such as the Kemp’s Ridley Turtles as well as some of the millions of migrating birds passing through the area.
The Mobile Gulf Observatory, or MoGo, is free and can be downloaded from its website. When an oiled animal or slick is spotted, the users can take a photo which the program then uploads, with the GPS coordinates, to a database. Users are then given the option of speaking with the wildlife hotline, which is the central office from which rescue workers are dispatched.
One exciting aspect of this technology is that it allows grassroot citizens to participate in wildlife conservation and the Gulf oil spill clean up.
The MoGo screenshots on the website suggest that users select the type of animal (birds, sea turtles, marine mammals, etc.) from a menu, then take a photo of the animal. They select from the rather sad choices of Alive, Injured, or Dead, and can add a comment. The app wisely has a warning telling people to never touch the wild animal.
The technology has the potential for becoming widely used, and the Daily Collegian.com reports that the creators have already been contacted by the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network. As well, the app may be modified and used to spot harmful invasive species such as the Asian Longhorned Beetle. I think modifications could also be made to help report forest fires and trees infested with the gypsy moth here in BC.
Tags: app, Asian Longhorned Beetle, endangered, Gulf, gypsy moth, iPhone, Mobile Gulf Observatory, MoGo, oil, Technology, Wildlife
Smart Energy Conservation
Energy efficient and sustainable companies display a sense of organizational effectiveness that allows them to make good use of the energy conservation technology, suggests Ian Jarvis of Enerlife Consulting in a recent Financial Post article. Saving energy is linked to increased comfort and productivity, which in turn gives people more of a sense of control over their environment.
cc: Manitoba Hydro Place
Europeans have been constructing smart buildings and using energy audits in design for years. Similar smart buildings are now starting to be built in North America. Winnipeg’s Manitoba Hydro Place is a leading example of an intelligent building, with onsite weather stations and a digital management system that adjusts outside temperature-controlled vents every 3 hours.
For smart buildings to achieve successful energy conservation, the people in the buildings have to think about what’s happening around them and how they impact their environment. To be truly sustainable, they need to have a realistic sense of how they are using energy. However, a recent study found that many people believe they can save energy with small, ineffective behavior changes, and underestimate the major effects of switching to efficient, currently available technologies.
Too many people are just trying to save energy by doing what is cheap and easy, suggests the survey. Energy conservation advocates have tended to encourage actions like turning off lights to save energy, rather than focusing on the biggest energy savers including higher-mileage vehicles and installing room rather than central air conditioning.
Part of the problem is lack of awareness of the big energy savers. Luckily, giving people better information about energy conservation will make up for the current psychology and will lead to people making better decisions about using energy. Have a look at the “Savings from green measures” graph in the Economist that is from the study.
Just by becoming more efficient in their households and vehicles, people can substantially decline their energy consumption within the decade.
Tags: buildings, Conservation, design, energy, environment, Manitoba Hydro Place, smart, sustainable, Technology
