From Guest Blogger Brooke Chaplan: Green Planet–Three International Innovations Helping The Environment

Cleaning up the planet is, to say the least, a global concern. While Americans may suffer from factories that pollute the immediate environment or local water supplies, the oceans and the ozone layer affect us all. Therefore, it’s not enough for one country to institute green policies, we all have to pitch in together and make it a global concern. here are three international innovations that are helping to clean up the environment we all have to share and helping to build good international relations in the process.
Boyan Slat’s Ocean Cleaning Machine

In 2013, a 17-year-old Dutch boy delivered a TED Talk outlining his idea for a giant ocean cleaning machine. What might have been seen as simply the flight of fancy of a young visionary is set to become a reality. In 2018, Boyan Slat’s ocean cleaning machine is set to launch and hopes to collect tens of thousands of ton of debris each year and eventually cull out 50% of the ocean’s trash in just 5 years. Cleaning up the ocean is not just good for the environment, it’s good for coastal economies. Tourism represents a significant portion of income in most coastal cities around the world and a trashy ocean generally results in trashy beaches – and that’s not good for business.

Alternative power

Energy consumption is a global concern as so many of the ways we mine the resources we need to create energy have a devastation effect on the planet. While solar power is, of course, leading the forefront of alternative energy sources, there are some areas of the world that would still have a hard time supplying power that is dependent on several hours of sunshine a day. Environmental engineers in France are working on a new form of hydro technology that would actually capture the energy of falling raindrops and turn it into electricity. The best schools for international relations are also doing their part in research, development, and education revolving around renewable energy for every country.

Green Buildings

The majority of homes around the world are built with materials that are meant to last a lifetime but are generally torn down in a few decades, not to mention consuming approximately 41% of the energy in any given country. From net-zero buildings in Australia that produce at least as much energy as they consume to homes built with recycled materials to homes that are built with materials designed to be recycled, minimizing the environmental impact of the millions of structures we build to live in is a global concern.

Environmental engineers around the globe are busily developing a wide range of technologies that accomplish a wide range of goals aside from just cleaning up the environment. They also help farmers grow food in less-than-perfect growing conditions and create sources of water where there currently isn’t any. In many ways, the future of our planet is in the hands of environmental engineers who are helping create a better world for us all.