Organic fruit and vegetables – necessity or luxury

The production of organic fruit and vegetables is becoming more and more popular in the world. People are talking about these new trends, but many of the consumers are still reluctant to regularly purchase organic food. The main problem is price, since organic fruit and vegetables could be up to ten times more expensive than the regular food. This is based on a fact that it costs more to produce food in natural way, without any pesticides and artificial fertilizers. Therefore, the future research in organic food will be in the direction of cost reduction. Where can we reduce the costs of organic food? We could choose the plants that are resistant to pests and they do not require fertilizers. We should learn to eat food that is not beautiful, but it is very healthy. We should change our habits when picking fruit and vegetables and we will see that the economic trends will change. Maybe the organic food is too expensive because there is not enough demand or not enough producers on the market. When there are many producers of food, then there is more competition. We could expect that organic food will decrease price in the future and it will not be a luxurious item any more. 

Farm and wind turbines

What could replace the oil and petrol in future cars?

Many attempts have been made to find an alternative for petrol. There are many variants, from using hydrogen, natural gas, methanol or other fuels. The most important obstacle is the price of these fuels as well as the price of the cars that can use them. Many scientists think that fuel can easily be obtained from the organic matter and crops. Some of the crops, such as maize and wheat can be used to extract oil and produce biodiesel. Sugar from the sugar canes is also a good solution. Methanol and ethanol that is produced from the fruit and vegetables can also be used as fuel for future vehicles. Now petrol is still abundant and there is no need to think about the new solutions, but for the future generations, it will be very important to use new and environmentally friendly alternatives to petrol. 

How to recycle materials and water in production processes?

Recycling materials and water in production processes can significantly decrease the quantity of waste that is produced every day. Depending on the production process, up to 90 percent of water can be recycled and brought back to the process. Water can be cleaned by special filters and divided into groups, according to their quality. The same goes for the waste material. During the production processes, such as cutting, molding, sawing and other mechanical operation, a lot of waste materials are produced. These materials can be reused and returned to production. Paper and leather industries are good examples of possible usage of recycling materials. Many of the other industries can follow the same example. The future factories will be designed in a way that makes them able to reuse or consume their waste and use it for production of energy. The energy from waste materials is cheaper and easier to use than the fossil fuels. 

Industrial object

How to develop our society in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way

The technology has brought us many benefits, but the results have been devastating to the nature. In the beginning of the industrial revolution, people were not aware of the damage that they are causing to the nature. The developing of environmentally friendly production processes has gained us many advantages. The future technologies should implement sustainable development, where there will be little or no waste produced by the factories. Although this goal is difficult to reach, there are many indicators that this trend will continue in the future. The factories are trying to optimize their production in order to minimize the waste. This can be obtained by recycling the waste and economizing the usage of the raw materials. Although it costs more to implement environmentally friendly processes, the results will surely give cleaner environment that is worth much more than all the savings in the polluting processes. 

Flowers

Energy should circulate in nature – renewable energy is the solution

Much of our energy is obtained from fossil fuels that are not renewable and they are polluting the nature. In order to be friendlier to the environment, it is necessary to use the renewable energy sources. Energy should circulate in nature and that means that we should convert the energy that is available everywhere, such as wind or solar power, and return it back to the nature, without any pollution. We still need a lot of research to reach all of the goals in renewable energy area. The good news is that the development in this area was significant in the recent years. The nanotechnology and other future technologies will help us to build highly efficient wind turbines and solar power cells. This will give new power to the existing renewable power plants and make it easier to design plants that are more effective and cheaper. 

Solar panels

LED lights will illuminate the future

When we think about the lights that will be
used in the future, we usually think about highly efficient and energy saving
lighting systems. Therefore it is needed to make some changes to the existing
lighting systems, such as incandescent, fluorescent, sodium and mercury lights.
In future, it will be very important to save energy and protect the
environment. LED lighting possesses many qualities that are useful for
protection of the environment and saving of money for electricity bills. LED
fixtures and bulbs are not only energy saving, but they are also long lasting.
During their long lifetime that can be more than ten years, they keep their
light intensity and do not malfunction or stop working suddenly. Therefore it is
not necessary to change them for a long time, even if you keep them turned on
all the time. In the future, LED luminaries will certainly encounter many
improvements and optimizations. We can expect that their price will drop
significantly and the reliability will increase. 

LED industrial lights

Home recycling methods - make use of your trash

Recycling can be very useful for your pocket and home budget. It should not be a burden to you. There are many methods to reuse much of the waste that you produce. The first easy method is to collect and separate all of the organic waste, such as fruit, vegetables, egg shells and so on and compost them for usage in your garden. The plastic bottles can be useful for many things, such as building a greenhouse for your vegetables in the garden. You can also use the plastic bottles to make cups, pencil holders, flower pots and much more. You can make it a habit to collect the domestic waste in different waste bins. This way it will be much easier for you to separate the waste. Many countries are implementing obligatory recycling at home. Therefore, you need to adjust to the new measures and take the first steps to reduce the quantity of waste materials and increase the quantity of the materials that you can reuse at your home and in garden. 

Trees next to the road

Sustainable development with reasonable usage of natural resources

The future trends in technology are directly related to sustainable development. Scientists are trying to find the ways to live in harmony with nature. Harmony with nature means minimal impact of industries, population and other factors to the environment. We must learn how to use the natural resources, such as water, wood, coal and minerals. The depletion of resources will be a common thing in the future. We must learn now how to consume less resources and be friendly to the environment. You can make a difference by yourself. You don't need to change your lifestyle too much. You can just try to implement some small changes, such as using less water, paper or electricity every day. Only a small decrease in water, energy and material consumption will be a large step toward sustainable development on our Planet. 

Sustainable development with wind and solar energy

Why some environmentalists oppose wind turbines

Some environmentalists oppose wind turbines because they are convinced that they ruin the natural habitat of many different bird species. This is based on a old belief that birds will fly directly into wind turbines and die or get injured. This could easily be prevented by the new designs of wind turbines. Because the wind turbines are set on higher towers, there is less chance that birds will fly into them. The other option is usage of ultrasonic devices that can prevent the birds from flying into the turbine. The other method is simple planning of wind power generators. In many cases it is not wise to build wind turbines in protected natural habitats with large presence of birds and other animals. Wind power generators will surely find a way to exist in harmony with nature, without any threat to the environment. 

Enjoying the view from wind turbine

Anemometers can optimize wind power plants

Anemometers are small devices that are used to measure the wind speed. They are usually coupled with wind vanes that are used to measure wind direction. What are the main functions of anemometers that make them useful for optimization of wind power plants? Wind power plants need to have information about the speed and direction of wind in order to make predictions of wind speed during certain seasons. The wind mills can be completely automatized by using anemometers coupled with sensors, computers and software. The wind turbines can move in the direction of wind and they can adjust the angle according to the speed of wind. These factors can make it easy to optimize power production in existing power plants, as well as give valuable information for building of new wind mills. 

Anemometers, sensors, wind vanes and computers for optimization of wind turbines