Group items tagged

Apple prohibits practices that threaten the rights of workers - even when local laws and customs permit such practices. We've taken action toward ending excessive recruitment fees, preventing the hiring of underage workers, and prohibiting discriminatory policies at our suppliers. There's still work to be done, but we're encouraged by the progress we've made thus far. Refer to the chart below to learn more.

Four robots have set out on an epic 33,000 nautical mile (66,000km) journey across the Pacific Ocean. Created by US firm Liquid Robotics, the four are aiming to set the record for the longest distance at sea travelled by an unmanned craft. Throughout their journey the robots will gather lots of data about the composition and quality of sea water.

First presented at the Google Efficient Data Centers Summit, hosted at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA on April 1, 2009.

"With oil from BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig continuing to spew into the Gulf of Mexico researchers from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have produced an animated computer simulation that shows the potential spread of the oil over a period of 360 days from when the spill started. To calculate the particle dispersal the researchers used ocean flow data from simulations conducted with the high-resolution Ocean General Circulation Model for the Earth Simulator (OFES)."

Lots of resources on Green ICT, mostly pdfs. Useful for background.

Interactive educational site that offers activities, explanations, and links regarding satellite tracking of tagged whales. Lots of useful material

The history of weather forecasting and early satellite programmes is told using archive film, highlighting the difficulties associated with a lack of weather data. 200 dedicated weather satellites have been launched since the 1960's. Together, these satellites enable us to monitor every weather system around the world and to see the weather as it approaches. Interview with meteorologist Ewen McCallam who is using a sequence of satellite images to identify a warm front, he goes on to describe how geostationary and polar orbiting satellites are used. Weather prediction can save lives, especially in tropical regions as information from satellites is used to track hurricanes as they develop. Computer models are shown following a storm over Africa developing into a hurricane over the Caribbean.

Short but interesting article about the environment impact of data centres, particularly those used by large search engines.

"The UK may have become dangerously over-reliant on satellite-navigation signals, according to a report from the Royal Academy of Engineering."