Current Events

Town brought to life by solar-paneled graves


Solar Panels. Image Source.
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Everybody knows about solar panels and how they are found on houses and building to uses the sun's light as power instead of electricity. Well in a town in Spain, just outside Barcelona, called Santa Coloma de Gramenet, solar panels have been built on top of mausoleums in the cemetery.
This project began three years ago and it started working on Wednesday.
The reason why they decided to put the solar panels in a cemetery, was because that the small town are so dense and they had no where to generate it.

The power these 462 solar panels produce enough power for 60 homes, goes to the local energy grid and for use of normal consumption is one of the weird ways this town fights against global warming.

Esteve Serret, a director of the company that runs the cemetery (and know also works in renewable energy) says, "[It's] the best tribute we can pay to our ancestors, whatever your religion may be, is to generate clean energy for new generations. That is our leitmotif."

Some people have disagreed with the idea of putting these solar panels on the remains of so many dead people. However, the excuse was that the panels only take up 5% of the total surface area and will keep about 62 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. I think that the dead people would have agreed too with save the world they had left.

24 Nov 2008 CNN.com

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Deadly flooding leaves thousands homeless in Brazil

Flood affects. Image Source
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A flood in Santa Catarina, Brazil has killed 28 people and left more than 18,000 homeless. the flood affected 1.5 million people and cut off 4 cities from the rest of the nation: Rio dos Cedros, Pomerode, Itapoá and Benedito Novo were the cities. The mayor of Blumenau, Joao Paulo Kleinubing has declared a stare of emergency on Saturday. Aid has been sent to most of the cities and towns to help the now homeless people and only 2 helicopted have been sent to Blumenau to help victims.

23 Nov 2008
CNN.com