climate change - Softonic English

Beat the heat with Sony’s wearable air conditioner

In the future, you can be cool anywhere.

If you haven’t even wanted to step outside this summer, you’re not alone. It was the hottest June in Europe and July was the hottest month ever recorded on the planet.

Mussels are cooking in their shells, Britain had its hottest day on record, and manure is literally exploding and starting wildfires. It’s not a worldwide solution for climate change, but there is a little project in the works that’s aiming to cool you off a little. You might be surprised who’s behind it!

France Eiffel Tower summer heatwave — ‘La chaleur est la morte’ on France’s hottest day.

Sony is mostly known for their electronics, entertainment, and their weird mutual contract with Marvel regarding the rights to Spider-Man. We’ll be honest, we weren’t expecting a heatwave solution to come from them, but we got one, in the form of a wearable air condition chip. That’s right – this techwear slips right into your clothing and lets you cool yourself off on the fly. (It heats up during winter, too!)

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Reon Pocket

The device is called the Reon Pocket and astonishingly has already succeeded in its crowd-funding campaign (probably thanks to this summer’s record temperatures). It’s a lightweight gadget about the size of a credit card and it slips right beneath the collar of your shirt.

From there it’s controlled via an app on your smartphone, and can reportedly lower body temperatures by 30 degrees. Even better, Sony alleges that the Reon Pocket will be sold for about $117, a price we’d be more than happy to pay if the thing works as well as they claim.

Reon Pocket air condition Japan Sony techwear — Slip the device right into the back of your shirt. Control it with an app.

If you’re already getting out your wallet, let us stop you real quick; it’s time for the bad news. To start, the device isn’t available just yet, and likely won’t drop until 2020.

Sony also plans to first launch the product in Japan, so unless you’re planning to get one imported (or you happen to live in Japan!) you’ll have to wait even longer.

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There are also some questions regarding battery life (the Reon Pocket is estimated to last just under two hours), so there are still some kinks to work out before we give the device our recommendation.

Still, the thought of walking outside and being able to adjust how hot it feels on the fly sounds awfully enticing. These days it’s a borderline super power.

For those of us braving the heat every day, 2020 is still a long ways off, but we’ll be keeping tabs on the Reon Pocket so that you don’t have to! Stay cool and stick with Softonic!

Where to find a digital farmers’ almanac

Even farming almanacs have made their way to the digital era.

“Almanac” may seem like an old term, like “atlas.” When you first hear the word, one of the first things that comes to mind is “Back to the Future: Part II.”

However, if the first thought that comes to your mind is incredibly old-looking books like the ones seen above, you’re not wrong! Still, just as we now use updated maps, there are great ways to find a modern farming almanac online.

Before we go on, a quick note: General almanacs are annually published volumes that have information for each day of the year.

The Farmers’ Almanac is also compilations of information organized on a day-to-day basis for the year ahead. However, the facts, tables, and advice are applicable to farming. Also, don’t think you have to own a large plantation to benefit from the information found within. Hobbyist gardeners can put almanacs to good use as well. If nothing else, they make a cool and rustic coffee table book!

So, if you want to find Farmers’ Almanac information online, there are a few ways to do that:

Where to find a digital farming almanac

Websites

Old Farmer’s Almanac

“The Old Farmers Almanac” is a classic. Founded in 1792, it continues to lead the farming almanac industry. Holding to the words of its creator, Robert B. Thomas: “Our main endeavor is to be useful, but with a pleasant degree of humor.”

Their information focuses on three things: planting guides, cooking recipes, and weather charts for the coming year. You might be surprised to know they have a number of unusual metrics. For example, they use the hardness of apples to tell how cold winter will be. They pride themselves on using tried-and-tested common sense methods to determine the outlook of next year’s weather.

As time went on, the OFA added modern aspects and created a website. The website includes articles, new products and more, in addition to their almanac. Still, you can use their almanac online for the usual reasons or buy a physical copy if you wish!

Interesting note: of all the almanacs here, they also have the best YouTube channel, with over 6,000 subscribers. Quite a count for an almanac!

Farmers’ Almanac

“Farmers’ Almanac” attempts to improve on the formula with even more online assets. In addition to their almanac, they have a promotional almanac for businesses, online edition, and E-newsletter for those that want to stay in the know via email.

Like “The Old Farmer’s Almanac,” they’ve also begun writing interesting articles that you might just find interesting. A recent publication on lunar rainbows caught our eyes in particular. How cool!

The real question is: which should you choose? Frankly, they both have great strengths, though we do lean toward the classic “The Old Farmer’s Almanac.” Still, these two venerable businesses have separate viewpoints, different styles, and various design aspects. We suggest visiting each and determining whether one works for you personally. Enjoy!

An App Option

Moon and Garden

Moon and Garden is the go-to app for planting cycles on both the Apple and Google Play Store.

Unlike a full farming almanac, you won’t have the full benefit of recipes, advice, and articles for each day of the year.

However, you will have an app that helps you schedule cycles for your organic garden and make plans for its maintenance. Yes, it’s not an almanac, but it can be a wonderfully simple tool for small-time gardeners looking to better organize their time. Give it a shot!

Moon and Garden Download now ►

Wrapping up

Once again, there are more reasons than one to try a farming almanac. Whether you pick it up for gardening advice, weather information, recipe suggestions, a bomb-tastic coffee table book, or an interesting source of agricultural articles, you can’t go wrong!

5 apps to help you reduce your carbon footprint

With the ever-present threat of climate change, here are some things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.

Sometimes we need a kick in the pants to inspire us to do more to save the planet. Sadly, sometimes it can be something like a clip from “Our Planet,” a new Netflix documentary series.

The clip below shows a walrus trying to climb a cliff to reach other walruses. The walruses don’t have much ice to live on anymore, so it has to settle for the cliffs. Viewer discretion is advised for this video:

Whether you consider yourself an environmentalist or not, we can all agree that we want to keep the planet healthy. Unfortunately, parts of our day-to-day lives have negative repercussions to our climate.

We compiled a list of some of our favorite apps that can help you reduce your carbon footprint and more.

JouleBug

It’s sometimes hard to know where to start when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint. Most of us know that recycling and car-pooling are good options, but where do you go from there?

JouleBug offers different tips and tricks on how you can form more sustainable habits and better utilize resources.

You can also track your results to see the impact you’ve made to your carbon footprint and the money you’ve saved.

JouleBug Download today ►

CleanSpace

You’re in your car out for a drive when suddenly a smell slaps you in the face. As you pass a refinery, you now have to deal with breathing in noxious fumes.

CleanSpace lets you know the amount of pollution in the air, whether you’re indoors or outdoors. It will also show you the best route to take in order to avoid highly polluted areas.

Where the app truly helps the planet is by showing you the amount of pollutants you are adding to the air from your own commute.

CleanSpace Download today ►

HappyCow

If you’re looking for eco-friendly food, finding a restaurant or store that vegan options can be difficult. HappyCow alleviates that burden by finding them for you.

Whether you’re looking for a quick fast-food meal or if you need a hotel with vegan accommodations, HappyCow is there for you.

HappyCow is essentially the Yelp of the vegan community. You can leave your own reviews and tips for the next patron to better their experience. The app also helps you plan your diet or weight-loss journey.

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Carbon Footprint Calculator

From your home’s central heating to the emissions from your car, you are producing a lot of carbon dioxide. The problem is that it’s hard to tell just how much.

Enter the Carbon Footprint Calculator app. Through this app, you enter your information to determine your carbon output. You enter info like what kind of car you drive, how often you drive it, and information on how much you spend on heating.

The app also sets goals for you to reach as well as tips to reduce your carbon footprint. Tips can be as simple as making sure your lights are turned off.

Carbon Footprint Calculator Download Free ►

PaperKarma

Wanna know what’s cool? Saving the planet. Wanna know what’s also cool? No longer getting junk mail.

Every year 85 billion pieces of junk mail end up in landfills across the country. PaperKarma offers the solution to lighten the load so you can stop getting unwanted junk mail.

Simply snap a picture of the mail and PaperKarma will automatically get you off that company’s mailing list.

PaperKarma can stop magazines, fake offers, catalogs, and even the Yellow Pages from showing up in your mailbox.

Say goodbye to unwanted credit card offers, and hello to your empty trash bin.

PaperKarma Clear out your junk today ►

Wrapping up

If you are looking for more information about climate change and what you can do, we have the solution. Click here to see our solutions for reinforcing good habits on climate change.

The fight against climate change is ongoing, and it needs your support. Using these apps can give you a leg-up, as well as help with your own personal self-improvement.

Fight back against climate change by switching your search engine

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Fight back against climate change by switching your search engine

The more you use this search engine, the more trees are planted.

Read literally any article about climate change and you’re bound to get a lump in your throat. The oceans are rising. All the insects could be dead within 100 years. Storms are getting more powerful and more frequent. Heatwaves and wildfires are a growing threat. We allegedly have 11 years left to prevent a point of no return.

(Deep breath.)

It’s sometimes so scary and overwhelming that we feel like there’s nothing we can do. It’s not like you’re going to step away from your phone and start revitalizing nature. But you can revitalize nature from your phone. Here’s how.

The next time you need to search for something, use Ecosia.

“But my Googles!” you scream.

Hold on.

Ecosia is a search engine that does a lot of good.

1. They publish their monthly financial reports, so you can see where all their money goes.

2. Every 50 searches made on Ecosia creates enough revenue to plant a tree. That means that if everyone stopped using Google and started using Ecosia, we’d end up with enough trees to absorb 15 percent of global CO2 emissions. Ecosia’s servers also run on completely renewable energy.

3. Your searches are encrypted and they won’t sell your information to advertisers.

We get it. Climate change feels like this terrifying threat beyond our power to stop. But the more we can choose sustainable alternatives and proactive companies to help make our world greener, the better we’ll be. Lots of little changes can add up to something incredible. Click here to learn more about Ecosia.

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It can feel like a dark moment in our planet’s history. But we believe better times are coming. Our new mini-documentary is coming soon. #50MillionTrees

A post shared by Ecosia (@ecosia) on Feb 11, 2019 at 3:49am PST

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