Design & Architecture

George Monbiot is beside himself. He writes in his post Death Denial: "There is no point in denying it: we're losing. Climate change denial is spreading like a contagious disease. It exists in a sphere which cannot be reached by evidence or reasoned argument; any attempt to draw attention to scientific findings is greeted with furious invective. This sphere is expanding with astonishing speed."

The editor of a reputable Architect's website asks "As global temperatures fail to warm, is the heat going out of climate change?" and twitters ""Basically believing in man made climate change is a bit like hoping that fairies live at the bottom of the garden."

Fortunately, among the people who pay the architects, opinions are going the other way. Siemens Building Technology commissioned a study by McGraw Hill and found that there is a growing concern among the senior executives of big corporations about about energy, waste and generally going green.

TH Exclusives

From the 35-mile long volcanic rift in the Ethiopian desert that has been confirmed as the beginning of a new sea to the news that oil continues to gush into the Timor Sea--at an estimated rate of somewhere between 400 and 2,000 barrels per day--from an oil rig off the NW coast of Australia, a lot happened this week in green. We took a tour of Paris Hilton's $325,000 dog mansion--complete with air-conditioning and designer furniture--and saw spooky photos of Readers' Green Halloweens. Find out what else happened in the world of green this week in our photo roundup of most popular, most important, and most oddball stories.

Interact

Image Credit: St0rmz via Flickr

TreeHuggerForever wants to know:

Does anybody know where I can find recycled Christmas cards? I don't want to order online, I would like to get them local. Any big retailer will do. Target had a few but they were kind of old fashioned. Any other stores? I don't really have time to make my own...

Have suggestions? Post here.

Interact

Image Credit: °Florian via Flickr

environmental wakko writes:

Considering getting one of these but I have a few questions:
1) Would they cause less pollution to heat a room compared to heating with electricity (coal fired power plant).
2) I heard these require electricity to work. About how many Watts, or kWh per hour?
3) Is pellet supply really a big concern? I'm in Florida, if that makes a difference.
4) Can the exhaust go right up an existing chimney?

Any other things I should know or keep in mind?

Business & Politics

Americans Against Food Taxes

It didn't take long. Shortly after several leading health researchers published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine calling for a tax on sugar sweetened beverages as a means of stemming American obesity, an immense lobbying effort to defeat the measure began in Washington and around the country. As is often the case, corporate speech is again being camouflaged as individual angst.

Business & Politics

The site of the London Olympics is just one example of a plan to improve a city through retrofitting and connecting. Artist's impression via London 2012.

Dense urban centers are good; sprawling suburbs are bad. Put in the simplest terms, that's what the conventional environmental wisdom tells us. But sometimes spreading out a little is just what a big city needs.

Culture & Celebrity

Image: TradeMe

Bullshit Bust Pokes Kiwi Minister
A manure sculpture of New Zealand agricultural minister Nick Smith has sold on the Kiwi auction site TradeMe. The sculpture by artist Sam Mahon, who traditionally works in bronze, immortalizes Mahon's opinion that Nick Smith has not taken sufficient action to protect New Zealand waters from pollution by agricultural run-off. How much would you pay for such a masterpiece?

Food & Health

Image credit: FOE

From Meatless Mondays to Weekday Vegetarianism to going raw food vegan to adopting the 100-Mile Diet, there are plenty of individual actions we can take to reduce the impact of our meals. But personal action is not enough, and with the complex, interrelated clusterf**k that our food system has become, individuals can feel powerless to make positive change on a systemic level. Luckily, a new campaign from Friends of the Ewrth UK is connecting the dots for you.