- Emily Pilloton Discusses the Hippo Roller and other Designs for Humanity (Part One)
- Janine Benyus on Biomimicry in Design (Part Two)
- Janine Benyus on Biomimicry in Design (Part One)
- Andy Revkin - Climate in the Obama Age
- Fred Pearce - Confessions of An Eco-Sinner (Part Two)
- Fred Pearce - Confessions of An Eco-Sinner (Part One)
- Chris Goodall - Ten Techs to Save Our Butts (Part Two)
- Chris Goodall - Ten Techs to Save Our Butts (Part One)
Entries for February 25, 2007 - March 3, 2007
Total this week: 158
RATE THIS VID!: Going In Circles
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 3.07
Looking to stop climate change? Watch and follow in the carbon-free footprints of TreeHugger and Seventh Generation’s contest entrants. Vote on this video and the others like it by March 16th. Remember to give higher ratings to the most practical and helpful videos. Need more solutions? Sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter....
RATE THIS VID!: DREAM Big
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 3.07
Looking for a good fight? No need for a drunken brawl! Watch how TreeHugger and Seventh Generation’s contest entrants tackle climate change. Who do you think deserves to win? Vote on this video and the others like it. Fortify your green and sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter....
RATE THIS VID!: Scotty P's Convenient Truths
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 3.07
Who needs Sundance? TreeHugger and Seventh Generation have brought you your own little private eco-film fest. Sit back, relax, and take in the green. Just don’t forget to hone that artsy eye of yours and vote on the others before March 16th! Hoping to bring home some swag? Consider signing up for our daily or weekly newsletter. ...
RATE THIS VID!: A Terrible Pickle
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 3.07
Seventh Generation and TreeHugger turned to you for solutions, and now we’re turning to you again for your trusty opinion on green. Vote today, and tell us whether this video solution to climate change and the others inspire you. While you’re at it, keep your inspiration at an all-time high by signing up for our daily or weekly newsletter....
RATE THIS VID!: Peace Corps Experience in Guatemala
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 3.07
RATE THIS VID!: The Man Who Planted Trees
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 3.07
The polls are open, folks, but only until March 16th. Kick back with some locally brewed beer or some organic pop corn and watch and rate this video and the smorgasbord of Convenient Truths entries on the contest site, truths.treehugger.com. These green videos are a just a taste. Continue to satiate your appetite for solutions to climate change by subscribing to our daily or weekly newsletter or checking out Seventh Generation’s Inspired Protagonist blog!...
domino & TreeHugger's Green List: Louisa Shafia
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03. 3.07
The last installment of domino's Green List takes a peek at the green life of health foodie Louisa Shafia. She owns a New York catering business Lucid Food, specializing in natural fare, and stocked domino's pantry with sweet, savory and a recipe for a delightful olive tapenade. She's a big fan of raw sugar: "it has a rich molasses flavor, dark and spicy, with notes of clove and nutmeg"; sweet syrup: "the agave plant's nectar is a wonderful sugar substitute. Plus, it's absorbed into the bloodstream more slowly, so there's no sugar crash"; and fresh almonds: "I puree them with olive oil and a little salt to make almond butter and slather it on apple slices to satisfy a sugar craving." She also uses seaweed sheets for lots of non-sushi related things ("You can roll up almost anything in seaweed"), likes a dash of hemp ("Think of hemp seeds as nuts. They're superhigh in protein and give flavor and crunch to salads.") and the sweetness of wild honey ("Because it balances the acidity of vinegar, honey is wonderful for sweetening a salad dressing.") Her recipe for olive tapenade also sounds delicious; hit dominomag.com for more details and flip your magazine to page 64 for the full details. ::domino's Green List: Louisa Shafia's Green Life
That's the last of the list; see all the entries together at our Green List page, or click the "Domino Magazine" tag below to see all the entries separately....
Watch Their Backs - Lobbyists Are At The Public Trough Again
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03. 3.07
Via: Seattle Post Intelligencer: - Washington DC USA -- "Mayor Greg Nickels told a Senate committee Thursday that state and local governments are leading the fight against global warming, and he warned Congress against reining in local efforts that are under way across the nation..."We are not just signing a piece of paper," Nickels told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. We are making tough choices. We are investing our taxpayers' money. We are transforming our cities into laboratories for climate protection. In short, we are making a difference, and laying the groundwork for strong federal policies and programs."" At the Federal level, there is reason for concern that local initiatives will be over-ridden by Federal mandate, driven by special interest lobbying. For example, via Christian Science Monitor, "The National Mining Association has ramped up Capitol Hill lobbying, creating a new coalition and website, futurecoalfuels.org. Many in Washington are warming to the idea. CTL [coal to liquid] bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate have received strong backing". Image credit: Mayor Nickels Sustainable Industries Journal...
The Denial Industry: How The Culture War over Climate Started
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 3.07
Global warming is controversial in the States, but when I did my little post on George Bush's house in Texas, I had no idea that I would be dropped into the middle of a culture war. How did global warming become such a political battleground? I watched an episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp's Fifth Estate on the Denial Machine- how the American PR firms helped frame the debate for the big oil companies. It starts with Frank Luntz, consultant to the Republican party, who developed the strategy to say 'there is no sound science, so why spend the money?" or "American business and know-how will find a technical solution" It is forty minutes of riveting information overload on the business of being a climate skeptic. Remarkably, Luntz has had his own reconsideration of the issue and now says:
"If you really care about global warming, take it out of the political sphere. Take it out of trying to beat each other over the head and be honest. Do not yell, focus on solutions that will actually make a difference. Not everything in life is about politics." Watch ::The fifth estate (little red icon on the right after you link) ...
Survey: Do you Stand In Front of the Microwave?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 3.07
The tinfoil hat brigade was out in force after Helen Suh MacIntosh's answer to the question of whether standing near microwaves was safe. I personally use a cell phone and have a digital clock beside my bed, but always told the kids not to look through the window when nuking the gruel. There clearly are degrees, as we have seen in our discussions about Lakehead University and EHS.
...
London Electric Car Company Collaborates with Top Designers
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 03. 3.07
We Treehuggers like fashion and design, and we like electric cars, so we love it when the two come together. GoinGreen, the company that created the UK’s electric car market, and that we covered here and here, has teamed up with London design duo Eley Kishimoto to produce a limited edition G-Wiz electric car:
“The iconic G-Wiz has been wrapped with Eley Kishimoto’s signature ‘flash’ print and is available in three colourways; black/white, blue/white and red/white, with corresponding bumpers. Only 10 cars per colour will be available to order and each will be numbered and signed by Eley Kishimoto.”...
Migros: First Supermarket with 100% LED Lighting
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 03. 3.07
The Migros Supermarket in Eschenbach, Switzerland, sets an LED milestone by switching to 100% LED lighting throughout the entire store--in the refrigerated compartments, overhead, and accenting the selection of products on offer. This project demonstrates once again the ecological superiority of the LED technology. Migros expects to sink energy use 80%, including lower air conditioning costs due to the low waste heat generation of light emitting diodes. "How many Migros technicians does it take to change a light bulb?" None for the next 16 years! That's 50,000 hours of light, compared to 1,000 hours for an old-fashioned filament lightbulb. In addition to the waste reduction achieved by this long life-span, LEDs do not use harmful mercury nor lead. And there is one last, perhaps less obvious, advantage to LED lighting in a supermarket: LEDs emit no ultraviolet nor infrared light, minimizing spoilage of foodstuffs. According to the Osram case study: "Among light experts worldwide, the project is regarded as being unique, and blazes the trail into the LED future."...
RATE THIS VID!: The Power Of Straw
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 3.07
Looking to stop climate change? Watch and follow in the carbon-free footprints of TreeHugger and Seventh Generation’s contest entrants. Vote on this video and the others like it by March 16th. Remember to give higher ratings to the most practical and helpful videos. Need more solutions? Sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter....
RATE THIS VID!: Work Harder
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 2.07
Looking for a good fight? No need for a drunken brawl! Watch how TreeHugger and Seventh Generation’s contest entrants tackle climate change. Who do you think deserves to win? Vote on this video and the others like it. Fortify your green and sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter....
RATE THIS VID!: Worm Poop - The Other "Black Gold"
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 2.07
Who needs Sundance? TreeHugger and Seventh Generation have brought you your own little private eco-film fest. Sit back, relax, and take in the green. Just don’t forget to hone that artsy eye of yours and vote on the others before March 16th! Hoping to bring home some swag? Consider signing up for our daily or weekly newsletter. ...
TreeHugger Radio: Is this the Real Thing? Wal-Mart’s Roadmap to Sustainability
by Team Treehugger, Worldwide on 03. 2.07
Last week we heard from Wal-Mart’s perspective on the company’s green endeavors. Less packaging and fossil fuel, more organic food and green stores, and about a billion fluorescent light bulbs are all part of the giant’s plan. This week, Simran Sethi goes deeper with Andy Ruben, Wal-Mart’s vice president for corporate strategy and sustainability, to see how the mega-retailer views its role as a company with a mission. TreeHugger Radio can be heard on EcoTalk each Friday. To podcast TreeHugger Radio, pop this feed into your iTunes, or visit the iTunes podcast directory. (click here to listen or right-click to download) ::TreeHugger Radio ...
RATE THIS VID!: What Can Regular People Do About Global Warming?
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 2.07
Seventh Generation and TreeHugger turned to you for solutions, and now we’re turning to you again for your trusty opinion on green. Vote today, and tell us whether this video solution to climate change and the others inspire you. While you’re at it, keep your inspiration at an all-time high by signing up for our daily or weekly newsletter....
RATE THIS VID!: What Can I Do?
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 2.07
Books: What the TreeHugger Team is Reading!
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 03. 2.07
Last September we did a post about what we were reading (green-related or not) and we thought it was quite a fun exercise, so here is the second edition. Please let us know about the books that you are reading in the comments....
RATE THIS VID!: Team Denim At The 2006 Tour de Sol
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 2.07
The polls are open, folks, but only until March 16th. Kick back with some locally brewed beer or some organic pop corn and watch and rate this video and the smorgasbord of Convenient Truths entries on the contest site, truths.treehugger.com. These green videos are a just a taste. Continue to satiate your appetite for solutions to climate change by subscribing to our daily or weekly newsletter or checking out Seventh Generation’s Inspired Protagonist blog!...
Freshtopia Hiatus – Get well soon Oscar Grimm
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 03. 2.07
Long Trail Brewery, Bridgewater Corners, VT
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 03. 2.07
I turned on my computer today with a thought in mind as to what I was going to write about. It just so happens that I’m in Vermont (where it is dumping snow!) and at Long Trail Brewery, the only place I can seem to pick up internet service. As I ordered my beer I noticed their fact sheet that adorns each table describing their “Commitment to Environmental Consciousness.” Well isn’t this perfect… ...
The TH Interview: Tom Arnold of TerraPass On The Future Of Carbon Offsets
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03. 2.07
TreeHugger arranged this interview with TerraPass representative Tom Arnold during recent blog-roversies over the usefulness of carbon “offsetting:" a controversy that will likely continue, reflecting the difficulty, we think, of explaining the complexities in sound bytes and blog chunks. We completed our discussion with Tom following Al Gore’s 2007 Oscar Award; a period during which cable-TV talk show host Glen Beck also interviewed Tom Arnold live, as discussed here. TerraPass provided the carbon offsets for all Oscar ceremony participants, as explained here. With no further ado, here is Tom Arnold, Chief Environmental Officer, TerraPass....
TreeHugger Welcomes Writer Summer Bowen!
by Summer Bowen, Santa Monica, California on 03. 2.07
BASF Goes Platinum With "Near-Zero Energy Home"
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 03. 2.07
BASF unveiled this impressive "Near-Zero Energy Home" recently. The home has three systems (solar, air conditioning, building envelope) integrated together to make it 80% more efficient than a typical home. It was selected by the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) pilot testing for the recently launched Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes (LEED-H) rating system. The BASF home earned a Platinum certification. It's located in Paterson, New Jersey, and it will serve as a template for a project to build over 3,000 affordable housing units in Paterson. :: BASF via Jetson Green...
TreeHugger Picks: Wonderful World of Wool
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03. 2.07
Perhaps best known for making sweaters and socks, wool (and felted wool) is a wonderfully versatile material that can not only dress you from head to toe, but help light the room, store your stuff and provide a soft place to walk, and it's renewable and biodegradable to boot. Here are some of our picks that showcase some of the things available in the wonderful world of wool.
1) Conphorm bags saves space and resources with help from an ingenious design; Carabags are another good recycled wool choice for bags.
2) Mioculture's pendant light capsules make use of two felt shades and a fluorescent light bulb to create a gentle, subtle light.
3) Stuffbump, designed by Graham Hill and eco-designer extraordinaire (and TH contributor) Petz Scholtus, is a fun, felt storage system which, using a clever die cut pattern, allows a flat piece of material to be opened up and stuffed with small belongings, thus becoming a bump.
4) Sage, by Delano Collection features a coat created with a 100% organic wool shell and a lining made of bamboo fabric.
5) Emma Gardner has designed some beautiful wool rugs which were made under the labor guidelines of the RUGMARK Foundation, insuring no illegal child labor was used to make them....
The Giant Resource Grab
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 03. 2.07
Remember that scene in Titanic where Cal tries to bribe Murdoch to get a seat on one of the lifeboats? Murdoch throws the cash back at him, telling Cal that "it can't save you, anymore than it can save me." The scene is indicative of market dynamics when resources run short. In these situations money no longer matters, it's only access to the resource that counts.
We are seeing all sorts of resource grabs throughout the world. Russia grabbed the gas, and is going after the nickel. China is going after Tibet's copper, lead, iron, and zinc. And Nigeria is open for business, inviting hordes of international speculators to develop their abundant minerals. Of course, the US seems to have an obsession with a black goo.
Information technology is a resource intensive industry. It requires loads of energy to run, and lots of raw materials, particularly metals, to make cellphones, computers, what have you. Some of these materials are running a little short. For example, columbite-tantalite, a metallic ore used to create capacitors for electronic equipment, is in pretty short supply. A lot of it came from the Congo, where it fuelled a bloody civil war that left 3 million dead. Egypt is now a supplier as well, but there is less and less to go around....
It Generates. It Internets. It Cools and Refreshes.
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 2.07
This has something for everyone. For the prefab fans, it folds out of a shipping container. For the alt energy types, it has a thousand square feet of photovoltaics and can pump out 16 KW without the optional turbine. For the computer nerds, it has a communications control center with "full range of wireless VSAT, VOIP and wireless communications capable of handling thousands of phone calls and offering wireless connectivity for a range of up to 30 miles." When shipped for disaster relief, it uses the electricity to filter 30 gallons per minute of contaminated ground water to WHO standards for drinking.
...
Greening Young Minds Through Earth Jams
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 03. 2.07
One man, a guitar, and a plan… That best summarizes singer/songwriter and environmentalist Matt Loosigian. He’s come up with a plan to reach minds that might otherwise not be exposed to the whole green concept by reaching out to them through music. Essentially, Matt’s "Earth Jams" are a one-man musical show, based in Maine, and dedicated to teaching peace, compassion and environmental justice by creating and singing songs with kids. It works so well because music can be such a powerful teaching tool when tunes stick in their heads long after they've left the classroom. As Matt points out, “the kids have such a great time singing and clapping along, but when they go home they realize they’ve learned something valuable.” And valuable indeed through songs like “Energy Detective”, that helps kids understand that there are lots of ways to conserve energy, by doing things like taking a shorter shower that can make a huge difference. “Turn Off the Lights” is a bluesy song that reminds kids to flip the switch when they leave the room. With kids across the state of Maine learning to be green through music, it sounds like Matt is a great example of one man making a difference to change the world…...
The Un-Friendly IKEA in Israel
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv on 03. 2.07
Finally. IKEA is charging customers for those gigantic plastic bags that no one really needs except for the moments when we wheel our stuff from the curb to the car and then haul it up the stairs. But not in Israel. Here the 5 cent charge doesn't and won't apply to IKEA Israel shoppers no matter how good are IKEA's intentions or PR campaigns. We reckon that the Israeli marketing advisors said no dice over charging for the bags. And that's exactly what we found when we read this Globes story. Shlomo Gabay, the GM for the company said, “The company’s policy in Israel is to provide the plastic bags as a customer service at no charge. IKEA does many things for the environment. Our contributions are not made at the customer’s expense, but through our insistence on using recyclable materials. We’re also careful to work with organizations that reflect a policy of protecting the environment, and when we want to give money, we know how to do it quietly.” Okay folks – Israelis plastic bag everything. Once the bags are used, they are tossed, sent to the landfill or blow into the sea. But if IKEA Israel believes they can be recycled, then more power to the company. Mr. Gabay – care to let concerned TreeHuggers everywhere know how this is possible when no nation-wide recycling program exists in Israel? ::Globes
...
Reusable Scrubs - Polyester Funk in the Operating Room!
by Jenna Watson, Barcelona on 03. 2.07
Industrial laundering of surgical gowns has proven its environmental value according to a study carried out for the European Textile Services Association. The independent organization, dk-Teknik Energy & Environment, in Denmark carried out an LCA of 5 types of surgical gowns – 3 reusable gowns and 2 disposable options. The 100% polyester (microfibre) even with its fluorocarbon finish came out on top, outranking all other options including the 50/50 cotton/polyester mix. Reusable gowns clearly showed lower impacts than their disposable counterparts even when they compared the “best case” for disposables and the “worst case” for reusables. A summary of the study is apparently available in English but the link doesn’t work and the full LCA is only available in Swedish. So we’ll have to trust the short summary available here. The LCA follows ISO standards and examined energy consumption, global warming, acidification (of water and soil), eutrophication (nutrient discharges to water) and post-consumer waste. So for all of those surgeons reading TH (we hope you are many) – make sure your employer is keeping those hospital greens greener. ...
The End of More and Better: Mother Jones, March-April
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 03. 2.07
While the bright yellow cover art and the title "The Iraq Handbook for Dummies" will have readers of the latest issue of Mother Jones turning pages towards the article that promises "Everything you need to know about Iraq but are afraid to ask," Treehuggers are bound to get distracted along the way by Bill McKibben's feature article, "Reversal of Fortune." Drawing from his forthcoming book Deep Economy, McKibben challenges one of the fundamental tenets of modern economics: growth is necessary and good. We'd expect a healthy dose of environmental evidence from McKibben on this topic, and the article doesn't disappoint in this regard. Ecological issues are only one part of a larger look at contemporary "civilized" existence, though, that struggles with the question "If we're so rich, how come we're so damn miserable?"
Other features this time around include a profile of teenage video blogger and activist Ava Lowery, a look inside Ave Maria University, a new, ultra-orthodox Catholic college started by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, and a revelation of the biggest challenge facing the newspaper industry (and, no, it's not the Internet). Regular departments consider e-waste and built-in obsolescence, and pay a visit to a "born-again" abortion clinic. As always, Mojo is fresh, eclectic, and thorough. Pick up a copy, or part with a mere $10 for a subscription. ::Mother Jones, March-April 2007...
IDS07: Up to You
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 2.07
We were surprised to find a retailer with a booth at the Interior Design Show but Up to You is no ordinary retailer. It is in a second floor apartment in an old building- "Upon entrance this concept shop appears to be the living quarters of a young professional making their way in the world. Immediately you are taken into a voyeuristic paradise where incense fills the air and an unlikely mashing of Shakespearean theater and popular music delights the ears." And this young professional appears to be a TreeHugger type, (or at least a fan of Charles Jencks and Adhocism) having things like this fruit bowl that you essentially make yourself from the netting wrapping bag that the fruit comes in- a zero-waste solution! "the structure of the fruit bowl is provided for you and all you have to do is fill in the rest."...
domino & TreeHugger's Green List: Food
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03. 2.07
As TreeHugger has noted time and again, it would be far preferable if we could all saunter out our front doors, head down the street and pick up delicious, fresh, local organic food from a farmer's market or local co-op each day or each week; unfortunately, we all can't do that, an idea not lost on domino's Green List selections for food. We worked to find flavorful solutions for going organic that everyone (or nearly everyone) can choose; sources like organic produce from Diamond Organics, meat from Niman Ranch and Horizon's butter. To drink, we focused on beverages you can get just about anywhere, like Stonyfield milk, Peace Coffee's java, Mighty Leaf tea, Square One organic vodka and vino from the Organic Wine Company. Bread, especially the organic variety, is best enjoyed when its fresh from the oven, so we came up with a list of local bakeries that are favorites in their cities (and recommend you do the same). We know the best thing to do is shop from your local farmers market or other local foodshed supply; when you can't do that, we think these are pretty good options. There's more at dominomag.com and pages 62-63 of the print mag. Only one more day to go; tomorrow, a look at a New York caterer keeping things green. ::domino's Green List: Food...
Come Up to My Room
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 2.07
We attended the alternative design event 'Come Up to My Room" at the Gladstone Hotel (and showed Castor's lighting display earlier) but had to wait until Mocoloco's Harry Wakefield posted it because he really takes a fine photograph.
Shawn Moore and Julie Nicholson are MADE, a new store in Toronto that highlights their own work and those of other artists. They take that common building block of every pre-IKEA student apartment, the milk crate, and upcycle it into an entire line of furniture, including this chandelier, footstools and desks. Milk crates are "a mass-produced item whose ubiquitous design offers many variations in colour and patterning" Incomprehensible Flash website of the day at ::Made...
Second Green Drinks Buenos Aires!
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 03. 2.07
The 2nd edition of the Argentinean Green Drinks is set for next Wednesday, March 7th from 8 to 9.30pm. We’re defining the place, but we assume it will be in an Irish pub located in Retiro, the center of the city. Our first gathering was last February 2nd, and we got to 18 people from Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, and the USA, among others. To those who aren’t familiar with the concept, Green Drinks is an informal meeting to get in touch with people interested in or related to environmental issues. If you want to know more or want to attend, please e-mail us at paula at treehugger dot com. See you next Wednesday!
(Picture: Floralis Generica, Recoleta, Buenos Aires)...
Chuck Trash Talks Ronald, Gets in Trouble
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 2.07
Prince Charles was talking to a nutritionist in a diabetes treatment centre in Abu Dhabi discussing childhood obesity and said "“Have you got anywhere with McDonald’s? Have you tried getting it banned? That is the key.”
Whenever HRH says anything the British press responds with humour and grace- The Mirror told him to "Burger off" and the Times pointed out that his own "Duchy Originals organic Cornish pasty has 264 calories per 100g, and a Big Mac only 229 calories; a Duchy Originals pasty has 5.5g of saturated fat, a Big Mac just 4.17g." and "There aren’t many people who can manage to be a loudmouth, a danger to the constitution and a buffoon all at the same time."
However perhaps the Manchester Evening News got it right: " The only way we'll start to crack the horror of lives stunted by the ill health caused by poor nutrition is with a cultural mindchange to stop considering a lard-laden snack as a treat or a reward. Coming on the same day as a study discovered that children believe cows lay eggs, surely McDs, KFC and all the rest have a role to play in that. "
...
Love Your Bike
by Bonnie Alter, London on 03. 2.07
Love Your Bike is a campaign set up by Manchester City Council and Friends of the Earth to encourage bicycle riding. Its inter-active website serves as a comprehensive directory to every aspect of bicycle riding in Manchester, England. The colourful site includes information on where to ride, where to buy, health tips, surveys and videos. The Council has arranged a discount on the purchase of new bicycles and they are selling those green fluorescent jackets with the campaign logo on the back—very fetching. There is a fascinating inter-active map that shows good routes, bad routes and even potholes to avoid. An excellent diagram shows the names of all the parts of the bike—always useful when trying to describe that missing part. Some fascinating facts about the benefits of cycling: Cycling at least 20 miles a week reduces the risk of heart disease to less than half that for non-cyclists who take no other exercise. A 15-minute bike ride to and from work five times a week burns off the equivalent of 11 pounds of fat in a year. The average UK resident spends approximately 9 days every year in a car. Regular cyclists enjoy a fitness level equal to that of a person 10 years younger. :: Love Your Bike...
Theodore Roosevelt IV to Head Lehman Brothers’ 'Global Council on Climate Change'
by Eric Kane, New York, NY on 03. 2.07
During the last week, we reported on efforts to address climate change in the electric utility and film industries. On Wednesday, the financial sector entered the fray with an announcement by Lehman Brothers. The investment bank appointed Theodore Roosevelt IV to head a new effort to address the challenges of global warming. The great-grandson of the US president will be chairman of Lehman Brothers’ Global Council on Climate Change. Roosevelt enters the position with significant experience in the environmental arena. He is chairman of the Pew Center for Global Climate Change and co-chair of the Alliance for Climate Protection. Lehman Brothers is certainly not the first investment bank to address climate change, but this decision does signify the growing momentum towards climate protection. The only question that remains is: why haven’t other firms followed suit?...
Greenline Paper: "America's Green Office Supply"
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 03. 2.07
It seems hard to believe that we have somehow not covered Greenline Paper before here on Treehugger, but a search of the site would appear to confirm this oversight. Based in York, PA, Greenline markets itself as “America’s Green Office Supply”. Not only do these guys provide more sustainable options for office paper, note pads, and filing supplies, but they also supply office essentials such as tissues and towels, and organic and fair trade coffee and tea. They even stock biodegradable tableware. So, apologies to Greenline that we didn’t get to you sooner, but better late than never....
Survey: Should Incandescent Bulbs be Banned?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 2.07
Cities, states and entire nations are talking about banning incandescent lamps to save energy. Others, to paraphrase Pierre Trudeau, say that the government has no place in the light sockets of the nation. Others note that if every bulb in America was changed, enough energy would be saved to power three cities the size of New York. It is a controversial subject- read the comments here and here to our earlier posts on this. We did a poll on whether you should have them before; Where do you stand on banning them?
...
RATE THIS VID!: Save Energy, Need Less
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 1.07
Looking to stop climate change? Watch and follow in the carbon-free footprints of TreeHugger and Seventh Generation’s contest entrants. Vote on this video and the others like it by March 16th. Remember to give higher ratings to the most practical and helpful videos. Need more solutions? Sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter....
RATE THIS VID!: Recycle America, Close The Loop
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 1.07
Looking for a good fight? No need for a drunken brawl! Watch how TreeHugger and Seventh Generation’s contest entrants tackle climate change. Who do you think deserves to win? Vote on this video and the others like it. Fortify your green and sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter....
RATE THIS VID!: A Kid, A Car, And An Idea
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 1.07
Who needs Sundance? TreeHugger and Seventh Generation have brought you your own little private eco-film fest. Sit back, relax, and take in the green. Just don’t forget to hone that artsy eye of yours and vote on the others before March 16th! Hoping to bring home some swag? Consider signing up for our daily or weekly newsletter. ...
RATE THIS VID!: Gwoble Wawming Solooshons
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 1.07
Seventh Generation and TreeHugger turned to you for solutions, and now we’re turning to you again for your trusty opinion on green. Vote today, and tell us whether this video solution to climate change and the others inspire you. While you’re at it, keep your inspiration at an all-time high by signing up for our daily or weekly newsletter....
RATE THIS VID!: Future Mechanics
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 1.07
RATE THIS VID!: Secondary Footprints: Reducing The Impact
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 03. 1.07
The polls are open, folks, but only until March 16th. Kick back with some locally brewed beer or some organic pop corn and watch and rate this video and the smorgasbord of Convenient Truths entries on the contest site, truths.treehugger.com. These green videos are a just a taste. Continue to satiate your appetite for solutions to climate change by subscribing to our daily or weekly newsletter or checking out Seventh Generation’s Inspired Protagonist blog!...
Who Wants to Save the Aye-Aye?
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 03. 1.07
One of my zoology professors used to refer to it as "The Bambi Syndrome"—us hairless bipeds tend to gravitate towards cuddly megafauna like the panda; we're ready to empty our pockets to pull them from the precipice of certain doom. But can you get people rallying for an obscure species of clam? Does anyone really get pumped about saving the tuna? What about the almost grotesque-looking aye-aye, which, according to Slate got hit so bad with the ugly stick that conservationists are going to pieces trying to figure out how to persuade people that its unique genetic heritage is worth giving a damn?
Everyone loves a cute face. For humans, something about large heads, languid eyes, and flat faces appeal to something visceral inside us, not coincidentally, much like a baby's face does....
Al Gore Re-Frames The Climate Risk Communication Problem
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03. 1.07
What did Al Gore do after the Oscars Award ceremony? According to the Tennesean.com "Back in Tennessee on Tuesday, Gore told a crowd of about 50 people at the U.S. Media Ethics Summit II that the presentation's single most provocative slide was one that contrasts results of two long-term studies. A 10-year University of California study found that essentially zero percent of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles disagreed that global warming exists, whereas, another study found that 53 percent of mainstream newspaper articles disagreed the global warming premise". Here's the money quote from the Tennesean:- "I think if it is important to look at the pressures that made it more likely than not that mainstream journalists in the United States would convey a wholly inaccurate conclusion about the most important moral, ethical, spiritual and political issue humankind has ever faced." The good news is that the facts are now getting enough mainstream media attention. We noticed that talk show host Glen Beck (pictured) recently calculated his carbon footprint (see Feb. 26 transcript here) and expressed surprise at the magnitude. If you're puzzled about how your lifestyle matters to the climate future, try calculating your own carbon footprint. For your driving footprint link here. For your air trips link here. And for your home, link here. See how "average" your lifestyle is. Image credit: Glenn Beck site, "about"...
Most Huggable: Aspen’s Melting Slopes, Antarctica as a Concert Venue, Congress’s New Portfolio
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 03. 1.07
Aspen’s delicate and lucrative ski slopes are under some serious threats… It’s easy to build a solar-powered hydrogen storage system for your back yard in just five simple steps! Congress is looking likely to pass a federal renewable energy portfolio standard… In the UK, a 500 MW offshore wind farm is approved. The clean power it makes will be the equivalent of taking 350,000 cars off the road … Al Gore’s global rock concert to awaken global awareness will touch all seven continents, including the chilly South Pole…...
Just What We Needed Dept: A Pee Powered Battery
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 1.07
Just what you need when you are out in the woods: Scientists in (we believe) Singapore "soaked a piece of paper in a solution of copper chloride and sandwiched it between strips of magnesium and copper. This sandwich was then laminated between two sheets of transparent plastic. When a drop of urine is added to the paper through a slit in the plastic, a chemical reaction takes place that produces electricity. The prototype battery produced about 1.5 volts, the same as a standard AA battery, and runs for about 90 minutes. Researchers said the power, voltage, and lifetime of the battery can be improved by adjusting the geometry and materials used. Urine contains many ions (electrically charged atoms), which allows the electricity-producing chemical reaction to take place in the urine battery."
Evidently it works with other precious bodily fluids as well. We await the video. ::Myninjaplease...
Stars and Stinkers Game
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 1.07
So do you know where the celebrities rate on being green? DeSmogBlog thinks they do and have created a little game. You match the picture of your favourite celeb to where you think they should be on the scale from black hat to white hat- your value judgement against theirs and EcoRazzi, where they did their research. Silly but a moment's diversion. Too wide for us to embed so link to ::DeSmogBlog...
Say Goodbye To The Golden Eggs: How Topping Off The Tank With Ethanol May Bottom Out The Climate & The Pheasants That Lay Them
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03. 1.07
We recently wrote about duck hunters and tree huggers having a common, if unexpected, interest in mitigating climate change. It turns out that by conserving prairie pothole wetlands for the purpose of supporting duck breeding, that carbon sequestration by these wetland areas occurs at much higher per-hectare level than from cropping or tree planting. And, we also wrote about how the US Department of Agriculture was contemplating closing out contracts for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), basically to satisfy our increased vehicular cravings for ‘corn liquor.’ Many times the grassy swales currently in conservation reserve are contiguous to potholes. As a result, the policy push from the top to produce more corn-based ethanol could well end up a net climate negative. It’s not just ducks and tree hugger types who are going to be unhappy about closing out CRP contracts. Pheasants, like the golden in our picture or his more common ring-necked cousin, are popular quarry in the upper Midwest, having become abundant after two decades of CRP successes. Via the Argus Leader we’ve learned that plowing under the reserves won’t sit too well with hunters....
EcoCity, the Trade Show with Environmental Solutions for Cities
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona, Spain on 03. 1.07
We visited EcoCity (what used to be EcoMed) today, the trade fair for new environmental solutions for cities and industry, held in Barcelona. During the four days of the show, from February 27th until March 2nd, EcoCity is measuring the CO2 emissions to then compensate for them after the event. Transportation as well as the electricity consumption of the fair ground is all taken into account. Together with the Spanish company CeroCO2, an enquiry is being made to measure the transport used by exhibitors and visitors. It’s a pilot project but EcoCity is hoping to get other events to take action by publishing their awareness raising commitment.
At the fair, a vast variety of new recycling containers in all kinds of different shapes, materials and colours are exhibited as well as the latest technologies in cleaning machines for urban areas. Quite new were the companies offering re-usable products (wipes, soft barriers, etc.) with absorbing qualities made from (partly recycled) polyurethane to clean up industrial liquid spills. A relatively small amount of solar equipment was to be seen for such a sunny country as Spain. What we enjoyed most was the stand of XCR by the Waste Agency of Catalonia who have put together a network of companies dealing with recycled products. Lasentiu, the Compostadores, Eco-Reciclat (who had the brand new Spanish edition of 'An Inconvenient Truth', printed on FSC paper, in their stand. It's available from TODAY!) as well as Zicla formed part of their stand made from recycled MDF and biodegradable carpet by MIMgreen. ...
TH Blog Love – Our Favourite Greens Of The Week
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 03. 1.07
DH Love Life: Live Food by Daryl Hannah
This week Daryl learns about all the benefits of raw food. Raw or live food, as it's also known, has enzymes that help us digest as well as many minerals and vitamins that are usually lost when we cook it. Daryl is shown how to make a raw veggie burger by the healthy peeps at Raw-Volution and how to make nut milk by raw food queen Annie Jubbs.
Eco-Street: Easy Green by Tracy Stokes
“The Intelliplug looks like a standard 3-way adaptor, but behaves very differently indeed. You plug your PC into the “master” socket on the plug, and two peripherals (monitors, printers, speakers, etc) into the “slave” sockets. When you turn off your computer, the plug will automatically power down the peripherals.”...
Ask TreeHugger: Can I Stand In Front of the Microwave?
by Helen Suh MacIntosh, Cambridge, MA, USA on 03. 1.07
Question: Is it really dangerous to stand in front of the microwave while it's cooking something?
Response: Microwave ovens cook food using microwave radiation (at a frequency of 2450 mHz), which is also used by mobile phones, TV broadcasting, and radar systems. Microwave radiation differs from radiation produced from the sun or X-rays, in that it is non-ionizing and thus non-cancer causing. Nevertheless, the use of microwave radiation to cook food has raised some concerns about microwave ovens, generally because of possible radiation leaks, nutrient loss, and the possibility of cancer causing food byproducts.
Standing in front of your microwave may increase your exposures to microwave radiation; however, such increases are likely to be low, especially when compared to your exposures to microwave radiation from your cell phone. Exposures to microwave radiation are kept low by the oven design, which makes sure that microwaves stay inside the oven and are only produced when the oven is on and the door is shut. Radiation leaks around and through the glass door are generally below levels recommended by international standards....
TreeHugger Welcomes Writer Matthew Sparkes
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 03. 1.07
Climate Progress
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03. 1.07
Climate Progress blog is positioned to fill out the blogosphere with "the progressive perspective on climate science, climate solutions, and climate politics. It is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization". The editor, Joseph Romm is someone we've written about before, here and here. Featured climate news this week includes reference to an opinion piece by Bill McKibben in Tom Paine.commonsense and a powerfully written, seminal piece by Tom Athansiou, called "The Inconvenient Truth, Part II." The opening paragraph of Tom's piece in Foreign Policy In Focus was spine chilling:- "...So you already know the first part of the inconvenient truth: we’re in deep trouble. And one good thing about 2006 is that this ceased to be a public secret. We not only know that the drought is spreading, the ice melting, the waters beginning to rise, but we also know that we know. And this changes everything.” Good luck to Climate Progress. We'll be visiting them often and hope you will as well....
domino & TreeHugger's Green List: Cleaning
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03. 1.07
As we near the end of domino's Green List (just two more to go!), it's only natural that we include some details on how to clean up, green style. There are lots of simple, everyday way to be green while you clean, and regular TreeHugger readers will probably be familiar with at least a few. When it comes to scrubbing and wiping, Seventh Generation's laundry detergent and recycled paper towels and Ecover's dishwashing liquid made the list, along with a brand-new product from method. The guys who combined "modern" with "cleaning products" while mixing batches of non-toxic cleaners in a kitchen sink have added the o-mop, a Swiffer-like product that makes sweeping and mopping a little greener; it features a reusable microfiber pad for mopping (which combines with a host of non-toxic flooring cleaning solutions) and a compostable sweeping cloth, made from a corn-based material. For greener clothes washing, we fingered LG's Tromm Steamwasher, which, among other things, features a dizzyingly-fast spin cycle (to get more water out and reduce drying time) and one of the highest energy- and water-efficiency ratings in the industry, according to Energy Star. For more ways to tidy up without trashing the planet, surf over to dominomag.com and open your magazine to page 61. Tomorrow: food, glorious food! ::domino's Green List: Cleaning...
Made in China: Your New (Energy-Efficient) Home
by Alex Pasternack, New York, NY on 03. 1.07
China's drive to increase buildings' energy efficiency by 50% may not be going as hoped—lax local officials are being blamed as usual—but the effort is sure to breed solutions for export around the world. One of the latest products to come out of the world's factory are energy-efficient prefab houses. To meet the latest demands of the Ministry of Construction, Fan Zhi, the founder of Beijing Taikong Panel Industry Corp., began building prefabricated homes with the hope of exporting them to America. At $37 to $49 a square foot in China, his homes haven’t seen much interest in Beijing and may not for some time, but even at double the cost (taking shipping and assembly into account), Fan has been receiving a steady stream of westerners who want to ship his homes home with them, including developers from New Orleans. Makes sense and cents, at least in part: given rising energy costs and the growing urge to design greenly in the U.S., the pre-built concrete homes offer excellent insulation and economy of scale: a 7-inch-thick foam concrete panel provides the same insulating capabilities as a 6-foot-thick brick wall. And, while they're not the prettiest things, his U.S. code-friendly homes can be assembled in less than three hours, while promising to withstand hurricane-strength winds and Southern California wildfires. Still, while concrete (like prefab) is gaining popularity among some home builders, its environmental impact can be heavy, especially in China where cement mixing, like much else these days, tends to be a dirty affair......
Easy Racers’ Javelin
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 03. 1.07
According to Easy Racers, the Javelin is the first addition to their domestic production in over 10 years. In their view, “this bike is simply the best value for everyone from the recumbent novice to the hardcore ultra-marathon cyclist.” And they believe that when “compared with old-fashioned bicycles, Easy Racers comfortable heads-up seating position cuts wind resistance by up to 30%. Since as much as 80% of a cyclist's energy goes to overcome air drag, the low seating position coupled with an aerodynamic fairing means you can travel faster and farther on an Easy Racer with less fatigue.” We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, because the Javelin is based on bikes designed by Gardner Martin, who also conceived the bike, which won the $18,000 Dupont Prize for ‘the first bike to break 65 mph.’ (You may recall that last year we reported on another world record ridden on an Easy Racer recumbent bicycle. That was for 53.43 miles covered in one hour. The Javelin is about $1,600 USD for 28 lbs of bike made in the USA. ::Easy Racers Javelin...
Dew-Catching Inverted Pyramid wins Arup Water Challenge
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 1.07
UK engineering firm Arup has been running the Drawing Water Challenge with WaterAid, looking for concepts, technologies, products or approaches to help people gain access to water.
The Winners were Joseph Cory of Geotectura and Eyal Malka of Malka Architects from Haifa, Israel. According to :: Dezeen: The device features 96sq m of dew collecting panels arranged in an inverted pyramid shape. The designers estimate each device could collect 48 litres of water a day in remote places or places with contaminated water supplies. ...
Phoenix Motorcars Added to PG&E Fleet
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 03. 1.07
Phoenix Motorcars continue to expand their brand and are starting to get their all-electric sport utility trucks out there, a little bit. In the news recently with an appearance at the White House, but on our radar since last year, with more coverage here and here, they've just signed a deal with PG&E (who has endorsed climate change legislation, among other initiatives to help the state be a bit greener) in California to add the Phoenix SUT to its fleet. Four will be delivered in June of this year, and PG&E plans to order 200 more to help them cover 70,000 square miles in central and northern California. The SUT will be handier than, say, a Tesla roadster, for example, in that it can haul five people, a payload in the back and still do freeway speeds. Its range is around 100 miles, and can be recharged in 10 minutes or so, making it particularly well-suited for short-to-medium length trips with a home base that's ready to power it back up. According to Phoenix's website, fleet sales will be the primary focus for 2007 as they continue to produce more vehicles and work whatever kinks in the system may appear. California TreeHuggers, keep your eyes peeled for a PG&E SUT later this summer! ::Phoenix Motorcars...
The TH Interview: Richard C. Levin, President of Yale University
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 03. 1.07
Richard C. Levin's fourteen-year presidency at Yale University has been marked by big challenges, both on-campus and off. In the 90s, Levin and his colleagues addressed the Ivy League university's aging infrastructure, and worked with local officials to reverse the economic doldrums that had beset Yale's hometown of New Haven, Connecticut. He worked to put the university at the forefront of the internationalization trend in higher education, and to strengthen the sciences at a school legendary for programs in the humanities. Now, Levin is leading the Yale community to address an even bigger challenge: the global climate crisis. We discussed these efforts with President Levin by email between February 16th and 22nd.
Treehugger: You recently made your fourth trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Many of the news reports on this year's meeting created the impression that climate change and environmental issues "stole the show." First, what was your impression of the role these topics played in this year's forum? Second, do you believe that political leaders, both internationally and here in the US, are "getting it" in terms of the threats and opportunities presented by climate change?
Richard Levin: The threat of climate change and how it ought to be addressed was clearly a major issue in Davos among the participants from all the sectors; business, government, education and health included. I had not previously experienced such a level of interest, concern and depth of knowledge on global warming among the many leaders with whom I interacted. ...
3 Leaf Tower with Central Wind Turbine
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 1.07
The UK's Marks Barfield Architects, famous for the London Eye, now propose the Skyhouse, "a fresh look at residential tower high-rise in response to London’s current housing crisis. The challenge of how to develop high density housing that people want to live in and that is sustainable."
The three leaf design channels wind into the center of the complex, where what looks like vertical axis wind turbine up the center of the building generates electricity to power all of the common areas.
"A single Skyhouse development could provide between 240-500 homes with concierges for added security and convenience, and to actively promote a sense of community. Communal recreation spaces are incorporated into the tower to enhance the quality of life and community spirit and include skygardens, skypools, gyms and creches" .[nurseries] ::Marks Barfield Architects via ::architectnophilia
...
Ban the Bulb: A Whole City Replaces its Incandescents
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 03. 1.07
Folks, we are on a roll. There is movement at the station. [1] People are getting off their derrières and doing stuff. Sydney’s CDB is heading for a symbolic blackout next month. All new homes in NSW have to be 40% more energy and water efficient to get building approval. The sale of incandescent light bulbs will be phased out. Commercial television is running a feature program to show how to live a less energy intensive life. We’ve had whole towns voluntarily go ‘plastic bag free’. But now comes a new twist. A complete city is having every incandescent bulb replaced with low energy equivalents. Tamworth is a major region centre of over 37,000 people, poised roughly half way between Sydney and the Queensland border. It was the first town in Australia to get electric street lighting, and now the first to move away from incandescents. Neco, a major Australian retailer of ‘energy efficiency technologies’ has teamed up with Network Ten’s aforementioned Cool Aid program, to facilitate the bulb exchange. And they’ve engaged local people help in the transition. The claim is that “The Tamworth light globe exchange will be the largest project of its kind in the world, nowhere has anyone targeted a whole city to have all of its light bulbs changed to energy efficient versions.” (If they can retrofit the city's 14,500 homes, it should be equal to stopping 141 eighteen wheelers worth coal from being burnt annually.) What’s more, Neco are offering the same exchange to other cities or towns: “The programme runs at no cost to council or householders - they have their bulbs changed free!” [2] ::Neco’s Ban the Bulb....
Test Drive for the End of Oil
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 1.07
An Imperial Oil (Exxon) refinery in Nanticoke caught fire last week; co-incidentally Canadian National Railways was hit by a strike. Suddenly Ontario was short of gasoline and couldn't bring in extra supplies by rail. Not a big deal in a diversified economy with lots of gas stations right? Well, wrong. As the Esso (Exxon) stations closed due to lack of supplies, there was a run on all of the other stations and they started running out. As people found out which stations had gas, they drove the extra distance to them to stock up and caused traffic jams as there were long lineups of people idling their cars in the streets trying to get into the station, all of which, of course, burns more gas. The price has gone up from 74 cents a litre to $ 1.10 in a week. ($ 4.16 per American gallon)
The CBC's Andy Barrie interviewed one of the people from powerful film The End of Suburbia who welcomed us to the future, what it will be like not when we run out of oil, but when we just start finding it a little bit tighter than it is now. It has not taken very much to completely disrupt the system here. :;Globe and Mail...
ECOutlet: Green Shopping With a Difference
by Bonnie Alter, London on 03. 1.07
ECOutlet is a new green internet shopping site, with a difference. Not only do they offer a full range of useful and interesting products but they also have a rating scheme, to measure the footprint of each item. Called "eco-points", you can judge how environmentally friendly a product is by the number of points it gets. For example, Presso, the manual, non-electric espresso machine pictured above, has 3 points. It gets them for saving energy (it's manual) and good design (it's built to last). The company will make a donation to an environmental charity for every one hundred points accumulated by members. In addition, they have set up a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas. And the products...a stylish LED house number for your house, powered by a rechargeable solar battery ( 3 points), a cute backpack for the children--made out of recycled juice cartons, and an apron for cooking, also Fairtrade and made out of recycled aluminum cartons (2 points). For her: a good looking handbag made out of the inner tubes of recycled car tires. For him: a custom-made belt created from old fire hoses. Only 2 points (recycled) but each one comes with its own history and individual markings. :: ECOutlet...
Selling the SUV: Do the Hardest Things First
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 1.07
We were previously wowed by Franke James' illustrated essay on global warming. Clearly she is taking the issue seriously, for after much illustrated soul-searching, she has sold her SUV and gone car-less. Her new illustrated essay describes the reasoning and the reaction.
I found it particularly interesting because it is counter-intuitive. We promote Compact Fluorescents because we think of them as first steps, painless and cheap, doing the easiest things first. Franke suggests Doing the Hardest Thing First, which for her is giving up the car. She lives near a subway and shopping but it is a lot tougher than changing a light bulb. And the change in her life that results is a lot more significant. ::Franke James...
eWaste - Curse, Commodity
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 03. 1.07
There's been a slew of recent ideas on how to address the global eWaste problem. Mike Thompson (D-Calif) has proposed a national 'e-Fee' on electronic devices. This model is called the Advance Recovery Fee (ARF), and it will cost consumers about $10 per device that they will pay up front to recycle the equipment. States and cities have been going in the opposite direction, most preferring the manufacturer responsibility model, where the vendor is billed for the processing fees. Obviously, this is a difference of opinion, and some states like Montana are already going the extra yard, with proposed legislation to get the e-Fee back that you pay to the Feds.
Other countries have different approaches. India has a few straightforward ones - ignore it, or (better?) organize the existing ragpicker army to process the wastestream. And Basel Action Network (BAN) reports that Japan has it's own solution as well - use the junk as a bargaining chip in international trade agreements. You want that new Honda plant? Take 50 tons of old computers...
It will be interesting to see which eWaste strategies will take hold. Will the consumer pay? Will the vendor take it back? Will the government care? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode.
...
Environmental Defense and DuPont Partner to Address Nanotech Risks
by Eric Kane, New York, NY on 03. 1.07
Earlier this week, Environmental Defense and DuPont released a draft strategy that will enable firms that manufacture or use nanomaterials to evaluate and manage environmental risks. The six-step strategy is the product of a partnership that began in September 2005 to encourage the responsible development of nanotechnology-based products. The Nano Risk Framework establishes processes for companies to use to evaluate potential risks, determine staff roles, and gather information. Furthermore, it recommends the use of life cycle analysis to address material sourcing, workers’ exposure, and disposal. For those who are interested in contributing to the development of this framework, Environmental Defense and DuPont will be accepting comments from the public until March 30 at feedback@nanoriskframework.com. To view the Nano Risk Framework, click here. ...
The (Bio) DaVersity Code from Free Range Studios
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 1.07
Who killed the polar bear? It is up to Sophie Minnow and Robert Penguin to solve in the Daveristy Code. It turns out that the decline of biodiversity is killing us all. Climate change, overdevelopment, human beings are conspiring to destroy the priory and web of life. More over the top brilliance from the people who brought us the Meatrix , mouths of the world and my favourite, store wars. Watch at ::Daversity Code
Also check out the "take action" section from Harvard Medical School, which makes the important links between biodiversity and our daily lives. "The choices we make in three main areas of our lives—the food we eat, the way we live in our homes, and how we transport ourselves– have greatest potential to cause environmental damage and threaten biodiversity. Making better choices in these areas could improve the environment and slow the loss of biodiversity." ::more...
Superuse, Where Recycling Meets Design
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona, Spain on 02.28.07
If you like to hugg, you might also like to join this new online community Superuse.org of ‘everybody interested in inventive ways of recycling’. The Dutch 2012 Architecten together with Suite 75 have created a huge online pin board of Polaroids, each featuring something recycled. You can upload stories and vote others so that the most popular ones move up the front page (similar to Hugg). Very useful are the searchable categories. An interesting post we’ve found so far is a kind of windmill parts cemetery of obsolete cracked bits waiting for someone who will hopefully reinvent them and save them from going to landfill?! There’s also a beautiful lightweight modular house made from recycled cardboard and a funky lamp made from old atlases by Bomdesign. Oh, and the Kapselhotel where your room is a lifesaver capsule from 1972 swimming in the port of Den Haag but they might move location… ::Superuse.org
...
UFO's Can Solve Climate Change, Says ex Defense Minister
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.28.07
No, this is not the Onion, it is the Ottawa Citizen: A former Canadian defense minister is demanding governments worldwide disclose and use secret alien technologies obtained in alleged UFO crashes to stem climate change. "I would like to see what (alien) technology there might be that could eliminate the burning of fossil fuels within a generation ... that could be a way to save our planet," Paul Hellyer, 83, told the Ottawa Citizen.
Alien spacecrafts would have traveled vast distances to reach Earth, and so must be equipped with advanced propulsion systems or used exceptional fuels, he told the newspaper. Such alien technologies could offer humanity alternatives to fossil fuels.
"We need to persuade governments to come clean on what they know. Some of us suspect they know quite a lot, and it might be enough to save our planet if applied quickly enough," he said. ::Yahoo News
As Minister in Lester Pearson's government in the early 60's Hellyer merged the three branches into one service, to confound aliens by changing all the uniforms. ...
Human International Design Organisation - Missing The Eco-link
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 02.28.07
The design blog Core 77 recently brought our attention to the French non-profit Human International Design Organisation (HIDO) and the winner of their first T-Shirt design competition. The winning entry by Martin BLASTI Blaszczak, from Poland, can be seen above. The competition asked for ‘a funky and fresh design that reflects our aim and conveys our message effectively by incorporating our logo HIDO and slogan “Humanitarian Design for people in need”.’ HIDO say that they chose Martin’s design “because it represents what we are trying to achieve, namely new design concepts to help those in need. Although we can use the Internet for almost anything, we cannot [use it to] solve the problems for those in need. We will have to gather our creativity to make it work.” We applaud HIDO for the international scope of their humanitarian design work, but we would also like to urge them to not divorce humanitarian issues from environmental issues. Unfortunately we cannot find any reference to the importance of eco-design on HIDO’s site. The T-shirt is a great way to raise funds for HIDO’s projects, but it is ironic that they chose a design illustrating the problem of water shortage and are printing it on cotton t-shirts. ...
Discovery Health Channel Launches Natural Living Show
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 02.28.07
If you aren’t into “Must See TV” on Thursday nights, we have a show for you to watch (don’t worry, it won’t cut into Grey’s Anatomy). New on the Discovery Health Channel at 8 p.m. you’ll find Get Fresh with Sara Snow, a beginner’s guide to natural living. Snow, daughter of Eden Foods founder Tim Redmond, explains everything from the ins and outs of oyster farming to eco-fashion to finding the best produce. Tomorrow night, March 1st, the Green Business episode will air with tips on how to green your office (see TreeHugger’s own guide here) and an inside look at the new Hearst Tower in Manhattan. Via ::body + soul ::Discovery Health...
Building Green: Energy Efficiency and Aesthetics From The Same Materials (Part 7)
by Ted Owens, New Mexico, USA on 02.28.07
In this article I will discuss the advantages of straw bale for the exterior walls. Unless you live in a climate where heating and cooling are not necessary, some sort of wall insulation will be required. Code will specify the minimal amount of wall insulation for your area. Although the bales will not be stacked until the post-and-beam framing is finished, the material will be discussed here as this will dictate how the house is constructed.
Straw bale walls have many advantages over conventional insulative materials. First, straw is a waste product. Straw bales come from food crops such as wheat, barley, and oats. During harvesting, the upper nutritional part is removed and used for food. The lower part is usually discarded and becomes another waste problem. Many farmers are now selling this material for use in straw bale homes. When used for structures, the bales are tightly compressed and are held together with polypropylene string. Depending on the size of the bale, they will be either 2-string or 3-string. The 2-string bales, which were used for this project, weighed around 35 pounds each. Straw bales are not always available year-round, so you will need to check for availability well in advance. ...
Convenient Truths: Last Day to Submit a Video; Voting Starts Tomorrow
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 02.28.07
OK, procrastinators: we've warned you for weeks that the entry period for Treehugger and Seventh Generation's Convenient Truths contest would be ending on February 28th. Well, today's the day, and we'll stop accepting submissions of user-created videos at 11pm EST. There are only a few hours left to show the world your efforts to fight the climate crisis, and to get a chance at the nearly $30,000 in very cool prizes that the winners will take home. If you can't get a camera and a concept together today, there will still be a reason to get out of bed tomorrow: rating starts for all videos that users have submitted. You'll be able to watch the videos at Treehugger, and use our rating system on the contest's home page to give a "thumbs up" to the videos you like. The top vote-getters will move on to the final round, in which our star-studded panel of judges decides the contest winners. While you do have to wait until tomorrow to start voting, you can start incorporating some of the ideas presented in these videos into your own routine today -- we can't procrastinate on that, either!...
China's Local and Global Climate Change: Things Are Heating Up
by Rachel Wasser, Beijing, China on 02.28.07
The International Ice and Snow Festival is one of China’s biggest winter tourist attractions – and one of its most wonderfully surreal. Put on annually by China’s northernmost provincial capital, the Festival transforms the city of Harbin into an overwhelming winter fantasyland featuring ice and snow everything. There’s an ice church, an ice bar, a giant snow Buddha, an ice lighthouse, and a mini Great Wall of Ice. You can have your photograph taken with a faun, watch Russian figure skaters, or approach the idle German shepherds waiting to take you for a dogsled ride. Thousands flock to the city each year despite the bone-chilling cold. Much more after the jump....
TreeHugger Picks: Rockers Going Green
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02.28.07
We've mentioned musicians who are going green on tour, but they certainly aren't the only ones who are making good music while doing good things for the planet. Here are some of our picks for indie and old-school rockers, singer/songwriters and folkies whose commitment to making green choices takes a close second to making good music.
1) Cloud Cult (who have a great new album, by the way) uses 100% post-consumer recycled paper and non-toxic soy ink for their album cases, purchases offsets for all energy consumed during recording and, so there are more to hug, plants 10 trees for every 1,000 albums sold.
2) Kelley Stoltz produced a music-industry first when he teamed up with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation and the Green-e program of the Center for Resource Solutions to record using 100-percent renewable energy.
3) Sub Pop Records (Kelley's label, as a matter of fact) followed suit by purchasing enough Green-e certified Green Tags to equal 100 percent of the company's energy use.
4) David Gilmour, best to known to some of us as the front man for Pink Floyd, can add "TreeHugger" to his long resume; he has returned from the dark side of the moon to release a climate-neutral album, On An Island.
5) Sarah Harmer literally walks the green walk; she recently spent a summer on the Niagara Escarpment, the 725 kilometer ridge running from Niagara to Tobermorey in Ontario to protest its exploitation for aggregate to make concrete....
Most Huggable: Al Takes Heat, Mexico Protecting Butterflies, and Detoxing Your Kitchen,
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 02.28.07
A firm in Washington earns LEED Platinum for commercial interiors. Here’s how they did it… Mexico calls in a “zero tolerance” policy on illicit logging activity that threatens the Monarch butterfly… Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Mr. Gore’s personal energy consumption has actually increased, and now he’s taking heat … Sonya Hess continues her series at LighterFootstep with tips to detoxing your kitchen… Honda’s greener F1 racer eschewed thousands in sponsorships to depict the Earth. Check out the video… ...
ZINK: Printing Without Ink
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 02.28.07
A company called ZINK recently demonstrated a new way of printing that does not require ink (see video). Unlike the existing technologies that use thermal printheads to transfer color to paper, the new media has the color embedded in it, in the form of dye crystals that are clear at room temperature. The paper is fairly affordable, at 20 to 25 cents for a 2 x 3 inch sheet. The eco-efficient aspect of this technology is that it eliminates wasteful ink packaging and discarded ink cartridges. ZINK says the paper is non-toxic and "recyclable". The company claims it can make ultraportable printers that can fit in a human hand or be integrated into digital cameras and cell phones....
FEMA Trailers Optimizing Formaldehyde Exposure
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 02.28.07
If a designer of emergency housing set out to expose climate refugees to as much formaldehyde as possible, what would he do? First off, he might cover as much interior surface area as possible with particleboard and composites heavily laced with urea formaldehyde resins and glues: building envelope, doors, flooring...even furniture. Then, he would increase the internal wall surface area to volume ratio as much as possible: like in a trailer. Park those trailers out in the southern sun, where the heat will “bake” off formaldehyde gas at the highest possible rate, and you have a recipe for optimum exposure. Well…almost optimum. To get it absolutely as high as possible, you want to ensure that the residents of said trailers are going to spend as much time as possible inside: dislocated persons without jobs would be perfect. Per an article in The Nation, this goal has already been achieved by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): “Along the Gulf Coast, in the towns and fishing villages from New Orleans to Mobile, survivors of Hurricane Katrina are suffering from a constellation of similar health problems. ...
SXSW People Choice Award: Vote Early, Vote Often!
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 02.28.07
We told you Where Did the Bees Go?
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 02.28.07
We've mentioned a marked decline in bee populations before, but the Gray Lady reports that bees are vanishing in numbers far greater than previously anticipated, in what can only be described as a kind of anthophilic Rapture:
David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees. ... “I have never seen anything like it,” Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. “Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.” ......
Air Con — And it Might Just Be
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 02.28.07
A study by Japanese researchers had found that “air conditioners dump enough heat into the streets to raise the temperature at least 1 to 2ºC.” and not only that, but, “heat blasting from the rear-ends of air conditioners is contributing to the "heat island" effect that makes cities hotter and their weather sometimes more severe.” The lab coat guys go on to explain that for extra two degrees of warmth on summer’s day Tokyo drawns down on 1.6 gigawatts of electricity — equivalent to the output of one-and-a-half nuclear power plants. A researcher at Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University in New York notes that the heat island effect of cities is not well appreciated. But it can impact the local weather, in places like Dallas and Atlanta, effectively assisting more violent thunder storms, as a result of the supercharging of storms by city heat. The solution? Maybe more AC free office buildings like this cleverly designed one in Mexico. ::News in Science....
TreeHugging Guerrillas in Our Midst?
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 02.28.07
That’s at least what you might expect to be the case if you’ve already come across the first so-called experiment in guerrilla tactics at environmentalism through viral marketing with stickers; stickers that simply read “These Come From Trees.” But stickers? “We don’t need no stinkin’ stickers,” you say… Well, how about the fact that testing shows paper towel dispensers with one of these stickers placed on them guerrilla style actually reduce the amount of paper towels used by roughly 15%, or the equivalent of one tree’s worth of paper for every year of its existence? Now think about the last time you saw a sticker on a bathroom wall, and how long it had probably been there… So combine this germ of knowledge with the fact that there are currently about 50,000 fast food restaurants, 200,000 gas stations, and 10,000 Starbucks in the US and it’s easy to see how we could be saving a whole lot of trees by implementing just one type of sticker in bathrooms across America. And I can say one thing for sure; if I were the CEO of one of the companies footing the bill for all of these paper goods each year I’d go out and buy these stickers by the caseload, mandate they be put in every bathroom in the company, and then add the savings to the bottom line. Let's face reality, wasting paper towels is wasting green in more ways than one…...
Environmental & sustainable artist: Phoebe Washburn
by Kathreen Ricketson, Canberra, Australia on 02.28.07
Image: Phoebe Washburn, Wood Wall, 2006 (from artware editions)
In the past TreeHugger has explored the question of sustainable and environmental art and has looked at various artists whose work addresses the issues of sustainability and who use predominantly recycled materials to make their art. Click over for more installation pictures....
domino & TreeHugger's Green List: Bedding
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02.28.07
We all spend about one-third of our lives in bed, so it was important not to overlook clean, green bedding as a part of domino's Green List. Sumptuous feel meets beautiful patterns and colors in this section of the list; add some organic cotton and it might just be the perfect way for a TreeHugger to get some sleep. We went with a vintage look with Jan Eleni, who reuses shams and duvet covers with a colorful, floral-inspired look. Prefer the look and feel of country? Check out the wares at MaryJane's Farm, whose linens are inspired by her organic Idaho farm. For a fancier look, ABC Home's Purist collection includes luxurious silk shams and sheets. Perhaps the most important choice when picking a place to sleep is the bed itself, and Swedish company Hästens does it right. Their synthetic-free mattress features cotton ticking over a fill of horsehair, cotton, flax and wool (no harmful off-gassing there!). The handmade craftsmanship doesn't come cheap, but it might just be worth the indulgence if it'll help you sleep better and more healthily for decades to come. As always, there's more at dominomag.com, with the complete wrap-up on page 60 of the paper version. Stay tuned for a new addition to the list tomorrow, when we look at ways to be green while you clean. ::domino's Green List: Bedding...
Now's Your Chance to Install Linux
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 02.28.07
No surprises here, Microsoft's Vista is taking a beating. Brits think it's too expensive. Greenpeace says it's going to generate mountains of eWaste by trashing at least 10 million PCs with its heavy hardware requirements. It's tough to virtualize. And, based on the 10 billion dollar investment and dismal sales, some think it will be the last operating system ever produced for profit. I guess that puts the term 'upgrade' in a whole new light, maybe 'lastgrade' might be better.
Here's an idea - why don't you try what this guy did to his dad; upgrade your users to Ubuntu and tell them that it's Vista? You will probably get twice the life out of your machines. And since your users are prepped for a change anyway, it's a golden moment. Go Linux, and go green.
...
Cool Aid: The National Carbon Test
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 02.28.07
Well, you know that something is on the mind of Jane and Joe Public when commercial TV stations start running a “world premiere television event” to tap into the zeitgeist. Australia’s Network Ten will be rolling out their two hour ‘COOL AID: The National Carbon Test’ program on Sunday 4 March 2007. Apparently they will be auditing the environmental footprint of selected households with a view to showing how people can do more to reduce their own lead foot. The program’s website already has tips on greenpower, water saving showerheads, compact fluorescent lighting, solar hot water and insulation (neatly tied to sponsors links.) Celebs, such as Tim Flannery, Peter Garrett and even surf legend, Mark Occhilupo, will appear, as does Al Gore (he’s everywhere!). But the network has also teamed up with the likes of Planet Ark, WWF, the Institute for Sustainable Futures and CSIRO to give the program extra credibility. The only fly in the ointment, is that the national broadcaster, who produce excellent programs like this one on peak oil, will be showing Kylie Minogue’s Showgirl - Homecoming Tour at the same time as Cool Aid. May the usual entrenched viewing patterns prevail, and the greening of mainstream Australia continue on its merry way. Because Ten plan to “shock Australians- confront them- amuse them- inspire them.” Fingers crossed they succeed. ::Cool Aid. ...
Green Condos: Revisiting M5V
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.28.07
When I first looked at Toronto condo M5V and its website, I complained about seeing the words "LEED Certified" on the site and expressed reservations about whether it was all marketing or if it was real. After all, it is very difficult to apply LEED to a multiple unit residential building; the standards were developed for commercial use. I picked up on a few points in the marketing material and wrote a snarky and critical post. I was wrong.
After reading the earlier post, the builder, Mazyar Mortazavi, invited me to the (LEED registered and absolutely stunning) sales office. I came away convinced that this is not just marketing hype but a real attempt to do a sustainable, healthy building in a competitive and price-sensitive market- a real challenge. ...
Homebuilder Goes 100% Solar in California
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 02.28.07
One of the nation's biggest home builders, Lennar Homes, has announced it will be installing solar power systems in all of its new homes in the San Francisco Bay Area. The "standard" solar package makes use of PowerLight "Sun Tiles" by SunPower. These solar tiles integrate into a roof of a home just like regular tiles. In its promotional video and related materials, SunPower boasts that homeowners will experience savings of 40% to 50% on their energy bills as a result of installing its solar tiles. The company also notes that homes such as those in the Milano community employ a variety of energy-saving technologies. These include double-pane windows, high-performance insulation, low-wattage lighting systems and other features....
Stewart Brand and Nuclear Power
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.28.07
Ranger Uranium Mine, Australia
I still treasure my rotting newsprint copy of the Last Whole Earth Catalog, created by Stewart Brand. The New York Times loves Stewart as well, and did a big article on him, concentrating on his support for nuclear power as a CO2 free way of generating power. However we suspect some serious carbon was released digging that hole in Australia and the ones like it in Canada. According to the Pembina Institute, here is the environmental cost for nuclear power in Canada alone:
...
Green & Black's Organic Ice Cream Stateside
by Celine Ruben-Salama, New York, NY on 02.28.07
Long available in the UK, Green and Black’s line of super premium organic ice cream is finally due to cross the pond and hit the shelves nationwide here in the US. This spring, keep an eye out for Chocolate, Vanilla and White Chocolate with Strawberry ice cream available in 1 pint containers retailing for around $4.50. Officially, the ice creams are due to pop up like spring flowers starting May 2007, but a little birdie told me that these pint size friends might appear sooner than that. Recently, I had a chance to sample the goods together with fellow TreeHugger Kyeann and Anne Hettinger of Gominyc. Each spoonful delivers a dense flavorful experience. High quality organic ingredients make the ice cream so yummy – I can’t wait to have more.
On this same occasion, we had a chance to chat with founder Craig Sams and his wife Jo Fairley. ...
EcoBuild: Sustainable Design Show
by Bonnie Alter, London on 02.28.07
Ecobuild is a trade show featuring sustainable design and construction products and services, with “hundreds of exhibitors showing thousands of ‘green’ products”. In an effort to come to grips with this new, huge and confusing sector, this Treehugger ventured into the fray. Things started off well; at the first stop, the booth for Sustain’ Magazine, the woman recognised my Treehugger badge and commented on what a good web magazine it was. Then, on to second nature—home insulation made out of British sheep’s wool (pictured). Not only does it look cute and cozy, it is "breathable" (sic) and keeps the house warm in winter and cool in summer. Or maybe you would rather have hemp and waste cotton fibre insulation... Also accessible was Amazon Nails—a not for profit social enterprise, experienced in designing strawbale and sustainable buildings. They use natural materials, including foundations which contain little or no cement or plastic, to create magical country houses. DalNaturel natural rubber flooring seemed interesting—it has over 90% natural ingredients with all the rubber content being natural. ...
Monte Bianco: Resource-efficient toothbrushes
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 02.28.07
Previously mentioned in our Top 5 Picks for Personal Care back in 2004, we figured it was about time Monte Bianco toothbrushes got their own post. We are pretty sure that the standard toothbrush does not rate as one of the most polluting or resource intensive items in most households. However, (almost) everyone has one, and (almost) everyone replaces it every few months. It is neat then, when an everyday product like this is redesigned to drastically reduce waste. The Monte Bianco basically consists of a reusable handle, and a replaceable head, thereby ensuring that the plastic (and therefore oil) used in manufacture is kept to a minimum. Replacement heads are even available that use natural fibres, instead of plastic, for the bristles, reducing oil use even further. The heads come in packs of three, and each package is in itself much smaller than your average toothbrush packet, so energy used in packaging and transportation is also significantly less.
...
IDS07: Brin Studios
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.28.07
George Brin builds furniture out of local, sustainably harvested alderwood and maple that he laminates into plywood with a water based adhesive. It is all very minimal and light; he gets six of his shaker-style chairs out of a single sheet of plywood. Everything in engineered to use as little material as possible. The lamp is made out of popcicle sticks.
George bases all of his dimensioning on the Henry Dreyfuss classic "the Measure of Man and Woman": there are two depressions on his bench for your bum cheeks that are spaced exactly 7.1 inches apart as Henry specified. ...
The Power of the Compact Fluorescent
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.28.07
If one ever needed a demonstration of the power of the compact fluorescent, this is it. Artists/ designers Castor Canadensis (who we have loved previously here, here and here) did this installation at the Gladstone Hotel's Come up to My Room alternative design event this past weekend. They filled wire boxes with dead incandescent bulbs and put one live CFL in the middle of each. They hung them over the entrance, in the trees, inside the hotel. They fed two kilometers of carefully braided cable back to a single outlet in the ceiling of an old hotel. Christina Zeidler completely renovated the joint so thats probably a 20 amp circuit, tops.
Try and get this much light, and this much art, out of one circuit with any other bulb. ...
Convenient Truths: 1 Day, 6 Hours Left to Enter!
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 02.27.07
Burt's Chips During London Fashion Week
by Kyeann Sayer, Nomad on 02.27.07
As the Size 0 row raged on at London Fashion Week, we stuffed our faces. (How fun it is to use the TreeHugger Imperial We when writing about England!) That's right. At London's version of Whole Foods, Burt's Chips stood out as a cute, lightweight and pocket-book friendly gift for friends stateside (in addition to Duchy Originals and Green and Blacks goodies not available in the homeland). Our friend Lauren had just returned from Devon, the snack's birthplace, and said they were a difficult-to-find delicacy. She pointed out that each sack identified the field in which the potatoes sprouted and the person who hand fried them! We bought about 10 packs, all of which were grown in Field Foot and fried by Mike. None of them made it into our carry-on. Rather, between scintillating conversation with remarkable Estethica designers, they went straight to our stomach: Salt-less, Sea Salt and Vinegar, Salt and Pepper... As far as we can tell, the chips are not certified organic, but free of preservatives and fried in sunflower oil. Additionally, Burt's only uses seasonally available ingredients. The packaging features info from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, raising awareness about the orangutan/palm oil issue. More on local crisps here. Yes, we'll write about the clothes... ::Burt's Chips (The site seems to be down.)...
Book Review: Fermenting Revolution
by Siel, Los Angeles on 02.27.07
Want to save the world? Drink beer! Okay -- It's not as simple as that, but Christopher Mark O'Brien's beer book -- Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World -- clearly shows how your drinking habits can affect the world around you.
Open this book while drinking your favorite local, organic beer, and you'll start to feel like you really ARE changing the world while getting tipsy -- and more informed.
Fermenting Revolution covers a lot of ground. We get the history of beer, including its ties to major religions and its principal figures. We see what beer's made of and how it's brewed. We find out how brewing went from being a woman-led, home-based craft to a corporatized consumer item.
Chris sees a huge gender imbalance in the making, marketing, and drinking of beer -- and calls for more female beer makers and drinkers! In fact, if you're a girl reading Chris's book, you're likely to at least consider brewing your own beer -- or even starting your own brewery -- at least for a few seconds. ...
Constructal Theory: The Applications
by Tim McGee, Western Massachusetts on 02.27.07
Nature builds from the bottom up. From simple molecules, life can form the giant sequoia tree. Likewise, constructal theory provides a way to make shapes, from the bottom up. So, what can we build with constructal theory? Applications of constructal theory are limitless, but one significant constructal approach is to design from a finite size (small) and build up to larger optimized structures. This is what IBM has discovered in their new chip cooling system. The 'greening' of the computer has begun. Companies are emerging that promise increased efficiencies, and IBM and Intel race to achieve amazing new chip designs. But how do you optimize performance with efficiency? Heat management with energy consumption? IBM's radical new cooling system is a good example of how we can begin to optimize structures for a sustainable future- and coincidentally, their cooling system looks like a tree....
Most Huggable: Taking the Earth’s Temperature, Emissions-Free Snowmobiles, The 12 Cleanest Cars of 2007
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 02.27.07
The International Polar Year unifies hundreds of research projects and thousands of scientists in the effort of taking the planet’s temperature… Not only is the UAE going solar but the oil giant is looking to a future without fossil fuels… The Clean Snowmobile Challenge entices students to create an emissions-free motorized sled dog… The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy lists the 12 greenest cars on the market for 2007… If the chaos of moving has you acting like a naughty treehugger, see this eco-warrior’s advise on moving in green style…...
Found at BTC Elements: Earrings from Reclaimed Tin
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 02.27.07
We love these earrings, which were just added as one of the “new arrivals” at BTC Elements. The designer, Anna Johansson, is from Brooklyn and created them from reclaimed tin cans, as she does with all of her accessories. She finds her materials in thrift stores, the trash and grocery stores and searches for items that are destined for the trash. Johansson looks in particular for cans and tins that have labels and decorations enameled onto the surface. These earrings, above, are one-of-a-kind and can only be found on BTC Elements. Several other styles are available and even though they are new arrivals, from what we’ve seen they’ve been going fast. ::BTC Elements...
Quick Tips for Green Moving
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02.27.07
Any TreeHugger who tackles the task of moving knows there are few other activities that force you to come face to face with all of your stuff. It can be an inopportune time to consider it all, too, since you're busy with packing and organizing, deciding what goes and what stays, and it can be easy to just start pitching it instead of recycling, donating, composting or otherwise relieving yourself of stuff without sending it to the landfill. One solution, of course, is to keep less stuff around (and it's a pretty good philosophy) but by the time you're packing boxes, it's too late for that. So, what strategies does a good TreeHugger employ when picking up stakes and moving without dumping everything in the trash? Anna Shepard, who writes the Eco-Worrier column in Body & Soul, has a few tips, which, though they make lots of sense, are easy to miss or simply not do. Among her top five are ideas like give yourself enough time, hoard your own bubblewrap, cardboard boxes, padded envelopes and other materials instead of buying up virgin materials, and plan out removing stuff that has to go (or hire someone who's a pro) so you make as few trips as possible. Read the full article for more details on her saga of moving, and leave any other thoughtful tips for a green move in the comments section below. ::Eco Worrier via ::Hugg (janegething)...
Falwell to Arms: Christians Being Duped by Global Warming?
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 02.27.07
Just as evangelical representatives, including bishops from the Catholic Church, are drawing attention to climate-change issues, right-wing preacher Jerry Falwell is decrying global warming as "Satan's attempt to redirect the church's primary focus" from evangelism to environmentalism.
"Naive Christian leaders," in fact, have been duped—DUPED, I say—by dirty hippies like Al Gore. "An Inconvenient Truth?" HAH, it should be called "A Convenient Untruth," Oscar be damned! (See what he just did there?)
Falwell also told his Baptist congregation in Lynchburg that the Bible teaches that God will maintain the Earth until Christ's second coming, so although Christians should be responsible environmentalists (eh?), they shouldn't devolve into what he calls "first-class nuts." ::WRIC Richmond News...
Engineered Plants to Be Grown Outdoors in Washington State
by Union of Concerned Scientists on 02.27.07
Drug and biotech companies are using food crops to produce pharmaceutical drugs, industrial chemicals, research chemicals, untested food additives and other products. These drugs and chemicals could harm our families if they wind up in common foods such as corn chips, cereal, and baby food.
A Canadian company is poised to ramp up production of genetically engineered safflower to 1,000 acres in Washington State. The company has engineered the safflower plant—typically grown for the vegetable oil obtained from its seeds—to produce a drug to boost the immune systems of farmed shrimp.
Growing drug-producing food crops outdoors poses risks to public health and threatens the economic well-being of farmers because these crops are likely to contaminate our food supply. ...
Ask TreeHugger: Should I Worry About Musty Odors?
by Helen Suh MacIntosh, Cambridge, MA, USA on 02.27.07
Question: I’m considering making an offer to buy a home but am hesitating because of concern about a strong musty odor in the basement. Should I be worried about this smell?
Response: I suspect that the smell comes from mold, which as it grows, can emit a mixture of gases that smells musty and earthy. Mold, which is a type of fungi, can have many different forms and can be present nearly anywhere. Molds reproduce by producing tiny spores, which will grow anywhere there is water, organic materials (such as paper, wood, or cellulose) and oxygen.
When present indoors, mold can be a significant structural and health concern. Since mold requires moisture to grow, water must be entering the basement routinely – possibly through leaky windows, the foundation, or a leaking pipe. Chronic water problems can not only lead to mold but can also damage the home and lead to structural problems in the long run. Mold can cause additional damage by breaking down walls, wood, and other building materials....
Philadelphia Greens Its Politics
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 02.27.07
The Philadelphia Flower Show, is the original and longest running such venue in the US (since 1829). As such it's nice to see this history-making announcement. PHILADELPHIA USA (February 2007) –The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Philadelphia Parks Alliance, will hold a Mayoral Candidates Forum on Monday, March 5 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Pennsylvania Convention Center..."For more than 30 years, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Philadelphia Green Program has served as a catalyst and advocate for quality open space, creating ways to bring people, plants and places together," said Blaine Bonham Jr., executive director of PHS. "The 2007 mayoral race is taking place at a time when Philadelphians are poised to embrace growth. It is critical for the next mayor to leverage the investment in greening programs and support their continued success." This is a good precedent to set for all American cities, given the increased prospects for environment to be important in the 2008 national elections. And, it might help Philadelphia catch up to Chicago. Having spent time both cities, the next Philadelphia mayor has some work to do if Daley's green army is the standard to meet. In a decade or so, maybe we can forget the old Vaudeville joke: 'First prize - a week in Phildelphia. Second prize - two weeks in Philadelphia'....
The Andy Warhol Museum Presents Global Warming Exhibit
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany on 02.27.07
How do you express concern for global warming? From textiles, videos, paintings, drawings, and photography, to music and inflatables, artists around the world have, for decades, used diverse mediums to share one common message. From March 11 – June 17, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA will present “6 BILLION PERPS HELD HOSTAGE! Artists Address Global Warming,” a multi-media exhibit showcasing contemporary art by the likes of Andy Warhol, The Yes Men, Preemptive Media, Jay Critchley, The Institute For Figuring, Hugo Kobayashi, and Cai Guo-Qiang, among others. All of the items on view were conceived to raise eco consciousness. ::The Andy Warhol Museum Images courtesy of the Andy Warhol Museum...
Please, No More IT Charity
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 02.27.07
There seems to be this unshakeable belief in Western culture that Africa and ilk are simply dying to get a hold of our used electronic gear. With a few exceptions, nothing could be further from the truth; everyone who wants a cell phone in Africa has one, and China is completely sated with this junk. Most donated computers also require software and technical expertise, which recipient countries simply do not have in any great supply. There are still some companies shipping refurb over the waters, most notably Computer Aid International, but I have to say that their time is probably about up, particularly when countries like India are now begging for the charity to stop. Even CNN admits that wealthy nations are Shovelling IT into great big heaps in foreign places.
Let's end the snobbery; if your gear isn't good enough for you, it's not good enough for an African, an Indian, or anyone else either. If you are in IT, start accounting for the environmental cost of the equipment that you buy, and start using equipment to failure instead of palming boxes off on local charities or your employees. And if it's your personal gear, think long and hard about the rationale for buying another electronic thingy. Like your cats or your kids, assume it's going to be yours forever....
domino & TreeHugger's Green List: Beauty
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02.27.07
Today's peek at the TreeHugger/domino Green List is all about feeling good while looking good; the Beauty section of the list blends friendly ingredients with thoughtful packaging and essential scents. For your body, there's primrose-oil cream, shea butter and a megahydrating oil from a Greek company; when it comes to caring for your face, there's Juice Beauty's yummy green-apple skin polishing mask, organic rosehip oil to hydrate your dry complexion and an herbal recovery gel infused with organic herbs and a shot of antioxidants. For clean and green hair-washing, check out Mop's Mixed-greens condition, whose ingredients read more like a salad, with cucumber, artichoke, watercress and parsley tossed with organic olive oil and clarifying vinegar...mmm. There's also honey & hibiscus shampoo with John Masters Organics and awapuhi and kukui nut extracts in a formula by Ole Henriksen. In the bath, we liked Nature Girl's refreshing body wash, Kathleen Lewis' lemony mineral salts, a zingy, aromatherapeutic orange oil and some refreshing suds derived from organic flower petals. You can't go wrong with the whole line from Dr. Hauschka and Pangea Organics, though; for extra credit, check out the organic essentials cotton balls. Lots more to see in the slideshow at dominomag.com; open the print mag to pages 58-59 for the full list. ::domino's Green List: Beauty...
Smoking: Environmental and Social Impacts
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 02.27.07
In the past we have talked about the litter problem resulting from cigarette smoking. We tendered some solutions: biodegradable filters and butt boxes, as well as a suggestion for responsible disposable messages on cigarette packaging. But really these are what are known as ‘end-of-pipe’ solutions. They deal with the result of the problem, not its cause: society’s addictive consumption of tobacco. We do like positive stories at TH, but this time around we offer a few sobering snippets of info on the issue and hope they might lead to greater insight ... and action. (Sources can be found by clicking the numbered references.)...
SEADOG Learns Trick, Pumps Water
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.27.07
We have shown a few bouncing buoys before, but here is one with a difference: it pumps water. The water can be stored in a reservoir or water tower for storage, so that consistent power can be delivered when required rather that when surf's up. Minnesota's (famous for its ocean frontage) Independent Natural Resources Inc. (INRI) suggests that a square mile field of SEADOG wave pumps could generate up to 1,500 megawatts of power.
It works, too: "Our sea trial in the Gulf of Mexico has exceeded our expectations and we're confident our engineers have developed a new proprietary technology that serves as a safe, efficient system for gathering renew able energy from ocean waves," said Mark A. Thomas, chief executive officer, INRI. The unit consistently pumped between 15,000 and 40,000 gallons per day. ::Renewable Energy Access...
Oakland: There is a Green There There
by Stephen Filler, Tarrytown, New York on 02.27.07
Gertrude Stein famously said about her home town, Oakland, California, that “there isn’t any there there.” Surely she would have a different opinion if she were there today and, in fact, many green urban advocates like us wish we were there.
Oakland is the working class home to 500,000 people and one of the nation’s most racially diverse cities. Although it has one of country’s largest ports, many manufacturing jobs have disappeared. In its poorer neighborhoods, 40% of young people suffer chronic respiratory ailments, there are no supermarkets, and ten thousand people are on probation or parole.
Recently, however, hope has arrived in green robes with the potential to build an ecological and equitable economy. Last year, Ron Dellums was elected mayor after promising to grow a local green economy. Then, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights helped convene the Oakland Apollo Alliance (associated with the National Apollo Alliance). The Alliance has brought together labor, environmentalists and social justice activists with a mission to create “green collar” jobs for Oakland residents and to build a local sustainable economy.
...
Global Warming in Argentina - Our Part in the Matter
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 02.27.07
The Sunday magazine in Argentina's biggest newspaper dedicated its cover to the country's contribution to Global Warming. According to the publication, even though the country isn’t near the developed nations levels, Argentineans contaminate more than Indians, Chinese and Brazilians. “Argentina contributes with an amount between 0,5 and 0,6 to the total greenhouse gases emissions, a laughable level compared with the 25 percent the United States emit. But on a deeper analysis, Argentineans emit per capita more than Chinese and Hindus, whose countries are in full economic development, or even more than Brazilians and Uruguayans”. The report highlights that 44% of Argentinean emissions come from the agriculturist and cattle activity, and 70% of that, from the methane that the 55 millions of cows that inhabit the country exhale. According Guillermo Berra, professional from the INTA in charge of accounting the cattle industry emissions for the Kyoto protocol inventory, a way to reduce these emissions would be to change the cows feeding (since the more complicated the food is to digest, the more emissions) and improve their reproductive cycle. With measurements like that, “there could be a reduction between 10 and 20 percent of the emissions”, says the expert. Soy cultivation, gas waste, dirty energy and garbage fillings are among the other Argentinean contributions. Learn about what’s happening and what’s being carried out (or not) to improve the situation.
Picture: Last year, Buenos Aires had one of its worst storms ever, with massive rain and hail the size of golf balls....
Honda F1 Racing Goes Green--On the Outside
by Bonnie Alter, London on 02.27.07
When you are travelling in the fast lane, image counts. Honda has unveiled the colour scheme for their new Formula One 2007 car and it features an image of Planet Earth instead of the usual advertising and sponsor logos. Honda is going a step further. Through a new website myearthdream.com when you make a donation to an environmental charity, and pledge to make a lifestyle change, then you will get your name put on a "pixel" that will make up the image on the car. The driver, that gorgeous hunk Jensen Button, said that he wanted to raise awareness of environmental issues and that "six million people watched the race last year and it can make a big big difference if those millions of people start turning off their lights". Acknowledging the hundreds of millions of lost sponsorship monies, the images of the so-called "earth car"--which Honda expects will get massive media coverage with its environmental theme and lack of branding--will be licensed for use by the sponsors instead. Said a team member "I think this signals a recognition that formula one has to change or it will wither on the vine and become extinct." Yes, but what about the inside of the car? Business as usual. However, there have been a few signs that Formula One racing is trying to become a little more green--last year the sport's governing body put forward proposals (for 2009) to introduce systems that re-use waste heat and exhaust gases and re-use braking energies to provide additional power while making the cars more fuel efficient, but they are still only proposals and not yet in use. :: Sky Sports...
Hold Your Head High on the Bus
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.27.07
TreeHugger loves promoting transit as the greenest way to get around, and a great benefit of it is that you can catch a few zzz's. Sleeping while sitting up is an art in Japan, but not in North America. San Francisco designer Matthew Gale learned "people can sleep when their bodies are held in a rigid state as opposed to only a soft and yielding state - similar to most beds. I applied this concept to the Excubo jacket - a jacket that transforms into a firm and protective shell around the user." You fold up the collar and you have a nice soft place to rest your head. Now if he can integrate a GPS-activated alarm system to wake you up before your station, and a taser to use on the loudmouth with the celphone in the next seat, we will have a whole new sleeping system! ::Matthew Gale see also his neat ::De-Ikea project.
...
Toad Hunters Offered Beer Bounty, say ABC
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 02.27.07
The RSPCA's (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) spokesman* wisely advises the need for a bigger freezer and more funding, in light of a Cairns hotelier’s offer to shout two beers for every bag of cane toads brought in. That’s because there are millions of the things swarming across the Australian countryside. Originally introduced to Queensland as a biological control for sugar cane beetles, 100 or so toads promptly walked off the job and set out to conquer a nation. Now the Australian Museum reckons, “Cane Toads occupy more than 500,000 square kilometres of Australia and have reached densities of 2,000 toads per hectare in newly-colonised areas of the Northern Territory.” And they’ve done this by being rapacious spawners, with an inbuilt toxicity that kills animals that try to eat them. According to the Frog Decline Reversal Project website, "They breed like flies, as the saying goes. Each pair of cane toads can lay 33,000 eggs per spawning (some published references estimate they produce as much as 60,000 eggs!). Fish who eat toadpoles die. Animals who eat toad adults die. The museums have plenty of snakes preserved in jars which were killed by toad toxin so fast, the toad is still in their mouths unswallowed. Captive cane toads will allegedly eat everything from dog food to mice and they keep growing until they reach 25cm in length and over 4 kilos.” So this plan to beat ’em with beer, is a bewdy. (Just don’t give even a lemonade to any toad that brings in a quoll or freshwater crocodile that they’ve killed.) ::ABC Online....
Do I Dare to Eat a Shrimp?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.27.07
We had a bloggers night out on Friday during the Interior Design Show, with Harry Wakefield of Mocoloco, Robert Oullette and Sarah of ReadingToronto , my spouse Kelly of Up with the Lark at Toronto's Izakaya Restaurant. (A new record: Five conflicts of interest in one post!) A problem of writing for TreeHugger too much is that one becomes a bit of a pompous know-it-all, so when Harry ordered shrimp shao mai I had to point out the issues with it. This month's Gourmet Magazine,not the greenest of publications, calls farmed shrimp "one of the most destructive means by which humans produce food. Shrimp farmers clear cut vast coastal fringes of mangroves,-crucial breeding grounds for fish- to create ponds....As rotting shrimp and food pollute the water they move on and hack down more trees and make more ponds" They also pump them full of antibiotics.
Gourmet suggests that American wild shrimp are fine, but the problem is the by-catch- it used to be up to ten pounds of unwanted sharks, sea turtles, flounder and other fish for every pound of shrimp were caught. However the diversity and density of the fish stocks have deteriorated so much that good fishermen have reduced the bycatch to about two pounds, mostly jellyfish. ...
Man Eats only Fair Trade for a Fortnight
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.27.07
As Leonora noted, it is Fairtrade Fortnight in the UK. While I suspect that more North Americans know about Fair Trade than what a fortnight is, two weeks of Fair Trade promotion is a wonderful idea. Ben Clowney is eating nothing but fair trade for the entire period, which I would have thought would mean a lot of chocolate and coffee (my kind of diet!) but in the UK Ben can choose from fruit, herbs, rice, quinoa, nuts and snacks and can wash it all down with wine or beer. He dreads going without weetabix and meat, and thinks that there is enough fruit around to avoid scurvy.
We doubt that one can get that wide a range of fair trade food here, and we don't have fortnights, so here is a challenge: Lets have a Fair Trade Friday, where for the one day we eat fair trade. Transfair has a list of retailers here but I can get by on chocolate and coffee for a day. ::Fair Trade Man...
Pride, Peer Pressure and Marketing against a Common Evil
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.26.07
Craig Mackintosh writes in Celsias about rationing during World War II, illustrated with remarkable posters that resonate today. Craig suggests that rationing didn't work very well and was subject to a lot of fraud and abuse, but in the UK it was more successful and had some interesting side effects:
"The most commonly rationed foods were sugar, meat, oils and other fats. In fact, herds of livestock were slaughtered so the land could be put to use feeding people rather than animals. Locally grown fruit and vegetables, and whole grain bread were the staples. WWII brought the US, and the UK in particular, the closest to vegetarianism than ever before."
The citizens of Great Britain experienced improved health during the war. Despite the strict regulations, according to Marguerite Patten, who worked for the Ministry of Food in Great Britain during the war, the health of the nation was “surprisingly good,” infant mortality decreased, and the average age of death from natural causes increased. “For many of the poorer sections of the community, rationing introduced more protein and vitamins, while for others it involved a reduction in the consumption of meat, fats, eggs, and sugar.” ::Celsias...
The Opel Eco Speedster Says: Diesels Can Rip and Sip at the Same Time
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 02.26.07
The Opel Eco Speedster first wowed crowds at the Paris Auto Show in 2002 and has now popped up in the Discovery Channel’s FutureCar series (see below for the video link). The sleek concept car holds a distinguished place in the growing family of high-performance diesels that are breaking records, as well as people’s prejudices about what diesels can do on the road and the track. The Eco Speedster, with its surprisingly diminutive 1.3-liter ECOTECH CDTI, tops out at 155 mph and clocked an average fuel economy of 113 mpg over a 24-hour road test. A combination of low weight (660 kg/1,445 lbs), minimal drag, mid-engine design, and a 5-speed automatic transmission let the Eco Speedster rip and sip at the same time. Opel built the car to spotlight its ability to make highly-efficient, next-generation diesel cars that are a blast to drive. GM (Opel and Vauxhall’s parent company) sadly doesn’t seem particularly interested in sharing such cars with its North American customers. (more pics after the fold)...
BP Helios House: A Little Better
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 02.26.07
BP are the first to admit that the Helios House is not revolutionary, just "a little better" (they even wrote that on a billboard). But when oil companies actually improve things (instead of just talking about it), it should be noted - encouraged, even. These giants are sitting on so much cash that if they wanted to they could be really big players in greening the future. Instead of funding disinformation campaigns, they could fund research into clean technologies and be leaders.
Back to the Helios House: It is an experimental gas station that tries to be more eco-friendly on the architecture side, and to help educate the public on environmental issues. More after the jump....
Convenient Truths: Only 2 Days Left To Enter!
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 02.26.07
Electricity from Seaweed
by Celine Ruben-Salama, New York, NY on 02.26.07
Fresh seaweed, often eaten in Japanese dishes like sushi and miso soup, can be quite delicious. However, seaweed that washes up on the shore rots and begins to smell. Collection and disposal of it has long been a major burden for local governments along the coast of Japan. What if this seaweed dredged from the shore could be put to productive use to produce fuel for generating electricity? Tokyo Gas Co. teamed up with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in 2002 to find out.
The goal of this joint venture is to create the first power plant in the world that runs off of seaweed. Preliminary research is about to wrap up in March 2007, at which point the results will be used to consider how the system can be put to larger-scale commercial use. After studying the optimal conditions for fermenting kelp, sea lettuce, and other types of seaweed in a test facility in Yokohama, it has been determined that the system is feasible. ...
Most Huggable: Beavers in the Bronx River, Abu Dhabi Going Solar, Big Mowers Cutting Emissions
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 02.26.07
A beaver in the Bronx River? That’s right, for the first time in some odd 200 years… At the center of the oil world, Abu Dhabi announces plans to build 500 megawatts of solar power… Large, fast-moving lakes of melted ice beneath Antarctic ice sheets have scientists worried… Toro turns to green mowing with biodiesel and fuel-cell equipment at the world’s largest golf show… In Australia where droughts are bearing down on farmers, sustainable practices put one farmer ahead of the pack… ...
Daily Canuck Does Green
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 02.26.07
The Daily Canuck is a Canadian news aggregator, putting together news from various sources including bloggers. They've created a "Green News" section near the top of their frontpage and have helped us promote the Convenient Truths contest (2 days left to enter. Hurry up!) and we'd like to thank them for that! It's always good to see news sources helping us spread green information....
The Evangelical Ecologist Hosts Carnival of the Green
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 02.26.07
This week is Carnival of the Green #66 and it's being hosted by the Evangelical Ecologist! Head on over to the Carnival to check out a round up of last weeks green news and events, submitted by other bloggers and green sites. To learn more about Carnival of the Green, where it will be and how to host, please click here to link to our previous post....
In Texas, Good Guys Ride To The Rescue With a "Fist Full Of Dollars"
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 02.26.07
Our graphic is a snapshot of TXU Corporation’s stock over the last three months. Of course, no one can prove that TXU’s recent black-hatted climate cowboy antics – this is the utility that famously proposed eleven (11) huge new coal-fired electrical plants for Texas, using Iron Age technology – were the primary factors behind the stock’s recent, gradual downturn (exponential moving average is the blue line). But it seems likely that the “hocky stick” upswing over the last few days has something to do with a bunch of white hats that rode into town with a greener vision of the future. New York Times has an excellent overview of goings on here . The Times certainly deserves kudos for nationalizing what had been mostly a Texas story. Now that the good guys are in town, there is hope for the citizens of other states as literally hundreds of new coal-fired plants are being shoehorned in before carbon caps become a reality. If the green deal goes down – it’s not a sure thing yet – plans are for the new TXU owners to drop eight (8) of the proposed coal plants and spend some of the saved money on running better grid connections to West-Texas wind farm country; plus there's a commitment to “return the carbon-dioxide emissions by TXU to 1990 levels by 2020 and support a $400 million energy efficiency program”. Yeee Haaaa! For background see our previous posts here, and also here....
Electric Car Plants In Israel?
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv on 02.26.07
(Sabra Carmel 12, 1967)
Israelis are full of original ideas. Go to the doctor in Tel Aviv and you may find your GP is writing a novel, is an expert on French wine and is building a strawbale house in the desert. Israelis are ideas people. Dreamers. Technology enablers. Founders of ICQ (now owned by AOL) were from Israel, the first VoIP phone call was made with Israeli technology; IBM, Intel and General Electric have major research and development centers here - not by chance or because labor is cheap - but because Israelis love to build things from the ground up. Last week, we read in the news that the Israeli Government has finally rubberstamped the plans to build a solar power facility in Israel – even though technology originating in Israel has already been set up in power plants around the world. (Abu Dhabi is also in the news) But what took Israel so long? ...
Ethical Weddings Fairtrade Fortnight Challenge
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 02.26.07
The start of Fairtrade Fortnight in the UK today sees the start of a challenge for Alex Prince, a writer for online magazine Ethical Weddings. She has set herself the task of finding a different Fairtrade wedding item for every day of the Fairtrade Fortnight. Alex says, "I'm a strong believer in the principles of fair trade and I want to show people how they can make this a part of their special day...and in doing so, make it even more special!" Alex wrote about her own ethical wedding in The Guardian last year. Katie Fewings, Co-founder of Ethical Weddings, has said, "I think Alex's idea is an excellent one. It's what Ethical Weddings is all about - taking positive action and giving everyone something to celebrate: the couple and their friends and family, and the workers who are receiving a fair wage for their products, from wine to chocolate, and fabrics to jewellery." You can follow Alex's quest through Fairtrade Fortnight on the Ethical Weddings Blog where she will report her daily findings. If you have any top tips to share please email her: alex [at] ethical weddings [dot] com. ::Ethical Weddings ...
TreeHugger Picks: Print Mags We're Reading
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02.26.07
Awhile back, we posted on what books the TH team was reading (hint: there's another similar post coming soon!) and have picked a few "TreeHugger Bibles" that are required reading for all TreeHuggers at some point, but we like to keep our eyes on the print magazine scene, too. They help us track green trends in the lifestyle, design & science fields, and offer a good litmus test for mainstream media's take on green; every now and then, we get to help out, like with the latest issue of domino magazine. Here are some of our favorite mags that get regular coverage here on TreeHugger.
1) Dwell magazine offers a different, usually greener, take on architecture.
2) House & Garden concentrates on "design for the well-lived life," and we've enjoyed seeing that design get a little greener lately (for a blog full of green design for the well-lived life, check out TreeHugger's blog at their website).
3) Mags like I.D., Wallpaper* and Surface focus more on design and less on lifestyle, and are great places for cool-hunting and the combination of good design & green design.
4) The UK-based Sublime offers a unique take as "the world's first international ethical lifestyle magazine."
5) Sierra magazine and E Magazine offer a green look at the world from all angles, from the activism of the Sierra Club to green trends, news and views galore from E....
Wild Journeys: Sierra, March/April 2007
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 02.26.07
While those of us in the Midwest wouldn't necessarily think so, Spring is approaching! That means different things for different people, but for most treehuggers, getting outside is high on the list of priorities. The newest issue of Sierra, the official magazine of the Sierra Club, anticipates our yearning for the outdoors with a selection of feature articles devoted to landscapes both breathtaking and endangered. Writer Edward Readicker-Henderson details his trip to Greenland, "the locus of [his] childhood dreams," and reports on the changes imposed on this fabled land by global climate change. Daniel Duane's journey to Maui doesn't contain any ice, but does look at another environmental challenge: the damage wrought to the native ecosystem by feral pigs and goats, as well as other invasive species. Backpackers have a range of wild journeys from which to choose as Sierra Club experts discuss some of their favorite destinations. Finally, poet Gary Snyder reminisces on five decades of experience with fire control in the Northwest US....
The 2007 Globie Awards: May I Have the Envelope Please...
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02.26.07
The votes for over 20,000 people have been tallied, and the winners of Environmental Defense's first annual Global Warming Globie Awards (we first mentioned them here) have been announced. Without further ado, the awards (and congratulations) go to: Seattle mayor Greg Nickels, who narrowly beat California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (by a margin of about 30 votes out of 20,000 cast) in the "Best Performance by a State or Local Official" category; United States Climate Action Partnership in the "Best Performance in the Corporate World" category; and An Inconvenient Truth in a landslide in the "Best Film, Documentary, or Website Focusing on Global Warming" category (make room on your mantle, Al Gore!). Exxon-Mobile was the second biggest vote-getter of this year's awards, taking the win, so to speak, in the "Worst Performance by a Corporation or Corporate Official" category, with Senator James Inhofe (R. - Okla.) receiving the most votes in the "Most Egregious Contribution to Public Ignorance and Denial" category. In a newly created "Honorable Mention" category, based on the numerous emails received by ED from voters and supporters, the work of California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and former state Assemblywoman Fran Pavley was honored for jointly authoring and helping to pass AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act. Congratulations to all the winners, for helping further vault global warming into the global spotlight and increasing public awareness on the topic. ::2007 Global Warming Globie Awards via ::Gristmill...
IDS07: Roomy Green Transformers
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.26.07
We have mentioned Roomy's transformer furniture before; we were pleased to learn that they are merging their modern less is the new more aesthetic with green materials. They have introduced a line of furniture for "the Living, Breathing City" made entirely from bamboo, 100% recycled polyester fabrics, 100% recycled polyethylene, sisal and jute. The bamboo top lifts off the coffee table in the picture to reveal a padded bench for addtional seating. ::Roomy via ::IDS...
Eco-Design at the Bluebird
by Bonnie Alter, London on 02.26.07
Off to visit the [re] design show at the Bluebird, a chi-chi restaurant better known for its celebrity status and famous owner than for radical design. Part of the chain of restaurants owned by Sir Terence Conran, and now run by his son; this is the kind of stuff that one would expect to see in Conran stores, not whilst drinking champagne. However, it all fits in with the decor. Suspended from the ceiling of the former Bluebird racing car garage built in the 1920's is the fabulous Cutlery Chair (shown), appropriately welded from reject cutlery from restaurants, hotels and charity shops and individually bent into shape. Osian Batyka-Williams has also designed a drawer-chair: combining an old office chair back, with a drawer as a seat. For the hippest windows: pull-down blinds are made from authentic London Transport route rollers that listed destinations on the front of the old double-decker buses. Some come in black and white, others in red, white and lime green; both would add a modern touch to a minimalist room. Also represented was a favourite and familiar chair made of recycled plastic bags by Cohda Design, seen first in Treehugger almost a year ago.
...
New and Empowered Environmental Front in Brazilian Congress
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 02.26.07
A group of 256 Brazilian deputies placed their signs in a manifest and re-launched the Environment Parliament Front (Frente Parlamentar Ambientalista) in the chamber, a unit that had being inactive for four years. The front was also presented with an agreement with the SOS Mata Atlantica Foundation to calculate and offset all the Parliament’s carbon emissions by planting trees. The manifest that the deputies from all parties signed has 17 points and its main focus is to control the accomplishment of current environmental laws and international agreements, to impel new projects and measurements, and to supervise that environmental programs destined to specific projects are carried out (all 17 points in the extended). Though the front doesn’t imply that all 256 legislators commit their votes to environmental projects, according to its coordinator, deputy Sarney Filho (Green Party), this initiative is a sign that the actual legislature will be more sensitive to environmental defense. According to him, the front’s first challenge will be to approve a package of measurements that includes the adoption of a carbon emissions reduction goal for Brazil and the demand that all wood purchased through public licitations is certified, among others.
Via ioman01 from Hugg
Picture: Environment Ministry Marina Silva, Environment Front coordinator José Sarney Filho, and SOS Mata Atlantica Foundation director Mauro Mantovani sign the agreement to offset the Congress’ carbon emissions....
The Pitfalls of Prosperity: There Goes the Ozone Layer
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.26.07
Apartment Complex, JiangjunAo, Hong Kong, 2004, Edward Burtynsky
As India and China become more prosperous and their citizens join the middle class, they are buying air conditioners. By the tens of thousands. Says Mumbai's Geeta Vittal, owner of five: “All my friends have air-conditioners now,” she said. “Ten years ago, no one did.”
...
Bloomframe: Window transforms into Balcony
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.26.07
Where we live, apartment balconies are mostly radiator fins used for storing empty beer bottles. For the amount of time they are used, they are a huge architectural headache, causing condensation inside and wasting energy.
Then along come Dutch architects Hofman Dujardin with this- a balcony that folds out of the wall when required, but acts as a window the rest of the time. Problem solved. ::Hofman Dujardin via ::Mocoloco via ::Yanko...
Vazu: a Flatpack Vase
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.26.07
Did we say we like flatpack? This vase is no thicker than a piece of paper when flat. Fill it with water and it takes shape and is very stable. Tel Aviv designers T.H+E have engineered and manufactured it out of layers of polyethylene and polyester to be durable and cheap, in three different shapes and sixteen models. It really is deceptively solid and attractive. It is plastic, but for small spaces, when the flowers die you can file it. ::Vazu only fifteen C$ at ::edaas in Toronto, where the shelving system is made from old refrigerator doors mounted on the wall and must be seen to be believed. ...
Computer Addiction Not Rational, Sustainable
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 02.26.07
The last thing on the mind of any addict is the external costs of their actions. Internet addiction has been with us for years but it has yet to make it into the DSM-V. Email addicts are abundant; theres even a 12-step program specifically designed to help you kick the 'bit. Much of the activity in virtual worlds, such as the ubiquitous sex playgrounds in Second Life, are addiction driven as well. China has taken the lead on addressing the problem, citing it as a grave social problem, and instituting a treatment center that uses fairly severe methods. Msnbc, the original reporter, took their copy of the article down. I hope it has nothing to do with the MS in msnbc... after all, it's addiction we are talking about... It might sound funny but there are serious costs to these activities. For one, if you are an employer, you may be sued for firing employees that are addicted to online chatting or adult sites. And the green point is this - if your can't shut off your machine, how are you going to conserve power, get out of your three year upgrade cycle, and stop buying a new cell phone every year? Ask yourself - could you really participate in Shutdown Day? ...
Patagonia’s Gone to the Blogs
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 02.26.07
“The goal of The Cleanest Line is to further Patagonia's mission [Build the best product, do no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis] by encouraging dialogue about the products we build, the sports we love and the environmental issues we’re concerned about. By talking openly about the products we build, Patagonia users can help us achieve ever greater standards of quality and functionality.” A babe in the cyber woods, this blog covers issues we’ve mentioned here before, like land conservation in South America and the Step It Up project. But also asks what causes people to dump their rubbish in the great outdoors and then highlights a wheelchair foundation, providing mobility to the physically disabled poor in developing countries. Welcome to the blogsphere. ::The Cleanest Line...
domino & TreeHugger's Green List: Graham Hill
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02.26.07
Throughout our look at domino magazine's expansive Green List, we've been concentrating on products that can help you go greener, like furniture, fashion and fashion, but how does a real TreeHugger go green every day? domino followed TreeHugger's Graham Hill through a typical day, including his time in a nearly-paperless home office, "if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down" and local beer from Brooklyn Brewery. Graham's got all the right gear (Loomstate & Van's organic cotton shoes and Voltaic's solar backpack) and all the right moves (unplugging to avoid phantom power, riding a bike and the subway instead of driving around New York) to be a green guru and "eco entrepreneur"; you'll have to click over to dominomag.com or flip to page 56 of the print version to see what Graham eats for breakfast, what he washes his hair with, and what time he goes to sleep. ::domino's Green List: Eco Entrepreneur Graham Hill...
The Fair Labor Association Want You
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 02.26.07
Well, they do, if you reckon you’d make a decent Sustainable Compliance Program Manager, all set to implement their new “sustainable compliance methodology for improving factory conditions around the world.” Sounds like you’ll be catching up with stakeholders at home and abroad, with China and Thailand being your initial focus. But move quick, because applications close 5 March 2007. The Fair Labor Association works with 20 leading brand-name companies, as well as 190, or so, Universities and colleges to ensure that the labour practices of their contractors comply with international labour standards. The companies the FLA monitors factories for are adidas AG (including Reebok), Asics, Eddie Bauer, Drew Pearson Marketing, GEAR for Sports, Gildan Activewear, H&M, Liz Claiborne, Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), New Era Cap, Nordstrom, Nike, Outdoor Cap, Patagonia, Phillips-Van Heusen, PUMA, Reebok, Top of the World, Twins Enterprise, and Zephyr Graf-X. Apparently they work more than 3500 factories in 76 countries, with resulting sales totalling $30 billion. The FLA say their initiative is “designed to complement international and national efforts to promote respect for labor rights.” ::Fair Labor Association....
An Inconvenient Truth: Oscar Winner
by Kyeann Sayer, Nomad on 02.26.07
AP Photo
Like nearly every Grey's Anatomy episode, the Oscars generally make me cry and laugh out loud at least twice. This year of feel-good internationalism and "every nominee is a winner" egalitarianism was no exception. However, a brand new, twist complicated the customary emotional roller coaster: greenness. An Inconvenient Truth (unsurprisingly) won Best Documentary. At the podium: Laurie David (producer), ecstatic, and Al Gore emphasizing the nonpartisan nature of the climate change threat. Additionally, the Academy seems to have teamed up with the NRDC to make Oscar's molten foot leave a lighter print, and teach viewers to tread softly as well. Wow. Weird. Love it that millions of people around the world saw that a chunk of Hollywood wants to do something about the U.S.'s imbalanced CO2 contribution. Not so happy that the running Gore candidacy announcement jokes make such an obvious Hollywood/Liberal/Environmentalism punditry target. None-the-less, an amazing night for the folks at Participant Productions and the climate change message. An Oscar win can only mean more people seeing what could have just remained a former Vice President's slide show. ::Oscars ...
Hybrid Taxis Would Slash Smog, Save Billions In Fuel
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 02.25.07
Cleantech Venture Network recently announced it is working to convert taxis to hybrids, in a move that it says could save $50 billion in fuel costs over a decade and slash smog in cities. North America has 196,000 taxis, which drive an average of 10 times more than regular passenger cars. “They are the largest contributors to smog in our cities,” said Jim Harris, a managing partner for the Cleantech Innovation Institute. Switching cabs to hybrids will save cab drivers an average of $1,200 to $1,500 per month on fuel, he said. See also: Hybrid Taxis in New York. :: Red Herring via The Energy Blog ...
THTV Behind the Scenes: Reusable Memory Card Eliminates Video Tape
by George Spyros, New York City, USA on 02.25.07
It’s Oscar day, and we’ve just placed our Vloggie statuette for Best Green Vlog on the mantle of our THTV page. So which of the amazing entries that keep rolling in down to the wire will take top honors in our Convenient Truths contest? For those working on last-minute entries, our entire catalogue of THTV original videos is rotating through the player up top to provide some inspiration. Also, here’s a trick we use to green our video making: For our eco-Halloween special last fall, not only did we for the first time shoot in High Definition video, we also never used or threw away a single videotape in the process. ...
Can I Autograph that Compost Bin for Ya?
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 02.25.07
That’s what people in Hollywood have been asking Global Inheritance and musical group The Roots as part of their new program with schools called Feed Your Roots. While the bin signed by stars like Dave Chappelle, Jill Scott, Common, Fall out Boy, and Isaiah Washington is being auctioned off to help support the program, they’re also giving away 5 specially designed compost bins that have been autographed by members of The Roots to schools that come up with the most creative composting campaigns on their campus. Now we can’t say these bins have actually been “game used”, but they are definitely a great way to show the students in your school that composting is the cool thing to do… ...
Green Geeks Get Tech Oscar
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.25.07
Maggie Gyllanhall hosted the Scientific and Technical Awards banquet Saturday night (picture above is of Scarlett Johanssen is from 2004), where they give out all the boring technical awards and show ten seconds of the event on the real Oscar show. A well-deserved statue went to a team of twleve at Dolby Labs for an idea that has saved 2,000 kilograms of silver and 150 million litres of water each year. Until recently a white light was used to read the sound track from film, and silver had to be added to block out unwanted noise because the colour dyes did not stop enough light. The Dolby people had the idea of changing the tungsten light to a red LED, eliminating the need for silver. They then had to convince theatre owners to convert to red-light readers, and the classic 2001 Kirstin Dunst epic, Get Over It, was the first cyan soundtrack movie. We hope all twelve got to thank their moms. ::Nature...
Bishop Takes Climate Principles To The Doors of Wittenberg
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 02.25.07
Via Ecumenical News International:- Anglican Bishop Richard Chartres of the London Conference of European Churches "has pledged to refrain from air travel for a year, as a sign of his commitment to the environment." Hence his recent journey to Wittenburg for a conference of Bishops, "meant a 1000 kilometre train voyage with changes in Brussels and Berlin"..."Travel takes rather longer," Chartres told Ecumenical News International in Wittenberg, the town where Martin Luther instituted the Reformation...His vision is that "every single church in some way or other … is going to be a place where energy is captured from God, the sun, the wind and transformed into energy for the common good." Image credit: Conference of Churchs...
domino & TreeHugger's Green List: Transportation & Travel
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02.25.07
Like yesterday, we're taking the Green List outside for a look at transportation and travel, TreeHugger-style. In addition to a nod to the WorldChanging book (which has advice on all things green, in addition to travel and transportation), the transportation list emphasizes human power, with a spotlight on Schwinn's electric bikes and a spotlight on clothing designer Lela Rose's custom trike that gets her around New York City. For times when pedal-power won't do, biodiesel and hybrids get the nod, with Mercedes' E320 Bluetec and Toyota's Prius getting the nod. When the time comes to get away, there are green retreats for any taste, including a Mexican casa, Nantucket B&B and Italian farm stay all mixing "eco" with "tourism." We couldn't forget to mention carbon offsets for the flights (and cars); we went with NativeEnergy. There's lots more to see when it comes to getting around and getting away on pages 54-55 on the print version, and at dominomag.com. ::domino's Green List: Transportation and Travel...
IDS07: I Like Oi
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.25.07
I really do. It is a sofa where "to lower unit cost and maximize shipping efficiency, we designed Oi to break apart and interlock like tetris blocks. A complete sofa including arms, base and table ships in a 30"cube. 135 sofas fit in a standard shipping container." Flexible and can be reconstructed in any number of ways, and easy to get up tight stairs in small spaces. Designed by Winnipeg's Cocoon. ::ilikeoi found at ::IDS...
Re:Vision Foments Re:Volt, the First of Five Design Competitions
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 02.25.07
You have the power to change. Urban Revision is looking for revolutionary ideas you have pondered to completely revise the way we live in urban communities. Could you win one of three $2000 awards or 7 honorable mentions and influence the future of urban development with your vision of how:...
IDS07: Suvi Lighting
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.25.07
I am just a complete sap for flatpack; if it slides under a door I am sold. After all, good flatpack designs use materials efficiently, can be shipped inexpensively, and require a lot of creativity on the part of the designer make them 3D without looking like 1970's IKEA. Alex Suvajac blends laser cutting with old fashioned sewing. The wood is hand stained and finished before having the zippers sewn directly onto the wood- simply connect the zippers from the three identical flat pieces and "watch your Suvi Lamp come into form....like a spring flower ready to bloom....ever changing, opening and closing to your liking." empty website and missed opportunity at ::Alexsuvajac found at ::IDS...
IDS07: Historic Woods
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.25.07
The Interior Design Show is full of eye candy but sometimes the simpler booths have the most impact. At TreeHugger we debate whether imported bamboo is better than local hardwood, but what about reclaimed wood? It has always made me a bit nervous, because the lovely old barns dotting the landscape become more valuable as fodder for the mills than they are as structures. (previous treehugger post on one supplier here) Historic woods finds its woods from old buildings and even old piers. However they cut it to only a quarter inch thick and laminate it to formaldehyde free, sustainably harvested baltic birch, so the reclaimed wood stretches three times as far. Being a engineered floor, it can go over concrete. So while American wormy chestnuts are extinct, and there are only so many piers being dug up on the Toronto waterfront, more people get to enjoy it in a stable, long-lasting form. ::Historic Woods found at ::IDS
...
Carbon Neutral Myth? Protesters Take On Offset Companies
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 02.25.07
Having hit the headlines for my purchases of carbon offsets, and my transatlantic romance, this Treehugger is now a little concerned that I’ll come home to find activists chained to my front door. Earlier this week, London Rising Tide, a group of climate change activists, occupied the head offices of the Carbon Neutral Company, one of the leading UK offset providers. The protesters were seeking to highlight what they call the ‘Carbon Neutral Con’. While the group acknowledges that many people purchasing offsets are doing so ‘with the best intentions’, they argue that offsets amount to little more than guilt-relief for high polluting lifestyles. They drew attention to a recent report from Carbon Trade Watch, entitled The Carbon Neutral Myth, which compares carbon offsetting to the practice of the medieval church selling ‘indulgences’ to absolve sinners. Some of the protesters’ objections are technical (for example they question the ‘future selling’ of emissions savings, or the ability of trees to ‘lock up’ CO2), and could therefore be answered by stricter rules and better practice. However, they also claim that the whole concept is flawed, that it encourages fossil fuel use, and that it distracts from the urgent need to find alternatives:
...
