- 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 April 22, 2007 - April 28, 2007
Total this week: 144
George Monbiot Wows the Green Living Show Via Longpen
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.28.07
It is the first time I have seen a standing ovation for a video monitor. Margaret Atwood interviewed George Monbiot via Longpen, which was a challenge because the internet connection to Wales was a bit rough and she had to do a song and dance at the beginning until it got going and boy, with George on the line it got going. George noted that 1.5 metric tons of CO2 were saved, more than we should generate in a year. He speaks so well, answered Margaret's questions but also questions from the floor on war, north/south relations, vegetarianism and responding to Elizabeth May's questions about the Canadian green plan with words that are hard to repeat on a non-partisan website. The audience was captivated.
Margaret Atwood didn't develop the Longpen specifically to fight global warming, but it is such a fabulous way of bringing great authors to smaller centers where they otherwise might not go, and to get the George Monbiots of the world on the road, carbon free. That so many people could respond so positively to an interactive interview by internet was a revelation.
George is so thorough and articulate that they ran out of time before the Longpen could be put into action to sign my copy of Heat. However I am thrilled with my sketch of a TreeHugger by Margaret Atwood, sent seven feet by the remarkable ::Longpen. ...
Science Holds Key to Greener Future
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.28.07
The UK Government's chief scientific adviser, David King, speaks about the human need for science in a recent BBC article. "The challenges facing science, and humanity, as we move through the 21st Century are manifold. I would place none higher than the test we face in our stewardship of planet Earth. " He says that, "Mankind has never had a greater need for science, and for the spark of human ingenuity to apply this to tackling today's great global challenges." King explains that the UK creates more academic papers on the subject than Germany, France or Japan, and only slightly trails behind the far larger economy of the US. He goes on to explain that science has a stern test ahead, as the global population is set to continue rising, mostly in developing countries that aspire to a Western, and therefore polluting, lifestyle. His solution is to encourage talented youth to consider a career in science, and to help develop technologies that will allow us to face the challenges ahead. It is his hope that, "It is a powerful demonstration that in the UK we have been able to grow our economy in real terms by around half since 1990, whilst greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 15%. Action is affordable and is the pro-growth strategy. It is inaction that we cannot afford." :: BBC...
Pope Says 'Respect Creation'
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.28.07
At a Vatican conference on climate change yesterday, the pope said that people need to "respect creation", stating that he believed it was against God's will to abuse the environment. Whatever your stance on religion, it's great when leaders talk about environmental issues, providing that they take the right stance. 85% of the world's population is religious, so if they can be influenced to become greener it would create a huge impact. However, if they have the wrong stance they can similarly do a lot of bad. There is still a worrying amount of evangelical Christian churches that believe that global warming is inevitable, and that it is the beginning of the inevitable collapse of society that comes before the second coming. If you believe that, then you probably don't bother to recycle. The next time you see a Christian sticker on the back of an SUV, you are perfectly justified in informing the owner of the Pope's view on the matter. :: The Guardian...
Found and Fossicked Jewellery
by Kathreen Ricketson, Canberra, Australia on 04.28.07
Rebecca Ward is an Australian based Jewellery (Jewelry) artist (born in New Zealand) who specialises in using found materials for her unusual, humourous and addictive pieces. She scavenges pebbles, glass and other detritus from beaches in New Zealand, and other materials come from rifle ranges, demolition yards, second hand shops and roadsides.
We at TreeHugger really love recycled jewellery, such as Mark Vaarwerk's and Spacefruit's recycled plastic jewellery, and Melissa Kolbusz's industrial recycled materials jewellery.
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Time For A World Climate Management Agency
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.28.07
Back in 1997 Lord Browne of BP famously spoke at Stanford University on the need to take the threat of climate change seriously. TreeHugger's Alex Pasternack explained the modern context of that decade old call to action here. In spite of anything BP has ever done "wrong" in the intervening time, Lord Browne was correct, of course. On that basis, perhaps we should pay attention to what he just said, in yet another invited speech at Stanford University. A few excerpts follow. "And the [1997] speech itself, and the change of policy which it represented, opened up a similar debate across the industry. The instant reaction was, in the enduring words of one industry veteran, that we had "left the church". The more thoughtful reaction led to a process of reconsideration and over time, a realization that the industry had to engage with the problem and to be part of the solution. Many other companies had been moving in that direction over a long period of time. But some stood and continue to stand outside that consensus. That is their privilege in a free society. But the old church is now a pretty small place."...
Tip on TP: Both Bottom Friendly and Forest Friendly
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.28.07
Yesterday Matthew noted that "the toilet paper industry is a very harmful one. It's criminal that tonnes of paper are bleached every day, simply to provide white toilet paper." We should also point out that Canada's boreal forests are being chopped down to make it. In Canada, there are alternatives made from recycled paper. Greenpeace says that "If each household in Canada replaced 1 roll of toilet paper cut from ancient forests with 1 roll of recycled toilet paper, we could save 47,962 trees in a year. "
They have produced a shoppers guide showing which products are forest friendly and which are not. Unfortunately we have tried some (like Loblaw's PC Green) and found it useable as sandpaper, and couldn't get through a roll. However Cascades brand seems soft enough. ::Greenpeace.ca Greenpeace in the USA also provides a list of American TP that is acceptable.
Read also Warren's post on Kleenex Kleercut=Wiping away ancient forests...
Triodos Bank Explores 'Ethical Consumption'
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.28.07
We’ve discussed Triodos Bank before. For those of you who have not heard of them, Triodos is a European savings bank with offices in the UK, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium that invests only in projects with a positive environmental or social impact. 33% of their investments go to renewable energy, 10% to organic farming, 11.7% to urban regeneration, 9.1% to natural healthcare. You get the idea – they take your money and put it to good use.
It doesn’t end there, however, as they also provide some fascinating educational experiences for their customers in the form of their annual general meetings. In addition to getting an opportunity to hear about the bank’s development and growth, customers are treated to an organic lunch, get to meet some of the businesses and non-profits that Triodos finances, and to hear leading environmental speakers discuss the hot topics of the day. This year’s meeting will address the topic of ‘ethical consumption’:
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I'm Not an Ethical Plastic Bag
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.28.07
A few months ago Treehugger reported on the £5 ethical designer carrier bag, made by high fashionista Anya Hindmarch. It came with all the best intentions: launched by Sainsbury's supermarket, profits going to an environmental group, made of unbleached cotton. First it went on sale at a boutique, Keira Knightly was photographed with one, it was distributed as a goodie at chic Oscar parties and it sold out immediately, with bags then being flogged on ebay for over £225. On Wednesday another 20,000 were released at 450 supermarkets across the country. Women stood in line from 2 a.m. onwards to get their hands on this must-have accessory which was all gone by 9 a.m. It is questionable whether everyone in the queue was a keen environmentalist, eager to recycle, but hey--one step at a time. An Anya Hindmarch spokeswoman said she was "completely overwhelmed" by the response and that she hoped "that we have achieved our aim, which was to use our influence in a positive way - to make people think about what they're doing and be more responsible." There is one little problem. Yesterday the Evening Standard revealed that the so-called green carriers were made in China, using cheap labour. And the bag was neither organic nor fair trade. Never mind the air miles. Handbags at dawn: today Sainsbury's denies any duplicity, insisting that it had never claimed that the bag was Fairtrade or organic. It says that it was made in a factory that pays double the minimum wage and complies with Chinese labour law. Hindmarch says that it was shipped by sea. This is an embarrassment for the supermarket which has been making extravagant claims about its green credentials. Activists said that it was bordering on hypocritical and that the whole high-profile episode tarnished Sainsbury's image. Coming to the U.S. on June 20--get in line? :: Evening Standard ...
Canada's New Green Plan: Not Very
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.28.07
I have spent some time trying to find words to describe Environment Minister John Baird's performance in an interview on CBC with Avi Lewis on Friday morning, but can think of few suitable for a family friendly site. (painful listening here) He had 22 minutes to defend the new Green Plan, and used it all to blame the previous government for not doing anything, three times saying "I can't turn back the hands of time", never answering a direct question and just saying over and over "its the best green plan in the world".
Which it isn't. We applaud the ban of incandescent bulbs, which has become the target of abuse from the right wing media, (how many times can I cancel my subscription to the National Post?) but our biggest problem, the tar sands, essentially gets a free pass with "intensity limits"- they have to reduce the amount of GHG emitted for each barrel of oil produced, but can produce as much oil as they can, without caps. ...
California Sets Green Building Material Mandate For Formaldeyde Reduction
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.28.07
Via:- Dow Jones Newswires (subscription only). "California air regulators on Thursday approved the nation's most sweeping restriction on emissions of formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical found in kitchen cabinets, shelving, counter-tops and ready-to-assemble furniture. The rule will require manufacturers to reduce by more than half a toxic chemical [formaldehyde] in manufactured wood..." The standard would begin in 2009 and be fully implemented by 2012. This will be extremely good news for "Columbia Forest Products, an Oregon-based manufacturer that began taking formaldehyde out of its plywood in 2002." It's also great for construction material suppliers who have already have certified formaldehyde free products (like SierraPine Composites, as pictured). California being a huge market-maker, other manufacturers are likely to come all unglued over this. "For some American cabinetmakers, manufacturers and others in the wood industry, the higher standard would force them to use more expensive wood glues and lead to longer processing times. That could affect profits and drive up prices for consumers, said dozens of witnesses who testified during Thursday's hearing." ...
USBCELL: I am not an Alkaline
by EcoGeek.org on 04.27.07
The USBCELL, a AA battery that charges via USB port, has kinda taken the internet by storm, and for good reason. The batteries are sturdy, powerful, and take the annoying clutter of a charger completely out of the equation.
This new advertising campaign isn't just touting the virtues of the USBCELL, it's also shining some negative light on the alkaline industry. And, frankly, that negative light is justified. The "I Am Not An Alkaline" campaign is good for the the world, and for consumers. These certainly are the most convenient rechargeable battery around, lets hope they put help a dent in alkaline sales.
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The Living Wall at the Green Living Show
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.27.07
I visited the Green Living Show in Toronto, which is something everyone within a reasonable distance should do, it is great. Almost all of the exhibits were interesting and perhaps three could be classed as greenwashing (fabulous ratio for shows, if you go, try and guess which ones) , and some are really outstanding.
Some are perhaps revolutionary. Beside highways everywhere, there are sound barriers made of concrete or steel. Anthony Biglieri and Josef Scholbeck have developed the living wall, a double wall of willow with earth filled between, to make a green, CO2 absorbing, growing wall that provides a visual and acoustic barrier that actually does something. What a wonderful idea at ::TheLivingWall...
Purdue Research Could Improve Ethanol Production
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.27.07
Researchers at Purdue have found that when cornstalks are processed to produce ethanol, their particles undergo a change that has not been seen previously. This could pave the way for a viable method of large-scale ethanol production from cellulose. Cellulosic ethanol is better than other current ethanol production processes, because it puts less pressure on food prices. Michael Ladisch, co-author of the research, said, "Cellulosic ethanol would allow industry to expand beyond the limits brought about by corn's other uses, like sweetener production." Previously, cellulosic ethanol has been rather hard to produce, but this research should allow a more economical method to be developed. "This study will help us translate science from the lab to an industrial setting and will help produce cellulosic ethanol economically," Ladisch said. The image shows a cornstalk after the pretreatment developed by the team. The pores on the surface have been opened up, allowing more surface area for the ethanol production process to occur. :: Purdue University...
Restocking the Polluted Yangtze: Fishy?
by Rachel Wasser, Beijing, China on 04.27.07
The panda might be more charismatic - heck, even its poo is popular - but surely the Chinese sturgeon also deserves its place in the sun. Or, rather, in the dank, irreversibly polluted water of the Yangtze. Last week this massive river, source of 35% of China's total freshwater resources, was said by state media to be "seriously" and "large[ly] irreversibly" polluted. This week, 400,000 rare fish were released into the river in an attempt to save its fish stocks from extinction - and to follow up on Earth Day. Included in the masses of fish were about 110,000 Chinese sturgeon. "Weird" animals need protection, too, and the sturgeon is surely deserving. One of the oldest vertebrate species in the world, it's been around for more than 200 million years. Pre-release, the precise number found in the Yangtze was unknown, but placed at about 500. Now there should be about 110,500 - hopefully not all choking for breath, and hopefully not going the way of the adorable and functionally extinct Yangtze river dolphin. We can take comfort from the words of a researcher at the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute surgeon breeding center: "[The sturgeon] have been raised in a water quality similar to that of the river, and should adapt soon." (Lucky them!) Some of the fish have been implanted with devices for monitoring, and those that fail to adjust to potentially noxious freedom may well be brought back to the institute for "recuperation." ::Xinhua News Agency (April 15 and April 23)...
Can You Spare a Square?
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.27.07
Sheryl Crow recently toured the US in a bio-fuel bus, spreading the green word. "I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming," the star said, "Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating."
So far so good, but what exactly did the singer-turned-environmental-researcher have in mind? "I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting." Hardly an exciting idea on it's own, but Sheryl took it to new extremes with the suggestion that we use, "only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two to three could be required".
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Beijing To "Force" Good Weather for the Olympics
by Alex Pasternack, New York, NY on 04.27.07
According to China's top meteorologists, the chances that the skies will open up over the "bird's nest" stadium at the Olympics opening ceremony on August 8, 2008 are 50/50. But the Chinese government isn't known for taking chances -- especially when they've got a huge arsenal of anti-aircraft cannons loaded with silver iodine bullets. "We will use catalytic agents to force the rain clouds over the National Stadium to fall down prior to the opening ceremony," Zhang Qiang, who is in charge of Beijing's artificial rainmaking projects, told the state-run China Daily. Even though the practice is common in China's drought-plagued northwest -- China has the world's largest rainmaking force, employing over 3,000 people -- many scientists question it's effectiveness. Still, Beijing is undeterred, especially considering its other big reason for pulling out the big rain guns: to get rid of the smog. Under its Olympic pledge, Beijing must meet World Health Organization levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ground-level ozone, and lower particle concentrations (aerosol levels) to those found in major cities in developed countries. While Beijing has plans to turn off its own factories and prohibit traffic during the Games, experts have discovered that much of the city's pollution drifts in from other cities in nearby Hebei province, full of factories and cars, and from inner Mongolia, which is rife with sand, dust and toxic smelter plants.
Rain can help to disperse smog, but as atmospheric scientist Ken Rahn, a visiting scholar at Tsinghua University's Air Pollution and Control Institute in Beijing, recently told me, the only real way to fight China's pollution is with serious comprehensive emissions standards, cleaner factories, and a cleaning-up, or a phasing out, of coal. It's a solution that will take much longer to effect than the city's "advanced techniques." But given the chances that rainmaking actually works, and the possibility that it can decrease badly needed rain elsewhere (and not to mention the energy it takes to try it), the long-term solutions offer a more favorable forecast....
Baggin' it in Barcelona: Recycling Bag Fun for Everyone!
by Jenna Watson, Barcelona on 04.27.07
This was announced in February, but we are finally seeing it in homes in the capital of Catalonia. The City of Barcelona has distributed three bags to 720,000 households; yellow, green and blue to correspond with the colours of the recycling containers found in the city. Each bag is decorated with the list of appropriate materials that you can put inside. This not quite city-wide campaign is a pilot project to encourage recycling and hopefully add to the increasing amount of recyclable waste collected in the last few years. In 2006 the City collected more than 266,000 tons of recyclables, representing 31.4% of the total waste generated in the city and 165% more than the year 2000 (5% more than the year 2005). The City says that the biggest growth was in organics collection which has grown 511.8% in 5 years - but this is also an ongoing pilot project whose availability throughout the city has increased annually. Stats for recycling per person per year in Barna read like this: 53 kg of paper, 16 kg of glass, 20 kg of oversized waste like furniture, 8.8 kg of plastics and 53.7 kg of organics. Regardless, the new fandangled recycling bags (kind of like Ontario's blue boxes for curbside collection), made from 100% recyclable polypropylene are aimed at encouraging people not only to recycle more, and more effectively, but perhaps also to start using our beloved, LCA-approved cloth grocery bags. We've seen that they are the best choice according to the Australians, so let's get Catalonia on board. ...
TH Interview: Dennis Joyce, President of AgraQuest
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 04.27.07
AgraQuest President Dennis Joyce; Vineyard Grapes with AgraQuest Product (on left) and Without (on right)
It’s getting to be that time of year here in the Northeast. And it happens to be one that we get excited about: it’s almost that time to plant our garden. Since this year marks the first that our backyard garden is organic (it takes three years), we started looking for products that will coincide. We were interested to learn about AgraQuest, a bio-science company that develops organic products to help protect our garden from those awful pests that we lose so many tomatoes to. And not only do they sell products for the home gardener but to agricultural and institutional farmers as well. Their products do not leave any residue on produce or crops, which is an increasingly important benefit in light of consumer and regulatory pressure to reduce residues. We recently had a chance to sit down and chat with Dennis Joyce, President of AgraQuest, to learn more about their company.
Dennis, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us. How did you become involved in AgraQuest? ...
Kohl's Converting Californian Stores To Solar Power
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 04.27.07
Yesterday, Kohl's announced plans to convert more than 75 percent of its department stores in California to solar power beginning in May. The first stores involved in the project will be in Laguna Niguel and Visalia. Twenty-four of Kohl's 80 California stores will immediately convert, and the company is seeking permits and approvals for another 40 stores in the state. Kohl's management said the company's initial solar foray will generate more than 35 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy.
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Sustainability Week at London College Of Fashion
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 04.27.07
Who better than our friends at StyleWillSaveUs to let us know about the upcoming sustainability week at the London College of Fashion. Starting next week on Monday 30th April, a series of events are planned to celebrate the growing awareness of eco-design in the fashion industry. As you style mavens will have noticed the eco-fashion movement has gone from strength to strength in the UK over the last couple of years and I am particularly proud to say that many of TreeHugger's favourites are British designers: Ciel, Enamore, Terra Plana, Beyond Skin - to name but a few! It is gratifying to see that prestigious design schools such as the London College of Fashion are recognising this trend and promoting it. Virgina Rowe of SWSU will be speaking at the 'Is Green The New Black?' conference day on Monday 30th, Galahad Clark of Terra Plana shoes will also be at this event. To see the rest of the week's events check out the SWSU post. ::London College of Fashion...
More On Hybrid School Buses
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.27.07
Justin recently introduced us to the hybrid school bus. Now, Via Yahoo Finance News, we are able to learn the details:- IC Corporation Delivers the First Hybrid School Buses That Can Attain Up To 70-100 Percent Increase in Fuel Efficiency, 90 Percent Reduction in Emissions. "The new hybrid school buses are built by IC Corporation, the nation's largest school bus manufacturer, and Enova Systems, a leading provider of hybrid drive systems. The hybrid bus is a result of a nationwide initiative called the Plug-In Hybrid Electric School Bus Project. A total of 19 hybrid buses have been awarded to states around the country by Advanced Energy, a non-profit corporation that initiated a buyer's consortium of school districts, state energy agencies and student transportation providers...The initial power train for the hybrid school bus will couple an International® VT365 V8 diesel engine with the 25/80-kilowatt hybrid-electric power train, incorporating a transmission, batteries and an electric motor...The hybrid school buses are also outfitted with a proprietary GPS system called AWARE(TM) Vehicle Intelligence that allows school officials to track the exact location and performance..." TreeHugger notes two related subjects of great importance....
Panda Miti for Tomorrow
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04.27.07
Nope, that’s not some new panda born in China and destined for a life of ease at the Wolong Panda Reserve in Chengdu. Instead that’s Kiswahili for “Plant Trees”, and since Roots & Shoots latest campaign is to plant trees in Tanzania where that’s the national language, they’re asking people around the world if they’re ready to “Panda Miti”. Titled “Rebirth the Earth: Trees for Tomorrow” they’re getting youth involved in the fights against pollution and global warming while helping to increase habitat for animals all at the same time. And it’s not just that they’re working to plant trees in Tanzania either, they’re also focusing on planting native species in their own countries at the same time; particularly here in the U.S. Their goal is to raise $10,000 to create 5 tree nurseries in Tanzania that can serve as hubs for sustainable forestry, and see to it that at least 3,000 individual trees are planted in the U.S. alone… How to get involved? That’s simple, head over to their website and check it out, it could be a great way for your group of students, scouts, etc., to get involved in protecting tomorrow for all of us… Pandas included....
Warmer Than Hell: Spinal Tap Take on Global Warming
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.27.07
It seems that British supermarket giant Tesco are not the only ones going off air-freighted cucumbers. According to a story over at The Guardian, legendary British rockers Spinal Tap have also come to their senses, and are planning to reform for this summer's Live Earth concert being organized by Al Gore (for more info on Live Earth, check out our posts here and here!). The infamous trio will be performing at the London event in Wembley Stadium, and have even released a short film about their growing eco-awareness. Director Rob Reiner explained the band's motivations for embracing activism:
"They're not that environmentally conscious, but they've heard of global warming. Nigel thought it was just because he was wearing too much clothing - that if he just took his jacket off it would be cooler."...
SafeLawns: Urging Americans to Green Up their Lawns
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 04.27.07
A green lawn has all sorts of symbolic meanings for Americans: while biologist E.O. Wilson claims that "human beings have a natural genetic affinity for lawns because their grass-filled open spaces remind us of the African savannahs we evolved upon," lush, uniformly green lawns also signify success and prosperity. As we've noted on a number of occasions, that perfectly manicured carpet of green comes with environmental costs; a number of viable options exist, though, for foregoing chemical fertilizers and pesticides, non-native grass species, and emissions-belching gas mowers.
Seventh Generation's monthly Non-Toxic Times offers a number of tips this month for keeping your lawn green in all senses of the word. They also point to a national organization, SafeLawns, that is dedicated to "...educating society about the benefits of organic lawn care and gardening, and effect a quantum change in consumer and industry behavior" by building a coalition of non- and for-profit organizations that share their mission. On April 4, SafeLawns issued a challenge to American home and building owners on Washington, DC's National Mall. According to the NTT, SafeLawns asked Americans:...
The Largest Health Food Store In The Mideast
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv on 04.27.07
Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye -- everyone in the Middle East. Saddle your camels – Israel is announcing that it is to open the largest health food store in the region and among one of the largest in the world, reports Israel Today. Israelis are definitely slow in adopting the recycling/green lifestyle, but when they do get around to it – they do it with gusto. ...
Where the Druids Use Slide Rules, and They Use Them Well
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 04.27.07
With all this talk about Spinal Tap reuniting to do a Live Earth concert, it brought to mind the fact that druids still exists. And they have some revealing insights on the appropriate use of technology.
Similar to the Beachy Amish, it appears that there is a electro-schism in the Druidian movement. Some sects, such as the New Order of Druids have web sites (warning: druid music), even television stations. Other are more austere; take this piece from the Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, where he speaks out on sustainable technology. The picture pretty much 'sums' up what he feels is appropriate; the closest Treehugger has come to this mindset is this probably this custom wooden iPod case.
All joking aside, there are some interesting points and quotes in this article, including one from Arthur Clarke - "“Every sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”" It reminds me of the movies Waterworld or Beyond Thunderdome that are loaded with gadgetry people are struggling to use. Is this the answer to our woes? Who is ready for the rule to rule?...
Can You Be Single and Green?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.27.07
Perhaps it is the new Green Plan, perhaps the start of the Green Living Show, but all of the Canadian papers are green today. The most interesting was the start of a new column in the Globe and Mail looking at "how individual actions can contribute to global ecological change."
The first in this series by Heidi Sopinka notes that the fastest growing type of household in Canada is the single person. " The new solo-living cohort are young (25 to 44), far more flush than the thrifty jar-reusing widows that once ruled the one-person roost and, as it turns out, the biggest consumers of energy, land and household goods. Now that their numbers are shooting up, people who live alone represent what Joanna Williams, a sustainable development professor at University College London, calls "an environmental time bomb." From washers to toasters, singletons burn through just over twice as much energy per capita as those who live in a four-person household."
Given that most single people live in smaller places downtown, and often do not have cars, I am not certain that Professor Williams' statement would hold up in North America but it is provocative.
Sopinka suggests co-housing, community kitchens (like the Vancouver one shown in picture) as "a way for people to get together to cook in large quantities and then parcel it out." and getting a room-mate. ::Globe and Mail...
Wildcraft
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.27.07
The Brixton Market is an old, meandering Caribbean food market, bursting with energy, atmosphere and a true sense of community. The stalls are bulging with exotic fruits, vegetables, fish, clothing and bargains; the reggae music is pounding away amongst the orderly chaos. Located in south London, it really came to life in the 1940’s when the area became the centre of the immigrant West Indian community. Anna Lucas is an artist living in the area. She has been interviewing the merchants and shoppers at the market about how they use roots and herbs to cure their ailments. She has taken the descriptions of ten of these herbs and made them into a series of gold-printed brown paper bags. Each one has a picture of an herb, in gold, on the front and a transcript on the back. The traders have been giving them out when selling their produce. When this treehugger went searching for the bags several of the traders said “oh the artist, she just shows up and gives them out whenever she feels like it”. An old geezer with a flat cap said that the colours should be stronger on them (he was right). After five stops—success at last. Coriander (pictured) above with quotes on the back: “They are different lot of communities living in Brixton, they are from different part of the world so different part of the world people use different type of herbs. If some people are from Columbia they use more oregano, tarragon, mint and thyme. If somebody’s from Jamaica they use thyme more. There is not one Indian who is not using coriander in their food. Coriander is every day. I see the Indian Mister Singh, he is supplying 400 boxes per day. This means 9000 bunches coriander he supplying in the market." :: South London Gallery...
Sigg Bottle Design Competition
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.27.07
image from Inhabitat
Warren loves his Siggs, and with the current concerns about bisphenol A, we have been thinking that perhaps it is time to pack in the Nalgene and get one. Sigg makes aluminum bottles, and while we still have a little residual concern about the old Alzheimers and aluminum thing, it may be the lesser of two scares these days.
And, SIGG is really into design, with lots of nice ones in the catalogue now. It is sponsoring a competition called "what's your eco-style" and inviting designers to "show off your own eco-conscience on a SIGG bottle" . Unlike those competitions that don't have prizes other than "exposure", here if you win you get a hundred of your own designs to flog on streetcorners or give to friends. (although a royalty like every other industrial designer gets would have been nicer.) Sign up at ::Sigg via ::Inhabitat
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Living with Less: Hydra Appliances
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.27.07
Hydra was a mythical beast with many heads; Hydra appliances are are multifunction designs that theoretically take up less space but end up just crowding countertops, and I couldn't decide if this should be in the Untreehugger or the Less is more category. Product Dose did a summary of a number of them and we wonder if they do any of their functions very well. The silliest is probably the 3 in 1 breakfast maker- a coffee maker, toaster oven and egg griddle all in one. Other versions included a toaster that has an egg poacher and a microwave with a toaster built in. We would think that a frying pan would be a bit more versatile and permit a bit more variety in your breakfast.
We did like the composters, both shown on TreeHugger here and here, and the countertop dishwasher looked interesting (although you could probably zip that many off in the sink in a minute or two) and since we think that small fridges make great cities, we found the fridge interesting if expensive. See them all at ::ProductDose...
ABC Home Strikes Green Gold with Grounded Jewels
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04.27.07
What is “the world's largest retailer of carpets” doing selling environmentally and ethically responsible jewellery? It’s a question that could also have been asked when they started selling organic homewares, or a line of organic home cleaning products. In the press release launching the jewellery to be known as the Grounded Jewel Collection, Paulette Cole, CEO of ABC Home, said, “It’s a natural progression to develop collections that are in line with our values. With the environmental movement steadily gaining momentum, consumers are open to incorporating “green” into all aspects of their life, and this is an obvious niche to fill. [albeit one also inhabited by the likes of GreenKarat] As a mission-based company, we feel that compassionate and sustainably created jewelry resonates with a greater magnitude of beauty and can be worn with a deeper sense of purpose.” ...
Fragile Future from Drift: The Possibilities of LEDs
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.27.07
A wonderful thing about LEDs is that talented designers are using them to develop entire new ways of looking at lighting. It is like the computer revolution, when back in '77 Ken Olsen, the head of minicomputer maker DEC, said "there is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home"- he just never saw the possibilities of the technology and the creativity of the people using them. That is where we are with LEDs- the first reaction is to make them fit into conventional fixtures and treat them like regular lights.
Or, you can be like Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn of the Dutch design firm Drift, who are looking at lighting in entirely new ways, taking the attributes of LEDs and inventing new connections and patterns.
Fragile Future is "a modular light system overgrowing the wall. One module is a visible circuit with little lights. This module is easy to attach to the next one (in seven different ways), while the switch-leg will continue. So it is possible to create a composition from just a few, up to 50 modules, according to the space and atmosphere." made out of real dandelions, or an alternative that is less fragile. ...
EGBNY Project Earth Day Fashion Show
by Olivia Zaleski, New York City, USA on 04.26.07
Yellow Loyale Sundress and Ekovaruhuset’s Gown, credit: Josh Wiese via eco-chick.com
Eco Fashionistas united for the EGBNY Project Earth Day Fashion Show to enjoy a glamorous evening of champagne, organic hors d’oeuvres, and leggy models scantily clad in bamboo clothe, soy-fiber, and organic cotton. The event featured a student design competition and runway show of emerging professional eco-designers to raise awareness and draw attention to fashion that respects the environment, but is also glamorous, luxurious, and trendy. ...
Wave Hub off Cornwall Recieves Funding
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.26.07
7,500 UK homes could soon be powered by clean wave energy, thanks to a £21.5 million government grant. The project, 10 miles off the Cornish coast, will cost a total of £28 million, and now has sufficient funds to go ahead. Planning permission still needs to be sought, but hopefully this offshore project should be less of a problem than recent attempts by UK politicians to install green energy sources in their homes.
The project will include a hub into which various generation devices could be plugged. According to Stephen Peacock, who works for the RDA who provided the grant, "Wave Hub has the potential to make an enormous contribution to tackling climate change and we believe it could transform the wave technology industry." :: The Guardian...
Planet Tells IT Managers to Do Their Jobs (or Become Irrelevant)
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 04.26.07
So says Peter Sondergaard, speaking at the Gartner Symposium ITXPO 2007. His keynote was on emerging IT trends and how they will affect IT on a personal and professional level. Peter highlighted four major trends; green IT was one of them. Score one for the good guys.
Peter thought that this would play out in a few ways; he mentioned that "by 2009, organizations will be required to deliver scaled down versions of applications, content, and value added services to a customer's personal, virtual, or home computing environment", suggesting a lighter, "just enough" approach when it comes to computer use. He also warned that the strong public and political interest around environmental issues will affect all suppliers and users, and IT organizations need to be cognizant of its environmental impact. "IT directly impacts the amount of CO2 emissions and can impact the reduction of CO2 emissions." Green is big, and it is unpredictable," said Sondergaard.
Gartner has been promoting this sort of crazy talk for some time, where the IT industry needs to fully recognize how much waste they are creating (more than the airline industry.) Sondergaard ended with a quixotic warning; IT managers had better select and purchase IT technology on the basis of improving business performance, or else they will quickly become irrelevant. Aha - essentially revealing what every IT pro knows, that the trillions we blew on IT up and into the early 21st century was mostly a waste. Maybe he was going for a laugh at the end, but it really was a revelation.
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Phoenix Motorcars Gonna do the Plug-In Thing
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 04.26.07
By now I’m sure you’ve heard about Phoenix Motorcars and its not quite attractive but very advanced electric vehicles. Pacific Gas & Electric laid down its money to add Phoenix SUTs (sport utility trucks) to its fleet, and George Bush recently ogled a Phoenix on the White House lawn. Now it comes over the PR wire (via Green Car Congress) that Phoenix will also be offering a plug-in hybrid option for its line. With a small internal combustion engine traveling along with the advanced battery pack, the vehicle won’t be limited to its 150-200 mile battery range, but will be able to kick into gas mode whenever stored electricity starts to peter out. All cost issues notwithstanding, many think that the plug-in configuration is key in convincing car buyers that electric vehicles are viable and practical for those of us who aren’t George Clooney or Ed Begley Jr. ::Green Car Congress Also check out AutoBlog Green for some video of the SUT in action and words form the company’s VP of sales and marketing. ...
Fewer Trash Collections, More Recycling
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.26.07
Weekly trash collection in the UK is set to be a thing of the past as most councils move to a fortnightly pickup. There has been a lot of negative coverage of the new scheme, with residents claiming that it's unsanitary to have rubbish bags lying around for up to two weeks. However, councils claim that 30% of waste is recycled under fortnightly pickups, compared to 23% with weekly pickups. These estimates suggest that £22m could be saved by reduced landfill fees, as this extra recycling would reduce waste by 1.2m tonnes.
Sir Sandy Bruce Lockhart, the chairman of the Local Government Association, explained that English residents have simply got to alter the way they percieve refuse collection, "For decades people have been used to being able to throw their rubbish away without worrying about environmental consequences or rising costs. Those days are now over." :: The Guardian...
Tasmanian Devil on Sick Leave, Gets Island Vacation
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 04.26.07
Photo Credit: Arts Tasmania
The real-life Tasmanian devil could not look more different than its slobbering, whirling, rabbit-terrorizing animated counterpart, even if it tried. And, while the iconic Loony Tunes fireball is safely ensconced in Toon Town, the fox-size Australian marsupial is being threatened with extinction by a mysterious and contagious cancer that spawns misshapen facial tumors.
"I think there's a real risk of extinction within 20 years across the whole of Tasmania," says Hamish McCallum, a professor of wildlife research at the University of Tasmania, in an interview with Discovery News....
TreeHugger Reader Survey -- Who Are These People?
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04.26.07
We want to learn more about you! It's been an eternity since we had a reader survey, but this one is good, and to thank those who do it, we're offering 3 Voltaic bags from Voltaics Systems which we'll draw randomly from those who took the survey.
To take the survey, follow this link. Thanks!...
The TH Interview: Gerry Cooklin and Susan Inglis of Sustainable Furniture Council
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.26.07
We have covered the founding of the Sustainable Furniture Council (SFC) here, here and here. The SFC is the result of a challenge by Gerry Cooklin, CEO of South Cone, to the industry’s leaders to: "stop destroying the environment and join me in developing cooperative, sustainable business practices that will meet the changing consumer demands for greater corporate responsibility." The group is still very much in its early stages (the website is still under development), but Cooklin, along with SFC Executive Director Susan Inglis, recently took some time to answer TreeHugger’s questions about their reasons for starting the SFC, why they consider the furniture industry to be such an important driver towards sustainability, and how they expect the Council to operate as an agent for change.
Treehugger: Can you tell us a little bit about what inspired you to start the SFC?
Susan Inglis: Gerry started it, so he will have to answer this question, but I can tell you what inspired me to get involved and help make it happen. I happened upon a meeting that Gerry had in his showroom last fall to discuss the idea of forming the council, and to discuss the idea of the industry taking responsibility as a body for promoting sustainability. Immediately it was clear that this was too good an idea not to be realized, and also clear that I was being called to action. I love the power of taking responsibility, and it was especially inspiring to be called to lead the industry to a new level of responsibility (that is ‘response-ability’ as in the ability to respond. We can always respond, and I love being reminded of that!)....
Most Huggable: San Fran’s Greenest Building of Them All, The Tribeca Film Fest, and TerraCycle’s clash with Miracle-Gro
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 04.26.07
At an alarming rate, some of Hawaii’s rarest birds are going rare to the extreme… The Tribeca Film Festival draws that stars, but climate change dominates… Green buildings are everywhere, but which one leads the pack? San Fran’s new Civic Administration Tower will raise the bar yet higher… Purdue researchers say their H2Car paradigm could run the country on a hydrogen hybrid system… The organic fertilizer TerraCycle, notable for worm poops and reused plastic bottles, has fallen into the sights of Miracle-Gro’s legal rifle… Most Huggable is a daily roundup of some of the most tantalizing stories from Hugg.com, TreeHugger’s user-generated green news site. Why not submit your own green news? ...
Study Shows Outdoor Education Improves Science/Math Test Scores
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04.26.07
June Laakkonen was my 5th grade teacher, and after I figured out how to spell and pronounce her last name (say “lack-uh-nen”), and then worked past the fact that her face featured a perpetual frown I came to realize that she was actually a terrific teacher with a real sense of humor… In fact, she once said with a smile “Don’t frown so much Kenneth or you’ll wind up looking like me when you're old!” It feels odd to remember that particular conversation over 20 years later, though I can actually hear her saying it as we walked into the classroom back then… But the things I clearly remember most out of that entire year were the two trips that she and her husband organized with parents to take us out of the classroom for several days in both spring and fall to experience the woods and marshlands of eastern Long Island. It’s something they did with every class, every year, and we won’t get into the fact that I’ve heard the site’s now been turned into waterfront condo’s; but I can say for sure that we learned a whole lot while we were camping there that stayed with us afterwards. In fact, so much so that if I look back I’m pretty sure those trips got me thinking about protecting the planet a long time before I ever understood why being an “environmentalist” is really about protecting humanity at all. So now, when I read that a new study shows trips like those may actually improve test scores as well, it kind of intrigues me to think how she would view it…...
Green Fireworks Come in All Colors
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.26.07
In a perfect example of green design, a firework company has developed a new type of casing which creates a perfect sphere when it explodes, is biodegradable and is cheaper to produce. By mixing sawdust and rice chaff with biodegradable plastic, they've developed a product which is cheaper and greener than it's predecessors. Company president, Tokuo Kon, said, "we used materials that are unique in Akita, an area that is rich in wood and rice," Kon said.
My only problem is that I hear the term 'green' far too much now in relation to product design. It's something that all companies should be working on, constantly. If an item is truly revolutionary or innovative, then I have no problem with the term. However, if the 'green' item is just a slightly less harmful product, then does it really deserve the moniker? There are so many products that profess to be less harmful to the environment than existing brands, that surely we are reaching the point where new products should be assumed to be green? Today, we should be punishing harmful products with a negative prefix, rather than promoting less harmful ones with a positive one. Perhaps we should drop that term, and instead label non-green items with a prefix indicating how antiquated and harmful they are. But what color to choose; grey, brown? :: Asahi...
Earth Day Festival Gains Momentum
by Celine Ruben-Salama, New York, NY on 04.26.07
Without skipping a beat, plans to expand America’s biggest Earth Day celebration for 2008 have begun. This past Earth Day, the Green Apple Music & Arts Festival was attended by over 200,000 people in New York, Chicago and San Francisco and reached millions more through print, radio, TV and online media. If all goes as planned, next year the festival will take place in additional cities.
By combining live musical performances from diverse genres with educational outreach and cultural events the festival successfully disseminates the environmental message to a wide audience. TreeHugger Jessica Root, who manned our booth at the New York arm of the festival, confirmed that indeed the Green Apple Music & Arts Festival was reaching a new audience. “Plenty of business people stopped by on their lunch break,” Jessica reported. “Many had never heard of TreeHugger before, but were curious and enthusiastic about the concept. Lots of people signed up for our daily and weekly email newsletters too.” ...
Hand-made Retro Wallets Made From Recycled Cassette Tapes
by Kathreen Ricketson, Canberra, Australia on 04.26.07
Cassette tapes are a now obsolete technology (thank goodness), but I imagine there are plenty still out there in the bottom of peoples drawers soon to be heading to junk shops and rubbish bins. One designer has found a pretty groovy use for them. Marcella Foschi, tears apart found cassette tapes and joins them back together with zippers, all handmade and her own original design, they made their debut at the Tokyo Designboom 2006 Mart where young design professionals showcased their latest products. These are fun, practical (they are more of a pouch or purse than a wallet) and neon coloured, with the added benefit of nostalgia (check out some of the artists represented). Best of all though they make use of a something that would otherwise end up in landfill. ...
TreeHugger Radio: Grist’s List, The Value of a New York Tree, and the Dispatch from China’s Auto Shows
by Team Treehugger, Worldwide on 04.26.07
As you rub your eyes and emerge from the Earth Day haze, TreeHugger Radio gives you the post-Earth Day hangover episode. This week, we talk to David Roberts from Grist about the webmag’s unorthodox list of chart toppers, including the least noteworthy green news stories, the most eco-friendly nudie model, and the strangest thing to turn into biodiesel. TreeHugger’s own Alex Pasternack reports from Beijing on China’s recent car show season, and Emily Gertz from Worldchanging explains how to hang a price tag on a tree. Catch TreeHugger Radio each week on Air America’s EcoTalk, here on TreeHugger.com, or pick up the podcast on iTunes. (listen/right click to download) ::TreeHugger Radio ...
The Suitcase Bike: It's Real!
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 04.26.07
From China comes this bike that can transform itself into a suitcase. There was some doubt whether this bike would actually be produced, but now we've heard that it's in production (see photos below) and will be available sometime later this year. A prototype of the bike was on display last week at the Canton Fair in China. The prices will probably be $399 USD. Here's a video demonstrating the bike opening and closing:...
Return of the Solar Powered Bikini
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.26.07
Treehuggers love solar powered bikinis (or do they love the pin-ups of the girls?), so here is another one. The one-piecer has solar panels on the front, artfully placed around Spanish swimming champ Gemma Mengual's cleavage. They will harness enough energy to charge up your iPod or mobile, whilst parading along the beach. This bathing suit is going to be made commercially and available in the shops soon. It was shown as part of the fun at an underwear fashion show in Valencia, held for the World Cup Sailing. The manufacturer, Triumph, has also made a nautically-themed bikini with a silver anchor in an indescribable place, in homage to the sailing competition. :: gizmodo...
The TH/Slate Green Challenge, Week Two
by Meaghan O'Neill, Newport, R.I. on 04.26.07
More than 20 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States come from energy use in homes. A major source of the problem is heating, and while it's almost summer, this topic is still an essential element in reducing your carbon load overall. Some of us keep our homes warmer than we need to, and most houses leak some heat (and, in the summer, cool air)--a waste of energy and source of greater CO2 emissions. In this week's TreeHugger/Slate Green Challenge, we'll help you figure out how heat is escaping the confines of your abode and what you can do about it. Taking action will pay off when you're ready to turn on the air conditioning, too.
Wondering what the heck we're talking about? Click ::Slate/TreeHugger Green Challenge Intro
For this week's installment, click ::Heating.
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Using Woody Biomass To Extract Hydrogen From Water & Carbon From The Atmosphere
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.26.07
Wood contains carbohydrates, and is sort of obvious, the "hydrate" suffix in the term "carbohydrate" implies hydrogen. It gets there from water, during photosynthesis. By simple pyrolysis, essentially just a matter of heating wood in an oxygen starved "retort," it's easy to extract this naturally collected hydrogen and a bit of methanol, setting aside, if we wish, the charcoal byproduct for sequestration. The charcoal might just be "buried" as suggested in a research paper on this topic published in the journal Biomass and Bioenergy Technology Review. Alternatively, the charcoal byproduct of wood pellet pyrolysis could be used for a soil amendment. Viewed and managed in this way, trees become the ultimate climate protection machines, certainly deserving of the Richard Branson-offered prize. But who gets the award? The extraction is very old technology after all. ...
CO2 Saver: Toolbar Reduces, Measures Computer Energy Use, Carbon Emissions
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 04.26.07
Computer applications designed to minimize our ecological footprint (or "ecosoftware," as Lloyd dubbed them) continue to roll out: yesterday, Snap.com released its CO2 Saver toolbar. The app not only helps users apply power-saving settings to their computer, but also tallies the amount of CO2 not emitted by changing those settings. On the one hand (as Lloyd noted in his review of Local Cooling), this application adds no real functionality -- all of the settings can be changed through the normal power options in most operating systems. On the other hand, though, it does drive home the idea that our use of home electronics has consequences for the climate. Like the gas mileage displays in most hybrid vehicles, applications like the CO2 Saver could spur our sense of competition with ourselves to further lower our emissions... and that would be useful! ::The CO2 Saver from Snap.com...
Transformer Furniture in the New York Times
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.26.07
We love transformer furniture that serves multiple functions; it lets you live in a smaller space and still have room for guests. The New York Times has a slide show with a wide range of attractive units,(some seen previously on TreeHugger) from this simple Danish ottoman for $ 298 through to a $ 6,290 lovely number from Ligne Roset. Watch the slide show at ::New York Times
For Mobile Architecture fans, Design within Reach hired Chris Deam to design a modernist retro Airstream complete with George Nelson ball clocks and Paul Smith upholstery, for “rock climbers, surfers, dot-com guys.” It packs a lot of living into a 16' trailer for $ 49,000. ::New York Times...
One Planet Agriculture: UK Organic Industry Looks Beyond Pesticide-Free Food
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.26.07
We’ve covered One Planet Living plenty of times before. Now we’ve come across One Planet Agriculture, a campaign from the Soil Association, the UK’s governing body on organic food. The campaign is intended to address fossil fuel and energy use in agriculture and food systems, and to help prepare the industry, and consumers, for the challenges of climate change and peak oil:
“A new and irresistible driver will then, over the next few years, force change in the way we live, farm and buy our food. Whilst many of us have anticipated these changes, it has been the debate over environmental care, closer connection between citizens and the land, and animal welfare that has raised awareness of the need to change both our methods of production and the means by which we process and distribute our food. In the future, however, what has been 'nice to have' will become imperative.”...
United Plant Savers: Planting the Future
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.26.07
Many TreeHuggers are interested in ‘alternative’ and natural remedies. It is a shame, then, that some unscrupulous companies are over harvesting many wild plants used in such remedies, sometimes driving them to the point of extinction. American ginseng is a prime example of over harvesting. It is one of the most lucrative medicinal plants -- a single ginseng root can cost between 40 and 60 dollars ¬– and is thus in very high demand from wild crafters.
Fortunately there is an organization that is dedicated to preserving, conserving and restoring native medicinal plants and their habitats in the US and Canada. Since 1994, United Plant Savers has been working to educate and inform consumers and industry alike, and has set up a network of ‘botanical sanctuaries’ across North America to act as education centers for medicinal plant conservation and propagation. The organization also co-ordinates community grant programs, plant give-aways, and publishes the Journal of Medical Plant Conservation. We wish them luck in preserving and restoring North America’s botanical, medicinal and cultural heritage for many generations to come.
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TH Blog Love – Our Favourite Greens Of The Week
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 04.26.07
Ecorazzi: Daryl Hannah: Where Do Your Eco-Jeans Come From? by Rebecca Carter
"The Global Business Summit for the Environment was held in Singapore last week, and our favorite celebrity video blogger was there. As the Day 2 Keynote Speaker, Daryl Hannah spoke about greenwashing and how we need to not just care about the materials that we use, but where they come from."
Evangelical Ecologist: Carnival of the Green #74 by Don Bosch
"Hope everybody had a terrific Earth Day (Creation Day for many). Not sure how things were in your neck of the woods planet, but spring is busting out all over New England. Couldn’t have asked for a nicer weekend. Always a pleasure to host the web’s greenest carnival on our completely solar-powered website."...
Shipping Container Housing: Are the Floors Toxic?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.26.07
When we wrote about the LOT-EK building of containers for New York City we received a comment from Marino Kulas of Conforce International, noting that "over 10 million tropical hardwood trees are cut down every year in order to make container floors. These are trees that take 40-60+ years to mature.Having said this, wood is also a less then perfect raw material due to its inherent natural characteristics when it comes to this application." (Conforce makes a wood-free substitute for floors)
My dad was in the container business, and I once asked him if I could have some container flooring material for use as kitchen counters. He laughed and said that container floors are treated with serious insecticides and fungicides to keep alien bugs out of Australia. As container housing becomes such a popular trend, I have wondered if the floors were still treated and asked Marino Kulas, the President of Conforce, if this was still the case; he confirmed that it is. (recent Australian requirements in big PDF here)
According to "Studies on the sorption of organochlorine insecticides by flour stored on or near treated laminated timber or plywood as used in freight containers", Wood preservatives containing a number of organochlorine insecticides, including aldrin, dieldrin, chlordane and lindane, have been approved in Australia for treating timber used as structural components in cargo containers"
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Laura Ashley ReBorn As Organic
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.26.07
For a time, in the 60's, a Laura Ashley was the quintessential dress for the English country rose look with its floral prints, smocking and long ruffles. It was the image of bucolic fields, picnics on white tablecloths, and wildflowers. Next the hippies took it on and redefined it as the earth-mother look. Then Laura Ashley had a fatal fall down the stairs in a country house and the brand lost its way for years. It has returned to the main street and is honoring those glory days by introducing an "archive" collection. They are bringing back the old patterns and modernizing the styles. All the clothing will be made out of 100% organic cotton from Turkey where it meets the Sustainable Textile Standard. It will be based on patterns and clothing gathered from the extensive archive collection in Wales. Designers have unearthed the trademark daisy-print shirt, a floral smock and a patchwork string bikini--Woodstock revisited. An original 1960's soft-quilted bag is quite retro and there is a floor-length halter dress for those summer parties in the country. The tee-shirt will have the original logo. Lady Diana loved it in her youth; it remains to be seen whether a new generation will embrace it. :: Laura Ashley...
Less is More: Parking Your Office
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.26.07
Parking cars wastes so much space; here is a way to use it, park your office on top. This design office near Tokyo Station is built from an aluminum prefab system called Tsubomi, covered in MocoLoco earlier. Why not do this everywhere? ::Tsubomi via ::Core77 ...
FLICK OFF: New Website Promoting Conservation
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.26.07
Richard is on the way to Nunavut to go sledding and "witness first-hand the dramatic impact of global warming", but stopped in Toronto to crap all over the Government's new environmental plans as being too little and way too late, and to launch FLICK OFF, a new conservation campaign with a provocative name and a certain style of writing. Their plan:
"What are we gonna do? We’re going to FLICK OFF, that’s what. If everybody flicks off—if everybody starts conserving energy—it’ll make a huge difference. Here’s why: we burn fossil fuels for energy. Burning fossil fuels releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases. And greenhouse gases, well, they came by their name honestly. They turn our super fabulous planet into a greenhouse. The biggest culprits? Coal for electricity. And oil for cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships....
New York Moves Closer to Renewable Future
by Eric Kane, New York, NY on 04.26.07
In the wake of Mayor Bloomberg’s Earth Day policy speech, New York State has made an important move towards sustainability. According to the New York Energy Research and Development Authority and the New York State Public Service Commission, 21 renewable energy generating facilities have been selected to help the state achieve its renewable portfolio standard (RPS). The selected facilities include 10 existing hydroelectric plants, 9 new wind facilities, and 2 biomass plants. Combined, the selected plants will move New York closer to achieving its RPS, in which 25% of electric generation will come from renewable sources by 2013....
Green Living Show Starts Friday in Toronto
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.26.07
We are getting excited about the Green Living Show in Toronto tomorrow. Al Gore sold out already, but what a lineup: Daryl Hannah, astronaut/photographer Roberta Bondar, Alicia Smith and JB MacKinnon of the hundred mile diet, Jamie Kennedy, and gasp, get my camera, Michael D'Estries of Ecorazzi!
We mentioned earlier that Margaret Atwood's Longpen is set up for signings by Robert Kennedy Jr., George Monbiot, David Suzuki and Tim Flannery.
I hope that I don't damage anything at the Ride and Drive, where I will "test-drive hybrid, fuel-efficient and electric cars, as well as earth-friendly motorcycles, scooters, Segways and bikes". ::Green Living Show...
Try The Simple Things First
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.26.07
When I was a kid my father taught me to trouble-shoot the simple stuff first: like when the TV would not turn on, to look behind to see if it is plugged in. Can't count the number of times that principal has panned out. With water shortages looming could there really be a simple way to encourage conservation by those on public water? A market based way forward? Via Greater Milwaukee Today:- The South Eastern Wisconsin City of Waukesha plans to be the first city in the state to reverse it's current water rate charge structure (as pictured), charging heavy users more than light users. "The [water] commissioners have been discussing the idea for months and Thursday decided on the final numbers. Any residential customer using more than 30,000 gallons in a quarter would be affected by the increasing rates. In the current rate structure, the more water used, the cheaper the rate is." We don't have a link to the officially published rate numbers, nor do we know if the revisions will have the desired effect. These unofficial numbers we saw on a local blog might be indicative: first 30,000 Gal. - $1.69 per thousand; Next 10,000 Gal. - $1.92 per thousand; Over 40,000 Gal. - $2.24 per thousand. The city water management plan lays out more details. Where else is this happening? Does it work as hoped? Image credit: City of Waukesha....
Human Powered Vehicle (West Coast) Challenge
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04.26.07
When a bike costs around $10,000 USD you’d want it to go fast, and that’s what some of the bikes at the recent Human Powered Vehicle Challenge aimed to do. Held recently at NASA’s Ames Research Center, California, 26 teams of college engineering students squeezed their strong legged compadres into weird looking wheeled contraptions for a series of time trials and sprints, all vying for the princely prize of $500! The model we show is from Portland State University and is their first entry in the comp. According to Wired’s correspondent, Jenna Wortham, who also took the pics the team worked on the frame structure so it would be extra stable and capable of taking tight corners at high speeds without capsizing. She thought it looked like an iPod on wheels, but Portland put all smirking aside by coming through with a third placing overall. Though we are unsure what speeds they attained. The East Coast Challenge is on 11-13 May 2007 in Orlando, Florida. More pics at ::Wired....
Do You Know Where Your Banana Has Been?
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 04.25.07
This is the question that Dole is asking their consumers. And they’ve got the answer! Now on the Dole Organic website, consumers can “travel to the origin of each organic product” Dole produces. By entering the three digits Farm Code located in the sticker of their fruit you can visit the country, the farm, view photos and learn more about our products and our people. We find this a very interesting concept that seems extremely beneficial for consumers. Via ::Hugg ::Dole Organics...
Community Wind Farm in Danger
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.25.07
Adam Twine raised over £4m, from more than 2,000 investors, to build a co-operative wind farm called the Westmill Wind Farm Co-operative. He successfully won a legal struggle over planning permission, but has another hurdle before work can start. Tax breaks and increased popularity have sent turbine prices up, and the estimated cost of the project has risen by 30%. Twine believes that the project is worth continuing with though, "If it does work, in the long term, it will have been the right choice because it increases the potential for it [community wind farms] to happen in other places."
Twine has had to open the co-operative to new investors, and the race is now on to find another £850,000 in the next week, or planning bureaucracy will mean a further two year delay. If you want to donate to the project, with a minimum of £250, then please head here and help them reach their target. :: The Guardian
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Building Green: Energy Efficiency and Aesthetics From The Same Materials (Part 13)
by Ted Owens, New Mexico, USA on 04.25.07
The small Japanese lamp (about 3 watts) is plugged into the same electrical outlet as the television and stereo system. This lets you know that there is power to the appliances. If you are not using the TV or stereo, the light reminds you to turn off the power, and thus the phantom loads.
In the last column, I discussed the advantages of generating electrical energy for your green home by using photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight into electricity. Even if your photovoltaic system won't be added until well after the home is completed, it's a good idea to start thinking about the process now. The installation will be greatly simplified if you add a run of empty conduit going up to the roof of the house. Then, when you are ready to "go solar", the electrician's work will be much easier as the wiring can be routed through this pre-exhisting conduit. Not only is it less expensive to install this conduit during the construction phase, it will save you the trouble of having to break through the attic and walls to do the wiring after the fact. The conduit will run to where your inverter will be installed, which is most likely near your circuit breaker panel, etc. This pre-existing set-up will allow you to install a grid-intertie system at some point down the road with minimal modifications to your home....
Building Green: Energy Efficiency and Aesthetics From The Same Materials (Part 12)
by Ted Owens, New Mexico, USA on 04.25.07
The photovoltaic panels being installed on the roof.
As my workshop was nearing completion, twelve solar panels arrived for the photovoltaic (PV) system. Six boxes—with two flat PV panels in each box— contained the entire electrical generation system for the house. The whole array would then be mounted on the roof. These panels do not burn any fossil fuels. They have no moving parts, and are therefore totally silent. Electricity is generated simply by sunlight falling on the roof—an elegant, uncomplicated process. Something is amiss in our world when such a system is not widely appreciated and utilized. Solar power makes a coal-fired or gasoline-powered generator—with its noise, fossil fuels, oil, and fumes—seem downright barbaric. ...
Building Green: Energy Efficiency and Aesthetics From The Same Materials (Part 11)
by Ted Owens, New Mexico, USA on 04.25.07
The completed workshop, with its use of natural materials, blends in with the surrounding landscape. It helps to learn construction techniques on a very small green building before starting on a larger home.
Continuing with the construction of the workshop, the walls consist of adobe (mud bricks). The adobe work is very rewarding and the structure slowly rises from the earth in its finished form. We laid up to three courses of adobe per day. The height is determined by how fast the mud mortar hardens in order to support the weight of the adobes above without squeezing out under pressure. The mud mortar was a thick mix—about nine shovels of the premixed clay and sand to one gallon of water. This proportion will vary depending on the moisture content of the dry premix. For the workshop, the mud was mixed in a wheelbarrow. For constructing the larger home, we used an electric cement mixer that ran off the photovoltaic system. ...
Video: KAB Man vs. Improper Recycling Habits!
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04.25.07
Isn't It Ironic? China Calls For Citizen Activism, Detains Environmentalist
by Rachel Wasser, Beijing, China on 04.25.07
Fishing in Lake Taihu.
Today's big China environment story is an exciting one. While announcing new transparency rules, our favorite Chinese environmental official called for greater citizen involvement to curb the country's powerful polluters. Reuters quotes Pan Yue, reformist vice minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration: "Relying on the force of environmental protection and a few other agencies is far from enough; we need broad public participation, because the public are the biggest stakeholders in the environment." Sounds great to us, and the new transparency rules, which require officials to disclose often closely-held information about pollution and polluters, will surely be a boon for China's citizen activists.
Unfortunately, one of Monday's big China environment stories casts a dark pollution-like pall over today's. Prominent activist Wu Lihong, named one of China's top ten environmentalists by the national government in 2005, was arrested and detained on April 13th. According to his wife, dozens of police descended on his home, ransacking it and taking his personal effects. The story of the arrest, reportedly for extortion and blackmail, broke on Monday, creating an unfortunate ironic backdrop for Pan Yue's remarks. More after the jump....
Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge Review
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 04.25.07
Here's a technology that will really change your life - Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge (BOOK). No wires. No electric circuits. No batteries. Nothing to be connected or switched on. So easy to use, even a child can operate it. Compact and portable. Can be used anywhere - even sitting in an armchair by the fire - yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.
Amazingly, there are a lot of these BOOKs available on sustainable computing, some of which were written over ten years ago! One of these is The Squandered Computer, written in 1996 by some 'author' (that's what bloggers were called back then) who showed up for breakfast when the words 'Paul Strassman' were shouted. Frankly, I don't know how he got away with writing about this stuff; sure, he was CIO at General Foods, Kraft, and Xerox. Big deal; so he had a few billion to play around with annually.
The Squandered Computer is full of little horror stories about waste in the IT industry. Like in 1995, U.S. corporate spending for computers was about $500 billion - that exceeded the sum of 1995 corporate profits by $175 billion. Or that computer magazines have the tendency to popularize examples of excellence in computer usage, and disregard financial results (good thing that doesn't happen today!) Or, despite a 67% growth in computer spending, overhead costs of U.S. firms grew faster than their growth in revenues or profits. If you want a good footing as to why mountains of eWaste are piling up in China, and why every employee still gets a desktop computer, reading this BOOK is a good start. ...
Coca-Cola To Spend $3 Million For Green Upgrades
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 04.25.07
Recently Coca-Cola announced that it will spend $3 million to perform green upgrades to its headquarters in Atlanta. Coke intends to cut energy use in the building by 23%, and cut water consumption by 15%. To achieve this goal the company will install energy-efficient lights and air-conditioning equipment, and also harvest rainwater. Coke will save more than $1 million in annual operating costs, so the investment payback will be quick. Coke expects that the entire overhaul will be complete within the next eighteen months and help eliminate 10,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually, as well as save over $1 million in annual operating costs. Coke is just one example of the many large corporation that have been retrofitting their offices and factories to make them greener. While some of the upgrades are modest, it is a sign that green building concepts are becoming more mainstream. See also this previous post: Coca-Cola is Going Green. :: Via greenbuildingsnyc...
On the Right Track: Lotus to Harness Wind for Greener Manufacturing
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.25.07
We’ve already covered Ecotricity, the UK-based green energy company, a number of times – most recently we wrote about their collaboration with Ben and Jerry’s here. Our readers will also be more than familiar with the Lotus car company, and especially their forays into electric vehicle design via the Tesla and the Zap-X. Now it seems Lotus and Ecotricity are joining forces and have submitted a request for a Scoping Opinion to South Norfolk District Council for their views on potential plans for a wind park at the Lotus Manufacturing Plant and Test Track, at Hethel near Wymondham in the UK. Should the partnership’s application prove successful, the scheme could provide up to 100% of Lotus’ electricity needs, with excess energy feeding back into the local grid.
Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, commented:
“This is an exciting project, and I’m delighted that Lotus is taking its responsibility to the environment so seriously. There are many myths about what it takes for a business to become truly green, and the Lotus wind turbine project will be an important example for other organisations. The company won’t be spending any additional money on its energy supply, but will have peace of mind knowing that it’s part of a growing movement to redress climate change.”...
Roots & Shoots for Youth
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04.25.07
Over the past couple of months I've heard a lot of teachers and parents talking about how their school is a "Roots & Shoots" school, or that they're part of a "Roots & Shoots" group that's making a difference. So what is it? Well, it's really a loosely confederated group of tens of thousands of young people in over 100 countries under the banner of the Jane Goodall Institute who have an interest in increasing their knowledge base about the natural world, which leads to compassion for the broader environmental community and action that can make a difference. In fact, those are their three keys... "Knowledge, Compassion, Action". Take one of their past campaigns to help the orphaned chimpanzees at Tchimpounga Sanctuary in the Republic of Congo. The baby chimps, most of whose families were victims of the international, commercial bushmeat trade, now have a better place to go for refuge because they ultimately surpassed their goal of $50,000 to fund a new chimpanzee care facility to serve the growing population of orphans. How did they pull it off? Well, some groups of kids sold necklaces, and they actually raised $430! Another group took the time to sell vegetables from their gardens and raised $37.50 for the cause... But then an anonymous donor stepped up to the plate and said they'd match every dollar up to $17,000 making the goal of $50K attainable. Clearly an eclectic, and diverse way of raising funds. And it's not just the case that they're asking groups to raise money for projects either. What they're really doing is asking groups of students, teachers, and families to get involved in their own way in projects of their own choosing in their own backyards to make a positive difference. What more could we ask for than that?
...
1-800-GOT-TOXICLANDFILL
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.25.07
Our neighbours just hired the 1-800-GOT-JUNK boys to clean out their house. This is the wildly successful franchise where clean-cut uniformed young hunks come and carry everything away to somewhere for a fixed price at a scheduled time. Not as cheap as calling Steptoe or Sanford and Son but a great business idea.
We saw one of the guys carry an old 19" CRT monitor down the front steps- and heave it from mid-landing, over the side of the truck. We heard it explode and assume that it spread broken glass and toxic chemicals over everything else in the box. Clearly it is going straight to the landfill.
Here is a business idea: 1-800-gotrecycled. (don't bother, I checked, I was going to sell it on Ebay). Our clean cut, organic cotton uniformed, worn again shod men and women will arrive in their biodiesel powered truck and remove your detritus carefully, with a pledge that everything goes to the appropriate spot for proper resale, freecycling or recycling and the minimum possible goes to a landfill. It is not as good as the 1-800, but the auction is on eBay for ::GotRecycled.com with all proceeds to Architecture for Humanity....
TreeHugger Picks: iPod Accessories
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04.25.07
Apple's iPods are everywhere; it seems that everybody's got one, in various sizes, shapes, storage capacities and playback times; some play movies, some clip to your shirt, they all can be recycled and Lloyd made a case for the nano as the green product of the year in 2005. Whatever your iPod persuasion, here are some green(er) ways to keep 'em charged up, scratch-free and looking good, at least until the next model comes out.
1) Keep your 'pod full of juice with this DIY hand crank, this DIY bike crank or any number of solar chargers.
2) The iZAP is a lithium-ion battery pack that can add 28 hours of playback when you're tired of cranking and the sun's gone down.
3) A host of cases, including the recycled rubber TREAD, wooden custom job, super-renewable jute cozy and even a case made from recycled 45 rpm records, are a helpful way to keep your iPod scratch-free; some will help keep your nano from snapping like a graham cracker when you sit on it.
4) We haven't forgotten the Shuffle owners; these cases are made from bamboo.
5) The Pause Bed combines an iPod dock and speakers with a place to lay your head; if you like tunes before you go to sleep (or as you're waking up), it might be for you....
Bloomberg Proposes Congestion Charge for Manhattan
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 04.25.07
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg chose Earth Day to announce a sweeping new master plan for the city. Dubbed PlaNYC, the mayor's proposal would have the Big Apple join London and Singapore in imposing a "congestion charge": drivers would have to pay an $8-a-day fee to drive below 86th street in Manhattan ($21 for commercial trucks). While the congestion charge is one of the most controversial elements of Mayor Bloomberg's plan (Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrión Jr. commented "I wonder if it is another hidden tax on working people.”), PlaNYC contains a total of 127 proposals designed to move the city towards higher levels of economic and environmental sustainability:...
Reminder: What's the Big Idea? Contest Entries Due Monday, April 30
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04.25.07
There are lots of big, green, planet-helping ideas out there. On a smaller scale, things like changing a lightbulb and getting rid of phantom power are good; on a larger scale, things like wave power and fuel cell cars have enormous potential to change our lives in a green way. If you have a big idea that'll help the environment, the Sundance Channel is looking for you! They'd like you to pick up a camera and make a 1 minute short film about it; if they think it's big enough and green enough (judges will consider 25% each: creativity/originality; appropriateness to the contest theme; idea feasibility; and presentation/expression of ideas), they'll award you a one-year lease on a Lexus hybrid, and $10,000 to help your idea go from video to the real world. You'd better hurry, though; the contest entry period ends this coming Monday, April 30. Is your big idea "the" next big thing? Upload your video by Monday to find out! ::Sundance Channel's "What's the Big Idea" Video Contest...
New York Times Goes Gaga over Chuck
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.25.07
An entire section on eating green in the Times, including Farmer, Cookie Maker, Ecologist and, Yes, the Future King
Two hundred years ago Americans were rather rude to the Royal Family; now Alice Waters says “He is, in private, really one of the most forward-thinking, radical humanitarians I have ever talked to.” The Times goes on: To Ms. Waters and her troops, no one else of the prince’s stature has spoken out on the issues they hold dear: responsible stewardship of the land, preservation of rural life and the need for good food grown without chemicals or worker exploitation.
“Can you think of any American political figure who has spoken eloquently or bravely about these issues?” asked Eric Schlosser, the author of “Fast Food Nation,” who has become a friend of the prince.
Ms. Waters agreed. “Al Gore doesn’t even talk about food,” she said.
Here is the answer for we colonials who are tired of the monarchy. Let's just give him to the Americans.
and Preserving Fossil Fuels and Nearby Farmland by Eating Locally about local food, and more in ::New York Times...
Judges Bakery: Bread is the New Chocolate
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.25.07
What do you do when you have just sold Green & Black's chocolate for £22M ($ 43M)? You open a bakery in a small fishing village by the sea, of course. That's what Josephine Fairley and Craig Sams did --they took over a sleepy bakery and cafe and turned it into an award-winning bakery and organic food shop in Hastings. And won the Soil Association's 2007 Award for Best Organic Small Shop along the way. So here’s the story…. Craig Sams had been involved in the organic movement for a long time and was Chair of the Soil Association. Jo Fairley, his wife, was a journalist and author of The Beauty Bible, a website and book about cosmetics. They come from Hastings and bought a farm on the outskirts of town. Judges Bakery had been around since 1826 and was a tired but traditional operation in a town that was becoming more fashionable. They took it over, changed it into organic, converted all the recipes to Soil Association approved status,and removed all the fats and additives. Even the baby pig meringues are now pinked with beetroot juice. They hired pastry chefs to made artisan breads and now they bake almost round the clock. Since they want to keep food miles low almost everything is from local natural suppliers and producers in the area. The farm is also a source of produce--they have planted a 180-tree orchard which will ultimately provide the apples for the bakery's apple pies, and buns. Now there is a staff of 27 working at the store between the bakery, kitchen and shop. Craig Sams is also working on links to schools and a hospital in the area; keeping those ethical principles alive as well as the entrepreneurial ones. So that’s what you do when your last job was running a chocolate factory. :: Judges Bakery...
Howies 2007 Catalogue ... and Traceable Merino
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04.25.07
Howies catalogue is available online and we thought this little quote pulled from it was a timely reminder that although our wee planet’s woes may be huge, so is the potential of our collective ability to bring about solutions. Good stuff only happens when we act. Seems the team at Howies did just this, cancelling a jetsetting photo shoot in turn for building a eco-print shop for their organic cotton T-shirts. And its not as if they are scrambling about for pennies these days, having Timberland to watch over them financially. We also note that they are utilising Zque, a process they say is the world’s first traceable Merino fibre value chain, covering ‘free range’ conditions for the Merino, through to the welfare of sheep dogs. It has a strict no mulesing policy as well as farm guidelines on soil conservation and waste water pollution. We’re not sure it would qualify as an independent, third party accreditation though, administered as it is by NZM, who in their own words are “the major seller and marketer of Merino fibre in New Zealand.” But it is, as ever, great to see Howies boldly continue down their own funky green road (and single track and skate ramp!) ::Howies. ...
Will The Person In Charge of 'Stainable Development' Please Stand Up
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.25.07
How about the person in charge of Environmental Affairs? Green Design? Nope. You guys stay seated. For corporate environmental professionals, the reality show for the last decade has not been pleasant, marked by near-universal downsizing of corporate staffs in charge of such matters. Those who started their careers around the first Earth Day, for example, have mostly been RIF'd or retired. Until very recently, if you were looking for a higher level position with environmental responsibilities, recruiters would typically point to slots in remedial engineering, otherwise known as environmental archeology: all backyard work. That's changing. With stockholders and customers pressuring US companies to green up the front yard a bit and take the longer view, and with rumblings in Congress about carbon caps and such, green Veeps are back in evidence. Ford, for example, recently announced it has a "Senior Vice President, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering." Unbelievably, we even saw an internet ad by Aramark Corp. for two Associate VP of Sustainable Development slots. (Advertising publicly for VPs would seem to indicate an imbalance in talent supply and demand.) How will such new executives insert long lasting green genes into the business unit DNA? EPA won't be around to make the stain stick. Adding big support staffs seems unlikely. So, they'll just have to look for ideas from TreeHugger of course! Why "stainable development?" We thought it might be easier for Federal Officials and Pundits to pronounce. Image credit: United Nations...
Book Review: Ecoholic
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.25.07
It's hard being a TreeHugger. As Adria Vasil says in the introduction to her new book Ecoholic: "The tough part is that figuring out what's green and what's greenwash, what's eco-friendly and what's ozone destoying can be downright dizzying." For three years she has been figuring this out in a column for Now Magazine that we have used for posts here and here. She has compiled it into a wonderful book that David Suzuki says "is for people who want to do something to lighten their impact on the planet. The small steps cost us little in the way of effort, money or time, but the cumulative effects can be enormous."
It is similar in format to Leo Hickman's wonderful A Good Life without the frustration of the sources and links all being British. In this case they are Canadian but through the miracle of free trade most will be relevant to American readers. Adria is a talented, funny writer and it is an easy read as well as a valuable guide and reference. (see subject headings below the fold). Of course, it is ancient forest friendly: printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. We agree with Rick Smith of Environmental Defence: "Everything you need to know to make green, non-toxic, Earth-friendly consumer choices – and to be a bang-up planetary citizen – is in this book. Its comprehensiveness is mind-boggling! My fondest hope is that a well-thumbed copy becomes a fixture in every Canadian home." ::Ecoholic
Now if only Graham and Jacob would get around to publishing the guides for How to Go Green, then Americans would have something equivalent. ...
Canada's New Green Plan Leaks Out Early
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.25.07
The Canadian Government is releasing its new environmental policy tomorrow. Perhaps part of it will be to ban fax machines, because they dialed it wrong yesterday and sent a copy of it to the oppposition. The plan includes halting growth of greenhouse gas emissions within five years, cutting them by 20% by 2020, and banning inefficient light bulbs.
The Minister will evidently say "we will not spin the wheel so hard as to put the Canadian economy in the ditch to deliver environmental plan [sic] asked for in some quarters....we will turn the corner with a balanced plan that recognizes the urgent need to act on the environment while also respecting our responsibility to keep Canadian families working." i.e., so much for Kyoto.
The government sent a second fax that said "You are in possession of confidential or government information that was faxed to you in error...sharing or distribution of this material is strictly prohibited" ... we await the arrival of the Mounties. ::the Star
UPDATE: Here is the speech. ...
Why Conservation Is the World's Best Energy Source
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.25.07
Check out the graph. The USA uses a lot of energy, but squeezes a billion dollars of gross national product out of a quarter as much as China. That's good. However it uses almost twice as much energy per billion bucks of GNP as Britain and Japan. How do they do it? People in Europe or Japan live rather well and get to shop at Muji and Conrans, have decent health care and even public transit, so it can't be quality of life. Perhaps it is that they tax gas to death so that cars are smaller and used less often. Perhaps energy for heating is priced so that people tend to keep the thermostat down and avoid air conditioning. Perhaps they live in denser cities. Perhaps land is expensive because they preserve more of it for agriculture instead of development. Perhaps they conserve.
Yet even in thrifty Europe only one third of all the energy produced is put to work. The rest disappears into the air or sea through leaky pipes and poor insulation. In cars, 70 to 80 percent of the energy burned does not end up being used for the purpose of moving the car, it goes out the tailpipe or heats the radiator fluid.
All the VC money is chasing wind and solar, hydrogen and ethanol; perhaps green investors should read about how "One reliable source of energy is not even close to being depleted: Simply saving it may be the safest and cleanest option mankind has. It also happens to make a tidy profit." Read a remarkable series of articles on Conservation as the World's Best Energy Source in ::der Speigel...
Eco-Chick Covers Project Earth Day Fashion Show
by Kyeann Sayer, Nomad on 04.24.07
Photo by Starre VartanAs we told you earlier this month, Allison Teich of AGaiN NYC went straight from London Fashion Week's Estethica exhibition to pulling together students and NYC green designers for a fashion-forward nod to Earth Day. Eco-Chick was on hand and has full coverage, including video and lots of pics! ::Eco-Chick, Project Earth Day...
Go Watch TV: Saved by the Sun
by EcoGeek.org on 04.24.07
Tonight (April 24th) at 8pm, Nova is airing a special solar power episode called "Saved by the Sun." So run to your TV, turn on PBS and find out if solar power is going to save the world or not.
Innovations in thin film, silicon, solar concentrators and plastic cells make the topic more confusing daily, and it's great to see public television taking on the challenge of making sense of the solar power industry.
Less than 1% of America's power comes from solar, while Germany is on the way to 20% solar power production. What are the differences? How can their success be duplicated. In a world where solar is generally at least twice as expensive to produce as fossil fuel power, it might not seem possible. But every year we understand the true costs of fossil fuels more while innovations in solar cells make them cheaper and cheaper.
So...Go watch TV! Not something you'll hear us TreeHugger's say very often. You should heed our advice when we do.
Cool story about "Saved by the Sun" at Cosmic Log....
China To Top U.S. in Greenhouse Gases This Year
by Alex Pasternack, New York, NY on 04.24.07
The day we hear that China will postpone its "action plan" on climate change indefinitely -- and a few days after news that it has little intention of imposing limits a la Kyoto -- the chief economist of the International Energy Agency says that China could easily become the world's leading emitter of CO2 this year -- two years ahead of schedule. That title currently belongs to the U.S., but given China's soaring growth (it recently posted a near-record 11% rise in GDP) and all the little things that drive that growth, the IEA's Fatih Birol has updated the CO2 forecast: "If Chinese economic growth, and therefore coal consumption, continues to surprise us, this may well be this year or next year," he told the Guardian......
Cameron Tries to go Green Online
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.24.07
David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, has made environmental issues the keystone of his election campaign. Unfortunately his attempts to promote his greener side seem to constantly backfire. He started biking to work, but received negative press when it emerged that he had a car follow him to carry his documents. He attempted to install a wind turbine at his London home, but had to pull it down after it was found to contravene planning regulations. He has also made heavy use of Web 2.0 sites like YouTube to spread his green message, which also seems to have been a dismal failure.
According to HippyShopper, nobody seems interested in Cameron's regular WebCameron videos. Clips of the Tory leader explaining how he will create fairer aviation taxes are losing out to cutesy videos of animals holding hands. You can't blame them, the sample that HippyShopper have included in their post is hardly riveting. :: HippyShopper...
No Tinfoil Hats for Bees
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.24.07
Ever since the the UK's Independent asked "Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?" ten days ago, the internet and print media have been abuzz, with 3,317 blog postings and hundreds of print articles, all reprinting it without question.(our post here) Craig Mackintosh at the wonderful blog Celsias bothered to take the time to review background material in an excellent post here, and now posts about how the researchers quoted in the Independent have been trying to straighten out the record ever since. They say:
-they were not even using cell phones, they were using cordless phones, which work completely differently and have very short range;
-that their studies cannot indicate that electromagnetic radiation is a cause of CCD., and
“Ever since The Independent wrote their article, for which they never called or wrote to us, none of us have been able to do any of our work because all our time has been spent in phone calls and e-mails trying to set things straight. This is a horror story for every researcher to have your study reduced to this."::Celsias image from Worker bee from Nataliedee...
Ask TreeHugger: Are Tattoo Inks Toxic?
by Helen Suh MacIntosh, Cambridge, MA, USA on 04.24.07
Question: I've been wanting to get myself a tattoo for a few weeks, but I've heard that tattoo inks can be toxic. Where/How can I find a tattoo artist who uses "safe" inks?
Response: The safety of tattoo inks or pigments have recently been the subject of some attention, possibly the result of a lawsuit brought by the American Environmental Safety Institute (AESI) against Huck Spaulding Enterprises, Inc., Superior Tattoo Equipment Co., and other tattoo ink sellers in the U.S. As a result of this lawsuit, the companies must place a warning for their California customers on their tattoo ink labels, catalogs and Internet sites that reads "inks contain many heavy metals, including lead, arsenic and others" and that the ingredients have been linked to cancer and birth defects. These adverse effects have been shown for exposures that occur over long time periods to these and other heavy metals, although not explicitly from these metals in tattoos. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to regulate tattoo pigments, tattoo pigments have not yet been approved by FDA for injection into the skin, as is done when a tattoo is made. ...
Shipping Lanes Make Way for Dolphins
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 04.24.07
Man, there's nothing worse than having to call your waiter over because there's pollution in your soup. Bottlenose dolphins off the southern coast of Spain can finally nosh in peace, however. In order to bypass essential bottlenose-dolphin foraging grounds, shipping lanes will be diverted 20 miles further south off the coast of Almeria, based on recommendations by maritime experts from the Earthwatch Institute and the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to the International Maritime Organization.
Diverting merchant ships and fishermen passing through the Alboran Sea will reduce acoustic and water pollution in the area, not to mention abate the impact of accidental oil spills on coasts and beaches.
“This is very positive news for the bottlenose dolphin,” says Earthwatch scientist Ricardo Sagarminaga van Buiten. “Cargo ships, often carrying dangerous substances, regularly pass through the Alboran Sea’s primary dolphin feeding grounds.”
...
China Will Be No Climate Tiger
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.24.07
A few weeks back we posted that China was open to a "Post-Kyoto Framework," which seemed like good news. Then, after the climate-is-a-security meme permeated world news, and the UN tried to discuss it as such at a Security Council meeting, China seemed ready to join the backpeddlers. Did somebody say "security?" That's like saying fire at the theater: sure to bring forward the opinions of Generals and Deniers and Executives, from whence things can go either way. Now, via Financial Times, we see that quiet has set in. "China has delayed indefinitely its national “action plan” on climate change, which was due to be released on Monday after exhaustive consultations among ministries in Beijing and provincial and local governments. No explanation was given for the move, although global warming is causing increasing international concern about the country’s high-speed economic growth model..." Not good. Perhaps someone failed to notice that climate impacts also go on indefinitely. Image credit: China Digital Times...
Rogan Gregory Interview at Wallpaper.com
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04.24.07
Hot on the heels of a feature in Wallpaper*'s EcoEdit, designer Rogan Gregory (the guy behind Loomstate and Edun -- that's him on the left) sat down for an interview with the style and design mag. He talks about what it's like to work with Bono and wife Ali Hewson, as he did with Edun, combining high fashion with social equity in Africa, about which he says, "We are pushing though, wherever we go, to create sustainability." Rogan's line of bespoke industrial-style furniture and objects, Rogan Objects, is also a topic of discussion, allowing the designer to elaborate on his personal design and sustainability values. "I am definitely aesthetic-oriented. If I don’t like the way the way something looks but it’s super-eco, I don’t give a shit. It’s got to look nice," he says. "I’m just not so extreme and I don’t expect people to be so extreme. I expect people to buy things for the way they look. I don’t count on people to do it out of the goodness of their heart, I don’t think you can." Yeah, we know this stuff is more expensive than conventional alternatives, but when it comes to looking good when walking the walk, not to mention Rogan's part in helping create a new green cultural zeitgeist, it doesn't get much better. Read the whole interview here. ::Wallpaper.com...
Prime Minister not Allowed to go Solar
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.24.07
We recently reported that AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects for 2007
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.24.07
Photo credit: Timothy Hursley
We often complain about green designs without zip or style, (just did so yesterday) and now pass on the latest LEED Platinum unless it has buzz as well as points. As green building becomes common, we can afford to be choosy; The American Institute of Architects and its Committee on the Environment found that too: “Both the number of submissions and level of sophistication have increased dramatically since the AIA COTE Top Ten Green Projects program’s inception in 1997.” said Kira Gould, Assoc. AIA, chair of the AIA Committee on the Environment. Of course Living Homes Z6 house had to be on the list, a nice school by TreeHugger faves Kieran Timberlake, a water purification facility by Stephen Holl and a very jazzy looking office building (pictured above, description below fold) in Little Rock by Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter Achitects. Lots more juicy pix at ::AIA via ::Jetson Green...
Ensuring Kids Get a Ride to Wildlife
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04.24.07
You may not realize it, but there are plenty of school districts out there where field trips are simply not an option due to the lack of funds it takes to operate the bus to get them there. Unfortunately, that severely limits the teaching options outside of the classroom to the school grounds. But with so many incredible places in the world to visit that are maybe even just around the corner, a bus ride can help provide a real boost to a students education. Enter "Wheels to Wildlife", a transportation grant program of The Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Society. It's just one great example of how groups can make an unexpected difference to help teachers and parents educate students about the environment. As one parent put it who accompanied here 9 year old child on a recent field trip, "Anytime they can learn outside the classroom, it sticks in their mind; it's huge." Without the resources to get them there, a great natural learning environment simply goes to waste. And let's face it, helping kids to develop an appreciation for the natural world is probably one of the best ways to encourage them to protect it....
It's Showtime, Apple Shareholders
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 04.24.07
You might have heard that Apple shareholders have before them a resolution to remove certain hazardous chemicals from their products. The resolution asks Apple to produce a report, within six months of the shareholder meeting, on the feasibility of "eliminating persistent and bioaccumulative toxic chemicals, and all types of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics" from its products. The vote is May 10th.
The Apple board, of which Al Gore is a member, said no. And they voted unanimously. You do the math....
Tampontification: Seventh Generation Go 'Beyond the Flow'
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.24.07
‘Let’s not beat around the bush here. People still pussyfoot around the “forbidden” subject of menstruation. Tampons and pads just don’t tend to surface in conversation at cocktail parties or tailgates or even at PTA meetings as often as we hope they might. That can make it really tough to get people talking about choosing safer alternatives to conventional feminine care products. We’d like to change that, so we’ve opted to go beyond the flow…’This is how those sassy folks over at Seventh Generation introduce their new site, Tampontification. And 'go beyond the flow' they certainly have, encouraging readers to donate feminine care products to homeless shelters, launching a blog by ‘the mission fairies’, who will be touring the West Coast in their Tampon mobile (a newly decorated Prius) and talking about all things menstrual and environmental, and they’ve even included a forum for readers to submit their own ‘tampontifications’. Of course, there is a marketing element to all this, as Seventh Generation sell chlorine-free tampons, pads and pantiliners. ...
Under $3000: The Race To Build Really Cheap Cars
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 04.24.07
Renault-Nissan is planning on building a car for under $3000. The price could be as low as $2500, which is 40% less than the least expensive sub-compact car available today. The Chief Executive of the company, Carlos Ghosn, made this announcement at a plant-opening on April 4. An Indian carmaker, Tata Motors, plans to launch a $2500 car next year. This race for the really ceap car could have a major impact on the industry as a whole.
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Still Seeking the Solar Powered Air Conditioner
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.24.07
Almost a year ago we wrote about how wasteful running air conditioning in the hot sun was, that all that solar energy was going to waste heating buildings when it should somehow be captured and used to cool the building (read here). Obviously a sunshade of solar panels might do the job but they are still expensive and we were looking for something more direct. The post has been generating comments all year and we have learned a lot:
1) Been there, almost done that in 1929: The Crosley Radio Corporation introduced a water-ammonia mixture refrigerator in 1929: "The Icyball is an intermittent heat absorption type of refrigerator. A water/ammonia mixture is used as the refrigerant . Water and ammonia combine easily. So, they combine in the hot ball at room temperature. When the hot ball is heated, for about 90 minutes, the ammonia evaporates first because it has a lower boiling point than water. The other cylinder is in water to help condense the ammonia in the cold ball. When the balls are fully charged, the cold ball is placed in the insulated box, as the ammonia evaporates to recombine with the water in the hot ball it removes heat, cooling the inside of the refrigerator for 24+ hours." They are still found in garage sales and junk stores. ::Crosley Ice Ball and you can build your own, ::Instructions here. Add a solar hot water heater and you are set.
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Global Ecovillage Network: Living 'Sustainable Plus' Lives
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.24.07
TreeHugger loves ecovillages, intentional communities and cohousing. Anything that gets people thinking about their connection to each other, and the earth, through community is hugely important. That’s why we love the Global Ecovillage Network, a “confederation of people and communities that meet and share their ideas, exchange technologies, develop cultural and educational exchanges, directories and newsletters, and are dedicated to restoring the land and living "sustainable plus" lives by putting more back into the environment than we take out.”
We also love the broad definition of ecovillages that GEN seems to support, ranging from traditional village communities, to modern urban developments:
“Network members include large networks like Sarvodaya (11,000 sustainable villages in Sri Lanka); EcoYoff and Colufifa (350 villages in Senegal); the Ladakh project on the Tibetian plateau; ecotowns like Auroville in South India, the Federation of Damanhur in Italy and Nimbin in Australia; small rural ecovillages like Gaia Asociación in Argentina and Huehuecoyotl, Mexico; urban rejuvenation projects like Los Angeles EcoVillage and Christiania in Copenhagen; permaculture design sites such as Crystal Waters, Australia, Cochabamba, Bolivia and Barus, Brazil; and educational centres such as Findhorn in Scotland, Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, Earthlands in Massachusetts, and many more.”...
We're in this Together
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.24.07
Eight British companies have united together in a campaign to help shoppers cut carbon dioxide emissions. The industries joining forces to offer discounts on products or useful services are: B&Q (like Home Depot), Barclaycard, British Gas, Marks & Spencer, O2, Royal & SunAlliance, BSkyB and Tesco. The campaign, spearheaded by the Climate Group, was formed because research showed that people wanted to do something but felt powerless when faced with the choices. So what are these big companies offering: Tesco will be selling half-price energy saving light bulbs, with a goal of moving 10 million over the next year. Marks & Spencer will be labeling 75% of its clothing with instructions to “Think climate, wash at 30 degrees C”. B&Q will be developing new insulation products, and the Insurer Royal & Sun Alliance is offering a new kind of "eco-insurance" where a technology box is installed in people's cars to give them information on their driving habits to help them drive in a more efficient way. Barclaycard is offering a new green credit card with discounts and donations and Sky T.V. will put yours into power-saving “deep standby” after 11 p.m. The charity Action Aid criticized the campaign for chasing the “green pound” whilst exploiting workers abroad. Given O2’s initiative to encourage mobile phone owners not to buy new ones in a country where 40% of the population has one does sound a bit suspect. All of the initiatives will be tracked on a website and the impact will be calculated on a daily basis. Prime Minister Blair said: “Even if you thought it (climate change) was merely probable, the consequences are so devastating that it would be rather foolish not to act on it.” :: together.com Via :: Guardian...
Why Your Grandma Gets Better Gas Mileage Than You
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.24.07
Huggs to Hugger hawker400 for this gem. My grandma lost her licence for wrapping her plymouth round a lampost and my mother is unsafe at any speed, but I suppose some drive like this and save a lot of money. Here are the top five reasons why your grandma gets better gas mileage than you:
She goes from 0 to 60 in 12 seconds.
She obeys the speed limit.
She never leaves the right hand lane.
She keeps the inside of her car immaculately clean.
She doesn’t drive a truck or an SUV.
Read it all at ::Daily Fuel Economy Tip
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Eat Green in Buenos Aires Part II: Kensho, an Indoor, Slow Experience
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 04.24.07
We’ve already shared with you some green restaurants in Buenos Aires in an earlier post, for Argentine treehuggers and those is town for a few days. This time we go a little further: not only a green, but also an intimate, slow-food/feel-good experience that seems specially designed for Downshifting Week (taking place from April 21st to 27th). That’s what Kensho is: an indoor (that is, inside a house) vegetarian restaurant that opens only on Saturday nights for 20 people, which receive the different plates of the only menu available simultaneously. The evening also includes a ‘bossa-tecno-funk show’, as its owners describe, by chef Maximo Cabrera and Guillermina Díaz. ...
Conservation is the Best Energy Source, German Builders Prove it
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.24.07
Unlike profligate North Americans, in Germany they have gone from a standard house's consumption of fuel oil of up to 30 litres per square meter to "three litre houses" to "passive" (max 1.5 litres per square meter) to "positive energy" houses that give back more than they consume. Everybody is doing it; more than six thousand have been built. Architects compete to design the most energy efficient homes. Houses and apartments are being renovated and upgraded; The government gives subsidized loans to encourage it. It isn't even hard or high tech- lots of insulation, good siting for solar gain, "The heat released by small appliances and the body heat of the inhabitants -- which amounts to no less than roughly two kilowatt hours per person and day -- is largely sufficient. Automatic ventilation -- with a built-in heat retention system, of course -- ensures that the rooms don't get too stuffy." Their homes cost a lot more per square foot that North American ones do, so logically they build fewer square feet. What could be simpler?
We don't need to reinvent building technology and develop new expensive sources of energy, we just have to remember that Conservation is the World's best energy source, and build half as much twice as well.::Der Speigel
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Downloading Designs: Build Your Own 3D Printer
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.24.07
We are always excited about the possibility of economical CNC machines and 3D printers or "fabbers"; someday we will be downloading products as easily as we do now with PDFs. We have noted that Sears sells a CNC for $ 3200 and now learn from the appropriately named Evil Mad Scientists Laboratories website that they have designed a fabber that handy types will be able to build for under five hundred dollars. Like other 3D printers, it works by stacking layers of 2D images, but instead of plastic or other materials this machine uses granulated sugar.
Sugar is a particularly good medium because it's easy to obtain, low in cost, kid friendly, water soluble, non-hazardous, non-toxic, non-intimidating, rigid despite having a low melting point, and may be suitable for making objects for lost sugar (like lost wax) investment casting. We also think that it may also be possible to make interesting food with this technology.Not only can we download designs, but we can eat them too! ::Evil Mad Scientist ...
Massachusetts To Perform Life Cycle Planning Reviews For Climate Impacts
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.24.07
Anyone who has had involvement with municipal zoning and planning, or been in the real estate development business for that matter (architects included), will instantly recognize the importance of what the State of Massachusetts (USA) is proposing to do with major building projects. Via Boston Globe:- "In a major change to Massachusetts environmental policy, private developers will now be required to estimate the greenhouse gases their large-scale projects will produce and reduce them with measures such as energy-efficient lighting, alternative fuels, or commuter shuttles. Effective immediately, developers planning projects large enough to warrant a state environmental review will have to assess how the projects contribute to the pollution that leads to global warming,..." "State officials believe they will be the first in the nation to consider greenhouse gases as part of developers' environmental impact reviews." How to characterize? This level of planning review is to LEED, as a first time visit to an art museum would be for a budding painter, like a stock index to a broker, as an engineering degree would be to a bridge designer. Marry this analysis with LEED and and, for the first time ever, incremental cumulative impacts will be visible. Brilliant. Soon, we expect to read about some clever modelers who have integrated a computer model of the principle decision factors affecting carbon dioxide emissions with Google maps of development proposals. Inevitably carbon offsetting investment promises will be incorporated into modeled project proposals. Which will lead to controversy unless the offset projects accrue other non-carbon emission based local benefits. In other words no foreign offsetting. Image credit:- Aerial view of Boston, Penceland...
Brown Rice is Green
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany on 04.24.07
I grew up thinking white rice is like candy. It fell in the bubble gum, Twinkie, sugared cereal category of what was banned from our house. My mother, an early champion of the healthy aspects of brown rice, dismissed white rice from our dinner table with a flick of her wrist and the brief, yet accurate proclamation, “There is nothing left.” Stripped down to the inner polished grain, white rice is a victim of over processing that removes most of what’s good for you, such as beneficial vitamins and nutrients. Now, according to Green Living Tips, brown rice is also better for the environment. Why? All the extra steps. White rice ends up as a manufactured product with a long assembly line. “The less processing of a food, the less energy required,” says Green Living Tips. Ironically, at the end of processing, synthetic vitamins are added back in to white rice. “These sorts of processes are well known for their negative impact on the environment,” the article continues. Rice buying tips: Buy large quantities in bags made of material such as cloth that can be reused. Thanks tipster Mike. ::Green Living Tips More on Rice: ::What's in Your Rice Bowl ::Rice and Bamboo Power ::Eat Local Food. Um, Except When You Shouldn't...
Certified Wood for El Prado in Madrid
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona, Spain on 04.24.07
One of the most important Art Museums, El Prado in Madrid, has just become Spain’s first public building to seriously apply sustainable criteria to the building process by using a significant amount of certified timber. To construct the extension of the art gallery, pine, birch, oak, cedar and maple tree wood has been used from countries like Russia, the US, France and Canada. (A shame it couldn’t be local as well…) Flooring, hand railings, wall covering, ceilings and walls make up the beautiful interior of these newly built 22.000 square metres for which the majority of wood is FSC-certified. Facilities include exhibition rooms, a drawings gallery, a conference room, an assembly hall, restoration rooms and administrative offices. The decision to construct with FSC-certified wood has earned the Prado a big pat on the shoulder from ecologists but also Miguel Angel Soto from Greenpeace admits that this has never happened before in Spain: “ A public work in an emblematic building of Spanish and global culture like the Prado, has been built under sustainable criteria called for by society.” Maybe it wasn’t just down to society’s stipulations but also to the fact that in 2005 Greenpeace pressed charges against the new installations of the Museum Reina Sofía, down the road from the Prado, for having used wood bought from companies in Brazil that had been reported and fined for illegal cutting of tees from the Amazon Rainforest. Soto hopes that this good-willed effort sets an example for future laws in the public building sector to guarantee that public money is no longer financing deforestation or illegal felling. This way, the Prado has proven that it’s possible to construct on a large scale and beautifully with certified wood. via ::Rainforest Alliance ::FSC ::FSC Spain
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Big Ideas for a Small Planet - the Build Episode
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04.24.07
We hope you were able to catch Sundance Channel’s premier of Big Ideas for a Small Planet last week, where they looked at eco-innovation in biofuels. don’t worry if you missed it you can tune in tonight (Tues 24 April 2007) for the second instalment, which focuses on how we build our homes. See Michelle Kaufman’s Glidehouse, a stylish, prefabricated, modular house that reduced construction waste while still using green materials like bamboo. Catch up with architect, Carlton Brown, who has shown that residential eco-architecture can be affordable and healthy. Then there’s the MIT engineers, like Mitchell Joachim from the Smart Cities Group, who believe we can literally ‘grow’ our homes right there on the house block With housing responsible for 20 to 35% of the environmental impacts of our private consumption, this is TV worth viewing. (We had an exclusive preview clip last week.) Or go to the online Your Guide for Greener Living for some other tips. ::Big Ideas for a Small Planet....
China: Make My Appliance Energy Efficient, Please
by Rachel Wasser, Beijing, China on 04.23.07
Summer's on its way, along with lazy days, melting ice cream, and that perennial favorite - air conditioning. In China, air conditioner sales are expected to hit 25 million units this year, "bringing tremendous pressure to bear on the nation's already tight electricity supply." Convincing people who hunger after cars and a first-world lifestyle to cool themselves off with ice is unlikely to go down smoothly. But there is hope for energy-efficiency. "[P]romoting energy-efficient home appliances ha[s] become an urgent task," according to the China Energy Label Center. That's where China's 2007 National Promotion Campaign for Energy-Efficient Home Appliances, launched last week, comes in. The campaign brings home appliance retailers and producers on board to educate consumers about China's already established energy-efficiency label system. Retailers hope to sell more energy-efficient appliances (they do cost more than the standard ones, after all), and the measures they're taking include giving discounts to treehugging customers and financially rewarding clerks who successfully sell the energy-efficient merchandise. With all these campaigns to educate consumers getting off the ground - see here and here for examples - this treehugger can't help but feel a little post-Earth Day optimism. ::China Daily...
Help Bring Toyota’s Hybrid Minivan to the U.S.
by Union of Concerned Scientists on 04.23.07
Automakers have been showing off their hybrids to trumpet their environmental commitment. But not all hybrids are created equal. Hybrid technology, as used in such models as the Toyota Prius and Camry Hybrid, Honda Civic Hybrid, and Ford Escape Hybrid, has the potential to play a major role in giving consumers fuel-efficient, low-pollution options in every vehicle class. Unfortunately, with this year's introduction of vehicles such as the GMC Yukon Hybrid, Dodge Durango Hybrid, and Lexus LS 600h L, the increased automaker focus on "muscle hybrid" models undercuts the value of this technology as a part a global warming pollution, gas price, and oil security solution. This is a disturbing trend compounded by "hollow hybrid" vehicles that use the hybrid name but do not qualify as hybrid vehicles (for more on hybrid vehicle characteristics, see our Hybrid Watchdog. ...
Salvaged and Recycled Building Materials Sources: SF - Seattle
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04.23.07
As TreeHugger has noted time and again, second-hand and recycled materials are greener options than brand new ones in almost every case; if you can get it pre-loved (and save the raw materials required to create something new), we recommend it. For home improvement and other DIY-type projects, architectural salvage places can be gold mines for rare, unusual and "they-don't-make-'em-like-that-anymore" goodies that can be useful for creating a greener space or otherwise working on or in your house. Our pals at Apartment Therapy in San Francisco have compiled a handy list of salvage places that might just have the undiscovered gem for your next project; since they cover the Pacific Northwest, they (and their commenters) found some hot spots for salvage in the Portland and Seattle areas as well, pretty well covering the northern half of the west coast. In the Bay Area, they like Calwell Building Salvage, Ohmega Salvage, Urban Ore (whom we've mentioned before), Whole House Building Supply & Salvage, Eden and Eden and The ReUse People (shared with Seattle as well). A look around Portland turned up the Rebuilding Center (mentioned here on TreeHugger), Habitat for Humanity's ReStore, Tropical Salvage, Hippo Hardware and Rejuvenation Hardware. The Seattle area offers Earthwise, The ReStore and The ReUse People, for starters. This list ought to get you started; where else do you readers like to go for salvaged and recycled building materials between San Francisco and Seattle? ::Apartment Therapy: SF...
Tesla Roadster Prototype Spotted in NYC
by George Spyros, New York City, USA on 04.23.07
TreeHugger Picks: Going Out In Green Style
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04.23.07
Proving that there isn't anything you can't do a little greener, green burials seem to be all the rage; from caskets to "leave-no-trace"-type burial techniques, check out some of the ways to go out in green style.
1) The Uono Cocoon and Ecopod are just a couple of the biodegradable coffin options out there.
2) Sweden's Promessa offers to essentially freeze-dry the body, eventually turning it to powder (at 1/3 its original weight) for storage or burial in a small urn.
3) The folks at the Green Burial Council want to make green burials the standard, doing away with embalming, vaults, conventional markers, and metal caskets. Our pals at Slate are on board.
4) Groups like the Trust for Natural Legacies Inc. and Greensprings Natural Cemetery are working on green goodbyes that help preserve the natural beauty of our world. Green Endings will even organize an eco-funeral in your own backyard.
5) After digging up lots of info on green burials, the BBC's Ethical Man has committed to composting his corpse. ...
BioPetroClean: Bacteria That Lick Up Crude Oil
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv on 04.23.07
An oil spill on the beach. Rigs at sea that have no choice but to dump tar-like waste into the water. Bilges from ships after they have dropped off a load of crude oil. What all these things have in common is that they are excellent candidates for a new environmentally-friendly oil-licker-upper company: BioPetroClean. Cleaning up oil spills and cleaning oil from water remains a costly and challenging procedure, but one that oil refineries and shipyards must handle on daily basis- usually to the detriment of nature. Light years ahead of his time and featured in Time Magazine already a couple of decades ago for his oil-munching bacteria, the life’s work of Prof. Eugene Rosenberg from Tel Aviv University has finally come to fruition through a new start-up company BioPetroClean. Rosenberg found that some bacteria occurring in nature have an affinity to and play a role in digesting crude oil. Working with the bacteria in the lab, Rosenberg isolated a particular strain and found that in high quantities can be introduced into a closed system with proper nutrients to clean up unwanted oil. What’s left is clear water. A couple of pilot sites are now using the technology in Israel. Says BioPetroClean CEO David Amir, “Israel won't be bacteria incubators for the universe - we would rather link to service providers across the universe. This would give better service and more oil contamination clean-up possibilities." ::ISRAEL21c ...
The Chicago Green Festival From An Exhibitor's Perspective
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 04.23.07
Two roving TreeHugger reporters, Jeff McIntire-Strasburg and myself, were in effect over the weekend at the Chicago Green Festival. Somehow the fact that both of us would be there working on our non-treehugger jobs had not been communicated to either of us, but by happy coincidence we bumped into each other and it was another great 'global TreeHugger writers finally meet' moment! Having been lucky enough to attend the Green Festival in San Francisco last November as a reporter, it was very interesting to return to the event again as an exhibitor. I was able to see the event from a totally different, but certainly no less busy, angle. I am sure Jeff would agree that the most frustrating thing about being an exhibitor at such a large event is how much you miss out on, with 30 000 people passing through the doors in two days there is just not a single spare moment to go and enjoy the amazing variety of presentations on offer or scout out any new and exciting green businesses or products. Jeff by all appearances was very busy promoting his recently launched venture Green Options with Shea Gunther, it seemed they couldn't sign up people for their carbon offsetting scheme fast enough! I was on the other side of the hall in the Fair Trade Pavilion representing the Kallari Association, selling extraordinary quantities of organic Ecuadorian chocolate....
Most Huggable: A Greener House of Reps, Sheryl Crow and Karl Rove Meet, and Banana Tracking
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 04.23.07
Ready to put your computer to work saving energy? Get the free CO2 Saver software for your PC… Sheryl Crow and Laurie David confront Karl Rove over climate change and things get nasty! Nancy Pelosi announces her hopes for a carbon neutral House of Representatives… Wanna know where your banana came from? Dole offers fruit tracking, including satellite images and farm photos… Knit.1 Magazine pushes for a greener world, one stitch at a time… Most Huggable is a daily roundup of some of the most tantalizing stories from Hugg.com, TreeHugger’s user-generated green news site. Why not submit your own green news? ...
The Kerrys Speak Out On Environment
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 04.23.07
Teresa Heinz Kerry and (hubby) Senator John Kerry came to Cambridge, Massachusetts last Saturday to speak out on the current environmental situation, and to encourage people to take action. The convocation was part of a tour for their new book This Moment on Earth. Treehugger was invited to cover the event.
The Kerrys were very impressive; both speaking without notes to the large audience, they demonstrated a firm grasp on a wide variety of environmental issues including climate change, fisheries, the bees, breast cancer, and cosmetics. Not surprisingly, the politically strong-suited Senator tended to focus more on affirmative democracy, activism, and populist efforts; the Ms. was more scientific and concentrated on health issues, particularly ones related to women and children. Working together, they wove a compelling narrative on the urgency of the current environmental problems. Questions from the audience were answered directly and specifically, without the usual rhetorical device of acknowledging the presenter, then changing the topic to something they really knew something about. Oh, and they were also signing books too....
Sewage Pours Forth into Firth of Forth
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 04.23.07
A broken pump caused 100 million litres of sewage to pour into the Firth of Forth from a sewage processing plant. The sewage flowed for two and a half days before engineers could fix the problem by installing emergency pumps.
The chairman of the local residents' association has claimed that the plant, "has an infrastructure that is basically Third World technology." Residents have complained previously about the unsavory smells coming from the plant.
Edinburgh council have admitted that, "any raw sewage has human pathogens in it which has the capacity to make people ill", and have warned people to stay away from the shore. However, residents have complained that they weren't warned of the leak fast enough, and that some people may have come into contact with the waste.
According to the Guardian, "Large discharges of sewage can kill marine animals by starving the water of oxygen. The sewage is expected to break down in a matter of days, but chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide can be added to reoxygenate the water." :: The Guardian...
Teaching Kids to Respect Earth Through Gameplay
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04.23.07
That's the focus of the Notenik's recent video game release under the title Respect Our Earth. The collection of games teaches children (ages 5-10) the importance of protecting the planet, while being ecologically mindful of the limited natural resources we have available to us. The CD includes 8 games focusing on specific lessons that include recycling, smart energy use, protecting endangered species and more... While kids are encouraged with positive messages and asked to try again should they make a selection that would often be presented as a loss to help encourage them to continue trying to make better decisions for the planet in the games and in life. As you might expect, healthy earth messages are shared throughout the gaming experience to make the time spent playing a positive learning experience. It could make a great post Earth Day gift for kids... ...
Solar Power Through Your Phone's LCD Screen
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 04.23.07
Motorola recently received an interesting patent for the idea of combining an LCD screen and a solar cell on phone (or other wireless devices). Cellphones don't have a lot of space for capturing sunlight, so this dual-purposing of the screen makes a lot of sense. Motorola's patent notes that this technology is better with black-only LCDs where 75% of sunlight passes through. Apparently, this idea has been kicked around for a while, but the thin-film technology needed to make this happen is still costly, so devices with solar LCD screens haven't appeared on the market. :: Via: Crunch Gear and Patent Monkey...
Topical Reading from Now Weekly
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.23.07
Photo credit: striatic @ flickr
We love Toronto's Now Magazine, the free weekly that for 25 years has been delivering good reading and great writing, and good topical issues. Much of the content deserves wider circulation, like their bike issue of two weeks ago, with an excellent list of ten city cycling safety tips (copied beneath the fold because all cyclists should read it), an interview with a family of four that travel everywhere by bike and don't own a car (including 40 miles round trip to work each day and a ride with the kids this summer from Milan to Paris), and an article full of live links about how bikes have improved. ::Now Bike Issue
This week is the ::Green Issue with Adria Vasil on trying to live garbage free, (she has a launch of her new book on eco-living, we will report on it tomorrow), Wayne Roberts says "It’s not too late to stave off food disaster, but it’s long past the time to put public cash into urban farming" and on an uplifting note, Robert Priest saying "Yes, we should all be cutting back on consumption of the earth's resources. But there is one source of energy that is absolutely non-polluting, sustainable, renewable and that we must all vastly increase our use of. And that is hope." ::Now Green Issue...
First Biofuels Congress of the Americas, ft. Al Gore, to Take Place in Buenos Aires [Update: date change]
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 04.23.07
A few weeks ago we informed about the First Biofuels Congress of the Americas, which will take place at the Alvear Palace Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina and will feature former U.S. Vice President Al Gore as the keynote speaker (and several political figures including former Colombia president Andres Pastrana). We bring the story back because the date changed: the event will be next May 10th and 11th, 2007. Sessions will include biofuels initiatives, sources of financing and investments, local and hemispheric project development, the government’s role in developing projects, and legal framework, among others. “This Congress will be the cornerstone of a series of sub-regional conferences and exchanges during 2007 and 2008. A key goal is to focus governments, producers, NGOs, industry and corporations on viable strategies to develop biofuels throughout the Americas. We also seek to promote public-private partnerships that will result in specific investments and projects”, the two organizers (an ONG called Campo en Acción and the Foundation for InterAmerican Development) announce in their website. Following encounters will be in Mexico, Colombia, Central America and Brazil. ...
Zero Carbon House in Scotland
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.23.07
It hard to think of what system the Zero Carbon House in Scotland doesn't have. Built from timber (low embodied energy, renewable material, local) radiant heating from heat pump source (although I wouldn't think that an air-to-water heat pump would work very well in Scotland), two wind turbines and a Redox fuel cell, (see TreeHugger) with additional storage in the electric car, and food doesn't get more local than having your own heat-pump warmed hydroponic greenhouse for fruit and vegetables. Too bad the house, "a standard design from a timber frame company" is so boring. Why can't a design be as innovative as the systems in it? ::Zero Carbon House...
The Evangelical Ecologist Hosts Carnival of the Green
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 04.23.07
This week is Carnival of the Green # 74 and it's being hosted by the Evangelical Ecologist! So, head on over to this week's Carnival to check out a round up of last week's 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 (hurry, we're now booking into 2008!), please click here to link to our previous post. ...
This Month in Wired
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.23.07
The single best feature in Wired this month is its regular Jargon Watch column:
Ecosexual: a term known to TreeHuggers via Warren, defined by Wired as " A person who's into hybrid cars, low energy lightbulbs, and recycling. Now that environmentalism is hot, ecosexuals are getting increasingly fashionable."
Online Analyst: "Hired by companies like Coca-Cola and AT&T to monitor what is being said about them on social networks and blogs, online analysts use the Internet as a vast unpaid focus group." It seems some companies have vast spying networks.
Social Network Fatigue "The ennui induced by persistent solicitations to join new social networks. It is especially acute in those who are already members of more MySpaces than they can remember. "
Slow Travel: "Getting from Point A to B at a leisurely pace. Slow travellers, who prefer trains and boats to cars and jets, brag that they take as much pleasure in the journey as in the destination." We have discussed this here. ...
Lush Philanthropy
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.23.07
Everyone is familiar with that sickening sweet smell that follows you along the street after passing a Lush store. But the story of its founder and chief executive, Mark Constantine, is not so well-known. In the early 1990's, his then small company was the largest supplier to the Body Shop until they bought him out. Then in 2001, Lush tried to buy Body Shop, his offer was dismissed by the Roddicks as "an early April Fool's joke" and they have not spoken since. Lush’s ingredients are mostly natural; it is sourcing more organic and Fairtrade ingredients, nothing is tested on animals and packaging is avoided where possible. Constantine has made a fortune and now gives around 2% of the company’s profits to charity. This year he gave cheques for £1,000 ($2,004) to a range of small, grassroots community organisations. He wanted to give it to groups that would do something interesting with the cash. He said that his main reason for picking the groups was: “If you’re going to give money away you might as well give it to someone who’s going to do something stupid with it.” Several of the recipients were anti-airport and anti-road organisations since Constantine is a passionate cyclist who hates cars. His favourites are Sardine Man ( campaigning for better train journeys) and the Guerrilla Gardeners. He has also created the Charity Pot: a hand lotion, from which all the proceeds will be going to other small community groups including the Sumatran Orangutan Society and the Dorset Wildlife Trust. As for that smell: "the reason it smells so strong is that if you are going to take all the packaging off cosmetics, you can smell it." :: Guardian...
This Month in Dwell Magazine
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.23.07
Dwell Magazine has been drifting for a while, perhaps because of the change in editor last year. However it has found its legs this month and is back with a bang. The issue resonates with TreeHugger because it focuses on small homes under a thousand square feet, demonstrating that people can very happily live with less space if it is designed well. Gracing the cover is David and Im Shaefer's 426 square foot loft (shown in TreeHugger eight months ago here); also included is Andre Lessard and Barbara Dewhirst's Tour de Bebelles, shown 18 months ago here- who says TreeHugger isn't cutting edge?
Other features worth the price of admission are a profile of Ken Isaacs, who developed a "Home in a Cube" in 1952, Oren Saftie describing his father's Habitat 67, and the wonderful Manifesto Destiny - "There is a pivotal point which an idea becomes a conversation, a conversation turns into a conspiracy, and a conspiracy foments a movement." Best issue in a long time. Not much online yet at the revamped and improved ::Dwell website. ...
Offsets Done Right, Part 2
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.23.07
On Friday we talked about offsets done right, whereby the providers of a product or service that offers distinct environmental advantages already, use offsets to further enhance their environmental credentials. This approach is a sharp contrast to the idea of offsets as a pass to guilt free pollution, or business as usual, but rather they are used as part of a much wider, and more comprehensive, sustainability strategy. Aside from the 'carbon free' light bulbs, and Eurostar’s recent announcement, that we talked about in Friday’s post, we have come across some other examples of exemplary companies that are leading the way to both carbon reduction at source, and carbon neutrality through offsets.
Aside from being a clean, efficient mode of urban transport, the G-Wiz electric car, which has taken London by storm, also markets itself as carbon neutral. GoinGreen, the retailer, offsets the CO2 produced during the manufacture, shipping and first two year's driving via contributions to Climate Care). Ecofleet, another UK company, that leases low emissions vehicles to businesses and individuals across the UK, also offsets these vehicles’ CO2 emissions through Climate Care. In the states we’ve come across 3PAR Thin Provisioning, providers of efficient data storage that greatly reduce the energy requirements of server farms. All emissions that remain are offset by 3PAR via Terrapass.
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Exposed: Climate Change Photography
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.23.07
The National Trust is holding a photography exhibition showing the impact of climate change on its properties. The Trust maintains and opens to the public over 300 historic houses, gardens, forests, nature reserves and beaches. Given the wide-ranging scope of the holdings, they have intimate and current information on the effects of climate change across the country. Twelve photographers were commissioned to photograph the devastation and, in some cases, pleasures of global warming. Several different themes were examined: shifting shores, storm warnings, rainforest, roofs and rain, seasons, peat and inside story. Photos depict the impact of rising sea levels which will squeeze out nesting and breeding space for birds such as cormorants. Salt marshes, home to birds, are disappearing and flooding means loss of sand dunes. Other photos show new tropical plants growing in unusual places due to warmer temperatures. The magnolia leaves (pictured) are under attack from a virus; the result of the arrival of more exotic diseases. Some trees such as beeches are stressed because of the changing weather: they are losing their leaves earlier in the season and can't survive hot summer heat without them. The photos show how the insides of the historic houses are being affected. Milder winters mean that more insects and pests are infesting the houses and causing damage to priceless wooden furniture and paintings. Many of the houses were not built to survive torrential rains and the walls and basements are becoming moldy and damp. Mountain tops are affected too--no longer is there snow on the peaks in Wales. The images highlight the richness of the country's heritage and the need to conserve it. :: National Trust...
EcoTextile News: Cutting a New Cloth
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04.23.07
Ecotextile News is a new magazine which looks at the global production of sustainable and ethical textiles and apparel. Ten monthly issues will set you back £195 (~$385 USD), but there are a few samples articles online that you can review too. One covers UK retailer Marks & Spencer’s £200 million plan to cut their carbon emissions, a little of which we’ve noted here and here. M&S CEO, Stuart Rose, says that “We will become carbon neutral, only using offsetting as a last resort; we will ensure that none of our clothing or packaging needs to be thrown away; much of our polyester clothing will be made from recycled plastic bottles.” Ecotextile News reckons that Britain’s high street giant in highlighting the use of recycled yarns to a mass consumer market will also convince the supply chain to their quality as a result and thus bring more suppliers into the game. The piece also explains the difference between the older ‘chipped, ground and melted’ version of recycled polyester, with the newer (and somewhat more energy intensive) process of chemical depolymerisation, such as is being employed by Teijin for Patagonia’s Common Threads program. Other topics covered by Ecotextile News include organic merino wool from New Zealand, fair trade cotton from Africa, the impact supply chain policies can have on material and service suppliers, a new biodegradable, polyester-based polymer, made by bacteria, and new advances in eco dyes and finishes. ::EcoTextile News...
Argentina Exports Reactor to Australia and Ratifies its Nuclear Plan
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 04.23.07
(Picture: Atucha I and Atucha II nuclear plants in Lima, Buenos Aires province) The inauguration of a nuclear reactor built in Argentina destined to investigation-aims in Sidney a few days ago served the Argentine government as a chance to ratify its Nuclear Plan and announce that “in the next 25 years, 5000 megawatts should be of nuclear origin” in the country. Even though the reactor exported is supposed to serve for educational purposes and to produce radioisotopes for medicine and industrial use, it served as a support sign for the industry and especially for INVAP, the company that created it. The cooperation agreement with Australia had been signed by the Senate in 2001 but approved only three years later by the Deputies Chamber, principally due to Greenpeace pressure against the possibility that future nuclear propellant components had to come back to the country to be processed (that alternative, informs Clarin newspaper, was out of question after September 11th, since the US now requests all these elements), but also because of a political debate about whether the country was going to keep a high profile nuclear plan after Carlos Menem (previous president) reduced the resources of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA). The actual government promised to re-launch the industry and developed the Nuclear Plan last year, which includes finishing the natural-uranium nuclear-central Atucha II (a project initiated in the late 80s and questioned by Greenpeace) and the building of a fourth plant. ...
From Stinging Nettles to Soothing Style
by Erin Courtenay - Madison, WI on 04.23.07
Italian researchers are looking to the past to protect the planet’s future in a program designed to update traditional natural fiber textiles such as those made from stinging nettle, broom, hemp, flax and wool from native sheep. The program taking place at the National Research Council (CNR) in Florence is being conducted in collaboration with fashion design firms to create a range of jackets, skirts, trousers and made-to-measure suits from locally-grown and organic fibers. Italy, once one of the world’s most important sources for textiles, is now largely dependent on imported non-organic cotton. “Every ton of clothing fabric imported from the Far East has an impact on the planet's atmosphere that is eight times higher than it would be if the cloth were produced locally,” said CNR researcher Giampiero Maracchi. ::Life In Italy. photos – Life In Italy and Kristen Anderson...
A Bush Administration Policy Adjustment
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.22.07
Knowing many US citizens would be thinking about, you know..Earth, on the upcoming Earth Day, perhaps mid-March seemed like a good time to refresh some US Federal environmental policies. Associated Press, via MSNBC (March 28, 2007 ):- "Tired of losing lawsuits brought by conservation groups, the Bush administration issued a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act that would allow it to protect plants and animals only in areas where they are struggling to survive, while ignoring places they are healthy or have already died out. The opinion by U.S. Department of Interior Solicitor David Bernhardt was posted with no formal announcement on the department's Web site on Friday." A spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson is quoted as saying the new policy would remove 80 percent of the roughly 1,300 species from threatened and endangered lists. We assume that by that characterization the Center spokesman means that, on average, up to 80% of the population totals for endangered species would be unprotected: an odd Earth Day present if this is even close to correct. Suppose such a policy had been in place when the Bald Eagle was originally declared endangered? More from the Tucson spokesman: "...as soon as you drive a population extinct (in a certain area) it is no longer on the table. It no longer counts toward whether a species is endangered." On the otherhand, if you live in northern Minnesota hey, and wolves eat your dog or cat, you might feel good about the unprotected option. Bam! Image credit: Micheal Melford, National Geographic....
Beijing Rocks Earth Day: Big Messages, Big Country, One Little Day
by Rachel Wasser, Beijing, China on 04.22.07
Earth Day is cause for debate in some locales, but this treehugger posits that in the developing world it's still cause for celebration. In a country like China, where government tends to determine the way forward and an expanding middle class is just beginning to be exposed to green consumer choice - and to lots of not-so-green choices, including cars - environmental education is key. Sure, shocking numbers of people in the Western world don't "believe in" global warming. But at least most have been exposed to the theory. In China, soon to beat the US at the greenhouse gas emissions game, awareness about climate change is just getting off the ground. No Car Days help. So does Earth Day....
Navy Showers: Water Saving Goes Hardcore
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.22.07
Here’s yet another post that came to us via the ever diligent community at Hugg (thanks jerryjamesstone!). While water-saving shower heads can cut back our ecological footprint drastically (which is why Simran was promoting them on Oprah last week), there is an even easier, though perhaps not as luxurious, option - the navy shower. This is the term used for a water saving technique for showering, popularized (well, invented at least) by the navy to save precious on-board rations. The basic idea is to get yourself wet all over, as soon as you turn the shower on, and then turn it off while you soap up before, finally, rinsing off. Apparently, a typical shower takes as much as 230 L (60 US gallons) of water, while taking a navy shower can use as little 11 L (3 US gallons); one person can save 56,000 L (15,000 US gallons) per year!
This author has actually been sporadically using this technique for some time, without ever realizing it had a name, and it’s not as uncomfortable as it sounds. The only drawback is having to contend with a weird reaction from your spouse when they ask what you are doing in the bathroom, and you tell them you are taking a shower, despite the complete silence.
OK, we’re pretty sure this isn’t going to catch on with everyone, but for those of you who are deeply concerned about your water use, and willing to try something new, check out this info over at Wikipedia for full instructions. For those not willing to part with their ten minutes in hot-water heaven, you can also see our guide to greener showers here, and here.
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Michael Pollan: The Government Makes You Fat
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.22.07
Michael Pollan looks at the way Government policy determines what we eat and why "the most reliable predictor of obesity in America today is a person’s wealth." He quotes a study by Drewnowski of the University of Washington, who determined that a dollar will buy 1200 calories of cookies or chips but only 250 calories of carrots. If you don't have a lot of money, the most rational thing to do is buy junk food to get the most calories for your buck.
Why is a complex food like a Twinkie, with its 39 ingredients, processing, packaging and marketing so much cheaper than a bunch of carrots? Government subsidies and programs like the Farm Bill. we quote:...
TreeHugger Nominated for Webby Award! Please Vote!
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04.22.07
Update: The Problem? Gasoline is Basically Free
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.22.07
Articles in Auto sections of newspapers are usually rah-rah reviews of the latest pickup, spacers between the ads. Not the earth day edition of the Toronto Star, which had article after article saying things like "I watch people drive their children to every sport imaginable to make sure they're getting enough exercise. We're idiots." More shocking in such a section was Jim Kenzie wondering why we don't buy small efficient cars.
The car industry can build more efficient vehicles, and is in fact doing so. So, why don't we buy more of them? Because, as I have said a million times, gasoline is basically free. Despite all the whining, gasoline is as cheap now as it has ever been, on an inflation-adjusted basis. It is the cheapest fluid you can buy at a gasoline station. Water is three bucks a litre, fer cryin' out loud. As long as gasoline is free, we're going to keep on driving all by ourselves to work in a 2,000 kg truck, or picking up little Brittney at Havergal [local private school] in a 500-horse SUV, engine idling while you wait, air-con set at full cryogenic.Surprising reading from a car columnist. ::The Star ...
Fair Trade: Not just for Hipsters
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.22.07
Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times
You wouldn't know it was Earth Day reading the New York Times, but at least they have discovered another good thing, fair trade. The Times says: "Fair trade, like more familiar labels such as organic, cruelty-free and sustainable, is another in a series of ethical claims to appear on products — a kind of hipster seal of approval." The article is a bit flippant, suggesting fair trade is another gimmick like Barneys describing a product as "insanely sustainable" and quoting a customer saying it “makes you feel like you’re doing something good just by drinking a cup” Fair trade is a lot more than a hipster trend, it is a method of certifying that the stuff we buy was made by people who were reasonably paid to use organic and sustainable farming practices. ::New York Times
In Toronto, we just discovered a little hole in the wall called the Fair Trade Clothing Co-op selling T shirts and polos made from organic cotton from Agrocel. When you read their standards you realize what a difference this can make. ::Fair Trade Clothing Co-op
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Walking Buses - Providing Safe Routes to School
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.22.07
Strangely, we don’t appear to have covered ‘walking buses’ yet. No, they are not Fred Flintstone-style mass transit, but a neat, safe way for kids to get to school. They originate in the UK and, according to walkingbus.com they are “the nearest activity to perfect exercise.” Essentially, each walking bus has an adult 'driver' at the front and and an adult 'conductor' at the back. The ‘bus’ runs along a specific route picking up 'passengers' at specific 'bus-stops' along the way. The bus runs “rain or shine and everyone wears a reflective jacket. Along the way children can chat to their friends, learn valuable road safety skills and gain some independence.” Seems to us like the perfect way to beat childhood obesity, increase road safety awareness, reduce oil dependence, combat climate change, and create friendlier, healthier, safer communities. We love it! Apparently, after a walking bus was introduced at one UK school, the rate of kids walking to school shot up from 48% to 75%. Hopefully these kids will retain their enthusiasm for self-propelled transport long after they outgrow the 'bus'.
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1000 Days to Inspire Ecological Self-sustenance
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 04.22.07
Why set sail with the goal of staying at sea, without once making landfall, for 1000 days? Well, there is the obvious reason: to break the record of 657 days set by Australian Jon Sanders from 1986-1988. But why did friends and companies sign on to support Reid Stowe and Soanya Ahmad in this endeavor? Perhaps they are motivated to back an attempt at "extending the limits of human endurance to promote a global message of inspiration, perseverance and human ecological self sustenance".
Sailors have always tested the limits in creating a microcosm capable of supporting the off-grid, self-reliant life. A sailboat, in this case a 70 foot (21 meter) gaff-rigged Schooner, is by definition a micro-home where efficient utilization of available space is essential. Stowe designed and built his boat, named Anne. Stowe and Ahmad will survive on the fish they can catch, the sprouts they can grow while under way and the provisions, including coal and firewood for their heater and fuel for limited motoring, which were stocked before launch on 21 April 2007. Solar panels will power the electronics on board and water will be collected from rainfall or desalinated....
TreeHugger breaks it down for you in a series of in depth how-to articles that will help you green your life. No time like the present!
Here are a few recommended websites.
