cb8888 said:
"Thanks to Graydon , its a terrible story but the rush for sensationalism of seems to have overrun the facts. Even if ice breakers were available no..." [read]
quikboy said:
"Great! Just in time for the Summer Olympics! They should do this in Houston too!..." [read]
Eric said:
"I'm in full support of the use of reusable bottles over disposable. However, I do question the wisdom of the following line...
"Using paper..." [read]
Mackenzie said:
"Larry:
I recall the Gondola tour guide saying they have boats going up and down the river treating it in-place.
The Gondola tour guid..." [read]
MGB said:
"Keep dreaming. The power from sound is much-much smaller (several orders of magnitude) than is needed for any normal electronic device, especially..." [read]
Bonnie said:
"I really like egreenplace.com for baby furniture.
They offer some of the best green products which go through a lot of scrutiny and testin..." [read]
It is called the 'precautionary principle'. If a mountain lion is stalking outside your home and looks hungry, the best thing to do is not go outside and act like a nice juicy meal. No, you stay away, and try to think of how to get it to leave. This makes sense. But somehow when those lions turn into chemicals (like BPA) the U.S. seems not to apply the same rules. The book, Exposed - The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products: What's at Stake for American Power, by Mark Schapiro highlights the growing gap between U.S. policy regarding chemical safety and that of the rest of the world. It gives a 'behind the scenes' look into how the U.S. has lost the edge in environmental policy, and illustrates clearly how this lack of governmental leadership will negatively impact our economy as well as our personal safety....
Eliza Barclay is a freelance writer, photographer and multimedia journalist based in Washington, DC specializing in public health and environmental issues in Latin America and Africa. She has contributed to a variety of publications including The New York Times, Slate, Business Week, National Geographic News and The Lancet. In 2007, she was awarded a fellowship from the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with which she traveled to Tanzania and Kenya to report on malaria, climate change and illegal logging. She graduated with a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California at Berkeley....
On the base of the two-sectioned, steel bottle pictured above is stamped these words: U.S., Swanson, 1945. The thick cotton canvas cover, lined with a dense woolen felt, snaps securely over the bottle's shoulders with two solid brass pins. When I was a kid, I'd fill it up for my bicycle trip, soaking the canvas completely and letting it hang off the back of my bicycle seat springs with the built in belt hooks (shown above). The evaporative cooling from wind passing by the wet canvas kept the water inside cool on the way to the swimming hole. In childhood memories, I can still hear that squeaky sound of hooks on springs. Years later, I found it was good to hang over a 1960's era car window...with a little jury rigging....
Who is Fred Butler? And what does he/she have to do with your laundry? "Fred Butler®" is the registered trademark and penguin mascot of a new dry-cleaning product-service which is the brainchild of German industrial gas giant, Linde. Linde's concept augers change and causes journalists at the Oakland Tribune to ponder the end of friendly and personalized corner laundry service amidst reports that the Europeans are moving in to take over the American dry-cleaning industry. What is behind the buzz?
Dry-cleaning is a dirty business. The current dry-cleaning solvent, perchloroethylene, was heralded as a huge advance when it was introduced to replace the explosion-susceptible flammable solvents which preceded it. For decades, this chlorinated hydrocarbon has efficiently removed the greasiest burger drips and stickiest splashes for customers concerned about their fine textiles. But the solvent is a danger to groundwater and suspected of causing serious health damage--at least among workers at dry-cleaning shops. Bans on the solvent are progressively forcing dry-cleaners to look for alternatives.
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Bisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical commonly found in hard plastics — has for the first time been linked to female reproductive disorders in a strongly-worded statement released by 38 scientists and published online in the journal Reproductive Toxicology. The compound, which is used in a variety of consumer items such as polycarbonate plastic baby bottles, microwave oven dishes and sports bottles, often seeps from containers and enters the bodies of humans.
After reviewing close to 700 studies, the scientists determined that people are regularly exposed to BPA levels that exceed those harmful to lab animals — singling out infants and fetuses as the most vulnerable. The statement was accompanied by a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) study that found that uterine damage caused by BPA exposure in newborn animals might predict a host of reproductive disorders in women — including endometriosis, cystic ovaries, fibroids and cancers. While earlier studies had linked early-stage cancers and lower sperm counts in animals to low BPA doses, no study had ever linked exposure to female reproductive diseases....
We’ve already noted the virus-like spread of electric vehicles (EVs) such as the G-Wiz in London. Along side the growth in the number of EVs on the road, we have also seen an increase in local authorities installing electric charging points on the streets. The fashion has even spread outside the nation’s congestion-charged capital, with EV enthusiasts in the city of Bristol recently celebrating the opening of the first charging point in the South West. As one might expect, the private sector is stepping in to develop and supply curbside charging solutions for electric cars, bikes and buggies. Park and Power is one such company.
The company supplies the units then, when installed, EV owners simply purchase a license to use them, then just park up, plug in, and charge. Presumably this model would require a significant number of units in different locations to make it worth while buying a license, and the website doesn’t say much about how many vehicles can use a unit at one time. Nevertheless, we’re encouraged to see more suppliers providing solutions for increased EV use, and we’re sure details can be ironed out as streetside charging gets more popular. Encouragingly, Park and Power also seem to have gone to great lengths to ensure compatibility with a wide range of vehicles:
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Spurred by what scientists believe are ideal climate change-influenced weather patterns, Legionnaires' disease — a deadly bacterial lung infection with a more than 1 in 10 mortality rate — has continued its rapid spread across Britain, having already managed to notch record levels in 5 of this year's first 6 months. Infected water inhaled as a vapor helps spread the lethal disease and causes severe pneumonia-like symptoms.
Typically, Legionnaires' disease cases rise during the warmer seasons — spring and summer — reaching a peak in late August or September. Last year, whose summer witnessed the hottest July on record and a wet August, saw the highest recorded number of infections since records started being kept in 1980. Scientists expect further increases within the coming years as the effects of climate change continue to intensify. ...
The "sex tree" (i.e. Citropsis articulata) — a skinny bush whose roots are purported to cure impotence — is facing an increasingly bleak future as poachers in Uganda's Mabira Forest Reserve rush to harvest it in ever larger numbers. Other tree species, including the medicinal Prunus africana — which is used to treat malaria and certain forms of cancer — is rapidly approaching extinction as well.
"The [sex] tree may have other medicinal values apart from treating sexual impotence, and we are losing out if we let these plants go extinct without doing more research. The people say that the medicines work," said Mauda Kamatenesi, a botanist at Makarere University, who argued that the loss of these species would do irrevocable damage to the rain forest and local Ugandans — who've been using them as herbal cures for many years. A larger threat to the plants' future well-being, however, may be the Ugandan government's plan to convert over a quarter of the rain forest into a sugarcane plantation. ...
While the notion that environmental protection can be good for business certainly hasn't gone mainstream in capitalist China, this year the country has made some bold attempts to make pollution bad for business. In lieu of national policies backed up by a strong legal system (think the Clean Air Act) -- or just good ol' fashioned brute force -- the government has recently announced market-based disincentives for heavy polluters, like raising the threshold for investment in energy intensive industries and eliminating tax breaks.
Now the ambitious leader of the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), Pan Yue, is touting a system of "green credit.." The idea, which sounds new to me, is to restrict heavy polluters from access to the bank loans they need. It's part of a growing push for what's becoming feared as "green tightening," a slew of economic policies to stop polluters. Pan also released a blacklist of 30 medium-sized companies to whom credit should be immediately denied.
As with every clean policy in growth-obsessed and complex China, though, uniting with those departments will be the sticky part. At the end of May, the major Chinese banks had 1.5 trillion yuan, or $198 billion, in medium- and long-term loans outstanding to energy-intensive and polluting sectors, up 21.8 percent from a year earlier. ...
It’s a phenomena, or maybe that should be pheromone, that just won’t go away. Earlier this year we had the media interest in ‘ecosexuals’, which we figured was a bit of a beat-up ‘coz as we observed on one or two occasions the green dating thing has been around for decades. But just when you thought attention had moved onto other things it’s back. New Consumer report that a UK men’s magazine, by the grand name of Nuts (warning: do not click this link in an open plan office) has apparently surveyed 1,500 women online to discover that the top ‘turn on’ women find attractive in men is 'caring about the environment’. The magazines relation expert figures that women equate eco awareness with a man who isn't selfish. 'There's something sexy about a man who recycles, it shows that he cares about more than just himself and shows he has a sensitive side and thinks about the future,' she says. New Consumer go on to note that a YouGov survey reported London men were four times less likely than women to be concerned about the environment. Which is backed up in the US by research that Kira Gould and Lance Hosey writing on Grist observed. They cited studies that show women are up to 15% more likely than men to rate the environment a high priority, and they make up 2/3rds of voters who cast their ballots around environmental issues. As we continue to say, Green is Sexy. But it seems only half the population is getting the message. ...
3M has announced the availability of their new Wind Tapes8608 and 8609 for the wind energy market. Wind Tapes are adhesive-backed polyurethane tapes that are "placed on the leading edge of wind turbine blade to reduce damage caused by sand, rain, moisture ingression, insects, and airborne particles. The new tapes are also formulated to resist the damage and weakening effects of ultraviolet rays. Used to help protect wind turbine blades, the tapes can help reduce maintenance and replacement costs and extend the service life of the blade." A similar protective tape made by 3M for helicopter blades extends product life by up to X10. The new Wind Tape "is typically applied to the outer two-thirds of the blade where the speed is the fastest and protection most critical. Providing energy absorption, Wind Tapes from 3M spread the impact force of particles over a wider area of the blade, protecting its structural and aesthetic integrity."
Like an enormous roll of Scotch Tape. The bigger the turbine, the bigger the roll. The bigger the rolls, the better it gets for 3M. As more industrial companies benefit in this manner from the wind 'value chain', the economic importance of renewable energy will be increasingly apparent to elected officials. More broadly, as the renewable energy value chain encompasses a multitude of new "goesintas" (the components and base materials that "go into" the making of renewable energy generation products), we will reach a tipping point, beyond which the fossil fuel industry no longer has an exclusive grip on political power in Washington DC.
3 cheers for 3M for finding a way to make tape increase the useful design life of wind turbines. This positions them on the "leading edge" of climate protection. Let's hope it sticks. Via:: Aerospace Online Image credit:: 3M Protective Tape...
TreeHugger Forums are proving to be a very timely, diverse community that is fostering a bunch of discussions, from deep green questions about philosophy to new greenies getting in the act for the first time. Here are some of the recent highlights...
2) User gizzigoo is duking it out with her husband over which lawn mower to use. After a small explosion (yikes!), she thought maybe a reel mower would be better, "but as we do not have a suburban type yard my husband said that is just wouldn't be effective, we are on acreage and a little bit hilly, with stones and tree branches it makes quite a rough terrain." Could cordless electric be the answer?
3) User mylescloutier takes note that "Well it's getting close to September once again. I'm going into grade 12 and I'm sure there must be some other Treehuggers out there who will find it's time to start buying school supplies again soon", and has made a list (and checked it twice) of basic stuff many students will need every day; be sure to hit it up before hitting the stores. How green is the Prius and green deodorant, after the jump...
According to a new study released yesterday, the saltwater marsh islands located near the John F. Kennedy airport in New York City could vanish within the next five years due to environmental degradation caused by the increased dumping of treated sewage. The city's Department of Environmental Protection had previously estimated that the islands of Jamaica Bay — the wildlife-rich marshes — would disappear by 2024; this new study moves up the date 12 years to 2012.
Home to more than 80 fish species, the islands of Jamaica Bay also serve as a resting stop for almost 20% of North America's migratory birds and provide flood protection for the city. Over time, what has happened is that as the tidal creeks on the islands have been expanding, the vegetated areas — first turning into mud flats and then sand flats — have been slowly disappearing. From 1924 to 1999 the bay lost close to half of its tidal wetlands, with recent losses — from 2003 to 2005 — accelerating at an even faster clip. ...
E-waste is a huge problem facing our increasingly plugged-in world, and though Staples is trying to stem the tide, there are still tons of electronics that needlessly go in the landfill. A new company called Second Rotation is adding a new option for your old consumer electronics, and it can help you make a little cash. Last week, they launched their "online exchange dedicated to giving individual consumers an easy way to sell pre-owned lifestyle goods on the Web." Their initial focus is on the ubiquitous consumer electronics -- cell phones, iPods, digital cameras, PDAs, etc. -- and are attempting to streamline the service offered by other sites like eBay to make it easier for individuals to get rid of their stuff. Offering cash for them is a good incentive for folks to keep their used (but still working) electronics from going in the trash when the newest gotta-have-it hits stores. Their "dynamic pricing calculator" helps determine, almost in real time, the value of whatever you want to unload; 10 days or so after you send it to Second Rotation, you'll have cash money burning a hole in your pocket. When added to services like those available at Freecycle and Craigslist, there's really no reason you have to throw away anything with even a little life in it. ::Second Rotation via ::Core77...
Only a couple of weeks ago we reported on efforts by UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s to start delivering to some of its London stores by canal. Now we hear from the ever-trusty Guardian newspaper that the politics of moving freight by canal are under close scrutiny. A report just issued by Members of Parliament is calling on the government to give incentives to companies that chose water of rail or road freight. These incentives could possibly be in the form of carbon credits, given the fact that deliveries on canals can have up to 80% lower carbon emissions than road haulage. Currently, however, just 1% of domestic freight travels by water.
Apparently this is not the first time in recent years that this issue has been looked at, and in 2000 British Waterways, the entity in charge of Britain’s canal network, promised to double the amount of freight, but since then the amount has actually fallen. This is largely due to the fact that, as things stand, road and rail are more profitable. If the hidden costs of carbon emissions were to be somehow taken into account, however, canal-based deliveries might become much more common:
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The Delft University of Technology has built a solar powered mouse, testing whether renewable energy products, with higher functionality and a touch of design, can encourage users to adopt modern and consistently sustainable conduct. They even have the Minister of Housing and the Environment using one. They are testing the "willingness of the user to adapt his behaviour to favourable light conditions by regularly charging the unit with daylight from the window, and the computer usage pattern. With solar energy, under ideal circumstances charging can occur a factor of five times quicker than in the current situation. Over time it is estimated that several hundred million batteries could be saved annually on a global scale."
Seems to this reader that one's hand covers the mouse most of the day and at night the lights are out. Perhaps for casual computer users. ::University of Delft via ::Core77...
I love A-frames; I even built one as an outhouse. Small ones are easy to build and they use materials efficiently. They fell out of favour as people wanted bigger spaces; a triangle encloses the smallest volume of any shape and these didn't scale well. Photographer Barbara Gallucci notes that "A-Frames, which gained popularity in the late 1960’s and 70’s, were sold as prefab kits, available at the local lumberyard for just $3000. The house kits made it possible for a new culture of middle-class ‘Do-It-Yourselfers’ to own vacation homes. Over the years A-Frames have been customized, renovated, appropriated and are now found housing everything from fast food joints to motorcycle shops." She has documented them on her website at ::Barbara Gallucci. via ::MocoLoco...
Put together with data from the CIA, the World Health Organization, the Census and other sources. It is completely scary, watching the stats on prison growth, illegal immigration, species extinct and forests lost increasing before your eyes. Bizarrely, the creator says "although I find the theory of global warming highly debatable, I have included stats according to the expected temperature rise" which makes one wonder-he believes in the stats but not the cause of them? From Poodwaddle, which makes a customizable home page. ::World Clock via ::Good...
As the Burning Man event quickly approaches, TreeHugger is teaming up with Current TV to help look for the best ideas that exemplify this year's "Green Man" theme. In the spirit of Burning Man, the event will be filled with open-source green innovations that encourage everyone to take, tinker, remix and redesign. We think that you might just have the next big open-source idea to help revolutionize the way we live. So, we are asking you to Participate! Send us a 3D model (or 2D rendering if necessary) representation of your best eco-innovation and you will get 2 tickets to Burning Man where you can show off your open-source invention - where you and your invention might just end up on Current TV's "TV Free Burning Man" coverage of the event. In addition, the winner and the 1st and 2nd runners-up will receive Jessica Bruder's tribute to the event, the Burning Book.
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Bernard Rudofsky's 1964 Architecture without Architects was profoundly influential for a generation of designers. He noted that "vernacular architecture does not go through fashion cycles. It is nearly immutable, indeed, unimprovable, since it serves its purpose to perfection." He and his wife travelled everywhere, drawing, writing and photographing, while wearing the Bernardo sandals he designed.
Now, the Canadian Institute for Architecture has mounted an exhibition, co-presented by Architekturzentrum Wien, an architecture museum in Vienna, and the Getty Research Institute of Los Angeles, showing 200 drawings, photographs and journals. Oh, and footwear. Catch it until September 30 at the ::CCA in Montreal....
Paris Hilton and the word "green" in the same sentence? Ha! (snort!) Hollywood.com reported yesterday that the clinker really made Paris think about her lifestyle. Yes that's right: she's "going green" and encouraging her fans to do the same. So does this mean that Paris has audited her ecological footprint? Not quite. She's traded in her Range Rover SUV in favor of a Ford hybrid car. But one thing we should probably mention is that this was after she was given a free model by the car's manufacturers. Paris was noted as saying, "Driving hybrid cars is the new way to go. Anyone can do it, no matter how old." (Whatever the bleep that means.) You know we encourage green going mainstream, but we have to say we're not impressed by the PR stunt, honey. Via & Photo Credit ::Hollywood.com...
We missed this when it aired a few weeks ago but — because of our recent fixation on the colony collapse disorder stories — thought it was worth highlighting again. In addition to providing a comprehensive overview of the story to-date, this KQED report explores the efforts of two California scientists — UC Davis biologist Susan Cobey and UC Berkeley conservation biologist Claire Kremen — to resolve this complex issue. Cobey's focus in on creating hardier, more productive honey bees through selective breeding while Kremen studies how native bees help make honey bees more productive.
Via ::KQED QUEST: Better Bees: Super Bee and Wild Bee (show website)
See also: ::Sweet News: Organic Bees Are Thriving, ::Big-City Bees...
Words like green or sustainable- what do they really mean? We ponder this in our shiny new headquarters, shown above. We are reading "the Meaning of Everything", about the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary. Editor James Murray asked readers to report ""as many quotations as you can for ordinary words" to find where and when they were used, and cataloged them on slips of paper. In 1882 he had 3,500,000 million of them in 1029 pigeonholes. He didn't catch the new meaning of "green" or "sustainable."
Green is so mushy. Wikipedia thinks it is the same as Sustainable, but William McDonough once said
"We still have people talking about 'sustainability'! Nothing is more boring. Are you proud if your marriage is 'sustainable'?
We need a better word or a better definition. Any suggestions?
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The brainchild of Jim Mason, Dann Davis and a team of eco-oriented artists, the Mechabolic really defies easy convention. In their words:
" The Mechabolic project is a large-scale bio-imitative installation of hydrocarbon based fuel production, transformation and consumption. Our goal is to create a fantastical, bio-machine hybrid environment --a burlesque of the "synthetic metabolism" of machines-- recasting internal combustion engines and petroleum fuels as their parallel animal organs and plant generated carbohydrate foods."
As Congress approves 55 billion dollars in corn subsidies and pays 12 billion dollars a month for the Iraq war, the infrastructure in America continues to crumble: Bridges in Minneapolis, steam pipes in Manhattan, highway collapses in Montreal and of course levee breaches in New Orleans.
The New York Times says "Transportation officials know many of the nation’s 600,000 bridges are in need of repair or replacement. About one in eight has been deemed "structurally deficient," a term that typically means a component of the bridge's structure has been rated poor or worse, but does not necessarily warn of imminent collapse. Most deficient bridges, which included the span of Interstate 35W over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, remain open to traffic."
Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG does the math and notes "13.6 percent of U.S. bridges – i.e. more than 81,000 bridges – are "functionally obsolete." He continues: "the Federal Highway Administration's annual budget appears to be hovering around $35-40 billion a year....and annual government subsidies for Amtrak come in at slightly more than $1 billion. That's $1 billion every year to help commuter train lines run."...
Alvar Aalto once said, "Nothing old is ever reborn, but neither does it totally disappear. And that which has once been, will always reappear in a new form." This is a fitting sentiment for Artek's new line (we've featured them before), called 2nd Cycle, which reclaims old Artek pieces that are upwards of 50, 60, 70 years old. Rather than refinishing or refurbishing them, the pieces are left as is, telling the story of their long lives through the scratches, dents and patina that comes from kicking around for the better part of a century. Like your favorite jeans, they believe that the pieces only get better with age; that they still exist and still look good is a testament not only to the quality craftsmanship, but to the timeless designs that will still work in another 50 years. Hit the jump for more pics; see all the pieces, and read some of their stories at ::Artek via ::Apartment Therapy...
Ed. note: This is the first post in the "Dumb" Questions series of posts that TreeHugger is writing to provide answers to some basic questions about the environment and all things green. We realize that many of these questions/answers will seem, well basic, to most of you, but please bear with us: we just want to make sure that everybody is on the right page! After all, what's the fun in having you read our posts if you get stuck on a basic premise?
To answer this question, it helps to first have a rudimentary knowledge of the planet's hydrologic, or water, cycle. The water cycle, in essence, describes the processes by which large quantities of water move continuously through the Earth's oceans, land and atmosphere over short and long time scales. It is primarily dominated by the oceans — which account for 96% of the planet's water and where 86% of global evaporation takes place — though it has no defined starting or ending point....
In the future we may make things locally with neighbourhood CNC or 3D printing to eliminate shipping costs and CO2 emissions. Frederic Hakoune gives us an early demonstration of this with his printed watch.
We don't know what kind of fabber he used; it could be something like idealab's new desktop printer; Perhaps it is a home-made Evil Mad Scientist version, although the watch does not look like it is made of granulated sugar. It might be Hod Lipson's design that you can build yourself, or a commercial unit. ...
One consequence of smaller cars like the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit -- which TreeHugger loves -- is that they have a bit less capacity for hauling stuff. While not a huge problem when you're driving back and forth to work (for most of us), it can make it tougher to put a load of gear in the back before heading off for a long weekend at the beach (or wherever your plans may take you). One German company has realized this problem, and come up with a solution: the Auto Rucksack, which is exactly what it sounds like. The waterproof backpack for your car rests comfortably off the back, which, as you can see in the above picture, doesn't add drag to your car (and decrease gas mileage) like a roof-rack-based system would. As an added benefit, when not in use, the rucksack adds virtually no weight to your car when not in use; the caveat is that it makes it pretty tough (okay, virtually impossible) to see out the back, but that's what the side-views are for, right? Wonder if they make a solar version? ::AutoRucksack via ::AutoblogGreen and ::Gizmag ...
limited edition cover art by Keiichi Tanaami
This month's issue of Wallpaper* magazine is dominated by the 2007 Design Directory, their hand-picked favorite architects and designers from the past year. Always the epitome of cool, the mag's slick picks include some inspirational ideas and interiors to look good and go green. They give a nod to Sweden's Tham & Videgard Hansson (page 096) as a top ten up-and-coming architect, who put innovation and sustainability high on their list. Also in the mix is a design that's stood the test of time, and has become an "iconic fixture": the folding chair (page 070), designed in 1967 by Giancarlo Piretti to fold flat to a depth of less than a inch or easily stack when folded out, saving space either way you go (it's now in the Museum of Modern Art). Halfway around the world, in China, the auto industry is booming (page 073), which isn't great news, but BMW is using the huge market (car ownership in China is set to outpace that in the US within 30 years) to continue building their hydrogen future; whether or not that will come to fruition remains to be seen (but that's another post). Pick up Wallpaper* for the usual outstanding eye candy and more of the world's best design. ::Wallpaper*...
Any guesses as to what this thing is? Here are some hints: you could probably use it every day; it would live on your desk; and it employs hanging chads (yep, the same little guys that caused all that ruckus down in Florida a few years back). Give up? It's a "staple-less stapler," which is sort of a silly name for it, because it doesn't use staples. In any event, the sleek little guy will "staple," with a hanging chad, up to five sheets of paper together, and while cutting back on staples might seem a bit trivial, consider this: we would save 120 tons of steel if every office worker used one less staple a day for a year (hat tip to ecofabulous for that nugget). While five sheets won't cover all the paper you have to connect, some double-sided printing would help increase your new "stapling" capacity. It's available from ::Amazon via ::Apartment Therapy: Green...
It is hot in Tucson; if people are going to live there they need houses that can cope with it. Tucson architect Rob Paulus thinks about green choices in his buildings and in his practice; he focuses on LEED projects, infill, renovations and adaptive reuse. Employees bike in to work under green powered compact fluorescents and support local businesses. Even those long architectural lunches where so many napkins are sketched on are in local restaurants.
The 007 house is "the slick and cool ideal of a modern bachelor pad."
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We could go on about the silliness of ethanol from corn, and usually do; however it is a horse that has been flogged to death on TreeHugger,. However, if you need a well written and powerful indictment of ethanol, you should read Jeff Goodell's article in Rolling Stone:
Ethanol Scam: Ethanol Hurts the Environment And Is One of America's Biggest Political Boondoggles.
He starts strongly: "The great danger of confronting peak oil and global warming isn't that we will sit on our collective asses and do nothing while civilization collapses, but that we will plunge after "solutions" that will make our problems even worse. Like believing we can replace gasoline with ethanol, the much-hyped biofuel that we make from corn." and explains the political pressures that lead so many politicians like Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Edwards, who should know better, to support it....
Sustainability Victoria in Australia reckon that its state residents lose up to 40% through their roofs in winter and gain 30% of unwanted heat in summer through the same oversight. 20% of Victorian homes are thought to have no insulation. A problem particularly for low income families who are not only wasting money in heating and cooling bills, but are generating up to 2.2 tonnes of unnecessary greenhouse gases annually. So that state’s outgoing Climate Change Minister made his last ministerial decree at the end of July 07, offering rebates for home insulation. The government will give homeowners $300 if they install ceiling insulation of R3.5 or higher into a house built before 1991. A $500 rebate will also be offered to landlords if their tenants are concession card holders (social benefit). The program takes effect from 13 August 2007. The minister John Thwaite said "Climate change is going to have a big effect on low income people. We need to make sure when we act on climate change that we don't make people more disadvantaged but we help low income people to reduce their energy bills." NB: Please note that Australia and New Zealand adhere to SI (International System of Units) for insulation, whereas USA, UK and Canada chose not to. So R (resistance) values for insulation get very confusing. Roughly speaking it is about 1 SI to 6 Non-SI R values, thus R3.5 in Australia is near to R21 in the USA. ::Sustainability Victoria, via ABC....
When is organic not organic and which organic is good organic? This is a subject that was examined in Michael Pollan's brilliant book "Omnivore's Dilemma" and is now at the centre of a debate about air miles. The Soil Association certifies about 80 per cent of organic produce in the United Kingdom. It has threatened to take away the organic certification from farms in East Africa because their produce is transported to Europe by air, thus contributing to global warming. But these are poor farmers who switched to organic farming recently, joined up with 32 other farmers with small plots, learnt new techniques and ceased the few non-organic practices they had. The happy ending was that their products received the Soil Association’s treasured “Organic” stamp and they began exporting vegetables to Britain and Saudi Arabia.
The Soil Association is now considering a partial or total ban on air-freighted organic exports because it says that it "must carefully consider the social and economic benefits of air freight for international development and growth of the organic market as a whole.” If banned, this could be a killing blow to the 150,000 Kenyans who are dependent on organic farming for their livelihood. The bitter irony, according to one Kenyan journalist is "that UK farmers use tractors, heat up greenhouses, drive to work in cars or on motorbikes . . ” Calculations show that it takes 4kg of carbon emissions to fly 1kg of green beans or cucumbers from Nairobi to London. “This figure is utterly irrelevant when you work out how much carbon Britons use going to the supermarket in their cars or driving to a restaurant for dinner,” he added. Fair miles or air miles? We say that we want to eliminate poverty in Africa, trade is a positive way to do this, and yet there is a legitimate concern about air miles. A serious debate to hold in the organic sector, and one with global implications. :: The Times...
Attendance at parks nationwide is down, and yesterday I pointed out that Congressman Sarbanes has a bill that attempts to "Leave No Child Inside"; but this spring and early summer the state of Connecticut was working on getting families outside and into state parks in their own way by organizing The Great Park Pursuit. It's a challenge where families compete as a team by following clues over a period of weeks to determine what park they need to go to next and what activity to engage in once they get there. Things like hiking, fishing, archery, hoola hooping, the list goes on... And not too unlike the television show "The Amazing Race", the families were competing for prizes like great outdoor equipment by being the first ones to complete the tasks and check in. They even allowed families to create their own web page with the photos and stories of what they did to share with each other. And while it's over in Connecticut for this year, it just may be something to suggest to the parks commission in your state for next... After all, they're probably looking for ways to improve park attendance themselves, and what better way to do it than with a fun game that parents and kids can play together?
via:: The Great Park Pursuit...
Once upon a time, internet shopping, "clicks, not bricks" was going to change the world; It didn't quite happen as planned. Yet quietly and steadily, more and more stuff became available as the "long tail" effect kicked in.
Warren notes that some studies indicate that internet shopping saves 75% of the energy, 25 to 35% of the inventory and 12.5% of the infrastructure.
Of course, we have seen what happened to the record store infrastructure after the dematerialization of music where one never even owns a physical product.
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Half-Moon Outfitters sell outdoor gear, but they recently had something else to ‘sell.’ Themselves. Their new corporate office and warehouse has just been awarded the US Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum rating. This made them only the 25th new construction or major renovation to receive a Platinum rating, and the first to do so using the newer, more stringent LEED NC version 2.2, plus the first LEED Platinum project in the state of South Carolina. Their renovation of a nondescript building has seen it gain “photovoltaic panels on the roof, rainwater collection tanks in back, extensive native vegetation, and a brightly lit interior almost entirely of locally harvested wood, salvaged materials, and rapidly renewable agrifiber boards.” The company’s media release indicates that the renovation has transformed the way Half-Moon Outfitters does business. They now have scorecards for all of their locations measuring and comparing the power needs of each. The new project in North Charleston currently varies between $.03 and $.05 per square foot per month while their most inefficient store operates between $.20 and $.30 per square foot, a statistic that the business vows to change. “A shift has occurred with the mentality of our employees as everyone is becoming committed to the idea of recycling and reducing our consumption of carbon based fuels.” The staff seem particularly enamoured with their desks made of Dakota Burl—discarded sunflower seed husks (which we first noted in 2004), the texture of which they describe as “crazy-cool”. ::Half-Moon Outfitters.
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Now that it is August, I will share the recipe that I make only during this month, the one that my family waits the entire year to enjoy. I have been making this pasta from memory for many years so I had to think long and hard about when I first ate it and where the original recipe was from. I can't possibly claim it as my own.
Mulling this over I thought about summer weekends at my in-law's cottage just north of Toronto. My sister-in-law with her husband and toddler son would arrive on Friday nights tired after the work week. After a suitable amount of napping on the chesterfield on Saturday, my brother-in-law would arise, take over the kitchen and produce something wonderful for dinner. Then I had it fixed in my mind - The Silver Palate Cookbook - and sure enough, I dragged my battered copy out of the cupboard and there it was - Linguine with Tomatoes and Basil. ...
When slapped with an order to clean up the poop of 12,000 dairy cows, the Hefer Valley Cooperative Society built a manure-driven power station to solve their problems. The first of its kind in Israel, the plant was inaugurated this week and is expected to process 600 tons of manure a day and generate 2-2.4 megawatts per hour (MW/h) within the year. At present the plant is operating at about half its capacity, and most of the energy is feeding back to the national grid.
The project is a joint effort between Tambour Hefer Ecology Ltd and Granite Hacarmel Investments Ltd. Granite Hacarmel CEO Amiaz Sagis said, "This is unquestionably an important milestone. This facility fits in with Granite Hacarmel's strategy to invest in infrastructures and ecology. The company is also investing resources to develop alternative energy, water treatment, and desalination.” While it wasn’t made cheap – the new plant located in Hadera cost about $10 million to build, which included a $2 million grant from Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture to help improve Israel’s much-polluting dairy industry. First the manure is sterilized, then the solid and liquid waste are processed to produce methane, which drives the generators. Related: Manure Power in the Spotlight and Everything Poops::Globes via ::ISRAEL21c...
Dear EcoGeek,
Who killed the electric car? Seriously, why can't I buy one yet and when will I be able to?
Alan Carney
Dallas Texas
Hey Alan,
Much love to the people who made Who Killed the Electric Car, because they got a lot of stuff right. It wasn't any one person, corporation or technicality that killed the EV1. As with all product failures it was a combination of tons of factors.
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Ed. note: This is the fourth post in the Green Basics series of posts that TreeHugger is writing to provide basic information about important ideas, materials and technologies for new greenies (or those who just need a quick refresher). Read on and stay tuned!What is vermicomposting? Why use worms?
Known also as worm compost, vermicast, worm castings, worm humus or worm manure, vermicompost is similar to plain compost, except that it uses worms in addition to microbes and bacteria to turn organic waste into a nutrient-rich fertilizer. Vermicompost, or vermiculture, most often uses two species of worms: Red Wigglers (Eisenia foetida) or Red Earthworms (Lumbricus rubellus) rarely found in soil and are adapted to the special conditions in rotting vegetation, compost and manure piles.
How does vermicomposting work?
It works like this: after procuring a container and setting it up (more on that in a sec), feed your worms the same organic waste you'd toss in a compost pile -- which includes just about all of your food waste, save the animal leftovers -- and let them have at it. They chew on it for awhile, and when they're all done eating, they poop (hey, everybody does it) and there you go: vermicompost....
Ecostreet: Embrace green motherhood: breastfeed by Tracy Stokes
"Breastfeeding is the most environmentally friendly way to feed your baby. Breast milk is a renewable resource. No plastic bottles that will end up in landfill one day, no energy needed to produce plastic bottles and formula milk, no inefficient land use and methane produced by cows, and the only energy used is your own."
Nicomachus: Carnival of the Green by Phillip Barron
"The finale for this week’s Carnival is an entry that wasn’t submitted -- just one I came across while reading. The author asks a pertinent question that bears repeating in this new wave of popular environmentalism: whether the green aspects of green consumerism outweigh the costs of consumerism itself. Like her, I too am skeptical. Living green is about simplifying one's demands of the world, and green consumerism is still consumerism. How do we get out of this box?"...
Combining high-tech CNC (that's computer-numerically controlled) routing with artisanal techniques and some sustainable materials, Barcelona studio Damaris & Marc Design have produced some pretty eye-catching wooden designs. Shishi Gami, above, a playful wooden lamp with felt accents added for a pop of color, is our favorite. As regular readers will recall, CNC routing gets the TreeHugger thumbs up because the design is drawn up and locked in with a computer, which controls the router and (theoretically) creates it without mistakes; it also allows for more efficient use of wood, since offcuts can be minimized with the design, and (also theoretically) allows for the kinks in the design to be worked out before any wood is cut. After the jump: Herald, a dramatic screen inspired by the traditional heraldic lion. ::Damaris & Marc Design via ::MoCo Loco
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It sounds almost too good to be true: just drop the device — dubbed the low-swirl injector (LSI) — into any old gas-burning turbine and watch it achieve low emissions of carbon dioxide and near-zero emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx). Yet this revolutionary combustion technology — developed jointly by a team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and one from San Diego-based Solar Turbines Inc. — did just that in a recent test using pure hydrogen as a fuel. If incorporated into existing power plants, it could help eliminate thousands of tons of NOx and millions of tons of carbon dioxide every year.
The LSI works by imparting a slight spin to the gaseous fuel and air mixture placed in the gas turbine, causing it to spread out. This helps stabilize the flame used to heat the mixture and, more importantly, allows it to burn at lower temperatures. Since the production of NOx is highly temperature-dependent, the lower flame temperature drastically reduces the level of emissions produced. Natural gas-burning turbines equipped with the LSI emitted 2 ppm of NOx, more than 5 times less the amount emitted by conventional burners....
Solar cookers, solar barbeques, solar ovens; we've seen a lot of various names (with slightly different functions) for the handy gadgets that cook with the power of the sun from all over the world. In the midst of the dog days of summer, here are some of our favorite gadgets that don't need the grid to grill.
1) One option for cooking that can be done inside a pot is the SOS Sport, a two-pot box cooker that weighs in at 11 pounds and can cook low-n-slow at temperatures around 200 degrees. An added bonus: it's made from recycled soda bottles.
2) KSol, the parabolic solar kitchen available in Europe, uses an idea similar to a television antenna, that concentrates solar light in the center of it. Available in two models, which have a diameter of 1 and 1.4 meters (that's about 3 and 4.5 feet) respectively, are equivalent to 300W and 600W of power, and can reach a maximum temperature of 200 degrees C (that's almost 400 F). The Solar Sizzler is another parabolic cooker, available in the States.
3) The Sun Cook Solar Oven calls itself the "the sustainable replacement for the backyard barbecue." The Portuguese design has polished reflectors which concentrate sunlight in the insulated oven chamber; a metal plate on the bottom absorbs solar energy, and the tempered glass top holds it in. Get this: you time your cooking with a built in sundial. Two more hot picks, after the jump...
Dunkin' Donuts has never broadcast the fact that all its espresso, cappuccinos, and lattes are 100 percent-certified fair trade. Till now, that is, if you can call placing a blink-and-you'll-miss-it fair-trade sticker on its store doors tooting its own horn.
In this age of corporate-social-responsibility initiatives and greenwashing, this relatively demure PR stance borders on mindboggling. One coffee giant would be screeching this fact from the mountaintops, or, at the very least, the Columbia Center in downtown Seattle, if it upped the ante with such a bold, progressive move, rather than merely providing lip service. Apparently—among the java titans, at least—that's the Dunkin' Difference.
Let's compare numbers between the two chain stores: 100 percent of Dunkin' Donuts' espresso-based coffee is fair-trade-certified, compared with Starbucks' 3.7 percent. Because of its prodigious reach, however, Starbucks is North America's largest purchaser of fair-trade coffee, which makes its purchasing decisions hardly inconsequential.
But what's the big deal about fair trade, you may ask?...
When it comes to Clif Bar we’re usually covering their energy products in addition to the sustainable principles of the company. But while flipping through a recent issue of Outside Magazine, we noticed they had a blurb, not about the latest and greatest in energy bars, but about a venture called Clif Bar Family Winery.
Located on a farm in Napa Valley, Gary Erickson and his wife Kit Crawford purchased the property to raise horses, goats and chickens with the hopes of growing vines one day as well.
Like Clif Bar, the farm represents their vision and commitment to organic and sustainable farming, locally grown ingredients and artisan handcrafted foods.
Their commitment to sustainability also transcends through all aspects of life on the farm, for instance, they grow 100% organic fruits and vegetables and all of the vehicles run on bio-diesel.
Although some of their grapes for their wines are sourced from other vineyards, they do seek fruit from growers that are committed to the land and practice sustainable farming. While we haven’t tasted Clif’s wines yet, we’re interested to see what’s next. Via ::Outside Magazine::Clif Bar Family Winery & Farm...
Don't know much about this Greenpeace campaign, just love the images.
"These pictures show Greenpeace activists take part in a protest against the unloading of sewage into the sea and pollution of beaches at Los Muertos beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Aug. 1, 2007. They set a giant inflatable toilet with the words reads, "Clean beaches now"." ::Splurch...
We love seeing what people build out of paper, part of our preoccupation with downloadable designs. Artist Simon Elvins built this: A "Fully working, manual record player made entirely of paper. To play the record the handle needs to be turned in a clockwise direction at a steady 331/3rpm. The paper cone then acts as a pickup, amplifying the sound enough to make it audible. (Record shown, 'The Sound of Music' 1965)." ::Simon Elvins via ::Notcot...
As the infamous dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico yawns ever wider, scientists in Hawaii are practicing an experimental method of vacuuming invasive algae off the choking coral. Meanwhile, in Britain, a radical plan to cut emissions makes a case for a carbon neutral nation. We also speak with the directors of Artic Tale about lessons from the North Pole and the question of animal anthropomorphism (click here for the full interview). Subscribe to TreeHugger Radio on iTunes or listen/right click to download. To send us feedback, comments, or to sponsor this show, just fire us an email. ::TreeHugger Radio
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It probably won't come as much of a shock to you when we say that we're no big fans of Dow Chemical here at TreeHugger. In fact, quite the opposite. Aside from having compiled arguably one of the worst environmental records in recent history, Dow recently earned the distinction of being named the 11th top air polluting corporation in the U.S. So we weren't too surprised to hear that a lawsuit had been filed over the harmful health effects of one of its pesticides — chlorpyrifos.
Instead of suing the company directly, however, the coalition of unions and NGOs said it will sue the EPA for approving the use of chlorpyrifos. The pesticide — which is sold under several different brand names — is now widely used for agricultural purposes though it once served as a potent neurotoxin in chemical bombs during World War II. The lawsuit alleges the EPA didn't adequately evaluate the health consequences — which the coalition says includes nausea, dizziness and, in some rare cases, death — of the pesticide when it re-approved its use for farming in 2001....
With a mission to demonstrate that it is possible to create well-designed, thoughtful furniture without cutting down forests, employing oil-based plastics, glass fibers or toxic glues, designer Michael Strom and civil engineer Lasse Svensson came together to create what they call the Bio+ chair.
Its shell (the blue part in the above picture) is created instead with bioplastics (a topic mentioned
It is called the 'precautionary principle'. If a mountain lion is stalking outside your home and looks hungry, the best thing to do is not go outside and act like a nice juicy meal. No, you stay away, and try to think of how to get it to leave. This makes sense. But somehow when those lions turn into chemicals (like BPA) the U.S. seems not to apply the same rules. The book, Exposed - The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products: What's at Stake for American Power, by Mark Schapiro highlights the growing gap between U.S. policy regarding chemical safety and that of the rest of the world. It gives a 'behind the scenes' look into how the U.S. has lost the edge in environmental policy, and illustrates clearly how this lack of governmental leadership will negatively impact our economy as well as our personal safety....
On the base of the two-sectioned, steel bottle pictured above is stamped these words: U.S., Swanson, 1945. The thick cotton canvas cover, lined with a dense woolen felt, snaps securely over the bottle's shoulders with two solid brass pins. When I was a kid, I'd fill it up for my bicycle trip, soaking the canvas completely and letting it hang off the back of my bicycle seat springs with the built in belt hooks (shown above). The evaporative cooling from wind passing by the wet canvas kept the water inside cool on the way to the swimming hole. In childhood memories, I can still hear that squeaky sound of hooks on springs. Years later, I found it was good to hang over a 1960's era car window...with a little jury rigging....
Who is Fred Butler? And what does he/she have to do with your laundry? "Fred Butler®" is the registered trademark and penguin mascot of a new dry-cleaning product-service which is the brainchild of German industrial gas giant, Linde. Linde's concept augers change and causes journalists at the Oakland Tribune to ponder the end of friendly and personalized corner laundry service amidst reports that the Europeans are moving in to take over the American dry-cleaning industry. What is behind the buzz?
Dry-cleaning is a dirty business. The current dry-cleaning solvent, perchloroethylene, was heralded as a huge advance when it was introduced to replace the explosion-susceptible flammable solvents which preceded it. For decades, this chlorinated hydrocarbon has efficiently removed the greasiest burger drips and stickiest splashes for customers concerned about their fine textiles. But the solvent is a danger to groundwater and suspected of causing serious health damage--at least among workers at dry-cleaning shops. Bans on the solvent are progressively forcing dry-cleaners to look for alternatives.
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Bisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical commonly found in hard plastics — has for the first time been linked to female reproductive disorders in a strongly-worded statement released by 38 scientists and published online in the journal Reproductive Toxicology. The compound, which is used in a variety of consumer items such as polycarbonate plastic baby bottles, microwave oven dishes and sports bottles, often seeps from containers and enters the bodies of humans.
After reviewing close to 700 studies, the scientists determined that people are regularly exposed to BPA levels that exceed those harmful to lab animals — singling out infants and fetuses as the most vulnerable. The statement was accompanied by a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) study that found that uterine damage caused by BPA exposure in newborn animals might predict a host of reproductive disorders in women — including endometriosis, cystic ovaries, fibroids and cancers. While earlier studies had linked early-stage cancers and lower sperm counts in animals to low BPA doses, no study had ever linked exposure to female reproductive diseases....
We’ve already noted the virus-like spread of electric vehicles (EVs) such as the G-Wiz in London. Along side the growth in the number of EVs on the road, we have also seen an increase in local authorities installing electric charging points on the streets. The fashion has even spread outside the nation’s congestion-charged capital, with EV enthusiasts in the city of Bristol recently celebrating the opening of the first charging point in the South West. As one might expect, the private sector is stepping in to develop and supply curbside charging solutions for electric cars, bikes and buggies. Park and Power is one such company.
The company supplies the units then, when installed, EV owners simply purchase a license to use them, then just park up, plug in, and charge. Presumably this model would require a significant number of units in different locations to make it worth while buying a license, and the website doesn’t say much about how many vehicles can use a unit at one time. Nevertheless, we’re encouraged to see more suppliers providing solutions for increased EV use, and we’re sure details can be ironed out as streetside charging gets more popular. Encouragingly, Park and Power also seem to have gone to great lengths to ensure compatibility with a wide range of vehicles:
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Spurred by what scientists believe are ideal climate change-influenced weather patterns, Legionnaires' disease — a deadly bacterial lung infection with a more than 1 in 10 mortality rate — has continued its rapid spread across Britain, having already managed to notch record levels in 5 of this year's first 6 months. Infected water inhaled as a vapor helps spread the lethal disease and causes severe pneumonia-like symptoms.
Typically, Legionnaires' disease cases rise during the warmer seasons — spring and summer — reaching a peak in late August or September. Last year, whose summer witnessed the hottest July on record and a wet August, saw the highest recorded number of infections since records started being kept in 1980. Scientists expect further increases within the coming years as the effects of climate change continue to intensify. ...
The "sex tree" (i.e. Citropsis articulata) — a skinny bush whose roots are purported to cure impotence — is facing an increasingly bleak future as poachers in Uganda's Mabira Forest Reserve rush to harvest it in ever larger numbers. Other tree species, including the medicinal Prunus africana — which is used to treat malaria and certain forms of cancer — is rapidly approaching extinction as well.
"The [sex] tree may have other medicinal values apart from treating sexual impotence, and we are losing out if we let these plants go extinct without doing more research. The people say that the medicines work," said Mauda Kamatenesi, a botanist at Makarere University, who argued that the loss of these species would do irrevocable damage to the rain forest and local Ugandans — who've been using them as herbal cures for many years. A larger threat to the plants' future well-being, however, may be the Ugandan government's plan to convert over a quarter of the rain forest into a sugarcane plantation. ...
While the notion that environmental protection can be good for business certainly hasn't gone mainstream in capitalist China, this year the country has made some bold attempts to make pollution bad for business. In lieu of national policies backed up by a strong legal system (think the Clean Air Act) -- or just good ol' fashioned brute force -- the government has recently announced market-based disincentives for heavy polluters, like raising the threshold for investment in energy intensive industries and eliminating tax breaks.
Now the ambitious leader of the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), Pan Yue, is touting a system of "green credit.." The idea, which sounds new to me, is to restrict heavy polluters from access to the bank loans they need. It's part of a growing push for what's becoming feared as "green tightening," a slew of economic policies to stop polluters. Pan also released a blacklist of 30 medium-sized companies to whom credit should be immediately denied.
As with every clean policy in growth-obsessed and complex China, though, uniting with those departments will be the sticky part. At the end of May, the major Chinese banks had 1.5 trillion yuan, or $198 billion, in medium- and long-term loans outstanding to energy-intensive and polluting sectors, up 21.8 percent from a year earlier. ...
One year ago in TreeHugger, we had our eyes on energy, of all kinds. A solar-powered car wash popped up in California, we peeked in on a near nuclear meltdown in Sweden, and, in Japan, they were generating electricity from train station ticket gates.
We weren't the only ones doing some learning; Flexcar was going to college, and Xeko hit the scene, teaching players about the complex nature of ecosystems. Meanwhile, green in California was heating up as eco designers were taking San Francisco's Fashion Week by storm and Los Angeles was getting a new farmer's market. After the jump: a list of all the posts from one year ago today....
It’s a phenomena, or maybe that should be pheromone, that just won’t go away. Earlier this year we had the media interest in ‘ecosexuals’, which we figured was a bit of a beat-up ‘coz as we observed on one or two occasions the green dating thing has been around for decades. But just when you thought attention had moved onto other things it’s back. New Consumer report that a UK men’s magazine, by the grand name of Nuts (warning: do not click this link in an open plan office) has apparently surveyed 1,500 women online to discover that the top ‘turn on’ women find attractive in men is 'caring about the environment’. The magazines relation expert figures that women equate eco awareness with a man who isn't selfish. 'There's something sexy about a man who recycles, it shows that he cares about more than just himself and shows he has a sensitive side and thinks about the future,' she says. New Consumer go on to note that a YouGov survey reported London men were four times less likely than women to be concerned about the environment. Which is backed up in the US by research that Kira Gould and Lance Hosey writing on Grist observed. They cited studies that show women are up to 15% more likely than men to rate the environment a high priority, and they make up 2/3rds of voters who cast their ballots around environmental issues. As we continue to say, Green is Sexy. But it seems only half the population is getting the message. ...
3M has announced the availability of their new Wind Tapes 8608 and 8609 for the wind energy market. Wind Tapes are adhesive-backed polyurethane tapes that are "placed on the leading edge of wind turbine blade to reduce damage caused by sand, rain, moisture ingression, insects, and airborne particles. The new tapes are also formulated to resist the damage and weakening effects of ultraviolet rays. Used to help protect wind turbine blades, the tapes can help reduce maintenance and replacement costs and extend the service life of the blade." A similar protective tape made by 3M for helicopter blades extends product life by up to X10. The new Wind Tape "is typically applied to the outer two-thirds of the blade where the speed is the fastest and protection most critical. Providing energy absorption, Wind Tapes from 3M spread the impact force of particles over a wider area of the blade, protecting its structural and aesthetic integrity."
Like an enormous roll of Scotch Tape. The bigger the turbine, the bigger the roll. The bigger the rolls, the better it gets for 3M. As more industrial companies benefit in this manner from the wind 'value chain', the economic importance of renewable energy will be increasingly apparent to elected officials. More broadly, as the renewable energy value chain encompasses a multitude of new "goesintas" (the components and base materials that "go into" the making of renewable energy generation products), we will reach a tipping point, beyond which the fossil fuel industry no longer has an exclusive grip on political power in Washington DC.
3 cheers for 3M for finding a way to make tape increase the useful design life of wind turbines. This positions them on the "leading edge" of climate protection. Let's hope it sticks. Via:: Aerospace Online Image credit:: 3M Protective Tape...
According to a new study released yesterday, the saltwater marsh islands located near the John F. Kennedy airport in New York City could vanish within the next five years due to environmental degradation caused by the increased dumping of treated sewage. The city's Department of Environmental Protection had previously estimated that the islands of Jamaica Bay — the wildlife-rich marshes — would disappear by 2024; this new study moves up the date 12 years to 2012.
Home to more than 80 fish species, the islands of Jamaica Bay also serve as a resting stop for almost 20% of North America's migratory birds and provide flood protection for the city. Over time, what has happened is that as the tidal creeks on the islands have been expanding, the vegetated areas — first turning into mud flats and then sand flats — have been slowly disappearing. From 1924 to 1999 the bay lost close to half of its tidal wetlands, with recent losses — from 2003 to 2005 — accelerating at an even faster clip. ...
E-waste is a huge problem facing our increasingly plugged-in world, and though Staples is trying to stem the tide, there are still tons of electronics that needlessly go in the landfill. A new company called Second Rotation is adding a new option for your old consumer electronics, and it can help you make a little cash. Last week, they launched their "online exchange dedicated to giving individual consumers an easy way to sell pre-owned lifestyle goods on the Web." Their initial focus is on the ubiquitous consumer electronics -- cell phones, iPods, digital cameras, PDAs, etc. -- and are attempting to streamline the service offered by other sites like eBay to make it easier for individuals to get rid of their stuff. Offering cash for them is a good incentive for folks to keep their used (but still working) electronics from going in the trash when the newest gotta-have-it hits stores. Their "dynamic pricing calculator" helps determine, almost in real time, the value of whatever you want to unload; 10 days or so after you send it to Second Rotation, you'll have cash money burning a hole in your pocket. When added to services like those available at Freecycle and Craigslist, there's really no reason you have to throw away anything with even a little life in it. ::Second Rotation via ::Core77...
Only a couple of weeks ago we reported on efforts by UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s to start delivering to some of its London stores by canal. Now we hear from the ever-trusty Guardian newspaper that the politics of moving freight by canal are under close scrutiny. A report just issued by Members of Parliament is calling on the government to give incentives to companies that chose water of rail or road freight. These incentives could possibly be in the form of carbon credits, given the fact that deliveries on canals can have up to 80% lower carbon emissions than road haulage. Currently, however, just 1% of domestic freight travels by water.
Apparently this is not the first time in recent years that this issue has been looked at, and in 2000 British Waterways, the entity in charge of Britain’s canal network, promised to double the amount of freight, but since then the amount has actually fallen. This is largely due to the fact that, as things stand, road and rail are more profitable. If the hidden costs of carbon emissions were to be somehow taken into account, however, canal-based deliveries might become much more common:
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The Delft University of Technology has built a solar powered mouse, testing whether renewable energy products, with higher functionality and a touch of design, can encourage users to adopt modern and consistently sustainable conduct. They even have the Minister of Housing and the Environment using one. They are testing the "willingness of the user to adapt his behaviour to favourable light conditions by regularly charging the unit with daylight from the window, and the computer usage pattern. With solar energy, under ideal circumstances charging can occur a factor of five times quicker than in the current situation. Over time it is estimated that several hundred million batteries could be saved annually on a global scale."
Seems to this reader that one's hand covers the mouse most of the day and at night the lights are out. Perhaps for casual computer users. ::University of Delft via ::Core77...
I love A-frames; I even built one as an outhouse. Small ones are easy to build and they use materials efficiently. They fell out of favour as people wanted bigger spaces; a triangle encloses the smallest volume of any shape and these didn't scale well. Photographer Barbara Gallucci notes that "A-Frames, which gained popularity in the late 1960’s and 70’s, were sold as prefab kits, available at the local lumberyard for just $3000. The house kits made it possible for a new culture of middle-class ‘Do-It-Yourselfers’ to own vacation homes. Over the years A-Frames have been customized, renovated, appropriated and are now found housing everything from fast food joints to motorcycle shops." She has documented them on her website at ::Barbara Gallucci. via ::MocoLoco...
Put together with data from the CIA, the World Health Organization, the Census and other sources. It is completely scary, watching the stats on prison growth, illegal immigration, species extinct and forests lost increasing before your eyes. Bizarrely, the creator says "although I find the theory of global warming highly debatable, I have included stats according to the expected temperature rise" which makes one wonder-he believes in the stats but not the cause of them? From Poodwaddle, which makes a customizable home page. ::World Clock via ::Good...
As the Burning Man event quickly approaches, TreeHugger is teaming up with Current TV to help look for the best ideas that exemplify this year's "Green Man" theme. In the spirit of Burning Man, the event will be filled with open-source green innovations that encourage everyone to take, tinker, remix and redesign. We think that you might just have the next big open-source idea to help revolutionize the way we live. So, we are asking you to Participate! Send us a 3D model (or 2D rendering if necessary) representation of your best eco-innovation and you will get 2 tickets to Burning Man where you can show off your open-source invention - where you and your invention might just end up on Current TV's "TV Free Burning Man" coverage of the event. In addition, the winner and the 1st and 2nd runners-up will receive Jessica Bruder's tribute to the event, the Burning Book.
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Bernard Rudofsky's 1964 Architecture without Architects was profoundly influential for a generation of designers. He noted that "vernacular architecture does not go through fashion cycles. It is nearly immutable, indeed, unimprovable, since it serves its purpose to perfection." He and his wife travelled everywhere, drawing, writing and photographing, while wearing the Bernardo sandals he designed.
Now, the Canadian Institute for Architecture has mounted an exhibition, co-presented by Architekturzentrum Wien, an architecture museum in Vienna, and the Getty Research Institute of Los Angeles, showing 200 drawings, photographs and journals. Oh, and footwear. Catch it until September 30 at the ::CCA in Montreal....
Paris Hilton and the word "green" in the same sentence? Ha! (snort!) Hollywood.com reported yesterday that the clinker really made Paris think about her lifestyle. Yes that's right: she's "going green" and encouraging her fans to do the same. So does this mean that Paris has audited her ecological footprint? Not quite. She's traded in her Range Rover SUV in favor of a Ford hybrid car. But one thing we should probably mention is that this was after she was given a free model by the car's manufacturers. Paris was noted as saying, "Driving hybrid cars is the new way to go. Anyone can do it, no matter how old." (Whatever the bleep that means.) You know we encourage green going mainstream, but we have to say we're not impressed by the PR stunt, honey. Via & Photo Credit ::Hollywood.com...
Words like green or sustainable- what do they really mean? We ponder this in our shiny new headquarters, shown above. We are reading "the Meaning of Everything", about the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary. Editor James Murray asked readers to report ""as many quotations as you can for ordinary words" to find where and when they were used, and cataloged them on slips of paper. In 1882 he had 3,500,000 million of them in 1029 pigeonholes. He didn't catch the new meaning of "green" or "sustainable."
Green is so mushy. Wikipedia thinks it is the same as Sustainable, but William McDonough once said 
The brainchild of Jim Mason, Dann Davis and a team of eco-oriented artists, the Mechabolic really defies easy convention. In their words:
As Congress approves 55 billion dollars in corn subsidies and pays 12 billion dollars a month for the Iraq war, the infrastructure in America continues to crumble: Bridges in Minneapolis, steam pipes in Manhattan, highway collapses in Montreal and of course levee breaches in New Orleans.
The New York Times says "Transportation officials know many of the nation’s 600,000 bridges are in need of repair or replacement. About one in eight has been deemed "structurally deficient," a term that typically means a component of the bridge's structure has been rated poor or worse, but does not necessarily warn of imminent collapse. Most deficient bridges, which included the span of Interstate 35W over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, remain open to traffic."
Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG does the math and notes "13.6 percent of U.S. bridges – i.e. more than 81,000 bridges – are "functionally obsolete." He continues: "the Federal Highway Administration's annual budget appears to be hovering around $35-40 billion a year....and annual government subsidies for Amtrak come in at slightly more than $1 billion. That's $1 billion every year to help commuter train lines run."...
Alvar Aalto once said, "Nothing old is ever reborn, but neither does it totally disappear. And that which has once been, will always reappear in a new form." This is a fitting sentiment for Artek's new line (we've featured them before), called 2nd Cycle, which reclaims old Artek pieces that are upwards of 50, 60, 70 years old. Rather than refinishing or refurbishing them, the pieces are left as is, telling the story of their long lives through the scratches, dents and patina that comes from kicking around for the better part of a century. Like your favorite jeans, they believe that the pieces only get better with age; that they still exist and still look good is a testament not only to the quality craftsmanship, but to the timeless designs that will still work in another 50 years. Hit the jump for more pics; see all the pieces, and read some of their stories at ::Artek via ::Apartment Therapy...
Ed. note: This is the first post in the "Dumb" Questions series of posts that TreeHugger is writing to provide answers to some basic questions about the environment and all things green. We realize that many of these questions/answers will seem, well basic, to most of you, but please bear with us: we just want to make sure that everybody is on the right page! After all, what's the fun in having you read our posts if you get stuck on a basic premise?
To answer this question, it helps to first have a rudimentary knowledge of the planet's hydrologic, or water, cycle. The water cycle, in essence, describes the processes by which large quantities of water move continuously through the Earth's oceans, land and atmosphere over short and long time scales. It is primarily dominated by the oceans — which account for 96% of the planet's water and where 86% of global evaporation takes place — though it has no defined starting or ending point....
In the future we may make things locally with neighbourhood CNC or 3D printing to eliminate shipping costs and CO2 emissions. Frederic Hakoune gives us an early demonstration of this with his printed watch.
We don't know what kind of fabber he used; it could be something like idealab's new desktop printer; Perhaps it is a home-made Evil Mad Scientist version, although the watch does not look like it is made of granulated sugar. It might be Hod Lipson's design that you can build yourself, or a commercial unit. ...
One consequence of smaller cars like the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit -- which TreeHugger loves -- is that they have a bit less capacity for hauling stuff. While not a huge problem when you're driving back and forth to work (for most of us), it can make it tougher to put a load of gear in the back before heading off for a long weekend at the beach (or wherever your plans may take you). One German company has realized this problem, and come up with a solution: the Auto Rucksack, which is exactly what it sounds like. The waterproof backpack for your car rests comfortably off the back, which, as you can see in the above picture, doesn't add drag to your car (and decrease gas mileage) like a roof-rack-based system would. As an added benefit, when not in use, the rucksack adds virtually no weight to your car when not in use; the caveat is that it makes it pretty tough (okay, virtually impossible) to see out the back, but that's what the side-views are for, right? Wonder if they make a solar version? ::AutoRucksack via ::AutoblogGreen and ::Gizmag ...
limited edition cover art by Keiichi Tanaami
This month's issue of Wallpaper* magazine is dominated by the 2007 Design Directory, their hand-picked favorite architects and designers from the past year. Always the epitome of cool, the mag's slick picks include some inspirational ideas and interiors to look good and go green. They give a nod to Sweden's Tham & Videgard Hansson (page 096) as a top ten up-and-coming architect, who put innovation and sustainability high on their list. Also in the mix is a design that's stood the test of time, and has become an "iconic fixture": the folding chair (page 070), designed in 1967 by Giancarlo Piretti to fold flat to a depth of less than a inch or easily stack when folded out, saving space either way you go (it's now in the Museum of Modern Art). Halfway around the world, in China, the auto industry is booming (page 073), which isn't great news, but BMW is using the huge market (car ownership in China is set to outpace that in the US within 30 years) to continue building their hydrogen future; whether or not that will come to fruition remains to be seen (but that's another post). Pick up Wallpaper* for the usual outstanding eye candy and more of the world's best design. ::Wallpaper*...
Any guesses as to what this thing is? Here are some hints: you could probably use it every day; it would live on your desk; and it employs hanging chads (yep, the same little guys that caused all that ruckus down in Florida a few years back). Give up? It's a "staple-less stapler," which is sort of a silly name for it, because it doesn't use staples. In any event, the sleek little guy will "staple," with a hanging chad, up to five sheets of paper together, and while cutting back on staples might seem a bit trivial, consider this: we would save 120 tons of steel if every office worker used one less staple a day for a year (hat tip to ecofabulous for that nugget). While five sheets won't cover all the paper you have to connect, some double-sided printing would help increase your new "stapling" capacity. It's available from ::Amazon via ::Apartment Therapy: Green...
It is hot in Tucson; if people are going to live there they need houses that can cope with it. Tucson architect Rob Paulus thinks about green choices in his buildings and in his practice; he focuses on LEED projects, infill, renovations and adaptive reuse. Employees bike in to work under green powered compact fluorescents and support local businesses. Even those long architectural lunches where so many napkins are sketched on are in local restaurants.
The 007 house is "the slick and cool ideal of a modern bachelor pad."
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We could go on about the silliness of ethanol from corn, and usually do; however it is a horse that has been flogged to death on TreeHugger,. However, if you need a well written and powerful indictment of ethanol, you should read Jeff Goodell's article in Rolling Stone:
Ethanol Scam: Ethanol Hurts the Environment And Is One of America's Biggest Political Boondoggles.
He starts strongly: "The great danger of confronting peak oil and global warming isn't that we will sit on our collective asses and do nothing while civilization collapses, but that we will plunge after "solutions" that will make our problems even worse. Like believing we can replace gasoline with ethanol, the much-hyped biofuel that we make from corn." and explains the political pressures that lead so many politicians like Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Edwards, who should know better, to support it....
Sustainability Victoria in Australia reckon that its state residents lose up to 40% through their roofs in winter and gain 30% of unwanted heat in summer through the same oversight. 20% of Victorian homes are thought to have no insulation. A problem particularly for low income families who are not only wasting money in heating and cooling bills, but are generating up to 2.2 tonnes of unnecessary greenhouse gases annually. So that state’s outgoing Climate Change Minister made his last ministerial decree at the end of July 07, offering rebates for home insulation. The government will give homeowners $300 if they install ceiling insulation of R3.5 or higher into a house built before 1991. A $500 rebate will also be offered to landlords if their tenants are concession card holders (social benefit). The program takes effect from 13 August 2007. The minister John Thwaite said "Climate change is going to have a big effect on low income people. We need to make sure when we act on climate change that we don't make people more disadvantaged but we help low income people to reduce their energy bills." NB: Please note that Australia and New Zealand adhere to SI (International System of Units) for insulation, whereas USA, UK and Canada chose not to. So R (resistance) values for insulation get very confusing. Roughly speaking it is about 1 SI to 6 Non-SI R values, thus R3.5 in Australia is near to R21 in the USA. ::Sustainability Victoria, via ABC....
When is organic not organic and which organic is good organic? This is a subject that was examined in Michael Pollan's brilliant book "Omnivore's Dilemma" and is now at the centre of a debate about air miles. The Soil Association certifies about 80 per cent of organic produce in the United Kingdom. It has threatened to take away the organic certification from farms in East Africa because their produce is transported to Europe by air, thus contributing to global warming. But these are poor farmers who switched to organic farming recently, joined up with 32 other farmers with small plots, learnt new techniques and ceased the few non-organic practices they had. The happy ending was that their products received the Soil Association’s treasured “Organic” stamp and they began exporting vegetables to Britain and Saudi Arabia.
The Soil Association is now considering a partial or total ban on air-freighted organic exports because it says that it "must carefully consider the social and economic benefits of air freight for international development and growth of the organic market as a whole.” If banned, this could be a killing blow to the 150,000 Kenyans who are dependent on organic farming for their livelihood. The bitter irony, according to one Kenyan journalist is "that UK farmers use tractors, heat up greenhouses, drive to work in cars or on motorbikes . . ” Calculations show that it takes 4kg of carbon emissions to fly 1kg of green beans or cucumbers from Nairobi to London. “This figure is utterly irrelevant when you work out how much carbon Britons use going to the supermarket in their cars or driving to a restaurant for dinner,” he added. Fair miles or air miles? We say that we want to eliminate poverty in Africa, trade is a positive way to do this, and yet there is a legitimate concern about air miles. A serious debate to hold in the organic sector, and one with global implications. :: The Times...
Attendance at parks nationwide is down, and yesterday I pointed out that Congressman Sarbanes has a bill that attempts to "Leave No Child Inside"; but this spring and early summer the state of Connecticut was working on getting families outside and into state parks in their own way by organizing The Great Park Pursuit. It's a challenge where families compete as a team by following clues over a period of weeks to determine what park they need to go to next and what activity to engage in once they get there. Things like hiking, fishing, archery, hoola hooping, the list goes on... And not too unlike the television show "The Amazing Race", the families were competing for prizes like great outdoor equipment by being the first ones to complete the tasks and check in. They even allowed families to create their own web page with the photos and stories of what they did to share with each other. And while it's over in Connecticut for this year, it just may be something to suggest to the parks commission in your state for next... After all, they're probably looking for ways to improve park attendance themselves, and what better way to do it than with a fun game that parents and kids can play together?
via:: The Great Park Pursuit...
Once upon a time, internet shopping, "clicks, not bricks" was going to change the world; It didn't quite happen as planned. Yet quietly and steadily, more and more stuff became available as the "long tail" effect kicked in.
Warren notes that some studies indicate that internet shopping saves 75% of the energy, 25 to 35% of the inventory and 12.5% of the infrastructure.
Of course, we have seen what happened to the record store infrastructure after the dematerialization of music where one never even owns a physical product.
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Half-Moon Outfitters sell outdoor gear, but they recently had something else to ‘sell.’ Themselves. Their new corporate office and warehouse has just been awarded the US Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum rating. This made them only the 25th new construction or major renovation to receive a Platinum rating, and the first to do so using the newer, more stringent LEED NC version 2.2, plus the first LEED Platinum project in the state of South Carolina. Their renovation of a nondescript building has seen it gain “photovoltaic panels on the roof, rainwater collection tanks in back, extensive native vegetation, and a brightly lit interior almost entirely of locally harvested wood, salvaged materials, and rapidly renewable agrifiber boards.” The company’s media release indicates that the renovation has transformed the way Half-Moon Outfitters does business. They now have scorecards for all of their locations measuring and comparing the power needs of each. The new project in North Charleston currently varies between $.03 and $.05 per square foot per month while their most inefficient store operates between $.20 and $.30 per square foot, a statistic that the business vows to change. “A shift has occurred with the mentality of our employees as everyone is becoming committed to the idea of recycling and reducing our consumption of carbon based fuels.” The staff seem particularly enamoured with their desks made of Dakota Burl—discarded sunflower seed husks (which we first noted in 2004), the texture of which they describe as “crazy-cool”. ::Half-Moon Outfitters.
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Now that it is August, I will share the recipe that I make only during this month, the one that my family waits the entire year to enjoy. I have been making this pasta from memory for many years so I had to think long and hard about when I first ate it and where the original recipe was from. I can't possibly claim it as my own.
Mulling this over I thought about summer weekends at my in-law's cottage just north of Toronto. My sister-in-law with her husband and toddler son would arrive on Friday nights tired after the work week. After a suitable amount of napping on the chesterfield on Saturday, my brother-in-law would arise, take over the kitchen and produce something wonderful for dinner. Then I had it fixed in my mind - The Silver Palate Cookbook - and sure enough, I dragged my battered copy out of the cupboard and there it was - Linguine with Tomatoes and Basil. ...
When slapped with an order to clean up the poop of 12,000 dairy cows, the Hefer Valley Cooperative Society built a manure-driven power station to solve their problems. The first of its kind in Israel, the plant was inaugurated this week and is expected to process 600 tons of manure a day and generate 2-2.4 megawatts per hour (MW/h) within the year. At present the plant is operating at about half its capacity, and most of the energy is feeding back to the national grid.
The project is a joint effort between Tambour Hefer Ecology Ltd and Granite Hacarmel Investments Ltd. Granite Hacarmel CEO Amiaz Sagis said, "This is unquestionably an important milestone. This facility fits in with Granite Hacarmel's strategy to invest in infrastructures and ecology. The company is also investing resources to develop alternative energy, water treatment, and desalination.” While it wasn’t made cheap – the new plant located in Hadera cost about $10 million to build, which included a $2 million grant from Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture to help improve Israel’s much-polluting dairy industry. First the manure is sterilized, then the solid and liquid waste are processed to produce methane, which drives the generators. Related: Manure Power in the Spotlight and Everything Poops ::Globes via ::ISRAEL21c...
Dear EcoGeek,
Who killed the electric car? Seriously, why can't I buy one yet and when will I be able to?
Alan Carney
Dallas Texas
Hey Alan,
Much love to the people who made Who Killed the Electric Car, because they got a lot of stuff right. It wasn't any one person, corporation or technicality that killed the EV1. As with all product failures it was a combination of tons of factors.
...
Ed. note: This is the fourth post in the Green Basics series of posts that TreeHugger is writing to provide basic information about important ideas, materials and technologies for new greenies (or those who just need a quick refresher). Read on and stay tuned!
What is vermicomposting? Why use worms?
Known also as worm compost, vermicast, worm castings, worm humus or worm manure, vermicompost is similar to plain compost, except that it uses worms in addition to microbes and bacteria to turn organic waste into a nutrient-rich fertilizer. Vermicompost, or vermiculture, most often uses two species of worms: Red Wigglers (Eisenia foetida) or Red Earthworms (Lumbricus rubellus) rarely found in soil and are adapted to the special conditions in rotting vegetation, compost and manure piles.
How does vermicomposting work?
It works like this: after procuring a container and setting it up (more on that in a sec), feed your worms the same organic waste you'd toss in a compost pile -- which includes just about all of your food waste, save the animal leftovers -- and let them have at it. They chew on it for awhile, and when they're all done eating, they poop (hey, everybody does it) and there you go: vermicompost....
Ecostreet: Embrace green motherhood: breastfeed by Tracy Stokes
"Breastfeeding is the most environmentally friendly way to feed your baby. Breast milk is a renewable resource. No plastic bottles that will end up in landfill one day, no energy needed to produce plastic bottles and formula milk, no inefficient land use and methane produced by cows, and the only energy used is your own."
Nicomachus: Carnival of the Green by Phillip Barron
"The finale for this week’s Carnival is an entry that wasn’t submitted -- just one I came across while reading. The author asks a pertinent question that bears repeating in this new wave of popular environmentalism: whether the green aspects of green consumerism outweigh the costs of consumerism itself. Like her, I too am skeptical. Living green is about simplifying one's demands of the world, and green consumerism is still consumerism. How do we get out of this box?"...
Combining high-tech CNC (that's computer-numerically controlled) routing with artisanal techniques and some sustainable materials, Barcelona studio Damaris & Marc Design have produced some pretty eye-catching wooden designs. Shishi Gami, above, a playful wooden lamp with felt accents added for a pop of color, is our favorite. As regular readers will recall, CNC routing gets the TreeHugger thumbs up because the design is drawn up and locked in with a computer, which controls the router and (theoretically) creates it without mistakes; it also allows for more efficient use of wood, since offcuts can be minimized with the design, and (also theoretically) allows for the kinks in the design to be worked out before any wood is cut. After the jump: Herald, a dramatic screen inspired by the traditional heraldic lion. ::Damaris & Marc Design via ::MoCo Loco
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It sounds almost too good to be true: just drop the device — dubbed the low-swirl injector (LSI) — into any old gas-burning turbine and watch it achieve low emissions of carbon dioxide and near-zero emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx). Yet this revolutionary combustion technology — developed jointly by a team of scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and one from San Diego-based Solar Turbines Inc. — did just that in a recent test using pure hydrogen as a fuel. If incorporated into existing power plants, it could help eliminate thousands of tons of NOx and millions of tons of carbon dioxide every year.
The LSI works by imparting a slight spin to the gaseous fuel and air mixture placed in the gas turbine, causing it to spread out. This helps stabilize the flame used to heat the mixture and, more importantly, allows it to burn at lower temperatures. Since the production of NOx is highly temperature-dependent, the lower flame temperature drastically reduces the level of emissions produced. Natural gas-burning turbines equipped with the LSI emitted 2 ppm of NOx, more than 5 times less the amount emitted by conventional burners....
Dunkin' Donuts has never broadcast the fact that all its espresso, cappuccinos, and lattes are 100 percent-certified fair trade. Till now, that is, if you can call placing a blink-and-you'll-miss-it fair-trade sticker on its store doors tooting its own horn.
In this age of corporate-social-responsibility initiatives and greenwashing, this relatively demure PR stance borders on mindboggling. One coffee giant would be screeching this fact from the mountaintops, or, at the very least, the Columbia Center in downtown Seattle, if it upped the ante with such a bold, progressive move, rather than merely providing lip service. Apparently—among the java titans, at least—that's the Dunkin' Difference.
Let's compare numbers between the two chain stores: 100 percent of Dunkin' Donuts' espresso-based coffee is fair-trade-certified, compared with Starbucks' 3.7 percent. Because of its prodigious reach, however, Starbucks is North America's largest purchaser of fair-trade coffee, which makes its purchasing decisions hardly inconsequential.
But what's the big deal about fair trade, you may ask?...
When it comes to Clif Bar we’re usually covering their energy products in addition to the sustainable principles of the company. But while flipping through a recent issue of Outside Magazine, we noticed they had a blurb, not about the latest and greatest in energy bars, but about a venture called Clif Bar Family Winery.
Located on a farm in Napa Valley, Gary Erickson and his wife Kit Crawford purchased the property to raise horses, goats and chickens with the hopes of growing vines one day as well.
Like Clif Bar, the farm represents their vision and commitment to organic and sustainable farming, locally grown ingredients and artisan handcrafted foods.
Their commitment to sustainability also transcends through all aspects of life on the farm, for instance, they grow 100% organic fruits and vegetables and all of the vehicles run on bio-diesel.
Although some of their grapes for their wines are sourced from other vineyards, they do seek fruit from growers that are committed to the land and practice sustainable farming. While we haven’t tasted Clif’s wines yet, we’re interested to see what’s next. Via ::Outside Magazine ::Clif Bar Family Winery & Farm...
Don't know much about this Greenpeace campaign, just love the images.
"These pictures show Greenpeace activists take part in a protest against the unloading of sewage into the sea and pollution of beaches at Los Muertos beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Aug. 1, 2007. They set a giant inflatable toilet with the words reads, "Clean beaches now"." ::Splurch...
We love seeing what people build out of paper, part of our preoccupation with downloadable designs. Artist Simon Elvins built this: A "Fully working, manual record player made entirely of paper. To play the record the handle needs to be turned in a clockwise direction at a steady 331/3rpm. The paper cone then acts as a pickup, amplifying the sound enough to make it audible. (Record shown, 'The Sound of Music' 1965)." ::Simon Elvins via ::Notcot...
It probably won't come as much of a shock to you when we say that we're no big fans of Dow Chemical here at TreeHugger. In fact, quite the opposite. Aside from having compiled arguably one of the worst environmental records in recent history, Dow recently earned the distinction of being named the 11th top air polluting corporation in the U.S. So we weren't too surprised to hear that a lawsuit had been filed over the harmful health effects of one of its pesticides — chlorpyrifos.
Instead of suing the company directly, however, the coalition of unions and NGOs said it will sue the EPA for approving the use of chlorpyrifos. The pesticide — which is sold under several different brand names — is now widely used for agricultural purposes though it once served as a potent neurotoxin in chemical bombs during World War II. The lawsuit alleges the EPA didn't adequately evaluate the health consequences — which the coalition says includes nausea, dizziness and, in some rare cases, death — of the pesticide when it re-approved its use for farming in 2001....
With a mission to demonstrate that it is possible to create well-designed, thoughtful furniture without cutting down forests, employing oil-based plastics, glass fibers or toxic glues, designer Michael Strom and civil engineer Lasse Svensson came together to create what they call the Bio+ chair.
Its shell (the blue part in the above picture) is created instead with bioplastics (a topic mentioned