blake said:
"One of the main issues I found with NAU was their inability to ship out of the USA. Being in Canada and someone who has no issue dropping $110 for ..." [read]
Dipper said:
"More support for the regulatory people. Those packing materials are expensive. The can could have been used for this size as well as larger bottl..." [read]
ron said:
""I would indeed suggest that the leather was primarily selected, not for style, but rather for function. "
i'm not one to not admit when yo..." [read]
buzz saw said:
"Scumbags and liars all...." [read]
Blake said:
"Hey guys, you forget that hazardous substance shipments are regulated by the DOT and other bodies ( Dot's 49-CF regs specifically if it's in or thr..." [read]
Image courtesy of swanksalot via flickr
Following the unceremonious axing a few months ago of a proposal that would've banned outright the use of plastic bags, several L.A.-based state legislators are once again girding for battle over the introduction of a bill that would impose a 25-cent fee on the use of the offending bags. AB 2829, sponsored by Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles), would use the proceeds from the fee to fund litter prevention and reduction efforts. A competing bill, AB2058, introduced by Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), would only support voluntary reduction measures; as Emerald City's Siel points out in her post on the fee, this meeker measure closely resembles a voluntary plastic bag reduction measure that was enacted by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors....
Coffee is one of the early foods to have got the green buzz, and so many places now sell fair trade, shade grown, solar dried, bird friendly and organic beans that we rarely even write about it any more. However, Raymond of Toronto's Balluchon café adds another feature to the green mix: he packs his beans in mason jars and sells them with a two dollar deposit. And we love deposit systems!
On the right is Michael Schmidt of Glencolton Farms, who was busted for illegally selling raw milk, and is defending himself in court next month. The pair of them served me a fabulous raw milk latté at the Brewers Plate Dinner....
This is the last in a series of interviews with previous winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Founded in 1990, the prize is given annually to six grassroots environmentalists working for change around the globe. So far, we've met a salmon saver and an Amazonian advocate. This year's prize winners will be announced on April 14.
If the dam represents the trade-off between China's heavy energy needs and the health of local communities, Yu Xiaogang (于晓刚) represents China's hope for a sustainable balance. His career began with a focus on improving water resource management, but the 2006 Goldman Prize winner has become one of China's leading crusaders for the rights of local populations affected by development projects, funneling helplessness and anger into participation. In the process, he's helped turned dam-building projects into a rare chance for the public to get involved in decision making in China....
We are not crazy about the tactics of Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Society, nor are we crazy about the Canadian Seal Hunt. It was inevitable that if you put the Sea Shepherd's Farley Mowat together with the Canadian Coast Guard, that, as the National Security advisor said in the Hunt for Red October, having your ships and ours, in such proximity... is inherently DANGEROUS.
So,"The Government of Canada has taken action to protect the safety and livelihoods of Canadian sealers by boarding and seizing the Farley Mowat to arrest its Captain and Chief Officer for alleged violations of Canada's Marine Mammal Regulations (MMR)," said Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Loyola Hearn, Saturday in a statement. "These actions were taken in accordance with Canadian fisheries legislation."
Paul Watson politely expresses another point of view:
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Image courtesy of Point-Shoot-Edit via flickr
From the crack team of investigative journalists at Mother Jones comes this disturbing, though not at all surprising, tale of corporate intrigue -- one that should raise concerns among all environmentally (and civil liberty) friendly observers. In a revealing piece that once again exemplifies the need for the type of hard-nosed reporting you aren't likely to find in much of the mainstream media, James Ridgeway exposes the activities of S2i (previously known as Beckett Brown International), a private security firm that was hired by several large corporations, including Kraft Foods and Dow Chemical, to spy on various environmental groups - most prominently, Greenpeace (but also the National Environmental Trust and the Environmental Working Group)....
We talked about the wind-powered Ford Plant in Dagenham, just outside central London, in our post about renewable energy developers Ecotricity back in early 2006. In fact, the two turbines have been such a success that they are now set to be joined by a third as the factory expands its operations further. This from an Ecotricity press release:
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Here's three terrific quotes from a seminal article in the National Journal. Read'em and tell us what you think.
EPA's current lawyers and scientists say that agency morale is almost as bad as it was in the early 1980s after President Reagan appointed pro-industry Anne Gorsuch Burford to head it. EPA's reputation fell so low under Burford that Reagan felt obligated to sack her and bring back William Ruckelshaus, the agency's beloved first administrator....
It may look like an ordinary playground to the children. But the parents know the truth: this tarmac is an Interseasonal Heat Transfer (IHT) system. And that is just one of the features that make Howe Dell the world's coolest school. Rather than following the usual course of including a token gesture for the environment in building plans, Hertfordshire County Council committed to building a zero-carbon school using all the best technologies together to create a perfect model for what is possible....
The worldwide food crisis deepens, and it isn't just ethanol; drought in Australia, greater demand for meat, futures traders going long, cost of fuel for transport and fertilizer, it is all adding up.
'Perfect storm' brewing for food riots, UN warns The recent outbreak of food riots is a warning sign that rising food prices could cause unrest and instability across the world, the UN's top humanitarian official said yesterday. Combined with the negative impact of climate change and soaring fuel prices, a "perfect storm" is brewing for much of the world's population, said John Holmes, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator. ::Associated PressBiofuels go from saviour to villain: Four years ago, Dennis Avery warned that, as Western governments fell head over heels for biofuels, passing laws forcing consumers to buy them, "U.S. farmers, who should be exporting food to densely populated Asian countries with rising incomes, will instead turn their corn into ethanol . . . without benefit to the environment." ::National Post
See also: Biofuels as Help or Hindrance, Chinese Biofuel Push Could Devastate Remaining Forests, More Bad News about Biofuels: Land-Use Concerns Nix Benefits
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This is one in a series of profiles of previous winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Founded in 1990, the prize is given annually to six grassroots environmentalists working for change around the globe. This year's prize winners will be announced on April 14.
The winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize 2006 for Islands and Island Nations was Anne Kajir, a 32 year old lawyer, and CEO of the Environmental Law Centre in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. She won it for her legal advocacy and defence of indigenous peoples’ rights. Kajir took a case to the Supreme Court to try and stop illegal logging and deforestation by foreign companies.
Papua New Guinea received its independence from Australia in 1975. It is one half of the world’s second largest island (Papua, Indonesia is the other half). Most of the 6.7M citizens of this small country are indigenous people, with 80% living in rural areas and having little contact with each other. Seven hundred different dialects are spoken. The country, which is about the size of California, is rich in natural resources, the biggest being the rain forest, with its obvious logging potential.
Given this scenario, it is not surprising that huge multi-nationals have identified it as a lucrative source of money and are involved in major corruption to obtain logging rights: legally, or illegally.
The country’s constitution guarantees the land rights of traditional communities living in the forest, and the indigenous people and their clans are the owners of the land. They are the traditional custodians of the ancient rainforest.
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Disposable products aren't things TreeHugger gets behind very often -- there are a few exceptions, like these water bottle shoes or edible dishware -- but there are a few ideas out there that make the future of disposables look a bit brighter. Designer Oksana Bazanova has provided this alternative, a fun, flat-packing, Origami-inspired version that's made from waterproof paper.
Entered in designboom's Dining in 2015 design contest, the idea is simple: when you're having a party, pick up a handful of "sheets" of cups and bowls at your local market, fold, and enjoy. Presumably, the paper would be recyclable when you're done drinking punch or eating pasta salad. Hit the jump to see how they fold up and how they're used. ::designboom via ::Yanko Design...
It all started with a piece in the Independent in February about a trash vortex in the ocean, now known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It has been getting lots of coverage on the internet lately, including on TreeHugger: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: "Out of Sight, Out of Mind"
VBS.tv had to see it with their own eyes, so they sailed for two days in the Pacific before reaching their destination. But it wasn't like they expected: "What people don’t get is that it’s not really a patch and it’s not really an island, both of which you might be able to contain and control. No, what we found is much worse. It’s like a gigantic toxic stew and it’s a big big problem that we need to pay attention to now."...
Fallen Australian Pines on Anclote Island.
This past week we enjoyed a boat cruise from Tarpon Springs, Florida through the Tarpon Bayou to Anclote Island with Sun Line Tours. The picture above shows some of the fallen Australian Pines on Anclote Island that were planted to stop erosion, but due to their non-native species status did more harm than good. They are being allowed to naturally disappear from the small island off the coast of Tarpon Springs. ...
It's always inspiring to see younger adults and children who are passionate about making a difference by exploring and caring for the environment, and even more so to read a book that is written especially for them. Land of Curiosities, the first book out of the Ecoseekers Collection, is one such book that seems to not only give an encouraging voice to the environmentally-conscious young people who will read it, but also will connect them via their Internet-based forums “in a community of kids across the whole world, telling their own stories, and working together to protect each other and our shared environment.”
Started up by the brother-sister duo of David and Deanna Neil, Ecoseekers is an innovative and ambitious “eco-enterprise” aimed at educating kids about environmental issues such as conservation and cooperation. Through entertaining and engaging media such as well-researched books that have thoughtful lessons behind them, Ecoseekers gives young ones believable role-models to emulate. In addition to Ecoseekers’ interactive and educational purpose to connect and teach kids, they are also committed to running an eco-friendly business, printing their books on recycled paper and with soy-based inks – and powering their website with solar power.
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It is a Minibox, designed by Enrich Strolz of Holzbox in 1998, all of sixty square feet. According to Detail, it was designed as a response to the challenge of designing a minimal dwelling.
"The architects proposed a transportable cubic house 2.6 x 2.6 x 2.6 m in size. The MiniBox can sleep three and contains sitting/dining space for four people, including a table with an integrated stove. A shower and a pull-out camping WC can be installed in the closet spaces. The timber construction system clad with formwork sheets can be assembled in a very short time. Internally, the fold-up table and benches provide great flexibility. A top light over the edge of the roof and a large window ensure good lighting conditions internally and broad views of the surroundings. The boxes would be suitable for use in disaster areas. A proposal to erect them about the city for homeless people was not implemented." ...
Photo credit: NOAA
TreeHugger has noted, somewhat light-heartedly, that among the myriad effects of global warming are likely reductions in wine and beer production; as global warming alters the planet's regional climates, it affects the crop yields used for brewing up our favorite libations. Though they might leave us a little thirstier and annoyed, these two small, specific examples aren't likely to drastically alter the way the world works, at least as much as the effects of global warming noted in a new report by the Center for American Progress. The report, released yesterday, states in pretty certain terms, that we'd all better watch out: global warming will kill you.
According to data from the World Health Organization, rising temperatures on the planet are killing off the equivalent of a mid-sized city every year; about 150,000 annual deaths can be attributed to global warming, from causes including heat waves, air pollution, infectious disease, food safety and production, flooding and more. ...
That's what conservative pundit Michelle Malkin calls compact fluorescents, as her website writes about Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachman and her "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act", filed appropriately in her "Enviro-nitwit" category. Although we cannot find a link to TreeHugger in it, we are getting a lot of traffic and comments, so we provide herein some background and welcome our visitors.
Lots of people mention the mercury in CFLs (without acknowledging how much is put out by coal fired power plants); Our Harvard professor Helen Suh Mackintosh answers the question Is Mercury from a Broken CFL Dangerous? and we show you how to clean it up, and debunk the Hazmat cleanup urban myth. For those who complain about the quality of light from them, you might just have the wrong kind; here is a comparison. Lighting designers are doing some greatthings with them, and you can even recycle them easily now; here is how it is done.
Oh, and here is an update: Sylvania just introduced a new CFL with only 1.5 milligrams of mercury. The 4 or 5 milligrams in a conventional CFL are barely the size of the nib of a ballpoint pen, so 1.5 milligrams is probably not even visible, let alone a major hazard. ::CNET
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My personal transformation to becoming more environmentally conscious happened suddenly and, I must admit, by accident.
I moved into one of the leading green apartment buildings in the country, the Solaire, in New York City. At the time, I chose this location not so much because it was a green building but because of its location. But then something happened when I moved in—my health had improved dramatically within weeks.
For one thing, my allergies—which I’d suffered from throughout my entire life—simply disappeared. I was taking three prescription drugs a day when I moved in; within six weeks, I had pretty much stopped needing them. My son Jack’s mild asthma symptoms disappeared completely; he hasn’t had an asthma attack since we moved in. We’ve also started to sleep longer and more soundly....
The Wall Street Journal tells us that "after a decade of catering to Americans' appetite for large living with giant-size sofas, chairs, ottomans and tables, furniture makers are starting to think small." Furniture maker Montauk bucks the Less is More trend with oversized sofas. In others you can lose your change between the cushions; in a Montauk you can lose your children.
However, they know how to build them; in Azure they are advertising: "Our commitment to limiting our environmental footprint is factored into all aspects of the manufacture and distribution of our products. By switching to natural and recycled raw materials with no oil-based products or contaminants we are opting for a clean alternative in the construction and deconstruction processes that constitute the natural life cycle of our sofas."
Good design and a strong green message. That is how you compete against imports. ::Montauk
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Thermograph of balconies losing heat, acting like "radiator fins."
In our post Big Steps in Building: Get Rid Of Those Radiator Fins, I wondered why we still permit balconies that act like radiator fins, losing heat from the interior because they are installed without without thermal breaks that separate the concrete inside from the balcony outside. There are (expensive) systems available, but they are rarely used in North America, because residential builders don't pay operating costs, and have no incentive to put in expensive things like thermal breaks that purchasers can't see and don't understand. We received an interesting comment from Alexander Krenczik, who is trying to introduce a European system here, and finding it a bit of a slog. It is worth reading. (slightly modified as English is clearly not his first language)
"I'm currently introducing the original balcony insulator from Schöck in Canada . The biggest obstacle I face is that the builders sell the apartments before the high-rise is even built. There is high demand for apartments as investments, and people don't look into the details of the execution of the structure. The customer wants hardwood flooring and a granite kitchen counter and for that they pay. No one is interested in the R-value for windows or the balcony. I thought that LEED would favour our systems, but in fact it seems to be only paperwork. As long as the energy prices are so low in North America and the clients buy what the market provides, it is doubtful that there will be a change in thinking about energy efficiency. "
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Image courtesy of Duncan Rawlinson @ TheLastMinuteBlog.com via flickr
Conservationists have long struggled to find the - let alone an - ideal strategy to save the world's most endangered species from going extinct. Given that the work of Russel A. Mittermeier and other prominent ecologists has indicated that 2.3% of the planet's land surface area contain upwards of 50% of all plant and 71-82% of all vertebrate species, they are racing against the clock to ensure that the combined impact of global warming and anthropogenic activities not overtake the remaining ones. One potential solution may lie in a high-resolution "conservation map" developed by an international team of scientists and described in the latest issue of the journal Science (sub. required)....
Time Magazine really has blog fever these days. You can still vote in their Blog Index (please consider voting for us!), but they've also released a separate The Five Best Blogs article: #1 is The Huffington Post, #2 is LifeHacker, #3 is MetaFilter, and #5 is PostSecret.
What about #4? It's TreeHugger! "The most complete of the hundreds of grassroots green blogs, it ranks among the top 20 blogs in traffic worldwide." We're not quite sure about the traffic part (it's always hard to find reliable stats on traffic anyway), but we're honored to be mentioned. A few short years ago, nobody in the mainstream media paid any attention to the environment and almost nobody in the US thought global warming was real. Green really is mainstream now! Even if a lot still needs to be done, we're definitely in a better position to move forward than in 2004....
Food doesn't get any more local than this. Designer Mathieu Lehanneur, known to TreeHuggers for his controversial Bell-Air , has now developed the ultimate kitchen appliance: Local River, a "refrigerator-aquarium" where you breed freshwater fish and vegetables at the same time. The veggies keep the water clean by removing nitrates and other minerals. It can be seen in New York from 25 April at Artists Space Gallery....
If you click on the Youtube video above, what happens? That's right. Not available. Because of a lot of negative feedback from blogs such as StreetsBlog, Grist, and of course, TreeHugger.
What you used to be able to see in that ad was a ridiculously dressed guy who feels humiliated because high gas prices forced him to... cycle to work. The subtext from State Farm is that biking to work is something you are reduced to, not a valid option on its own. It can't possibly be a choice!...
How do you spot greenwashing? We had a few suggestions over at Planet Green, but Keith at Unsuitablog makes a few more:
-Be suspicious of all environmental claims. Don’t trust anything unless you have verified them yourself.
-Look out for poor use of scientific facts, especially when listening to politicians: “Reducing carbon emissions will protect the ozone layer”, “this technology is sustainable”, “emissions can be offset”, “the greenhouse effect is not certain” etc. All examples of rubbish that has no basis in fact, even the last one (think about it).
-Look out for buzzwords that put a gloss on reality: ”carbon intensity”, “sustainable development”, “carbon offsets”, “clean technology” etc. Another clear sign that something is being covered up.
Allison Arieff literally wrote the book on modern prefab back in 2002 (with Bryan Burkhart). It was an exciting time, and we all had great hopes and dreams, not all of which panned out. She is interviewed by David Keeps of the Chicago Tribune, and discusses the successes, failures and its future. A few key questions:
David Keeps: How has the movement and market changed in the six years since you wrote your book?
A: Well, there are a lot more books on the subject, but the funny thing is that they pretty much all have the same houses in them. I would say that nationally there are only 100 houses of this type that have actually been built. A lot was over-promised and under-delivered, so now we are going through this period of realism where the consumer wants to see what's available and possible. For a lot of people it's still conceptual — architecture on paper.
We often get asked to run our surveys so that people can see the results without voting, usually because they don't want to vote for any of the answers. On the other hand, showing the poll results can skew the poll because hey, nobody likes to lose.
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The following opinion piece was submitted by Jonathan F. P. Rose, co-founder of the Garrison Institute and president of Jonathan Rose Companies, a network of multidisciplinary planning and development firms. He is a well known proponent of smart growth and sustainable building techniques.
In recent days we commemorated the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., who died 40 years ago this month. And some have also recalled that King was influenced by Gandhi, learning from Gandhi's Satyagraha or "truth force" movement the nonviolent tactics that ultimately made the civil rights movement a success.
Philip Glass's opera Satyagraha, which thematizes this, is being revived now at the New York Metropolitan Opera. It's a good time to remember Gandhi and King now, not just in celebration of what they achieved, but because we need them again today. We need them not only to inspire social change in the today's world, but also to inspire a movement to save it from global warming. ...
Jules Bassong his wooden bike and the Cameroon flag he hangs under the handlebars
We've written about enterprising DIYers such as Marco Facciola who built his own all-wooden bike, as well as chronicled the award-winning Waldmeister wooden bike.
But in the case of Cameroonian sculptor Jules Fils Otong Bassong, necessity was the prompt for him fashioning a handmade bike from native acacia, bobinga and dosier woods. Bassong, a father of eight, is taking a tour on his handcrafted bike through Cameroon to find a sponsor to help him set up small-scale manufacture of wood-based bikes, which he hopes to turn into a "Camaroonian specialty." While Bassong described his long-haul bike trip as not entirely smooth - he had one minor accident on the 13-day trek thus far between Cameroonian towns of Bamenda to Buea, he told Africa News he believes the bikes could be an excellent cottage industry for his nation. Though his chain is metal and his seat is softened by foam, the majority of Bassong's cycle is a local renewable resouce. And he never needs to worry about a flat tire. Via ::Africa News...
We recently learned that "A bill intended to protect blind people and other pedestrians from the dangers posed by quiet cars will be introduced in Congress. The measure would require the Transportation Department to establish safety standards for hybrids and other vehicles that make little discernible noise, including an audible means for alerting people that cars are nearby."
So hybrids are too quiet and will be required to have boom boxes playing loud music or baseball cards in the spokes.
NEW!- Carry on the discussion in the forum here.
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Our guide on How to Green Your Funeral already offers a huge array of resources for those looking for more environmentally sustainable end-of-life options, from a conversation with Joe Sehee of the Green Burial Council to some very funky green casket suppliers. But even that guide is by no means exhaustive – our inboxes are constantly filling up with information about products and services for green burial or cremation. The latest company to come to our attention is EcoffinsUSA, makers of biodegradable coffins crafted from bamboo, willow, banana and other materials in fair trade certified factories in South China and Indonesia. And for those worried about the impact of transporting these coffins internationally, it seems the company has also spent some time thinking through lower impact transport options:...
One more reason to love trees. Big ones especially. And, one more reason not to let US forest products industry lobbyists dominate public policy making.
A report released today by The Wilderness Society emphasizes the enormous carbon reserves held by forests in the contiguous states - roughly equivalent to more than 20 years of current United States greenhouse gas emissions from industrial and other sources. Across the U.S., public and protected forests generally store the most carbon. The analysis also cautions that existing carbon measurement tools have significant limitations due to gaps in the underlying data: old growth forests, in particular, may be undervalued.
The executive summary of "Measuring Forest Carbon: Strengths and Weaknesses of Available Tools" is available here, and the full report may be downloaded as a pdf file here.
Via::The Wilderness Society. "Analysis Shows American Forests Contain Enormous Carbon Reserves, But Available Measuring Tools Reflect Gaps in Underlying Data" Image credit::The Wilderness Society, Full Report...
TerraPass, an American for-profit carbon offset provider, is no stranger to media attention. Last year we interviewed TerraPass co-founder Adam Stein here, and
its other co-founder Tom Arnold here.
Today, at Carbon Catalog, TerraPass takes on the challenge of defending its position as a for-profit carbon offset provider. Arnold talks a bit about the upcoming elections in America, the company’s money-back guarantee, and Ed Begley, Jr.
A fan of reading blogs for news and offsetting information, Arnold says his company is motivated both by profit and the mission of saving the environment: “TerraPass challenges the traditional assumption that you either work on a business that destroys the environment or work at a non profit to protect it,” says Arnold.
Armed with educational resources and a web presence like no other, TerraPass has a bold goal to build a world where as many people offset as recycle. ...
Last May Day Modbury in Devon became the first town in Europe to ban plastic bags. Now, on this anniversary, we revisit the town to see the impact that the ban has had on the shopkeepers and businesses in the area. And the answer: once they had got rid of the plastic they realised that food packaging was another link in the chain. The butcher now packs meat in biodegradable corn-starch bags and switched his fridges to energy efficient models. The florist wraps flowers in corn starch cellophane and uses raffia instead of ribbon. The local deli owner puts sandwiches in brown paper bags and uses corn starch biodegradable cartons for take-out salads. The green grocer carries mainly loose produce, with brown paper bags for packaging.
Their next goal: on April 27 they are holding a mass beach clean-up. The townspeople are going to collect all the rubbish, recycle as much as they can and take note of the most prolific polluting items. Presumably that will be plastic water bottles, but they are already on to that too. One of the shopkeepers has started talking to the near-by bottled water company to see whether it would be willing to switch to reusable glass bottles. Don't you just want to move to Modbury? :: Guardian...
The scene in Greenburg, Kansas after a tornado leveled the town in 2007.
That scintillating time that is the cusp between high school and the rest of one's life is a thrill. And no moment captures the feeling more succinctly than graduation day itself. Remember sitting on the edge of your chair, awkwardly donning cap and gown, giddy with anticipation? It not just the thought of after-parties that sets nerves a-twitter. It's the idea that one phase of life is ending, and another about to begin.
It's a day the 18-student senior class of Greensburg, Kansas won't soon forget. The graduates from this small town, which was leveled by a tornado a year ago and is now the subject of Planet Green television series, will be getting their send-off from none other than President George Bush, the White House announced yesterday. The president will also deliver two other commencement speeches in the state. ...
There’s a high school senior named Matthew LaClair seeing red over the flaws in his American Government text, and he’s doing something to make its authors see the error of their ways.
Of course, when one of them holds a prestigious position named after the U.S. President who purportedly took solar panels off of the White House and proclaimed them a sign of weakness one might reasonably suspect the contents are just a little bit skewed when it comes to the basic scientific facts about energy and even global warming.
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When ecology teacher Paul Ritter at the Pontiac Township High School in Pontiac, Illinois realized the U.S. is beginning to experience increasing amounts of unused or pharmaceuticals in the water supply he swung into action by working with his students to organize a local program to keep drugs out of the environment that may well serve as a model for others across the country.
To pull it off they’ve conducted hours of student-led research on the issue and partnered with local and corporate pharmacies, city officials, and local residents to ensure that no one in Pontiac has to choose between dumping their unused drugs down the drain or throwing them out with the trash. Both of which ensure those unused prescriptions will ultimately wind up in the water supply.
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As Mike noted yesterday TreeHugger is really honored be a Webby Awards Honoree honoree this year, in the "blog cultural/personal category" (we won in that category last year). But we want spread some of the love to our pals at Discovery, who garnered a handful of Webby Awards nominations as well. HowStuffWorks.com got two (Best Copy Writing and Podcasts), Discovery Channel got three: Discovery News (News Website); Sharkrunners (Games Website); and Mike's Got Mail (Reality Video) and Discovery Networks International's I, VIDEO GAME (Television Website) was also nominated. Way to go team!
Joining TreeHugger as Webby Awards nominees are Discovery Channel's SHARK WEEK Video Mixer (Best Use of Video or Moving Image), Discovery Channel's The Buster Story Webisodes (Video, Comedy Series, Long Form or Series), and Discovery Networks International's I, VIDEO GAME (Best Use of Animation or Motion Graphics). Woot!
Since the Webby's don't accept votes for their honorees, we're asking that you vote for our Discovery teammates, instead. Click on over to the Webby's voting site to get started; thanks again to everyone who nominated TreeHugger, and congrats to everyone at Discovery for the nominations! ::Webby Awards, ::Discovery Channel, HowStuffWorks.com, and ::Discovery Networks International
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Noting Hawaii’s vulnerability to interruptions in their supply chain as the world’s most remote island chain, the first annual Blue Planet Summit took place last weekend in an effort to focus the energy of Hawaii, both natural and social, on the urgency of ending our dependence on oil and a push towards clean renewable energy.
Of course, what some may view as vulnerability may actually turn out to be its greatest strength. With the very isolation of the Hawaiian Islands making them an ideal laboratory for developing and evaluating the success of various renewable energy technologies like wave, wind, solar and geothermal power.
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So, you've thought about whether or not living off the grid is right for you; you know that it means no more utility bills and generating all of your own power, but what's involved in that? It isn't as easy as slapping a few solar panels on the roof and calling it good; when it comes to generating off grid power, there are a handful of methods that can combine to generate all the energy you'll need to live comfortably off the grid....
Dye sensitized solar cells (also known as Grätzel cells) continue innovation at a scorching pace. We recently covered how Shaik Zakeeruddin and Michael Grätzel used ionic liquids to make these solar cells flexible and significantly less toxic. Today we learn from the University of Washington (UW) that it's possible to double the efficiency of dye sensitized solar cells by using a novel popcorn-ball design.
"We think this can lead to a significant breakthrough in dye-sensitized solar cells," said lead author Guozhong Cao, "We did not expect the doubling...it was a happy surprise."
The guilt-free, eco-friendly tropical vacation has finally arrived. NatureVacations, a travel agency that operates in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama, hopes to vanquish all of your treehuggerly shame about flying to Costa Rica to soak up some rays by claiming to offset "every ounce" of carbon you produce en route and during your stay with a new seven-day package.
Travelers will stay at the Finca Rosa Blanca and Lapa Rios- the only two hotels in Costa Rica to be awarded five “green leaves” from the Certification for Sustainable Tourism, a system created and managed by Costa Rica’s Institute of Tourism. ...
Page from the UK gov's official CO2 calculator, used by many CRAGgers
In the UK the idea of joining together in small civic groups called CRAGs (Carbon Rationing Action Groups) to work on keeping personal carbon emissions in check has gone beyond the underground stage to bubble up to public - and media - consciousness. At carbonrationing.org hundreds of Brits have registered their groups' efforts to first to try accurately measure, then reduce their CO2 footprint, and many groups have passed their first anniversary - the general goal being around 4.5 tons of CO2 emissions.
Now the idea has crossed over to this side of the pond (as well as all the way over the continent) with CRAG groups formed first in Maryland, then in Georgia, and most recently in Portland, Oregon. The US' groups goals are more modest (around 10 percent below US average per capita emissions), but as in the UK, one of the most difficult areas for reduction revolves around air travel (the Georgia group isn't yet dealing with flight miles in its footprint calculations). And the Portland group, led by blogger Alison Wiley, has decided that "rationing" needed to be changed to "reduction" in order not to awaken any Yankee fears of the "R" word. Via ::International Herald Tribune (BOG)...
Allowing uranium mining next door to the Grand Canyon would be "one of the seven blunders of the world." So says the editorial gang at the Arizona Republic in Phoenix. Yet -- and this should come as no surprise -- with uranium prices soaring in recent years, there are mining companies chomping at the bit to drill in the area.
More than 2,000 claims have been filed (PDF) on the Tusayan Ranger District which borders the South Rim of the canyon -- and the U.S. Forest Service appears all too willing to please....
Though they may share many of the same compounds and properties, "green gasoline," the creation of UMass chemical engineer George Huber, differs from regular gasoline in one important respect: it can be produced from biomass sources. And, unlike the various forms of ethanol that have been bandied around, green gasoline can take advantage of the existing gas infrastructure and be pumped into cars as is.
To produce this biofuel variant, Huber and his students heated plant cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts and then rapidly cooled the products - leaving behind a liquid that already contained many of the compounds typically found in gasoline, such as naphthalene and toluene. The whole process takes less than 2 minutes to accomplish and needs only moderate heat; the final liquid can be further refined or immediately used as an alternative to a high octane gas blend....
Photo credit: dyobmit
A perfect storm is brewing, coming together with the potential to create a shortage in the world's beer supply. In addition to an ongoing hops shortage, which we first reported last year, failed barley crops are causing further concern in the beer brewing industry, and we can chalk it up to the effects of global warming.
According to Jim Salinger, a climate scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, the warming globe will likely cause a decline in the production of malting barley, which, when combined with the scarcity of hops right now, stands to have a profound and negative impact on the world's beer supply starting now, and for decades to come....
Agroblogger: Carnival of the Green # 122
"So it seems that the current paradigm emphasizes green economics, which became clear to me while reading the carnival submissions. And naturally, some green ideas are more thoughtful, elegant, and innovative than others. Still, this 122nd COG has a little something for everyone, so have a read, and I hope you have as much fun perusing through it as I did putting it together."
DeSmogBlog: A Reading List for the Narrowminded by Richard Littlemore
"Amazon has apparently sent my copy of The Deniers, Lawrence Solomon's book version of his tiresome Denier series in the National Post, a review of which will follow when it arrives. But Amazon also followed up with a list of books they think might also interest me: a handsome reading list for anyone who is determined to remain delusional about global warming."
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Landscapes of great wonder and beauty lie under our feet and all around us. They are discovered in tunnels in the ground, the heart of flowers, the hollows of trees, fresh-water ponds, seaweed jungles between tides, and even drops of water.
Life in these hidden worlds is more startling in reality than anything we can imagine. How could this earth of ours, which is only a speck in the heavens, have so much variety of life, so many curious and exciting creatures?”
—Walt Disney (1901-1966)
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Michelle Kaufmann studied the energy profile of her Sunset Breezehouse and compared it to the nation's best selling house design, and stuck results on a house version of the classic nutrition label. The Breezehouse performed surprisingly well, given the amount of glass. Michelle talks about the labelling concept:
"By quantifying the advantages of a sustainably designed home we can express that information in universal, easy to understand terms using something as simple as a label (like the ones we created above and below) in the same way the advantages and disadvantages of food are expressed through nutrition labels."
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The tree-hugging, car-hating, bike-riding, transit-loving contingent of our readership should join the 4,000 who have already signed the "petition-car" that is being rolled to the Legislature in Ontario via a parade on Earth Day. It carries the message:
“We the undersigned do hereby demand that not one more dollar go to promote, support, or perpetuate car culture. We want bike lanes, public transit and a train system. We want our public space back. We want local food, clean air, sustainable industry, a liveable future for our children, and an end to oil wars. We want to dance in the street. We want a government that values life over money.”
In the UK a lot of kids still have to wear uniforms; now they can wear pure polyester made from PET pop bottles. It would be nice if it was a local industry, with visions of Scottish weavers fishing bottles out of the ocean, spinning them into yarn, weaving the fabric and sending it off to Saville Row, but no, it is made in Taiwan and tailored in Europe "to avoid the use of child labour."
Mark Southcott of School Colours told the Guardian the jackets and trousers look and feel like any manmade fibre clothing, but every stitch was once part of Coke's familiar hourglass bottles."We have to use clear plastic because colours weaken the fibre"
Just don't tell mom about the antimony. ::Guardian...
Is it just a matter of better wind in Bahrain, or did the architects who proposed a replacement WTC for Manhattan overlook this possibility? Just wondering.
Justin brought these to our attention last year with his "World's First Building-Integrated Wind Turbines" post (more nice pics). Anyhow, they are tuning them now to optimize power output - typical shakedown period after commissioning. Will be interesting to see the final figures.
The building's sail-shaped towers channel the strong on-shore winds directly onto the three 29m-diameter turbine blades, which are expected to provide 11-15% of the building's power when fully operational.
Turbine specialist Norwin, which collaborated with Atkins, will carry out detailed analysis and optimisation over the next few months to determine and maximize the generating potential of the turbines, which should operate around 50% of the time.
There's a Bahrain World Trade Center webcam here, but she's a slow loader.
Via::Building, "Turbines turn at world's first wind-powered commercial building"...
Image courtesy of swanksalot via flickr
Following the unceremonious axing a few months ago of a proposal that would've banned outright the use of plastic bags, several L.A.-based state legislators are once again girding for battle over the introduction of a bill that would impose a 25-cent fee on the use of the offending bags. AB 2829, sponsored by Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles), would use the proceeds from the fee to fund litter prevention and reduction efforts. A competing bill, AB2058, introduced by Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), would only support voluntary reduction measures; as Emerald City's Siel points out in her post on the fee, this meeker measure closely resembles a voluntary plastic bag reduction measure that was enacted by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors....
Coffee is one of the early foods to have got the green buzz, and so many places now sell fair trade, shade grown, solar dried, bird friendly and organic beans that we rarely even write about it any more. However, Raymond of Toronto's Balluchon café adds another feature to the green mix: he packs his beans in mason jars and sells them with a two dollar deposit. And we love deposit systems!
On the right is Michael Schmidt of Glencolton Farms, who was busted for illegally selling raw milk, and is defending himself in court next month. The pair of them served me a fabulous raw milk latté at the Brewers Plate Dinner....
This is the last in a series of interviews with previous winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Founded in 1990, the prize is given annually to six grassroots environmentalists working for change around the globe. So far, we've met a salmon saver and an Amazonian advocate. This year's prize winners will be announced on April 14.
If the dam represents the trade-off between China's heavy energy needs and the health of local communities, Yu Xiaogang (于晓刚) represents China's hope for a sustainable balance. His career began with a focus on improving water resource management, but the 2006 Goldman Prize winner has become one of China's leading crusaders for the rights of local populations affected by development projects, funneling helplessness and anger into participation. In the process, he's helped turned dam-building projects into a rare chance for the public to get involved in decision making in China....
We are not crazy about the tactics of Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Society, nor are we crazy about the Canadian Seal Hunt. It was inevitable that if you put the Sea Shepherd's Farley Mowat together with the Canadian Coast Guard, that, as the National Security advisor said in the Hunt for Red October, having your ships and ours, in such proximity... is inherently DANGEROUS.
So,"The Government of Canada has taken action to protect the safety and livelihoods of Canadian sealers by boarding and seizing the Farley Mowat to arrest its Captain and Chief Officer for alleged violations of Canada's Marine Mammal Regulations (MMR)," said Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Loyola Hearn, Saturday in a statement. "These actions were taken in accordance with Canadian fisheries legislation."
Paul Watson politely expresses another point of view:
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As of May 1, 2009, ships will no longer be allowed to dump waste into the Mediterranean. The new rules, announced by the United Nations Environment Programme, ban the dumping of "all plastics, including but not limited to synthetic ropes, synthetic fishing nets and plastic garbage bags" as well as "all other garbage, including paper products, rags, glass, metal, bottles, crockery, dunnage (loose material used in ship storage), lining and packing materials." While this is certainly good news, the more burning question is, why were ships allowed to dump garbage into the Mediterranean until now?
It turns out that the measures "had been suspended for years to allow for improvements to inadequate garbage collection facilities in ports around the sea's coasts." Hopefully those improvements have been made, and the new measures will actually be enforced. Still, it's hard to believe that dumping of this kind has been legal for so long. . .
Via: ::AP
See Also: ::Cargo Ship with Kites: First Trans-Atlantic Trip a Success!, ::Fuzzy Math Leads to a (Serious) Reevaluation of Shipping's Climate Impact, ::Shipping's CO2 Record Not So Shipshape, After All, ::VBS.tv Sails Out to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, ::It's Still Garbage, But At Least It's a Hybrid!, ::The Garbage Project, and ::Pop Quiz: I'm the Trashman...
Image courtesy of Point-Shoot-Edit via flickr
From the crack team of investigative journalists at Mother Jones comes this disturbing, though not at all surprising, tale of corporate intrigue -- one that should raise concerns among all environmentally (and civil liberty) friendly observers. In a revealing piece that once again exemplifies the need for the type of hard-nosed reporting you aren't likely to find in much of the mainstream media, James Ridgeway exposes the activities of S2i (previously known as Beckett Brown International), a private security firm that was hired by several large corporations, including Kraft Foods and Dow Chemical, to spy on various environmental groups - most prominently, Greenpeace (but also the National Environmental Trust and the Environmental Working Group)....
We talked about the wind-powered Ford Plant in Dagenham, just outside central London, in our post about renewable energy developers Ecotricity back in early 2006. In fact, the two turbines have been such a success that they are now set to be joined by a third as the factory expands its operations further. This from an Ecotricity press release:
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Here's three terrific quotes from a seminal article in the National Journal. Read'em and tell us what you think.
It may look like an ordinary playground to the children. But the parents know the truth: this tarmac is an Interseasonal Heat Transfer (IHT) system. And that is just one of the features that make Howe Dell the world's coolest school. Rather than following the usual course of including a token gesture for the environment in building plans, Hertfordshire County Council committed to building a zero-carbon school using all the best technologies together to create a perfect model for what is possible....
The worldwide food crisis deepens, and it isn't just ethanol; drought in Australia, greater demand for meat, futures traders going long, cost of fuel for transport and fertilizer, it is all adding up.
'Perfect storm' brewing for food riots, UN warns The recent outbreak of food riots is a warning sign that rising food prices could cause unrest and instability across the world, the UN's top humanitarian official said yesterday. Combined with the negative impact of climate change and soaring fuel prices, a "perfect storm" is brewing for much of the world's population, said John Holmes, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator. ::Associated Press
Biofuels go from saviour to villain: Four years ago, Dennis Avery warned that, as Western governments fell head over heels for biofuels, passing laws forcing consumers to buy them, "U.S. farmers, who should be exporting food to densely populated Asian countries with rising incomes, will instead turn their corn into ethanol . . . without benefit to the environment." ::National Post
See also: Biofuels as Help or Hindrance, Chinese Biofuel Push Could Devastate Remaining Forests, More Bad News about Biofuels: Land-Use Concerns Nix Benefits
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This is one in a series of profiles of previous winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Founded in 1990, the prize is given annually to six grassroots environmentalists working for change around the globe. This year's prize winners will be announced on April 14.
The winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize 2006 for Islands and Island Nations was Anne Kajir, a 32 year old lawyer, and CEO of the Environmental Law Centre in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. She won it for her legal advocacy and defence of indigenous peoples’ rights. Kajir took a case to the Supreme Court to try and stop illegal logging and deforestation by foreign companies.
Papua New Guinea received its independence from Australia in 1975. It is one half of the world’s second largest island (Papua, Indonesia is the other half). Most of the 6.7M citizens of this small country are indigenous people, with 80% living in rural areas and having little contact with each other. Seven hundred different dialects are spoken. The country, which is about the size of California, is rich in natural resources, the biggest being the rain forest, with its obvious logging potential.
Given this scenario, it is not surprising that huge multi-nationals have identified it as a lucrative source of money and are involved in major corruption to obtain logging rights: legally, or illegally.
The country’s constitution guarantees the land rights of traditional communities living in the forest, and the indigenous people and their clans are the owners of the land. They are the traditional custodians of the ancient rainforest.
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:: Weave together your leftover wine corks for a vintage message board.
:: Pamper pooch with a water-free shampoo.
:: Curb Junior’s spazzy behavior with additive free snacks.
:: Get chummy with your local farmers.
:: Make “going green” a game for your family.
:: Grow your garden with this DIY non-toxic, organic pesticide....
Disposable products aren't things TreeHugger gets behind very often -- there are a few exceptions, like these water bottle shoes or edible dishware -- but there are a few ideas out there that make the future of disposables look a bit brighter. Designer Oksana Bazanova has provided this alternative, a fun, flat-packing, Origami-inspired version that's made from waterproof paper.
Entered in designboom's Dining in 2015 design contest, the idea is simple: when you're having a party, pick up a handful of "sheets" of cups and bowls at your local market, fold, and enjoy. Presumably, the paper would be recyclable when you're done drinking punch or eating pasta salad. Hit the jump to see how they fold up and how they're used. ::designboom via ::Yanko Design...
The Dutch model their digs around rising sea levels.
Twenty-two biodiesel myths are dispelled.
Disadvantaged students in South Africa give back to their communities.
Will technology rescue our water supply?
The U.S. Senate passes the National Landscape Conservation Act.
Most Huggable is a regular roundup of some of Hugg's top green news stories. Why not submit your own green news?...
It all started with a piece in the Independent in February about a trash vortex in the ocean, now known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It has been getting lots of coverage on the internet lately, including on TreeHugger: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: "Out of Sight, Out of Mind"
VBS.tv had to see it with their own eyes, so they sailed for two days in the Pacific before reaching their destination. But it wasn't like they expected: "What people don’t get is that it’s not really a patch and it’s not really an island, both of which you might be able to contain and control. No, what we found is much worse. It’s like a gigantic toxic stew and it’s a big big problem that we need to pay attention to now."...
Fallen Australian Pines on Anclote Island.
This past week we enjoyed a boat cruise from Tarpon Springs, Florida through the Tarpon Bayou to Anclote Island with Sun Line Tours. The picture above shows some of the fallen Australian Pines on Anclote Island that were planted to stop erosion, but due to their non-native species status did more harm than good. They are being allowed to naturally disappear from the small island off the coast of Tarpon Springs. ...
It's always inspiring to see younger adults and children who are passionate about making a difference by exploring and caring for the environment, and even more so to read a book that is written especially for them. Land of Curiosities, the first book out of the Ecoseekers Collection, is one such book that seems to not only give an encouraging voice to the environmentally-conscious young people who will read it, but also will connect them via their Internet-based forums “in a community of kids across the whole world, telling their own stories, and working together to protect each other and our shared environment.”
Started up by the brother-sister duo of David and Deanna Neil, Ecoseekers is an innovative and ambitious “eco-enterprise” aimed at educating kids about environmental issues such as conservation and cooperation. Through entertaining and engaging media such as well-researched books that have thoughtful lessons behind them, Ecoseekers gives young ones believable role-models to emulate. In addition to Ecoseekers’ interactive and educational purpose to connect and teach kids, they are also committed to running an eco-friendly business, printing their books on recycled paper and with soy-based inks – and powering their website with solar power.
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It is a Minibox, designed by Enrich Strolz of Holzbox in 1998, all of sixty square feet. According to Detail, it was designed as a response to the challenge of designing a minimal dwelling.
"The architects proposed a transportable cubic house 2.6 x 2.6 x 2.6 m in size. The MiniBox can sleep three and contains sitting/dining space for four people, including a table with an integrated stove. A shower and a pull-out camping WC can be installed in the closet spaces. The timber construction system clad with formwork sheets can be assembled in a very short time. Internally, the fold-up table and benches provide great flexibility. A top light over the edge of the roof and a large window ensure good lighting conditions internally and broad views of the surroundings. The boxes would be suitable for use in disaster areas. A proposal to erect them about the city for homeless people was not implemented." ...
Photo credit: NOAA
TreeHugger has noted, somewhat light-heartedly, that among the myriad effects of global warming are likely reductions in wine and beer production; as global warming alters the planet's regional climates, it affects the crop yields used for brewing up our favorite libations. Though they might leave us a little thirstier and annoyed, these two small, specific examples aren't likely to drastically alter the way the world works, at least as much as the effects of global warming noted in a new report by the Center for American Progress. The report, released yesterday, states in pretty certain terms, that we'd all better watch out: global warming will kill you.
According to data from the World Health Organization, rising temperatures on the planet are killing off the equivalent of a mid-sized city every year; about 150,000 annual deaths can be attributed to global warming, from causes including heat waves, air pollution, infectious disease, food safety and production, flooding and more. ...
That's what conservative pundit Michelle Malkin calls compact fluorescents, as her website writes about Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachman and her "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act", filed appropriately in her "Enviro-nitwit" category. Although we cannot find a link to TreeHugger in it, we are getting a lot of traffic and comments, so we provide herein some background and welcome our visitors.
Lots of people mention the mercury in CFLs (without acknowledging how much is put out by coal fired power plants); Our Harvard professor Helen Suh Mackintosh answers the question Is Mercury from a Broken CFL Dangerous? and we show you how to clean it up, and debunk the Hazmat cleanup urban myth. For those who complain about the quality of light from them, you might just have the wrong kind; here is a comparison. Lighting designers are doing some great things with them, and you can even recycle them easily now; here is how it is done.
Oh, and here is an update: Sylvania just introduced a new CFL with only 1.5 milligrams of mercury. The 4 or 5 milligrams in a conventional CFL are barely the size of the nib of a ballpoint pen, so 1.5 milligrams is probably not even visible, let alone a major hazard. ::CNET
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My personal transformation to becoming more environmentally conscious happened suddenly and, I must admit, by accident.
I moved into one of the leading green apartment buildings in the country, the Solaire, in New York City. At the time, I chose this location not so much because it was a green building but because of its location. But then something happened when I moved in—my health had improved dramatically within weeks.
For one thing, my allergies—which I’d suffered from throughout my entire life—simply disappeared. I was taking three prescription drugs a day when I moved in; within six weeks, I had pretty much stopped needing them. My son Jack’s mild asthma symptoms disappeared completely; he hasn’t had an asthma attack since we moved in. We’ve also started to sleep longer and more soundly....
The Wall Street Journal tells us that "after a decade of catering to Americans' appetite for large living with giant-size sofas, chairs, ottomans and tables, furniture makers are starting to think small." Furniture maker Montauk bucks the Less is More trend with oversized sofas. In others you can lose your change between the cushions; in a Montauk you can lose your children.
However, they know how to build them; in Azure they are advertising: "Our commitment to limiting our environmental footprint is factored into all aspects of the manufacture and distribution of our products. By switching to natural and recycled raw materials with no oil-based products or contaminants we are opting for a clean alternative in the construction and deconstruction processes that constitute the natural life cycle of our sofas."
Good design and a strong green message. That is how you compete against imports. ::Montauk
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Thermograph of balconies losing heat, acting like "radiator fins."
In our post Big Steps in Building: Get Rid Of Those Radiator Fins, I wondered why we still permit balconies that act like radiator fins, losing heat from the interior because they are installed without without thermal breaks that separate the concrete inside from the balcony outside. There are (expensive) systems available, but they are rarely used in North America, because residential builders don't pay operating costs, and have no incentive to put in expensive things like thermal breaks that purchasers can't see and don't understand. We received an interesting comment from Alexander Krenczik, who is trying to introduce a European system here, and finding it a bit of a slog. It is worth reading. (slightly modified as English is clearly not his first language)
"I'm currently introducing the original balcony insulator from Schöck in Canada . The biggest obstacle I face is that the builders sell the apartments before the high-rise is even built. There is high demand for apartments as investments, and people don't look into the details of the execution of the structure. The customer wants hardwood flooring and a granite kitchen counter and for that they pay. No one is interested in the R-value for windows or the balcony. I thought that LEED would favour our systems, but in fact it seems to be only paperwork. As long as the energy prices are so low in North America and the clients buy what the market provides, it is doubtful that there will be a change in thinking about energy efficiency. "
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Image courtesy of Duncan Rawlinson @ TheLastMinuteBlog.com via flickr
Conservationists have long struggled to find the - let alone an - ideal strategy to save the world's most endangered species from going extinct. Given that the work of Russel A. Mittermeier and other prominent ecologists has indicated that 2.3% of the planet's land surface area contain upwards of 50% of all plant and 71-82% of all vertebrate species, they are racing against the clock to ensure that the combined impact of global warming and anthropogenic activities not overtake the remaining ones. One potential solution may lie in a high-resolution "conservation map" developed by an international team of scientists and described in the latest issue of the journal Science (sub. required)....
Time Magazine really has blog fever these days. You can still vote in their Blog Index (please consider voting for us!), but they've also released a separate The Five Best Blogs article: #1 is The Huffington Post, #2 is LifeHacker, #3 is MetaFilter, and #5 is PostSecret.
What about #4? It's TreeHugger! "The most complete of the hundreds of grassroots green blogs, it ranks among the top 20 blogs in traffic worldwide." We're not quite sure about the traffic part (it's always hard to find reliable stats on traffic anyway), but we're honored to be mentioned. A few short years ago, nobody in the mainstream media paid any attention to the environment and almost nobody in the US thought global warming was real. Green really is mainstream now! Even if a lot still needs to be done, we're definitely in a better position to move forward than in 2004....
Food doesn't get any more local than this. Designer Mathieu Lehanneur, known to TreeHuggers for his controversial Bell-Air , has now developed the ultimate kitchen appliance: Local River, a "refrigerator-aquarium" where you breed freshwater fish and vegetables at the same time. The veggies keep the water clean by removing nitrates and other minerals. It can be seen in New York from 25 April at Artists Space Gallery....
How do you spot greenwashing? We had a few suggestions over at Planet Green, but Keith at Unsuitablog makes a few more:
Allison Arieff literally wrote the book on modern prefab back in 2002 (with Bryan Burkhart). It was an exciting time, and we all had great hopes and dreams, not all of which panned out. She is interviewed by David Keeps of the Chicago Tribune, and discusses the successes, failures and its future. A few key questions:
We often get asked to run our surveys so that people can see the results without voting, usually because they don't want to vote for any of the answers. On the other hand, showing the poll results can skew the poll because hey, nobody likes to lose.
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The following opinion piece was submitted by Jonathan F. P. Rose, co-founder of the Garrison Institute and president of Jonathan Rose Companies, a network of multidisciplinary planning and development firms. He is a well known proponent of smart growth and sustainable building techniques.
In recent days we commemorated the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., who died 40 years ago this month. And some have also recalled that King was influenced by Gandhi, learning from Gandhi's Satyagraha or "truth force" movement the nonviolent tactics that ultimately made the civil rights movement a success.
Philip Glass's opera Satyagraha, which thematizes this, is being revived now at the New York Metropolitan Opera. It's a good time to remember Gandhi and King now, not just in celebration of what they achieved, but because we need them again today. We need them not only to inspire social change in the today's world, but also to inspire a movement to save it from global warming. ...
Jules Bassong his wooden bike and the Cameroon flag he hangs under the handlebars
We've written about enterprising DIYers such as Marco Facciola who built his own all-wooden bike, as well as chronicled the award-winning Waldmeister wooden bike.
But in the case of Cameroonian sculptor Jules Fils Otong Bassong, necessity was the prompt for him fashioning a handmade bike from native acacia, bobinga and dosier woods. Bassong, a father of eight, is taking a tour on his handcrafted bike through Cameroon to find a sponsor to help him set up small-scale manufacture of wood-based bikes, which he hopes to turn into a "Camaroonian specialty." While Bassong described his long-haul bike trip as not entirely smooth - he had one minor accident on the 13-day trek thus far between Cameroonian towns of Bamenda to Buea, he told Africa News he believes the bikes could be an excellent cottage industry for his nation. Though his chain is metal and his seat is softened by foam, the majority of Bassong's cycle is a local renewable resouce. And he never needs to worry about a flat tire. Via ::Africa News...
We recently learned that "A bill intended to protect blind people and other pedestrians from the dangers posed by quiet cars will be introduced in Congress. The measure would require the Transportation Department to establish safety standards for hybrids and other vehicles that make little discernible noise, including an audible means for alerting people that cars are nearby."
So hybrids are too quiet and will be required to have boom boxes playing loud music or baseball cards in the spokes.
NEW!- Carry on the discussion in the forum here.
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Our guide on How to Green Your Funeral already offers a huge array of resources for those looking for more environmentally sustainable end-of-life options, from a conversation with Joe Sehee of the Green Burial Council to some very funky green casket suppliers. But even that guide is by no means exhaustive – our inboxes are constantly filling up with information about products and services for green burial or cremation. The latest company to come to our attention is EcoffinsUSA, makers of biodegradable coffins crafted from bamboo, willow, banana and other materials in fair trade certified factories in South China and Indonesia. And for those worried about the impact of transporting these coffins internationally, it seems the company has also spent some time thinking through lower impact transport options:...
One more reason to love trees. Big ones especially. And, one more reason not to let US forest products industry lobbyists dominate public policy making.
TerraPass, an American for-profit carbon offset provider, is no stranger to media attention. Last year we interviewed TerraPass co-founder Adam Stein here, and
its other co-founder Tom Arnold here.
Today, at Carbon Catalog, TerraPass takes on the challenge of defending its position as a for-profit carbon offset provider. Arnold talks a bit about the upcoming elections in America, the company’s money-back guarantee, and Ed Begley, Jr.
A fan of reading blogs for news and offsetting information, Arnold says his company is motivated both by profit and the mission of saving the environment: “TerraPass challenges the traditional assumption that you either work on a business that destroys the environment or work at a non profit to protect it,” says Arnold.
Armed with educational resources and a web presence like no other, TerraPass has a bold goal to build a world where as many people offset as recycle. ...
Last May Day Modbury in Devon became the first town in Europe to ban plastic bags. Now, on this anniversary, we revisit the town to see the impact that the ban has had on the shopkeepers and businesses in the area. And the answer: once they had got rid of the plastic they realised that food packaging was another link in the chain. The butcher now packs meat in biodegradable corn-starch bags and switched his fridges to energy efficient models. The florist wraps flowers in corn starch cellophane and uses raffia instead of ribbon. The local deli owner puts sandwiches in brown paper bags and uses corn starch biodegradable cartons for take-out salads. The green grocer carries mainly loose produce, with brown paper bags for packaging.
Their next goal: on April 27 they are holding a mass beach clean-up. The townspeople are going to collect all the rubbish, recycle as much as they can and take note of the most prolific polluting items. Presumably that will be plastic water bottles, but they are already on to that too. One of the shopkeepers has started talking to the near-by bottled water company to see whether it would be willing to switch to reusable glass bottles. Don't you just want to move to Modbury? :: Guardian...
The scene in Greenburg, Kansas after a tornado leveled the town in 2007.
That scintillating time that is the cusp between high school and the rest of one's life is a thrill. And no moment captures the feeling more succinctly than graduation day itself. Remember sitting on the edge of your chair, awkwardly donning cap and gown, giddy with anticipation? It not just the thought of after-parties that sets nerves a-twitter. It's the idea that one phase of life is ending, and another about to begin.
It's a day the 18-student senior class of Greensburg, Kansas won't soon forget. The graduates from this small town, which was leveled by a tornado a year ago and is now the subject of Planet Green television series, will be getting their send-off from none other than President George Bush, the White House announced yesterday. The president will also deliver two other commencement speeches in the state. ...
There’s a high school senior named Matthew LaClair seeing red over the flaws in his American Government text, and he’s doing something to make its authors see the error of their ways.
Of course, when one of them holds a prestigious position named after the U.S. President who purportedly took solar panels off of the White House and proclaimed them a sign of weakness one might reasonably suspect the contents are just a little bit skewed when it comes to the basic scientific facts about energy and even global warming.
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When ecology teacher Paul Ritter at the Pontiac Township High School in Pontiac, Illinois realized the U.S. is beginning to experience increasing amounts of unused or pharmaceuticals in the water supply he swung into action by working with his students to organize a local program to keep drugs out of the environment that may well serve as a model for others across the country.
To pull it off they’ve conducted hours of student-led research on the issue and partnered with local and corporate pharmacies, city officials, and local residents to ensure that no one in Pontiac has to choose between dumping their unused drugs down the drain or throwing them out with the trash. Both of which ensure those unused prescriptions will ultimately wind up in the water supply.
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As Mike noted yesterday TreeHugger is really honored be a Webby Awards Honoree honoree this year, in the "blog cultural/personal category" (we won in that category last year). But we want spread some of the love to our pals at Discovery, who garnered a handful of Webby Awards nominations as well. HowStuffWorks.com got two (Best Copy Writing and Podcasts), Discovery Channel got three: Discovery News (News Website); Sharkrunners (Games Website); and Mike's Got Mail (Reality Video) and Discovery Networks International's I, VIDEO GAME (Television Website) was also nominated. Way to go team!
Joining TreeHugger as Webby Awards nominees are Discovery Channel's SHARK WEEK Video Mixer (Best Use of Video or Moving Image), Discovery Channel's The Buster Story Webisodes (Video, Comedy Series, Long Form or Series), and Discovery Networks International's I, VIDEO GAME (Best Use of Animation or Motion Graphics). Woot!
Since the Webby's don't accept votes for their honorees, we're asking that you vote for our Discovery teammates, instead. Click on over to the Webby's voting site to get started; thanks again to everyone who nominated TreeHugger, and congrats to everyone at Discovery for the nominations! ::Webby Awards, ::Discovery Channel, HowStuffWorks.com, and ::Discovery Networks International
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Noting Hawaii’s vulnerability to interruptions in their supply chain as the world’s most remote island chain, the first annual Blue Planet Summit took place last weekend in an effort to focus the energy of Hawaii, both natural and social, on the urgency of ending our dependence on oil and a push towards clean renewable energy.
Of course, what some may view as vulnerability may actually turn out to be its greatest strength. With the very isolation of the Hawaiian Islands making them an ideal laboratory for developing and evaluating the success of various renewable energy technologies like wave, wind, solar and geothermal power.
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So, you've thought about whether or not living off the grid is right for you; you know that it means no more utility bills and generating all of your own power, but what's involved in that? It isn't as easy as slapping a few solar panels on the roof and calling it good; when it comes to generating off grid power, there are a handful of methods that can combine to generate all the energy you'll need to live comfortably off the grid....
:: Get your crunch on with this crispy-tofu recipe.
:: Fight global warming fashionably with a catwalk inspired SIGG bottle.
:: Say so long to flies with this a DIY organic fly trap.
:: Save money and air pollution and put a stop to topping off.
:: Be a dirt devil and an earth angel with these energy efficient vacuums.
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Dye sensitized solar cells (also known as Grätzel cells) continue innovation at a scorching pace. We recently covered how Shaik Zakeeruddin and Michael Grätzel used ionic liquids to make these solar cells flexible and significantly less toxic. Today we learn from the University of Washington (UW) that it's possible to double the efficiency of dye sensitized solar cells by using a novel popcorn-ball design.
The guilt-free, eco-friendly tropical vacation has finally arrived. NatureVacations, a travel agency that operates in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama, hopes to vanquish all of your treehuggerly shame about flying to Costa Rica to soak up some rays by claiming to offset "every ounce" of carbon you produce en route and during your stay with a new seven-day package.
Travelers will stay at the Finca Rosa Blanca and Lapa Rios- the only two hotels in Costa Rica to be awarded five “green leaves” from the Certification for Sustainable Tourism, a system created and managed by Costa Rica’s Institute of Tourism. ...
Page from the UK gov's official CO2 calculator, used by many CRAGgers
In the UK the idea of joining together in small civic groups called CRAGs (Carbon Rationing Action Groups) to work on keeping personal carbon emissions in check has gone beyond the underground stage to bubble up to public - and media - consciousness. At carbonrationing.org hundreds of Brits have registered their groups' efforts to first to try accurately measure, then reduce their CO2 footprint, and many groups have passed their first anniversary - the general goal being around 4.5 tons of CO2 emissions.
Now the idea has crossed over to this side of the pond (as well as all the way over the continent) with CRAG groups formed first in Maryland, then in Georgia, and most recently in Portland, Oregon. The US' groups goals are more modest (around 10 percent below US average per capita emissions), but as in the UK, one of the most difficult areas for reduction revolves around air travel (the Georgia group isn't yet dealing with flight miles in its footprint calculations). And the Portland group, led by blogger Alison Wiley, has decided that "rationing" needed to be changed to "reduction" in order not to awaken any Yankee fears of the "R" word. Via ::International Herald Tribune (BOG)...
The photo above is from the art exposition "L’art... En Eaux Troubles" (lit. translation: "Art in Troubled Waters") in Paris. We really wish that person had some real shoes... Found via ::Aguanomics, ::Backcountry - The Goat
In case you aren't already aware of the mountain of reasons why bottled water is a bad idea, see: ::Pablo Calculates the True Cost of Bottled Water, ::A World of Reasons to Ditch Bottled Water, ::Greenwash Watch: "Green" Bottled Water, ::The Ethics of Bottled Water, ::Should We Promote the "Better" Bottled Water?, ::Bottled Water: What a Waste...
Allowing uranium mining next door to the Grand Canyon would be "one of the seven blunders of the world." So says the editorial gang at the Arizona Republic in Phoenix. Yet -- and this should come as no surprise -- with uranium prices soaring in recent years, there are mining companies chomping at the bit to drill in the area.
More than 2,000 claims have been filed (PDF) on the Tusayan Ranger District which borders the South Rim of the canyon -- and the U.S. Forest Service appears all too willing to please....
Though they may share many of the same compounds and properties, "green gasoline," the creation of UMass chemical engineer George Huber, differs from regular gasoline in one important respect: it can be produced from biomass sources. And, unlike the various forms of ethanol that have been bandied around, green gasoline can take advantage of the existing gas infrastructure and be pumped into cars as is.
To produce this biofuel variant, Huber and his students heated plant cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts and then rapidly cooled the products - leaving behind a liquid that already contained many of the compounds typically found in gasoline, such as naphthalene and toluene. The whole process takes less than 2 minutes to accomplish and needs only moderate heat; the final liquid can be further refined or immediately used as an alternative to a high octane gas blend....
Photo credit: dyobmit
A perfect storm is brewing, coming together with the potential to create a shortage in the world's beer supply. In addition to an ongoing hops shortage, which we first reported last year, failed barley crops are causing further concern in the beer brewing industry, and we can chalk it up to the effects of global warming.
According to Jim Salinger, a climate scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, the warming globe will likely cause a decline in the production of malting barley, which, when combined with the scarcity of hops right now, stands to have a profound and negative impact on the world's beer supply starting now, and for decades to come....
Agroblogger: Carnival of the Green # 122
"So it seems that the current paradigm emphasizes green economics, which became clear to me while reading the carnival submissions. And naturally, some green ideas are more thoughtful, elegant, and innovative than others. Still, this 122nd COG has a little something for everyone, so have a read, and I hope you have as much fun perusing through it as I did putting it together."
DeSmogBlog: A Reading List for the Narrowminded by Richard Littlemore
"Amazon has apparently sent my copy of The Deniers, Lawrence Solomon's book version of his tiresome Denier series in the National Post, a review of which will follow when it arrives. But Amazon also followed up with a list of books they think might also interest me: a handsome reading list for anyone who is determined to remain delusional about global warming."
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Landscapes of great wonder and beauty lie under our feet and all around us. They are discovered in tunnels in the ground, the heart of flowers, the hollows of trees, fresh-water ponds, seaweed jungles between tides, and even drops of water.
Life in these hidden worlds is more startling in reality than anything we can imagine. How could this earth of ours, which is only a speck in the heavens, have so much variety of life, so many curious and exciting creatures?”
—Walt Disney (1901-1966)
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Michelle Kaufmann studied the energy profile of her Sunset Breezehouse and compared it to the nation's best selling house design, and stuck results on a house version of the classic nutrition label. The Breezehouse performed surprisingly well, given the amount of glass. Michelle talks about the labelling concept:
"By quantifying the advantages of a sustainably designed home we can express that information in universal, easy to understand terms using something as simple as a label (like the ones we created above and below) in the same way the advantages and disadvantages of food are expressed through nutrition labels."
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The tree-hugging, car-hating, bike-riding, transit-loving contingent of our readership should join the 4,000 who have already signed the "petition-car" that is being rolled to the Legislature in Ontario via a parade on Earth Day. It carries the message:
In the UK a lot of kids still have to wear uniforms; now they can wear pure polyester made from PET pop bottles. It would be nice if it was a local industry, with visions of Scottish weavers fishing bottles out of the ocean, spinning them into yarn, weaving the fabric and sending it off to Saville Row, but no, it is made in Taiwan and tailored in Europe "to avoid the use of child labour."
Mark Southcott of School Colours told the Guardian the jackets and trousers look and feel like any manmade fibre clothing, but every stitch was once part of Coke's familiar hourglass bottles."We have to use clear plastic because colours weaken the fibre"
Just don't tell mom about the antimony. ::Guardian...
Is it just a matter of better wind in Bahrain, or did the architects who proposed a replacement WTC for Manhattan overlook this possibility? Just wondering.
Justin brought these to our attention last year with his "World's First Building-Integrated Wind Turbines" post (more nice pics). Anyhow, they are tuning them now to optimize power output - typical shakedown period after commissioning. Will be interesting to see the final figures.