- Emily Pilloton Discusses the Hippo Roller and other Designs for Humanity (Part One)
- Janine Benyus on Biomimicry in Design (Part Two)
- Janine Benyus on Biomimicry in Design (Part One)
- Andy Revkin - Climate in the Obama Age
- Fred Pearce - Confessions of An Eco-Sinner (Part Two)
- Fred Pearce - Confessions of An Eco-Sinner (Part One)
- Chris Goodall - Ten Techs to Save Our Butts (Part Two)
- Chris Goodall - Ten Techs to Save Our Butts (Part One)
Entries for April 6, 2008 - April 12, 2008
Total this week: 170
California State Assembly to Consider Imposing 25-Cent Plastic Bag Fee
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04.12.08
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....
TreeHugger Welcomes Leslie Billera
by Leslie Billera, San Diego, California on 04.12.08
TreeHugger Welcomes Jaymi Heimbuch
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 04.12.08
Coffee Beans in Returnable Bottles from Balluchon
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.12.08
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....
Goldman Environmental Prize Winner Yu Xiaogang on Hydropower and Community in China
by Alex Pasternack, New York, NY on 04.12.08
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....
Sea Shepherd Ship Captured By Canadian Coast Guard
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.12.08
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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UNEP: Mediterranean Can No Longer Be a Garbage Dump
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 04.12.08
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...
Exposed: Private Security Firms Caught Dumpster Diving and Spying on Environmental Groups
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04.12.08
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)....
Ford Factory to Add Third Wind Turbine
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.12.08
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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Who Better To Pull The Nails From USEPA's Coffin: McCain? Clinton? Obama?
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.12.08
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.......
Zero Carbon School is Too Cool
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 04.12.08
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....
Food Fight: "Perfect Storm" Brewing
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.12.08
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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Goldman Environmental Prize Winner Anne Kajir of Papua New Guinea
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.12.08
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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Today on Planet Green
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 04.11.08
:: 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 Bowls Get Flat-Pack Treatment with Origami Crockery
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04.11.08
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...
Most Huggable: Floating Homes, The Break Down on Biodiesel, Bio-Intensive Farming + More
by Team Treehugger, Worldwide on 04.11.08
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?...
VBS.tv Sails Out to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04.11.08
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."...
Dolphins and Sponges and Ospreys - Oh My!
by Jenna Watson, Barcelona on 04.11.08
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. ...
Book Review: Taking the EcoSeekers Pledge To Explore A Land Of Curiosities
by Kimberley D. Mok, Montreal, Canada on 04.11.08
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.
...
MiniBox by Holzbox
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.11.08
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." ...
DANGER: Effects of Global Warming Include Death
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04.11.08
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. ...
We Love Our Gorebulbs!
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.11.08
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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Save Money—and Your Health—by Going Green
by David Bach with Hillary Rosner - GreenGreen.com on 04.11.08
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....
Montauk Builds a Greener Sofa
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.11.08
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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Why There Are So Few Green Buildings
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.11.08
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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"Conservation Map": The Silver Bullet Needed to Save Endangered Species?
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04.11.08
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)....
TreeHugger #4 in Time Magazine's Top Five Best Blogs
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04.11.08
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....
Local River By Mathieu Lehanneur
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.11.08
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....
Internet Outrage Makes State Farm Pull "Humiliated Cyclist" Ad
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04.11.08
How To Spot Greenwashing
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.11.08
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.More tips at ::Unsustainablog image credit: ::Greenpeace ...
Allison Arieff on the Future of Prefab
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.11.08
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....
Survey: Should We Show The Answers?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.11.08
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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Pop Quiz: Olympic Torch Fumes
by Dominic Muren, Philadelphia, USA on 04.11.08
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Gandhi, King, and Climate Change
by Meaghan O'Neill, Newport, R.I. on 04.11.08
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. ...
Bassong's Wooden Bike A Model For Cameroon?
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 04.11.08
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...
Survey: Should Hybrids Be Made Noisier?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.11.08
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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EcoffinsUSA: Biodegradable Caskets
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04.11.08
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:...
Trees In USA Hold Equivalent of 20 Years Worth Of Carbon Emissions
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.11.08
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...
To Profit, Or Not To Profit, Join The Offsetting Debate
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv on 04.11.08
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. ...
Modbury: A Year Without Plastic Bags
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.11.08
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...
President Bush to Speak at Greensburg, Kansas Graduation
by Meaghan O'Neill, Newport, R.I. on 04.11.08
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. ...
High School Senior Fights Flawed Climate Science Info in Popular Textbook
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04.10.08
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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Teacher, Students Work to Make Prescription Drug Disposal Sustainable
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04.10.08
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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Show Some Webby Awards Love to Our Pals at Discovery
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04.10.08
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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Blue Planet Summit Focuses on Renewables in Hawaii
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04.10.08
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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Generating Off-Grid Power: The Four Best Ways
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04.10.08
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....
Today on Planet Green
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 04.10.08
:: 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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Doubling the Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
by Tim McGee, Western Massachusetts on 04.10.08
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."...
Carbon Neutral Vacations in Costa Rica
by Eliza Barclay, Washington, D.C. on 04.10.08
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. ...
"Craggers" Cross The Altlantic - But Not By Plane
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 04.10.08
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)...
A Rare Beast: Useful Disposable Plastic Water Bottles
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04.10.08
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...
Grand Canyon Should Be a "No Glow Zone"
by Greg Haegele of Sierra Club on 04.10.08
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....
"Green Gasoline": Like Gasoline, But Made from Cellulose
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04.10.08
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....
The Worst Effect of Global Warming So Far...
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04.10.08
Photo credit: dyobmit
...is coming fast, and it's going to affect a huge portion of the world's population: Beer drinkers. 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....
TH Blog Love - Our Favourite Greens Of The Week
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 04.10.08
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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Quote of the Day: Walt Disney on Nature
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 04.10.08
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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Pop Quiz: Pile on the Paper
by Dominic Muren, Philadelphia, USA on 04.10.08
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Nutrition Labels For Houses
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.10.08
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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Streets Are For People: The Petition
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.10.08
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.”You can also do it online here. ::Streets are for People via ::Spacing Last September this car had way fewer signatures on Car Free Day. ...
School Uniforms from Pop Bottles
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.10.08
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...
"Twin Towers" Bahrain World Trade Center With Three Wind Turbines
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.10.08
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"...
Milton Studio by Cameron Scott
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.10.08
Garden sheds are becoming all the rage, for good reason; they are an economical way to get a little more space, they are riding the home office boom and they are a gateway drug for modern prefab. In Britain they have built them for centuries, and the experience shows.
Cameron Scott of Timber Design designed and built the 16' x 18' Milton Studio out of local wood and insulated it with wool from local sheep. ...
Japan's War Against Weight
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.10.08
Modern Mechanix
It appears that worrying about weight is not new, but in Japan they are taking the fight against obesity to a whole new level. They have now introduced "flab checks" and are measuring all employees over forty years old; men with waist sizes over 85 cm (33.5 inches) will be given a diet plan or sent to a doctor. Corporations will have to cut the number of overweight workers by 10% by 2012 or face increases in compulsory contributions to a welfare fund. ::Guardian
TreeHugger on obesity: Michael Pollan: The Government Makes You Fat
You Are Where You Eat
Cheap Gas Makes You Fat
Can Architecture Make You Fat? and US Cities Make You Fat
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The TH Interview: Jarid Manos, the Ghetto Plainsman (Part Two)
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 04.10.08
People call the Texas plains “flyover country.” Jarid Manos calls this land a coral reef in a sea of grass. In a region that has been ground under America’s boot heel, Manos and his Great Plains Restoration Council have found a rich ecosystem, dangerously close to collapse. Through aggressive conservation, ecosystem rebuilding, and nature education for the youth of inner-cities and Indian reservations, respect is returning to plains. Even the buffalo have returned. ::TreeHugger Radio Listen to the podcast of this interview via iTunes, or just click here to listen, right-click to download. For part one of our interview, click here. Also check out Jarid Manos’ book, Ghetto Plainsman, and some pics after the jump. Special thanks to Calabash Music for the soundtrack....
New York Times on Recycling Kitchens
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.10.08
Katherine Davis' recycled kitchen in Leftovers, Yes, but Perfectly Crisp
The rich are different from you and me; they throw away perfectly good $ 90K kitchens. "Whether in new multimillion-dollar condos or in previously owned homes, they have been installing their own visions, tearing out brand-new or almost-new kitchens and getting rid of Sub-Zero refrigerators, Bosch dishwashers and custom-designed Italian cabinetry"
However, the New York Times notes that an industry has sprouted up to recycle the detritus of this gilded age, taking away the kitchens, reselling them, and donating the proceeds to charity. Green Demolitions is one. Last year they recycled 225 kitchens. Why would people do this? One developer noted “If I’m a $4.5 million buyer, money is not an object. It becomes, Who am I? Do I really want the same cabinets as the $1 million buyer on the second floor?” ::New York Times See also The Last Owner Only Cooked on Weekends for a list of kitchen recyclers across the States....
Survey: Can Fiji Water Be Green?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04.10.08
We do spend a lot of space trashing bottled water here at TreeHugger; Fiji Water is fighting back with a green campaign where they are reducing their carbon footprint, saving the Fijian rainforest, reducing packaging and using more fuel efficient trucks to deliver the water to the port in Fiji.
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Word of the Year? Lagom: Swedish for Just Enough
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04.10.08
The other day we were taking votes on an alternative to the word ‘green’, which is taking a bit of an over-use pounding of late. Well, seems our Scandinavian brethren had such a word all along. Lagom is Swedish for 'just enough', or an appropriate perfection. Hence the phrase, lagom är bäst (Lagom is best) = ‘enough is as good as a feast.’
It is a word that was picked at the start of the year by US trend-spotter Faith Popcorn and her BrainReserve market research company when making their forecasts for 2008. “We see notions of “minimalism” and “sustainability” taking on significant currency, as even Americans reject hyper-consumption as not just excessive, but actually damaging to themselves, others and to the planet.”
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How Many Blind People Have Been Hit By A Prius?
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.10.08
Back in the day, a VW Beetle was the best car to get you through an oil crisis. Everyone complained about safety, though. VW fixed that. Now, they're cool.
There must be a design solution for the too-quiet hybrid issue we can all come together on.
By the by, maybe legislators should be seeking solutions that benefit pedestrians of all sorts: like reducing emissions of lung cancer causing exhaust particles, constructing more sidewalks, and installing pedestrian crossings that better accommodate blind persons? A bill intended to protect blind people and other pedestrians from the dangers posed by quiet cars will be introduced today 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....
FEMA Earns Muzzle Award
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany on 04.10.08
Remember that fake press conference charade by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)? U.S free speech advocates have decided the incident -- where FEMA staffers posed as reporters to put a positive spin on its response to California wildfires -- is low enough to earn a 2008 Jefferson muzzle.
"FEMA's incredible and unique attempt to substitute false or fabricated speech for free speech surely merits a 2008 Jefferson muzzle," says the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.
Combined with the toxic formaldehyde trailers the organization gifted to Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims, FEMA is not instilling much confidence for a government agency. ...
Seahorses Ride Again in the Thames
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04.10.08
A colony of seahorses has appeared in the Thames River. The short-snouted seahorses were first seen in the river about eighteen months ago, but their presence was kept secret until new laws came into force to protect them from aquarium collectors of exotic fish . Environmental Agency representatives say "We're not quite sure why they're here, but the river water has been clean enough for seahorses for some time." An increase in plankton due to climate change and warmer sea temperatures may be the explanation for the arrival of the seahorses, usually found around Africa and the Mediterranean. Their appearance could be ascribed to better monitoring of the river's species. Others say that it is the result of the loss of more industry along the Thames, thus making the water cleaner.
The river is getting cleaner and cleaner due to environmental regulations being enforced since 1970. At that time the dumping of raw effluent into the water was stopped and tighter regulation on riverside industry was introduced. More than 100 species of fish, dolphins, seals, porpoises and the occasional whale have reappeared over the past decades and is clearly something to celebrate. Recent surveys have found bass, flounder, salmon and Dover sole, as well as the lamprey eel in the river's still murky waters. :: Guardian
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Group Greens California's Inner-City Schools in Offbeat Way
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04. 9.08
Not too long ago we pointed out there was a group committed to greening the inner-city, one school at a time. And with fruit trees, no less; bringing the potential for a veritable smorgasbord of fresh fruit to schools trapped in the concrete jungle just by helping them grow it in schoolyards across urban California.
Of course the message to kids is that green is good, wherever you live. And that yes, we all can make a difference. ...
Today on Planet Green
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 04. 9.08
:: Dye your do the non-toxic way.
:: Keep Junior blooming with help from Healthy Child, Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home.
:: Leave the mud outside with this DIY boot scraper.
:: Discover the deal on Fair Trade fashion.
:: Get a six-pack without the sit-ups.
:: Dream big—and dream veggies—like George Monbiot.
:: Get in seasonal food spirit and seek out a local grub fest.
:: Save money and cut your own mop....
Most Huggable: Easy Vegan Chili, Algae Lovin’ Smokestacks, Sought-After Solar Cookers + More
by Team Treehugger, Worldwide on 04. 9.08
A veggie chili recipe offers up spice during damp, spring days.
Can smokestacks turn algae into biofuel?
Solar cookers spread in popularity across Africa.
Universal Studios Hollywood funnies up Earth Day with Melora Hardin from “The Office.”
CNN compares recycling in the U.S. and South Korea.
Most Huggable is a regular roundup of some of Hugg's top green news stories. Why not submit your own green news?...
FIJI Water Leads Bottled Water Industry In Looking Green(er)
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04. 9.08
From the "That's one way to handle it" files: today, FIJI Water announced that they've done a lot of research and ready to fully disclose the carbon footprint of its products. They've joined the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration, and launched a new website at Fijigreen.com in support of their efforts to become carbon negative. That's right: following the notion that measurement is the first key step to managing emissions, a bottled water company is branding itself green.
But, as we've seen time and again, bottled water is not green, from the humongous carbon footprint to the tremendous amount of unnecessary waste it creates to the world of reasons not to drink it. Even if there are pharmaceuticals in your water, its not a better choice. So what is FIJI Water trying to pull?...
SustainStyle: Caught Necking, Vegan Blueberry Pancakes, Gladiator Sandals + More
by 1plus1 on 04. 9.08
Welcome to SustainStyle, a weekly digest from the writers at 1plus1, a blog dedicated to eco-friendly fashion. SustainStyle runs every Wednesday.
In celebration of Earth Day, Banana Republic releases an eco-line and works towards moving their customers into going green.
Sunday brunch becomes our new cocktail hour. We make some delicious vegan blueberry pancakes to feed our meatless and meat-eating friends. Yum!
DRESS ME gets us polished up and in the mood for writing "thank you" cards.
Barneys New York and Loomstate ask us for our old t-shirts in exchange for a discount on new ones.
The denim skirt has us smitten once again.
Every Body makes the perfect soy based candle that reminds of us our seventh birthday and pin the tail on the donkey.
We get caught necking with Prairie Underground’s new "funnel" dress.
Steven Madden makes a Gladiator sandal free of animal product, yet full of style.
xo....
In celebration of Earth Day, Banana Republic releases an eco-line and works towards moving their customers into going green.
Sunday brunch becomes our new cocktail hour. We make some delicious vegan blueberry pancakes to feed our meatless and meat-eating friends. Yum!
DRESS ME gets us polished up and in the mood for writing "thank you" cards.
Barneys New York and Loomstate ask us for our old t-shirts in exchange for a discount on new ones.
The denim skirt has us smitten once again.
Every Body makes the perfect soy based candle that reminds of us our seventh birthday and pin the tail on the donkey.
We get caught necking with Prairie Underground’s new "funnel" dress.
Steven Madden makes a Gladiator sandal free of animal product, yet full of style.
xo....
Three Commercials for the Mitsubishi i MiEV Electric Car
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04. 9.08
The Mitsubishi i MiEV is gaining fans outside of Japan; it was well received at the New York Auto Show and many are hoping that the company will keep to its word and launch the small electric car globally. There's even a petition asking Mitsubishi to bring the EV to the US.
The nice folks at Autobloggreen have found Japanese commercials that are, as far as we know, running in Japan. The first two can be found here and the third one here. They're cheesy, but show the car in action and confirm what we already knew (14 hours full charge with 110V, 7 hours with 220, 30 minutes to 80% at charging stations, 160 km range). More captures from the videos after the jump....
Compacts and Hybrid Cars Becoming More Popular in the USA
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04. 9.08
NADAguides is a vehicle information website where customers can go to look up car prices and specifications. They have released some statistics on what their users are looking for, and apparently the interest in compact cars has increased by 96% between January and March 2008. This number is broken down further in 3 sub-categories: "Consumer interest in its mini-compact category increased 128 percent, while consumer interest in its sub-compact and compact categories increased 83 percent and 77 percent respectively."...
A Long Year in the Life of the U.S. Coal Industry
by Lester Brown, Washington, D.C on 04. 9.08
By Lester R. Brown
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the movement to ban coal-fired power plants in the United States. Afterwards, it occurred to me that it would be useful to show the timeline of events over the past year.
As I noted earlier, with concerns about climate change mounting, the era of coal-fired electricity generation in the United States may be coming to a close. In early 2007, a U.S. Department of Energy report listed 151 coal-fired power plants in the planning stages in the United States. But during 2007, 59 proposed plants were either refused licenses by state governments or quietly abandoned. In addition, close to 50 coal plants are being contested in the courts, and the remaining plants will likely be challenged when they reach the permitting stage.
What began as a few local ripples of resistance to coal-fired power plants is quickly evolving into a national tidal wave of opposition from environmental, health, farm, and community organizations as well as leading climate scientists and state governments. Growing concern over pending legislation to regulate carbon emissions is creating uncertainty in financial markets. Leading financial groups are now downgrading coal stocks and requiring utilities seeking funding for coal plants to include a cost for carbon emissions when proving economic viability....
TreeHugger is a 2008 Webby Awards Honoree!
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04. 9.08
It's Webby season again. Last year, TreeHugger won the People's Voice Award in the "blog cultural/personal category", and this year we are a Webby Awards Honoree in that same category. We're really honored and would like to thank everybody who submitted TreeHugger to the webbies, and all our loyal readers who make this green adventure possible!
We're in good company. Fellow honorees are, among others, Boing Boing Gadgets, My Cancer on NPR, we make money not art and WorldChanging....
Composting Toilets Work, Even in Antarctica
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 9.08
Petz wrote earlier about E-Base 2041, described by explorer Robert Swan: " We are using green, innovative and sustainable materials and applying them to the cleanest coldest place on earth. The E-Base will serve as a model globally and locally.” Scott at Envirolet informs us that they have a composting toilet (double conflict alert: 1) they advertise on TreeHugger and 2) I own one just like the one in Antarctica) and by all appearances in the video, they seem to be very happy with it, calling it their "prized possession." I am surprised that it would work in such temperatures but evidently the heater is strong enough to keep it all from freezing.
Swan makes a big deal about leaving no trace and taking everything out; we wonder what they are doing with the compost. ::E-base 2041 via ::Envirolet Buzz See also TreeHugger: Thinking about Crap: Should Houses Have Composting Toilets? and The Governor General on Composting Toilets...
Regional Nuclear War Could Create the Mother of all Ozone Holes
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04. 9.08
As if nuclear war wasn't scary enough, a new computer modeling study by CU-Boulder scientists Brian Toon and Michael Mills shows that even a regional nuclear war (between Pakistan and India, for example) could create a near global hole in the ozone layer. This, aside from the other terrifying effects of such a war, would affect life on Earth for at least a decade.
"The computer-modeling study showed a nuclear war between the two countries involving 50 Hiroshima-sized nuclear devices [which are relatively small] on each side would cause massive urban fires and loft as much as 5 million metric tons of soot about 50 miles into the stratosphere [...]. The soot would absorb enough solar radiation to heat surrounding gases, setting in motion a series of chemical reactions that would break down the stratospheric ozone layer protecting Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation."...
Streets Are For Vegetables (and People)
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 9.08
San Francisco's Tenderloin National Forest
Where we live, the bylaws say that residential units need parking spaces, but to discourage car use, the city has been dropping the ratio of spaces to units. The result- more cars fighting over street spaces. TreeHugger writer emeritus Ruben Anderson notes that this may not have worked out as well as planned, as the streets are now filled with cars. He notes that if drivers had to pay for their street parking all over town the real cost might be as high as six hundred dollars a month, and suggests that taxpayers money might be put to better use- growing vegetables.
"Imagine your own block stuffed with flowers and vegetables. Big sprays of lupins, colourful mats of marigolds, nodding rows of poppies. The big white blossoms of pumpkin changing to the shiny orange of jack-o'-lanterns-to-be. Fat, red Early Girl tomatoes alongside the sweet Gold Nugget grape tomatoes." His rallying cry:
"A garden plot -- not a parking spot -- for every citizen!" ::Tyee and ::Alternet...
Offsetting Your Movie Watching: Making DVDs Out of Smokestack-Captured Carbon Dioxide
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04. 9.08
Image courtesy of C.P.Storm via flickr
What if reducing your emissions could be as easy as watching a DVD or listening to a new CD? We may not be there yet - and probably won't be for the next few years - but two chemists, presenting their findings at the 235th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, have described different ways by which carbon dioxide captured from smokestacks could eventually become incorporated into the production of DVDs, bottles and other polycarbonate plastics....
How Fair Is Reporting On China's Environment?
by Alex Pasternack, New York, NY on 04. 9.08
If anyone wants to read an uplifting, positive portrait of the environment in China today, this feature (and photo essay) at Mother Jones is not that. Departing by car on a metaphor-rich trip westward from Beijing, Jacques Leslie guides us deep into the folds of the country's looming and existing eco disasters and the opportunities tucked within. "As it happens," he writes in a sanguine moment, "many of the best ideas for moving toward sustainability are already getting a tryout in China... Yet as smartly conceived as many of these efforts are, virtually all are pilot projects still overwhelmed by the immensity of the problems they take on."
With a glut of damning statistics, quotes, and stops along the highway at all the key landmarks -- U.S.-style consumerism, health crises, cross-Pacific pollution, and of course cars -- the article makes for some depressing reading. And at a time of a lot of criticism of China (and plenty of angry responses), it leaves us with a question: is this, and many other damning reports on China's environment, fair? ...
LED and OLED Home Lighting Systems Almost Ready for Prime Time
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04. 9.08
Photo credit: matthewvenn
Today's New York Times has a special section on innovation in technology, and among the things they see in their crystal ball is LED and OLED lighting systems for the home. Just around the corner, just about within reach....
Apple Sues Big Apple Over Green Logo
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 9.08
Whenever we write anything mildly complimentary about Apple Computers, we get jumped in comments by computer class-warriors who call us "fanboys", even though I can't even find the ON switch on an apple machine. While I do appreciate Apple's design sensibilities, sometimes I think the anti-apple brigade might have a point about their arrogance. For example, Apple Computer is Rising Commodity Prices Affecting Everything
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 9.08
As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation: Thousands of farmers are taking their fields out of the government’s biggest conservation program, which pays them not to cultivate. They are spurning guaranteed annual payments for a chance to cash in on the boom in wheat, soybeans, corn and other crops. Last fall, they took back as many acres as are in Rhode Island and Delaware combined. ::New York Times see also TreeHugger: Food Prices, Food Eaters Run Riot, Food Fight: Is Corn Food or Fuel?, Food vs Fuel: The Debate Rumbles On
As Price of Lead Soars, British Churches Find Holes in Roof Thieves peeled long strips of lead from the roof of St. Michael and All Angels, until a barking dog sent them fleeing from this tiny Leicestershire village. But by then, they had left a hole of about 100 square feet in the top of the 800-year-old church. ::New York Times See also TreeHugger: Meth Heads Go For Recycling, "Recycling" Could Be Bad For National Security, Big Brother is Watching (and Yelling?)
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Who Invented the Plasma Light?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 9.08
A lot of neat things have come out of Bletchley Park over the years; the latest is the compact, high-efficiency, microwave powered, electrodeless lamp from Ceravison, covered in TreeHugger here last summer. Unfortunately, it may be exactly the same bulb that we showed here from the American company Luxim just a few days ago. According to Smart Planet, Ceravision says that Luxim stole technology secrets from a company Ceravision bought, after being engaged to do some engineering support and signing a non-disclosure. ...
Pop Quiz: Pre-Industrial Carbon
by Dominic Muren, Philadelphia, USA on 04. 9.08
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Computers Sewn Into Life's Fabric
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 9.08
We have covered Leah Beuchley's turn signal jacket for cylists; the New York Times covers the subject of the integration of clothing and computers and includes her LilyPad Arduino, "a small flower-shaped disk with a computer chip at the center, which can be sewn into clothes. Sensors like accelerometers, for measuring acceleration or detecting and measuring vibrations, and light detectors are attached with wires to the “petals,” so the chip can track the wearer’s motion." The article notes that "While there are many opportunities for fun, Dr. Buechley said the real market could be devices to help the elderly. She is exploring how to knit clothes that monitor a person’s heart rate, breathing and joint movement." ::New York Times, complete with ::photo essay by Kevin Moloney...
Azure: The Green Issue
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 9.08
Many trees are saved when we read magazines online, and many magazines are going that route now. However sometimes it is a poor substitute for the print edition. A magazine flows in an order and style laid out by its designer, and the ads are often as much of the look, feel and content as the editorial, whereas on the web they are almost always an intrusion. Proof is provided by the May edition of Azure Magazine, a pleasure to look at and full of good green design.
Chris Turner, author of The Geography of Hope: A Tour of the World We Need, writes about Healing the Suburbs; there is a profile of James Wines, who in the 70's was at the forefront of green design; Rachel Pulfer looks at biomimicry, and I will be milking the "Material World" technical section for posts on sustainable plumbing for weeks....
Brewers Plate Comes to Toronto
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 9.08
Spring is here, but we are still eating turnip and potato as we wait for the spring vegetables at home. That isn't stopping six of the City's best chefs from pairing up with six local breweries to put together a a great meal out of the last of the winter season's food and the most local of drinks. They are promoting a number of TreeHugger favourites, including , Green Enterprise Toronto, Slow Food Toronto, and Local Food Plus at the historic Berkeley Church. All three organizations are working together to promote slow food, local-sustainable food, farming and import substitution in the Toronto region, and promote local independent brewers, chefs, food artisans and local growers.
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Eco-tip: Antimony-free Clothing
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04. 9.08
Often when we post about a company crafting something from recycled PET (polyester) someone will let lose a rant about antimony. And they aren’t, as some might assume, opposing the dollars and cents economy. Rather, they are concerned about a naturally occurring, brittle, silver-white metal that can be used as a catalyst in the polymerisation of polyester resin.
Lauded Cradle-to-Cradle ecodesigner and toxins campaigner William McDonough. has been on Antimony’s case for years. His company MBDC says of the stuff: “Along with being a carcinogen, antimony is toxic to the heart, lungs, liver and skin. Long-term inhalation of antimony trioxide, a by-product of polymer production, can cause chronic bronchitis and emphysema.” ...
Survey: Is Living Off the Grid For You?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 9.08
Collin wrote yesterday: "There are lots of reasons to think about living off the grid. Geography -- if you've found your little slice of heaven here on earth that's too far to feasibly plug in to the grid -- is often a good motivator, but ethical, environmental and altruistic choices drive many an off-gridder to unplug from conventional power sources; producing and using your own clean energy can be a wonderfully empowering, liberating experience, and it sure can be nice to not receive all those bills."
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Maya Lin Memorial to the Environment
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04. 9.08
Maya Lin's name is familiar to many (ageing) Treehuggers because of her famous war memorial to Vietnam veterans in Washington, done when she was only 21 years old. She has continued to work since then (1982) with a series of other memorial sculptures. The latest, and last is planned for Earth Day 2009. Called Missing, it is a memorial to the environment and all the species and places that have "gone extinct or will most likely disappear, within our lifetime." It will be located in several different locations around the world and will include a list of names, as did the Vietnam memorial. However these will be the names of animal, bird and plant species that have become extinct.
As she says "Do the math, guys. Where do we want to be in 50 years? That's the question...the top 10 songbirds we grew up with are in a 40% to 70% decline. Our oceans are being devastated by overfishing. The landscape we grew up with has been significantly diminished. I just want to bring attention to it and give people the idea that you can do something about it." Now she is working on the Confluence Project: seven art installations along the Columbia River Basin (pictured) created to evoke the history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the changes it brought to the Pacific Northwest.
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Is Living Off the Grid Right For You?
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04. 8.08
Like many things in the greater green sphere, living off the grid -- that is, without reliance on public utilities for things like electricity and water -- has jumped into national prominence over the past few years; if Daryl Hannah is doing it, we should all be aware of it. There's an awful lot to like about living off-grid, and it's a little different for everybody, but in many cases it requires a few lifestyle modifications and a different day-to-day routine. So, how do you know if you should live off the grid?
First, figure out if you want to. If you can answer "Yes!" to questions like, "Do you want to stop receiving electricity bills, or receive a bill that'll make you smile?", "Are you willing to spend money to make money?", "Do you want to have things like electricity and hot water at any time?" and, "Do you know a lot about (or want to learn a lot about) alternative energy?" then going off the grid might be for you....
Outsourcing the Climate Skeptics
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04. 8.08
Their views roundly dismissed in all but the most partisan right-wing outlets, climate skeptics are eagerly seeking new audiences - in some of the countries most likely to be hardest-hit by climate change. The Hindustan Times, a prominent newspaper published in India, recently published two very misleading articles on the subject of climate change that essentially argued that it wasn't such a big deal and that the sun's rays did contribute to the phenomenon.
As noted by Manu Sharma, an Indian blogger who works in the wind energy sector: "Both articles are highly misleading, contain factual inaccuracies and at the very least deliberately hide widely known facts that counter its argument to paint a biased picture." His complete, excruciatingly well-referenced analysis, which can be read here, elegantly dismantles the erroneous arguments put forth in both pieces and cites a brief e-mail from Rajendra K Pachauri, the renowned climate expert and director of the IPCC, and Malini Mehra of the Center for Social Markets....
Today on Planet Green
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 04. 8.08
:: Get spontaneous with Kelly’s Black Bean Soup recipe.
:: Feel less guilty living in your jeans.
:: Brush on your makeup in eco-style.
:: Swap out your coffee break with a quick fitness routine.
:: Mark your calendar. Planet Green hits the air on June 4!...
Introducing David Bach of Finish Rich Media
by David Bach with Hillary Rosner - GreenGreen.com on 04. 8.08
Tune in to Planet Green on June 4
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 04. 8.08
WA$TED, one of Planet Green's original programming
The first—and so far only—24-hour eco-lifestyle television network, Discovery's Planet Green will be making its debut when it takes over the Discovery Home Channel at 6 p.m. (ET) on June 4, 2008. Featuring an authoritative and diverse group of celebrities and personalities, including Adrian Grenier, Tom Bergeron, Emeril Lagasse, Maria Menounos, Tom Brokaw, and Tom Green, the network will reach 50 million homes with more than 250 hours of original lifestyle programming.
“Planet Green represents a full spectrum of life experiences, personalities and points of view,” says Eileen O’Neill, president and general manager of Planet Green. “Working with a broad range of partners, our goal is to find innovative ways to engage people of all ages and backgrounds through content that’s entertaining, relevant and accessible. Planet Green is about motivating people to take an active role in a new conversation about the future of our planet.”
Click below the fold for a sneak peek at what we have in store for you....
The Electric Bill That Makes You Smile
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04. 8.08
"The $9.57 is the monthly service charge. Note that there are NO charges for kilowatt hours because our solar arrays generated more than we used, even late in the Vermont winter. It looks above as if our beginning and ending meter readings were the same; but, I suspect, that’s because the billing software can’t deal with a meter running backwards."
But the solar array is just the start for Tom Evslin. Next step is a geothermal ground source heat pump, and he hopes to someday charge a plug-in hybrid car from his solar panels. ::The Electric Bill I’ve Been Waiting For
See also:
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Sheep Replace Lawnmowers In Italy
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 04. 8.08
Police are having to double up as shepherds in Italy after local councilors decided to scrap the city lawnmowers -- and use sheep instead. About 700 sheep have now been employed by Turin officials to keep the grass verges and lawns in city parks neatly trimmed. Environment officials in Turin said they were paying 30,000 euros in gardeners’ fees to cut the grass in just one of the bigger parks....
Vulcan Project: The Breath of a Nation
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 8.08
Credit the clever title to Andy Revkin. It is a map showing the concentrations of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. Watch the amazing video of the Vulcan Project, "an effort to quantify fossil fuel and CO2 emissions over the United States in high space and time resolution. We will also be showing those emissions transported through the atmosphere using an atmospheric transport model." narrated by Kevin Gurney of Purdue University.
Different maps show power plants, industrial sources, mobile sources, residential and commercial, mashed together onto a 10 kilometer grid and run in very fast motion.
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Rainpod Kicks Butt
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 8.08
It is the coolest looking water butt we have seen yet.
David L'Hôte on his Rainpod: "People usually water their plants and garden with tapwater although rainwater is free...Rainpod is a standalone rain collector. Its three legs are made of local wood trunks which makes each unit unique and reduces transportation impact. Its high placed tank delivers rainwater under pressure for easy watering, thanks to gravity." ...
The Bob Johnson Project Organic Tees
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 04. 8.08
Imbued with the softness of your favorite, most-well-worn T-shirt, The Bob Johnson Project's 100 percent organic-cotton long-sleeve tees ($65) feature charming vintage black-and-red illustrations depicting circus strongmen effortlessly raising barbells, children playing leapfrog, jockeys charging ahead on their steeds, and butterflies fluttering idly by.
Printed generously on both sides, the shirts are currently available in six designs for women, with additional styles in the works. ::The Bob Johnson Project
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AFH UK to Build FareShare's Training Centre in London
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 04. 8.08
After recently telling you about a past project by AFH UK, the Arnica Drying Factory in Romania, we now bring you news of their latest voluntary design scheme that goes on site in London any day now. A multidisciplinary design team has been working with the national charity FareShare, since May last year, on their new training centre in Bermondsey in London and now the fruits of their labours are soon to put to good use. FareShare works to redistribute surplus food to disadvantaged and vunerable people around the UK. ...
Greenwash Watch: More Fibs From the LCBO
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 8.08
When we last ranted about the government-owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO)a commenter asked "Canada still has government-run liquor stores? What year is this? 1935?" Well we do, because they make billions and won't give it up. They pretend to be concerned about the environment but build styrofoam clad big box stores, promote Australian wine more than local, and refuse to take back bottles. (we have deposits and recycling now but you have to take the bottles to the beer store). But most egregious is their promotion of tetra-paks, aluminum and PET bottles as being greener than glass.
The ad above is a complete distortion- we have full recycling so there is no glass in the waste stream, it isn't waste. So how does going PET reduce the waste stream if there isn't one? They just like packing more onto the shelves- PET bottles cannot be recycled, only downcycled. This is not green, it is greenwashing.
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Ralph Nader Talks About Global Warming In 2000 (15 Sec)
by George Spyros, New York City, USA on 04. 8.08
:::::: TH MICRO VIDEO 15 secs ::::::
It's not so much that Nader had a crystal ball capable of predicting global warming (Salon suggests he used a foggy one to endorse Edwards for Prez and reviews Nader criticism regarding Gore's lacking enviro walk in 2000) Nader was ahead of the curve for using commerce-based climate solutions as a political lever. Naderville is all about linking in politicos to the public sphere -- which can be a great big green ball if we all buy into it....
It's not so much that Nader had a crystal ball capable of predicting global warming (Salon suggests he used a foggy one to endorse Edwards for Prez and reviews Nader criticism regarding Gore's lacking enviro walk in 2000) Nader was ahead of the curve for using commerce-based climate solutions as a political lever. Naderville is all about linking in politicos to the public sphere -- which can be a great big green ball if we all buy into it....
Village Energy at the National Home Show
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 8.08
I must have spent half of my visit to the National Home Show talking to Jup Bhasin, a former straw bale builder who moved to the big city and now works with Village Energy. It is one of the many companies springing up in Canada to provide inspections and services to homeowners who want to reduce their energy consumption and get rebates from programs like ecoENERGY. Their little 10x10 booth was packed with interesting products....
FIN's Eco-Luxe: Wild Silk Saves The Silkworms
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 04. 8.08
Norway's FIN makes beautiful, sumptuous and classic women's clothing out of organic and Fair Trade cotton, organic alpaca, and staring with the Fall/Winter 2008 collection, selected items in "wild" hand-spun silk. Generally, commercially reared silkworm pupae are killed by dipping them in boiling water or piercing with a needle so that the whole cocoon may be used. Wild silk necessitates smaller-scaled production as the moths are allowed to break free and the damaged cocoon, with less viable silk fiber, is spun.
Started in 2006, the FIN line of what they call "eco-luxe" already has a local and European following that is now expanding to US shores, via the newly-opened Pittsburg - and online - boutique Equita. At $248 for a pretty but unspectacular knitted cardigan and $276 for the cool off-the-shoulder dress pictured, FIN's fashions might not make it to the wardrobes of those of us still waiting for the Whole Foods of affordable and ethical fashion to arrive. Still, a cruelty-free silk shawl is something to dream of. Via ::Fin...
It's Still Garbage, But At Least It's a Hybrid!
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 04. 8.08
Hybrid garbage trucks are a lot like solar powered trash compactors: namely, somewhat ironic. Still, the fact of the matter is that garbage trucks are big, heavy and, for the foreseeable future, going to continue hauling our garbage away (never mind that, as William McDonough often points out, away has "gone away"). These trucks almost always run on diesel and, aside from their greenhouse gas implications, also contribute to poor air quality in communities. Seattle has begun addressing the emissions from their garbage truck fleet by using ultra-low sulphur diesel and a B20 blend of biodiesel, as well as by retrofitting the trucks to improve emissions controls.
Now Volvo has gotten into the hybrid craze by launching "two hybrid refuse trucks into trials in regular daily operations in Sweden." More on how they work after the fold. ...
Survivalism is the New Black
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 8.08
Survivalism used to be the preserve of wingnuts who believed in black helicopters and the New World Order; now it has gone positively mainstream. John wrote previously about Survivalist Green; Now the New York Times picks up the story. Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Will Smith in I am Legend have described it, while climate change, peak oil and Katrina are making a much broader spectrum of society prepare for it.
Writing in the Times, Alex Williams quotes Barton M. Biggs, the former chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley: People should “assume the possibility of a breakdown of the civilized infrastructure.Your safe haven must be self-sufficient and capable of growing some kind of food,” It should be well-stocked with seed, fertilizer, canned food, wine, medicine, clothes, etc. Think Swiss Family Robinson. Even in America and Europe there could be moments of riot and rebellion when law and order temporarily completely breaks down.”...
Pop Quiz: Now That's Cold!
by Dominic Muren, Philadelphia, USA on 04. 8.08
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Amazon Condoms To Preserve Forests and Reduce Imports in Brazil
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 04. 8.08
(Picture: Acre news agency.) The Brazilian government has inaugurated yesterday the first factory to produce condoms with latex from Amazon trees. The company, called Natex, is located in Xapuri, in Acre State (Northwest Brazil).
According to Acre's news agency, these will be the first condoms to be produced with natural materials from seringai trees. This initiative will help preserve the Amazon by ensuring the sustainable exploitation of the materials, and will reduce the amount of imported condoms to the country, which are distributed freely to fight AIDS as part of a national campaign. Brazil is the largest importer of condoms in the world, the Health Ministry informed according to BBC Mundo.
Via BBC Mundo (in Spanish)...
Urban Chicken Keeping and the Fear of Flu
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04. 8.08
Toxic Trailers Not Just For FEMA
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 8.08
RVs and recreational trailers are designed to be as light as possible; they are also often engineered to be as cheap as possible. Consequently they are built out of luan plywoods, thin particle boards, plastics and vinyls, full of formaldehyde, phthalates and fire retardants. As John noted earlier, they are also small, with a lot of interior surface area for the volume enclosed, and are baked at high temperatures in the southern sun.
Exactly like the toxic FEMA trailers....
Survey: Should Cellphones Be Allowed on Airplanes?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 8.08
It is not really a TreeHugger question; in this day of "flying is dying" we should be asking if people should be allowed on airplanes. But hey, Andrew did a post on it, noting that in Europe, passengers will soon be able to use their phones on planes, so it is fair game.
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Book Industry Turns Over a New Leaf
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04. 8.08
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone pays somewhere. So it is with books. They provide us with knowledge and enlightenment, but that edification comes with a price. The U.S. book industry emits over 12.4 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, or approximately 8.85 pounds of carbon for the average book (.89 lb). Much of this (~63%) is a result of forest losing their biomass carbon store. Such is the finding of joint research conducted by the Green Press Initiative and Book Industry Study Group (BISG).
They published their research report Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts: Findings from the U.S. Book Industry. It will set you back $195, or you can see the highlights in a PDF, to read up on the good and bad news from the industry.
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Amsterdam + Bicycle = Centre for Sustainable Mobility
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04. 8.08
Last week Amsterdam's council, businesses and organisations signed a letter of intent to establish the city as the world’s centre of expertise on sustainable mobility. “The aim of the initiative is to support and develop projects in which all sorts of sustainable mobility can be stimulated.”
And this is a city well placed for such lofty ideals. Apparently 60% of all trips in the city centre are made by bicycle. 75% of all Amsterdammers older than 12 years owns a bicycle, and 50% of them cycle daily, to such a degree that an estimated 2 million kilometres is cycled in the urban area on a daily basis.
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New Biocide Research Pits Stinky Feet Against Fish
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04. 8.08
Smelly feet have an amazing grip on Western society. They bring out the oversensitive teenager in us, and those who ignore their own smelly appendages break a powerful taboo. Which leads to a product design trend that is most definitely Un-Treehugger.
Unbelievably, (in retrospect), manufacturers once toyed with the idea of reducing foot odor by treating stockings with the biocide known as TBTO, the now banned marine antifoulant. TBTO is now widely recognized to have powerful endocrine distrupting effects at low concentrations: making female marine whelks grow penises, a phenomenon known as imposex.
From standpoint of dishing out market magic to body odor-obsessed Westerners, it's no surprise that colloidal ("ionic") silver, and now even "nano-silver" treated stockings, are being offered to the general consumer, as well as to more narrow medical market, where there is actual clinical value.
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Famed, Reclusive Scientist to Help Schools Solve Great Copy Machine Epidemic
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04. 8.08
When Dr. Oleg C. Kalapushkenitz recently heard of the crisis facing America’s schools he realized he had no choice but to swing into action. Reaching out to the copy crisis team at the Robert Moses Middle School in NY where symptoms of the strange, contagious disease affecting school photocopy machines and contributing to global warming were first discovered and offering to lend a hand with the diagnosis.
Of course, he’s no ordinary scientist. Rather, he’s an internationally renowned expert in rare diseases, and brings his considerable expertise to the task at hand. He’s purportedly of Russian descent; though he’s offered few such details so far. And while details of his background are somewhat incomplete, references at the Animal Disease Center on Plum Island where he’s been helping scientists discover a cure for some of the most contagious diseases on Earth indicate he’s the type of guy you want on your side in a crisis.
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Masai Warriors Run London Marathon
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04. 8.08
It's all for a great cause: 6 Masai warriors have left their remote village in Tanzania and have come to London to run the Marathon. They are doing it to raise money for clean water in their village, in association with Greenforce. The plan is to raise enough money to pay for specialist engineers to drill bore holes to access possible subterranean water reservoirs. They will run wearing shoes made from car tires, carrying their sticks and shields, and chant Masai songs as they go around the 26-mile course on April 13.
Needless to say, the press are having a field day with the headlines ("Lions they take in their stride, but now Masai face perils of London Marathon"), and tips for their survival in the urban jungle that is London. The warriors have been given a 4-page guide that is surprisingly accurate. “Even though some may look like they have a frown on their face, they are very friendly people - many of them just work in offices, jobs they don’t enjoy, and so they do not smile as much as they should.” And: "You will see many people who are wearing only small clothes and you will wonder why they are cold and may think they are being disrespectful. This is normal for England, especially when it is sunny or in the evening. However, it is illegal to show certain parts of the body and for this reason it is important that you wear underpants if you are wearing your blankets." ...
Bloomberg Congestion Fee a No-Go
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany on 04. 8.08
Looks like New York City will be jam-packed with cars and toxic traffic fumes indefinitely. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to nail motorists entering Lower Manhattan with an $8 fee will probably not even make it to a vote. After a week of debate, the bill failed to receive enough support from the Democratic party -- less than 25 Democratic members are estimated to have backed the proposal. Critics say the plan would only allow the rich to travel into the city. But nobody denies congestion and pollution is a problem in big cities, what's the best solution? ...
Material Connexion's Cradle to Cradle Library Now Open
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona, Spain on 04. 8.08
We found ourselves wandering through the Material Connexion Library in New York, happy like kids in a candy store. The huge physical library stores over 4.000 materials, with something to inspire any designer or architect. Of course what we were really impressed by was the now open Cradle to Cradle material section that Material Connexion set up in collaboration with MBDC and EPEA last year. These first C2C material libraries opened in January this year in New York City, Milan, Cologne and Bangkok, and can also be consulted online, once you register. Material Connexion believes the C2C-certified materials are an important addition to other sustainable materials in the library. Any newly certified materials will automatically be added to the library, due to the high standard of environmental responsibility MBDC applies in their certification system, explains Material Connexion....
Today on Planet Green
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 04. 7.08
:: Use up the last of winter’s veggies. Try this Remoulade recipe.
:: Detox your nose with a simple saltwater solution.
:: Freshen up a stale smelling closet with this men’s inspired scented sachet.
:: Look badass in a DIY brimmed beanie.
:: Don’t give your old magazines the boot. Use them to save your boots instead with this handy tip.
:: Curl up with a spring read like Deborah Martin's, The Complete Compost Gardening Guide....
Find Flights Annoying? Now Combine Flying With Loud Cell Phone Conversations!
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 04. 7.08
As airlines try to save money by cutting flights and even using lighter meal carts, combined with heightened security, lost baggage and the guilt over spewing CO2 into the atmosphere, it seems flying couldn't get any more unpleasant. But now, thanks to the European Union, your next flight in Europe will most likely include overworked businessmen and women talking on their cell phones, texting and even sending and receiving emails. That's because, under a plan approved monday, "cell phone users could make and receive calls through an onboard base station." The European Commission will be tasked with ensuring that customers aren't charged exorbitant prices for making the calls. Of course, there's still the nagging problem that loud talkers will drive everyone else on the plane absolutely out of their minds. The EU has left it up to the airlines to establish protocols for etiquette surrounding cell phone use. However, air travelers are already, shall we say, prone to anger from the stresses of travel; imagine an irate IT worker being asked by a flight attendant to lower his voice...it'll be like a scene from the movie Airplane!
Via: ::AP
See Also: ::World's First 100% Biodiesel Jet Flight, ::China to Build 97 Airports in 12 Years & the Future of Air Travel, ::TreeHugger Homework: Unplug Your Cellphone Charger, ::Tracking food with your Cell Phone, and ::American Cell Phone Recycler Creates Win-Win-Win...
The Go Green School of the Week: Kingwood Park High School in TX!
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 04. 7.08
When it comes down to environmental education, the folks at this week’s school of the week have it down in more ways than one. For starters, they’ve set up an Adopt-a-Green Space Program where classes, team advisories, and clubs adopt a space on campus to keep clean, green, and beautiful.
But what I like best is the diverse group of ways the various disciplines are approaching the idea of environmental sustainability. For example, Art students created the slogan, “Don’t pass it up; pick it up,” and created posters and banners encouraging recycling to go along with it. Geography classes are delving into a “Face the Future” project by studying ecology and making posters while History classes are teaching the impact of the depletion of natural resources on human beings.
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Pet Topic: Big Shrimpy's Whisker-Wide Recycled Cat Dishes
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 04. 7.08
Big Shrimpy's Whisker-Wide Bowl ($24) for fusspot felines is handcrafted in the United States using 100 percent recycled glass. It's defining feature? The bowl is shallow and wide enough to fit the entire width of your kitty's distinguished whiskers, so sensitive cats can chow down in greater comfort.
Measuring 5x7 inches, the bowl is also available in Iridescent Grey and Iridescent Green. Plus, it's dishwasher-safe. ::Big Shrimpy...
Most Huggable: Small (Car) Talk, The Buzz on Beach Cleanup, James Bond’s Eco-Enemy + More
by Team Treehugger, Worldwide on 04. 7.08
U.S. auto sales cool off but consumer demand for small cars heats up.
Life is not a beach when litter threatens the lives of marine wildlife. Take action and stage a community cleanup with this helpful guide.
James Bond faces an eco-villain (?) in new Sony film, Quantum of Solace, due out in November.
Is copper indium gallium diselenide an efficient silicon substitute for solar film technology? Try saying that three times fast!
Telecommuting saves time—and pollution. We TreeHuggers aprove.
Most Huggable is a regular roundup of some of Hugg's top green news stories. Why not submit your own green news?...
Luxim Plasma Light Bulb Kicks Some Serious LED Butt
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04. 7.08
Update: LED vs. CFL: Life-Cycle Study Shows a Close Race, but LED Likely to Take the Lead
At 140 lumens/watt, these pill-sized plasma light bulbs by Luxim are a pretty awesome contender for "light of the future". They are almost 10 times more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs, twice as efficient as current high-end LEDs, and they also beat CFLs, most of which are around 50-80 lumens/watt. Only the prototype 300 lumens/watt nanocrystal-coated LEDs can hold a candle to them.
And the light from Luxim's LIFI bulb is not ugly either: color rendering index (CRI) is 91. Lifetime for a bulb is estimated at 20,000 hours, and a relatively large amount of power can be pumped through them, allowing a tiny bulb to produce 30,000+ lumens (not something LEDs can do)....
Recycling "Junk Energy": How Plants Are Cutting Emissions, Making Money and Turning their Waste Steam into Useful Energy
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04. 7.08
Image courtesy of RED
Americans fully waste 55% of the energy they consume. That, alongside a veritable slew of other eye-catching numbers, can found in a piece by Lisa Margonelli in the latest issue of The Atlantic magazine, in which she describes the operations of Recycled Energy Development, whose mission is to "profitably reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by developing and owning energy recycling facilities." The company offers to help plants recycle waste energy streams and generate useful electricity and thermal energy from a variety of sources including: exhaust heat from any industrial process, industrial tail gas (it would normally be vented, flared or incinerated) and pressure drops in any gas....
Top 25 Blogs at Time.com: Please Vote TreeHugger!
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04. 7.08
TreeHugger is honored to be included in Time.com's First Annual Blog Index of Top 25 blogs, along with big names and heavy hitters like BoingBoing, Gawker and PostSecret. They are all great blogs and we are definitely honored to be mentioned in the same breath with them.
Time is asking readers to vote, on a scale of 1 to 10, for their favorites, and if you like what you read here at TreeHugger every day, we'd really appreciate your vote (a 10 would be best). Time's blog also has a forum to talk back about the top 25, about your favorites, about who got stiffed, etc. Click on over and please vote TreeHugger! ::Time.com...
Barista Exchange: Going Green in Your Coffeehouse
by Alan Graham, Portland, Oregon on 04. 7.08
Matt Milletto launched the Barista Exchange website a few months ago to create a space where barista's, coffee enthusiasts, farmers, suppliers, educators, roasters, and coffee shops could all rub elbows and chat about all things coffee.
Recently Matt's been blogging about the green coffeehouse and asking what coffee shop owners are doing to go green. As Matt puts it, "The coffee industry is so large that all of these decisions that we make can have a substantial global effect not only on the environment, but also the world economy."
Compostable cups, organic machine cleaners, conserving energy, and saving coffee grounds for use in the garden are all mentioned. You'll even find a two page topic on coffee grounds in our forums as well.
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Building a Green Toronto: A Tale of Woe
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 7.08
It is not a big project, just a few townhouses proposed for a midtown parking lot, in a city that has a Green Development Standard that is supposed to encourage sustainable development. The City even promised to "fast-track" approvals for green projects. And they don't get greener than this, an award winning, zero energy project that will "showcase ground source heat pumps powered by photovoltaic panels", solar hot water generation and a design that addressed "health, energy, resources environment and affordability."
Then it hit City Hall. ...
Conspicuous Consumption, Conscious Consumption, and the Fulfillment Curve
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 04. 7.08
Where should shopping fit in to our sustainable lifestyles? The latest bulletin from the David Report delves into consuming and where to draw the line between conspicuous consumption, conscious consumption, and the sociological and psychological implications of both.
Beginning with the (correct) assumption that we can't discard consumption altogether, and that consumption has both good and bad connotations, the report encourages us all to take a sip from our consumption cocktail (stirred, not shaken): mix in factors of production, corporate social responsibility, necessity, and more; avoid "makeover consumption" and be aware of what your consumption patterns say about you....
Introducing Rocky Mountain Institute's First Guest Post: - "Time For Plan B"
by Rocky Mountain Institute on 04. 7.08
Imagining a future where the world’s economy is based on renewable energy sources may sound far off. A world where population has stabilized, poverty doesn’t exist, and we’ve begun to repair our damaged ecosystems even farther off.
But for Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, that’s exactly the future we need to realize if we’re going to save civilization.
Last week, Brown outlined his plan for a group of business leaders, environmental activists, scientists, journalists, and policy experts, at the first-ever Aspen Environment Forum, a conference hosted by the Aspen Institute and National Geographic Magazine....
Can You Spare a Wind Turbine, Man?
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04. 7.08
We recently wrote about the massive growth in the wind power industry and how forecasts estimate a 155% growth between now and 2012 (bringing total installed capacity to 240 gigawatts). Well, there's a dark cloud on the horizon. The problem is not with demand, but with supply.
If you want wind turbines to build a wind farm, take a number and grab a magazine, because the wait could be long. If you order now, you might not get the turbines before late 2009 or later, depending on your connections with suppliers. This is similar to what solar panel makers have been going through with the silicon shortage for the past few years....
Earth Tubes: Low Tech, Low Energy
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 7.08
Brian Jonas at Greenline, the great sustainability blog from Ziger/Snead Architects, shows a great picture of an earth tube being installed at the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center. Earth tubes are the dead-simple way of bringing fresh air into a building at a reasonable temperature- just run the air through pipes buried in the earth, cool in summer and warm in winter. Result: it comes out at a nice, comfortable temperature. Unfortunately it is a nice temperature for mildew and bacteria, not to mention a great place for animals to nest; Brian notes that "Ductwork or pipes rated for underground use are employed, the ducts must slope to drain to avoid water and mildew build-up and additional filtration is sometimes required to eliminate mold and bacteria." Radon buildup can also be a problem, so they need to be tightly sealed. ::Greenline
, good Wikipedia coverage too....
The Return of Diesel in North-America Could Mean Higher Fuel Prices
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04. 7.08
Diesel is coming back to North-America. It was never completely gone, but unless you drove a commercial truck, you had few options. Now, a first wave of diesel models is coming from European car-makers, and a second wave from Asian and North-American companies is expected to follow. What does this mean for us green types?
The pros of diesel are generally recognized to be: Diesel engines are very durable, they are more efficient (you get about 35% more miles per gallon vs. gasoline), they produce lots of torque, and you can generally save on fuel costs (see below for more on that one). They're also able to run on biodiesel (made from waste cooking oil or algae, preferably)....
Agroblogger Hosts Carnival of the Green
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 04. 7.08
This week is Carnival of the Green # 122 and it's being hosted by Agroblogger, a natural resource management pundit dedicated to promoting some of the fundamental principles of localism and sustainability, advocating for the adoption of organic agriculture, Open Source models, Free Software, Fair Trade, permaculture, and appropriate technology. So head on over to the site to check out a round up of green news and events from the past week, submitted by other bloggers and green sites.
To learn more about Carnival of the Green, where it will be and how to host (we are now accepting hosts for the second half of 2009!), please click here to link to our previous post....
Product Review: Ike & Sam's Kettlecorn
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 04. 7.08
Call it love at first crunch—I'm now a new fan of Ike & Sam's all-natural hand-popped gourmet kettlecorn, which manages to satisfy my cravings for something a little decadent, without putting my health or waistline at peril.
The Original flavor contains only four ingredients: popcorn, pure corn oil, sugar, and salt—all you need, really, for decent kettlecorn. Each serving (about three to four large handfuls) contains 80 calories, non trans-fats, no cholesterol, and not enough sodium to even make a blip on the nutritional-facts column. One caveat: With 6 grams of fat, this kettlecorn doesn't count as a low-fat snack. It's low in "bad" saturated fat, however, which weighs in at 0.5 grams.
Manufactured in Brooklyn, Ike & Sam's also come in Crunchy Caramel, Mo' Better Cheddar, and Caramel Cheddar Twist. Proceed with those with more caution. ::Ike & Sam's...
Reinventing the Cul-de-Sac
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 7.08
As was obvious from comments to our post on the End of the Road for the Cul-de-sac, people who live on them love'em, and did not take kindly to them being called "cesspools of self-absorption and pettiness that turn their backs on the wider world" But there is no question that they do not permit higher densities are are pretty much car-dependent, and unlike grid systems, do not lend themselves to redevelopment and change.
Or do they? Malaysian architect Mazlin Ghazali notes that "In developing countries only the very rich can afford to live in quarter-acre single-family houses located in a cul-de-sac. How can the cul-de-sac be made affordable for more people and for the environment? Can we have cul-de-sacs without sprawl?" He then builds on traditional Muslim tessilated designs to turn them into honeycombs with duplex, triplex, quadruplex or sextuplex units.
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Preservation is Sustainability
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 7.08
Speaking at Bernard Maybeck's historic First Church of Christ, Scientist in Berkeley, the President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Richard Moe, made an historic speech about how saving old buildings is not about the past, but the future.
In the speech he notes that existing buildings"are vast respositories of energy." "It takes energy to manufacture to extract building materials, more energy to transport them to a construction site, still more energy to assemble them into a building," he says. "All of that energy is embodied in the finished structure — and if the structure is demolished and landfilled, the energy locked up in it is totally wasted." He calculates that even if 40% of the materials in a new building are recycled, it would take 65 years for "green, energy-efficient new office building to recover the energy lost in demolishing an existing building,...
OrganoClick's Green Chemistry To Slim, Trim, And Detoxify Packaging
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 04. 7.08
Product packaging peeves - we've all got 'em. Why must new earphones come swathed in a pound of impenetrable hard plastic? Why do we think we can "recycle" multi-material Tetra-Pak packages? (Only about 15 % of Tetra-Paks actually get their paperboard content reused - 70% in Germany). And what good is biodegradable packaging if it's covered with non-biodegradable sticky labels?
These are the type of big questions the scientists at OrganoClick have also grappled with. Using a process called click chemistry (hence the "Click" in the name), Jonas Hafren and Amando Cordova have created a new way to add useful qualities - waterproofing, non-wrinkling, bacteria-fighting - to any cellulosic material such as paper, cotton or wood, using only natural, non-synthetic compounds...such as linseed oil. The first products using the OrganicClick technology won't show up until next year, but they'll be biggies - water-resistant cloth without the polyurethanes, waterproof paper sans the petroleum-based waxes. And perhaps even a Tetra-Pak-style package that can lose its polyethene laminate. Via ::OrganoClick...
Canoe Built From Disposable Chopsticks
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 7.08
Of course it is always best to bring your own chopsticks, but the next best thing is recycling. Shuhei Ogawara, a retired city hall employee in the Fukushima Prefecture, spent three months gluing 7382 used chopsticks into a 66 pound, 13'-4" canoe, and coated it with a polyester resin coat. I don't know if I would want to run it down the Nahanni, but it looks pretty good. Launch is planned for May at Lake Inawahiro. ::Asahi via ::Pink Tentacle...
Energy is Wasted, Wasted, Wasted...
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 04. 7.08
A little while ago we posted some very cool graphs by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that showed how much of the energy produced gets wasted, and how much ends up doing useful work. Well, it seems like the New York Times got hold of these stats and graphs and gave them a face-lift to make them easier to understand for the average person.
See below for a bigger version....
Pop Quiz: Traffic Jamming
by Dominic Muren, Philadelphia, USA on 04. 7.08
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Down Under’s First Geosequestration Project Launched
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04. 7.08
Last week Australia launched what was called the Southern Hemisphere's first large-scale geosequestration project. The media release further suggests it is one of the one of the most comprehensive commercial scale carbon dioxide storage projects on the world stage.
The Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (a public-private partnership) believe they can pump 100,000 tonnes of CO2 into a depleted natural gas reservoir two kilometres beneath farmland, about four hours west of Melbourne, Victoria. All this for the paltry sum of $40 million AUD. Unfortunately that money is just to test the process with naturally occurring carbon dioxide and methane. It will not, alas, be storing the byproduct of that state’s coal fired power plants....
Introducing Daniel Wallach of Greensburg, Kansas
by Daniel Wallach on 04. 7.08
The town of Greenburg, Kansas--the subject of a forthcoming series on Planet Green--after a tornado leveled the town in 2007.
My name is Daniel Wallach, and I am Executive Director of Greensburg GreenTown. My wife, Catherine Hart, is the Coordinator of Educational Services. GreenTown is a private nonprofit that is helping lead the effort to rebuild the town, Greensburg, Kansas that was devastated in a tornado (an EF-5 intensity, 1.7 mile wide tornado) back on May 4, 2007. The process will be documented in a 13-part series produced by Leonardo DiCaprio on the upcoming Planet Green network.
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Green Finds Among the Vinyl at the National Home Show
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 7.08
The National Home Show in Toronto is huge, consumer-oriented and while the much of the show remains a demonstration of five hundred ways to extrude vinyl or dice vegetables, there are definitely nuggets to be found, and every year there it becomes easier to find useful products for green, sustainable and small space living. Here is a look at some of the things I found.
One can complain about globalism all day, but the fact is that because of Chinese manufacturing, the price of solar is dropping like mad. Five years ago one might pay ten thousand dollars for an evacuated tube solar water heater; now you can pick this baby up for C$ 2700. Globe Solar Energy President Gorden Xiao says it will save $ 600 in gas bills and reduce 2.2 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. 92% of sunshine energy is converted to thermal energy for heating, there are no pumps or moving parts, it all runs on city water pressure and the sun. More info at ::Globe Solar Energy.
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Does Dioxane Blow the Lid off Ecover's Green Cover?
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv on 04. 7.08
Ecover is lauded by the United Nations for protecting the earth, and the company's products scour many a lean and green TreeHugging homes – even ours.
Looking beyond the products' labeling and phosphate-freeness, the Organic Consumer's Association decided to do its own tests.
Among some of our favorite eco-brands emerged Ecover. The much-loved household product, it was found, tested positive for an alleged cancer-causing agent, known as 1,4-Dioxane.
Now before you jump into your nuclear-waste protection suits and dump all your Ecover products into a toxic waste site, what does this all mean?
Is dioxane something we should worry about?
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Time For Recalibration
by Marian Hopkins, Business Roundtable on 04. 7.08
We separate whites and colors when doing laundry. We store frozen food in the freezer and everything else in the pantry or refrigerator. To recycle, we know plastics must be separated from glass, which must be separated from newspapers. We know “waste” goes in a dumpster, which eventually ends up in a landfill. However, what if the items discarded into the dumpster had more life? What if we redefined “waste,” and moreover, what we did with all of our left-over “stuff?”
There are examples around the world of people recalibrating the definition of “waste.” In the United States, Freegans “dumpster dive” for their food and other disposed consumer items. Even further along the spectrum, Dharavi slum dwellers in Mumbai, India take recycling to a whole new level by scouring the local dumps for even the smallest item that can be reused or resold. Some are rebelling against a consumer-driven, wasteful society, whereas others struggle to make a living in a society that provides little other opportunities. Both have adjusted what society defines as waste....
Earth Day + HOK = Go Barefoot Day
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 7.08
As further indication that Earth Day may not inspire anymore, the big global architectural firm HOK has rebranded it "Go Barefoot Day." They have challenged all of their 2500 employees to "go barefoot" by taking a tangible step toward reducing their carbon footprint by altering their transportation, travel and work habits on April 22."
They invite others to join them, and have created a PDF with a number of suggestions for getting to work and what you can do when you get there, showing the impact of each, with links to more information.
"We hope "Go Barefoot Day" builds momentum beyond the walls of HOK and inspires our clients and communities to walk alongside us" says Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus.
They have a link at the bottom of the PDF to a spreadsheet that shows all of the assumptions and sources for their data, which will prove to be a very useful resource. ::HOK Go Barefoot
See also Cameron Sinclair Wows HOK Canada , HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design and HOK's Bill Valentine on Using Less Stuff....
Solar Panels vs Trees, The Price of Food
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 7.08
Trees Block Solar Panels, and a Feud Ends in Court Call it an eco-parable: one Prius-driving couple takes pride in their eight redwoods, the first of them planted over a decade ago. Their electric-car-driving neighbors take pride in their rooftop solar panels, installed five years after the first trees were planted. ::New York Times a sad an unnecessary ending to a story John covered in Trees Versus SPVs: Which Do You Hug?
Grains Gone Wild How did this happen? The answer is a combination of long-term trends, bad luck — and bad policy. ::New York Times Paul Krugman writes on bad weather and bad policy. See also Treehugger in Why Ethanol Production will Drive Food Prices Even Higher in 2008 ... , Food As Fuel: Collateral Damage and Lester Brown on Food-Based Fuels
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Omlet Expands: The New Eglu Cube
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04. 7.08
The Eglu, aka “the iPod of hen houses”, first graced our pages back in 2004, and it also featured in our round up of most huggable stories in 2006. However, it seems that Omlet, the makers of this revolutionary hen house, have been busy since we last looked, having now released the Eglu Cube, a new design that houses up to 10 chickens (the original Eglu could only hold 4):
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Survey: Is Earth Day a Big Deal?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 7.08
Last year at this time, other prominent environmental bloggers like Alex were saying things like "Earth Day has become a ritual of sympathy for the idea of environmental sanity. Small steps... are of such minor impact (compared to our ecological footprints) that they are essentially meaningless without larger, systemic action as well." Dave said “Yup. The time for "small steps" is long past. It's time for people to wake the hell up.” Others say "Small steps lead to education and awareness and that leads to votes and votes lead to change."
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Mion’s Floodgate Takes Recycling In Its Stride
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04. 7.08
Two years ago when Mion footwear won an ecodesign award we described them as something “you might expect the Jetsons to wear on the weekends.” And we wanted the company to be more overt in their green product design. With their new models they’ve taken that extra step, if you’ll pardon the pun.
For example, their Flood Gate Sandal utilises partially recycled materials. These include a 15% recycled rubber outsole, a 20% recycled EVA midsole and 50% recycled PET (polyester) in the webbing straps. Mion reckon the sandal will perform equally as well fronting up for whitewater rapids, as it will for white knuckled University exams. ...
Bicycles Can Travel on the Eurostar Now
by Bonnie Alter, London on 04. 7.08
Who says that protesting doesn't work? Way back in November, Treehugger reported on the hardy band of determined cyclists who protested at the opening of the new Eurostar train to Paris. They were upset because there was no secure bicycle parking facility and passengers could not always take their bicycles on the same train as they were on. Bicycles had to be fully dismantled and packed in bags in order to travel on the same train as their owners. Often there were delays of 24 hours before the bicycle arrived at the destination.
In response, Eurostar agreed to change their policies and has introduced their 'Bikes on Board' booking scheme. Reservations for bikes cost £20 and riders will be able to drop their bicycles off at St Pancras Station despatch office one hour before their journey. In addition, parking has been provided for 100 bicycles nearby. So now cyclists can ride to the station, hop on the train, and get back on their bicycle at the Gare du Nord in Paris. C'est magnifique. :: Camden Cycling Campaign...
Buenos Aires Biggest Design Fair Features Green Section
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 04. 7.08
From April 8 to 13, Buenos Aires hosts its biggest annual design fair, Puro Diseno. For the first time, this event presents a green section with responsible designers as one of its main attractions.
The space, called Verde (Spanish for ‘green’) will have six Argentine brands that are working with different approaches to responsible design. Our previously featured Minima Huella, Vacavaliente and Neumatica, and three new labels: Indarra DTX, Gruba, and Aluminium....
Potato Provides Path to Merge Modern and Indigenous Knowledge
by Tim McGee, Western Massachusetts on 04. 7.08
Book Review: Green Building For Dummies
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 04. 6.08
The book Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies was recently sent to me for review. I was curious to see the "Dummies" take on this subject, because there are few books on green building aimed at the layperson. The book was penned by Eric Corey Freed of Organic Architect. We have featured Freed previously on TreeHugger. He manages a comprehensive survey of green building techniques in the book's 361 pages. You can read some sample chapters. ...
Hang Your Folding Bike in Your Closet
by Graham Hill, New York, NY on 04. 6.08
Would love to have a bike but keep getting it ripped off and don't think you have space for one in your apartment? First step, get a Strida folding bike (an awesome commuting machine) or other small folding bike. Second, figure out a way to hang your bike in your closet. Hit below the fold for how a chinese restaurant window display led me to an easy $2 solution (including pics and video)....
Airlines Shaving Costs Everywhere They Can
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 04. 6.08
We recently covered truckers protesting the high price of diesel, but truckers aren't the only people concerned about rising fuel costs. Airlines, whose largest expense is now fuel, are taking action, and they are doing more than cutting flights to save fuel; they are actually "going over their planes with a fine tooth comb and tossing anything that isn't absolutely necessary" in a desperate bid to save weight and fuel. Here are some examples: US Airways is chucking meal carts and replacing them with models that are 12 pounds lighter. They've also tossed the glassware in first class in favor of less jet-set but lighter plastic cups. Carriers also are pulling magazine racks, trash compactors and ovens...American Airlines has all but called in Jenny Craig to shave weight from its fleet, pulling in-seat phones and their heavy wiring, removing lavatory power converters and investing in lighter silverware for business class passengersSo does all this make a difference?...
Electric Car Rollout Hits Road Bumps
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04. 6.08
Image courtesy of Fisker Automotive
It's easy to get caught up with the glamour and hype associated with the latest high-wattage EV rollout - heck, just take a look at some of our own breathless coverage (though, to be fair, we've also been skeptical of some of their loftier claims); yet, when it comes time to crunch the numbers and view them in perspective, it becomes much more difficult to see a viable, long-term future for many of these new start-ups. Few articles that we've seen have laid it out in such stark contrast as this recent LAT piece by Ken Bensinger. ...
Umbrella Predicts Weather Changes, Reminds Owner
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04. 6.08
Orange climate alert anyone? This networked umbrella would be ideal for a wealthy person who lives in a bomb shelter, lacks a cell phone with web access, doesn't watch TeeVee, must depart home at an exact time, is terrified about getting rained on, and is generally clueless about impending weather changes. And has US$125 burning a hole in his pocket.
The Ambient Umbrella lets you know when rain or snow is in the forecast by illuminating its handle. Light patterns intuitively indicate rain, drizzle, snow, or thunderstorms. Automatically receives local weather data from AccuWeather.com — no setup, no sensors, no wet commute. This intelligent umbrella has you covered.Absolutely useless in Atlanta or Phoenix, obviously. Farmers will get a belly laugh from it, we think. On the other hand, a version that senses when the financial industry is tanking might do well on Wall Street. Those guys don't see anything coming. Via::Ambient Devices Image credit::Crave: The Gadget Blog...
Coral Reef Deaths: Could Bacteria Be Just as Culpable as Global Warming?
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 04. 6.08
Image courtesy of yeowatzup via flickr
Call it the bacterial coup de grace: according to new research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's 162nd meeting, coral reefs weakened by the effects of global warming could be dying because of changes in their surrounding microflora. John Bythell, a biologist from Newcastle University, attributes many of the most recent mass coral deaths, such as the 1998 one in which 17% of the world's reefs perished, to slight variations in the microbes that live in and around them....
Underwater in Arizona
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 6.08
Just Add Water: Using artificial lakes and underground irrigation systems, developers turned Maricopa from a dusty farming community into a grassy exurb of Phoenix. Paul Graham for The New York Times
What is wrong with this picture? The New York Times real estate magazine, usually a cause for depression when one looks at the ads for 10 million dollar apartments, adds to the malaise by looking at reality outside of the gilded city for once. It describes the land rush in Maricopa, forty miles south of Phoenix, where the only industry was buying and selling houses.
It was all a completely artificial construct based on cheap water, cheap gas and cheap mortgages. It is now disintegrating, along with the lives of the people who bought there. ::New York Times...
Blogging Can Be Bad For Your Health
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 6.08
Of course it is different at TreeHugger, with our Zody chairs and daily online pilates classes, but according to the New York Times, life can be hard on the full time blogger:
"They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.
A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment."
Silly article at ::The New York Times UPDATE: See Marc Andreessen's suggestions for future headlines on blogging. My favourite is "Bloggers Shorter than Normal People."
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More DIY Hydroponics
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 04. 6.08
Can an Electric Car Catch a Cold from a Battery Virus?
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 04. 6.08
Photo: Donna Coveney
Any reader of these pages knows that batteries are key to the future of alternative energies. Light, high energy batteries to power electric cars. Cost effective batteries to store solar power at night or wind power when the air is still. So it is an exciting step that MIT has announced a success which could result in the development of batteries with 3 or more times the energy density of current batteries. But their method involves genetically modified viruses. Can an electric car catch a cold?...
TreeHugger breaks it down for you in a series of in depth how-to articles that will help you green your life. No time like the present!
Here are a few recommended websites.
