- 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 July 20, 2008 - July 26, 2008
Total this week: 171
Is Buying Up the Country's Clunkers Smart, Eco-Friendly Policy?
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07.26.08
Image from Bogdan Suditu
I admit upfront that I'm no economic whiz -- in fact, far from it -- so you'll have to take my "analysis" of Alan Blinder's national "Cash for Clunkers" policy with a (heavy) grain of salt. Put simply, it seems like a great idea to me and, unlike many of the other eco-friendly policies I've read about that show promise, might actually be politically feasible.
Basically, the idea would be to have the federal government buy up many of the country's oldest, most polluting cars and scrap them; the owners, who would likely
be lower-income individuals, would be paid at above-market prices and allowed to spend the money however they would see fit. ...
Climate Change Will Cost U.S. States Billions of Dollars
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07.26.08
Image from The Jamoker
In one of the first attempts to attach a dollar figure to the impacts of climate change, researchers from the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research have tallied up the long-term financial and infrastructural costs 8 states -- Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas and Ohio -- will incur over the coming years. The costs, which already run in the billions for some, could get even higher if the states don't take immediate action.
The costs of climate change are being ignored
Not surprisingly, they found that many of these costs were either being significantly discounted or omitted entirely from state budgets, particularly those attributed to the indirect effects of climate change -- which can be as substantial, if not more so, than those associated with the direct effects. No region of the country will be spared, they say, and they plan on releasing reports for the other 42 states in the coming months. ...
Biking Across America: Day 3, On the Radio
by Carson Poe and Eric Plosky, Boston, MA on 07.26.08
14 Ways People Will React To Climate Change: How Accurate Were Our 2005 Predictions?
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07.26.08
It's time to own up to my performance as a climate impact prognosticator. Back in the spring of 2005, I wrote 14 Things People Will Do When They Realize Climate Change is Real. It was a tongue-in-cheek look at the possibilities, ranging from outrageous to practical. Have a look at how well I did, guessing what people will do "when they realize climate change is serious." ...
Surprise, Surprise: Report Finds Bush Administration's Voluntary Pollution-Reduction Programs Not Faring Well
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07.25.08
Image from Señor Codo
The key word here being "voluntary," of course. Methinks the EPA's inspector general may have been a bit too charitable in even saying they have "limited potential" -- though I guess the term may be appropriate for describing the Bush team:
The Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General's Office said industry's unwillingness to participate and unreliable data that casts doubt on claimed reductions are hindering efforts to control some of the most potent greenhouse gases from aluminum smelters, landfills, coal mines and large farms. At best, the 11 different programs, all but one of which were launched during the Clinton administration, would achieve a 19 percent reduction in methane, sulfur hexafluoride and other non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gases projected to come from those industries in 2010, the EPA IG's office said in a report Thursday....
Green Buildings in New York not just for the hoity-toity anymore- says new study by McGraw Hill and USGBC
by Bonnie Hulkower, New York, New York on 07.25.08
Bronx Borough President Carrion responding to audience member questions
The idea of green building merging with affordable housing is not a new one. However, often when we hear about new LEED residential homes, it is the $2.5 million smacker Venice Beach variety we find out about. So it is reassuring to find that affordable green building is on the rise—and that green building is not just for the hoity-toity anymore....
Esquire eInk Abuse Exposed
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 07.25.08
Image credit: James Ebbinger and Esquire
Esquire Magazine: the Darth Vader of Electronic Reading
Perhaps inevitably, eInk is already being turned to the Dark Side. The Darth Vader of eInk: Esquire Magazine. To celebrate 75 years of Esquire History, or perhaps in a desperate attempt to prove to the wired generation that magazines can be high tech too, Esquire will sport an electronic ink cover on its September Issue. Except for the few copies destined for the Smithsonian and other collections, that will be a 100,000 electronic pages which will be e-waste at latest when the battery runs out after 90 days. Is there hope of redemption from this environmental faux pas?...
Organic vs. Local Beer, Future Flights and Ford Motors' Makeover
by Team Treehugger, Worldwide on 07.25.08
Beer drinkers beware. TalkGreen reminds us that not all eco-friendly beers are created equal.
Rising fuel prices and new emissions standards have the airline industry greening up its act.
Ford Motors scrambles to produce smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.
The Green Routine cracks a common plastic bag myth.
Does Panasonic hold the key to the e-waste solution?
Most Huggable is a regular roundup of some of Hugg's top green news stories. Why not submit your own green news?...
Two Small Renewable Energy Firsts: Offshore Wind Power in Germany, Solar Photovoltaic in Greece
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.25.08
Thessaloniki sunset photo by Eva via flickr.
Recently when I presented the news of the world’s largest thin-film solar power plant and commented that, at 10 MW, it wasn’t really all that big and sometimes we watchers of the renewable energy industry ought to take a step back to see how much more needs to be done, a number of commenters nearly handed me my hat.
Let me make it clear: A bit of bragging rights and intra-industry competition can be a good thing. Everything has to start out small and some one-ups-man-ship can spur along new developments. Towards that end, here are two first small steps in European renewable energy announced today.
...
First Commercial-Scale Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Approved for California
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.25.08
photo by Dan Klinge
You may have read how Verenium recently opened the first demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States. Well, that record may soon not mean as much: BlueFire Ethanol has announced that the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the U.S. has received permitting approval.
...
OLED Breakthrough at U. of Michigan and Princeton: 70 Lumens/Watt!
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.25.08
Paradoxically, technology both moves very fast yet more slowly than we sometimes wish. New things are coming out all the time (like this big LED breakthrough from Purdue and telescopic pixel screens), but we get used to them so fast that we're always looking ahead and it never seems to get there fast enough. It was only a few months ago that we wrote about a big organic light-emitting diode (OLED) breakthrough by Osram who had succeeded in making OLEDs that produced 46 lumens per watt.
Better OLEDs!
Now researchers at the U. of Michigan and Princeton are saying they made OLEDs that can produce 70 lumens per watt (compared to 15 lumens per watt for incandescent), and that they might be able to do even better than that. To achieve that impressive efficiency, they are using a grid combined with micro-lenses, all of it on the nano-scale (the lenses are 5 micrometers wide). ...
10 Steps to Renewable Energy Future: A TreeHugger Review
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.25.08
photo by Brett Danley
As I’m sure most TreeHugger readers are aware, Al Gore recently articulated his vision of how the United States can combat climate change, help national security and reinvigorate the economy through an ambitious plan to generate electricity entirely through renewable sources by 2018. However, this call to arms is just a vision: The steps to get there are another thing entirely.
10 Steps Towards a Sustainable Future
Towards that end the Post Carbon Institute has issued what they think are 10 steps that need to happen in 10 years to enable the transition to all renewable energy generation. While these aren’t instrumental steps, I think conceptually these flesh out the vision the Al Gore has presented. They read like a laundry list of perennial TreeHugger topics. Summarizing these steps, with some comments:
...
Get Recession Ready: 11 Lifestyle Choices as a Hedge Against Inflation
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.25.08
What with skyrocketing fuel and food costs, the only thing that is keeping inflation from going into orbit is the declining cost of housing and used SUVs. Over at the Simple Dollar, they have eleven suggestions for beating inflation and as so often is the case, they are all green, reducing your carbon footprint as well as saving money.
Start a Garden. A garden hedges against inflation in food prices, particularly if you focus on perennials (like asparagus) and on heirlooms that you pollinate yourself (like tomatoes).
-see TreeHugger Picks: Grow Your Own Food
Learn how to make as many meals as possible from basic ingredients. The inflation effect multiplies when it comes to prepackaged foods - each middleman will have to bump up their costs to both account for increases from their provider and maintain their own profit margin.
See Planet Green for Why Cook?
Cooking Basics: Stocking Your Kitchen
Cooking Basics: Choosing a Cookbook
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How About A Burger And Some Renewable-Resource Packaging With Those Fries?
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 07.25.08
It's the uncoated paper that makes this Burgerville carbon bomb compostable. Photo Jake of 8bitjoystick @ flickr
Fresh. Local. Sustainable. That's the Burgerville tag line, and while some people might take issue with the whole idea of sustainable burgers (in the famous cheeseburger video by Jamais Cascio a burger is basically a carbon mini-bomb), Burgerville seems to be putting some pretty cool best-practice ideas out there for the rest of the fast-food industry. And the food, while not as cheap as a Mickey D's or Taco Bell, is really tasty. Best strawberry, blackberry and marionberry shakes anywhere, ever.
Fast food nation, recycled
Burgerville (39 stores based only in the Pacific Northwest) wants to eventually keep 85 percent of its waste out of the waste stream via source reduction, recycling and composting. Their big innovation has been to start a complete evolution toward renewable resource packaging - PLA Natureworks salad dishes and cutlery, shake and drink cups, and breakfast "platters," as well as uncoated paper to wrap the burgers and as platter liners. That doesn't mean that the empties from your milkshakes can be composted...not yet. But yesterday at one trial store in Portland at 85th and Gleason Streets, Burgerville sustainability coordinator Amaranth Wilson previewed what she is calling the "dining room sort system" to allow patrons to dump their compostables in one large green container, their recyclables in a blue container and their landfill trash in a bin black bin. "It was great," she said. "We were taking people through it and they really seemed to be getting it."...
Quote of the Day: Carlos Ghosn on Electric Cars (Again)
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.25.08
Nissan and Renault CEO Carlso Ghosn is now pretty much 180 degrees from where he was a couple of years ago. He went from thinking that greener cars were a "nice story" and "not good business" to thinking that nothing except zero tailpipe emissions is good enough.
Via the New York Times:
Building cars powered by alternative fuels but that still use oil is “unsustainable,” [Ghosn] said. “I want a pure electric car. I don’t want a range extender. I don’t want another hybrid,” Mr. Ghosn told reporters after a ceremony to dedicate Nissan’s new North American headquarters. “It’s not going to be zero emissions in certain conditions. It’s going to be zero emissions.”Maybe Nissan has something up its sleeve? Lets hope that Mr. Ghosn sounds that optimistic because of something he saw in Nissan's R&D department. See also: Ghosn: Nissan to Introduce Electric Car in 2010, Mass-Production in 2012...
Video: Test Driving an Electric Smart Car
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.25.08
Electric Smart Car on Guernsey
The limited range of an electric car might seem less limiting if you live on a 30 square miles island. That's the case for Mark Parr, an engineer who founded The Electric Vehicle Company with his brother to convert Smart cars to electric propulsion. They live on the island of Guernsey in the channel between France and England, and below you can see a video test-drive of their latest model.
Electric Smart Car Specifications
At first, they used lead acid batteries that gave the Smart EV a range of about 20 to 35 miles and a conversion cost of about £6,000 (though they say it would be cheaper with more volume), but the newest model uses lithium-ion batteries, has a range of about 60 miles, and can do 60 mph. How much does on of these babies cost? £15,000 ($30,000), or about twice what a regular Smart car would cost there. They estimate operating costs at about 1 penny a mile....
Big Surprise: America's Fittest Cities are Also Most Walkable Cities
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.25.08
The American Fitness Index has been released by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), complete with sexy interactive graphics; San Francisco is first, Seattle is second, Boston is third. (complete list is below the fold)
And, to nobody's surprise, if you compare it to Kenny's list of the most walkable cities in the US, there is significant overlap; in terms of walkability, San Francisco was first, followed by New York and Boston. ::American Fitness Index
...
Holy Cow! Manure-to-Biogas Could Generate 3 Percent of US Electric Demand
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.25.08
photo by Chris Austin
Biogas plants are nothing new in the world of alternative energy. We recently covered a biogas plant in Germany using corn as feedstock: Yay for greener energy, Nay for not using a food crop when there are better alternatives. However, new research coming out of the University of Texas, Austin shows that we may be ignoring the potential of one feedstock, which left to decompose is a powerful emitter of greenhouse gas emissions: Cow Manure.
GHG Emissions from Manure Decomposition Could be Avoided
The report, “Cow power: the energy and emissions benefits of converting manure to biogas", estimates that decomposing cow manure emits somewhere between 51 to 118 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, with the trend increasing over the last fifteen years. This is from approximately 1-billion tonnes of manure produced annually from the livestock industry in the United States alone.
...
Permanent Camping by Casey Brown
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.25.08
We love the less-is-more aspect of sheds and cabins, packing so much into such small spaces. Australian architect Casey Brown just won the Australian Institute of Architects Small Project award for Permanent Camping, a ten-foot square by 20 foot high getaway with corrugated copper siding, three panels that fold down for security and up for shade, and a big rainwater collection tank behind. Nicely done. ...
A Dung Deal: Making Power from Poop
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.25.08
Larger version of illustration at Globe and Mail
At a properly run farm, "nothing is waste. Everything is a resource. It's just a matter of harvesting." With 750 cows, Laurie Stanton's farm has a lot of manure to harvest. Martin Mittelstaedt writes in the Globe and Mail about Ontario's largest farm-biogas installation. It seems like the perfect solution to a big problem; there are only so many places to put the 50 million tonnes of "biomass", as it is politely called, that is produced each year in the province. Instead, it is fermented in a big tank, and the methane is collected and piped to a diesel generator. The leftover liquids make a good fertilizer and the solids become bedding for cows.
It is about time; in Germany, biogas produces as much energy as a large nuclear plant; here we just build mountains of manure. ...
Ecover First Company to use Responsible Print Program for their Watercare Info Leaflet
by Jenna Watson, Barcelona on 07.25.08
Brighton based print management company Four Corners has created a free reporting service for print buyers which highlights environmental benefits for print jobs. This service, called Responsible Print, is being used for the first time by Ecover, with whom Leonora just spent the day perusing the Ecover Eco-Factory.
Ecover have formed a 3 year partnership with Water Aid to provide sustainable access to safe water for communities in rural Ethiopia. The partnership will be featured on-pack, giving consumers the chance to order a free Watercare pack, which will include a leaflet informing them about the partnership and encouraging them to use water wisely at home in the face of worldwide shortages. This leaflet will feature the unique Responsible Print tracking service which records the entire lifecycle of a printed item – from paper source and print process to delivery and use.
...
Don't Panic, It's Organic! Music in Tel Aviv
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv on 07.25.08
The word organic today means so much more than the “organic” derived from the Greek word “organikós," meaning something related to an organ of the body. Today the word has been generalized to relate to something derived from a living organism. If you are a TreeHugger, of course, organic is all about not using chemicals in your new patio garden and and your pesticide-free favorite organic foods.
Known for being edgy and playful, Tel Avivians are using the concept of "organic" in music. And Tel Aviv’s “Don’t Panic It’s Organic” concert this coming Saturday evening, tomorrow, is all about living organisms and the beats and tunes they can create.
What’s an organic concert?
According to Karen at Green Prophet, the “Don’t Panic It’s Organic” concert is a response to the hostile takeover of electronic music in the local Israeli music scene (Israelis are famous for their hard-core rave music and desert parties).
And with Apple's GarageBand software, pre-recorded clips and a Casio keyboard, hey, it's not too hard to let a computer write music for you, while you take all the credit. Hey, I do it. But is it really music you can call your own? Philosophers debate amongst yourselves.
The show in Tel Aviv will ask these questions and is an insistence to return to man-made music, without the machines.
...
As Autism Rates Skyrocket, Are Environmental Factors to Blame?
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 07.25.08
With the root cause of autism still only speculated upon, and everything from prescription drugs in the water supply to pesticides used to grow food and the manner in which vaccines are constructed potentially to blame, a new study shows socially aloof couples with a small circle of friends are more likely to parent autistic children. Suggesting genetics and the resulting social environment in which kids are raised may be more to blame than anything....
Survey: Would You Buy a Diesel?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.25.08
When the Smart Car came to the States, Canadians were furious because they discontinued the diesel version in favour of the Americanized gas engine. Now Ford is selling a diesel in Europe that gets 63 MPG but is not selling it on this side of the Atlantic, possibly because of diesel's "unpopularity with the general public, who associate it with loud, smelly trucks." Is this still true?
...
Vivavi Opens Pop-Up Eco Store at Riverhouse
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 07.25.08
Eco-Furniture Store in Eco-Appartment Building
It seems hard to reconcile the adjective “lazy” with Josh Dorfman – from interviews with TreeHugger to appearances on NPR’s Science Friday, the author of “The Lazy Environmentalist” and CEO of green furniture company Vivavi certainly goes to great lengths to push his vision of a bright, green, modern and convenient future. His latest venture is NYC’s first eco-friendly pop up store inside Riverhouse, “Manhattan’s greenest luxury condominium in Battery Park City” (which Lloyd wrote about back in 2006). The store features sustainable, high-end home furnishings by 18 of the world’s top designers. Perhaps reclaiming his “lazy” moniker somewhat, Josh enthused about the appeal of the new store:...
California Greening Under Threat: Minimum Wage Proposed For State Workers
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07.25.08
California faces a difficult budget reality. One proposed solution, cutting state workers to minimum wage, could be demoralizing. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans next week to slash the pay of more than 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum of $6.55 per hour to help ease the state's budget crisis, according to a draft executive order obtained by The Chronicle on Wednesday. The governor also will order an end to overtime pay for all but critical services, a freeze on state hiring and the immediate layoff of nearly 22,000 temporary, seasonal and student workers.Across the nation, expect similar issues to arise, slowing the trend of 'greening of state government,' and underscoring the need for the Federal government to take a leadership role. Via::SF Gate, Governor plans to slash state workers' pay. Image credit::The Greening Of California, Tim Porter....
The World’s Largest Thin-Film Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant: 10 Megawatts
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.25.08
The world’s previous thin-film solar record holder was this plant in Germany, with 6 megawatts of capacity.
In what has got to be one of the most ludicrous bits of public-relations-speak I’ve heard in a while, First Solar and Sempra have announced that they will be jointly constructing the world’s largest thin-film solar photovoltaic power plant. The capacity of this monster: 10 megawatts.
The details from CNET: Located next to Sempra’s El Dorado gas power plant, about 40 miles from Las Vegas, the new solar PV plant will begin construction this month and is expected to finish later in the year. Sempra will own and operate the plant, with First Solar monitoring and maintaining the facility.
...
Providence Police Department Testing Vectrix Scooters
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 07.25.08
Providence Police Test Electric Scooter
Last month four police officers in Providence, Rhode Island began a "a three-month trial of the all-electric Vectrix Maxi scooter" which has a range of 60 miles, a 3-5 hour charge time, and a top speed of just over 60 miles per hour. Vectrix is providing the scooters for free, and the city is very interested in their ability to reduce air and noise pollution. According to the Providence Police Department, the scooters will be used to enhance foot and bicycle patrols, giving officers enhanced mobility without sacrificing their ability to engage with people. Providence " is the third city in the United States to host a pilot program featuring the battery-powered vehicles," (Sacramento was the first) although UK police have also been testing the scooter. The hope is that, combined with the foot and bicycle patrols, the Police Department will be able to save money on fuel costs, lower emissions and enhance its ability to patrol the city....
Plastic Bag Charging Works
by Bonnie Alter, London on 07.25.08
Charging for plastic bags at the supermarket works--people really do bring their own. Ten weeks ago Marks & Spencer instituted a 5 pence (10 cents) charge on plastic bags at its stores. Since then customers have used 70 million fewer bags. That's an 80% decrease in use. Who would have thought! These are among the first statistics showing the impact of banning bags and they are impressive. At the same time, the company has sold ten million of its own store-brand hessian green bags-for-life; donating the 1.85pence profit made on each one to Groundwork, an environmental charity--$400,000 so far.
The British Government, in its upcoming Climate Change Bill, has given the other big supermarkets until next April to switch over to charging. If they don't do it, the Government will set a mandatory fee for bags. A representative of British supermarkets has called this move "a steamroller to crack a walnut". Environmentalists are concerned that the over-packaging of food is a much more important issue--one the Bill does not address.
Now there is no uniformity; supermarkets offer a range: some hide the bags under the counter, others charge, others give customer points for reusing the bags, whilst others sell bags. Ikea, B&Q, Debenhams, Body Shop, Whole Foods Market and Oxfam have banned free plastic bags or are running trials on charges. Discounter food stores such as Aldi and Lidl have been charging for years. :: The Times
More on Charging for Plastic Bags
:: Ikea Bans Plastic Bags
:: China's Plastic Bag Ban
:: San Francisco to Ban Plastic Bags
:: Modbury: A Year without Plastic
:: Big Ban: Phase 2...
WTO: From "Battle In Seattle" To "No News From Geneva"
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan on 07.25.08
END Tries For A Recycled Content, Sustainable Sneaker
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 07.24.08
On August 1, at REI stores and at the REI web site, trail runners and hikers from newcomer Environmentally Neutral Design (END) go on sale for between $60 and $90 a pair.
Recycled content sneakers
END, a start-up in Nike's hometown of Portland and with a former Nike employee as founder, is aiming to sell a sneaker that has sustainable attributes - no "air" insets or other fancy extras. Instead, END's Stumptown sneakers have very earthy tones and a streamlined design with 15 to up to 30 % recycled rubber in the soles. END and other experts say more recycled content in the soles doesn't work for high performance running and hiking shoes.
If that number failed to impress you, it's probably better than the percentage of recycled material Nike sprinkles into soles and basketballs, recovered from the oodles of sneakers returned each year to Nike's Beaverton shoe recycling facility.
END has also endeavored to strip away any foam reinforcements and plastic do-dads that are inessential and generate waste on the factory floor (it is made in China, unfortunately). Laces and upper webbing are made from recycled plastic bottles; the box is 100 percent post consumer recycled paper (why do we even need shoeboxes anymore?) Via ::Oregonian and Portland Tribune
Nike Talks Trash With Shoe Made From Manufacturing Waste
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Graphic Of The Day: Cumulative Non-OPEC Oil Production Changes - 2003 To 2007
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07.24.08
Useful for thinking about foreign policy choices, peak oil uncertainties, and, of course, cost.
Via::USEIA, International Energy Outlook 2008 with Projections to 2030, Cumulative (ppt file)...
Don't Take it for Granite that Your Countertop isn't Radioactive
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
I have a lot of issues with granite countertops, the cherry on top of the McMansion sundae; they are heavy, expensive and cost a lot to ship. I have heard stories of Brazilian granite being shipped to China for cutting and then to Toronto for installation. Now the New York Times tells us about another problem: some of it glows in the dark.
The Times reports that demand for granite has increased tenfold in the last decade, and the stuff is coming from 63 countries; some are more radioactive than others.
“It’s not that all granite is dangerous,” said Stanley Liebert, the quality assurance director at CMT Laboratories in Clifton Park, N.Y., “But I’ve seen a few that might heat up your Cheerios a little.”
...
Greensburg Hits Connecticut's 'Burbs Through Photography
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 07.24.08
Having grown up in Connecticut’s ‘burbs, I know just how difficult it can be trying to live green there when the nearest grocery market can be a 25 minute drive away. My observations of one of the state’s wealthiest parts (Fairfield County) have felt like a series of dichotomies. You might see a lush veggie garden growing beside an, old Victorian home but then a SUV or two parked in the driveway. Or a family of three eating all organic but living inside a giant McMansion. I’m sure this suburban story isn’t exclusive to CT and I bet I’m not the only one daydreaming of a time when it won’t take a natural disaster to build suburbia green from the bottom up, like they did with Greensburg, Kansas.
Luckily we’ve got folks like Remy Chevalier, long-time greenie, tipster, and friend of TreeHugger, planting the Greensburg seed in the ‘burbs with his newly formed, CT-based environmental networking center and art exhibit.
...
Massive Saharan Solar Project Could Power $71 Billion EU Supergrid
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07.24.08
Image from bachmont
Sometimes called the Saudi Arabia of solar energy, the Sahara could soon be home to dozens of huge solar farms under a new EU supergrid initiative to supply the continent's electricity needs with renewable energy. The Guardian's Alok Jha reports that the plan, which would cost around $71 billion (€45 billion) and take several decades to finish, would let all EU countries share electricity from wind, geothermal and solar energy.
Solar initiative already has crucial political backing
It has already gained a crucial measure of political support, with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who just helped establish the Mediterranean Union to work with countries in north Africa and the Mediterranean region, recently giving it the thumbs-up. ...
Surveillance for Obesity Coming to London?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
Matthew noted earlier the connections between a high meat, high processed food-based diet and climate change; It has also been noted that obesity is an environmental issue as well as a health issue, a big deal in countries with national health systems like Britain and Canada.
In the UK, where they have surveillance for everything everywhere, RCA student and engineer Benjamin Males has designed the Static Obesity Logging Device, or SOLA, which measures the body mass index of passers-by. "The casing of the device conceals a mass of technologies including an integrated computer, digital and analogue inputs and outputs and an integrated camera. The system is able to remotely calculate Body Mass Index and publish the data via wired and wireless networks."
He writes "The purpose of this device is to raise questions about the possible role of surveillance technology in healthcare, and the potential uses (misuses?) of this data by others." ::Benjamin Males via ::We Make Money Not Art...
Larry’s Beans Launches Biodegradable Packaging for Coffee
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 07.24.08
It’s no secret that we like Larry’s Beans. We’ve posted a few videos about the company and even included them in our Valentine’s Day Gift Guide. So when we heard the news that the company has launched biodegradable packaging for their already delicious coffee, we started searching our local spots to see where we can find it.
When we first read the headline, we thought “well, it must be made from corn-based” plastic, after all, that’s one of the most popular biodegradable kinds of packaging. But according to Larry’s Beans, “many folks don't realize that they [corn plastics] need commercial composting facilities to biodegrade - if they are tossed in a landfill or even the home compost heap, they may just as well be your regular plain-old plastic.” So what is it then that Larry’s Beans uses that makes it so different?
...
Plan for Park(ing) Day 2008
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 07.24.08
Thanks to Anna, who asks today in the comments to a former Park(ing) Day:
I would love to do something like this in my town next year, BUT, How do I know what day is Park(ing) Day?? Someone care to give me dates? Thanks, AnnaWell, Anna, it is not too soon to start planning for Parking Day 2008 on 19 September 2008! For those not yet familiar with Park(ing) Day, it is a one-day event originated by REBAR in San Francisco. Artists, activists and citizens gather to transform parking spots into NO Parking Parks: artistic, miniature, temporary public parks complete with greenery, benches, and other decorations. Occupying the temporarily greened space asserts the public right to use land otherwise normally taken for granted by auto drivers (or in the case of certain cities, land highly coveted by people who deposit a collection of fume-spewing steel on it for some hours at a time.) Full disclosure: I am one of those covetous drivers occasionally myself!...
Tryckcykeln: 4 Color Printing by 4 Colored Bicycles
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
People will have to get very creative when the lights go out; Swedish design students Calle Enström and Johan Undén certainly did when they turned four bikes into a colour printing system. After all, they say "Vi gillar att cykla och vi gillar att trycka". (We like to cycle and we like to press.) There is one bike each for cyan, mangenta, yellow and black. They printed a book on it as well. ...
Plasma TVs Draw More Juice from Grid than Plug-In Vehicles
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.24.08
Plasma TVs vs. Plug-In Cars
We already wrote about a study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory that shows that plug-in cars might not need new power plants (or few of them), and now we learn that a big screen plasma TV actually drains more power from the grid than a plug-in.
"Plasma TVs, industry officials say, consume about four times the electricity as recharging a plug-in hybrid. Yet utilities have managed to cope with the increased loads as thousands of new televisions came on line."
Transition Rate is What Matters
Mark Duvall from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) says that as long as the transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles is gradual, the electric grid will be able to handle it. ...
Putting the Sun's Temperature in a Tube: SEHC Labs Turns Up the Heat on Solar Thermal Energy
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.24.08
image: SHEC
Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation Labs has announced that they have developed the world’s most efficient solar thermal energy technology. Though only at the prototype stage, SEHC has developed a way to concentrate sunlight to levels 5,000 that which normally fall on the Earth’s surface. By focusing the light through a tube the heat can approach 6,000°C, a temperature which can melt metal at the light’s focus point. In order to keep the system from self-destructing the heat has to be continually pulled off the tube and put to work elsewhere.
...
Indiana Launches Ambitious Energy Plan
by Rocky Mountain Institute on 07.24.08
As debate over U.S. energy policy stalls on whether or not we should drill for more oil, it's heartening to see states taking the lead on real energy solutions.
And it's not just California anymore. From Texas's multi-billion dollar wind projects to Pennsylvania's rust-belt renewal, states across the country are realizing the many benefits of developing a green economy.
The latest state to join the fray: Indiana.
...Architects: Your Websites Suck. Read This Post!
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
There is not much green about this post; you can consider it a rant or perhaps a public service. One of the joys of this gig is that I get to look at the work of a lot of talented architects and great green design; one of the horrors of it is that I have to look at a lot of their websites. For some reason architects think that if they can design a building, then they can reinvent web design; Every day I have to learn a new way to navigate through a site, get stronger glasses for the tiny type, and endure interminable flash intros. Sometimes I never actually do find anything at all, it is so hard to get around. If they designed their buildings like they do their sites, people would go into them and never be seen again.
Richard Frankland designs both buildings and websites for a living, and suggests that "the web design process is really no different to an architectural project. As with a well designed building, it’s good to improve on your previous work and explore new technologies, but it shouldn’t deviate too much from what simply works."...
One Fewer SUV: You Decide What Happens to It (Blow it Up? Donate it?)
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.24.08
You Decide the Fate of this SUV
Ryan Mickle made a website to help decide what he will do with his Range Rover Sport SUV. Here's his story:
"In 2006, I bought this beautiful but totally excessive Range Rover Sport. A big part of the motivation then was the huge tax write off for heavy SUVs, combined with a short commute and weekly trips to go hiking with friends. Since I moved back to San Francisco, I don't need a car, so I want to take this SUV off the road for good. If I sold it, it'd just keep polluting with someone else behind the wheel. So I'm leaving what to do with it to everyone to help me decide."
Ryan wants your suggestions. Should he blow it up or convert it to biodiesel? Donate it to some organization? Convert it to electric? He's looking for ideas that are both eco and attention-getting. There's a video of him explaining his story below....
Save Energy, Save the Planet, Lose Weight = Eat Less Meat & Junk Food
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.24.08
photo by flako via flickr
We’ve covered the connection between a high meat, high processed food-based diet and climate change a number of times: Most recently on how meat and dairy production itself creates more carbon emissions than how we ship those products to market. Adding more fuel to this fire is a new report from Cornell University published in Human Ecology.
One-Fifth of U.S. Energy Consumption Goes Into Food Production
The study points out that considering that the average U.S. citizen consumes 3,747 calories per day—1,200 more than is recommended—and that 19% of energy usage in the nation goes into producing and transporting food, Americans in general should cut back on how many calories they consume, both for their own health and that of the planet....
From the Forums: Drill Here Drill Now
by Alan Graham, Portland, Oregon on 07.24.08
brokengovernment touched off a firestorm of debate in the forums with his post Drill Now Drill Here. At four pages long it is certainly one of the more heated debates we've had. Some Clips:
Today this country consumes about 20,000,000 barrels of oil daily or 7.3 billion barrels of oil annually. We import about half that - 9.9 million barrels per day or 3.6 billion barrels annually. A Bureau of Land Management Study, incorporating data from the Energy Information Administration, The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Minerals Management Service, The Study, indicates that this country has undiscovered oil resources of 139 billion barrels of which 86 billion barrels are offshore under the outer continental shelf... ...A true energy plan will help us securely transition from fossil fuel to new forms of energy. We must transition and not make a wild jump before the new fuels are fully ready. If you do not want this country thrust into energy chaos, both financially and physically, tell your Representatives to get smart, drill, plan, and do it now.pthalo comes out swinging:
I say let the oil prices go sky high. let people take a real good look at their consumption, their pollution and their future. its time to open our eyes and drilling for more oil will only put us back to sleep.There's still plenty of room for debate. What do you think? ...
Green Power for Your Home Gets a Little More Affordable, in New Jersey
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.24.08
photo by Richard Masoner
One of the easiest ways for homeowners to reap the benefits of solar power, with a minimum of up-front costs is to enroll in a lease agreement such as offered by Solar City or Helio. However, this sort of plan isn’t available everywhere, and some homeowners would prefer to own their system outright. For those people in the latter category, if you live in New Jersey, PSE&G has announced a program to make buying your own solar power system it a little bit easier.
...
Ford Introduces 63.6 MPG ECOnetic Diesel Fiesta... Only in Europe
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.24.08
Ford Fiesta ECOnetic Diesel
At the British International Motor Show, Ford has introduced the ECOnetic version of its Ford Fiesta. The engine is a 1.6-liter Duratorq TDCi (diesel) that has been tweaked for efficiency. Fuel economy for the ECOnetic Fiesta is 3.7 L/100km (63.6 mpg US) combined, or 3.2 L/100km (73.5 mpg US) on the highway! It's not exactly a race car, with 0 to 60 mph in 12 seconds, but those who will buy it won't care, the mileage will more than make up for it.
Fuel Saving Tricks
The ECOnetic Fiesta uses a bunch of tricks to reduce fuel consumption, things like improved aerodynamics (its coefficient of drag is 0.33), weight reduction, low rolling resistance tires, and enhanced lubrication. Simple enhancements that could be used on most cars....
Wetland ‘Carbon Bomb’ Has One of Its Wires Cut: Democratic Republic of Congo Creates World’s Largest Protected Wetland
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.24.08
Congo River photo by LM TP via flickr.
Scientists warned the world last week that due to human interference in wetlands, a potential 'carbon bomb' is waiting to go off. As wetlands are increasingly drained due to urban sprawl or expansion of agricultural lands the 771 billion tons of carbon dioxide sequestered begins to be released. Now, thanks to action by the Democratic Republic of Congo, at least some of that sequestered carbon will remain out of the atmosphere.
...
Urban Mining: Philadelphia is Losing its Manhole Covers
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
Installing lock on manhole cover; Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times
It is happening everywhere; the price of metals has climbed so high that everything that isn't nailed down (and a lot that is) is being stolen and "recycled." In Philadelphia, over 2500 manholes and sewer grates have disappeared in the past year, compared to the previous average of 100. People are falling into the holes; “They used to say the streets around here will swallow you up, but they were talking about drugs and guns.” Finally a city worker developed a way to lock them from the inside.
...
Tiga's Travel To Be 100% Carbon Offset With Atmosfair
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona, Spain on 07.24.08
We had a great time dancing to Tiga last weekend at Summercase Festival in Barcelona. Now we are even more fans of him having read that he decided to carbon offset all his future travels, similar to Radiohead, José Gonzáles, Pearl Jam or Jack Johnson to only name a few. The US company Reverb is one of the organisations that helps musicians lower their environmental footprint when on tour. The Montreal-born DJ however doesn’t trust North Americans, so he opted for the German company Atmosfair, “just like DJ Richie Hawtin” he says. ...
Waste Not, Want Not: The Future of Toilets
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
Turning waste into fertilizer in Boston
We have written before about the need to change our waste water system that mixes black and gray water and flushes it away; commenters were not impressed and wrote "Composting toilets are NEVER going to make it into the main stream market. Debating it is silly." But the debate is happening anyways; Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow writes an excellent article in the Boston Globe on the subject.
"IN A WORLD of rapidly diminishing resources, there's one we tend to overlook. It's easy to produce and extremely abundant. But instead of viewing it as an embarrassment of riches, we're more likely to see it as just an embarrassment.
This neglected treasure is human waste. Urine is rich in nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, the three main ingredients in artificial fertilizer. Feces contains these nutrients, too, in smaller doses, and the methane it produces can be harnessed as biogas, a green energy source."...
The "Real" Cost of Bananas: Crop Dusting and Toxic Fungicides in Costa Rica
by Stephen Brooks, Punta Mona, Costa Rica on 07.24.08
Why the Arctic Won’t Keep Our Cars Running: Arctic Oil Reserve Potential a Quarter of Previous Estimates
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.24.08
photo by Baine via flickr
A couple of months ago we reported on how the Las Vegas firm Arctic Oil & Gas announced that the Arctic could contain 400 billion barrels of oil, a figure that would be more than double the largest conventional oil field in the world, Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar—an oil field, which, despite Saudi claims to the contrary, is likely in terminal decline.
Oil Potential in Arctic Revised Downward
Well, not so fast: According new(er) data from the US Geological Survey, that 400 billion barrel figure is a little bit high. The USGS estimates that the Arctic probably contains only 90 billion barrels of oil. Certainly nothing to sneeze at—it’s equal to Russia’s total known reserves—and an amount that could still easily lead to boundary disputes in the region as nations try to take what they think is their fair share. ...
New York Times Goes For The Mild Jalapeño Salsa: A Food Tracking System To Lower Salmonella Risk
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07.24.08
Predictably, today's NYT has an opinion piece calling for a half-hot sauce, a command and control-style food 'tracking system', to make more safe from contamination, food produced in places that lack even clean public water. Tracking the life cycle of Jalapeños, to avoid salmonella exposure in a restaurant 2 thousand miles distant is not only logistical and financial pile on; it is a way of locking locally produced food out of the entire US market place. Congress could relieve consumers and food producers alike with a comprehensive food-safety bill that would require a system for tracing food, better oversight of food-safety plans by producers and more authority for the F.D.A. to investigate and recall tainted products.Via:: New York Times, One Very Scary Jalapeño. Ever take a bite of a particularly hot Jalapeño from a batch of generally mild ones? All it takes is one filthy pepper in a wash tank that has not had the chlorine level maintained and the whole batch can go buggy. Key questions: do they know that they will find that one dirty pepper before people are made ill; and, will Congress exempt US farmers and packing houses from the expensive requirements? No to both unfortunately....
Escape to New York
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
John Carpenter had it backwards; Snake Plissken's job is going to be keeping people out of New York, not in it. According to the New York Post, "The subprime crisis and the gas price crisis are accelerating the trend that people want to be in walkable urban areas," said Christopher B. Leinberger, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute, who is also a real estate developer. "It's been happening for the past 15 years and these trends have just accelerated it."
Whereas New York City had the most housing starts in the nation last year, "If you look at what is happening in California you see the trend; in Los Angeles, neighborhoods in the western part of the city like Brentwood that are walkable are seeing their home prices go up," Leinberger says. "Homes in the far east - way over the mountains in the desert, they're dropping more than 40 percent in price - that's worse than the Depression. It's the homes on the fringes of the suburbs that are really getting hit. All that's going on is going to make this go faster."...
TH Blog Love - Our Favourite Greens Of The Week
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 07.24.08
BBC Thread: Cottoning On by Joanna Yarrow
"Fibres like cotton can be far from natural by the time they reach the shops. Joanna Yarrow exposes how the production process can be crippling to both people and their environment"
Ecorazzi: French Vogue Peta Controversy by mlariviere
"French Vogue is making a pretty big statement with a photo-spread in its August issue. Model Raquel Zimmermann is seen walking through the streets of Paris, wearing fur and leather while 'sticking it to PETA protesters.'”
Guardian Online: Ethical Fashion Directory by Kate Carter
"Over the past few years I've frequently heard people say "Well I'd love to buy more ethical fashion, but I've no idea where to start ..." Here is our solution. Our directory will provide, I hope, a means of navigating the sometimes confusing world of ethical fashion and make it easy for you, the consumer, to find exactly what you are looking for."...
The TH Interview: Paul Hawken—Blessed Unrest (Part Two)
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 07.24.08
Image credit: Shall.usIn part two of our in-depth discussion, Paul Hawken unpacks his new opensource, wiki-based Web entity, WISER Earth. He also offers up some details on Blessed Unrest the movie (and the remix), and brings it back to basics with the news no one wants to talk about. ::TreeHugger Radio Listen to the podcast of this interview via iTunes, or just click here to listen, right-click to download. Click here for part one. Special thanks go to CraigMichaels, the organizer of the Sustainable Operations Summit, for arranging this interview. (Full text after the jump)...
Taking Back the Streets: Dumpster Diving in Style
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
London designer Oliver Bishop-Young's work "focuses on skips [Britspeak for dumpsters] and looks at three main areas: exchange of waste materials, re-use of waste and making use of wasted spaces."
While he does wonderful things with dumpsters, turning them into everything from swimming pools to skateboard parks, he has a more serious ambition. ...
Johnny Depp's Green Home, Dark Knight's Eco-blunders, Natalie Portman's Green Project Runway, and More
by Terri MacLeod on 07.24.08
...Alas, Johnny Depp is going public with his eco-lifestyle. A few years back, the super-private actor and hater of Hollywood excess bought a 35-acre Caribbean Island he endearingly named "F*ck Off Island." Now he's planning to have his "leave me alone" paradise run on clean energy. According to the Huffington Post, the actor is third in line to receive a grid-independent solar hydrogen system from Mike Strizki, the man who created the first solar- hydrogen house in the United States.
Via:ecorazzi...
Adam Stein on Vertical Farms: "Pie in the Sky"
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 07.24.08
Downtown Real Estate Too Expensive for Food Production?
Vertical Farming has gotten us TreeHuggers excited on more than one occasion. From this diagonal tower to a lively debate in our forums, the concept of moving food production closer to population centres is certainly an intriguing one (not to mention reducing the geographical footprint of a farm). However, there are dissenters. And the ever thoughtful Adam Stein of TerraPass is one of the most eloquent. This from his latest blog entry on the apparently “half-baked” concept of vertical farms:
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A Picture is Worth...Stolen Bikes
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
The story of Igor the bicycle thief in Toronto just gets more astonishing by the day; his concert pianist wife, "one of Canada's best accompanists," was just charged. He seems to be personally responsible for the City's reputation as the bike theft capital of North America; the picture shows just some of the 2,000 bicycles police have pulled out of houses, garages and warehouses.
I will stop being churlish and asking why it took so long, and will just be thankful that it might be over. ::Eye
More on Bike Thieves, and how to slow them down:
Toronto Bike Theft King Closed Down. Finally.
How to Prevent Bike Theft :
The Bike Thief: Video Exposes Cyclist's Vulnerability...
Survey: Are You More Frugal?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.24.08
Bonnie quotes the Independent: "More effectively than any save-the-planet propaganda, financial pressures are forcing people to rethink they way they behave as consumers. The old-fashioned idea that waste is harmful, personally and socially, is returning. The absurd over-packaging of food in supermarkets has begun to seem absurdly profligate. There is a new interest in allotments, in growing vegetables, even in rearing poultry in the back garden."
...
Great Ideas: Beach Cleanup
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan on 07.24.08
(Image: Takakuku)
As the weekend approaches, I'm thinking of the beach and maybe going for a swim. The Pacific Ocean is a wonderful place to go on a steaming hot July day, on this side of it as well.
What is not so great is the trash. It was worse a decade ago, and I recently found out why. Local volunteers are making a huge effort to get people to join beach cleanup campaigns along Japan's long coastline. Japan Environmental Action Network (JEAN) was founded by three Japanese women who wanted to do something about the trash they found on their trips to the ocean, and held its first cleanup event in September 1990. JEAN also joined the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, making Japan the fifth nation to become part of this worldwide campaign for pollution prevention. Now they help local groups hold ocean cleanups at more than 150 sites across Japan, with more than 40,000 people volunteering for annual spring and autumn campaigns.
Their motto? "Think Globally, Clean Locally"
...
Eco-Friendly Art or Not?
by Bonnie Alter, London on 07.24.08
We thought that Anthony Gormley's winning proposal for the fourth plinth was the most ecological art possible: a different person standing on top of a column for an hour, all day, every day, for 100 days. Some commenters at TreeHugger disagreed since people had to travel to get to it and the structure itself wasn't green. But Martin Creed, another English artist, may have upped the stakes with Work No 850, his specially commissioned work for the Duveen Galleries at the Tate Britain. It consists of a runner sprinting through the galleries at the art museum. Each one will have to make an 86 metre sprint throughout the art museum, avoiding hitting patrons. That should take 12 seconds, then there will be a 15 second pause, "like a rest in a piece of music", according to the artist, and the next runner will set off. They were recruited from running magazines and each will work a four-hour shift. The artist wants to keep it going for eight hours a day until November, when the prize is awarded.
But is it art? His last piece (a winner) consisted of a light being switched on and off in a gallery, all day long. Of this new work Martin Creed says: "Running is a beautiful thing. You do it without a pool, or a bike; it is the body doing as much as it can on its own." And: "Running is the opposite of being still. If you think about death as being completely still and movement as a sign of life, then the fastest movement possible is the biggest sign of life. So then running fast is like the exact opposite of death: it's an example of aliveness." :: The Independent
More on Ecological Art
:: Anthony Gormley's Fourth Plinth
:: Garden Art
:: National Theatre Goes Green
:: But Is it Art?
:: But Is it Art?
:: But Is it Art?...
Wanted: Green Electronics Blogger to Write for TreeHugger ($1000 Referral Reward!)
by Bonnie Hulkower, New York, New York on 07.23.08
Image via Sparking Tech
We're looking for a full-time blogger who can cover the latest, hippest, greenest gadgets and electronics. We are looking for someone who has in-depth knowledge and passion about this topic, can identify and explore current and emerging trends, understands how tech relates to the average consumer, their household and the economy, and can communicate it all clearly to our diverse audience. We're talking about someone who can reach deep into the corners of the Internet and return the with hip prototypes, low-energy computers, upgrading advice, manufacturer responsibility ideas, e-waste reduction concepts, thoughts on grid optimization, and useful websites and apps, etc. Does this like sound like you or someone you know? Then, keep reading, because we also offer a $1,000 referral reward if you connect us with a successful long-term hire. ...
Los Angeles City Council Votes to Ban Plastic Shopping Bags by July 2010 (Maybe)
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07.23.08
Better late than never, I suppose -- though LA's planned 2010 citywide ban still seems downright meek given that San Francisco, Australia and, yes, even China have already or are in the process of implementing a ban. And, of course, it's important to note that this plan will only go through if (and it's a big if) the state fails in its attempt to impose a 25-cent surcharge.
This isn't the first time LA has toyed around with the idea of a ban. The LA County Board of Supervisors raised environmental groups' ire when it watered down crucial provisions of a plastic pollution measure. Under pressure from the plastic bag industry, the board decided to shelve its vote on an outright ban until at least 2010. ...
Low-Impact Laundry, Black Bean Tofu and Leaky Faucet Fixes
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 07.23.08
:: Help cool down the planet by setting your laundry's spin cycle on cold.
:: Keep a beach-ready bod with this healthy Chinese take-out alternative: Black Bean Tofu.
:: Get to the bottom of that leaky faucet to conserve water....
In Huffpo: Greenwashers Beware; Don't Ignore Gore
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.08
TreeHugger is proud to be contributing original content to the Huffington Post Green section. Recent posts:
Greenwashers Beware: The Truth Will Come Out Should we trust all these green claims? Since the green movement has gained momentum, there has been a lot of talk about whether a company is greenwashing or whether carbon credits can be trusted. ::Graham Hill
My Challenge to America: Don't Ignore Gore's Speech It was a speech that should have inspired and excited Americans of all walks of life at least as much as, if not more than, President Kennedy's. Instead, Mr. Gore's idea has been met with a chorus of criticism, with the naysayers claiming that it would be too costly, too impractical, and too risky to attempt to meet such a goal. ::Andy Posner
How Obama Can Regain the Initiative on Energy the latest report from James Carville and Stan Greenberg, two campaign consultants, has revealed that Obama has been losing ground to McCain and that he has not effectively addressed the shift in public sentiment. ::Jeremy Jacquot
Six Tips to Green Your TV Here's a chance to make millions: Come up with a green TV. Frankly, there just isn't one yet. Even with huge technological "advances," this standard household item isn't getting greener. ::Mairi Beautyman
My Sinful Second Home Over at Grist, the Biodiversivist does a driveby shooting of a rather nice green second home. I am going to defend the sinful second home, and why I and my cabin are perhaps not as uncool and shallow as the Biodiversivist says we are. ::Lloyd Alter...
GM and 30+ Electric Utilities Form Coalition to Support Plug-In Vehicles
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.23.08
Infrastructure & Standards for Plug-In Vehicles
While making an infrastructure to charge plug-in vehicles (plug-in hybrids and battery electric cars) is a lot easier than making an infrastructure for hydrogen-powered vehicles (like the Honda FCX Clarity), it still requires some planning and coordination. You don't want each player to create its own standard that isn't compatible with the others, making it impossible for electric car owners to plug in their cars for a charge or to use advanced features.
That's why GM, along with the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and 30+ electric utilities from 37 US states and from Canada have formed a coalition to address these issues....
Cycle Commuter Catches Hit-and-Run Corvette-Driving Bob Novak
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.08
Walking Directions Now Available On Google Maps
by Kimberley D. Mok, Montreal, Canada on 07.23.08
Got directions but want to walk the distance instead of driving? Well, we’re glad to see that Google Maps has now added a new walking option for directions, thanks to popular demand. Similar to getting driving directions, after entering your origin and destination, click “Walking” at the top left panel. You can see an example of this in action here. You can also drag the purple line around if you want to go by another specific route. Done, and done. (But maybe they will add a bicycling option soon.) Via ::Google Maps Help Group Related Links on Walking, Google Walk Score Ranks The Top 10 Most Walkable Cities in the U.S. Walk Score: Cool Green Google Map Mashup TH Forums: Is Driving Better Than Walking?...
TreeHugger Tip: Christine Lepisto on her Small Refrigerator and Bio Foods
by Emma Grady, New York, NY on 07.23.08
Google Invests in Aptera Motors and Lithium-Ion Battery Maker AtaCell
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.23.08
Google's RechargeIT Invests $2.75 Million
Google's philanthropic arm, via its RechargeIT program, has just bet $2.75 million on two companies trying to make plug-in hybrids and electric cars a reality: Aptera Motors, maker of the three-wheeled two-seater Typ-1 (we wrote about their prototype here), and ActaCell, a spinoff from the University of Texas at Austin that is working on lithium-ion battery technology with "substantially longer cycle life at low cost while maintaining safety". We don't know what share of the $2.75 went to which company, but we know that ActaCell raised a total of $5.8 million in a recent Series A round, including Google's money....
Food Waste Turned into Pig Feed in Japan, Results in Sweeter Meat
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.23.08
photo by Max Jackson
We’ve reported before on how much food gets wasted: Most recently on the $20 billion wasted every year in the UK. In Japan, 20 million tonnes of food gets thrown away each year, a figure that is five times the amount of world food aid for the poor. Though it won’t help feed any people, Japan is turning to processing a portion of that food waste into something useful: Feed for animals.
ENN tells us that the food waste turned animal feed is up to 50% less expensive that regular feeds, and how on one pig farm manufacturing its own feed allowed the farm to offset the costs of rising feed prices. It goes on the discuss this movement in general:
...
T. Boone Pickens On Expanded Oil Drilling: “East Coast, West Coast, ANWR, Get It All”
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.23.08
photo by Madhav Pai
When Katie Couric allowed T. Boone Pickens to speak on CBS last week—I won’t call it an interview as Couric didn’t real probe any of Pickens’ statements to any great degree—he admitted that The Pickens Plan isn’t about greening the United State’s energy supply per se, it’s about energy independence. Fair enough, if the end result is a radical increase in renewable energy I can, to a certain degree, deal with differing motives for getting there. However, in a recent spot on The Situation Room, Pickens reveals that his oil drilling past sometimes still rises to the surface...Even if most of the time he says we can’t drill our way to energy independence.
You can watch the video clip at Huffington Post, but here’s the relevant question and answer:
...
Sustainable Seduction, Compost Factories and The True Cost of Paper
by Team Treehugger, Worldwide on 07.23.08
Enamore creates lingerie for the sustainable seductress/seductor.
Green Air Radio interviews the CEO of Converted Organics, a compost factory.
EcoLibris reviews Mandy Haggith's book, Paper Trails: From Trees to Trash - The True Cost of Paper.
Chemically Green interviews the makers of Kudzu Ethanol.
Daily Fuel Economy Tip shares their thoughts on why a switch to electric cars would be easy.
Most Huggable is a regular roundup of some of Hugg's top green news stories. Why not submit your own green news?...
Kitakyushu: Where Does Your Old Used Car End Up?
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan on 07.23.08
(Image from Mixed Soup)
Yesterday, we noted that Japan's government has named six "Eco Model Cities" as environmentally friendly model cities and will provide them with financial support. One of them was Kitakyushu.
What is striking about the projects are the diversity of ideas how to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Kitakyushu is an industrial city in south western Japan that used to be known as a very polluted place to live. That started to change in the late 1970s when a group of housewives formed an environmental group and lobbied the city to combat pollution from the factories. Amazing what a bunch of dedicated people can do sometimes....
Graphic Of The Day: Romancing The Highways - A Half-Century History Of US Transit Funding
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07.23.08
Driving The Highway Budget Myth: The "Last Bastion Of Socialism In America"
For over 5 decades, US transportation projects have been budgeted based on a pair of myths: that public transit funding is an increasing drain on Federal and state highway budgets; and, a corollary, that fuel taxes cover the costs of highways and bridges. These mistaken beliefs feed hostility toward bicyclists and pedestrians who transgress on 'something we drivers pay for.' (Never mind that bicyclists and pedestrians often drive cars and trucks.) Via::Streetsblog, Highway Funding: The Last Bastion of Socialism in America . AND Delucchi Study Finds That U.S. Motorists Do Not Pay Their Way...
Surviving The Summer of Splat
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.08
Streetsblog
There are no hard data yet, but lots more people are out on bikes this summer, and lots more novice cyclists are ending up in hospital. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Cycling advocates say this could be the Summer of Splat on local roads. Take the area's dearth of bike paths, add aggressive Atlanta motorists, then toss in bikers who haven't been on the roads for decades. Presto — the buns are busting all over town. "We're seeing more people getting hit" by cars, said Dr. John Xerogeanes, chief of sports medicine at Emory's Orthopedic and Spine Center. "There are people crashing and people having trouble because they're starting to ride their bike in the city."
The always useful Bike Commute Tips Blog has some excellent suggestions for introducing yourself to a bicycle:
...
Sawdust-to-Biofuels Procedure Breakthrough Could Allow More Waste to be Turned Into Energy
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.23.08
In the ongoing food versus fuel discussion, using waste products from agriculture or municipal waste is often cited as being the solution as to how to produce liquid biofuels without impacting available agricultural land and increasing food prices. Producing liquid biofuels from wood waste is promising from the standpoint of availability, but is more difficult to turn into usable fuel than other products. However, a new breakthrough from China, reported on in New Scientist, offers a potential solution to this problem.
Lignin Broken Down Under Near-Critical Water
In summary, the process developed by Yuan Kou and a team of researchers at Peking University, breaks down the lignin in the wood by breaking carbon-oxygen-carbon bonds using highly heated, highly pressurized water as a solvent. When combined with a catalyst and hydrogen gas, water heated to 250-300°C and pressurized to 7000 kilopascals has been found to reliably break down these C-O-C bonds to be produce alkanes and alcohols needed for biofuels....
Reefer Madness: The Footprint of Refrigerated Food
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.08
We often talk about the benefits of local, fresh food, but here is another we have not thought about before: the footprint of refrigeration. So many processed foods move from reefer trailer to refrigerated case in the store to the freezer in your house, what does that use in energy?
Over at the Ethicurian, Marc crunched the numbers and found that the entire food industry uses 1.02.1016 BTUs of energy per year, the equivalent of 1,760,000 barrels of oil. Refrigeration uses up 14.9% of that (the hatched part of the graph above) or 262,000 barrels of oil, or 464,546, MWhr....
SustainStyle: Invitations, Chloe Sevigny, CFDA Vogue awards and more
by 1plus1 on 07.23.08
Welcome to SustainStyle, a weekly digest from the writers at 1plus1, a blog dedicated to eco-friendly fashion. SustainStyle runs every Wednesday.
Organic by John Patrick is named one of the 10 finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.
Katharine Hamnett offers new designs on her online shop, including a tank vest we "LOVE".
An Interview with Chloe Sevigny tells us why she is always head of her game, even when recycling.
Bella Figura provides us with the perfect party invitations that are oh so eco, and oh so proper!
Raasta, a Spanish brand that is normally not so easy to find, now available at sodafine.
xo....
Organic by John Patrick is named one of the 10 finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.
Katharine Hamnett offers new designs on her online shop, including a tank vest we "LOVE".
An Interview with Chloe Sevigny tells us why she is always head of her game, even when recycling.
Bella Figura provides us with the perfect party invitations that are oh so eco, and oh so proper!
Raasta, a Spanish brand that is normally not so easy to find, now available at sodafine.
xo....
Flatpack Gone Mad: No Screw, No Glue, Pure Stainless Steel
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.08
Dutch designer Joost van Bleiswijk designs everything from candelabras to wall units out of stainless steel, all laser cut and interlocking. "A combination of fireplace, altar and cabinet. This piece is as a conclusion of cabinet designs over centuries."
It is also extraordinarily heavy and over the top, but there is method in this madness. He describes his method of working in Dezeen:
"From archetypical drawings I create the objects as flat components by computer. The method of sliding different elements into one and other, and how to draw the exact technical drawings, is now like clay for me....All pieces are hand-finished after laser-cutting." The following shows the assembly of a clock:...
Pickens Pushes His Plan, Testifies Before Congress
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.23.08
photo: Getty Images
While it’s not quite celebrity-style coverage, in the sense of reporting what the Texan former oil-man had for lunch, TreeHugger certainly gives T. Boone Pickens his due time. And as he’s in the middle of spending $58 million promoting his vision of how the U.S. can achieve energy independence through increasing wind power and natural gas, he definitely stays on the radar. Yesterday Pickens was in Congress urging legislators to essentially get out of his way, so that transmission line construction and permitting can be done more quickly.
...
Wildfires Cause Cooling in Arctic
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 07.23.08
credit: Getty Images/NASA
Wildfires in Alaska and Canada Had Net Cooling Effect
Proving that climate science can be anything but intuitive, researchers report that large wildfires could have a net cooling effect. Led by Robert Stone, at the University of Colorado in Boulder, the team studied the wildfires that ravaged Alaskan and Canadian wilderness in 2004. The work is credited with creating a better understanding of the impact of particles and smoke in the atmosphere, which has been one factor of uncertainty in climate models. ...
Quote of the Day: John McCain on Offshore Drilling
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.08
Is Your Lifestyle Affecting Your Future Child’s DNA?
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 07.23.08
If I had a nickel for every prospective parent I know who changed their lifestyle for the better when they knew they were expecting I’d be a wealthy man indeed. But they just may be a bit late to the party. No pun intended.
And that’s because a controversial idea, called epigenetics, indicates those late nights in smoke filled rooms, that stress filled entry level job, or that apartment you rented next to that major, pollution-spewing roadway when you were young and broke may just be exacting their toll on the DNA of your child today.
...
It's a Drag: Most Cars Today Are Not As Aerodynamic As a 1921 Rumpler
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.08
In 1921 Edmund Rumpler wowed the Berlin Auto Show with the Teardrop. The engine components were enclosed in a tub underneath, and from the top it had a teardrop shape. The public thought it was ugly, it was hard to steer, there was no trunk space and it evidently was "outrageously expensive." Thinking it looked futuristic, Fritz Lang bought then at deep discount and blew them all up in his movie Metropolis.
In 1979, Volkswagen took one of the two remaining cars and put it in its wind tunnel. They found that it had a drag coefficent (CD value) of only 0.28, better than any car on the market at the time. Today it is still better than most of the cars on the market. ::Club of Pioneers ...
CleanMPG: Better Fuel Economy For All
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 07.23.08
Online Community for Hypermiling
With hypermiling getting ever-more popular as gas prices increase, it seems strange that TreeHugger has yet to feature a post purely about CleanMPG. Billed as an online community for learning to “raise fuel economy and lower emissions in whatever you drive”, CleanMPG features timely posts on the latest in green automotive technology, some insightful forums on the ins-and-outs of getting better gas mileage, and reviews of cars and accessories that can help you on the way to true gas-frugality. The website even includes a mileage log showing the astounding fuel economy figures some members are apparently achieving (103mpg in a Honda Insight, 63.7 in a Honda Civic!). The site also includes an excellent response to the perennial ‘hypermiling is dangerous’ debate:
...
Oil Shale Production to be Subsidized Under Bush Administration Proposal
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.23.08
In Canada, tapping the tar sands has been called the most environmentally destructive project on the planet. In the United States, some equally not-so-eco-friendly technologies have been developed to extract oil from shale in Colorado. If the Interior Department has its way, exploiting U.S. oil shale is going to become less financially burdensome for oil companies. Don’t worry, the environmental impact will probably remain high.
...
Foldoub Trailer Travels Small, Lives Large
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.08
It may well be that towing a trailer behind a station wagon is not the most fuel efficient way to travel, but squeezing all the air out of it and making it fold up as small as possible certainly is going to help. While pop-up trailers have been around forever, Dutch designer Niels Caris has designed a very clever pop-out unit that expands to many times its folded size, in a manner not dissimilar to one we have shown from 1936.
While the trailer and motor home businesses are in the tank because of gas prices, many clever solutions for dealing with small spaces start with boats and trailers, then migrate to furniture and housing. ...
Green Roof Creates "Image of a Mountain" in Japan
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.08
Green roofs are all the rage now, but back in 1995 it was pretty unusual when Emilio Ambasz and Associates extended Fukuoka's Tenjin Central Park with a terraced building covered in gardens. Builder Takenaka calls "a step-shaped rooftop garden in order also to create the image of a mountain as the view from the park."
...
Ethanol Requirement For Gasoline Waiver Decision Delayed
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.23.08
photo by Ricky via flickr
You may have read about how Texas governor Rick Perry filed a request with the Environmental Protection Agency to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard requirement for ethanol, so as to ease pressure on rising corn prices. The EPA has just announced that it needs more time to decide whether to grant the waiver.
While the EPA originally said it would make a decision by this coming Thursday, it now says it will need until early August to review the more than 15,000 public comments on the request.
...
Survey: Do You Turn Out the Lights?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.08
The British Carbon Trust says that companies should go after the low hanging fruit; just turning off the lights in empty rooms when you finish your TPS reports can save as much as 15% of lighting costs.
...
Waste Not, Want Not: Buying Organic Economically
by Bonnie Alter, London on 07.23.08
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been lambasting the nation for wasting food--apparently the British throw out 4.1 million tons of good food each year--wasting an average of £420 (US$832) per household. This has struck a note with newspapers as disparate as the Times ("How to cook without wasting food") to the Daily Express (a popular tabloid) musing on the effects of the credit crunch and the soaring price of food.
Here is a succinct reflection from the Independent: "More effectively than any save-the-planet propaganda, financial pressures are forcing people to rethink they way they behave as consumers. The old-fashioned idea that waste is harmful, personally and socially, is returning. The absurd over-packaging of food in supermarkets has begun to seem absurdly profligate. There is a new interest in allotments, in growing vegetables, even in rearing poultry in the back garden."
One of the first places to cut back has turned out to be organic food--in some supermarkets organic chickens are being electronically tagged, due to theft.
...
US Weekly Gives Green Tips
by Kristin Underwood, Sacramento, CA on 07.23.08
Image courtesy of US Weekly.
Grab the latest article of US Weekly for an exclusive green scoop with Maroon 5's Adam Levine, Alanis Morisette, Cameron Diaz and Adrien Grenier, among others. Adrien, you might know, is also a host of Alter Eco on Planet Green. The article also includes a roundup of Hollywood's carbon footprint and also offers tips on how to save money and live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. ...
Destruction of Wetlands Could Unleash a "Carbon Bomb"
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07.22.08
Image from StormyDog
It may seem hard to believe, but the planet's wetlands, which comprise 6% of its land surface area, contain 771 billion tons of carbon dioxide -- 20% of the Earth's carbon supply and roughly the same amount that is currently in the atmosphere. Wetlands include a wide array of different ecosystems, such as marshes, swamps, river deltas and mangroves, and perform a variety of vital ecological functions.
It shouldn't come as a surprise then that scientists are now warning that their destruction could unleash the equivalent of a carbon "bomb," with grave consequences for the world's climate. ...
Carmelized Onion Relish, Sustainably Stirred Coffee and Asparagus Spinach Dip
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 07.22.08
:: Spend a rainy day inside making this addictive Carmelized Red Onion Relish.
:: Spare the planet and skip the stirrer when preparing your coffee or tea.
:: Use up the last of this season's asparagus in this versatile, vegan Asparagus Spinach Dip....
Another Benefit of Modular and Prefab Homes
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.22.08
espace mobile
“In the future they’ll only foreclose on one section of your house at a time!”
Robt. Stupple in the ::New York Times via ::The Big Picture
I know, foreclosure isn't funny. More in TreeHugger:
The Foreclosure Fish Takes Over California
Kit Houses from Sears Hold Their Value
Home Design Trends: Smaller, Closer, More Urban
...
TreeHugger Tip: Alter Eco's Angela Lindvall on Composting
by Emma Grady, New York, NY on 07.22.08
Norwegian Try For Carbon Neutral Concerts
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 07.22.08
photo Gribiche @ flickr
The HoveFestival – a rock event in late June that featured Beck, Duffy and rapper Jay-Z, and the jazz and blues festival Canal Street going on this week with acts such as John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and the Waterboys, both signed on to UNEP's Climate Neutral Network to make their events, well, climate neutral.
Climate neutral concerts, UNEP style
The band Coldplay has made (perhaps not quite the most successful) efforts to offset carbon, but UNEP wants events to sign on to the network to learn from each other how to get to neutrality. At Hove, 73,000 total staffers, acts and concertgoers were invited to pay for their carbon footprint produced by traveling to the event by cell phone SMS (short message service) or by credit card. Solar charging stations helped people keep their cell phones going, and some of the lighting was LED powered by solar and wind energy. Some of the camper concertgoers got a free meal for each bag of trash they picked up. Hove hoped to recycle 50 percent of their trash from the event. Last year's Hove produced 1,300 tons of CO2 equivalent, and this year's event is now being analyzed to figure out how much purchased offsets get Hove toward "neutrality." Canal Street also offered organic and Fair Trade T's and "sound pollution measuring" during the concert in addition to using green energy and offering offsets for purchase. UNEP, which is also working for big sports events to join the network, will use offsets from both concerts for a landfill methane project in Jinan, China. Via ::Climate Neutral Network
More about Climate Neutral Network:
World Environment Day and an Interview with UNEP's Achim Steiner...
Yankee Stadium Bans Sunscreen: Security Threat or Squeezing For Nickels?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.22.08
It is really hard to promote the idea that people should get outdoors, be part of their community, go out to the ball game or whatever when we read things like this. At Yankee Stadium, the security guards are confiscating sunscreen. "Five hours in the upper deck with no sunscreen is crazy," said one upper deck seasons ticket holder. Fans in the bleachers point out in the New York Post that the sun may be a bigger threat than Osama Bin Laden.
"I was really pissed because, since I am Irish and I have a bald head, I need my sunblock," said Sean Gavin, 40, who had to toss his SPF 30 at the gate Saturday. "After they saw me dousing myself with it, it should have been obvious to them that it was sunblock and not some explosive."
Of course, if you need sunscreen the stadium will sell you an one-ounce bottle for five bucks. Dermatologists are quoted as saying that security concerns or not, leaving 56,000 fans unprotected from potential skin cancer is "very dangerous." "This is especially bad for children, as their younger skin is particularly sensitive," said Dr. Babar Rao, a specialist at the Skin and Cancer Center of New York. "Sunblock needs to be reapplied every two hours, even if you are not swimming in the ocean or pool."
But hey, when you have to pay Alex Rodriquez's salary, you will use any excuse to squeeze a few more bucks out of your fans. ::New York Post...
Demi and Ashton's Green Project, Miley Cyrus' Eco-song,Dave Matthew's Green Concerts, and More
by Terri MacLeod on 07.22.08
Unlike some "green grand-standing celebs", Demi and Ashton keep their do-good work low-key. According to ecorazzi, the power couple quietly slipped off to Guatemala to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity. The charity group is supporing the countries' indigenous organic farmers. ...And these two did seroius hands-on labor. "Demi and Ashton were actually building houses with tin roofs and schlepping breeze blocks in the midday sun. Ashton's father is carpenter so he has some experiences," reports a British media source.
Thanks: ecorazzi ...
USA is the Number One Biggest Wind Energy Producer
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 07.22.08
Image credit: Getty Images
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced today that the USA has overcome Germany as the biggest generator of wind energy electricity in the first half of 2008. This milestone, which was not expected until the end of 2009, comes as a result of the higher average wind speeds in the USA, since Germany is still the leader in installed capacity....
Big LED Breakthrough at Purdue University Could Change the World
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.22.08
Update: Breakthrough: Regular Light Bulb Made Super-Efficient with Laser (!)
Better, Cheaper LEDs
The incandescent lightbulb that wastes 90% of the electricity as heat is dying, we all know that. But a new breakthrough in solid state lighting might also kill compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) faster than some expected. Scientists at Purdue University have figured out how to manufacture LED solid-state lights on regular metal-coated silicon wafers (more details below). What this means is: much lower costs.
10% Reduction in Total Electricity Use
And since about 1/3 of U.S. electricity is used to produce light, this is major. "If you replaced existing lighting with solid-state lighting, following some reasonable estimates for the penetration of that technology based on economics and other factors, it could reduce the amount of energy we consume for lighting by about one-third. That represents a 10 percent reduction of electricity consumption and a comparable reduction of related carbon emissions," said Timothy D. Sands, professor of Materials Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering states at Purdue....
Brazil to Develop Satellite to Monitor Deforestation, Urban Expansion
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.22.08
photo by Leonardo F. Freitas
It may do nothing directly to halt the increasing rates of deforestation around the world, but a new satellite to be developed by Brazil and the UK will allow us to better judge just how bad things are getting and take steps against it. The Science and Development Network brings us the details:
Brazil-United Kingdom Collaborate on Satellite
Though it won’t be launched until 2011, Amazônia-1 is the product of a Brazil-UK collaboration. The satellite will orbit the Earth at a distance of 400 miles, 14 times per day. It will carry three cameras in total, to collect images of a variety of countries. One of the cameras, made in the UK, will have be able to produce images with a resolution of each pixel showing ten meters of terrain....
Honda Teases Us With Supposedly Green OSM Roadster Concept
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.22.08
Honda OSM Concept: Such a Tease!
Honda has unveiled the OSM (Open Study Model) roadster concept car at the British International Motor Show, and it claims that it is a green "low emission" prototype. But Honda is playing it very close to the vest, so that's all we know.
Is it hybrid? Plug-in hybrid? Fully electric (maybe they liked Tesla Motors' strategy of introducing electric cars upmarket first)? Your guess is as good as ours. You can read the press release if you are curious, but it's not that interesting without details on the drivetrain (we also want details on the drivetrain of Honda's upcoming hybrid). In the meantime, enjoy the photos (more below)....
Solar Energy in the Sahara to Power Europe Gains Support
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.22.08
photo: Getty Images
We’ve reported on the idea to use large solar power plants in the Sahara to power Europe a number of times. In a nutshell, the idea is that North Africa has so much solar potential that if enough solar power plants (either solar photovoltaic or solar thermal) were built there, and an efficient enough transmission infrastructure were built, the region could generate enough electricity to meet all of Europe and the Mediterranean’s needs. It’s an undeniably ambitious plan, but one which is increasingly gaining political support.
...
TreeHugger Tip: Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe on Flipping the Switch
by Emma Grady, New York, NY on 07.22.08
Matsushita to Increase Lithium-ion Battery Production by 300%
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.22.08
50 Million More Battery Units per Month
With the progressive electrification of transportation (from hybrids to plug-in hybrids to electric cars), one thing the world will need more of is batteries. Matsushita, who owns the Panasonic brand and has a partnership with Toyota for the development of automotive technologies, has decided to invest 100 billion Yen ($951 million) into a new litium-ion manufacturing plant in Osaka. It will be one of the biggest in the world, allowing the company to triple its output an increase of 50 million battery units per month.
Thankfully, most modern lithium-ion batteries used in vehicles are non-toxic and recyclable, and over the life of a car, they can help save enormous quantities of non-renewable fossil fuels and reduce smog-forming emissions substantially. Not perfect, but better than what we have now....
Stair of the Week: Folded Stair by Kevin Low
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.22.08
Malaysian architect Kevin Low likes small projects; after working around the world on everything from master plans to high end condos, he still designs mailboxes. The folded stair was designed to bring natural daylight into the middle of a long, narrow property....
TreeHugger Gets The Inside View on Ecover's Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 07.22.08
Do we really know what goes into our eco-friendly cleaning products? Where they're made and why they work? Despite being a loyal Ecover customer for many years I must confess ignorance. Like many people I trust what it says on the label and the reputation of a brand name. So when the call came inviting me to take a trip on the Eurostar to visit Ecover's HQ in Belgium I jumped at the chance. Doing a quick spot of research in the TreeHugger archives before I left I found the recent kerfuffle over traces of dioxane in Ecover products and began to wonder whether I could dig up any dirt on this squeaky clean brand. Click over the page to find out how I got on......
Energy Efficiency Improvements Could Save UK Businesses £2.5 Billion per Year
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.22.08
While I admit I’m exaggerating the effect of the lights a bit with this long exposure image, the Carbon Trust says businesses could save up to 15% in lighting costs if they turned off lights in room and hallways when the spaces are not occupied. Not to mention decreasing light pollution at night.
photo by Jason Jeffries
In the world of energy, going after the metaphorical low-hanging fruit can yield big savings. In the case of energy efficiency, making improvements in this area could save UK businesses £2.5 billion a year, according to the Carbon Trust.
...
EV1 Electric Car on eBay for $100k. Oh Wait! It's Just the Manual...
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.22.08
Honey, Guess What I Just Bought on eBay!
There's a classic eBay scam that goes something like this: You sell the box, or the manual of something that is very valuable or in high-demand, and you do it in such a way that it is possible to mistake it for the real thing. A good way to add credibility is to have a very high starting price. We've seen this with Playstation 3 boxes and iPhone boxes being sold for the price of the real thing, and now we have this beautiful 1997 EV1 electric car... manual on sale for $100,000.
The seller is obviously hoping that a very rich person will forget to put on his glasses and make a bid. While it's good to see that there's enough demand for electric cars (see 17 Electric Cars that You Must Know About) for this to happen, we hope that nobody will be fooled. Here's the eBay Auction for the EV1 Manual. Via eBay scam of the day: EV1 owner's manual for $100,000...
Fiberglass: Is Pink Really Green?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.22.08
Certainly that is what Owens Corning would tell you, devoting an entire website to the proposition that Pink is Green. Our own Business Roundtable agreed. Greenstrides asked the question and did not really come to a conclusion, so I will stick my two cents in.
The "Pink is Green" campaign continues the American tradition of ignoring every aspect about "green" except energy savings. Of course, there are a host of other issues involved in being a green building product, including how it is made, what it is made from and its effect on air quality and health. Of course, Owens Corning does not address those considerations....
Huge Drop in Chinese Birth Defects After Local Coal Plant Closes
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 07.22.08
In a sign of things that might have been, Chinese children born after the closure of a local coal plant have found themselves with 60% less development problems such as motor skill coordination than those born prior to the closing.
For with all the efforts by the Chinese government to clean up places like Beijing for the Olympics, there’s no denying that there are plenty of other places that could use the help.
Of course, the plant that was closed in Tongliang lacked basic pollution control equipment to limit the emission of pollutants like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter.
...
Reducing Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere by Adding Lime to the Oceans
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.22.08
photo: Getty Images
We’ve written before about attempts to monkey around with the oceans in an attempt to increase their carbon sequestration abilities, so as to mitigate the effects of climate change: seeding the oceans with iron being one of the most prominent examples. Enter another candidate for planetary engineering: adding lime (calcium hydroxide) to seawater.
Adding Lime to Seawater Increases Alkalinity, CO2 Absorption
Though the idea has be advanced before, a new method of sourcing the lime has attracted the attention of Shell, who is funding a feasibility study for the idea. Basically, the idea is based upon the idea that adding the lime to the water will increase its alkalinity, thereby increasing its ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, as well as reduce its tendency to release it again.
...
Fact - Your Life is Worth 4 Barrels of Oil
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA on 07.22.08
...from an energy standpoint, that is. Folks over at The Oil Drum are running the numbers on comparing human labour [sic] to oil. Turns out that running the human machine for 45 years on food-calories uses just about the same amount of energy as contained in four barrels of oil, each of which has a whopping 5.8 million BTUs of energy. And if you think the price of oil is high, flip the fold for what the 'fair' cost should be.
...
First 100% Organic Clothes Shop in Sao Paulo, Brazil
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 07.22.08
Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city, has its own 100% organic clothes shop: Eden, which opened its doors last month. All garments that are sold in the store are produced with organic cotton and died with natural pigments, free of harmful chemical products.
The store is also decorated with furniture produced with wood from demolition and bamboo coming from the firm Bamcrus. More pictures and info on the brand and the origin of the organic fabrics in the extended.
Via Red Ecoblogs....
Is India on the Brink of Energy-Driven Economic Collapse?
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07.22.08
Set aside, for a moment, the foreign policy and political aspects of India's impending crisis of government. Instead, let's turn up the sustainability filter, taking our lead from EnergyDaily from which we provide this excerpt for those of you who have not been following the story: "Is this an issue on which the government should be brought down?" Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at the start of the stormy debate in parliament's 545-seat lower house, which will vote on a trust motion Tuesday... Mukherjee -- one of the architects of the US-India deal -- said the government was merely trying to "solve our problems of the future," saying it was India's only hope of avoiding a gigantic energy crisis.Via::Energy Daily, Indian govt makes passionate appeal to save US nuclear deal. What is at the root of India's crisis? What are the implications for climate action?...
Paradise Unpaved: Franke James' Driveway One Year Later
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.22.08
A year ago we recounted how artist Franke James gave up her SUV and then decided to rip up her driveway, except the law said that every house had to have a driveway paved with concrete, asphalt or brick. Even porous pavers like turfstone were illegal.
Franke took her case (and a printout of TreeHugger) to City Hall and won; now she tells her story in her wonderful mix of humour, drawing and photography.
...
French Newspapers Get Together to Sell Digital Reader
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.22.08
Paula Kupfer for the International Herald Tribune
Newspaper sales are dropping all over the world as people migrate to electronic sources; in North America they all let Craigslist eat their lunch with free classifieds, and it seems that young people have completely abandoned them. They certainly are not the most environmentally benign way of delivering news, either.
In France, the newspaper companies aren't waiting for iPhones and computers to kill their business; they are working together to introduce the Read & Go, which will let subscribers download the contents of participating papers onto "the most convincing electronic facsimile of ordinary paper in existence." The Kindle delivers papers in America, but the French system is advertiser supported.
...
IPCC Scientist Encourages Companies to Replace Travel With Video Conferencing
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 07.22.08
IPCC Scientist Encourages Video Conferencing
We know that telecommuting is green, and we also know that emissions from the airline industry are growing. At the same time, high fuel prices are prompting the airlines to raise ticket prices, charge for checked bags, cut back on flights, and in any number of other ways make flying even less pleasant. It was with all this in mind that, "at a meeting in the UK this past week, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, a climate scientist with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), strongly urged businesses to cut employee travel, and to fill the void with video conferencing."...
Kudzu Harvesting for the Production of Ethanol, Redux
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.22.08
Japan Names Six Eco Model Cities
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan on 07.22.08
(Photo from Taku Iida's website)
As much as I like cool government initiatives, I have to wonder how to tackle this news: Japan's government has named six "Eco Model Cities" as environmentally friendly model cities and will provide them with financial support. The government chose Yokohama, Kitakyushu, Toyama, Obihiro, Minamata and Shimokawa out of 82 applications for the designation. Applicants presented their ideas to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
For example, the city of Obihiro, in a famous agricultural region called Tokachi in Hokkaido, plans to produce alternative fuel from compost and unused parts of bean plants, and to use waste cooking oil for automobile fuel. Obihiro has set a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the city by 50 percent by 2050....
Survey: Should America Drill, Drill, Drill?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.22.08
The word from founder Graham has always been: we are not red or blue, we are green. But some days it is really, really hard not to take a position that aligns with one party or the other, and this might be one of those defining positions. One party supports drilling offshore and in protected areas; the other does not. What should we do?
...
X-Prize to Offer $10m for Sustainable Jet Fuel
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 07.22.08
The X-Prize for Aviation
The X-Prize Foundation’s efforts to encourage greener cars has already been attracting multi-million dollar sponsorships, and may have even inspired John McCain’s proposed competition for better battery technology. Now the X-Prize Foundation is offering $10 million to anyone who can develop a clean, sustainable alternative to jet fuel. More from The Guardian:...
Green Eyes On: Green Jobs
by Sara Snow on 07.22.08
Photo: Ryan McVay/Getty Images
Hankering for a green collar job? This market niche is bigger than ever. Last week in Denver, I spoke at the annual conference for one green field, the green home real estate market. EcoBroker is a resource for licensed real estate professionals “providing education on energy and environmental issues and strategies for capitalizing on the growing green market.” Basically they’re realtors who have decided to embed themselves in the green home market, making themselves experts on green home options and availabilities. In the Green Movement, Connections Mean Progress Before I took the stage there was a panel discussion on the affordability of green homes, and one of the panelists wrapped up his comments by saying that the real challenge is connecting the realtors who can sell the green homes to the people who want to buy them. Taking this comment further, the next phase in this green movement has to be about making the connections. With all of the changes that we’ve seen as of late, as the awareness of green and natural living grows, we need to connect everyone who is in the business of selling, manufacturing, distributing, educating, informing, inspiring (to/for) others all things green, natural, organic, or sustainable. There are great people doing great things out there, and it’s time for all of those hungry individuals who are looking for ways to live more natural and environmentally respectful lives to have access to the products and the information they need....
World’s Largest Offshore Windfarm, The London Array, is Back On
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.22.08
photo by m.prinke via flickr
A few months ago, when Shell pulled out of the London Array, leaving its partners E.ON and Dong Energy in the lurch, the future of Britain’s and the world’s largest offshore windfarm was up in the air. Now it seems that the Array’s future is a bit more certain.
E.ON, Dong buy up Shell's share
German-based E.ON and Danish Dong Energy have agreed to buy Shell’s 33% stake in the 1 gigawatt project for an undisclosed sum, The Guardian reports. The two remaining backers will form a new 50-50 partnership to continue development of the wind farm located off the shore of Kent.
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Oxfam Has a New Look
by Bonnie Alter, London on 07.22.08
Oxfam has redesigned itself and become a fashion statement. Three stores in London have become eco-fashion headquarters, with designer clothes and new outfits by green labels such as People Tree. Instead of being a slightly mouldy-smelling place for grimy books and reject pottery, these hot new "boutique" outlets are stylishly decorated, on fashionable streets, and carry names like Chloe and Stella McCartney and Junky Styling. They sell some of the best donated designer items, alongside Fair Trade and ethically produced clothes and accessories. The one pictured, located in trendy Notting Hill, looks as smart as anything on the block--and it's a lot cheaper.
Beside the new People Tree clothes hang others by London College of Fashion students. They have been asked to 're-invent' items of clothing for the shop and make unique one-off pieces. In addition, Oxfam is auctioning off seven items on eBay that have been reworked by top designers. Clothes are divided into 5 categories: fair trade, ‘Reinvented’ – reworked donated products by the fashion students, ‘Loved for longer’ which are second hand designer, ‘Made with Love’ – volunteers reworking donated products and ‘Good Fashion Sense’ – working towards Fair Trade and organic. :: Oxfam
More on Oxfam
: Marks and Spencers Offers Gift Vouchers for Thrifty Customers
: How to Green Your Wardrobe...
Tristan Prettyman Saves Oceans and Climate With Latest Album
by Kristin Underwood, Sacramento, CA on 07.22.08
Image courtesy of Capitol Records.
Singer/Songwriter Tristan Prettyman is using her sophomore album, Hello, to do more than raise money. She donated a song “War Outta Peace” to the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF), which created a DVD to raise awareness about the benefits of renewable energy. She is also volunteering to clean up beaches along her tour route and you can join in the fun.
When not on tour Prettyman lives a very Treehugger life, driving a hybrid, composting in her backyard and recycling just about everything she can find. This album gave her the chance to live the green lifestyle both on the road and at home....
A Green New Deal: 100 Months to Save the World from Climate Change
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07.21.08
Image from Wikimedia Commons
We've waxed poetic before about the need for a bold New Green Deal to help bring our economy out of the doldrums and into the next renewable Industrial Age. A new organization, appropriately named the Green New Deal Group, has picked up on this idea and is laying out an ambitious 100 month agenda that it says is necessary to prevent dangerous global warming, reports the BBC....
Sweet Corn Bisque, What Green Can Mean and A New Vegan Cookbook
by Jessica Root - Brooklyn, NY on 07.21.08
:: Take advantage of this season's cheap and tasty corn on the cob by buying it in bulk. Then make this Roasted Yellow Pepper and Corn bisque.
:: Have a good chuckle reading SuChin's rant on what "going green" can actually mean and what Paris Hilton has to do with it...
:: Cook delicious, you-would-never-know-it's-vegan meals with help from cookbook, Veganomicon.
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Eco Meets Ecco In New Prize For Sustainable Fashion
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 07.21.08
More prizes and accolades for designers who lessen the footprint of their goods from design through production to end of life are always welcome. The Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation has given grants to emerging ready-to-wear designers for awhile now, and just recently added a new category for sustainable fashion - worth a $25,000 show. Applications due October 3 at the EccoDomani site.
But what would be really great is to see more prizes for sustainable and sensibly priced eco-fashion. And then, a totally green H&M, or Lands End, or even a Bitten - what we absolutely need is a Whole Foods of sustainable fashion for the rest of us - socks to sweatshirts to shoes. Until that happens, it's very difficult to buy green fashion for say, back-to-school, or winter wear for a family. It's all a bit too piecemeal. For now, we have to rely on eco-boutiques such as London's new Devidoll that group together more designers of green fashions, and of course on TH spottings of really cool new eco-goods! Via ::EccoDomani.com...
Martin Eberhard Blogs About Getting his Tesla Roadster
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.21.08
Former Tesla CEO Gets his Roadster
We recently reported that Tesla Roadsters had started shipping, and now we learn that Martin Eberhard, co-founder and former CEO of Tesla Motors, just got his electric Roadster. He blogged about the experience and posted a few photos (more below). It seems to have been an almost religious experience for him:
"The sun had just come over the trees, and its distinct orange stripes lit up the yard. The matching orange panels in the seats screamed Sit Here! Drive me, Baby! Who am I to refuse such an offer?"
100% Powered by the Sun
Trivia: Martin's house is equipped with a 5.2kW solar panel system. This means that he'll be driving around on the sun's power, with some left over to power his house....
I’m John McCain and I Approve of Offshore Drilling
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.21.08
New Nano-Materials To Help Rocket Man Deflect Space Junk
by Karin Kloosterman, Tel Aviv on 07.21.08
(Image credit: NASA)
Humans are not just making a mess of our planet. Since we started exploring the heavens, our divine species has been cluttering up Earth’s orbit. Not long ago, TreeHugger reported on shocking space debris images: space junk circling our earth. The oldest piece is the American satellite, the Vanguard I, launched in 1958. It’s still out there.
Sadly China has been creating space debris intentionally, and America has plans to create some more as well (by shooting down a failing spy satellite).
What’s out there? There are dead satellites, paint flakes, spent rocket stages, and other high-velocity objects such as coolant from nuclear-powered satellites spinning around Earth.
"Space debris has become a major concern recently, since collisions with such debris at ultrahigh velocities could be a disaster for spacecraft that pass through Earth's orbit," says Dr. Noam Eliaz, from Tel Aviv University: "An impact could be catastrophic."...
Municipal Waste-to-Ethanol Plant Planned for Reno, Nevada
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.21.08
image: Fulcrum BioEnergy
Edmonton, Canada is in the process of building a waste-to-ethanol plant. Now, Reno, Nevada will be getting in on the act. The facility in question will be built by Fulcrum BioEnergy and is expected to begin operating in 2010.
Taking municipal sold waste and converting it to ethanol, the Sierra BioFuels plant will produce approximately 10.5 million gallons of biofuel per year, from 90,000 tons of material that otherwise would have been disposed of in landfills. The plant, located ten miles east of Reno, will cost $120 million to build, with construction starting later this year.
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Feds Throw School Kids Under the Cheesewagon
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.21.08
School bus art by 4ever30something
In Rochester, New York, a lot of kids take public transit to school; the transit authority even organized its routes and service times to accommodate them, which seems logical enough. But it is not logical to the Federal Transit Administration; according to the Campaign for America's Future:
The FTA's regional administrator, Brigid Hynes-Cherin, said the authority's actions violated regulations governing federal mass transit funding because even though the routes could be used by general public, they weren't primarily for the general public. Plus, she added—and here is where we get to the real nub of the issue—public bus systems can't use federal money to provide services that compete with, or crowd out, private sector bus companies.
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Drain Pipe Accomodations, UCONN Goes Green and Orphanage Clothing
by Team Treehugger, Worldwide on 07.21.08
DasPark Hotel in Austria offers visitors the chance to get cozy in a drain pipe.
EcoLibris takes it to the streets, joining forces with the University of Connecticut's campus coop bookstore.
Orphanage Clothing company re-mixes outdated threads.
Eco-journalist, Simran Sethi, takes a stand on CFLs.
McCain goes gaga for the Chevy Volt.
Most Huggable is a regular roundup of some of Hugg's top green news stories. Why not submit your own green news?...
Stop Signs as Message Boards
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.21.08
Image by Richard Moross
Of course, TreeHugger does not condone vandalism of public property, but I often get a chuckle out of stop sign "modifications" with a message, the most popular probably being "stop eating animals," although "Stop Hammertime" seems to be big as well. Matthew Blackett of Spacing writes that "It provides a very prominent platform for anyone who has a desire to express a political or social message."...
The Top 10 Least Walkable U.S. Cities
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 07.21.08
When Walk Score recently released their ranking of the ten most walkable U.S. cities there was no doubt that folks in places like San Francisco, Boston and New York City could look with satisfaction upon their city as a paradise for bipedalism. But when we took a look at the rankings it became clear that there was quite a spread between some of the most and least friendly areas for walking in which to live. In fact, it’s not so improbable to imagine that some citizens of major U.S. cities often feel like the person pictured here when compared to their counterparts in those where walking is a way of life.
But the question is, does your city makes the list of our least walkable U.S. cities?
Following is the list, created by Walk Score, of the least walkable major cities in the U.S.
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New Over-Packaging Record? 17 Boxes For 32 Pages
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.21.08
Ever Heard of These Things Called Envelopes?
HP really cares about paper. Technology site The Register received a email from Stephen Strang, one of its readers, about a delivery from HP. A large box containing smaller ones... 17 of them. All of that for 32 pieces of A4 paper (wrapped two by two in pink foam). We're not suggesting this is standard practice at HP, but if this is real, they probably should have a closer look at some of their processes.
This beats our previous over-packaging entries: Is This Too Much Packaging, You Think? (which, depending on who you ask, might actually have been justified) and Dell's big box for a USB thumb drive.
Update: We just got a comment that seems to corroborate and explain the photos. Check it out here....
Are Our ‘Default Settings’ for Consumption Too High?
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.21.08
photo by David via flickr
Just a brief break for discussion: China Dialogue has posted a piece where a Chinese journalist of ‘a certain age’ comments upon how her, and society’s, ‘default settings’ have changed in regards to what is considered a ‘normal’ level of consumption. While normally we tend to focus on external solutions to environmental problems, sometimes how our own perceptions and expectations shape those external solutions.
Please read the whole article “Default settings and modern lifestyles”, but here are some quotes to lure you in:...
Conclusive Proof of Global Warming
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.21.08
Click here to watch video
Joe Romm at Climate Progress proves it once and for all with this 10 second video. Watch it at ::ClimateProgress
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Competition for LCD: Better Image, A Lot Less Power
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 07.21.08
Improving on LCD Screens
Apparently, LCD screens don't have much going for them except that compared to CRTs they are more power-efficient, and compared to other flat screen technologies they are less expensive. Their downsides are that the pixels do not turn completely off and take on average 25 to 40 milliseconds to switch between black and white (which can cause motion blur), they don't perform very well in bright ambient lights, they are complex (with three sub-pixels per pixel, each with its controlling transistor), and most importantly for us, only 5-10% of the light emitted by the LCD's backlight passes through the polarizing films, liquid-crystal layer, and the color filters to reach your eye.
Millions of Miniature Telescopes Staring You in the Face
Microsoft Research has published a paper in Nature Photonics about a new kind of monitor that could someday replace LCDs. Their 'telescopic' pixels (pictured under magnification on the left) use two micromirrors allowing them to switch completely on or off in 1.5 millisecond. Because they are so fast, you don't need 3 sub-pixels, reducing cost and complexity. But the best part is that about 36% of the light emitted by the backlight is getting through, making them potentially about 3.6 and 7 times more power-efficient than LCDs. But that's not all: Computer simulation show this could reach 56% with further design improvements. That would be up to 11.2 times better than LCDs!...
‘Hy-Bird’ Airplane Powered by Solar PV and Hydrogen Fuel Cell, To Make Round-the-World Flight
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.21.08
The Hy-Bird may be an interesting concept aircraft, but I wonder if placing what looks to be an out-of-scale illustration of the plane over what looks to be Bryce Canyon might be coming in a bit too high.
photo: Trina Solar
I feel a bit weird posting on this topic, considering the product launch/test flight is well over a year away and so much could change between now and the end of 2009, but since Trina Solar has announced that it will be supplying nearly 300 solar PV cells for LISA Airplanes' Hy-Bird aircraft, a progress report is warranted. No, that’s not a typo. It’s called the Hy-Bird.
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Top 30 Design Blogs & Resources For Architects
by Kimberley D. Mok, Montreal, Canada on 07.21.08
Wish I had such a list when I was a young and impressionable architecture student who couldn’t tell a green roof from Astroturf. Anyhow, things on the larger architecture scene are changing for the better, no doubt fuelled by the exponential growth of green design resources and blogs out there. Though by no means completely complete, if you’re keen on getting a steady dose of the latest about design (sustainable or otherwise), or are looking for a job posting, or just need inspiration for your design projects, check out this list of these helpful sites out after the jump. (We invite you to add your favourites as well.)...
Pop Quiz: How Much More Gas Do Americans Use?
by Dominic Muren, Philadelphia, USA on 07.21.08
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Europe’s Largest Single Onshore Windfarm to be Built in Scotland
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.21.08
photo by Hugh Gray
A couple of weeks ago we reported on how a series of interconnected wind farms in northern Sweden has been planned and that the project, at a total capacity of 3-3.5 gigawatts, is claiming bragging rights as Europe’s largest wind farm. I won’t get into parsing the logic of 'when does calling something the largest x?' become an exercise in semantics rather than measurement, but the project will be nevertheless big. Based on news reported by the BBC however, Scotland will for a time be able to claim another largest, and this one is more straight measurement than classification: Europe’s largest single onshore windfarm.
Clyde Wind Farm Gets Approval
Scottish ministers have approved the 152-turbine, 456 megawatt Clyde Wind Farm, to be built alongside the M74 motorway near Abington. Construction is scheduled to begin next year and all phases of the project to be completed by 2011. The project is expected to cost £600 million and will create 200 jobs during construction, with 30 remaining once the project is operational.Scottish and Southern Energy, the project’s developer, estimates that the windfarm will produce enough electricity to power 320,000 homes.
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Bisphenol A: How Wal-Mart Became the New FDA
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.21.08
Video of Marc Gunther on BPA
Marc Gunther of Fortune Magazine wrote a long and thoughtful piece on the Bisphenol A (BPA) controversy; he spiked much of it for Fortune because he found himself conflicted over the safety issues. He notes that the Federal Drug Administration didn't pull polycarbonate bottles off the shelves because of BPA (it still says they are safe) but Wal-Mart did, and wonders when retailers became the arbiters of safety.
"I’ve come to the conclusion that the BPA story is, in essence, about trust. It’s another bit of evidence to support my argument that it makes business sense in the long run for companies to be responsible and prudent, even if that costs them money today; regaining trust, once it’s been lost, is both terribly difficult and expensive. It also strikes me that industries that try to weaken government regulation or plant their own people inside regulatory agencies run the risk of getting burned in the end. That’s because when we lost trust in our regulators—as we seem to have lost faith in the FDA—we are [sic] left with mob rule, as manufacturers and retailers (i.e., Wal-Mart) come under pressure to stop making and selling perfectly legal products. Strong and predictable regulation, it seems to me, is better for business as well as for the rest of us than the chaos now surrounding BPA." ...
Mayor of London Announces the 'Summer of Cycling'
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 07.21.08
London Shells Out Money to Promote Cycling
As part of the $975 million USD London plans to spend on walking and cycling programs over the next decade, London Mayor Boris Johnson has launched the 'Summer of Cycling' with the simple but important aim of getting more Londoners to ride their bikes. A press release announced that:
The Mayor and Transport for London (TfL) will be promoting cycling throughout the coming months, through innovative events and the ongoing “You’re better off by bike” campaign. The aims of this campaign are to encourage existing cyclists to use their bikes more regularly, and promote cycling to the estimated 1.1 million Londoners who have access to bikes but don’t use them....
Matt Simmons and Peak Oil: How to Silence Fast Money Team
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 07.21.08
Seven Ways To Avoid Greenwashing Your Building Products
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.21.08
Greenwashed counterops
We have previously noted the six sins of greenwashing; Joel Bittle over at Green Building Elements does a terrific job in coming up with the seven sins of greenwashing in the building business. Most are relevant to designers working with LEED, but many are useful to anyone looking at materials for home or office. Read the original post for greater detail, here is a summary:
1. Make sure your product satisfies at least one green building requirement. If your product isn’t green, you’re not going to fool anyone
2. Do not claim credits that do not apply to your product or to the current building project.
3. If you are not unique, don’t try to sell yourself as unique. All stainless steel contains recycled material, so don’t try to sell yourself as the only purveyor of recycled stainless steel.
4. Don’t claim that yours is a local product if it’s not harvested/extracted or processed locally....
Beijing's Olympic Subways Outpace US Subways
by Alex Pasternack, New York, NY on 07.21.08
Two weeks before the start of the Olympics, Beijing has debuted what will be one of the Games most significant legacies, bigger than all the impressive architecture and the beautification campaigns: three new subways that expand the city's track length by twenty five percent.
As US urban and commuter rail is just barely chugging along, the new lines are stand-outs: fast, gorgeous and frequent, arriving every two and a half minutes at rush hour -- things that cannot easily be said about most American subways. The ticket price hasn't gone up either: it's still 2 RMB or about 30 cents (the new airport line costs about $3.50 per ride).
Just how important these new lines are to this crowded, sprawling city, often plagued by smog and snarling traffic, was made clear today, when a crush of passengers caused a rare shut-down on an older line. But the skies were all blue and white....
Growing Rice Becoming As Profitable as Coca
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.21.08
Bolivians Celebrating Election Results. Image Bear Guerra
For years, the American government has been trying to stomp out the growing of Coca, which is the base ingredient of Cocaine. Also for years, people have complained that American food subsidies and cheap corn exports made it impossible to compete with local crops, so coca became just about the only crop that farmers could make a living on.
Now, soaring food prices are doing what US Government policy failed to do: give farmers an option. Bolivian President Evo Morales, (also president of the coca growers union) has asked coca farmers to start growing rice and corn as a way of "holding down coca production while helping to feed the poorest country in South America."
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It's A Wrap: Clever Packaging from Japan
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.21.08
When I was in Japan I was appalled at the amount of waste in packaging, where things were often wrapped in three layers of plastic and paper; all magnificently designed and beautifully done, but generating a lot of garbage. Things may be changing; Ping Mag covers innovations in packaging that reduce waste significantly. Two of my favourites are the tofu packed in balloons; when you pierce it with a toothpick only a tiny bit of plastic remains. Also available with pudding....
Survey: Do You Read e-books?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.21.08
Celsias notes that " about 1 hour of energy spent on a laptop computer, equals the amount of energy expended to create just 4 sheets of paper; you can read a lot more than 4 pages in an hour. Plus, because eBooks use zero fossil fuels, and no trees, by choosing an eBook (even some of the time), you contribute to making a big difference." On the other hand, my wife, a prodigious reader, notes that by getting her books from the library she is making even more of a difference.
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Home Delivery: The Reviews Are In
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.21.08
Photo from James Wagner
We so want to see Home Delivery, the exhibition of prefab at the Museum of Modern Art. Since we haven't got there yet, we are reading the reviews:
Nicolai Ouroussoff in the New York Times: “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,” is a delightful surprise.....The effect is startling: expressions of a suburban utopian world surrounded by Midtown’s looming skyscrapers."
Justin Davidson in New York Magazine: "sporadically exciting but ultimately diffuse."
Art Critic James Wagner on JamesWagner.com:
The show is fascinating, at least as much for a historical survey as for a review of the latest innovations. ...But I confess to one serious misgiving about the show....
Solar Industry Growth Prediction: US Largest Market by 2011
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 07.21.08
photo: Getty Images
Despite an unstable regulatory environment—renewable energy tax incentives are stalled in the senate, BLM policy has been inconsistent— the United States will surpass Germany to be the largest market for solar power in the world by 2011, according to a report by JP Morgan, cited in Greentech Media.
By 2011, the US will have an installed capacity of 1.6 gigawatts (with 920 MW in California alone), surpassing Germany’s expected capacity of 1.35 gigawatts. The third largest market by this time will be South Korea with 957 megawatts of capacity.
In terms of market growth, the fastest growing market is expected to be Greece (135% growth), followed by South Korea (89%), and then Italy (65%).
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Britain's Oldest Trees on File
by Bonnie Alter, London on 07.21.08
We like to keep a watch on trees (what a surprise): Prince Charles' lost Cedar of Lebanon, the world's oldest one in Sweden and now: a file on all 20,000 of Britain's oldest trees. Why a file? Because the trees are disappearing due to vandalism, new development and disease. Trees represent a country's heritage and history and it is too easy for them to be destroyed and lost, either by chance or by design. England has some of the oldest trees in Europe, probably due to its temperate climate and rural nature and vast forests owned and used for hunting by the Royal families over the centuries.
The trees would be on a register and categorized according to their age: growing, mature or ancient. One of the trees was the site of Pontius Pilate's birth (a 5,000 year old yew), Elizabeth I had a drink under another in 1573 (pictured) and Dickens used another for inspiration in one of his novels. The work is being done in coordination with the Woodland Trust which campaigns to save ancient woods, the Ancient Tree Forum and the Tree Register. The Register is a fascinating source of photos and information about 150,000 of Britain and Ireland's notable trees. Now that's serious treehugging. :: The Telegraph
More on Ancient Trees
:: World's Oldest Tree
:: Prince Charles' lost Cedar of Lebanon
:: Trees for Cities...
TreeHugger Founder Graham Hill Interview on Elephant Journal
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 07.20.08
If you haven't met TreeHugger founder and fearless leader Graham Hill, the man who first mated the words "green" and "aspirational", here's an opportunity. Check out Graham being interviewed by Waylon Lewis on elephant journal's elevision.
And if you know Graham, here's an even better opportunity: see the G-man wearing something other than jeans and a T!...
How Three Bicycles Touring from Alaska to Panama Equal a Herd of Cattle
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 07.20.08
How are Cows and Bikes Connected?
The connection is not obvious until you know the story of The Cow Spokes. Tim Whittemore, Sam Stickney, and Noah Hoskins-Forsythe are farm boys who are trying to make their contribution to "just and sustainable development through out the world". They plan to do this by raising $10,000 in moo-lah from supporters of their marathon charity ride from Alaska to the Panama Canal. The money will go to Heifer.org, a charity which focuses on giving the gift of self-sufficiency.
For lovers of eco-travel blogs, the Cow Spokes are documenting their journey with stories and pictures. Follow the three cowspokes as they depart from Vermont for Alaska and share the stories eagerly requested by their devoted fans....
Graphic Of The Day: Top-Ten Per Capita (Greenest) US States For Carbon Emissions
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07.20.08
This is an update of the post from 2007 titled: Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Who Are The Greenest (States) Of All. That earlier post graphic was based on a multi-parameter index ranking. This new one is simpler:- the graphic you see here shows state ranking based on per capita emissions. The greener the bar, the better they are.
Via::Eredux, United States Energy Usage Comparison Chart...
John McCain Takes a Look at the Chevy Volt
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 07.20.08
Image Credit: Rebecca Cook, Reuters
McCain Takes a Look at the Chevy Volt
Fresh off his proposal for a $300 million government-sponsored prize for the development of better battery technology, presidential candidate John McCain, along with "GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner and other company executives. . .examined and got into a model of a Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid-electric car GM says it plans to have on the market by 2010." During the visit Senator McCain tried to burnish his green and national security credentials by saying that "the key, integral, vital part of our ability to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil will be directly related to that sign over there," referring to the Chevy Volt. There's much to dislike about the Senator, but he does understand the importance of electrifying our transportation system (too bad he wants to power it with nuclear plants)....
Ready, Set, Green: My Eight Week Journey To A Greener, Guilt-Free Me
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 07.20.08
My house is carbon's Big Foot. Built in 1912, it's a Portland bungalow that has never known the meaning of the word "efficiency." So setting out to conquer Chapter 7 of Graham Hill and Meaghan O'Neill's Ready, Set, Green: Eight Weeks To Modern Eco-Living seemed the biggest challenge of my eight week journey thus far.
Green decks still challenging
I've been working on my house extensively this summer, but I don't feel as if my energy consumption, my water use or my building practices have improved very much. And the main reason is cost. This is still the major Achilles heel of home greening, in my opinion. A search for green deck materials at the beginning of the summer did not yield much of use - we ended up with Trex, which our local green house store, Eco-Haus, doesn't stock or list as a green alternative. I respect their choice, as Trex is downcycling, but what is a homeowner with a tight budget to do? FSC Cedar, I suppose, which is great, but with the sticky sap trees we have overhanging the majority of the deck, the maintenance and clean-up of the cedar made it prohibitive, and we used it only for framing and railings. For the number of people who build or re-build decks and porches, it feels like the green deck alternatives are few....
Plan to Save Dead Sea Morphs into Giant Real Estate Venture
by Jesse Fox, Tel Aviv, Israel on 07.20.08
Sink holes along the Dead Sea shore. Caused by the receding waters, these holes have begun appearing spontaneously in recent years. (image: he.widipedia.org).
Despite harsh criticism and a host of skeptics, the Red Sea to Dead Sea "Peace Conduit" plan is proceeding apace. Although construction has not yet begun, the project is expected to be presented to the Israeli government for approval this summer.
This week, however, the Israeli press reported that developers are planning on building enormous industrial and residential projects along the route of the canal, on both sides of the Israel-Jordan border, irrespective of whether the controversial canal eventually materializes or not.
According to Ha'aretz newspaper, Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, who made headlines recently when he bought New York's Plaza Hotel, intends to attract 3 million Israelis to the Arava, the remote strip of desert where the canal is to be built, by the year 2050 - with or without the canal. For comparisons' sake, that is roughly equal to the entire population of metropolitan Tel Aviv today.
How did the worthy, yet flawed, plans to save the Dead Sea from a slow and painful demise morph into a Dubai-style real estate fantasy, no longer dependent on the actual canal itself?...
Planting Switchgrass Could Improve Soil Quality
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07.20.08
Tally up one more reason why planting switchgrass may be a good idea. According to a study conducted by Kristine Nichols, a microbiologist with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory, soils planted with native grasses have significantly higher levels of glomalin, a sugar-protein compound that helps improve soil quality, than soils planted with non-native grasses.
The natural alternative to carbon capture and storage (CCS)
Not only that, glomalin also helps soil retain carbon. Its sticky, threadlike structures, known as hyphae, catch falling sand, silt and other particles that make up soil -- helping to form new soil and store the carbon within. ...
Peak Oil: The End Of Ferry Services Between Japan And Taiwan?
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan on 07.20.08
Before air travel, how on earth did people get around the globe? For a brief moment in history, there were steam ships and then diesel ferries. Now, due to high fuel costs, such ferries may no longer be a solution to your travel needs.
Arimura Industries, which has operated passenger ferries between Japan and Taiwan, ceased operations this year. The company operated under bankruptcy protection for some time and tried to work a rehabilitation plan, but was turned down, according to Japan Update.
If you visit Yokohama, the port city just south of Tokyo, I recommend the Hikawa Maru (11,622 gt) in Yamashita Park. The Hikawa Maru was the main passenger ship between Japan and Seattle and San Francisco in the United States before WW2, called the "Queen of the Pacific". Many celebrities who visited Japan in those days came here on the Hikawa Maru, including Helen Keller and Charlie Chaplin. It was a slow, wonderful journey accross the Pacific Ocean, probably a lot more interesting than today's 12 hour jumbo jet flights....
Gray Wolves Are Back on the Endangered List... For Now
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 07.20.08
Image from dobak
Thanks to a last minute injunction by a federal judge in Montana, the gray wolf will be returned to its endangered species status, reports the LAT's Tami Abdollah. U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy didn't mince his words in criticizing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's ill-advised decision to take the wolf off the list, calling it baseless and dangerous.
A capricious decision without merit
"Congress does not intend agency decision-making to be fickle. When it is, the line separating rationality from arbitrariness and capriciousness is crossed," he wrote in his 40-page critique....
