- Vijay Vaitheeswaran (part one)
- Vijay Vaitheeswaran (part two)
- Vinay Gupta
- Alyce Santoro
- Mathis Wackernagel
- Tom Price
- Martha Marks
- Paul Hawken
- David Suzuki
- Wal-Mart's Green Gurus
- Alisa Smith and James Mackinnon, authors of Plenty
- Bob Perkowitz of ecoAmerica
- Ed Begley Jr.
- The Weather Channel's Dr. Heidi Cullen
Entries for August 10, 2008 - August 16, 2008
Total this week: 174
The Week in Huffpo: Olympics, Drilling, Bike Sharing and More
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.16.08
What other government in the world, for what other reason, would be able to "guarantee" the weather? One of the biggest feats of China's spectacular opening ceremony on Friday wasn't inside the stadium. As those of us inside the Bird's Nest feared rain -- and secretly, because of the heavy heat and humidity, prayed for it -- the city's meteorological bureau peppered approaching clouds with over 1000 silver-iodide rockets. That triggered intense showers outside the city and preempted a rainfall on China's parade. ::Alex Pasternack, Beijing
Saving the Planet? Or Keeping it Livable
Let's face it, it's not about saving the planet. The planet is going to be just fine without us. The bigger question is will we be able to live on it for a while, and will be we be able to do so without a whole lot of pain? This is definitely a Save Ourselves situation. ::Graham Hill, New York...
Biking Across America with WE ADD UP - Day 9: Meeting Jill Palermo
by Carson Poe and Eric Plosky, Boston, MA on 08.16.08
Urban Re:Construct Competition Challenges Designers to Rethink the City Block
by Jesse Fox, Tel Aviv, Israel on 08.16.08
With more than half of humanity now living in cities, and the built environment set to expand massively over the next few decades, the way we create our cities may be the key to achieving a sustainable future.
By recognizing that the city block is to the built environment what the cell is to the human body, San Francisco-based Urban Re:Vision aims to revolutionize the way we plan, build and experience our cities.
Founded in 2006, Urban Re:Vision, in association with Architecture for Humanity and Rocky Mountain Institute, has organized a series of design competitions that ask urban thinkers and innovators around the world to consider the individual elements of the city block: energy, transport, economy and community.
In its latest competition, Re:Construct, Urban Re:Vision is seeking ideas for sustainable materials and building practices.
The winners of the competition will not only enjoy fame and fortune (there is a cash prize), but their ideas will actually be put into practice in a to-be-announced US city, and could end up forming the basis for a new approach to city building....
New Air and Noise Control Devices Promise Better Life-Quality in Buenos Aires
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 08.16.08
Seems the Buenos Aires government is busy with environmental control. After announcing a new garbage management plan and reaching to an agreement to take out 40 thousand billboards from the streets of Buenos Aires, it has just put to work 42 new Intelligent Monitoring Towers that, they say, will allow more information about air and noise quality in the city and therefore better environmental policies to improve citizens life-quality.
The equipments can measure the concentration of cobalt, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, benzene and humidity, among others, and send the information in real time to one of the two monitoring stations the city has (two more will be installed before the end of the year). They required an investment of 2.5 million euros. For the initial stage, they have been installed in a park for calibration and later they will be moved to different points of the city.
When the whole system is functioning by the end of the year, the government says it will have a complete map of the environmental quality of the city and will be able to determine, for example, if it's necessary to change the buses routes (a demand by neighbors in some areas with high circulation of vehicles). More pics and news from Buenos Aires in the extended.
Via La Nacion newspaper....
Bangladesh Turning PET Into Cash
by Eliza Barclay, Nomad on 08.15.08
Reuters had an interesting piece recently on Bangladesh's thriving Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) recycling industry. The South Asian country exported more than 20,000 tons of PET flakes, the shredded version of plastic bottles, last year sorted from the 3,000 factories across the country dedicated to recycling. The industry generated about $10 million in 2007 and has grown annually at a rate of 20 percent.
Once the PET bottles have been sorted and crushed, the flakes are exported to China, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand, according to Sarwar Wadud Chowdhury, the chairman of Bangladesh PET Flakes Manufacturers and Exporters Association. Chowdhury says the importing countries use the flakes to make Polyester Staple Fiber (PSF), which are used in spinning mills. PSF is a base material for clothing, pillows, carpets and polyester sheets....
KQED Quest Visits the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to Learn about Ocean Acidification
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 08.15.08
'Eye to Eye' Project to Promote Bicycle Safety in Oregon
by Andrew Posner, Providence, Rhode Island on 08.15.08
More Cyclists Means A Need For More Awareness
Now that more and more people are getting on their bikes due to high gas prices, summer weather and increased awareness of the environmental and social impacts of driving, there has also been a slight increase in traffic accidents between cyclists and motorists as inexperienced riders and angry, unaware motorists hit the roads. After improving infrastructure (by adding bike lanes, bike boxes, and other measures) the best approach to ensuring safety on the roads is an awareness campaign that also includes training rides for new riders.
Oregon, Already Bike-Friendly, Seeks to Do More
This is something that Santa Cruz, California, recently began doing, and now the Bicycle Transportation Alliance of Oregon has launched the Eye to Eye Project, a campaign specifically aimed at reducing the number of bicycle-car collisions. Making use of signage, safety rides and flyers, riders and drivers alike will be made more aware of the importance of sharing the road. What's more, several hundred free bike bells and lights will be given away "to cyclists riding without proper headlights and reflectors." This idea was prompted by "a recent rash of serious or even deadly accidents between bicycles and cars in Oregon." It's somewhat surprising that a state as bicycle friendly as Oregon is having these sorts of issues; one can only imagine how strong the need is for similar campaigns in cities across the country.
Via: ::Kval.com and ::OregonLive.com
More on Cycling
Physically Separated Bike Lanes: Concrete is Better Than Cops
Car? What Car? . .Hauling Furniture By Bicycle
Why Cycling is to Transportation What Efficiency is to Energy
Ghost Bikes: A Memorial to Cyclists...
Ocean “Dead Zones” Increasing: 400 Oxygen-Deprived Areas Now Exist
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.15.08
image: NASA
Every year the topic of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico seems to pop up on TreeHugger—most recently in a report which links expanded corn production to the increasing size of the zone. New research shows that it’s not just in the Gulf that ocean dead zones are expanding but throughout the world.
Dead Zones Have Doubled Every 10 Years Since 1960s
According to the study, the number of marine dead zones—areas which are periodically or permanently starved of oxygen—has doubled every 10 years since the 1960s, with those along coastlines increasing in size and intensity. Currently there are about 400 coastal areas, with a combined area larger than the size of Oregon, with such poor water quality, with so little oxygen that only microbes can survive in it. Fish and crustaceans must flee the area or die.
...
The TH Interview: News Corp.'s Carbon Neutral Empire (Part 1)
by Jacob Gordon, Nashville, TN on 08.15.08
In a baffling shift of climate, Hell has frozen over. The flash freeze wasn’t precipitated by a crumbling ice shelf or rising sea—or maybe it was. Rupert Murdoch, the founder and CEO of News Corporation, has decided to render his global conglomerate carbon neutral, as well as educate the public and green up the many tendrils of his enormous news business. Murdoch’s media empire contains such brands as Fox Broadcasting, MySpace, and the Wall Street Journal. Rachel Webber is News Corp.’s Director of Energy Initiatives. She spoke with TreeHugger about how this unexpected shift came about, and how it’s rolling out. Webber says that greening up News Corp means many things, from offsetting emissions to changing public perception (something News Corp is uniquely good at). Sustainability won’t truly click, she says, until it’s cool for two kids to make out in the back of a Prius. ::TreeHugger Radio Listen to the podcast of this interview via iTunes, or just click here to listen, right-click to download. Special thanks goes to CraigMichaels, the organizer of the Sustainable Operations Summit, for arranging this interview....
Earthwatch Institute Sends Volunteers on Conservation Missions
by Earthwatch Institute on 08.15.08
Scientist Ian Bell measures a Hawksbill Turtle off the Great Barrier Reef. Photo credit: Ian Bell.
This is the first post from guest contributor and Planet Green NGO partner EarthWatch Institute.
In 1971, we opened our doors to scientists of all disciplines and nationalities who needed support to understand the conditions of life on Earth. We studied rocks and stars, plants and animals, ancient peoples and their ruins, their relationships and interdependencies. Earthwatch is the world's largest environmental volunteer nonprofit that engages everyday people in real science research and education. Our primary goal: to build a sustainable future.
Today it would be called social venture capital. In the beginning, it was all about mission....
Do You Carry Black or White Pebbles In Your Organic Pockets?
by Kristin Underwood, San Diego, CA on 08.15.08
Image source: The White Pebble.
Based on the belief that we carry black or white pebbles with us, depending on the choices we make in our lives (black pebbles represent self-focused, irresponsible decisions; white pebbles represent a life of sound, ethical choices), the White Pebble "was founded to offer an ethical choice for everyday living." Purchasing sustainable clothing is not only beneficial to you, but, White Pebble believes, also benefits people all along the chain, both physically and spiritually....
1000 Megawatts of Run-of-River Hydro on Tap for British Columbia
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.15.08
photo by Alistair Howard
When most people think of hydro-electric power they probably think of large dam projects such as China’s Three Gorges Dam, India’s dams on the Narmada River , or closer to home (at least to my home) the Hoover Dam. Perhaps needless to say, big hydro-electric projects like this can generate a great deal of power, but there are significant environmental trade offs.
A Less Intrusive Way to Develop Hydro-Electric Power
A less environmentally intrusive way to develop hydro power is known as run-of-river hydro—skip down if you’re unfamiliar with how this works—and more of this is just what’s being planned for British Columbia. Plutonic Power and GE Financial Services have signed a memorandum of understanding that will have the two developing 1000 MW of run-of-rive hydro-electric capacity. ...
China Raises Taxes on Big Cars (Up to 40%), Lowers Them on Small Cars (Down to 1%)
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 08.15.08
Trying to Fight Air Pollution
Only 4 months ago, we wrote about how big cars were the stars at the Beijing Auto Show. But now that air pollution is in the news more than ever because of the olympics, it seems like the Chinese government has had second thoughts: It decided to reduce taxes on small cars, and increase them on big vehicles. And they're not taking half-measures. The tax on some big vehicles can be as high as 40%.
China's Tax Scale is Based on Engine Size
Starting on September 1st, passenger vehicles with engines bigger than 4 liters will see their tax doubled to 40% from 20%. Engines with displacement from 2 liters to 4 liters will be taxed 25%, up from the current 15%, and cars with engines at or smaller than 1 liter would drop to 1% from the current 3%....
Cath Kidston Eco-Bags Now At Tesco
by Kristin Underwood, San Diego, CA on 08.15.08
Image source: Marketing Week (subscription required).
Cath Kidston, known for her bright, funky textile patterns, recently launched an eco-bag collection, available in 6 fun patterns only at Tesco stores around the UK. The bags are all made from 100% recycled PET and 100% of the proceeds from their sale go to the Marie Curie Cancer Care. A minimum of £250,000 will be donated, which will fund 12,500 hours of nursing care for terminally-ill patients and their families.
The bags are perfect for carrying laptops, groceries or even a few items from Tesco, which is encouraging customers to ditch the plastic bags. Tesco even offers a life-cycle page on how Kidston bags are made. Each bag retails for £3.5, with £.5 of each sale going to Marie Curie. ...
Solar Power Informational Kiosks Opened by Sam’s Club at Nine Southern California Stores
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.15.08
photo: Sam's Club
OK, I’ll get something out of the way right at the start: I can’t stand Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, or any of the other big box stores blighting the landscape of the United States. Suffice it to say they are the complete antithesis of everything I hold dear: diverse small businesses, localization, human-scale development, short supply chains, attractive architecture...I could go on and on. With that out of the way, here’s something which does lift Sam’s Club up a notch.
Kiosks Part of New “Home Efficiency Centers”
If you live in southern California you now have a new place to go for practical information on solar power solutions: Sam's Club has announced that is has created
“Home Efficiency Centers” in nine of its stores.
...
Package Lamp By David Gardener Leaves No Waste
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
University of Brighton graduate David Gardener presented his Package Lamp at New Designers in London recently. This lamp is made of pulp packaging material, and is both the shipping box and the finished lamp....
Just What We Needed Dept: Canned Oxygen
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
Image Modern Mechanix
Sigh. First they monetized the water; now the marketing wiz kids want us to pay for air. And it is working; in New York City it is flying off the drugstore shelves at sixteen bucks a can. Kevin DelGaudio, the "inventor" (it's been around for years) of Instant Oxygen, told CBS "You know you start falling asleep at the wheel a couple of intakes of ox and I'm wide awake."
...
Quick Look: Sonos Gets Green(er)
by Alan Graham, Portland, Oregon on 08.15.08
I've written before about the idea of green music. The idea is to cut your footprint by investing in high quality equipment (not gadgets) with a long shelf life, low energy or Energy star compliant, ROHS compliant, obsolescence resistance, streaming capabilities or digital downloads vs CD's.
Over three years ago I got a wireless Sonos music system for my house. I've used it every day since then, stopped buying CDs, and stopped buying every new iPod to come down the pike. What started as a two room system (living room & kitchen) eventually grew to add the bedroom and patio. I recently added another one for my office, the new Sonos 120....
My Phallic Symbol is Bigger than Yours
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 08.15.08
...
Deptford Project Café by Morag Myerscough
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
In Deptford, London, the City's first suburban railway station dating from 1836 is being redeveloped. In the meantime, a pop-up café, designed by Morag Myerscough, has been installed on a historically listed Victorian carriage ramp....
United States Will Lead World for Third Straight Year in Annual Wind Power Installations
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.15.08
photo by Andrea Paraggio
While still a small percentage of overall electric generation, there’s no denying that wind power has been growing consistently in the United States. In 2007, an additional 5,329 megawatts of capacity was added, an amount which was slightly more than a quarter of all new global wind capacity that year. Currently an additional 8 gigawatts of wind capacity is under construction and scheduled to be operational by the end of 2008.
The result: This will be the third straight year that the United States leads the world in annual wind power installations, according to a new study by Emerging Energy Research....
1/2 of yung drvrs r txtN yl drivN sEz Survey
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
Polar Cities Home And Hideout After Climate Change
by Karin Kloosterman, Jerusalem, Israel on 08.15.08
Real Estate prices in Canada are expected to rise as the effects of global warming set in. Warming temperatures there are expected to make its otherwise frosty winters, a perfect place to live. But we all know that if the predictions are right, our world’s demographic shift to a severe change in weather patterns is probably going to be a lot more complicated than relocating to the higher latitudes.
Some scientists predict that if humanity doesn’t stop dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we have about 5 – 8 years (100 months) until life as we know it on this planet changes. What will happen after that time is anyone’s guess. But some like journalist/translator/blogger Dan Bloom who is now living in Taiwan, believes that we can safeguard humanity by building Polar cities, today.
...
SUNY Stony Brook Brings Sustainability to the Forefront of Public Education in the Hamptons
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 08.15.08
When it comes to private colleges it’s not so surprising to find a place like the tiny College of the Atlantic that makes sustainability the centerpiece of the education offered to the student body.
But what about at a public university in the middle of the Hamptons?
...
Wireless Companies Bury Studies, Discredit Researchers Studying Cellphone Radiation
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
creative commons image by kanjiroushi
According to Melinda Wenner in the Walrus, "Accounts from a handful of well-respected scientists suggest that since the mid-1990s wireless companies have been doing their best to bury worrying findings, discredit researchers who publish them, and design experiments that virtually guarantee the desired results. “Biological effects are undoubtedly there, no question, and it’s a canard to suggest that they’re not,” says Abe Liboff, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University, and co-editor of the journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine. The cellphone industry, he insists, “will use any excuse to avoid the truth.”
...
Six (Or Seven) Ways To Power A Vehicle By Wind
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 08.15.08
1. Hybrid-Electric Vehicles Powered By Wind Turbines
The Swedes and the Danes are (among others) big fans of the idea of replacing a part of their transport fuel use with wind power. There's an ambitious goal to erect 6,000 new turbines in Sweden by 2020, while the Danes already get 20 percent of their electricity from wind. Pilot programs are testing how charging stations could work in urban and more far-flung settings to create an infrastructure that flows wind (mostly at night when demand is lower) from the grid to to hybrid-electric cars.2. Ventomobile Is A 'Wind-Powered Land Yacht'
In the meantime, there are plenty of developers working on ways to use wind even more directly to get vehicles going. A race along a Dutch seawall near the windy North Sea fishing village of Huisduinen next week will pit against each other six inventive prototypes that all directly sail into the wind for locomotion. At TreeHugger we covered one of the wind-driven entries into the 2008 Race Aeolus, the Ventomobile, designed by Alexander Miller and a group from Stuttgart University. ...5 Growing Nations With Growing Emissions
by Kristin Underwood, San Diego, CA on 08.15.08
Clearly the United States (with roughly 23% of global CO2 emissions has some 'splainin to do when it comes to carbon dioxide emissions, so don't get us wrong, we aren't trying to pass the buck. Yet, we did want to take a look at just how large the impact of CO2 emissions is from the developing world. The rankings below are only targeting human produced (anthropogenic) CO2 emissions, and do not include the other, toxic greenhouse gas emissions. If you look at greenhouse gases overall, then this list changes slightly.
Note: Please keep in mind that these are just estimates and that these figures are going up and down each year....
550 Megawatts: A Thin-Film Solar Record Worth Announcing!
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.15.08
photo: SunPower
You may have read a few weeks back how I was lamenting all the PR exaggeration in the renewable energy world: Case in point, a 10 megawatt thin-film solar plant claiming to be the world’s largest. Factually true, but tiny in the greater scheme of power generation.
Well, here’s something that by all accounts is big: OptiSolar has announced it will be building a 550 MW thin-film solar power plant in San Luis Obispo County, California. No word on the cost to build the Topaz Solar Farm, but it is expected to be begin initial operations in 2011 and be fully online by 2013.
I'll remind you again: the previous largest thin-film solar power plant was 10 MW. But wait, there's more:...
Quote of the Day: Tom Friedman on the Politics of Energy
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
Tom Friedman battles Michele Bachmann in the Quote of the Day Olympics with a tirade against McCain for missing all eight votes on the renewable energy tax credit extensions (and Obama too, for missing the last vote). Without this bill's passage, most investment in solar and wind in the US will grind to a halt.
" Richard K. Lester, an energy-innovation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, notes, “The best chance we have — perhaps the only chance” of addressing the combined challenges of energy supply and demand, climate change and energy security “is to accelerate the introduction of new technologies for energy supply and use and deploy them on a very large scale.”
This, he argues, will take more than a Manhattan Project. It will require a fundamental reshaping by government of the prices and regulations and research-and-development budgets that shape the energy market. Without taxing fossil fuels so they become more expensive and giving subsidies to renewable fuels so they become more competitive — and changing regulations so more people and companies have an interest in energy efficiency — we will not get innovation in clean power at the scale we need.
That is what this election should be focusing on. Everything else is just bogus rhetoric designed by cynical candidates who think Americans are so stupid — so bloody stupid — that if you just show them wind turbines in your Olympics ad they’ll actually think you showed up and voted for such renewable power — when you didn’t." ::New York Times
More Tom Friedman in TreeHugger
Quote of the Day : Thomas Friedman on Indian Transportation ...
Tom Friedman on America's Addict-In-Chief
Thomas L. Friedman on "Our Green Bubble" ...
Save Cash and Save the Planet: A Timely Guide from Friends of the Earth UK
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 08.15.08
Living Green Can Mean Living Frugal
While TreeHugger has from time-to-time received flack for featuring high-end eco furniture and ludicrously expensive green cars, we do also try to get across that living green does not have to mean spending big bucks. From Lloyd’s tips on a recession-ready lifestyle to Mark’s 66 ways to save on gas, the truth is that sustainability is often about living smarter and using less stuff – both of which should ultimately be money savers. So it’s good to see UK Friends of the Earth embracing this concept with their publication Save Cash and Save the Planet. The blurb promises to save the reader hundreds, or even thousands, and covers everything from DIY energy efficiency improvements to getting organic vegetables on a budget. ...
Appliances Artistically Spill Their Guts
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
Images used with permission of the photographer
When it comes to appliances, they don't build them like they used to, to last a long time and to be relatively easy to repair. Now they are built to be thrown away as replacement can often be cheaper than trying to find a repair shop or parts. Photographer Brittny Badger wasn't shy about digging around inside appliances, and took a dozen of them apart for her senior thesis at Hartford Art School....
Waste of Energy Dept: Laser Park Right
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
I was not unhappy when the Sharper Image went bankrupt earlier this year; the store seemed entirely devoted to selling superfluous junk that was all connected to wall outlets. Its demise might have saved us a coal fired power plant or two, except Amazon has stepped in to take its place. Exhibit A:
Most people know how to park their car without putting it through the back of the garage; those who do not have lots of low tech options, including tennis balls on strings hanging from the ceiling or a rubber bumper on the floor. But why go low tech when you can have fricking lasers connected to a motion detector that lights up and shines on your vehicle when it is time to put your foot on the big wide pedal? Another example of how we use electricity for such silly things.
::Amazon via ::Red Ferret
More Wastes of Energy on TreeHugger:
Waste of Energy Dept: Automatic Martini Maker : TreeHugger
Waste of Energy Dept: Silly Appliances : TreeHugger
Waste of Energy Department: In-Car Microwave
...
Survey: Are You Changing Your TV?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
We learn from Mike that there are close to 300 million TV sets in the USA; The Utne Reader tells us that half of all Americans have no idea that American TV is going digital next February 17. Many of those sets won't work; the vast majority of them will not be able to take advantage of the new digital signal.
...
Streetcars Back on the Rails in America
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.15.08
(Michael Moose/Glaserworks)
Terrence Mann said "If you build it, they will come"; I once said at a public meeting about a Toronto streetcar line that "investment follows infrastructure." Portland proved it; 10,000 residential units have been built and $3.5 billion has been invested within two blocks of its streetcar line since it opened.
Bob Driehaus writes in the IHT:
At least 40 other cities are exploring streetcar plans to spur economic development, ease traffic congestion and draw young professionals and empty-nest baby boomers back from the suburbs, according to the Community Streetcar Coalition, which includes city officials, transit authorities and engineers who advocate streetcar construction.
...
Ruby Red Offers Organic Lemon Shea Butter For Summer
by Kristin Underwood, San Diego, CA on 08.15.08
Image source: Ruby Red
Ruby Red, maker of organic and natural skin-care products, now offers their lemon organic shea butter. Shea butter does a great job, possibly the best, of really keeping dry, chapped skin nice and soft.
All of Ruby Red's products are made directly in their London shop, down to the last detail, including the packaging. They feel that the difference is they make their products without heating any of the materials during manufacturing, kind of like what you find with raw foods. The scents are all developed using combinations of organic oils....
National Allotments Week Celebrates Gardens
by Bonnie Alter, London on 08.15.08
Allotment gardens have been a popular theme on TreeHugger lately and why not--they are the real deal; incorporating all kinds of good things: food, recycling, ecology, and community. Their finest hour was during World War 2 when people all over North America and Europe were cultivating small patches of land in order to feed themselves and their families. In Britain a tenth of all the food produced during the war years came from allotment gardens. They are still going strong due to the latest revival of interest in gardening and the desire to grow one's own fresh and chemical-free food, combined with rising food prices.
National Allotments Week is promoting awareness of allotments and encouraging municipalities to provide more land for them. This is important because one of the big problems is that many of the sites used to be on the outskirts of towns, on unwanted land. As cities expanded, many of the sites have become prime development locations and are being lost. Councils may offer alternatives, but they are even farther away and require back breaking work to make the soil good and fertile. Last year a century old allotment garden was demolished for the London Olympic site and the replacement land turned out to be clay soil in a water-logged valley. As part of the celebrations, many gardens will be open to the public. These are fun because each plot is so eccentric and reflects the personality of its owner. Gardeners sell freshly picked produce, home-baked cakes and offer guided tours....
Have a Comment about the New ESA Rules? Sorry, Not Interested
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 08.14.08
Sure, the Fish and Wildlife Service is interested in reading your comments about the Bush administration's latest gutting of the Endangered Species Act -- just not that interested. In what will likely come as no surprise to long time readers of this blog, the Bush White House has once again decided that, given the choice, it would rather not listen to your lily-livered, tree-hugging blatherings, thank you very much. That is, unless you're willing to deliver them by snail mail.
Unbeknownst to me and, I would imagine, the many of you who gave up on this administration's so-called "environmental" initiatives a long time ago, the Fish and Wildlife Service suddenly decided to stop accepting public comments on proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act last December. Andrew Wetzler, the director of NRDC's Endangered Species Project, noticed this earlier today when he was poring over the text of the administration's newest proposal to sabotage the ESA. ...
Wildlife Land Management Needs Sustainable Vision to Control Disease Outbreaks
by Tim McGee, Helena, MT, USA on 08.14.08
Where do the Buffalo Roam?
Is a question many in the West are trying to answer. Wild herds of American Bison (commonly called Buffalo), once roamed the great plains in the tens of millions as part of a complex, sustainable and highly productive ecosystem. As most people know, due to extensive hunting by the 1880's only 500 bison remained. At the time, Teddy Roosevelt in an effort to save the species from extinction helped concentrate the remaining herds into Yellowstone National Park. Today, there are an estimated 3,000 wild bison still concentrated in and around Yellowstone. But these emblematic beasts are under the gun yet again. ...
Drift Ice Decreasing In Northern Japan
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan on 08.14.08
(Photo by aaroncorey)
National Geographics notes that in recent years, Hokkaido in northern Japan has seen noticeably less drift ice. Arctic sea ice overall has been disappearing much faster than initially predicted, and this may hurt the region's wildlife and tourism. From 1997 to 2007, the amount of sea ice forming in the Sea of Okhotsk shrank by 3.6 percent, says Japan Meteorological Agency. And in 2004 the Shiretoko town of Abashiri had just 54 days of drift ice, much less than the average of 87 days.
"If you just look at the last five years of data, the amount of drift ice is decreasing," said Takashi Yamamoto, director of a tour company that organizes icebreaker trips from Abashiri, Hokkaido. ...
Financing Needed But Scarce for Climate Change Adaptation in Africa
by Eliza Barclay, Nomad on 08.14.08
Photo credit: Panos / Stefan Boness
Several African countries, particularly in East Africa, are facing severe power shortages and declines in agricultural productivity due to drought that experts are linking to climate change. Drought has sharply reduced reservoirs that supply hydroelectric plants in countries like Tanzania, and we've already reported that overuse of water by two hydroelectric dams decreased the level of water in Lake Victoria by at least two meters between 2000 and 2006.
Increasingly African leaders are looking to develop national climate change action plans and attract Clean Development Mechanism funds. The CDM is a pollutant trading system mandated under the Kyoto Protocol where developing countries can help offset emissions in developed countries, but so far Africa has only managed to secure just under three percent of the more than 1,000 CDM-approved projects globally. Those projects to day have "saved" carbon dioxide emissions of 135 million tons. (India leads with 32 percent of the projects.)
Many Africans have also noted that the CDM’s rules favor pollution reduction projects instead of climate change adaption projects, such as irrigation schemes, coping with drought, soil conservation and flood-control programs. Such projects are instead supposed to be financed by the Kyoto Protocol’s Adaptation Fund, financed in part by a two percent tax on CDM credits....
Carbon Capture and Storage, Now With 40% More Acid Rain!
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.14.08
photo by Ian Thorpe
Although often portrayed as the savior which will allow us to continue exploiting our relatively abundant coal reserves without increasing global warming until something comes along to win the day, a new study to be published in the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control gives us another reason to believe that carbon sequestration isn’t quite yet ready for prime time. Science News fills us in:
...
Green Vocabulary Makes it Into Chambers Dictionary
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 08.14.08
Greenspeak
Some of the words that were introduced in the 11th edition of the Chambers dictionary have green origins. BBC News reports:
"'Electrosmog' refers to the electromagnetic fields emitted by computers and mobile phones, 'eco-village' is a term used for small ecologically-sustainable communities and 'carbon footprint' is the measure of the impact human activities on the environment."
There is also 'food miles', referring to how far away your food come from, and 'green tax', in reference to putting a price on undesirable things like CO2 or mercury to reduce pollution.
Of course, it doesn't really matter to most if words are in a dictionary or not, as long as others know what you're talking about. But these inclusions are a good sign that green concepts are getting firmly established in mainstream consciousness. ...
South Africa Capping Greenhouse Gas Emissions. What Say You, India and China?
by Kristin Underwood, San Diego, CA on 08.14.08
Image source: author.
Bucking the tide of many developing nations, South Africa has chosen to set a limit on its greenhouse-gas emissions and to increase its use of renewable energy sources. South Africa's Environment Minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said the country has a target to "stabilize" emissions by 2020 to 2025, "with absolute reductions in emissions...to begin ten years after growth was halted."
How will they meet this goal? Well, first by reducing consumption of cheap coal for electricity and requiring that all coal power plants use both carbon capture and storage technology. There will also be a greater emphasis on using energy from renewable sources. Other options include a possible carbon tax, as well as mandatory energy efficiency measures....
Researchers Discover Way to Listen to Algae, Detect Water Pollution
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.14.08
photo by Ken McCown
As global warming and rising human population puts increasing pressure on water supplies—Reuters says that currently 44% of people live in areas with high water stress—quick and accurate ways of testing for water pollution are going to become an even more important issue. A new method developed in Israel for doing so is being described as “listening” to algae to detect pollution.
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TreeHugger on Digg: Neat Timeline from Dipity
by Chris Tackett, Fayetteville, Arkansas on 08.14.08
Number of the Day: 704.9 Million CRT Televisions
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 08.14.08
704.9 million -- That's how many cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions have been sold just in the USA since 1980, according to the EPA.
42.4% -- How many of those TVs are estimated to still be in use.
23.9 million -- Number of CRT TVs that will be thrown out in 2008, adding up to an estimated 711,029 tons of televisions. "Numbers for end-of-life TVs have been over 20 million per year since 2005, and are expected to go up to almost 25 million by 2010. Compare this to 10 years ago, when the numbers were closer to 12 million sets disposed of per year. "...
Bunker Turned Into Studios by Index Architects
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.14.08
Often our readers complain that some of the architecture I like looks like a bunker; (see church here) sometimes they are right, such as in this case in Frankfurt. It is, in fact, a World War II bunker in Frankfurt that had been previously disguised as a house because it was too expensive to demolish. In a crappy part of town, "a no man’s land between heaps of gravel and dumps, piled-up recycling-products and containers that await their shipping", the architects decided to rise above it all and build artists' studios and the Institute of New Media on top, a box sitting on a table. The heavy concrete bunker was turned into musician's studios....
Johnnie Walker Goes Green on More Than the Label: Diageo Plans Bioenergy Plant at Scottish Distillery
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.14.08
photo by Jeff Engel
Unless you're in the liquor business you may not have heard of Diageo, but you’re probably familiar with some of their brands: Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff and Tanqueray. Now, outside of happy hour, there’s another reason to pay attention to Diageo: The London-based firm has announced that it will be installing a bioenergy facility at its Cameronbridge distillery in Fife, Scotland. Diageo is claiming that it will be the largest single investment in renewable energy by a non-utility company in the UK.
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Slow Strip Tease: GM Shows 2 New Shots of Production Chevy Volt, GM Share Up 13%
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 08.14.08
Just Teasing
This probably barely qualifies as newsworthy, but for all of those who have been following Volt news since the concept was unveiled in January 2007 (and there are 33,000 names on the unofficial Volt waiting list), here they are. A corner, and the very back of the car. We can't tell much from these, except that some angles have been rounded up a bit, and that it still seems pretty recognizable to those who have gotten used to the concept version.
Seems like shareholders liked what they saw, because GM is up 13.55% so far today (though it might be because of something else). Read on for one more pic....
Less is More: This is Not a Ming Vase
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.14.08
Short of cupboard space in your kitchen? French designers ibride offer this lovely Ming-like vase which you can keep on the counter. As can be seen below the fold, it comes apart to make a lovely place setting of melamine dishes and bowls, with "poetic graphic interiors."
It is hard to tell from their flashy site and their incomprehensible designer-speak, but ibride appears to be a trio of designers and publishers from La Veze, France. ::Ibride via ::Apartment Therapy ...
Eco-Knitting for the Adventurous
by Kristin Underwood, San Diego, CA on 08.14.08
Image source: KnitGrrl
For the crafty out there in the audience, Shannon Okey, author of more than 10 knitting books, now launches a new book for "alternative" fibers - Alt Fiber: 25 Projects For Knitting Green With Bamboo, Soy, Hemp and More. Not sure when the next time will be that we're lost in the woods and desperately needing to fashion together some semblance of a loincloth together with only a pair of knitting needles and banana fiber, but one can never tell these days.
Other alternative fibers that Okey works with include milkweed, seacell yarn (a sea-weed material that provides nutrients to the skin when worn), wood pulp, pineapple, corn, ramie, kenaf, flax and milk proteins. With each pattern the author offers tips on how to work specifically with the alternative fiber, how to add it to current projects and any special instructions for how to hand-dye the fiber....
100% Renewable Electricity by 2025: Indian Ocean Island Picks Up Al Gore’s Gauntlet
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.14.08
Geothermal power is among the energy sources being investigated on Réunion. Photo by Frédéric Caillé.
When Al Gore challenged the United States to generate all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2018, I’m not sure if many people took him literally. A nice goal perhaps, but one which is likely to be delayed a number of years seemed to be the general buzz. Any renewable energy targets announced since then municipalities or states fall well short of Gore’s goal.
Réunion To Go All Green by 2025, For Electricity
Well, it may not be doing so explicitly, but in spirit the Indian Ocean island of Réunion (a French territory) has taken up the gauntlet and has announced a goal not too far off of Al Gore’s vision: By 2025 all of the electricity on the island will be generated from renewable sources. By 2050, all of its transport will be also use renewable energy.
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Michael Phelps Likes Green Entertainment, Madonna's African Charity, Hayden Panettiere Saves Dolphins, and More
by Terri MacLeod on 08.14.08
Michael Phelps Goes for the...Green?
...So how does the 'greatest Olympian of all time" chill when he's not in the pool? The gold-medal champ watches Discovery wildlife documentary "Planet Earth." "It's pretty much all I've been watching," Phelps told reporters in Beijing. Phelps's coach Bob Bowman reveals watching animals and plants enhances his performance by helping him to relax before a swim. Besides, his appetite for nature documentaries, Phelps also has a recipe for success. The New York Post reports he scarfs down 12,000 calories a day. ..Starting his day off with three fried-egg sandwiches, a five-egg omelet,a bowl of grits, 3 slices of French toast, and 3 chocolate-chip pancakes. A new spin on "Breakfast of Champions."
Via: people magazine...
Day4 Energy Solar Panel Breakthrough: 25% Cheaper, on Sale Within 18 Months
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 08.14.08
In the Lab vs. Real World
Beating solar PV efficiency records in the lab is great - just recently, a 40.7% record from 2006 was beaten by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with a new record of... 40.8% - but in the short-term, what matters most is what makes it to market.
25% Cheaper, On Sale Within 18 Months
Day4 Energy, a startup from Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, has announced that it has created a process to cut costs for multicrystalline silicon solar panels by about 25%, from about $4 per watt to $3 per watt. Still not price-competitive with coal on a large scale, or even with solar thermal power, steady incremental improvements like that will get us there, and for applications where regular solar panels were already used, this will just improve things (either more bang for your buck, or lower prices)....
UK Schools Set to Join Carbon Trading Scheme
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 08.14.08
With a long-term goal to ensure that every new school and home from 2016 to be built with a carbon footprint of zero, the British state schools are about to be included under the government’s new domestic carbon emissions trading scheme from April 2010 in a move that will enable teachers, students, and school district personnel to jump right into the mix when it comes to recognizing what impact their carbon emissions have on the Planet....
Quote of the Day: Michele Bachmann on "The Perfect Place To Drill"
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.14.08
Which Is Greener, Wine Bottle or Box? Neither.
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.14.08
Typical green imagery for tetra pak wine
In Ontario, Canada, the government-owned Liquor stores have been pushing Tetra Paks as eco-packaging, claiming a much lower carbon footprint in manufacture and transport than the traditional glass bottle. They even claim that they are recycled, although I suspect they are just going through the motions; you don't get much value out of pulping seven layers of plastic and paper. I called it greenwash, but after Jenna found a life-cycle analysis showing that tetra-paks were better than new glass, I thought the issue was settled.
That is, until TreeHugger emeritus Ruben Anderson gave me a slap upside the head with his article in the Tyee, " New Wine in Old Bottles", pointing out that it is just like the paper or plastic issue: the correct green answer is that neither new glass or tetrapak is green, reuse and refilling is.
In Canada we all drink our beer in refilled bottles, nobody has a problem with that. So why not our wine? in Europe, they do.
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NYC MTA Installs Energy-Efficient Escalators
by Kristin Underwood, San Diego, CA on 08.14.08
Image source: Consumerist.com
The NYC Metro Transit Authority (MTA) upgraded 35 escalators around NYC this week in a test-run to see if energy-efficient escalators save money and cut down on maintenance. The new escalators run with infrared motion sensors on each end and when a rider trips them they speed up to normal speeds, but when no one is on them, they slow down to 15 feet per minute. Normal operating speed is 100 feet per minute.
MTA estimates that this new technology will save at least $1,800 per year, per escalator and extend the life of each escalator by 11 to 33%. Treehugger Forums recently chatted about whether escalators should just be turned off to save energy and money....
IKEA Puts $U.S. 75 Million Toward Cheap Solar
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 08.14.08
Johan Stenebo is chief of an IKEA susidiary called Greentech, and a man with a dream. Stenebo wants to invest in the "cheapest, best" PV roof panels available in order to sell them in IKEA stores in the next two to four years.
Low-cost solar a tall order
Of course, that's a very tall order. But IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad's son Peter is an avowed green tech believer, and Stenebo's Greentech will put about US$75 million into at many as ten companies in five different areas: solar technology, energy conservation, water saving products, alternative lighting, and new product materials. Scandinavian companies are Greentech's first focus. Nearly all of these areas are ones we would welcome the IKEA low-cost approach to, although setting up solar roof panels with just the simplistic diagrams and little Allen keys that accompany IKEA's usual do-it-yourself furniture seems something of a stretch. Then there's the problem than many installations require building and other permits. But IKEA's fabulous distribution network of 270 global superstores would mean green tech for the global masses, a welcome development.
Solar supermarkets in four years?
Up until now, IKEA has held itself to interior decoration rather than pursuing the constructing and building sector that is dominated (at least in the U.S.) by players such as Lowe's and Home Depot. But these megastores haven't tried to sell green solutions in any organized fashion, so IKEA sees little current competition for its plans to get products to stores in three to four years. Via ::Miljö Aktuellt (Swedish)
Read more on IKEA:
IKEA Bans Plastic Bags For Good
IKEA Gives Out 60,000 Free CFLs
IKEA Lighting The Way To Warmer LED Lamps...
Thermal Power of Asphalt Roads & Parking Lots Could Be Tapped for Electricity
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.14.08
photo by Chad Johnson
The idea, if not the practice, of using the heat absorption capabilities of asphalt roadways to heat water is not new. About nine months ago we reported on a Dutch civil engineering company which places water pipes underneath and then pump it to nearby buildings for heating. Additionally, the system is constructed so that it can actually pump cold water in the summer for use in cooling.
In a similar vein, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are investigating whether roadways might also be able to generate electricity. Science Daily provide