holy said:
"IT IS VERY GOOD; church can be an opinion leader.
in Germany some churches have big roofs for solar..." [read]
SteveC said:
"While one might think this is a waste of time, money and resources, so is a Bugatti Veyron. But both have been designed specifically to show that t..." [read]
Duane said:
"As to the question in the title "Will the Greenies Take Fireworks Away From Us?", the bad news answer is yes. Yes they will. The good news is tha..." [read]
LT said:
"I again repeat my comment from previous posts about poorly designed objects that design students should have some real world practical experience b..." [read]
Harrison Wills said:
"This is a beautiful quote by Mother Teresa that expresses the need to Do Good and Make Progress even when it's not appreciated. Love and Creat anyw..." [read]
Jesse said:
"I also agree for most families out there the recipies have to have a convertable property. I myself eat limited meat, aka fish, for some additional..." [read]
Ecopreneurist is highlighting some art from Seppo Leinonen, a cartoonist out of Finland, who perfectly captures that tongue-in-cheek tone that makes acknowledging the environmental destruction we're imposing on the planet nearly digestible.
Rock n roll meets integrated transport hubs
Who'd have thought that one of the best songs I've heard all year would be about sustainable urban transportation systems?
I've said it before, but I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Rob Hopkins of the Transition Towns Movement - not just for inspiring one of the most important community-led responses to environmental crisis there is - but also for giving me stuff to write about. His Transition Culture blog is a constant source of inspiration and news on everything from communal nut tree plantings to alternative local currencies. Now we can add rock n roll to the mix - because thanks to Rob I have come across the best (and possibly only!) rock n roll song ever that is taking a stand for trams as a vital part of integrated transportation hubs. And who'd have thought it would be so catchy (at least if you are a fan of mass transportation AND weird Welsh/Germanic spacepop).
We Can't Limit Conservation Efforts to Cute & Cuddly Animals...
Here's a clever ad about "Re-Thinking the Shark" by the most excellent Save Our Seas Foundation (check out their projects here). With humans killing more than 100 million sharks each year, and with many species of sharks in dramatic decline, we definitely need to re-think our relationship with sharks, something that TreeHugger has written about frequently in the past (see links below).
Obligatory Post About Green Fireworks for the 4th of July Fireworks are fun - who doesn't like explosions? - and a good excuse to get together with family and friends, but they're also not very clean. In Beijing, China, the smoke from fireworks during the new year celebrations tripled pollution levels overnight, and the toxic metals used to get the bright colorful sparks fall back to Earth, contaminating soil and water. Is there something we can do without losing the fireworks?
Living off the land is often seen as the ideal for many aspiring greenies. Bucolic bliss. Healthy harvests. Cheery chickens. Milk making moo cows. Plentiful potatoes and a fresh figs. Sunsets sipping Sauvignon.
During a international sojourn multi-media producer, Amy York Rubin, washed up on a farm in the French Pyrenees, that was a three to four hour hike down the mountain to nearest town. She made this 12 minute video of her experiences. Warts and all.
Sebastiao Salgado is a Brazilian photographer who has been working on his photo-documentary "Genesis" for more than 4 years. It is a story in photos about the effect of modern development on the environment. He is searching for landscapes that represent a pure, untouched state of nature.
So far he has travelled to 20 different spots across 5 continents to photograph the most pristine, untouched pockets of nature in the world. Since he is a master photographer, the results are spectacular.
You a runner? Or an exercise-oholic? And you want your workouts to reflect your green lifestyle? Well, the race is ON…or at least for me and a few friends to find the best performing green running equipment. Since February of this year (2009), I’ve made it my personal mission to seek out the most excellent green products in the running world as I train for my first marathon in November. Most people think running is a simple sport in which all that is needed is a good pair of shoes to be active. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The Bus-Only Lane is Maxed Out
Every day, 315,000 (!) people commute to New York City by bus via the Lincoln Tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, and the George Washington Bridge, reducing the number of cars on the road by about 200,000. Half of those go through the Lincoln tunnel, yet that tunnel hasn't had any increase in transit capacity since Richard Nixon was president. The video above by our friends at StreetFilms (hi Elizabeth!) argues very convincingly for that to change (at least during rush hour). Check it out, it's really well made (kudos to Hugh Gran and Carly Park for the animation and design).
Photo courtesy of Steinbrener-Dempf
Trouble in Paradise--an art installation at Vienna's Schönbrunn Zoo--shows the troubling impact of modern civilization on wildlife habitat.
The installation is the work of Austrian artists Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf who have set up six different enclosures at the zoo. There are oil pumps in the penguin pen, toxic waste in the aquarium and abandoned cars in the rhino enclosure to name a few.
Intended to confront the notion of pristine wildlife, the installation hopes to raise awareness about the destruction of animal habitat globally.
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I am a big fan of Rick Smith, and the work he has done at Environmental Defence. He has been a leader of the campaign to get Bisphenol A, phtalates and brominated flame retardants out of our bodies. He and Bruce Lourie have done great stuff.
So I picked up “Slow Death by Rubber Duck” eagerly. After all, these guys write well, and have been regular sources for posts on treeHugger. Surely this book will pull all this together in a convincing package....
Image: ACT-ResponsibleACT-Responsible organizes the work of advertisers promoting sustainable causes into three categories: Taking care of (1) the planet, (2) yourself, and (3) others. But ACT Responsible's own work, depicting the tragic consequences of our choices today on future generations, deserves to lead a slideshow on the coolest environmental advertising.
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Turn your wall into a white board with IdeaPaint. Photos by RCruger.
Gorgeous green homewares, scintillating sustainability forums, abfab prefab displays, green designs and architecture are the focus at "dwell on design," dwell magazine's fourth festival of modern design and it’s second in LA (where its biggest chunk of subscribers dwell). With lots of exhibitions, panels, interviews, home tours, films, innovative environmental ideas, and enticing events, the first jam-packed day kicked off the weekend show in green style. With so many enticing speakers, I tried to be in a few places at once, and managed to catch a batch of illustrious designers and forward thinkers. Here's some highlights:
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Jackson's "Earth Song," His Biggest UK Chart-Topper, Wasn't Released As a Single in America
Michael Jackson was famous for his socially-conscious music, but "Earth Song," his big, bold environmental call-to-arms, is often overlooked. Still, by sheer dint of his reach, the song might have made Jackson (who bears no relation to U.S. EPA chief Lisa Jackson) a kind of super-sized Al Gore, a decade before An Inconvenient Truth.
"Earth Song" is indisputably the most popular green-themed tune ever. It remains Jackson's best-selling song in the U.K. (yes, bigger than "Thriller" or "Billie Jean"), and beat out the Beatles' first single in 25 years for the top spot on the British charts. But the song, and its lavish globe-trotting video, barely registered in the U.S....
Image credit: David Carlson, Betsy Stewart, and Ashraf Fouad, video still from "Watering" (2008)
The myriad and sometimes contradictory qualities of water -- both life-giving and destructive, powerful and serene, a barrier and a bond between people -- make it a fertile subject for fine art, as you'll see in the work of these painters, sculptors, photographers, and other artists, many part of the "Take Me To The River" project, an international artists' collective that uses water as its unifying theme. Their inspiring interpretations of one of life's most basic elements are by turns surprising, humorous, poignant, and just plain pretty -- stroll through our gallery and see for yourself.
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Image from Play me I'm Yours
Never mind downloading free music, get out there and play it for free. This month there are 30 "street pianos" strewn around London as part of the Play Me I'm Yours and Sing London festival. All over town people are sitting down and playing a tune. People have been jumping from their bus just to take a look. Others are dancing, or watching, and talking to strangers about this wondrous spontaneous event.
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Flickr user joshunterSolar Array Planned for Next Year
"Responsibility" and "cleanliness" might not be synonymous with the world's biggest music and culture festival, which turns a Tennessee farm into a four-day party for 80,000 hippies, hipsters, baby-boomers and even the occasional baby.
Sure -- and forgive the stereotype -- peace, love, caring are baked right in. But amidst all the good vibes, what of Bonnaroo's massive carbon footprint?
"They should do everything they can" to shrink it, folkster Andrew Bird told us before performing last week, "besides not having it exist."
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Credit: Eamonn McCormack/Wireimage
Most celebrities use their fortune to buy outrageously extravagant homes--think multi-car garages, huge pools, more bedrooms than a hotel, state-of-the-art kitchens, and massive grounds--without giving much thought to the increase in their carbon footprint. (Note to these offenders: Your hybrid isn’t exactly canceling out your home energy use.) But we found seven celebrities whose homes reflect their passion for all things green--even if the square footage isn’t especially modest. And while we'd love to show you all the solar panels, sustainable-wood flooring, and environmental technologies these celebs have installed, most of them are (understandably) private about their homes--so you'll just have to take our word for it....
Image via: Thoreau's LegacyThoreau's Legacy: American Stories on Global Warming is the new, interactive ebook available now, which chronicles stories from 67 Americans across the United States and their personal reflections, in word and image, of how climate change is affecting the landscape they love. The best part is that it's free and available to anyone....
Isn't it about time you upgraded your (bike)ride? Got a dusty 3-speed that won't stay in gear propped up in the corner of your garage, or an old Huffy mountain bike you outgrew along with POGs (yes, I just referenced POGs)? In other words, have you been meaning to get a cleaner, greener set of wheels? Then it's high time you entered Inhabitat's Pimp My Eco-Ride Contest to win a cutting edge, top-of-the-line bike--but hurry on up, tomorrow's your last chance. ...
Image via: Getty Images
The "how to go green" book, Ecoholic by Adria Vasil, gives you a quick and dirty yes/no list for all green aspects of your life. But does it offer anything "new"?...
With 200 films from 30 countries, the Los Angeles Film Festival (June 18 to 28) in Westwood near UCLA, seems far from Hollywood. The non-profit that organizes the event “champions the cause of independent films,” and though Public Enemies with Johnny Depp and the new Transformers movie will be premiered, the rest of the schedule has little connection with show biz. Among the screenings, a few high-profile documentaries cover environmental issues. So now it’s time they leave the nest of fests and play in theaters for all of us to see: ...
Riding the “Vehicle for Change,” a team of 15 Dartmouth College grads and students “dedicated to diminishing environmental and economic issues through education,” clamored aboard the Big Green Bus to drive 12,000 miles across the US. On June 17, they stopped off at the Timberland store in Manhattan to unveil the newly retrofit 1989 MCI bus’s eco-features. Where are they headed next and what are they up to?
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TreeHugger attended a pre-release screening No Impact Man, a documentary made about Colin Beavan (aka No Impact Man) and his family’s yearlong experiment to live a zero waste lifestyle in New York City. We were happy to see that the movie treated its premise with a great deal of self-awareness, addressing the fact that the no impact conceit could easily be labeled as gimmickry rather than an earnest experiment to see what one can and cannot live without. ...
Photo via: PapalarsThere are only two things in life that are certain... taxes, and you know, that other thing!
While death is not something that anybody wants to talk about, they certainly should. The process of what to do with your remains is a very important question. Society has a set list of procedures for the moment our time on this planet comes to an end, and most of them are not very green......
Photo: Douglas Mason / Getty
Civil Disobedience to Fight Coal
Before Bruce Springsteen took the stage at Bonnaroo over the weekend, Bobby Kennedy, Jr. told a crowd of thousands that "coal is a crime," and called on festival-goers to get arrested with him (and James Hansen) on the 23rd of June at Coal River in West Virginia.
Beforehand, Jacob from TreeHugger Radio and I caught up with the attorney-activist, who heads the Waterkeeper Alliance. Yesterday I posted an interview with Kennedy in which he detailed his problems with Obama's policy on mountaintop coal mining and the "corruption" of his "family friends." The radio interview is here, but see after the jump for the full conversation....
Photograph: Jay Westcott/Rappor
Never heard of Stanley Greenberg? Probably means you’ve been living under a rock for the last, say, twenty years. He’s a political mastermind – akin to being described as the world-champion of public opinion polls. His client list reads like a who’s who of domestic and international government – Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Nelson Mandela and Ehud Barak. When the chance to talk enviro-political shop with the Grand Pooh-bah “o” Polling appeared, it was an easy vote of YES WE CAN!...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the weekly archive if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 07. 4.09
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I am a big fan of Rick Smith, and the work he has done at Environmental Defence. He has been a leader of the campaign to get Bisphenol A, phtalates and brominated flame retardants out of our bodies. He and Bruce Lourie have done great stuff.
So I picked up “Slow Death by Rubber Duck” eagerly. After all, these guys write well, and have been regular sources for posts on treeHugger. Surely this book will pull all this together in a convincing package....
Image: 
Turn your wall into a white board with 
Image credit: 
Image from Play me I'm Yours
Never mind downloading free music, get out there and play it for free. This month there are 30 "street pianos" strewn around London as part of the 
Flickr user 
Credit: Eamonn McCormack/Wireimage
Most 
Image via: 
Isn't it about time you upgraded your (bike)ride? Got a dusty 3-speed that won't stay in gear propped up in the corner of your garage, or an old Huffy mountain bike you outgrew along with POGs (yes, I just referenced POGs)? In other words, have you been meaning to get a cleaner, greener set of wheels? Then it's high time you entered 
Image via: Getty Images
The 
Image via 
With 200 films from 30 countries, the 
Riding the “Vehicle for Change,” a team of 15 
TreeHugger attended a pre-release screening 
Photo via: 
Photo: Douglas Mason / Getty
Civil Disobedience to Fight Coal
Before Bruce Springsteen took the stage at 
Photograph: Jay Westcott/Rappor
Never heard of 
