Manuel said:
"This is great news! I hope all cities pass this into law.The practice of using plastic bags just to quickly dispose of them has been going on far t..." [read]
Jay Knecht said:
"What are the performance stats for the Son of Max? ..." [read]
gazelle said:
"@ Dallas:
The book, and the supplementary videos in the "How It All Ends" youtube series, address this in detail, but I'll try to paraphrase:..." [read]
Barry said:
"Kofi Annan has about as much of a clue about electric cars and developing countries as Ann Ann the Panda.
He underestimates the ingenuity o..." [read]
JJ said:
"Very cool. I didn't thought that biodesel might be our future fuel...." [read]
Derek said:
""I guarantee you this will spark huge debates around the world," she said. "We have to delve into this in a way that hasn't been done in a long tim..." [read]
We've been closely watching the star-studded climb that brought Emile Hirsch, Jessica Biel, Isabel Lucas and others on a grueling trek to the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The climb, replete with gut-wrenching altitude sickness, A-list drama, and a healthy dose of perspective on the global clean water crisis, all got captured in an hour-long show for MTV. And in case you missed it this month, it's been posted in full over at MTV.com. For some of the deeper insights and background from Kenna, the creative force behind Summit on the Summit, also check the TreeHugger Radio interview.
All Cyclists and Bus Operators Should Know This
Surprisingly, despite their very different sizes, bicycles and buses have many things in common. They both stick mostly to the right side of the road (in countries that drive on the right, that is) and move slower than most other vehicles. On top of that, buses are frequently making stops and moving in and out of traffic, making them particularly intimidating from the point of view of cyclists. But from the point of view of bus drivers, the relationship with cyclists can also be confusing. That's why it's important to teach both how to safely share the road, which is exactly what the video below does. It's a must see if you are a cyclist or a bus operator.
A couple days ago, I wrote about the 10th National Bike Summit in Washington, DC, and yesterday LLoyd wrote about an announcement by US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Today, we bring these two stories together! Someone from StreetBlogs SF uploaded a video of Mr. LaHood giving an informal tabletop speech at the Bike Summit. It's very encouraging because he seems to actually get it. Let's hope words are followed by more actions. See for yourself. Via Fastlane
Some of the People Working Hard to Make Green Transportation a Reality
Elizabeth from StreetFilms went to the 10th National Bike Summit in Washington DC with her camera, and the video above is the result (nice job!). It's great to hear from so many people and organisations working hard to fix the transportation sector, a crucial piece of the puzzle if we are to move to a more sustainable society. It can't be done without some policy changes, so we need effective lobbying if cyclists are to get their fair share of infrastructure and legislative protection (we pay taxes too, y'know). Via StreetFilms. See also:Infographic: "How Cars are Killing Us Around the World"
It's shouldn't take a gorgeous super model and her rather handsome NFL husband to convince you to participate in this year's Earth Hour on Saturday, March 27 at 8:30 pm, but it certainly doesn't hurt. From time zone to time zone, the world's citizens will be turning off their lights. Giselle and Tom have their candles ready, do you?
"Nobody used to ride a bike in New York, but now it's becoming mainstream"
Our friend Clarence at Streetfilms rode around NYC with Village Voice entertainment columnist Michael Musto. They did a video interview about cycling in NYC and using the good old bicycle as primary transportation. Michael has been riding around NYC for 25 years and he's seen things change quite a bit, from a time when nobody rode to now, with lots of new riders and a growing number of bike lanes. It's a great interview, very inspirational. Makes me want to go out and ride my bike! Via StreetFilms. See also: Crunching the Numbers ($$$) on Bike Commuting
TreeHugger has covered hand-powered chainsaws before, and even chainsaws lubricated with mushroom spores, but we've never done much on electric chainsaws. I'm thinking we should get something up soon though, before Pleatherface dons his cruelty-free mask and pays us a visit. Although if this serial killer's competence is anything to go by, maybe we don't have anything to worry about.
Suggests New "Take Turns" Sign
In this short video (4.27 mins), Gary Lauder makes a convincing case for better road design to help burn less fuel, save time, and save lives. He does the math for a simple "T" intersection that has three stop signs instead of one, and it turns out that it's an amazingly wasteful design (just imagine how many of those there is around the world!). Some of the conclusions: A new type of sign is needed to tell drivers to "take turns" when someone is already at the intersection, and roundabouts are much more efficient and safer than regular intersections. Via TED. See also: Autocentric Development was a Mistake, Let's Fix It (Video)
Guest blogger Sara Snow is a green lifestyle expert and board member for Discovery's 24/7 future-forward network Planet Green.Discovery Channel launches their newest series, another provocative look at the goings-on on our beautiful planet. Will it be as successful as Planet Earth?
On Thursday I joined a small crowd in Los Angeles (I'd call it a gathering, but it was nothing short of a crowd) for a sneak peak at Discovery's newest series, LIFE.
The alluring nature series, a follow-up to the vastly popular Planet Earth, is an 11-part series that will make its debut later this month.
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Screen grab. Image: Streetfilms, CC
"It was a wrong turn... we didn't have to turn over all of our public spaces to the motor vehicle."
The man in the picture above is Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives. In the video below, the start of a great new series that will "examines what went wrong in the early part of the 20th Century, when our cities began catering to the automobile, and how those decisions continue to affect our lives today," Mr. White describes the transformation of NYC (he's sitting on all that is left of the "park" of Park Avenue) and what should be done to fix that mistake, and how that has already started happening. He's very inspiring, and the video is worth watching....
Image grab: Youtube/Motor Trend
The Best of an Old Tech vs. The Best of a New Tech
The car nuts at Motor Trend got their hands on a Tesla Roadster Sport (0 to 60 MPH in 3.7 secs) and a Porsche Boxster Spyder (0 to 60 in 4.8 secs). What had to happen happened, and they took the cars out for a few laps and drag raced them. The video is mostly interesting to see the Tesla in action, and to hear the comments from both someone who seems impressed by EV technology and someone who seems skeptical....
You Think the Tandem Bike Looks Like Fun? Check This Out!
That's probably the most original hybrid car that I've ever seen. Various iterations of the Humancar concept have been in development since the late 1960, and this latest version mixes electricity with good old human muscle power, and you steer it with the rowing handles. A nice example of good ol' ingenuity and out-of-the-box thinking. Even if I doubt that you'll see those all over the roads soon, it certainly looks like fun!...
"Our government subsidizes fossil fuels, and they are not made to pay for the damage that they do."
This one isn't brand new, but we missed it when it first came out a couple of weeks ago. Newsweek asked its readers to send questions to NASA's James Hansen, and the video above is his answers, along with his thought on the energy future of the U.S. and the world. As usual, Hansen provides lots of insights about the challenges that we face. One of the suggestions that he makes is a fee on carbon that would be paid back to citizens as a dividend. He also says that Americans might need to think about a third political party if the big two don't improve. Via Youtube. See also: Bill Gates at TED 2010: Climate & Energy...
Screen Grabs: CBS/60 Minutes
Update:Bloom Energy Comes Out of the Shadows, Launches the Bloom Box Fuel CellGreen Savior or One More Fuel Cell Company?Bloom Energy is a well-funded startup that is starting to come out of stealth mode (with a big launch planned for Wednesday). Its first major media exposure was a 60 Minutes segment on Sunday (you can see the video below) that made some big claims about how this is going to "replace the grid" and produce lots of clean energy. Let's see if this passes the smell test......
Image: Screen Grab from TED Talk
A Smarter Electric Bill
During his recent talk at the TED conference, David Cameron, the leader of the conservative party in the UK, talked about many things like how to do more with less money, how to measure well-being and not just GDP, etc... But there's one idea that stood out as a particularly clever. It's not something new, and certainly not Cameron's idea, but it's worth highlighting because it's a low-hanging fruit in energy efficiency and would certainly be less expensive than big infrastructure changes. ...
"No Free Parking at City Hall"
TreeHugger friend and ally Clarence Ekerson just sent me his latest video, and it's a great one. He went to Seattle and biked with the Mayor, Mike McGinn, on his morning commute. Mr. McGinn seems to be determined to make Seattle greener, and he puts his money where his mouth is. He even has his assistant schedule his appointments so that he can bike as often as possible, and so that he goes downhill in the morning and then makes his way back up as the day progresses. If more mayors were like that, we'd certainly have much more walkable and bike-friendly streets (and less urban air and noise pollution, as well as fewer accidents). If you're reading this Mr. McGinn, kudos! Via Streetfilms. See also: Sweet! Broadway Pedestrian Plazas in New York City Made Permanent...
Simple but Clever
My friend Clarence Eckerson gives this context for his most recent video: "Unfortunately, it's something I've seen even the most experienced cyclist do: wipe out while crossing a set of train tracks. As many of you know, you need to maneuver your bike's angle of approach so that you hit the rails as perpendicular as possible. But even knowing that, some demon riders don't slow enough to sashay properly, and heck: poor newbies have no idea how the road's mathematics work until it's too late!" But it looks like Seattle's DOT has found a good way to minimize this problem (at least until a bike path that doesn't cross train tracks can be built), and I'm hoping that other cities' Department of Transportation are paying attention. Via StreetFilms...
Keep It, And Make It Even Greener
Our friend Clarence over at Livable Streets sent us the above video and a call to action: "Hello friends, it is coming close to a decision on whether are amazingly wonderful pedestrian plazas in Times Square will be made permanent. Right now the press is in full tilt mode grumbling about the plazas (the NY Post, f.ex.). In response I made this Streetfilm to remind the media how bad it was just a few years ago. While I don't believe the spate of bad press will sway the DOT or Mayor to remove the plazas in the end, all the positive feedback in the world is needed." Any NYC readers want to share their Time Square stories? Please do so in the comments below. Via StreetFilms...
(Colbert adjusting his prescription with adaptive eyewear. Image: Comedy Central)
Humanitarian design advocate Emily Pilloton was Stephen's guest on the Colbert Report earlier this month, and we dare say she crushed it (isn't that what the kids are saying these days?). Emily demonstrated a number of designs like the hippo roller, adaptive eyewear (above), and landmine-resistant footwear, which Colbert wears throughout their chat. (Video after the jump)...
NRDC Action Fund is pulling out all the stops on pressuring the Senate to pass clean energy legislation and, as you can see above, has employed a healthy dose of celebrity endorsement to get everyone to pay attention. If you're a regular TreeHugger reader the reasoning in the video is probably nothing new, but it's certainly worth spreading around to everyone you know. As the campaign very rightly says "This is our moment" to start implementing more renewable energy....
Photo: Earth in Space -- Wikipedia
In encouraging support for earthquake devastated Haiti we had a few comments, including some since been removed by our moderator, that espoused a decided lack of compassion for people in need.
Their tone reminded me of a 1992 sci-fi movie, called variously as Escape from Absolom or No Escape (video below). In short prisoners are dumped on an island and left largely to fend for themselves. Rather like William Golding's 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies, but with grown-ups. In one corner eagerly pulling on the gloves is personal ego and greed. In the other corner keen to avoid a fight is the common good. Who prevails in the long term, who is the more sustaining? Those who only care about themselves, or those who look out for others?
In many ways I think this is the nub of the environment question....
A year ago we wrote about Gary Chang's Domestic Transformer, an incredible 344 square foot apartment that could change into any of 24 different designs. We showed pictures and plans, but more than any house I have seen, this one needs a movie. Planet Green visited it for the World's Greenest Homes, and it is truly four minutes of wow. Get a bigger version on Planet Green.
I repeat the plans below the fold for reference while watching.......
Image: 20th Century Fox, colors edited by author.
Did you watch Dances With Wolves and think "Hmm, maybe Americans have treated the Native American's like crap." Aha! That's what those Hollywood liberals want you to think! "Did you see Wall-E and think "Hmm, maybe I shouldn't litter so much." You did? There they go again! Did you walk out of the theater after seeing Titanic and vow to plant bombs on all the icebergs in the North Atlantic to blow them up and help prevent another tragic iceberg-related shipwreck? I know I did...wait, what? Sorry, I just got finished reading a column that argues that Avatar is propaganda to recruit eco-terrorists and I think some of the crazy rubbed off on me....
Images: Youtube
Where Can I Get a Drink Here?
Okay, this one is a bit on the light side, but I found it quite interesting as an illustration of the unintended consequences (sometimes really unintended) of introducing non-native species in foreign ecosystems. The video below shows alcoholic monkeys on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean. They were brought there from West Africa 300 years ago by slave traders back when the island was a rum-producing colony, and apparently they developed a taste for alcohol from eating fermented sugarcane left in the fields. Nowadays, they satisfy their liquor habit by stealing drinks from tourists (as seen in the video)....
1,126 companies around the globe have join 1% for the Planet, commiting themselves to donate 1% of their sales to almost 1,900 environmental organisations. Come January 2010, members of the public will be able to also support 1% for the Planet's on going works.
1% for the Planet: The Music, Vol. 1, a digital album is due for release at this time. More than 40 artists, the like of including Jack Johnson, Brandi Carlile, Jackson Browne, and Angilique Kidjo have "donated rare and exclusive tracks to produce the first album dedicated to supporting the environment." Many of the participating artists are themselves members of 1% for the Planet. ...
Photo: ABC TVGeorge Monbiot has graced our pixels many time before (see links below). The journalist with Britain's Guardian newspaper believes we need to take swift and decisive action, if we are to avert the effects of man-made climate change.
Ian Plimer, a geologist, is Professor of Mining Geology at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and director of three mining companies. And he is author of the controversial book "Heaven and Earth," in which he denies there is any credible science showing humankind contributes to climate change.
After Monbiot wrote a scathing review of Plimer's book, Plimer challenged Monbiot to a debate. Monbiot, in turn, challenged Plimer to answer some questions in writing. He refused and the debate was cancelled. Until now, see the two go hammer and tongs on the ABC's Lateline TV program....
Doing It Old-School
Last year, we wrote about UPS doing some seasonal deliveries with bicycles in Portland. It looks like the program was successful because they're now extending it to Silicon Valley, where it makes more sense at this time of year than in, say, Maine. Unfortunately, only about two dozens of such cyclists will work for UPS this year. But it's a start....
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 03.19.10
Guest blogger Sara Snow is a green lifestyle expert and board member for Discovery's 24/7 future-forward network Planet Green.
Screen grab. Image: Streetfilms, CC
"It was a wrong turn... we didn't have to turn over all of our public spaces to the motor vehicle."
The man in the picture above is Paul Steely White, the executive director of 
Image credit: 
Image grab: Youtube/Motor Trend
The Best of an Old Tech vs. The Best of a New Tech
The car nuts at Motor Trend got their hands on a 
Screen Grabs: CBS/60 Minutes
Update: 
Image: Screen Grab from TED Talk
A Smarter Electric Bill
During his recent talk at the TED conference, David Cameron, the leader of the conservative party in the UK, talked about many things like how to do more with less money, how to measure well-being and not just GDP, etc... But there's one idea that stood out as a particularly clever. It's not something new, and certainly not Cameron's idea, but it's worth highlighting because it's a low-hanging fruit in energy efficiency and would certainly be less expensive than big infrastructure changes. ...
(Colbert adjusting his prescription with adaptive eyewear. Image: Comedy Central)
Photo: 
Image: 20th Century Fox, colors edited by author.
Did you watch Dances With Wolves and think "Hmm, maybe Americans have treated the Native American's like crap." Aha! That's what those Hollywood liberals want you to think! "Did you see Wall-E and think "Hmm, maybe I shouldn't litter so much." You did? There they go again! Did you walk out of the theater after seeing Titanic and vow to plant bombs on all the icebergs in the North Atlantic to blow them up and help prevent another tragic iceberg-related shipwreck? I know I did...wait, what? Sorry, I just got finished reading a column that argues that Avatar is propaganda to recruit eco-terrorists and I think some of the crazy rubbed off on me....
Images: Youtube
Where Can I Get a Drink Here?
Okay, this one is a bit on the light side, but I found it quite interesting as an illustration of the unintended consequences (sometimes really unintended) of introducing non-native species in foreign ecosystems. The video below shows alcoholic monkeys on the island of 
1,126 companies around the globe have join 1% for the Planet, commiting themselves to donate 1% of their sales to almost 1,900 environmental organisations. Come January 2010, members of the public will be able to also support 1% for the Planet's on going works.
Photo: ABC TV
