TH Forums Highlights: Tree Planting, Bike Riding, Gas Saving and More
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 08. 6.07
Down the street at TreeHugger Forums, you can still take a poll (and vent your spleen) about TreeHugger's recent acquisition and we're still looking for your "dumb questions" about the environment -- the ones you aren't sure about, but might be afraid to ask. Here are some of the recent highlights...
 | 1) New forum user SomewhereInND has an interesting assertion: "It is true, planting a tree won't reduce green house gas. Once that tree dies, it will decay (producing CO2/methane), rereleasing its stored carbon back into the enviroment. Any trace amounts of carbon left underground will not make up for the carbon that was used to plant/water/maintain/and eventually cut down that tree." Does that make sense to anyone? |
 | 2) Citing some interesting numbers, including "in the US, only 1% of urban travel was by bicycle, and 30.6% of adults are considered obese. This contrasted with the Netherlands where 28% of urban travel was via a bike, and only 10% of adults were obese," user ed has a question: "Can anyone design an electric bike or trike that everyone would want to be seen riding?" |
 | 3) User betterdriver has put together a driving directions/gasoline usage maps mashup, which "allows you to enter in a start and ending location for a drive, and will calculate the amount of gas used. It will also show you some ways to you can save on gas, with the approximate amounts of money saved." Using the forums' polling functionality, the question is "Would you use the Gasonline Usage mashup page?" USB charging and municipal green building, after the jump... |
| 4) Forum user pikola24 is wondering about computer energy use when using a USB port to charge up a gadget. "Does the computer consume more energy during the USB charging period than during its standard use? if so, does someone know if the energy consumed is more or the same than the one from conventional plug-in chargers?" Answers vary from "yes" to "no" to "it depends"... |
 | 5) Lastly, user tapsmiled says, "I work for a city and we have 2 new buildings about to be constructed in the next 2 years. I have arranged a visit with one of our commissioners to discuss green options for these buildings. Since these will be brand new construction, I think the sky, theoretically, is the limit. Does anyone have any suggestions for things to incorporate in a new civic building?" So far, daylighting, geothermal heating and cooling, green roofing and more are on the list; what else should be added? |
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