Thanks to the organizers of
Compostmodern, we were able to take a tour of the San Francisco Transfer Station - the place where all the trash from the city goes to be sorted into recyclables, compostables, and junk headed for the dump. Turns out, there's a lot more to this facility than trash.
Photo via Jaymi Heimbuch
Continue reading "Secrets of the San Francisco Dump " »
As you've probably heard, there's a lot of green going on in that
$787 billion stimulus bill recently signed into law. There's money for renewable energy research, funding for a giant high speed rail system, tax credits for wind power and efficient home improvements, and cash to help the military go solar--just to name a few. So, we've broken down the final bill and weeded out all the green we can expect to see from the stimulus--here are the projects that will be driving the government's green revolution in coming years.
High Speed Rail - There's $9.3 billion in the stimulus (and billions more in the proposed budget) to aid in the creation of a massive high speed rail system, and to make grants for other railroad projects like Amtrak.
Continue reading "Guide to the Green Projects in Obama's Stimulus Bill" »
The
Automotive X-Prize has put $10 million on the table for the team that can build a 100 mile-per-gallon car. Even tougher, teams need to prove that their car could realistically enter production, and sell at least 10,000 units per year. The competitors in this six city, Tour de France-style stage race run that gamut from garage tinkerers to Silicon Valley power-startups.
Aptera Motors
Continue reading "Cars of The Automotive X-Prize" »
Whether ranging from the subtle to the overtly political, environmental art is always provocative. The first in our series is San Francisco-based environmental artist Gyongy Laky, who addresses many political themes in her hands-on and labour-intensive work, which includes the use of natural materials to textiles. One of her more well-known pieces her sculptural typographic series of words fashioned out of natural materials and
featured in the New York Times magazine.
Continue reading "8 Amazing Environmental Artworks " »
Have You Seen Birds?
The star of this book is Barb Reid's plastecine artwork. She sculpts dozens of distinctive
birds that will inspire the youngest burgeoning naturalist. A bird spotting key on the back page helps with identification.
Continue reading "10 Books For The Green Preschooler" »
In the current economic crisis, a lot of money is being spent on roads and bridges. This is a good thing if it gets people working, but perhaps it is not such a good thing if you are worried about the carbon footprint of concrete and of the cars that will be using all these new roads and bridges. They spent a lot of money on these things in GD1, like the Triborough Bridge in New York, but they did a lot of other investing in infrastructure as well.
More on the current investment in roads: $27 Billion in Stimulus Package for Highways to Hell
Continue reading "Great Stimulus Ideas from the Great Depression" »
Many people seem to have gotten a little comfortable with the concept of global warming. That's not to say anyone's alright with it—in fact, most people actively
want to help fight climate change. But gone are the days when the concept of climate change first terrified the public as a kind of looming, inevitable apocalypse. And for the most part, that's a good thing. Instilling fear is no way to get anything done. But I worry that we've gotten a bit too complacent, too accepting.
So, I've rounded up 7 of the most terrifying photographic depictions of global warming around—because it could do us all a little good to get just a little nervous from time to time. Just to inspire us to work that much harder to avoid a potentially disastrous fate. After all, climate change really is some scary stuff.
Continue reading "7 Terrifying Global Warming Pictures" »
Formely known as the
B0 (B Zero) electric car, the Bluecar by Italy's Pininfarina and France's Bolloré (a 50-50 partnership) is a quite beautiful vehicle. In this slideshow we'd like to give you a little tour of it, from the exterior and interior, including the battery/supercapacitor pack that powers it.
Photo credit: Pininfarina/Bolloré
Continue reading "Bluecar Electric Car by Pininfarina and Bolloré" »
The Galapagos Islands. One of the most striking, strangely beautiful places on Earth. But don't take my word for it--or Charles Darwin's for that matter. Last year, I had the great fortune of accompanying 30 accomplished secondary school teachers on
a trek across the Galapagos for the
Toyota International Teacher Program. We not only got a front row seat to some of the most stunning biological wonders of the world (like the huge marine iguanas pictured above), but received a portrait of a very endangered ecosystem--and the many forces fighting for and against its survival. These pictures are an attempt to bring that portrait to life.
Photo by Pete Oxford
Continue reading "Galapagos Islands: Travel and Conservation" »
The Karma plug-in hybrid (basically an electric car with an onboard gas generator that can recharge the batteries to extend the total driving range) has been getting lots of attention lately, like the Tesla Roadster electric car before it. Let's have a closer look.
Photo credit: Fisker Automotive
Continue reading "Fisker Karma and Karma S Plug-In Hybrid Luxury Cars" »
In April 2008
WaterAid and
Ecover launched
a partnership to work in Ethiopia, one of the world's poorest and driest countries. With Ecover contributing £90 000 of funding over a three year period they aim to help 14,750 people gain access to safe water and sanitation.
In February 2009 I was invited to travel with WaterAid + Ecover to see the progress of their projects in the northern Hintalo Wajerat region. It was an extraordinary journey in search of clean water in a land of drought.
Photo credit: Marco Betti
Continue reading "The Incredible Ethiopian Journey in Search of Water" »
Clark Little is a photographer with a gift for capturing the ocean at its most beautiful. When you take a look at his images, it's hard to imagine that the ocean is filling up with pollution and being emptied of its wildlife. As you click through these incredible photos, you'll remember just why it's
worth fighting to save our oceans.
March 24th marks the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, so with that in mind, as you click through these incredible photos, you'll remember just why it's worth fighting to save our oceans.
Continue reading "The Most Beautiful Waves...Ever" »
It doesn't look like it, but hiding in this box are an armoire, a desk, a height-adjustable stool, two more stools, a six-shelf bookcase, and a bed with a
mattress.
Casulo is a brilliant transforming furnishing system that fits an entire apartment's worth of furniture in this diminutive box. See Casulo unboxed in the next image, and learn more about
green furniture at Planet Green.
Continue reading "10 Coolest Multifunctional Furniture Designs" »
A sea of bicycles at rush hour near a subway station in Beijing.
Photo by John Williams (Ideas Project)/Flickr
Continue reading "Transportation in China" »
Gensler's super-tall, 128-story
Shanghai Tower will be, for a moment at least, China's tallest building. It will also be highly green, featuring atriums and lush gardens in the tower, wind turbines on top, and a large green space below. The kicker in the tower's LEED-seeking argument is its highly efficent double glass insulation, the first to be used in a super tall building. The double skin, says architect Marshall Strabala, will make the spiraling tower “function much like a thermos bottle."
Expected completion 2014
Photo courtesy of Gensler
Continue reading "China's Stunning Green Buildings" »
Amur Leopard
Historially the Amur Leopard's range included the
Amur River Basin and the mountains of northeast China and the Korean Peninsular, but today it is only found in one small area of far eastern Russia, and (possibly) Jilin Province in China. The main cause of the Amur Leopard's demise: Being hunted for its fur and for medicinal use. Declines in its traditional prey have caused the leopard to hunt domestic animal populations, causing it to be further hunted. Because population levels are so diminished, the gene pool is severely restricted, making it especially vulnerable. An additional threat is a proposed oil pipeline which would cut directly through their last remaining habitat.
Continue reading "10 Animals Which Will Be Extinct Within Your Lifetime" »
We wanted to know some of the great activities
@TreeHugger Followers planned to participate in during
Earth Hour tonight. Gathered here are some of the great responses we received. If you're looking for inspiration for how to spend an hour without power, check out these suggestions.
Continue reading "What Are You Doing for Earth Hour?" »
It finally is here! The
Tesla Model S electric car, Tesla's first sedan, and the first Tesla that isn't based on an already existing car (the electric Roadster had lots of Lotus DNA).
Photo credit: Tesla Motors
Continue reading "Tesla Model S Electric Car" »
While this might seem like a small load at first glance, it certainly doesn't feel as small when you're on a three-week
bike tour. Every pound adds up! But the volume certainly is beat out by what you're about to see in this slideshow.
Continue reading "Extraordinary Loads on Ordinary Bikes" »
