UK wind energy developer
Ecotricity is a pioneer of
large-scale wind-energy projects in industrialized landscapes. Not only do these turbines circumvent the NIMBY crowd's complaints about destroying our views, they also offer an almost poetic contrast between the old, polluting model of business as usual, and a cleaner, healthier more sustainable future.
Continue reading "Urban Wind Turbines Circumvent NIMBYs" »
The Valley by Scott Oliver sums up the kind of art that can be created when you take a look at trash and see it not as something to send to a landfill, but something to transform into a new, beautiful item. While you're looking at an old chair, you're also looking at our environment - from which it came and to which it will go, either in a healthy way or, more likely in an unhealthy way. This chair was rotting in a
salvage yard. The artist rescued it and from the upholstry and stuffing, recreated the Hetch Hetchy Valley before it was dammed and used as a fresh water reservoir. The artists hope viewers see the connection between natural and artificial environments that we tend to forget are indeed connected. This is one of many pieces from the
SMART Art Competition, which brought out some great artists who use trash as their artistic medium. Click through to check out more.
Photo via Jaymi Heimbuch
Continue reading "Rethinking Trash into Inspired Art" »
The plan is to make more of textural definition between the pedestrian plazas and the areas still open to cars, but for the moment all there is are a bunch plastic orange dividers. But that didn't deter people from enjoying the lounge chairs placed on the street.
Continue reading "Times Square Made More Pedestrian (and Lounge Chair) Friendly" »
The
Dragonfly is a 128-floor vertical farm concept that will definitely get locavores drooling. Conceived by Vincent Callebaut Architectures, the building supports housing, offices, laboratories and and twenty-eight different agricultural fields. It completely sustains itself using solar-power, wind-power, and captured rain water.
Continue reading "10 Droolworthy Eco Structures" »
We talk a lot about conserving water, but it's not just so we have enough to drink: the world's oceans, streams, ponds, and even puddles are some of Mother Nature's most amazing work. The Silent Valley Reservoir in Northern Ireland collects H20 from the Moune Mountains and distributes it as the main source of
drinking water for the bulk of County Down and Belfast. Its tranquility and abundant wildlife also make it a popular spot for day trips.
Continue reading "Water Like You've Never Seen It" »
Like Critical Mass, the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) is gaining global reach. The London ride pictured above in 2008 is where it all began six years ago, and is the biggest ride with more than 1,000 riders, but the WNBR continues to grow in both number of cities participating and number riders willing to bare all. This year, over 10,000 are expected in more than 70 cities, mostly over the weekend of June 12, 2009.
Continue reading "World Naked Bike Ride: Baring it All For the Bike" »
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, scene of the deadliest conflict since World War II, remains
mired in violence in significant part because of the international
demand for electronic products that requires minerals found in the eastern Congo. The minerals mined here are used to make our iPhones, laptops and MP3 players, but at a great expense. Armed groups finance themselves through the
illicit conflict mineral trade and fight over control of mines and taxation points inside Congo.
Continue reading "The Incredible Story of Conflict Mineral Mining in Images" »
While it is hard to rank rivers and lakes around the world in terms of who is THE worst, there are a few that stand out in the crowd. Pollutants like industrial waste, sewage runoff, overpopulation and agriculture discharges all make for quite a toxic brew. When you count in the fact that many of these major rivers and lakes supply food to nearby major population centers then they are having an even greater effect than as simply some polluted body of water in the middle of nowhere. Below are a few of the worst offenders that you should watch out for.
Image via: Getty Images - ChinaFoto Press
Continue reading "World's Dirtiest Rivers and Lakes" »
Faroe Islands, Near Denmark
Green roofs are not new; they have been used for thousands of years because they helped insulate, thrived in the sun instead of rotting, and other than the increased structure, they were cheap as, well, the dirt that they were planted in. Then flat roofs came in and were covered in tar and asphalt, which needed a lot of maintenance. Engineers and architects didn't worry much about them; nobody could see them. Roofs became parking lots for equipment.
Continue reading "Green Roofs are Changing Architecture and Planning" »
The High Line, a linear park built on top of a derelict elevated railway on Manhattan's west has been in the planning stages for some time. The first section has just opened.
Left: All along the route at street level on the supports for the railroad tracks that have been transformed into the park the signage indicates the nearest location to enter. Right: The south entrance of the park at Washington & Gansevoort Streets, which is where The Highline is encouraging people to enter right now as the other entrances are a bit smaller and there is a lot of foot traffic going through the area.
Continue reading "Take the High Line! Check Out Manhattan's Newest Park" »
The
Cool Globes eco-art project currently residing at Los Angeles’ Exposition Park as of Earth Day, April 22 through the end of July, displays giant 5-foot by 7-foot globes decorated, painted, sculpted, and designed by artists, from the Blue Man Group to Jim Dine, with meaningful environmental messages. The collection, originally installed in Chicago in 2007, has toured San Francisco Golden Gate Park, Washington DC’s Botanical Gardens, and other towns with local additions. Next stop: London. Focused on one of the many environmental issues, from renewable energy to water conservation, each earth-friendly sphere proposes a solution and inspires action. “I want to see them all!” said an enthralled little girl whose mother read the description about green roofs.
"Blown Away" by artist Chris Burke. Photo credits: Roberta Cruger
Continue reading "Purpose-Driven Art: Cool Globes Show" »
What better way to start an homage to the amazing and crazy inventions for collecting water than modern plastic bottle proliferation? Because
plastic bottles are crazy. Paying for water in little bottles is insane, if you consider the clean water flowing practically free from the tap in developed countries. Consumption of vast quantities of water in vessels that go straight to waste and never biodegrade: the archeologists of the future will certainly file this under "crazy." Yet it is amazing that we have an infrastructure that can turn
millions of barrels of oil into bottles to deliver freshly melted glacier and other exotic waters to a store near you!
Continue reading "Amazing and Crazy Water Collection Methods" »
TreeHugger has been writing about various aspects of the
worldwide water crisis for the past few weeks, so it seems appropriate to highlight some of the great water wonders of the world. From New Zealand to Africa to the United States, these nine amazing waterfalls will make you want to appreciate them in person.
Angel Falls, Venezuela As the world’s tallest waterfall Angel Falls is located in Canaima National Park in Venezuela. It has a 2,648 foot plunge and a total height of 3,212 feet.
Continue reading "Amazing Waterfalls from Around the World" »
Abbott Miller and his colleague Brian Raby traveled to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, to study how the local furniture industry used Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified wood harvested from Bolivia's forests to bring their designs to life.
Miller and Raby's chair design, made from jatoba wood, yields three chairs per sheet of plywood with minimal waste. To save space, the chair's components can also be shipped flat and dry-assembled with a rubber mallet.
Jay Zukerkorn
Continue reading "10 Awe-Inspiring, Sustainable Designs for a Living World at Cooper Hewitt" »
The Aero EV has a twin motor AESP producing a jaw-dropping 1,000 hp, 60 mph in 2.5 seconds, and its top speed is 208 mph. It can be charged and ready to go in 10 minutes on a standard 110 outlet has a range of 200 miles.
Continue reading "13 Hot Eco-Cars That Go Zoom" »
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.
Left: Toes tentatively dip into the ocean in "Watering," a collaborative meditation on peoples' alienation from, and reconnection with, the universal source of life. David Carlson, one of the three artists behind the video piece, also worked with watery imagery in his "Perception of Waves," an impressionistic take on what the Nile River "has witnessed over time" -- the children who have played in it, the fish that have swum in it, the lives that have changed -- and been changed by -- the course of its flow.
Continue reading "Artists Turn Water Into Masterpieces" »
ACT-Responsible organizes the work of advertisers promoting sustainable causes into three categories: Taking care of (1) the planet, (2) yourself, and (3) others. But their own work, provocatively depicting the tragic consequences of our choices on future generations, deserves to lead this slideshow on the coolest environmental advertising.
The poster promoted ACT Reponsible's exhibition last week at Cannes 2009. According to Creative Director Fred Claviere, it was a hard choice to use an image this provocative. But in his own words: "We have to make people react...it was simply too urgent to not use it."
Continue reading "Coolest Environmental Advertising" »
Poo power may be a pretty neat way to turn waste into fuel, but it isn't really a new one;
Modern Mechanix had it way back in 1922. Even though they called methane "marsh gas," they were on to something big -- a way to harness energy with a huge variety of uses. Here's a quick tour of where it comes from, and where "the magic" happens.
Continue reading "The Mighty Power of Poo" »
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