Business & Politics

It's probably no great secret to TreeHugger readers at this point that part of the reason carbon emissions in developing nations are rapidly rising is partially because manufacturing of goods for export to the developed world. In fact in China at least one-third of total emissions and about 50% of emissions growth in recent years is directly tied to goods consumer in Europe and the United States.

So when it comes to counting those emissions, shouldn't the national burden be split up differently? The idea's not novel, but a new paper in Environmental Research Letters (via Mongabay) brings the issue to the fore.

The report authors use the example of Brazil, making the point that Brazil is the world's foremost exporter of both beef and soybeans -- both contributing to varying degrees to the nation's ongoing (if slowing) deforestation -- but the countries which consume these goods don't pay anything for the environmental damage, loss of biodiversity, and soaring carbon emissions caused when agriculture replaces rainforests.

Cars & Transportation

Photo: Rolls Royce

Does It Matter? Depends How You Look at It...
Autocar reports that a source inside the company told them that Rolls Royce could have an electric version of its Phantom super-luxury car on the road by the end of 2010: "Internally it's thought that the near-silence of electric propulsion, and the fact that full torque is available from a standstill, would align perfectly with Rolls-Royce's core values. Engineers are currently hard at work making this a reality, although a running prototype has yet to hit the road."

Science & Technology

Photo: Wikipedia, CC

Maryland Offshore Wind Development
Martin O'Malley, the governor of Maryland, would like to see offshore wind power developed off the cost of his state, but the U.S. military has expressed fears that the turbines could "disrupt flight and weapon test ranges, as well as erroneously appear on radar as unidentifiable aircraft." Three military bases in the region are using that area in the Atlantic for training missions and flight tests.

Culture & Celebrity

Photo via TreeHugger

Already thinking about your holiday shopping? Our gift guide is the perfect place to start, but if you're the kind of shopper who likes visiting a store rather than waiting for the UPS truck, check out Wired's fifth annual pop-up store in New York City--where a careful collection of green gifts has been selected by one of our favorite eco-celebrities.

Business & Politics

photo: flickrfavorites.

A group of 35 nations have agreed to a plan that aims to reduce global deforestation by 25% by 2015, The Guardian reports. The price tag for it all could run as high as $36 billion over the next five years. Now who will pay for it all?

Science & Technology

Rice = food and electricity at the same time... photo: ya po guille via flickr.

One solution for getting clean electricity to the 440-some million people in rural India who currently don't have grid power (or any power...) is to build wind farms, solar power plants, or use some decentralized but still tech-heavy option such as solar panels. And then there's rice husks and biomass gasification. Not a new technology, but one the Economic Times reports Husk Power Systems is taking advantage of to transform agricultural waste into power:

Science & Technology

photo: Wikipedia.

Here's a not so comforting discovery: A new paper in Science magazine says that Arctic sea ice melting is starting to dilute surface waters and threatening the tiny shellfish called pteropods that are the base of the Arctic food chain. Those small swimming snails get eaten by fish, which in turn get eaten by polar bears and seals. Yeah, not so good:

Science & Technology

Images via Petitvention

Designers seem to be setting a new trend for solar chargers, turning small scale renewable gadget charging into something resembling a bouquet of flowers. Hot on the heals of the Sunny Flower solar charger concept we showed off in September comes the iPetal, a design strikingly similar, and perhaps establishing a trend for stylish solar.