
“As I watched my Subaru Legacy slide backward toward my new ranch’s studio outbuilding, the thought crossed my mind that if it kept going…at least I would be using less gasoline.” Thus begins what journalist Doug Fine calls his “epic adventure in local living,” an experience chronicled in his new book,
“Farewell, My Subaru.” Grease-fuel, solar power, homegrown bananas, chickens, and Natalie (a goat purchased off Craigslist) are just a few of Doug’s companions down on the Funky Butte Ranch. Join us, if you will, as we step into his world. ::
TreeHugger Radio
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Special thanks to Calabash Music for the soundtrack.
Full text after the jump....

People call the Texas plains “flyover country.” Jarid Manos calls this land a coral reef in a sea of grass. In a region that has been ground under America’s boot heel, Manos and his
Great Plains Restoration Council have found a rich ecosystem, dangerously close to collapse. Through aggressive conservation, ecosystem rebuilding, and nature education for the youth of inner-cities and Indian reservations, respect is returning to plains. Even the buffalo have returned. ::
TreeHugger Radio
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
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For part one of our interview, click here. Also check out Jarid Manos’ book, Ghetto Plainsman, and some pics after the jump.
Special thanks to Calabash Music for the soundtrack....

Manos grew up as a "stray dog," without guidance and without boundaries in world where life is only slashed down, never nurtured. In
Ghetto Plainsman he traces his wanderings through a world of drugs, crime, prostitution, and depression. But it was all part of a search for a better place, a place he found in the plains of Texas, a ravaged world he has sworn to revive. Jarid Manos is the founder and CEO of
Great Plains Restoration Council, an ecological social movement he has crafted as “a living art project.” ::
TreeHugger Radio
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
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Special thanks to Calabash Music for the soundtrack....
All photos by Tom Dusenbery.
This is one in a series of interviews with previous winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Founded in 1990, the prize is given annually to six grassroots environmentalists working for change around the globe.
Indigenous people’s rights just might be one of the hardest causes to embrace given the times we live in. But fighting for small, isolated communities' rights on their land, while searching for systems they can adopt to reach a sustainable use of natural resources--and in Latin America, to boot--well, that must be one of the toughest fights a man can choose.
But that’s the fight Julio Cusurichi Palacios chose. Of
Shipibo indigenous origin, he has been key in drawing attention to the problems of small communities that remain isolated inside the Peruvian Amazon, who face threats from the mining, logging and oil drilling industries, and are extremely vulnerable to contacts with the outside world....

When I heard that one of the member’s of Will Steger’s team heading out across the Arctic to raise awareness of global warming was a woman who practices subsistence living I was bound and determined to interview her. I mean really, How many people do you know who practice a subsistence lifestyle by choice today? And so it was that I wound up interviewing a fascinating human being named Sigrid Ekran. She’s been the Iditarod’s rookie of the year, practices subsistence living enthusiastically in 2008, and is one of the nicest people you could ask to meet. Her observations on the both the physical effects of global warming and her experience landing for the first time in the middle of NYC are fascinating to read.
TreeHugger: What makes a person decide to move to Alaska and pursue a subsistence lifestyle?...

When I recently had the chance to chat by phone with Sam Branson, son of Virgin's Richard Branson, the subject at the top of his mind was his upcoming trip to Ellesmere Island along with folks like Will Steger and Sigrid Ekran as a part of Global Warming 101. An expedition expected to raise awareness among young people about the realities of global warming via unprecedented access to their day-to-day observations of melting ice and a changing world via the internet. So read on to see what he's up to, and how you can follow along.
TreeHugger: What made you decide to get involved with Global Warming 101 and the trip to Ellesmere Island?
Sam Branson: Well, Will Steger invited me on a trip from Clyde River and I enjoyed it and learned a lot about global warming, and he invited me on this trip and I decided to go because of the excitement of looking at Ellesmere in a way not many people have seen it and seeing the effects of global warming on the ice shelf. I think it will be amazing to see and traveling up by dog team as well.
...

It took three years and 600 underwater hours to film, but
Dolphins and Whales 3D: Tribes of the Ocean has reached its stunning, multi-dimensional completion. Here in our interview with the film’s ambassador, ocean explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau explains the painstaking search for these cetaceans, which include some of the world’s largest and most ancient dwellers. TreeHugger was also at the
premier in Boston with
narrator (and honorary mermaid) Daryl Hannah, as well as the Mantello brothers and Jean-Michel himself. Check out our TH Radio interview with Jean-Michel, one of the great explorers of planet Earth, or "planet ocean," as he would have named it. ::
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Full text below...

In part two of our in-depth conversation with the world’s first CE-Yo, Gary Hirshberg says we can still trust organics, but to beware of convenient aphorisms. ::
TreeHugger Radio
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For part one of the interview, click
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Full text after the jump....

We marvel daily at the blossoming of new renewable technologies. Their promise of a low-carbon economy gives us optimism, and their downright coolness makes our synapses jittery with excitement. Earth: The Sequel is a deep dive into the most groundbreaking and enticing new modes of harvesting energy. Thin-film solar and flying wind turbines are just the beginning. Authors Fred Krupp (president of
Environmental Defense) and Miriam Horn gave TreeHugger an exclusive interview about this new book and its message of hope and prosperity. ::
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Full text after the jump. ...

Before Stonyfield Farm was a $325 million company, Gary Hirshberg was milking the cows and trying to get the bills paid. Now, as the
largest organic yogurt-maker, he is fulfilling the original mission: make money and save the world. From milk cows to yogurt cups to food miles, Hirshberg has been an innovator and a ground-breaker, going where no business men would dare. Here he speaks with TreeHugger about green business, presidential politics, and the hidden power of camel poo. ::
TreeHugger Radio
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Full text after the jump. ...

If you say there’s no silver bullet to kill climate change, architect Ed Mazria says you’re wrong. The bullet is here and Mr. Mazria is challenging the world to lock and load. He’ll also tell you that trees won’t save us (no matter how much you love to hug them), and that the LEED standards aren’t getting us where we need to go. ::
TreeHugger Radio
Check out part one of our interview with Ed Mazria
here.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just
listen/right-click to download.
(Thanks to
Calabash Music for our soundtrack.)
Full text after the jump. ...

Architect
Edward Mazria was one of the first to draw major attention to the source that emits almost half of all greenhouse gas emissions: our buildings.
Architecture 2030 has been his vehicle for communicating a design logic based on stemming the carbon footprint of the built environment, and his widely adopted 2030 Challenge has laid a strategy for rendering those buildings carbon neutral. Mazria was featured on PBS’s
e2 series on sustainable design, and his
2010 Imperative is a call to teach ecological literacy to the fledgling designers of the world. ::
TreeHugger Radio
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just
listen/right-click to download.
(Thanks to
Calabash Music for our soundtrack.)
Full text after the jump. ...

Mike Mason is the founder of
Climate Care, one of the world’s first carbon offset providers which recently celebrated selling
1 million tonnes of offsets so far, and has just
opened an office in Australia. Since the beginning, Climate Care has focused on supporting offset projects with a strong development potential, often replacing dirty fossil fuels, or greatly reducing reliance on natural resources. Some examples of projects they have funded include efficient cooking stoves in Africa and Asia, compact fluorescent light bulbs in South Africa, and human-powered treadle pumps in India. Mike Mason continues to innovate, developing
small-scale technology for converting wood chips and other energy crops into wood pellets, and supporting a number of research initiatives into large-scale carbon reductions. In
part one, Mike talked about how the offset market has changed over the years, and explained why offset companies should work with even the heaviest of polluters. In part two Mike tells us a little bit about how offsets are accounted for and verified, why they have a potential for improving lives in the developing world, and what we can all do to fight climate change.
TH: Can you explain a little bit about how offsets are measured, and how they are verified?
...

Mike Mason is the founder of
Climate Care, one of the world’s first carbon offset providers which recently celebrated selling
1 million tonnes of offsets so far, and has just
opened an office in Australia. Since the beginning, Climate Care has focused on supporting offset projects with a strong development potential, often replacing dirty fossil fuels, or greatly reducing reliance on natural resources. Some examples of projects they have funded include efficient cooking stoves in Africa and Asia, compact fluorescent light bulbs in South Africa, and human-powered treadle pumps in India. Mike Mason continues to innovate, developing
small-scale technology for converting wood chips and other energy crops into wood pellets, and supporting a number of research initiatives into large-scale carbon reductions. In the first of this two part interview, Mike talks about how the offset market has changed over the years, and explains why offset companies should work with even the heaviest of polluters. Stay tuned for part two, in which Mike talks a little bit about how offsets are accounted for and verified, why they have a potential for improving lives in the developing world, and what we can all do to fight climate change.
TreeHugger: Climate Care was set up 10 years ago, and has grown rapidly. How has the market changed for carbon offsets over this time?
...

In part two of our interview with Yvon Chouinard, the maverick businessman talks about politics and the irony of living simply in a consumer society. He also rebuffs his brand’s “Pata-Gucci” reputation and explains why he’s started pouring cheap wine down the toilet. ::
TreeHugger Radio
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just
listen/right-click to download. Catch
part one here.
Full text after the jump....

He’s an eBay employee with a passion for people and the planet. And when he took his dream of enhancing the global market for people and planet-positive products to eBay executives they quickly recognized it’s potential. Now he’s engineered a unique collaboration between World of Good, Inc. and eBay that seems destined to bring a virtual marketplace and community for people and planet-positive products to the masses.
So read on to check out what this innovative entrepreneur has to say about changing the way the world of eBay looks at commerce.
...

It’s been three years since Sheryl Crow’s last album, and the world has changed a lot in that short time. Crow’s new release,
Detours, looks at war, oil, and climate change as hard as it looks at love, heartache, and hope. Sheryl spoke to us from her farm in Tennessee where she’s settled with her young son to live a greener, more peaceful life. She told us about her musical inspirations, her time touring with
Laurie David and StopGlobalWarming.org, and even sets the record straight about the infamous
one-square-of-toilet-paper remark that had us TreeHuggers
scratching our heads.
Listen to the podcast of this interview via
iTunes, or just
click here to listen, right-click to download....
Image courtesy of Clear Channel
This week we interviewed
Clear Channel Outdoor in Spain, the company behind the bike sharing system
Bicing in Barcelona,
whose success story you can read here. We previously interviewed
Mayra Nieto from Barcelona’s City Council (Part 1) as well as
some of its over 100.000 users (Part 2).
Clear Channel Outdoor is the world's largest outdoor advertising company, designing advertising displays for anywhere from airports and taxis to malls and including some of New York's Times Square displays. We learned that one of the most sustainable and innovative Product Service Systems like the Bicing, is the fruit of this company’s international street furniture division. Read what Jordi Sáez, regional director of Clear Channel in Catalonia, has to say about Bicing and sharing bikes....

He’s one of the world’s foremost scientific educators and comedians, and if you’ve spent time in a science classroom recently there’s a good chance you’ve been exposed to the magic of Bill Nye. I caught up with him recently, and learned what he has to say about the growing green movement in America, his friendly eco-competition with neighbor Ed Begley Jr., the current group of presidential candidates, and why swing dancing (yes, swing dancing) is his favorite form of eco-friendly exercise. But mostly I found that he’s as fun in person as he is on TV. Enjoy!
TreeHugger: So many of us grew up watching you on television or have heard about your friendly eco-competition with Ed Begley. Can you tell us a bit about what you’re up to now, and how you’re making your own life greener?
...

Allen Schaeffer is the executive director of the
Diesel Technology Forum. We spoke about the benefits, and surprising attributes, of clean diesel, and the role it has to play in dealing with climate change.
Treehugger: Tell us about the Diesel Technology Forum (DTF).
Allen Schaeffer: Thank you for taking the time to talk to me today. We are a not-for-profit that represents fuel refiners and companies. We define clean diesel as cleaner engines and the pieces of engines that make it clean, like turbochargers and other things within the engine. We also think about cleaner fuels--ultra low sulfur diesel as well as renewable diesels fuels. And lastly, there is the emissions control technology, the stuff that reduces emissions out of the tailpipe. Our membership happens to mirror those three components (engines, fuels and emissions controls); these include Chevron, BP, GM, VW, Caterpillar, Jon Deere, Bosch, Cummins, Delphi, to name just a few. So we’ve got, not the entire diesel industry, but we have the leading players....
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