Home / treehugger.com rss archive / August-26-2007


Would David Suzuki Dig Your Garden?
Photo credit: GeordieMacHey Canadian green fingers, environmental activist (and TreeHugger eco-hero) David Suzuki wants to find Canada's best pesticide-free lawns and gardens, plus your story, in 100 words or less, about how you made everything flourish sans chemicals.Photos and stories will be posted on his Web site; judges will pick the finalists and site visitors will then vote for a winner. If you win, you get a prize package that includes a "David Suzuki Dig...

TreeHugger Radio: The Fight to Keep Climate Science in the White House (Oh Yes, and Giant iPhone Bills)
This week we speak with a lead attorney from Center for Biological Diversity, one of three groups to sue the White House over its refusal to update critical climate reports. The Secretary of Transportation confidently declares that bicycles arent actually a form of transportation. We also hear from our tech correspondent about a new self-fueled technology with the power to turn chicken droppings into bio oil. Also, New York becomes the second state to approve climate impact stickers for new cars. Plus, while the iPhone may be sleek and efficient, theres nothing sleek about a paper phone bill hundreds of pages long. Pick up TreeHugger Radio on

Fight For Your Right... to Dry
First is was the slow food movement. Next it was slow fashion and slow furniture. Could the glamorous world of laundry be the next slow revolution? As people look for ways to decrease their energy consumption, clotheslines are steadily returning to the American landscape. However, this return to one of the original forms of solar power is being hampered (gotta love laundry puns) in some places. Some local municipalities and many homeowners associations prohibit ...

More People, More Diseases
Photo credit: forkliftWe always had a sneaking suspicion that the human race was a raging cesspool. (Some people we know prove this theory more than others.) Apparently, the experts agree: Explosive population growth, intensive agricultural practices, and changes in sexual behavior are a breeding ground for an "unprecedented number" of emerging diseases, says the World Health Organization (WHO). A new disease is rearing its ugly head every year, according to the U.N. health agency. We've already encountered 39 new pathogens that were unknown only a generation ago, including

TH Forums Highlights: Tankless Water Heaters, Greening the Gym and More...
Some highlights from TreeHugger Forums to get you thinking over the weekend...1) Forums user PatriciaW iw pondering a switch to a tankless water heater, but has been getting tripped up: "I can't decide which is best long term: gas which is non renewable or electricity which is renewable ...

Make a Hydroponic Bog Garden
The grand-prize winner of the TreeHugger/Popular Science/Instructables Go Green! contest presented an innovative solution to the evergreen problem of conserving water: A hydroponic bog garden that recycles the water from a sewage tank and produces a water effluent clean enough to discharge into surrounded ponds, ditches, and waterwaysor even for irrigation.An essential component of the bog is alfagrog, a highly porous volcanic rock with plenty of surface area, that houses...

Urban Renewal by Mari Santos
We're usually kinda "meh" about most T-shirt surgeries because we're just can't get into the hack'em, slash'em sartorial school of thought. Toronto-based Mari Santos, on the other hand, is such a genius with a pair of scissors we want to hitchhike across the border, kidnap her, head back south, and then set her to work against her will on the oversize T-shirts we seem to get for free by the pound. Except that it would probably be illegal. Which is kind of a bummer.Her ethos: "Taking something old, frumpy and ill fitting and making it into something new." Santos will be joining some 20 other designers to work on Urban Outfitter's

California Developers Making Solar Roofing A Standard Item
It's another California trend, which, as with so many other positive environmental developments that emanate from there with San Andreas-like shocking power, we fully expect will ripple outward to other US states. "One of the central San Joaquin Valley's largest home builders is taking the alternative-energy movement a significant step forward with the announcement that it will make solar energy standard on all its new houses.Officials at Lennar Homes said they will begin with 258 houses at their Chateau at Cathedral project in Clovis and Orchard Estates II in Reedley, and then spread the program to other projects as they come on line. Each house comes with a rooftop solar electr...

Right to Dry for Apartment Dwellers
Are you living in an apartment, dorm, anyplace without the space to hang a clothesline? Then you probably read Fight for Your Right to Dry a bit skeptically. After all, what can you do? You don't own a backyard!But wait! There is a better way! The drying rack, a device which folds compactly out of the way when not in use, allows anyone to dry their clothing naturally. The modern drying racks add a design element to your green living, a big improvement over the unstable, old accordion-racks. A couple options are shown over the fold, with some tips and hints on how rack drying can make your...

(The First) Wind Farm Planned For Lake Erie
Lake Erie is on average relatively shallow and has one of the most productive and popular Great Lakes sport fisheries. When it comes to walleye (the best eating freshwater fish that ever existed) and yellow perch, Erie is "hot". So hot, that this Lake Erie based wind farm proposal could make the Cape Wind project proposal look like a playground scuffle, unless the sponsors properly look after any fish and aquatic life issues early on. Because this is the first of many wind farms that will be proposed for Erie, we can be sure. "A German company that knows how to harness wind power is the best candidate to judge whether Lake Erie breezes can spin off power and jobs, Cuyahoga County comm...

One Year Ago in TH: Michael Crichton, Water, Crocs
A year ago today in TreeHugger, we took note of the winner of a book prize created by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists; here's a hint...it wasn't to anyone telling them to stop looking for oil. Meanwhile, a new voice piped up in the debate over wind power, and there was (finally!) a departure from the stereotype of radical environmentalists vs. self-centered NIMBYs. We also discovered Hydro-dis, a water disinfection technology [that] wil...

Single Hauz by front architects
We talk often about treading lightly on the landscape, and fret about the impact of foundations; Geoff at BldgBlog shows us Single Hauz by Poland's front architects. He calls it an "inhabitable billboard" and asks "Could you use the mast-and-cantilever model for other types of architectural structures, whether those are single-family houses whole cul-de-sacs lined with modernist billboard homes! or even restaurants and public libraries?" Of course, there are a lot of places where billboards aren't particularly welcome; the image of the...

Climate Care Delivers One Million Tonnes of Offsets
The UKs leading carbon offset provider Climate Care, who earlier this week became the focus of protesters from climate camp, has released a statement announcing a major milestone 1 million tonnes of offsets sold. That, says the companys founder Mike Mason, is like taking 300,000 cars off the road for a year. He also used the opportunity to respond to critics of offsets:"This highlights the real impact that voluntary funding of credible carbon offsets can...

Prefab Rehab Plugin LED Less is More Hotel
How many buttons does this push at once? Cubi is a hotel concept where 74 square foot prefab plug-in units are inserted into a long-empty office building in Amsterdam to create an instant hotel. Each unit has a Hstens hand-made bed, (we suspect not the $ 50,000 version), Philippe Starck bathroom, LCD TV and as a final touch, LED lighting that you can adjust the colour of to your taste. Quality stuff but in a very small space, so rates start at only 39.00 per night. ...

Earthquake and Fire Proof Floating Houses Coming to Los Angeles
According to the usually reliable Weekly World News:LOS ANGELES, Calif. Due to the recent fires at Griffith Park and the ongoing threat of earthquakes and even tsunamis, city developers have been planning the next phase of urban expansion with safety in mind.Were going to zone the skies above Los Angeles for floating buildings, said city planning spokesperson Z. Rowe Gees. These structures, called Strat-Houses, will be modeled after the old dirigibles, over a thousand feet long. Unlike zeppelins such as the Hindenburg, they will not be carried aloft by explosive hydrogen. The Strat-Houses will be supported by nacelles filled with helium. ...

TXU To Add 3000 MW Of Wind Energy With Compressed Air Storage
"TXU Energy of Texas has proposed a plan to build 3,000 MW of new wind energy in Texas...Because wind in Texas blows mostly at night and energy-intensive air conditioner use rises with the triple-digit temperature during the day, TXU, in conjunction with Shell, had to find a way to store energy for use when it is most needed...""Nighttime electricity from TXU's wind turbines will be used to run air compressors that fill huge chambers dug under the Texas scrub brush,... During the heat of the day this air will be released, spinning turbines that resemble those used in natural gas generators."For background on the compressed air energy storage technology, see this early...

Quote of the Day: Jonathan Schell on the Fate of the Earth
Photo credit: Gare and Kitty At present most of us do nothing. We look away. We remain calm. We are silent. We take refuge in the hope that the holocaust wont happen, and turn back to our individual concerns. We deny the truth that is all around us. Indifferent to the future of our kind, we grow indifferent to one another. We drift apart. We grow cold. We drowse our way to the end of the world. But if once we shook off our lethargy and fatigue and began to act, the climate would change. Just as inertia produces despaira despair often so deep it does not know itself as despai...

DriWater: Time-Release Water for Irrigation
It sounds counter-intuitive (dry water?), but Sonoma-based DriWater's innovative product a gelatinous substance consisting of 98% purified water and 2% cellulose gum does just that: provide an irrigation solution that delivers a reliable source of moisture directly to a plant's roots, when needed, without requiring a permanent water source. When placed in the ground, the DriWater gels are inserted into tubes buried next to the roots of a young plant. Enzymes naturally produced by the bacteria found in the soil then begin to break down the cellulose holding the gels together resulting in the gel converting to liquid and be...

Paying Poorer Countries to Cut Emissions so We Don't Have to
What started out as an ambitious, global scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions a concept known as "Contraction and Convergence," whose goal was to equalize per capita emissions around the world by requiring developed nations to cut down on overall emissions much faster than developing ones has now descended into a pale glimmer of its former self (some might say a charade). During a meeting this past week, Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, issued a new proposal that in his words better reflected ...

Sundarbans Arms Itself Against Global Warming
Photo credit: Frances VoonThe residents of the Sundabarans, an alluvial archipelago spread across Bangladesh and West Bengal in India, harbor not a single doubt in their minds that climate change is real and is happening. They've seen it for themselves: In the past two decades alone, four of their islands have sunk into the sea, displacing 6,000 families from their villages.Rising sea levels, coastal erosion,

Canadian House & Home: Less is More, Now in Digital Goodness
"Great and Small," the September issue of Canadian House & Home magazine is out now; as the title suggests, it's all about space-saving, space-efficient, less-is-more home design. Among other goodies is a feature on six totally functional, totally small interiors; they average 690 square feet in size, with 950 at the top and a diminutive 180 square feet on the small end. If you're looking for tips, advice, or inspiration on how to maximize your minimal space, this is it.What's that, you say? You're not a subscriber? Not a problem; they now have a slick el...

Assessing Climate Change Below the Surface
Sure, we've heard of the effects of global warming on the oceans, atmosphere and the planet's surface but what about on soil and groundwater systems? While we may still be a ways from understanding just what the ramifications of intensified climate change will be on Earth's vast sub-surface, a team of scientists from the USDA and Australia's CSIRO have come up with an effective method to make projections about the impacts on groundwater simulating interactions between soils and plants. Using daily weather pattern data and predicted climate data taking into account a doubling of current carbon dioxide levels they created a soil-w...

Solar Decathlon Saturday: University of Cincinnati
With the 2007 Solar Decathlon rapidly approaching, TreeHugger is highlighting some of this year's competitors. Lloyd already gave us a sneak peak at the University of Illinois' entry, and today we are taking a look at the work of the University of Cincinnati team. Cincinnati's re[form] house is an attempt to "transform the way that people think about dwelling and energy efficiency ... inform, through abstract and subtle means, how its energy systems work ... [and] perform as a work of art." The team is tackling re[form]'s energy nee...

A Perfect Cocktail: Biofuel and Booze?
What could be better than distilling biofuel? How about biofuel made from booze? Leave it to the Scots to dream up this one. Researchers from the University of Abertay Dundee say it is possible to run your car on the by-products of the brewing and alcohol distilling industry. If so, what would your blend be? Fuel made from single malt scotch for high-performance? Or would it be lager on hot sunny days? The researchers have been funded with a year long grant to investigate novel methods of turning the spent grain of whisky and beer into bioethanol. And we cant wait to hear if there will be success....

Prius Security System Cracked
A talk given at the computer security conference, CRYPTO 2007, explained how the key-fob system installed on the Toyota Prius has been cracked. The KeeLoq auto anti-theft cipher is used in common devices made by Microchip Technology Inc, which are also used by Chrysler, Daewoo, Fiat, General Motors, Honda, Volvo, Volkswagen, and Jaguar. The attack requires that the thief gets within range of your RFID keyfob, in order to break the encryption. This could mean stealing your keys, or just sitting next to you in a cafe with a laptop. The cipher used in these devices is 64 bit, which has always been theoretically possible to break, but has now been shown to be breakable in abou...

The Green Chain: Seeing the Forest or the Trees?
Looks like all things green are hot in the movie world. Not so long ago we brought news of The Shift, a movie that sets out to define the increasingly intertwined environmental and social justice movements, and TreeHugger Neal gave DiCaprios 11th Hour a resounding thumbs up. Now, via Kristins myspace tipster (and sacred tree), The Golden Spruce, we get to hear about yet another important sounding green movie. The Green Chain is a ...

China: Choking on Growth
The New York Times does extensive coverage of the problems of pollution in China, complete with video, slide show and interactive graphics. The long article by Joseph Kahn pulls no punches.China is choking on its own success. The economy is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates. But the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available, and dirtiest, source. We have noted before that much of the problem comes from the West outsourcing its pollution with its manufac...

NEWTEON Delivers Smog-free Silence in Cannes
The first thing we love about NEWTEON is their humble marketing strategy:Thanks to a wide range of clean vehicles, NEWTEON offers adequate solutions for sustainable mobility. Adequate solutions. Now here are some people who realize that this technology is in its mere infancy. Guys, we would like to offer you spectacular solutions for sustainable mobility, and we fully expect to soon, but today what we can really deliver on is adequate solutions. The rest of the world should be so honest. The French version actually offers solutions adapted to your needs, so one can make of it what they will: either Newte...

Chareau House
As an architecture student, few buildings influenced and excited me as much as the glass house designed in the late twenties by architect Pierre Chareau. It was a model for housing in the machine age, a stunning urban glass and steel box. Nicolai Ouroussoff describes it in the New York Times as "a lyrical machine whose theatricality is the antithesis of the dry functionalist aesthetic that reigned through much of the 20th century."...

Two Years Ago In TreeHugger: Cradle to Cradle, Anticipating the Credit Crunch
We love watching good ideas grow. Two years ago William McDonough and Dr. Michael Braungart announced their program for Cradle to Cradle Certification and John said "If the MDBC certifications become popular, and we certainly think that could be a good thing, it could transform the very definition of "green design." Since then, C2C has been accepted by LEED for credit, has certified everything from diapers to surfboard wax, and is launching a new and improved C2C program, with with revised...

Quote of the Day: Ray Anderson on Flight
Drawing the metaphor of the early attempts to fly. The man going off of a very high cliff in his airplane, with the wings flapping, and the guys flapping the wings and the wind is in his face, and this poor fool thinks he's flying, but, in fact, he's in free fall, and he just doesn't know it yet because the ground is so far away, but, of course, the craft is doomed to crash. That's the way our civilization is, the very high cliff represents the virtually unlimited resources we seem to have when we began this journey. The craft isn't flying because it's not built according to the laws of aerodynamics and it's subject to th...

Traditionally Conservative Chicago Sun Times Calls For BP Boycott Over Proposed Discharges
Months after it's nearest competitor, The Chicago Tribune, began its investigative reporting series on the BP wastewater story, the Chicago Sun Times, a paper not exactly known for pro-environmental regulatory stances has suggested a 'boycott BP' effort to get the company's attention. Talk about a flip in editorial profile (as pictured intentionally). A sure sign that 'the times, they are a changing.'"If BP insists on dumping more pollutants into our lake, it's time for us to stop pumping its gas into our tanks. We're ca...

The Future of Global Transport?
Imagine a world without traffic congestion, where cars could drive themselves and where humans, equipped with "clever clothes," could take flight at a moment's notice. A new book on the future of transport by two New Zealand professors, Chris Kissling and John Tiffin, envisions just such a world where nanotechnology, satellite communications and computer chips come together to create a world devoid of fossil fuel dependency, congestion and the threat of global warming. At the same time, it raises concerns about a "Big Brother" surveillance society and a potential "obesity time bomb" sparked by various technologies assuming all our daily tasks. Transport C...

North Branch Mocha Brownie Soap
Coffee grounds are a natural deodorizer you can between rub your hands to get rid of the pong of garlic, onions, or fish after you're through preparing the nosh. If a handful of squelchy java mush proves too icky, try North Branch's mocha brownie soap.Made from fair-trade coffee grounds, organic cocoa powder, vanilla-infused oils, hemp oil, and olive oil by a small family business up in the Adirondacks, this so...

"Rock Snot" Continues its Rampage
Having already successfully invaded New Zealand and large regions of the American West and South, the "rock snot" an algae that resembles a "clump of soiled sheep's wool" is now setting its sights on completing its invasion of New England's waterways. Just over the last decade, Didymosphenia geminata has appeared in river bottoms and on rocks throughout California, Washington, Alaska, Wyoming and several other states and has so far shown no signs of weakening.Similarly to most invasive algae, "rock snot" has the potential to bloom in thick masses and fully blanket the bottoms of streams threatening the ability of other aquatic species to su...