Home / treehugger.com rss archive / October-05-2007


TH Forums Highlights: Green Skepticism, Solar Laptops + More
Cruise into the weekend with TreeHugger Forums...1) Forums user jamesrocket isn't quite convinced that going green is a good thing to do. "How do you know that we need to do anything about the environment? Could it not just be the cycle of the earth? The science does support it but some people do present p...

Ask TreeHugger: How Do I Test My Toys for Lead?
Question: I have three young children and they have many painted toys. I am worried that these toys have lead in them, especially because I dont know where they were made. Is it dangerous to have my kids play with them? How do I test my kids toys for lead? Do the home testing kits work? Answer: The recently toy recalls because of the unsafe lead levels found in toys have raised many concerns about the safety of our products. Although lead is a naturally occurring metal that can be found practically everywhere in the earths crust, batteries, water pipes, pencils, and even food -- its levels are generally declining in our products and in our envir...

Get FIT: Flat Packing "Friction in Tension" Table
A great companion to your new flat pack shelving, the FIT table fits together without screws, nails, hardware or tools. It's another great candidate for downloadable design, breaking down into six flat or nearly-flat pieces that can be easily customized with fun designs and patterns on the table top. The FIT table (that's Friction in Tension) starts as one solid piece of composite, so it uses a very minimal volume of materials, and is also easy to customize.Prototypes can be had here, and there's more to learn ...

World's Largest Windfarm Gets Approval
A new wind farm, 90 square miles large, has been approved for construction off the coast of the UK. If built, it will become the largest offshore wind farm in the world, which should make all UK Tree Huggers proud....

Product Update: Juice Bags
Remember, dear longtime readers, when we first brought you Juice Bags from Rewear a few years ago? We mentioned that they were similar to the Voltaic bags, in that you can charge your portable electronic devices via the built in solar panel. Well we just learned that Rewear is now making daypacks and messenger bags from recycled soda bottles as well and each bag keeps about eight soda bottles out of the landfill. The material is as rugged as nylon but apparently...

TreeHugger Radio: Its Green Design Contest Season
This week we recap the events of the Clinton Global Initiative, plus take a look at the plethora of green design competitions that are budding this fall. The city of New York is granting prizes for designers who can envision a hurricane escape plan. Metropolis Magazines Next Generation design competition is ramping up for its fifth year, focusing on water. Electroluxs Design Lab contest is helpin...

Bend it Like Piegato: Flat Pack Shelving
Made from just a single sheet of laser-cut steel, and requiring just two screws to mount it on the wall, Piegato shelves are a great way to add storage using minimal space and materials. You get to decide how its configured -- the shelves can be packed flat as a piece of paper and shipped in a big envelope -- and thanks to some pretty thoughtful design (the bottom braces that keep the individual shelves from folding like a taco), the shelves can hold a surprising amount of weight; we're surprised to see lots of books on the shelves, but the designer swears it's true.Because the shelf system is a single piece ...

People Tree, Ecover + Ecotricity Get It Together
At TreeHugger we're firm believers that several heads are better than one, just look at how many of us are bringing you green news everyday! So when we heard that three great pioneers of sustainability are starting to work together in the UK we just knew that progress was being made. The collaboration between People Tree - eco-friendly and ethical fashion, Ecover - eco-cleaning products, and Ecotricity - green electricity, shows some pretty smart ...

How To Reuse Your Old Electronics
Avi at Dark Roasted Blend somehow finds extraordinary pictures to make endless posts on ludicrous subjects, like this one. He says "Given the Moore's law that the power of computers doubles every 24 months, we end up with a lot of useless devices and obsolete hardware, that you sure can recycle in a normal way, but it's much more fun to recycle it in a wild and unusual ways! Let's see how to give a new life to the computing zombies of yesteryear." See much, much more at ::Dark Roasted Blend...

Harnessing Car Engines' Lost Energy for Electricity Production
The concept of waste-to-energy technology is certainly nothing new: we've covered it many times on TreeHugger over the past few years (see here and here for some examples) and continually see it be touted as one of the "next big things" in alternative energy production. And while the jury is still out (and will likely remain so) on that latter point, there is no denying that, when done right, there is a p...

Survey: How Do You Phone?
Cell Phones are expensive and create a huge amount of e-waste; according to photographer Chris Jordan, Last year Americans retired 130 million cellphones, many of which will wind up in landfills, where their toxic lead, mercury and cadmium components will leach into the ground. Yet some people don't even have good old dependable land lines any more and rely on their cell for all their oral communication. View MicroPoll|

Scientist Wins IgNobel Extracting Vanillin From Cow Dung
The Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize was awarded on October 4 to Mayu Yamamoto, a former researcher at the International Medical Center of Japan, for her pioneering work in extracting a useful product, vanillin, from cow dung. According to Pink Tentacle, Yamamoto says that widespread adoption of her method could help the environment because companies would make greater use of cow dung, which arguably contributes to global warming.As a bonus prize, Toscaninis Ice Cream in Cambridge, Massachusetts has invented a new flavor Yum-A-Moto Vanilla Twist to honor Yamamoto, and is offering a free public tasting to its customers on October 5. Other winners below the fold

The Pantry is Back
Kitchen cabinets are expensive, particularly if you buy them formaldehyde free with a green counter. Yet storage is at a premium if you plan on canning fruits and vegetables or laying in supplies of root vegetables for the winter. According to Paula Robinson of the Telegraph, "The pantry is definitely making a comeback as interest in healthy, organic eating grows. It is essential to making the most of your crop if you have a vegetable garden or an allotment." She continues "The location of your walk-in pantry is important. Tradition and practicality call for a dry, cool and dark place so, unfortunately, it can't do double duty as the utility room. Site it well away from the oven, fridge freezer, o...

Kerala's Fisherwomen Challenge Coastal Tourism's Onslaught
September 27th marked World Tourism Day and a group of fisherwomen in the South Indian state of Kerala made their concerns known in front of the state secretariat by gagging themselves and wearing sloganed headbands. Kerala is a well-known tourist destination for foreigners and Indians alike and is famous for its lush green treescapes, villages and fishing boats on beautiful backwaters and beaches. Politically left-standing and culturally rich, tourism is one of the biggest sectors in Kerala, but in recent years has become more and more commercialized, much to the chagrin of locals who claim that it is harming their livelihoods and the environment."Tourism in the state...

Bookcase Into a Bed: A New Take on the Murphy Bed
Here's an interesting take on the folding Murphy bed idea: instead of folding into the wall, this concept jigsaw-puzzles together to become part of the wall. The bookcase/bed combination works together to help maximize space and give your walls a little extra pop of color; when it's bedtime, just take down your bookcase and you've got a bed.We like that the bookcases remain on the wall, so you don't have to take stuff off the shelves when it's time to go to bed, but we see a few tricky spots in the day to day operation as ...

Green Festival in Washington DC
It's the Green Festival travelling road show-"party with a purpose" and "a celebration of whats working in our communities for people, for businesses and for the environment." It starts in Washington DC at the Convention Center on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 6&7. TreeHugger is there- in the Planet Green booth, and on the podium, with our own founderpreneur Graham Hill on the very first panel- (can he get up that early?) discussing the "Medias Impact on the Green Lifestyle Movement." Other heavyweights who have appeared in TreeHugger include Bill McKibben, Francis Moore Lappe and Bill McDonough.The lecture titles are fascinating: What's the Economy for, Anyway?, The Walma...

Get a Green Job: GreenCareers by MonsterTRAK
According to a recent study by MonsterTRAK, the division of job-hunting megasite Monster for college students and recent graduates, 80 percent of young professionals are interested in securing a job that impacts the environment in a positive way, and 92 percent give preference to working for a company that is environmentally friendly. If you find yourself at the green jobs crossroads, and you've exhausted your search over at TreeHugger's Job Board, then MonsterTRAK has something for you: yesterday, MonsterTRAK, in alliance with ecoAmerica (full disclosure: Bob Perkowitz, President of ecoAmerica, is a member of TreeHugger's Board...

Recipe of the Week: Roasted Vegetable Salad with Garlic Dressing
It's Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend, and for us that means heading to the cottage for the final weekend of the year. A number of years ago our cottage neighbours generously invited us to their family Thanksgiving at the last minute after hearing that we were going to sit down to a bowl of pasta. It has turned into a bit of a tradition now, one that I look forward to for months. Last year the weather was so warm a table for 20 was laid on the dock. We ate by candlelight as the autumn leaves gently fell onto the glass-like surface of the lake. It was one of those magical dinners that you always remember. So it's perhaps a bit disingenuous to offer up a Thanks...

Offscreen Expedition Helps Youth Educate, Inspire Via Art
With miscommunication between inhabitants of the Western and Arab worlds one of the biggest problems we face on the planet, it stands to reason that 9 British students heading off on an expedition to help translate across the cultural divide might make a difference. In fact, they got a chance to relate a bit about the environment in the Middle East as well. Visiting Dubai and Oman to demonstrate how humans there have adapted in various ways to the harsh desert conditions.Its all part of the Offscreen Education Programme, using the creative power of art to educate and inspire youth via the web. Just one of the places they...

Make Your Own Keyboard
File this one under the Keatsian department of "a thing of beauty is a joy forever." Much like these wondrous Russian computer cases, Hacoa is now soon-to-be-offering a do-it-yourself keyboard kit to the masses. The kit allows the purchaser to cut the keys from a plank of wood and assemble the pieces themselves; it's $300.Till now, Hacoa has typically crafted each keyboard by hand, churning out the sum total of one keyboard per day. But in an effort to lighten the companys labor load...

Strange Waters: From Under the Sea and Out of the Amazonian Rainforest
It has been a while since we looked at some of the strange bottled waters that people are peddling; one would think that with all of the controversy over bottled water that businesspeople would look askance at investing in such ventures. Clearly, however, suckers are still being born every minute because here are two new candidates: Equa: Bottled Water from the Amazonian RainforestFlorida businessman Jeff Moats tells Business Week that the rainforest is "probably the last place on Earth that holds boundless mystery and mystique." While...

Hope that Corals Will Withstand Global Warming's Impact
Could coral reefs stand a fighting chance against the onslaught of global warming after all? While most previous reports had painted a bleak (or even bleaker) picture of their future outlook, a new study from researchers at the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute of Paleobiology has intimated that they may in fact be able to adapt in time. Jaroslaw Stolarski and his colleagues found that ancient corals were able to alter the way they built their

Quote of the Day: Akkiko Busch on Consumption
So as substance abusers in the most literal sense, we seem to do what most other addicts do when faced with the obvious: We go into denial. We spin. Often, that spin involves redefining excess as less. And for all the dangers implicit in the cycle of consumption and waste, I would venture to say that the cycle of indulgence and denial is even more dangerous, because it involves a level of self-deception, along with convoluted arguments of justification that allow us to do whatever we want."And the money quote: "Make less, buy less, use less, throw away less."

IDeAs New Zero Energy, Zero Carbon Headquarters
It's nice to see firms practice what they preach; Electrical and lighting engineering firm IDeAs believes "that we change the world through our sustainable designs, one building at a time" and today are opening their conversion of a dead sixties era bank branch into a net zero energy, zero carbon emission headquarters for the firm. It has a "fully integrated, grid-tied, net-metering, photovoltaic system sized to provide 100% of the net energy requirements, allowing it to make zero contribution to global warming." They call it Z-squared.They have put together an interactive website for the project where one can look at each of the technologies and interventions in detail- there is a l...

CI Desk: Mini Transformer Laptop Workstation
For any of you who don't think you have room for a home office, the folks at Creative Industrial Objects beg to differ. The CI Desk expands and unfolds, adjusting and adapting to make maximum use of minimal materials and space. "A multi-functional home office on wheels, in its handy size and elegant shape, adapting to the flexible working habits of the individual at home or in the office. Through a 180-degree turn of its top, it unfolds into a small workstation for laptop users."If you're tired of sweaty legs, and don't have a bamboo laptop yet (and who does?), something like this lil' mini desk might ...

Love to Knit
We discovered Bronwyn Lowenthal's hand-knit berets and scarves at London Fashion Week. Made out of UK low carbon alpaca, they are cozy, warm and feminine--a good combo for a winter's day. As she says: We spent a lot of time sourcing quality yarn from UK reared animals which is spun here and will be hand-knitted here. I am committing to delivering all London orders by bicycle from our Brixton studio in the spirit of the range. Knitting is her first love and now she has written a book on knitting--it has 25 products to make and wear, including bow gloves, lacy socks, streetsmart beanies, retro leg warmers and chunky scarfs. They offer a modern and stylish take on...

Wrap Yourself Around Transformer-Like Organic Cottons from Israel
In the meantime if you are interested in perusing their online catalogue, youll have to have a good grasp of Hebrew otherwise meander through the website of Cotton, one of Israels first organic clothing designers. Much of their wear looks like the transformer designs Jasmin has been reporting on lately (here & here) handy for the intensity that comes with living in Israel. Israelis like to work, party and play hard and it looks like clothes from Cotton could fit the bill. Israelis also tend to dr...

Nulethics EcoVerse
Now its somewhat akin to the pot to be calling the kettle black for me, of all people, to be pointing out spelling mistakes and typos (after all, my indiscretions in this regard are legendary), but the Nulethics website prose is rife with them. Putting that aside we find another sports company taking to the environmental high road. Their claim to have the industry's first high performance eco-friendly sportswear line could be hotly contested, but as we are often saying, the more on board this bandwagon the merrier. Their compact little range employs a fabrication the company terms EcoVerse. It takes renewable, fast growing bamboo, well, a heated, pulverised version of it and bonds it...

Transition Towns Reach Australia: Another Community Prepares for Peak Oil
It was only yesterday that we were posting on oil executives warnings about the consequences of peak oil, and looking at the solutions that are out there. Today we hear that Transition Towns, already strong in the UK, have spread to the other side of the world with the launch of the first official Australian Transition Town in Sunshine Coast. This initiative, which is part of the Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre, is the first official Transition Town to be recognized...

Moira & Obbie - Clothes with a Longer Life
Today we bring you some life cycle extenders: Moira & Obbie. In what looks like Indiana, one designer is extending the life of old clothes by making them into new ones. The work that Vanessa creates is from 95% reclaimed fibers which she deconstructs to then rebuild into something new taking inspiration from the story or use the item may have previously had to inform what it will become. She uses everything from mens business shirts, sweaters, t-shirts and old kitchen curtains to make her handcrafted, one of a kind designs. Vanessas work is inspired by her grandparents, not coincidentally named, Moira and Obbie. The history ...

Alternative Economy Needed for Biodiversity?
Biodiversity is the term used to describe the variation of life within a given ecosystem. It is often used as a measure of environmental health. Research has shown that a diverse range of organisms results in an ecosystem that is resilient to change. As our environment changes, an ecosystems ability to continue to provide ecosystem functions becomes increasingly important. Perhaps one of the most vulnerable, yet important ecosystems on earth is the Amazon. Marina Silva, Brazil's environment minister, believes that wealthy countries should help pay the burden of maintai...