Home / treehugger.com rss archive / September-07-2007


How to Choose Outdoor Solar-Powered Lights
Photo credit: mrcleanNot only do solar-powered outdoor lights save energy, but they also save you the hassle of digging ditches, laying wires, and connecting them to an electric grid. Solar lights use photovoltaic cells that harness the power of the sun to create energy, which is then stored by rechargeable batteries until it's required to power the LED bulbs at night.Mother Earth Living has the 411 on how to choose among the three kinds of garden solar lights available, depending ...

Flakeshake: An Online Game for Polar Bear Fans
It's about closing time here on the East Coast, so with mere minutes counting off to the start of the weekend, here's a simple and kid-friendly online game for you to goof off to. In Flakeshake, you help a polar bear refreeze his melting environment by blowing bubbles that magically turn water droplets into snowflakes. Okay, so blowing spit bubbles with your keyboard isn't going to stop global warming, but you could still use this game to jump-start a conversation with your chilluns about climate change and why it's melting the ice in the first place. So play this game now while your boss isn't looking. You know, for the children.

Iceland Calls the Whale Thing Off
Photo credit: findmelostThe government of Iceland announced last week that it is calling off its controversial whale hunt, not because of political pressure, but due to the lack of demand for whale meat and other whale products. In 2006, despite public protests worldwide, the Icelandic government announced it would no longer respect an international ban on commercial whaling; it issued permits for the commercial hunting of nine endangered fin whales and 30 minke whales. (Seven minke whales and seven fin whales have been killed so far this year.)Iceland now says that it will not issue whale-hunting quotas until market demand i...

gogo Kidz: Wheel Your Kids Around Without the Stroller
If strapping your kids into a car seat and wheeling them around instead of carrying them or making them walk sounds like your idea of fun, then have we got something for you. This thing, called "gogo Kidz", mates with a whole bunch of different toddler car seats to give them wheels and a handle, turning your kid's seat into a mobile unit handy for trucking around airports and maybe somewhere like the mall, instead of trucking along an extra stroller along with the car seat you need anyway. It weighs about five pounds, making it pretty easy to haul around; as long as you don't mind hauling yo...

AMD Open Architecture Challenge Selects Community Partners
We are excited to announce today that three community partners that have been selected for the AMD Open Architecture Challenge. This groundbreaking international design competition will be launched officially this coming Wednesday 12th September, in conjunction with the Open Architecture Network, Architecture For Humanity and AMD's 50x15 program, which aims to help connect 50% of th...

Whole Foods & Wild Oats: Done Deal
Photo credit: zizzyAnd so two became one. After a protracted and very public struggle with the Federal Trade Commission over its $565 million purchase of Wild Oats Markets, Whole Foods bought 96.8 percent of its former rival's outstanding shares at $18.50 per share. Whole Foods will also be taking on Wild Oats' debts, while adding some debt of its own to help finance the deal.Whole Foods also announced plans to close two Wild Oats outlets in southwest Portland, displacing about 99 employees who have been offered jobs at other Whole Foods stores.What a long, strange ...

Not Tonight, Dear, I'm Down with Climate Change
Let's talk about sex, baby. And climate change. Several recent studies have found ties among sex, climate change, and environmental pollution. Here's the roundup:1. Polar-bear penis bones are shrinking in Eastern Greenland, says Christian Sonne of the University of Aarhus in Denmark, possibly because of the high prevalence of pollutants such as PCBs and DDT.2. A new study by Paul Donald of the U.K. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has found one-third more male birds out there than females, despite the fact that just as many hatchlings of each sex are born. This is bad news for conservation efforts, which are likely overestimating the size of populations by extrapolating from t...

I SPY Nature Docs Showcase Child's-Eye View of Environment
What happens when you give children coming from a cross-section of society a video camera in places across Trinidad or Tobago and ask them to document what they see in the local environment through its lens? Thats what folks at the Greenlight Network set out to accomplish recently when they did just that, giving children ages 7-10 a camera and the guidance of local award-winning filmmaker Elspeth Duncan, enabling them to document nature from their point of view. The resulting shorts are expected to screen locally on the islands during the upcoming Trinidad and To...

Satsuma Spins Bamboo for Your Newborn
If you want the best blend of comfort, health, and eco-friendliness for your newborn (and for some reason we think you do), you gotsta go with bamboo fiber. For this reason, Satsuma is starting their line with one and only one product: a 100% bamboo swaddling blanket. Easy to wash, naturally antibiotic and non-irritating for your baby's sensitive skin, bamboo swaddles like this should be a standard gift straight from the stork's beak. And at $32, the stork should be able to drop one off without having to take a second job. We read on Satsuma's blog that they are planning a bamboo velour blankie and an adult-sized...

TH Forums Highlights: Disposable Crap Avalanche, Bamboo Forests + More
It's always Friday over at TreeHugger Forums...1) Forums user tracylee is engaging in a heated discussion at work over the disposable crap -- pens, sticky notes, etc. -- that the company gives away at conferences. Rather than choosing between two evils, Tracy wonders if there can't be a great green sol...

Sacramento: The Up and Coming Green City
Buoyed by a directive from the Governator himself that all state office building achieve at least a silver LEED rating, California's capital city has quietly built itself a mini-empire of green buildings. Sacramento's 4.3 million square feet of LEED-certified office space places it only behind Chicago's 5.2 million square feet, and well ahead of fellow California cities San Francisco and Los Angeles. At the head of Sacramento's green building charge is the headquarters for the California EPA. The first LEED platinum office building in the United States, features indoor bike parking, waterless urinals and worm composting for lunch scraps. In addition to the large pre...

Grass-Covered Train Station
Here in Amsterdam, most train stations are full of grass, but this is different. This is Newcastle Central Station, where a PR stunt by train operator GNER saw a platform covered in artificial grass. It was conceived to encourage people to take the train rather than the plane, because of the smaller carbon footprint of train travel. According to GNER, a flight from Newcastle to London creates five times as much carbon emissions as a similar train journey....

YogaGurl Bends Over for Bamboo
Toronto-based YogaGurl dips a foot into sustainable yoga threads with its limited-edition 100 percent organic bamboo tee. Designed by the company's founder (and yoga teacher) Alexandra Leikermoser, the lightweight deep-V top, available in aqua for the summer, is naturally antibacterial and wicks away moisture. You can toss it on top of strappy workout top before you head over to the gym or yoga studio, or show some skin by wearing it on its own. One caveat: pure bamboo fabrics, although remarkably soft, are prone to pilling and some amount of shrinkage; they fare better when blended with organic cotton or another similar fiber.Leikermoser expects to co...

Shagadelic: Bamboo Area Shag Rug
We never thought you'd see these words on TreeHugger: check out this killer shag rug. Made by the Anji Mountain Bamboo Rug Co., the shagadelic rugs are 80% bamboo, 20% cotton. Despite the retro moniker, the rugs have a decidedly modern feel, and the shagginess gives it almost a faux-animal-skin-rug feel. Adding the bamboo is a nice touch; the same anti-microbial, anti-bacterial properties that benefit bamboo apparel are at work here, making it soft to the touch and a good option for floorcoverings. While we know that

Building Green: Energy Efficiency and Aesthetics From The Same Materials (Part 17)
Cellulose insulation in the hopper of the rented blowing unit. Cellulose is a recycled material that is appropriate for green building.Before I start to talk about insulating the ceiling, I want to make one additional comment on the windows. As a general rule, windows that are hinged on one sideand therefore open and close like a doorare better at preventing drafts and air leaks than windows that slide in a track. Sliding windows are more apt to let air leak in because the seal must be loose enough to allow the window to slide back and fourth easily, whereas hinged windows press against a gasket which creates a nice tight mechanical seal. ...

Most Huggable: Greenest Photo Ever, The Wozs Green Digs, The Sirenia Song, and More
DeSmogBlog is hosting a contest for the greenest photo ever. What does that mean? Whatever you want it to, my dearNow that Steve Wozniak knows how fast a Prius can go, its time for the green home building to beginSirenia are a family of aquatic mammals, mentioned in the Bible, and now on the verge of vanishingNet Impact profiles the green book man, Raz Godelnik, founder and CEO of Eco-LibrisCelsias wrangles up the highlights and dark spots from the eco-sphere in its

Little Steps are Great, But Coal Stomps All Over Them
Yes, small steps are important. Big steps, like changing every single light bulb in the country to CFL would make a difference. However, The 2030 Challenge people point out that the CO2 emissions from just two medium-sized coal-fired power plants each year would negate this entire effort. The 2030 Challenge to reduce energy consumption of all renovated buildings by 50% is a big deal. The CO2 emissions from just one 750 MW coal-fired power plant each year would negate this entire 2030 Challenge effort. These facts are from a powerful ad by the 2030 Challenge that is running in the New Yorker. It should run everywhere. As Dave Roberts...

Building Green: Energy Efficiency and Aesthetics From The Same Materials (Part 18)
Cellulose insulation comes compressed and packaged in jumbo blocks. The cellulose is broken up into loose material during the blowing process.In the last post I spoke about the process of insulating the roof. We opted to install the insulation ourselves, even though many people prefer to hire a contractor for a specialized task such as this. One problem that faces the do-it-yourselfer is the seemingly endless number of decisions which have to be made during constructionwhen you build your own home, you are faced with many choices, both practical and aesthetic, every day. With the construction of a conv...

Going Dutch with Design Cards
World Changing has opened our life-cycle-assessment-hungry-eyes with their inside scoop on this handy set of cards developed by Serge de Gheldere from Future Proof/ed, that help you use eco-indicators to analyze and compare the environmental impacts of commonly used materials and processes. The set is called Ecolizer Designwijzer and is an updated version of Eco-indicator 99, a Dutch impact assessment methodology that includes resource depletion, land-use,...

Green Drinks Kicks Off in Newport, RI
Many of you have been to Green Drinks around the world and we've had a blast at the ones we've attended. Not only is everyone so very nice but it's great to see that we're all out for the same cause. That was the inspiration behind starting Green Drinks right here in Newport, RI. For a small city, we knew we wouldn't get as many people as those that attend Green Drinks in New York City, but we wanted to get the word out there since Rhode Island is (ahem) so darn conservative. We are way behi...

Picture of the Day: Should've Been a Contractor
There is absolutely nothing green about this, but it was too good not to share. The yacht is called "Change Order" and the dinghy is named "Original Contract." Anyone who has ever built anything will get the joke. Thanks, ::ArchitectureMNP...

Forests Buffer Hurricanes' Wrath
Photo credit: druclimbHooray for trees: Two fierce storms that recently slammed ashore on the Caribbean coast of Mexico and Central America have demonstrated how important forests and mangrove swamps are in dampening the effect of hurricanesand by extension, reducing the number of lives lost.The trees secure the ground and offer a buffer from the storms, Rev. Jos Andrs Tamayo, a Roman Catholic priest and leading Honduran environmental advocate, tells The New York Times. Environmental degradation such as illegal logging, however, is c...

Orbiting Space Power Systems Would Convert Sunlight into Laser Beams
While the rest of the world (save for the Indians) has been busy focusing on mainly terrestrial-based solar energy alternatives, the Japanese have been looking to the heavens to find a potential solution. Scientists from the Institute of Laser Engineering at Osaka University and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have just developed a new technology for converting sunlight into laser beams a technology that could form the basis for JAXA's Space Solar Power Systems (SSPS

Bottle Purifies Water with Solar Power
The solar bottle is designed to get the maximum effect from a natural phenomenon that can purify disease-ridden water. Water in transparent PET bottles, left in direct sunlight, will be purified to a certain extent, due to heat and irradiation from UV-A rays. This bottle maximises that effect, and aims to create a cheap and simple way of providing clean water to developing countries....

GladRags Sampler Pack
At TreeHugger, we never get squeamish about a woman's right to bleed and be cranky. We've yapped about reusable cotton pads, chlorine-free tampons, flushable pads, and even menstrual cups.It's said, well, by people who make it their job to crunch these kinds of numbers, that the average woman uses nearly 12,000 disposable tampons and/or pads during her menstruating lifetime. A menst...

Greenest Photo Ever Contest at DeSmogBlog
DeSmogBlog, a terrific "website dedicated to clearing the PR pollution that clouds climate change. We promote scientific facts about global warming, and aspire to debunk climate change deniers." is having a photo contest to "take the greenest photo ever. It can be literally a really green photo (but not of a green dress, that's cruel). Or it can be a metaphorically green photo, whether that's ecological or 'green with envy' or any other angle you can think of. In short, be creative!" There are prizes too; a jury of eco-bloggers will choose the winner. Enter at Flickr:

TreeHugger Radio: Climate Talks Advance Sans US, The Lightning of Climate Change, and Mexico Citys Plan Verde
The expiration of the Kyoto Protocol is still a few years off, but recent talks in Vienna helped lay the groundwork for a major upcoming climate summit in Bali. And as the climate continues to rapidly shift gears, new NOAA research tries to tease out the exact extent of the human impact from other hectic activity like El Nino. The human hand, needless to say, weighs heavy. Also, while most storm studies examine big events like hurricanes, the pioneering work of a NASA scientist is looking at thunderstorms and the new shape theyre taking. And from Mexico City, TreeHugger correspondent Eliza Barclay reports on the mayors

Survey: Are You a Retro-Progressive?
Kate Tennier writes about becoming a "retro-progressive"-making cookies instead of buying them, using a clothesline instead of in a dryer. "The term is most often used to define a category of music, but it can just as easily apply to any behaviour that draws from past "best practices" to create a better life in the world we inhabit now: a retrieving of the baby from the proverbial bathwater, if you will.....There's a lot more than homemade cookies, air-dried clothes and free-range children that are making comebacks. Farmers' markets, car-free days, 100-mile diets and counter-consumer movements have all grown in popularity."

Beverly Hills: Where Bicyclists are Treated as Second-Class Citizens
Chances are that unless you happen to live there you've never heard of Beverly Hills' dubious reputation among bicycling enthusiasts. Yes, Beverly Hills, home to the swanky "Platinum Triangle" (cue elite, liberal stereotype), has earned the "distinction" of being ranked first in the state for the number of pedestrian deaths for a city its size. Just this past September, 3 pedestrians and a bicyclist were killed in a tragic hit and run incident that became known as "Bloody September." Several weeks ago, a tussle between a driver (of ...

Averting "Livestock Meltdown": Biodiversity Key To Global Food Security
In a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report released earlier this week at a conference held in Interlaken, Switzerland, agricultural scientists warned that more robust and better-adapted local livestock breeds in developing countries were losing out to imported animals from industrialized nations. The report suggests that there could be serious effects on future food security worldwide, while also emphasizing the need to determine ways to slow what one researcher is calling a "livestock meltdown".In its assessment of farm animals in 169 countries, the report found that 90 percent of cattle in the deve...

Coca Cola to Step Up Recycling, Improve Image
Coca-Cola appears to be taking pains to buff up its tarnished imagea controversy continues to brew in India over pesticides and other toxic chemicals found in its soda products. Already facing criticisms of human-rights violations, Coke's bottling operations have also made the company the target of at least two international water-rights campaigns, as the soft-drink giant continues to duke it out with villages in drought-stricken areas such as Kerala, India over po...

The TH Interview: Tomer DeVito of Green Power Generators
Tomer Devito, pictured here with business partner Alton Butler to his left, is a man on a mission to change Hollywood. After learning about the obscene levels of pollution created by the film business, he founded Green Power Generators, a company providing biodiesel-powered generators to the entertainment industry. But GP Generators work did not end with switching fuels, the company has also put considerable time into developing equipment and fuels that burn as cleanly and efficiently as possible. This a...

Lighting Africa: A Contest to Put Sub-Saharan Africa on the Map
In Sub-Saharan Africa, over 500 million people presently lack modern energy, with rural electricity access rates as low as 2%. Among the poor, lighting is often the most expensive item among their energy uses, typically accounting for 10-15% of total household income. Yet, while consuming a large share of scarce income, fuel-based lighting provides little in return.Lighting Africa, a World Bank Group initiative, hopes to change that; the competition aims to find a design and implement the delivery of low-cost, green lighting products for low-income consumers in sub-Saharan Africa. Acronyms familiar to TreeHugger's...

Explore Design: The Design Education Fair
TreeHugger never shuts up about the importance of design as a key to sustainability. It touches everything- how we live, work and move, almost every part of our life. In North America kids don't learn much about it outside of a trip to IKEA, it is not part of our culture as it is in other parts of the world like Scandinavia. Paul Rowan, co-founder of Umbra, notes Most parents think a career in design is a complete waste of time. It's important to address the parental issues."That is why we are so excited to be part of Explore Design, essentially a design show and seminar for kids and parents, to show them that design is important, that designers are neede...

Electronic Books: The Next Chapter
MP3 players have been around for a while; it took a visionary like Steve Jobs to design both the hardware and a delivery system that was elegant and simple to transform digitally stored music from geekdom to everyday use. Words are even more easily transmitted electronically than music; one would have thought that it would have been figured out first. Perhaps it is not the technology (the Sony Reader is supposed to be easy on the eyes) but the lack of a co-ordinated hardware and delivery system like iPod/iTunes.Amazon is evidently trying to fix that with its new Kindle, being launched this October.

Recipe of the Week - A Two Dollar Squash
My idyllic summer retreat ends tomorrow and I head back to the city. I'm leaving behind the loons, the family of mink that dash past my deck chair and the magnificent pileated woodpecker who dines a few feet from my window. Sadly, I am also leaving behind our vegetable lady and her fall harvest. My husband does almost all of the shopping while we are here because he must go to town daily to work while I remain at the cottage and work my way through my stack of books. He has a standing order to buy anything that the vegetable lady has on offer so I never quite know what will be on the menu until he arrives home. This week, after making his purchases he noticed a pile of squash and when...

Honey Bee Mystery Solved?
Photo credit: mezzoblueSo where did all the bees go? A group of genetic researchers say they may finally have at least part of the explanation for why honey bees around the United States are dying out in droves, a phenomena that is sending waves of panic throughout the agricultural industry. Describing their research on Science's Web site yesterday, scientists say they've isolated a particular virus, called Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), in a large sample of bees af...

Titebond's GreenChoice: Glue Without the Gas
Products like construction, drywall and subfloor adhesive might not be the first things that jump to mind when you think "green building," but they're an important part of having good indoor air quality -- something we've learned can be 10 times worse than the air outside. Just like the paint on your walls, the stuff holding your house together can off-gas volatile organic compounds and other hazardous air pollutants that are not good for you, but you can avoid the headache (literally) of dealing with these with something like Titebond's Gree...

Calls and Cheers for Green Chemistry
The American Chemical Society (ACS) has praised the House passage of legislation to improve federal infrastructure and organization for furthering green chemistry. Similar legislation was past by the House in the previous two Congresses, but has not been acted on by the Senate.Green chemistry is the ultimate proof that environmental and economic benefits in chemistry can be optimized simultaneously. The technologies that spin out of this novel research are the seeds that can sustain small business ventures and green corporate practices, said Catherine T. Hunt, Ph.D., ACS President. From reducing and improving pharmaceutical processes, reinventing the home and construction b...

Cheapskate: What About Curb-Side Shopping?
(Ornate metal curtain hangers my dad found in the garbage...perfect for the windows of this old Templar house in South Tel Aviv)With all this back to school talk, we simply love the idea of students furnishing dorms and co-op houses with finds from thrift shops. But those living frugally by choice and who are well beyond the student years, can also enjoy previously-loved items and things found on the curb. And your house doesn't need to look like it belongs to a hobo! This is an especially good option for transient folk who want to travel where the wind takes them, but who still need the basics in furnishings to get by in life. We now take you through a tour of Karins last h...

Rugby World Cup Goes Green
Last year's World Cup Football competition set new standards for environmental initiatives. Today the Rugby World Cup 2007 is starting in France for six long weeks, and they too have risen to the green challenge. Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said "We want all sports and cultural events in France to be ecologically responsible. These events are celebrations but they also have to be celebrations of the planet." Organizers have commissioned a carbon audit of the event from an environmental energy agency. A series of energy-saving measures...

Quote of the Day: Colin Beavan on The Power of One
Colin Beavan (No impact man) on the power of one, (heavily edited)People ask me this a lot: what is the point of one person trying to reduce their consumption to help the environment? Isnt that a meaningless drop in the bucket?No. Because if a few big environmental organizations start shouting from the rooftops about the power of one, that each one of us can make a difference, more of us will c...

It's BP Time Again
BP had this summer been telling the City of Chicago that 'they didn't have enough room' to upgrade their nearby refinery's wastewater treatment plant (pictured). Right. Chicago ain't buyin' it either.An environmental consulting company hired to evaluate the situation by Chicago concluded that:- "The expansion of the BP refinery in Whiting can move ahead with existing technology that would keep the pollution it dumps into Lake Michigan at current levels and would mean only a small increase in the cost of the project, according to environmentalists and a report commissioned for the city of Chicago.""The report, prepared by Tetra Tech, a Californ...

Paul MacCready 1925-1987
While the news is full of spaceports and battery powered cars, pause to remember Paul MacCready, who created far more elegant and appropriate solutions for our times- human and then solar powered flight. At 15 he was winning model airplane competitions; as he got older the planes got bigger. In 1977 the Gossamer Condor, seventy pounds of mylar and piano wire, became the first human powered airplane. In 1979 a cyclist powered the Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel. In 1981 the Solar Challenger, "flying on sunbeams," flew 163 miles on 400 watts from photovoltaics. His solar powered car, the Sunraycer, crossed 2,000 miles of Australian desert.At th...

Buy a Hummer, Save the Planet: Fergie's Unique Take on Going Green
The Brits have a popular misconception that Americans dont understand irony. Singer Fergie, of Black Eyed Peas fame, seems determined to disprove this theory once and for all we have just learned via AutoblogGreen that she is auctioning off her Hummer to raise money to save the planet:"After performing at Live Earth and realizing everyone has a role to play in protecting the environment, Fergie decided to sell her HUMMER and donate all the proceeds to Global Green USA. The cynic may say that this is just transferring the negative effects of th...

No Comment Dept: The Cold Rush
Brian Gable, Globe and Mail...