Home / treehugger.com rss archive / September-11-2007


Austin City Limits Plans Greener Music Festival
When it comes to minimizing the footprint of mega-events, music festivals seem to be ahead of the curve. Obviously Live Earth had programs in place to reduce the impact of the worldwide concerts, but recently internationally-renowned yearly music festivals such as Bonnaroo and Bumbershoot are leading the way, too. That brings us to the next big music festival of the summer: Austin City Limits. This weekend's A...

Number of the Day: 71, Wait, No: 84
71 -- the new world record for the same number of surfers on the same wave, set by surfers participating in Earth Wave Global Surf Challenge in Cape Town, a worldwide event to raise awareness about global warming. The Cape Town surfers eclipsed the old record of 44 surfers on September 2, 2007.84 -- the really new world record for the same number of surfers on the same wave, set by surfers participating in the challenge in Brazil a few hours after Cape Town set the record. Don't feel bad, South Africa -- everyone wins when global warming awareness is the game!

FLOR Goes Retro-Mod with Shag and Hopskotch (?)
FLOR, the fab modular carpet tiles, have matched up with Martha Stewart, gone out to the patio, celebrated 10 years green and even found time to get named to TreeHugger's Best Designers list. Their latest trick: a catalog full of new ideas, including some really creative, colorful designs that push the carpet tiles way beyond blocks of solid color. To wit:

TreeHugger Picks: Fuels for the Future
Inspired by today's earlier post about deriving fuel from salt water, here are some of our picks for other far-out fuels for the future.1) If you're still wondering about the relative benefits of ethanol, biodiesel, straight veggie oil and other alternative fuels, take a ride on the alternative fuel bus and get up to speed in a hurry with Freedom F...

UnTreeHugger: New Pur Water Filters
With our constant urging to stop buying bottled water and to drink from the faucet, instead, we're loathe to knock a water-filter product. In fact, Pur's faucet mount has served this writer's family well for almost five years. When its outer shell cracked one day, we figured we didn't have much of a choice other than to head over to the store to buy a replacement. Imagine our display, however, when we discovered Pur had replaced our model with a new lineone equipped with battery-powered indicators that flashed when it was time to change the inner filter. (The old line had a non-electronic window with a color bar that moved as the filter ran its course.)...

Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance Benefit A Success!
As Sami mentioned here, our friends Woody Harrelson and Daryl Hannah hosted a benefit at the Hard Rock Caf last night in support of the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance. My 100 percent-recycled media pass (printed with water-based inks) offered exclusive access to The Green Carpet. Heres the scoop:...

Colbert does Bjorn Lomborg
I never know what to do with everyone's favourite climate denier, he is articulate and charming and doesn't seem like a sleazeball like so many of the others. But then I read John Tierney in the New York Times and realize that Lomborg is just proposing another rationale to make people feel it is OK to do nothing about climate chang...

Roast Coffee with a Popcorn Popper
Photo credit: coffeegeekIf you're gung ho enough about your morning cuppa, you can roast your own coffee beans for an even fresher, more flavorful brew. And if you already own your own air popcorn popper, you don't even need to pony up for a brand new home roaster. About.com has a great tutorial, even if it's sans photos.Caveat: Not all air poppers are suitable. Make sure that the hot air enters the chamber of your popper via side vents, not a grate in the bottom, otherwise chaff can accumulate on the bottom and catch on fire. Call it a hunch, but...

Sneak Peek: Eco-design at 100% Design
Yes it's that time of year again when London is alive with the sound of design junkies' feet stomping around the city in search of the latest and greatest in fashion, furniture, interiors and products. 100% design is the most polished and commercial show of the London Design Festival, but that doesn't mean there aren't any eco-gems to be found. Look out for Australian designer Kent Gration's bamboo furniture in 100% futures; Derek Welsh's batch produced wood designs from Glasgow. At 100% Materials you can see the G...

YoNaturals Vending Machines
Face it, we've all been there: Standing in front of a vending machine with a fistful of quarters and a growling belly, gazing intently at the racks of nibble-size snack packages, while hemming and hawing over the pros and cons of choosing a packet of 100-calorie Oreos over a bag of Wheat Thins. Healthful choices in these junk-food machines are generally far and few between, but YoNaturals wants to turn that concept on its head. ...

How to Conserve Water
Photo credit: metaliAlthough nearly three-quarters of our planet is covered in water, only 1 to 2 percent can support terrestrial life. Growing human demand, the proliferation of urban sprawl, and wasteful agribusiness consumption are draining our reservoirs and straining water treatment, distribution, and disposal systems. As water is hijacked from rivers and streams, the amount of sand that accumulates on beaches also diminishes, threatening the health of vital coastal wetlands and wildlife. Droughts, flooding, and other extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change are also making fresh water an increasingly scarce commodit...

The Melting Iceberg: A Constant Reminder of Global Warming
We all know what's going to happen as sea levels rise, but now, thanks to this project by New Zealand-based Hyperthesis Visual Lab, you can watch a visual representation of how it'll happen, right from the comfort of your own home. "The Melting Iceberg" is a diligent, not-so-subtle reminder that our globe is persistently warming, and, thanks to candle "technology," you can be reminded every time you want a little mood lighting. Aside from aesthetic appeal, Hyperthesis' main goal is to send an ecological message: "This candle creates a strong conscious about our actions of w...

How to Dumpster Dive
Photo credit: prhWho knew dumpster diving was so involvedthat there was an actual art AND science to it? (Just like you need both Siegfried AND Roy.) DIY Happy has a list of freegan and dumpsternaut resources, so we thought we'd include some of our past tips for getting your mitts on the finest in curbside shopping.So whether you're

"Fuel" from Salt Water?
Yes, we know it sounds hard to believe, but a man in Erie, Pennsylvania, has apparently managed to set fire to a vial of salt water with a self-built radio frequency generator. When John Kanzius tried to desalinate seawater with a device he had created to (supposedly) treat cancer, he found he could keep the water burning like a candle as long as it was exposed to the proper frequencies.Not surprisingly, many in the scientific community initially dismissed Kanzius' claim as a hoax. However, when Rustum Roy - a professor of chemistry at Penn State University - took him up on the challenge and attempted to recreate the experiment, he was amazed to see that it actually worked. And, no, ...

Green Party Leader Bicycles Between Cities
I promised that I would not bore the rest of the world with too much on the Ontario election, but who could pass this up. Frank de Jong is off with his bike to the end of the subway line, then he has a sixty mile ride to Guelph, Ontario where he will spend the day with the local candidate, an organic farmer who also refines vegetable oil into biofuel. According to the Star:Before de Jong sped off in downtown Toronto, he dismounted from his vehicle, equipped with three reusable bottles of water, a tire repair kit and a lunch of cream cheese and blueberries, both produced locally. He responded to comments that he's taking eco-responsibility to an extreme, frightening degree.

BuyGreen: Men's Jeans
TreeHugger knows that we can't buy our way to global sustainability. While there are lots of things you can do to help save the planet that don't involve rushing out to grab the latest green products, we all still need to buy things. Sure, reusing, recycling and repurposing are all better eco-options than buying brand-new, but there comes a moment when your favorite shoes are finally worn beyond repair, or you need to upgrade your living room furniture, and we want to help. What you'll find here is a carefully-selected, curated list of five of the best eco-options available to you that combine TreeHugger's sleek, modern, non-hippie aesthetic with low-impact, earth-friendly ...

Sneak Peek: Sixixis New Range at Tent London
The wood bending boys from Cornwall are back at the London Design Festival this year with a new range of beautifully curvaceous furniture. At last year's show we were wowed by Sixixis's Chaise Longue and the Rolling House. This year we have high hopes for some more amazing wood bending feats. Our 'sneak peek' is The Giant Chair (pictured), made from huge lengths of steam bent Oak. Sixixis source all their wood locally from sustainably managed Cornish woodland. We've been told to look out for other pieces on show, "including asymmetric lattice structures, out of this world Chandeliers, twisted scr...

Happy Trails: Libya's Bold, New Eco-Tourism Plan
A group of consultants and wealthy Libyans are planning to create a carbon-neutral green development zone in Cyrene, a 550,000-hectare site of desert and forest (the size of Wales) centered on ancient Greek ruins, a UNESCO world-heritage site.Not only will it cater to tourism and serve as a model for environmentally friendly design, reports the International Herald Tribune, but it will also show the world that "Libya has turned a cornerthat they can fit into the modern world," says George Joffe, an expert on Libya at Cambridge University. ::Interna...

This Month in Explore: Nice Work if You Can Get It
I often wonder why I bother posting about Al Zikovitz's magazines; I love Explore and Cottage Life but he doesn't put anything online. It is a shame, because there is all kinds of content that would appeal to people who won't be able to find them on the newstands. In the current issue, they suggest that "the sweetest jobs are the ones that take you away from the jammed copiers and scummy grey carpeting and into the outdoors" and look at thirty of them, from outdoor filmmaker to forest firefighter to mountain guide to paleontologist and bush pilot. We are green with envy. All printed on ancient forest fr...

Knock Off Your Own Homage to the Sun Jar
I loved the design of Tobias Wong's Sun Jar; such a simple idea. As I said previously, "There are a thousand dumb and ugly things that do this; what a difference the designer's touch makes." Being a strong proponent of the right of designers to make a living, I am loath to ever suggest people knock it off. Nonetheless, it is hard to find in North America and having tried to use one all summer, the workmanship of the electronics is less than impressive. So let's call it homage instead.Apartment Therapy reminds us...

Build a Greener Roof
Photo credit: bobbypromFrom the musty archives of Ask Metafilter (circa 2006), we dredged up one reader's request for eco-friendly alternatives to the traditional shingled roof on his dad's 1940s Cape Cod-style home. Responses range from installing pholtovoltaic cells to laying stone-coated metal roofing. Rubber slate tile...

Even Hiding in Deep-Sea Vents Won't Save You from Climate Change
While it may seem hard to grasp, scientists now believe that even deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities - once thought to be completely isolated from all other ecosystems - will not be able to escape the effects of global climate change. Jon Copley, a marine biologist at the University of Southampton, and a team of researchers found that certain inhabitants of the vents - in particular, shrimp - depend on food that sinks down from the sunlit surface waters. Because global warming is likely to significantly decrease the surface waters' net productivity, he expects it will only be a matter of time before the denizens ...

This Month In Dwell: Good Design Makes Good Neighbors
The theme of the issue is the New American Home, and the three shown all have similar attributes: they are not crazy over-the-top monsters but reasonably sized, carefully crafted and modest. In Minneapolis, home of the Dean residence, people have lawn signs saying "Monster Houses Make Bad Neighbors," so Architect Christian Dean added on to a 2 storey, 1000 SF existing house.We wanted to follow the pattern of the neighborhood." Online at ::Dwell.There is also a wonderful profile of 96 year old Julius Shulman, who took most of the memorable photographs of the iconic case study houses; those photographs are perhaps as...

Electronic Smog: Yet Another Reason to Spend More Time Outdoors
Your parents always told you that staying indoors with your face glued to the TV set would do little to improve your health. Well, it looks like they finally have some evidence to back up their claims: a new study conducted by scientists at the Imperial College London has demonstrated that electrical fields from various electronic devices - including computers and televisions - can cause asthma, influenza and several other respiratory diseases. This so-called "electro-smog" has long been denounced by campaigners worried about the rapid proliferation of cell phones, Wi-Fi systems and other gizmos in our increasingly connected society. The team of research...

Timtimxtimtim- Step by Step Recycled & Educational Design
Timtimxtimtim (pronounced tim tim por tim tim) is a Portuguese expression which translates into something like step by step, just like their peculiar web site. These designers are all about recycling with a twist and a very social side to things. Making sure their raw materials are recycled and recyclable, these guys are giving objects a second chance by extending their lifecycles. Designing and producing, Timtimxtimtim are both hands on and conceptual. ...

Quote of the Day: Bill McKibben on McMansions
The average size of new U.S. homes has more than doubled over the past couple of generations, even as the number of people residing in them has shrunk by nearly a full person. The last glory days of the now-fading construction boom were the most insane of all: Outer rings of crenelated and turreted fortresses were sprouting near virtually every U.S. city, each dwelling looking as if it had been designed for an entry-level monarch." The really rich, meanwhile, amused themselves by building above every ski hill and beach ranks of second homes that looked like nothing so much as modernist junior high schools. The environmental cos...

The Luxury Water Taste Test
How much would you spend on a bottle of water? Would plain H2O taste any different when served from a glass, crystal-encrusted bottle?Bling H20 is a new upscale beverage that costs over $50 a pop. Billed the "Cristal of Waters," the Swarovski crystal-adorned bottle is served to executives and movie stars all over the country. NPR took a bottle from a Westchester, NY "water bar" back to Manhattan and gave New Yorkers an informal taste test to see if they could tell the difference between Bling and regular municipal tap water. Salut! ::NPRSee also:

Forest Rising: Marjetica Potrc
This art exhibition is a mixture of anthropology and art, with some heavy philosophizing about architecture and the environment. The Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrc spent two months travelling in western Brazil, where the rainforest is in danger of being destroyed by cattle ranchers and others who want to cut down the trees. But it is not completely a sad story. The Brazilian government has allotted land to local inhabitants for sustainable use. She learned about the small rural communities and how they are managing their own areas of the rainforest and protecting it. The natives are self-sufficient and use solar power to run com...

Max: Cast Iron Tub Turned Sofa from Reestore
A contemporary update of the sofa briefly featured in "Breakfast at Tiffanys" -- and strikingly similar to the Savon Sofa we featured earlier this year -- "Max" is a cute sofa created from a vintage cast iron tub; dig the cast iron feet! This one is from Reestore, a design outfit we spotted a while back, that has their way with old, used stuff, giving sometimes quite normal (like a bathtub), sometimes more odd (like a washing machine tub) objects a second life as int...

Urban Renewal, the Philly Orchard Project Way
Philadelphia has 40,000 vacant lots and 700 empty factories. A legacy of globalisation as jobs went instead to lower paid workers in Asia and Latin America. The Philly Orchard Project sees these space not as an eyesore but as massive opportunity. Their modest plan (ahem) is to the first American metropolis to grow most of its own food. Not with the more common community gardens model, but with orchards of fruit and nut trees. They gone with trees because they indicate a longer term vision, that these gardens are here to stay. They also provide cleaner air, better nutrition and better exercise, which means less public cost for healing sickness. Their shade reduces costs to heat...

Global Change Consequences in South America E-Book Release
A vast publication on the effects of global climate changes in South America was recently released in its digital edition, free of charge and downloadable in PDF format. The book is called A Contribution to Understanding the Regional Impacts of Global Change in South America, and gathers the studies of several specialists that were presented in the II Regional Conference on Global Change: South America. It is divided in two areas: Modeling and Regional Climatic Change in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems, and Social Impacts on Regional Climatic Changes. The first includes information about the global climate change impact on the glaciers and permafrost of ...

Citigroup On Green Trajectory
Last May we covered Citigroups plan to invest in green technology and energy savings. This was amidst a chorus of criticism for investing in coal fired electrical plants. The good news is that Citigroups plan for greening up its vast real-estate portfolio, which totals 92 million square feet world-wide, is underway. To achieve that, the company has inventoried energy use, adopted power-saving measures such as turning off escalators in lobbies, and is redesigning its bank branches to include more...

21 Things You Didn't Know You Could Recycle
Photo credit: dotpolkaThere's more to recycling than paper, glass, plastics, and aluminum. Did you know, for instance, that you could send off your used Tyvek envelopes for recycling? Or that you could swap your dusty exercise videos for some you'll actually work out to? Co-op America has a list of 21 recyclables (or at least reusables) you may not have known about. Know of something that hasn't been listed? Tell us in the comments. ::Co-op AmericaDifficulty level: Ea...

Rust Belt Jewelry Utilizes History Not Mining
Here are on TreeHugger, mining for gold has been a topic of discussion and we once reported that eight of the worlds top jewelry retailers pledged to stay away from dirty gold. After reading about Rust Belt jewelry, we went on their website and learned about some scary facts: - Gold mining accounts for 10% of the worlds energy consumption.- To produce enough gold for 1 ring, about 18 tons of waste ore are created.- Every year, mines in the U.S. generate an amount of solid waste equivalent in weight to nearly 9 times th...

San Franciscos Waldorf High School Avoids Landfill, Finds Rebirth as Green High School of Future
Designed with the idea of fostering an atmosphere where independent thought and personal social responsibility are the norm rather than the exception, the Waldorf Schools newest addition to their thousand strong campuses around the world is an interesting take on the future of high schools everywhere. Essentially, theyve taken the initiative to completely redesign their high school building in San Francisco, and theyre unveiling the new digs just around the corner on Sept. 17th. ...

B&Q and Ecotricity Working to Erect 2MW Turbine at Distribution Plant
If you want green energy, it seems you have to Do It Yourself. B&Q, the UKs equivalent to Home Depot, has already made some big strides towards sustainability. They were at the forefront of putting micro-wind turbines and solar panels into a mainstream retail environment, and they were also one of the first companies to work with the Bioregional Development Group on their localized charcoal initiative. Now the company is looking to make a slightly grander gesture, at l...

Berkeley's Foodies Go to the Movies: SAFE Food and Farming Film Festival
TreeHugger loves inspiring film footage about sustainable food and farming. Weve previously brought you a mini-movie about permaculture in the Middle East, and TreeHugger TV has aired episodes on How to Buy Green Produce, How to Find Green Fish, and even Edible Estates. However, while watching these videos in the comfort of your home may be one thing, there ...

EcoTan Leather from GreenShoes
The other day we were, if you pardon the pun, ruminating on whether chromium tanned leather might be considered eco. One company who thinks there is room for alternatives is Green Shoes, whom weve mentioned previously. But this year theyve embarked on a campaign to offer more of their product line of handmade shoes, boots, sandals and accessories from what they term EcoTan. For which they make some rather robust claims; Incredibly soft yet durable, this fine leathe...

Test Proves that Nutrition Sells
Well whoda thunk it- when you give people information they make better choices. Hannaford, a Belgian owned grocery store in Maine, developed the "guiding stars" rating system, a scale from zero to three stars based on nutritional value. A simple and straightforward system using guidelines from an advisory board that found many so-called healthy products got no stars because of too much sugar. They used data from a products nutrition facts panel and the ingredients list, and credited a food for having vitamins and minerals, fiber and whole grains. The system took points away for trans fats, saturated fats, cholesterol, added sugars and added sodium.Sales of products like lean beef with sta...

Warren Buffett's New Train Set
Green blogs give a lot of pixels to Vinod Khosla and his investments in solar and ethanol, but the man to watch in America is Warren Buffett. He famously sat out the last internet boom because he "didn't understand it" - he invests in businesses that he can see and touch and hangs in for the long term. Right now he is investing in railways. "He sees something in the rail industry that, over the next decade or longer, will make this an attractive investment," said an analyst. It might be that rail has a three to one fuel efficiency advantage over trucking and there is a shortage of truck drivers...

Wegemans Starting Its Own Organic Farm
Straight from the roots of a family grocery that became the 70+ store company known as Wegmans comes...a prototype in vertically-integrated, organic produce growth and distribution. Could this be the next trend for green grocers? Hope so. Pay attention now Wal-Mart. The axis of the Earth doesn't protrude through the main street of Bentonville. If you're looking for a second precedent, Thomas Jefferson had this figured out a long time ago."Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty an...