Home / treehugger.com rss archive / September-24-2007


New High-Altitude Climate Observatory in Mexico Announced
Today the Climate Institute announced a new observatory called the High Altitude Climate Observatory in Pico De Orizaba National Park, which is the first high-altitude climate observatory in Mexico and the highest of its kind in the world. The project was announced in conjuction with a speech on vulnerability and climate change by Sir Crispin Tickell, the president emeritus of the Climate Institute and the author of Climatic Change and World Affairs, one of the first books to highlight the dangers of human-induced global climate change, first published in 1...

Nations Agree to Accelerated "Freeze and Phase Out" of Climate-Damaging Chemicals
Photo credit: pagedooleyFollowing mounting evidence that hydrochloroflurocarbons (HCFCs) contribute to global warming, the world's governments signed up to an accelerated freeze and phase-out of HCFCs under the 20-year-old Montreal Protocol. The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) treaty was established in 1987 to protect the planet's ozone layer from chemical degradation.The 191 parties (190 countries, plus the European Commission) to the Montreal Protocol, meeting in the eponymous Canadian city on Saturday, agreed to freeze production of HCFCs in 2013, as well as to bring forward the final phase-out date of the chemicals by 10 ...

DIY Idea: Wine Glass Chandelier
3 lengths of small-gauge cable + 2 plexiglass circles (or substitute real glass, if you can cut it) +1 compact fluorescent or other high-efficiency lightbulb +lots of wine glasses =a new combo chandelier/wine glass rackThe original, pictured above, is designed by a Swiss architecture student; as swissmiss notes, "Very practical for tiny NYC apartments. Finally a place to put all of our wine glasses and free up some valuable kitchen cabinet space." Check out more pics at ::Koope via ::swissmiss...

Jalopnik on No Park(ing) Day
So we thought Park(ing) day was a lot of fun; shown above is No Impact Man's setup in New York. But what did the drivers think? Normally articulate and reserved Auto site Jalopnik calls us Enviro-dweebs and says "OK, seriously enviro-nuts, you've gone and crossed a line. It's hard enough trying to find metered parking spots in places like LA and New York City without you eco-nerds taking them over and putting up your potted plants and trees and lawn chairs. If you want to play ping-pong, find a rec room at a YMCA or something. There's a lot of those out in San Francisco and Miami and Waukegan, Illinois...

Solar Cinema: The Groovy Movie Picture House
Even in this age of DVDs and movies on iPods, there is nothing like the collective experience of sharing a movie. In the UK, it's a moveable treat: The Groovy Movie Picture House is a 45 foot diameter portable cinema, "with full blackout lining, a coconut matting floor, providing a cosy venue for daytime or night time screenings for audiences of over 150." Now they have gone solar: "All of our power requirements are provided by eight large, highly visible solar panels, which charge a large battery bank, providing electricity for screenings during bad weather." It is "an exciting demonstration of green technology in action!" ...

Canadian Youth Tackle Urban Climate Change
The Environmental Youth Alliance has just announced the launch of Winds of Change, a project to raise the awareness of how urban parks and green spaces can mitigate the effects of climate change, especially in cities.The trigger event was a devastating windstorm that leveled more than 10,000 trees in Vancouver, Canada's Stanley Park in December 2005. In two hours, the 243-hectare park was stripped of over 45 hectares of trees, costing the city $9 million in restoration costs."Winds of Change came from what we saw as a growing climate threat to our urban parks and green space," said Karun Koernig at the United Nation's high-level event on c...

Forest-Smart Buying Can Lower Your Carbon Footprint
Tropical deforestation is responsible for about 20 percent of total annual global warming emissions, making it second only to fossil fuels in terms of climate impact. Forests play a major role in regulating global temperatures by absorbing heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in their cell walls. Earth loses more than 18 million acres of forestland every yearan area larger than Irelandaccording to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).The best way to reduce emissions from tropical deforestation is to help ensure these trees are not cut down in the first place. Your purchasing decisions can play a role in this effor...

Volkswagen To Hybridize Their Whole Line
Even without a single hybrid vehicle (and due to a number of diesel fueled options), Volkswagen has consistently been near the top of many fuel efficiency lists. So, just imagine what would happen if the company decided to take one of their models, such as the Jetta or Beetle, and put some battery-charged hybrid goodness in. Well, a few months after announcing that they plan to put a hybrid engine in some of their compact models, V-Dub is taking all this hybrid talk a step further. Now, every upcoming VW model is scheduled to have a hybr...

Governator's Climate Pep Talk
California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger urged official delegates and guests at the United Nation's high-level event on climate change this morning "not to lose hope."But first, he checked off the Golden State's manifold accomplishmentsincluding California's leadership in nanotechnology, information technology, and biotechnologynot "simply to boast," but because "when California does something, it has consequences."Schwarzenegger went on (and on) to tell us why California is TEH AWESOME, but then added that we should not lose hope over climate change. "Do not believe that doom and gloom and disaster are the o...

Teen Creates Electric 1971 VW Beetle
Bart Grabman, a senior at an Alaskan high school, has converted his 1971 VW Beetle to electric power, in order to save gas money and investigate ways to cut down on emissions. We have a class called Passages, and in that course everyones supposed to pick a project or idea that they want to expand and do something big with, and so I thought, Whats something awesome that I can do?, he said.Grabman remembered hearing a speech by a man who had converted his own truck from gas to electric power, so he decided that this was a project he could undertake...

New Solar Panels Produced at Less Than $1 Per Watt
Solar panels that cost less than $1 per watt to produce are on their way, as Colorado State University's new method for low-cost, high-efficiency solar panels looks set to begin mass production. The panels will be made by AVA Solar, and production should start towards the end of next year at a huge factory employing 500 people....

Hydrogen Hybrid Canal Boat Makes for Smooth Sailing
It may not be the swankiest ride in town but - for inland waterways at the very least - it's certainly the most fuel-efficient choice for eco-conscious boaters. The Ross Barlow, the first zero-emissions hydrogen hybrid canal boat developed by University of Birmingham engineers, was unveiled this past Friday by Terry Tricker, a board member of British Waterways - the company that provided the university with the original maintenance boat.Demonstrating the potential for magnets and fuel cell technologies to work together to power water craft, the hybrid boat was created by switching out the conventional maintenance boat's diesel engine with a zero-e...

Interview: Oulu's Designer, Evangeline Dennie
Named for the cultural epicenter of northern Finland, Oulu adds a shock of green to Williamsburg's bricks and asphalt. Unlike the other bars in the torrent that's hit the neighborhood, Oulu features a living facade and a thoroughly green design. I caught up with Evangeline Dennie, the woman behind Oulu's unique look, and we spoke about design, materials, and the therapeutic possibilities of architecture. Joey Roth: What other projects have you worked on recently? How is Oulu different?Evangeline Dennie: One of my most recent and significant projects was to design the interim memorial at Ground Zero, called the Trib...

"Business As Usual Not Acceptable": Groups Aim To Increase Women's Participation in Climate Change Debate
In anticipation of an international climate change meeting to be held in the United Nations headquarters this week, some social and environmental activists are campaigning for the increased consideration and participation of women in environmental policy-making decisions. Often, it is women especially those who are struggling economically who are most vulnerable to natural disasters stemming from the extremes of climate change, whether they are in the developing world or in New Orleans, USA.For many of the groups working for the equal involvement of women in climate change issues, the deliberations on climate change are too narrowly focused on the politics of emissions reductions, rather than ...

U.N. Climate Klatch Today, Bush Plays Hookey
While heads of state and other top officials from more than 150 countries are meeting today at the United Nations to build momentum for end-of-year climate negotiations in Bali, one notable no-show rankles: President Bush will be skipping all of the day's events but the dinner.The informal high-level event, which takes place in New York City the day before the opening of the U.N. General Assembly's annual General Debate, aims to "facilitate an exchange of views and to galvanize political will" for the Climate Change Conference to be held in Bali in December 2007. A follow-up to Kyoto summit in 1997, the Bali meeting is expected to advance a comprehensive global agenda on ...

Turning the Environment Into A Literary Affair
The weathers getting cooler, the autumn leaves are falling oh and hey - polar icecaps are melting at a ferocious pace. In light of all the worlds weirdness, how do poets and literary types inspired by natures wonder, cope with the ugliness of global warming and environmental degradation? An upcoming conference at Tel Aviv University on literature and the environment will explore this question. The sign-of-the-times event has confirmed the participation of environmental poet Robert Hass as well as Una Chaudhuri from NYU, a foremo...

Green Building Studio Software Calculates Energy Impacts of Design
Santa Rosa, California-based company Green Building Studio, Inc. launched the beta version of its green-building software, Green Building Studio V3.0. Compatible with other design tools from Autodesk and Graphisoft, the beta version now offers designers, owners and builders more advanced web service features for evaluating a building projects carbon neutrality potential, total PV & wind energy, greenhouse gas emissions, total building energy, water consumption for both commercial and residential typologies. ...

Most Huggable: Lead for Lunch, Suns OpenEco, Getting Off Green, and More
What a tasty lunchbox! California bought 56,000 lunchboxes for its students. Unfortunately the kids got an unexpected serving of leadMassugu Adult brings a sustainable mission to the challenge of getting people offThe Guatemalan beaded lizards venom is a treatment for diabetes, but the species teeters on extinctionWarming temperatures are putting the squeeze on freshwater fish, and the sport-fishermen are not pleasedSun Microsystems launches Ope...

Cross-Cultural Felt Making in Kyrgyzstan
What makes an American designer want to travel to Kyrgyzstan? Where? I hear you ask? Is that where Borat comes from? No, but it's right next door. This mountainous Central Asian country is surrounded by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China. We're going to expose our ignorance and admit that we don't know very much about Kyrgyzstan, other than it was once part of the Soviet Union, but gained independence in 1991. However, we are about to learn more and this is why we love the Bridging Cultures Through Design project run by the intrepid designer Mimi Robinson. Through creating cross-...

Less Meat = Less Heat
Wanna do something about global warming, but cant pony up for a Prius or solar panels? There is another option. Reduce your consumption of red meat. Worldwide agriculture, especially livestock production, accounts for about a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions (see chart after the fold). A report published in the renown medical journal The Lancet proposes that developed countries cut their meat munching to 90g per day, with only 50g of that coming from ruminants such as cattle or sheep. Currently folk in the West eat, on average, their own body weight in meat a year. Per day that's 224g, or the equal of two quarter pounder burgers. In developing countries the daily average is 47g. (100g = 3.5 oz). ...

Take Shorter Showers - or Face the Consequences...
TreeHugger TV has already brought you our 'community-minded' take on greening your shower, and our post on the Navy Shower proved hugely popular. However, there's always room for more on this important subject. The above YouTube clip by Toweld...

Even Bush Government Agency Advised Staff to Buy Asian Hybrid Vehicles
Talk about embarrassing. When high-level officials in an administration that's provided more support and political cover than any in recent history advise their staff to purchase vehicles from your foreign rivals, you know you're in trouble. That was the situation facing Detroit's big three automakers - GM, Ford and Chrysler - when it was revealed last week that the brass at the Department of Health and Human Services had told their staff members they'd be better off buying a car from Toyota, Honda or Hyundai if they wished to cut back on their fuel costs.As part of a newsletter promoting "energy efficiency behind the wheel," officials at the...

Quote of the Day: Ban Ki-Moon on International Action on Climate Change
National action must be at the center of our response to climate changewith industrialized countries taking the lead. Fifteen years have passed since the Framework Convention on Climate Change was finalized in Rio. It has been ten years since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted. Yet most industrialized country emissions are still rising. And their per capita emissions remain unacceptably high. At the same time, support for adaptation by poor countries has fallen well short of what is required. ...

New Zealand Finds Itself Potential Dumping Ground for Toxic Chinese Exports
While there has certainly been an intense international focus on the toxic toy products coming out of China, an investigation by TV3s Target program in New Zealand recently revealed that woolen and cotton clothing for children made in China contained formaldehyde in levels 500 times higher than considered safe. The chemical is used to give a permanent press effect to clothing, but according to international research supported by the World Health Organisation exposure to formaldehyde in concentrations of 20 parts per million (ppm) can cause eye, skin and nasal irritations, respiratory problems, asthma and ...

Santa Monica Street Improvements: Chop Down All the Trees
Nice Trees. Urban street trees do a lot of good; they provide shade to pedestrians, reduce the heat island effect, hold moisture, act as carbon sinks and just generally make any street look better. These ficus trees in Santa Monica, California are particularly handsome. However they are all being chopped down and replaced with dinky little gingkos, to "To make those streets more attractive to the shopping public." The city's notice doesn't say much: "The criteria for removal included but were not limited to internal decay, extensive root pruning, poor canopy structure, damaged canopies from oversized vehicles, design factors and too large for relocatio...

Domenica Ecologica: Eco-Sunday in Rome
Its obvious to anyone (which in this case means everyone) who has had a near miss with a car or motorino, that Romes historic center isnt meant for cars. That fact was made blissfully evident yesterday during Domenica Ecologica (eco-Sunday) when the centro was closed to all non-pedestrian, non-bicycle traffic. The event was hosted by Comune di Roma as the capstone event for the citys participation in European Mobility Week. Saturday was the official

Karavans Hosts Carnival of the Green
This week is Carnival of the Green # 96 and it's being hosted by Karavans! So, head on over to this week's Carnival to check out a round up of last week's green news and events, submitted by other bloggers and green sites. To learn more about Carnival of the Green, where it will be and how to host (we are now booking into 2009!), please click here to link to our previous post....

Wal-Mart to Hawk House-Brand CFLs
Photo credit: biketroubleComing to a light socket near you: Wal-Mart's own brand energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs, which the big-box retailer plans to unleash at more than 3,000 of its U.S. stores by the end of September.While Wal-Mart will continue to sell other brand-name bulbs alongside its own Great Value line, it says it hopes the new, more-affordable bulbs will help it achieve its goal of selling 100 million CFLs before 2007 runs out."We want to make eco-friendly living more affordable for our customers and with the Great Value CFLs, we can make energy-efficiency easy at an unbeatable price," said Wal-Mart Se...

Twins
Our pal Kenny recently posted on the birth of his little treehugger. Witnessing the generation of much waste stemming from the care-taking of his infant son in the hospital, the new dad lamented how far we have to go in greening the globe. At not-so-long last, I join Kenny in the dad's club, but two times over with the recent birth of Sophia and

Touring an Oil Spill Twice the Size of Exxon Valdez in Brooklyn
People take various approaches and go to great lengths to save waterways. We brought you the background details of the Greenpoint oil spill just prior to New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo announcin...

Grandmateria
This is the opening show of Gallery Libby Sellers and it is one to watch because Sellers used to be the curator at the Design Museum, so she knows her stuff. The exhibition featured some names which are familiar to treehugger readers; looks like we have the inside line on design too! There was a new piece of work by the ubiquitous Stuart Haygarth. He uses everyday objects in his work and forces us to look at them in new ways. This time he has made a geometrical looking chandelier consisti...

Light my Firewinder - A Wind Powered Lantern
As a kid Tom Lawton wanted to see the wind. As a grown-up he wants to design cool stuff (like a 360 digital camera) These visions combine in his Firewinder Mini. Its a 100% wind-powered outdoor light. Although it doesnt generate practical task lighting it certainly seems to create an unusual atmospheric ambience. When wind speed approaches 3 mph the long helix shape begins to spin and via a patent pending process the breeze powers 20 LEDs that light up in a rotating spiral fashion. Apparently 5-7 mph is the optimum speed, but it can also cope with speeds up to 40 mph. And it doesnt matter which direction the wind is blowing either. ...

A Brain Surgeon on Bicycle Helmets
While at the Bikes Belong in Ontario event, we met Dr. Charles Tator, a brain surgeon and founder of Thinkfirst, an organization with the mission to "prevent brain and spinal cord injury through education aimed at healthy behaviours in children and youth." He was there to promote helmet use by bicyclists; knowing this is a controversial subject among TreeHugger readers, we asked him a few questions...

Absolut Downloads: Foldschool
Foldschool is a full size, downloadable design, distributed freely by Swiss architect Nicola Enrico Stubli. He says "The mindset of foldschool is to restore design to one of its original missions: to provide a product at an affordable price through a smart manufacturing process." Over at Absolut Downloads, you can get a 1/6 scale model to match the rest of the collection. Get the real thing at ::Foldschool or the model at ::In An Absolut World Everything is Downloadablea...

Padre Himalaya, a Portuguese Pioneer on Solar Energy
The television channel RTP2 of Portugal is broadcasting a documentary about the life of Mario Antnio Gomez, best known as Padre Himalaya. This Portuguese priest, who was also a scientist and inventor, was one of the pioneers in the investigation of solar energy. His biggest achievement was the Pireliforo, a device in which thousands of mirrors over a surface of 80 square meters concentrated solar energy up to a temperature of 3500 degrees Celsius: enough to melt most metals and stones. The huge installment was a star in the 1904 Universal Expo of St. Louis, where it won two gold medals. Himalaya lived in Paris and in Argentina (1927-1932), where he continued his studies and wrote ...

Forest Superintendent Cabin in Sweden
Sigh. In North America, if they needed a cabin for a forester, they would order a double-wide. In Sweden, they hire young architects like Petra Gipp och Katarina Lundeberg of Arkitektur to design stunners like this cabin in the Grimeton Nature preserve. ...

Lifehacker Tip: Shop Healthier at the Store Perimeter
Design affects us whatever we are doing; the design and layout of a grocery store affects how we shop and what we buy. Lifehacker has a suggestion for healthier shopping: stick to the perimeter.That's where all the fresh foods are. The less you find yourself in the central aisles of the grocery store, the healthier your shopping trip will be. Make it a habit--work the perimeter of the store for the bulk of your groceries, then dip into the aisles for staples that you know you need.::Food Shopping via

VIDEO S&WFF: Americas Lost Landscape: Tallgrass Prairie
You've still got until September 29th to enter your film in the Wild & Scenic Film Festival and check for the tour in your area. One film on the tour, Americas Lost Landscape: Tallgrass Prairie

Fashion Takes Action: How To Run A Green Event
It is a fashion show with some of Canada's top designers using sustainable fabrics from Skya made from soy, bamboo, hemp, organic cotton and wild silk, all in support of Environmental Defence. But it is also a demonstration of how to run a green event. The venue is the Evergreen Brick Works, perhaps Toronto's greenest spot. The fabrics are all maked form renewable resources. The invitations were electronic. The lighting is LED and high efficiency halide. The power is Bullf...

Survey: What Do You Feed Your Dog?
The tainted pet food crisis earlier this year made a lot of people rethink what they feed their pets. TreeHugger John Laumer wants to know- what do you feed yours? Our own How to Green your pet says "If the idea of becoming a fulltime pet chef is just crazy talk, making the occasional meal or treat is completely doable. Those broccoli stalks left over from your last stirfry also make some tasty morsels for your pup." Right. Feeding a dog broccoli.