Home / treehugger.com rss archive / September-27-2007


Biomimicry: Learning From Beetles Inspires New Technology
Don't put a bombardier beetle in your mouth, or like Charles Darwin, you may find out the hard way how they got the name 'bombardier'. The bombardier beetle can rapidly spray a noxious 100C (212F) liquid when it is peeved. Not only can it conjure a boiling liquid on demand but the spray mechanism is no small engineering feat, using a chamber less than one millimeter long the beetle can control the direction, consistency, and rapidity of their defensive spray.Andy McIntosh, Professor of Thermodynamics and Combustion Theory at the University of Leeds was certainly impressed:"Nobody had studied the beetle f...

Untouched World: Kool Kiwi Klothes
It's always encouraging to discover yet another Antipodean company that has been embracing green design in the apparel sector. Untouched World hail from Christchurch, New Zealand. Organic is their big theme. Be it 100% organic cotton denim, 100% organic cotton, or their own Organic Mountainsilk which is described as a machine washable supersoft organic merino. New Zealand Merino has been getting a big rap recently, but organic versions much less so. We believe, in the case of Untouched World, their organic merino is sourced ironically from Australia, yet still comes from non-mulesed merino sheep. The ...

Lets Crank: Specialized and Google Pedal Contest
Yup, a bike and a byte company have joined forces to promote the benefits of human powered ingenuity. As they put it: The challenge is to invent and build machines that transform pedalling energy into new and useful purposes. ... inspire innovation and environmental change ...So get together with yourself, or with four buddies, and conjure up a device that harnesses the magnificently energy efficient grunt of a bikes crankshaft and you might all end up winning a Specialize Globe bicycle, plus $5,000 USD to split.Aside from the gadget youll also need to video said thingamee from a 360 viewpoint and send in a YouTube presentation of less than 2 mins du...

Multi-Functioning Funiture: Table/Chairs Combo by Joel Hesselgren
Sometimes you need extra chairs, and sometimes you need an extra table. Designer Joel Hesselgren, who knows a thing or two about transforming, adaptive design, has dreamed up an ingenious way to quickly and easily combine two chairs and a table. Great for small spaces, and a great way to maximize materials and function. Are you seeing this, IKEA? Get up close and personal with more pics after the jump, via ::Yanko Design...

Standard Chartered Pledges $8-to-10 Billion to Renewed Energy
As far as this year's Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting goes, this is the mother lode of commitments. Standard Chartered Bank has pledged $8-to-10 billion (yes, billion, folks) over five years to renewable-energy projectswind, hydro, geothermal, solar, biomass, and so onin Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. At a press conference an hour ago, Peter Sands, the bank's group chief executive, made no bones about the fact that this wasn't a purely altruistic gesture. "We expect to make a lot of money from this," he said, adding that ...

Power Shift 2007: Youth Climate Summit
>There's no two ways about it: sequels usually suck. Go ahead, try and convince us that Jaws 2 was a good idea - not gonna happen. So, we are glad that the sequel to this April's Step It Up event is already shaping up to be a success. Part of the excitement about November's Step It Up is the collaboration of different organizations participating. One of the largest is sure to be Power Shift, an event that bills itself as the first youth-led summit on climate change. With the national Step It Up activities happening on Novem...

A Picture is Worth... Plastic Spoon
::Original on Stumbleupon, via ::Reddit...

World Bike Relief To Send 7,000 Bikes to Africa
World Bike Relief has pledged to send 7,000 bicycles to seven countries in Africa by November 2008. Its commitment, announced at the Clinton Global Initiative, will focus on Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, and is expected to cost $980,000 once assembly, training, and program evaluation costs are factored in.The Chicago, Ill.-based non-profit aims to "directly empower the poorest people through affordable access to sustainable, quality mobility resources." Or, in plain speak, it gives the world's poor bicycles so they can get around in a non-polluting way.WB...

Ecostrip Power Bar Coming to North America
Here is a great idea for lazy and forgetful slugs like me: a power bar with a USB connection to your computer, so it detects when the computer is turned off, and then shuts down all of the peripherals. "We set out to design a product that reduces energy waste," said Bjarne Waedeled, President of Centritech Limited in a press release, "And, because it functions like any other power strip, there is no education of the consumer required." One still has to have the presence of mind to turn off the computer, but it is still a terrific idea. Via

Yahoo!'s Green Icon Challenge Winners Announced
Last month, Yahoo! went searching for the next great green icon (see our coverage here) to signify green and to help flag greener things you can do all over their network of sites -- "everything from making green purchases to finding the most fuel-efficient cars," they said. Almost 500 entries later, the voting has ended and the new icon is..."Earth Point!" (above left), submitted by Leah Dickey.For her efforts, Ms. Dickey gets to choose the non-profit where $20,000 in prize money goes; both second place, "Yahoo! Leaf" (above, center) and third place, "green yahoo! tree mod" (above right) ...

Plug In Stinkers (And Others) Taken Off Shelves
We always thought those things you plug into a wall receptacle to "freshen" the room were a waste of electricity. Why do people spend money on that stuff? The explanation has to be that many of us live lives of stinky desperation. Maybe they wouldn't feel so crappy if they took a breath of actual fresh air once in awhile. Or, cleaned out the cat box more often."Managers at 111 Walgreens stores in Minnesota and thousands more nationwide pulled three types of air fresheners off their shelves over the weekend, after advocacy groups reported that some sprays, gels and plug-in fresheners contain potentially hazardous chemicals.""The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tested 14 air fresheners from a retail store and reported that most of them contained "a veritable cocktai...

Wilson House by Breathe Architects
I fell in love with this model of Martin Liefhebber's Wilson House at the Cambridge Galleries booth at IIDEX/Neocon. Owner John Wilson writes about sustainable living and conducts tours of the house; more information ::here ...

Flatpack Chair from Dietiker Switzerland
Here is a clever idea from Swiss chair and table company Dietiker Switzerland, which had a big display at IIDEX-NEOCON: a flatpack in clever packaging for raving nationalists. Great packaging too. ::Dietiker Switzerland at ::IIDEX Neocon...

President Clinton Announces Record Number of Commitments in First 24 Hours, Launches CGI Asia
More big news from the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI): Former president Bill Clinton announced that more than 100 CGI commitments have been made in the first 24 hours of this year's meetinga record for the organization, which held its first annual meeting in 2005. In 2008k, CGI will be spinning off into Asia; the first meeting of CGI Asia, to be held in Hong Kong, will gather Asian heads of states and newsmakers to face challenges specific to the region head on."Asia is the largest and most populous continent," Clinton said. "And while its wealth has grown faster than most other parts of th...

The ecoHOME
Hate the name (it is so tired) but love the concept- the Forest Stewardship Council of Canada has launched the ecoHOME: "to inspire residential design and lifestyle choices that promote healthy and sustainable living by: * Raising the profile of sustainable and intelligent residential design; * Engaging people in an interactive educational experience; * Linking the built environment and the natural environment; * Showcasing responsible and renewable building materials; and * Demonstrating the integrated design process in action."...

RMI's RetroFUTUREspective: 25 Years of Being Years Ahead
It would be somewhat of an understatement to say that TreeHugger is a big fan of the Rocky Mountain Institute and its Chief Scientist Amory Lovins. When they announced their 25th anniversary celebrations earlier this year, Collin took the time to roundup the incredible range of RMI stories that have made it onto our pages over the years. Now the good folks up in the mountains have sent us this awesome 'retroFUTUREspective' video created for the event that covers the history of the organi...

Taking Back the City Dept: Psychogeographic Walks
Cities support so many activities and ideas, and have so many places to explore. An example of a group using the city to its fullest is The Toronto Psychogeography Society, "a loose collection of relentless flneurs, explorers and walkers. The word psychogeography was coined by the Situationist Guy Debord. It describes the specific effects of the geographical environment on the emotions and behaviour of individuals." This Sunday, September 30, they and Spacing Magazine offer The Great Queen Street Psychogeographic Walk, 15 kilometers from one end of Toronto's trendy Queen Street to the other. "Instead of a marathon, think of this as a mobil...

What Do Sewers and Our Rivers Have in Common? Too much.
Talking to Congress about sewage - you know, sometimes the joke is just too, too easy. But that's exactly why 85 river activists from all across the country are in town this week as a part of our fourth annual River Action Day. The facts on sewage in this country are pretty astounding - very, very few Americans have any idea just how much raw and partially-treated sewage is spilled or legally dumped into our streams and rivers every year.860 Billion Gallons. Enough to cover the entire state of Penn...

Clinton Global Initiative Day 2 Begins
We're now into Day 2 of the three-day Clinton Global Initiative's three-day annual meeting; today's opening plenary, moderated by NBC News' Tom Brokaw, featured Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the U.K.; Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and U.N. Special Envoy on Climate Change; Hank M. Paulson, Secretary of the U.S. Treasury; and Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.The overwhelming consensus from the speakers: This planet needs a binding global frameworktailored to each country's unique economic, population, and energy profilethat focuses on both adaptation and mitigation, while doling out market incentives for the private secto...

Uncommonly Discussed Eco-Myths: Vehicle Design In The Climate Century
Who cares about fuel cell vehicles (FCVs)? How many more hybrid/fuel configurations will there be before we get models we want? Good questions; but, the survival of US car companies seems now to hang more on controlling health care costs than product design. It gets worse. With the notable exception of the Toyota Prius, ICE-based hybrids are commercial oddities. In other words, the ICE/Battery Hybrid is a 'one-hit wonder.' With several prototypes of Plug-In Hybrids ("plug ins") tempting customers to dream of that next-best thing, a new race to the show room may be on (though research and development dollars are limited). These design and fuel choices will shape the future ...

First Pictures of Suissa's Latest Computer: Enlighten
We love Suissa computers; they are built like very fine furniture, endlessly upgradable to last as long as you do. Their newest is called Enlighten, and "offers a visually dynamic form which explores the modularity of technology, reflects the movement through time that our memories occupy and provides a tangible home for them." It was launched today at IIDEX along with Revolution, the tower on the right. ...

Clif Bar 2 Mile Challenge: Get On Your Bikes and Ride
Even the most casual TreeHugger reader knows that we're huge fans of transportation by bicycle; the world's most energy efficient vehicle is good for all sorts of things, including things you might not ordinarily consider, like moving and even getting married. So we're happy to see the launch of Clif Bar's 2 Mile Challenge, a new traveling event and program designed to get p...

Warning: 99.999% Uptime is a Myth, and a Planet Killer
Uptime is a measure of the time a particular computer system has been "up" and running. Not surprisingly, it's the opposite of downtime, when a system is not operational. In geek cant, uptime is sometimes measured in nines; "Three nines" gives you 99.9% reliability, about 8 hours and 46 minutes of downtime a year. The gold standard is "Five nines" - 99.999% reliability, which translates to a total downtime of no longer than five minutes per year.At first glance, it would seem that you want to keep your site up as much as possible, lots of nines. Problem is that it turns out ...

Suck on this, CO2
Much of the attention of late has been focused on finding new ways to scrub carbon dioxide from power plant stacks or to capture it and sequester it below ground. This, say some scientists, misses a crucial point: how to effectively - and, more importantly, cheaply - remove the carbon dioxide that is issued from millions of tailpipes and homes from the air. Frank Zeman, an engineer at Columbia University, and his colleagues claim they may have just discovered such a solution. They report in a new study that employing the technology used by pulp and paper mills - industrial-scale "scrubbers" - cou...

It's a Series of (Ocean) Tubes
Rest assured we're not talking about Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens' latest musings on the "interwebs" here (though this does share some of that nuttiness). No, this latest proposal from James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia hypothesis, and Chris Rapley, the director of London's Science Museum, deals with something entirely different: erecting a network of giant pipes in the oceans that would pump up deep, nutrient-rich water to...

Concepts We Want Made: InSight, InMind Personal Water Meter
As other gadgets we've featured have helped to show, it's a lot easier to conserve when you know how much you're already using; this is the idea behind the InSight, InMind personal water meter. Like a Home Joule or PowerCost home energy monitor for water, this killer concept by Adam Kereliuk tracks your daily water usage throughout your house; at the end o...

TH Blog Love - Our Favourite Greens Of The Week
Blue Egg: Fun with Greenhouse Gases by John HockenberryA fun, funny and moreover educational video blog by resident Egg-Head and veteran journalist John Hockenberry at Blue Egg. Watch as he tries to stump the smarties at MIT by asking them if they can name all the greenhouse gases.DH Love Life: Love Life Farm by Daryl HannahYeah! Daryl's back from her summer break, although we've seen her in between, we're glad she's putting up new episodes of...

Now That's Poopy: Ebay Bans Reusable Diapers
Cloth diapers are a pretty core part of many peoples efforts at green parenting. However, as with any product, even these have a certain amount of embodied energy and resources that have been used in making them. It makes sense, therefore, to reuse resuables as many times as possible or so youd think. Now we learn from the October issue of the UKs Green Parent magazine (which we previously mentioned here), that eBay has banned cloth diapers (or nappies as they are known in the...

Norwegian Wood
There is something so northern, and well, Canadian, about these Norwegian lights. They are made of thin birch strip veneer mounted on white paper, and held together with natural leather lacing. The motif is a forest, with pine trees and eagles and wolves laser cut into the wood. When the light shines through, it almost looks like snow. The lights are produced and hand assembled by a group of local artisans in Oslo so they maintain a personal quirky character. They look wonderful in groups of two and three or could stand alone. The other model has a base that is made of steel, and wound with natural leather.and could sit on a table. Are they craft or are they design? They are at...

Quote of the Day: Al Gore on Climate Change Leadership, Montreal Protocol
All of the market initiatives are incredibly important. The market allocates more money in one hour than all of the governments allocate over a year's time. But government's set the rules of the road and determine how markets allocate capital and make decisions. And there should be no mistake that this crisis, the climate crisis, is not going to be solved only by personal action and business action. We need changes in laws; we need changes in policies; we need new leadership and we need a new treaty. We need a mandate at Bali during the first 14 days of D...

College Students Help Tailgaters Remember to Recycle
When their team hit the field a couple of days ago, Sustain Mizzous Green Team hit the parking lots to help tailgaters green the party. In fact, the environmentally aware student group at the University of Missouri-Columbia was already busy handing out recycling bags to tailgaters four hours before the MU game even took place. Impressively, theyve been doing the same at every home football game for three years now. And just last game alone they collected 2.74 tons of trash and kept it from heading to the local landfill. Last year they collected 19 tons of recyclables during the seven home games played at their school, with the year prior seeing 11 t...

SIT UP, Sustainable Seats and Their Making Offs By [re]design
The exhibition SIT UP at this years 100%design in London clearly stood out from the rest of the stuff. [re]design, who impressed us last year with Good & Gorgeous?, chose to expose 16 eco sustainable seats and their manufacturing process. Each chair was chosen for combining the the fundamentals of seating design user comfort, quality and style with a passion for sustainability. What was really interesting to see, apart from the finished designs, were the...

VIDEO S&WFF: Seeds, Hope, and Concrete
We've talked about the benefits of urban agriculture and how it reduces fossil fuels expended in the shipping of food and is a boon to creating community. TreeHuggerTV brought you Edible Estates and an Urban Homestead. The film Seeds, Hope, and Concrete (US, 20...