Archive for the ‘Tree Hugger’ Category

Study Finds Fracking Poses Air Pollution Health Risks, But EPA Still Denying Groundwater Impacts

Wyoming: Upper Green River Valley/CC BY 1.0 Air pollution caused by fracking may contribute to acute and chronic health problems for people living near (within a half mile) of natural gas drilling sites, according to a new study from the Colorado School of Public Health. Air pollutants around the drilling sites were measured at five […]

Garden Display Built Completely From Used Pallets

© Bsq Canada Blooms is a big promotional opportunity for landscape designers and contractors, as they outdo each other to make the jazziest booths. Robert Boltman and Alex Bartlett of BSQ. Landscape Design, known to TreeHugger readers for their shipping container office, tackle that other meme of the moment, pallet architecture, with their presentation this […]

If Parents Want Kids to Bike to School, Why Are So Few Doing It?

Powerhouse Museum Collection/Public Domain While some anti-environment extremists are painting bike paths as a communist plot, it’s been shown that well-planned, dense urban neighborhoods improve quality of life and increase property values. That’s probably why new research from the Australian Heart Foundation shows a majority of parents want their kids to ride bikes to school. […]

R-House Modular Prefab displayed at Canada’s National Home Show

Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0 Every year they build a dream home at the National Home Show in Toronto, and it is often a modular prefabricated design. This makes a lot of sense; there isn’t a lot of time to put it together, the trades in the Convention Centre are really expensive when working overtime, and […]

Clean Energy Saves Lives, Makes Us "Better War-Fighters": Secretary of U.S. Navy

An Honorable German via Flickr/CC BY 2.0 Some of the most powerful voices in support of clean energy come not from starry-eyed entrepreneurs of solar start-ups or environmental advocacy groups—but from the U.S. military. Often at odds with the political conservatives who claim to have their interests at heart, the Army, the Air Force, and […]

Want to Create the Next Air BnB? Here’s What’s Stopping You

Air BnB/Screen capture I recently wrote that the biggest barrier to sharing may be ourselves, but as the collaborative consumption revolution continues to make big bucks, it’s becoming increasingly evident that this barrier is slipping away as we use technology to reinvent age-old systems of bartering and peer-to-peer business transactions. Nevertheless, this new way of […]

Neighbors Build 100% Reclaimed Shed, Stash Reusable Plates for Each Others’ Parties

Paul Wheaton/Video screen capture From modular refugee housing through an innovative reclaimed garden display to a 600 Sq. Foot recycled office warehouse, shipping pallets can be a darned useful construction material. They can even be used to build a vertical garden on your home balcony. The community of Vashon Island, Wa. has put reclaimed shipping […]

Starbucks Sustainability Report Paints A Mostly Rosy Picture Of Green Progress

Marco Paköeningrat /CC BY-SA 2.0 Starbucks has released its 2011 shareholder report, within which are some interesting metrics on their progress towards sustainability goals first outlined in 2008. The report covers coffee sourcing, the amount of money invested in coffee farming communities via farmer loans, hours of community service volunteered by employees, LEED certification, recycling, […]

Weekday Vegetarian: Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Aged Cheddar

Photo: Kelly Rossiter/CC BY 2.0 I’ve made a lot of different recipes for cauliflower soup in my time, and I’ve also roasted cauliflower as a side dish, but I’ve never roasted the it before I added it to the soup pot. Just like the wonderful recipe for baked potato soup, the roasting of the vegetable […]

2013 Nissan LEAF to get 20-25 Extra Miles in Cold Weather Thanks to New Heater

© Nissan Austria Northern EV Fans Take Note! The Nissan LEAF electric car will get an update at the end of this year, and while I can’t say I care much about the addition of leather seats or of a darker interior, the new, more efficient heater is a great addition. Cold weather is indeed […]

McDonald’s Tests Out Ditching Polystyrene Cups In 2000 Stores

Rupert Ganzer/CC BY-ND 2.0 Baby steps towards cleaning up part of an often dirty business, fast food chains: McDonald’s has responded to a 2011 shareholder resolution, and is testing whether it can do away with polystyrene foam beverage cups. McDonald’s is currently testing a double-walled fiber hot cup, as the company continues to seek more […]

How Much Will it Cost to Save Our Economy’s Foundation?

During the past two summers, Pakistan was hit with catastrophic floods. The record flooding in the late summer of 2010 was the most devastating natural disaster in Pakistan’s history. The media coverage reported torrential rains as the cause, but there is much more to the story. When Pakistan was created in 1947, some 30 percent […]

GOP Budget Gives Billions to Big Oil, Slashes Programs for the Poor

Anyone keen on understanding the GOP’s key ambitions need look no further than its proposal for the U.S. budget, presented by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI)—it sets aside tens of billions of dollars in handouts to oil companies while slashing Medicare and aid to the poor. You’ve likely heard about the basics of […]

U.S. Slaps Tariff on Chinese Solar Panels

Port of San Diego/CC BY 2.0 It’s a well-known story to those who follow clean energy affairs: A few years ago, China began aggressively subsidizing its solar panel manufacturing industry. With its economy less hindered by the global recession, the nation pumped tens of billions of dollars into the sector. The result, as we know […]

Orphaned Baby Manatee Rescued in the Amazon

© AMPA When it comes to adorable animal babies, few species are quite as cute as Amazonian river manatees — or as vulnerable to environmental threats. Each year, countless manatee calfs are left orphaned after their mothers are either killed by poachers or starved due to rampent overfishing in their river habitat. But fortunately for […]

In Guatemala, Pedal Powered Machines Pump Water, Grind Coffee and Much More (Video)

Worldwide Cycling Atlas/Video screen capture Back in 2006, Warren wrote about Maya Pedal, the Guatemalan NGO that takes old bikes and converts them into bicimáquinas, or “bike machines.” Since then, the organization, founded in 1997, has grown a lot, so I think it’s worth taking a fresh look at the awesome work they do. When […]

Smart Meter, Smart Grid…Smart Toilet?

© City of Portland It’s rare that intelligence and toilets are mentioned in the same sentence, unless it’s a joke about the quality of ideas one has while spending time there. But a recent competition for innovative municipal programs recently provided the perfect opportunity to do just that. EfficientGov, a newsletter focused solely on municipal […]

London Museum Blooms With 10,000 Clay Flowers

Bonnie Alter/CC BY 2.0 Even if the flowers aren’t out yet, this wonderful installation of 10,000 clay flowers will make your heart sing. Called Out of Sync, they are “planted” in the courtyard of London’s Somerset House. Set against the grand architecture of the 18th century museum, the flowers signal the end of winter and […]

Maldives’ Mohamed Nasheed Pleads for a Solution to Rising Sea Levels in Film "The Island President" (Video)

© Chiara Goia — Mohamed Nasheed as seen in “The Island President.” In The Island President, Mohamed Nasheed, the recently ousted president of the Maldives brings attention to the serious impact of climate change on this archipelago — which could be soon under water. The smallest country in Asia composed of 1192 islands, the Maldives […]

Urban River Restoration Transforms Singapore Park

© Atelier Dreiseitl. An aerial view of Bishan Park. One of Singapore’s most popular parks has been transformed into a dynamic natural ecosystem with the restoration of 2.7 kilometers of the Kallang River that had previously been forced into a concrete drainage channel, creating new recreation opportunities while helping protect the city from flooding. The […]

Droog’s Iconic 85 Lamps Chandelier Now Comes In LED Green

Droog/Promo image I have always loved Droog Design; “The products they select need to combine functionality and conceptual clarity with a keen expression of awareness of cultural and technological references and contexts” In 1993 they introduced 85 Lamps, the iconic fixture designed by Rody Graumans. In 2006 I wondered if it was time to retire […]

Bike Safety PSA by the Baltimore Police Department

Basics Safety Things Save the Most Lives There’s more mileage to be gained from avoiding the most common mistakes than from studying esoteric situations, which is why I’m posting to bike safety public service announcement from the Baltimore Police Department. Whether you are a driver or a cyclist (or both!), please check it out and […]

Party Balloons are Depleting the World’s Helium Supply

Cuttlefish via Flickr/CC BY 2.0 There’s a bleak, darkly funny story in the Guardian today about the impending depletion of the world’s primary store of helium gas: It turns out that we’ve squandered what was once a massive stockpile of helium—which is crucial in a wide range of scientific and medical research—on party balloons. That’s […]

Artificial Wetlands Could be Affordable Method of Buffering Agricultural Runoff

NextNature/viaThe results of a 15 year study on manmade wetlands suggest that they may be a viable answer to buffering the effects of agricultural fertilizer runoff, which contribute to ‘dead zones’ in the ocean. Researchers at Ohio State University created two artificial wetlands in 1994 to investigate whether or not they could replace natural wetlands […]

Portland’s Bike-Share Moves One Step Closer to Reality

© City of Portland After some delays back in 2008, it’s finally happening! BikePortland reports that the city of Portland has released Request for Proposals (RFP) to try to find an operator for its bike share program: “Bids on the project are due on May 25th and the City is expected to choose a vendor […]

My Pet Frog Likes This ‘Republican Weather’

© John Laumer Our family’s pet Green Frog, as pictured, has lived in a little plastic pond outside the kitchen window for three years, after taking his bug eating assignment as the tadpole my son put there in the spring of 2009. At the time, we thought Frog would herald the first green US President […]

Can Social Media Save Two Rhinos Left For Dead by Poachers?

© Kariega Game Reserve A record 448 endangered rhinos were poached for their horns in South Africa last year, and while 2012 is already on track to exceed that grim toll, conservationists have turned to the internet in hopes of reducing that figure by two. Earlier this month, the quiet tranquillity of South Africa’s Kariega […]

London’s New Train Station Concourse is a Dazzling Surprise

Bonnie Alter/CC BY 2.0 London’s Kings Cross is a great old train station in need of a face lift. And now it has it. In anticipation of the upcoming summer Olympics, a spectacular new entrance and concourse has been built, to the tune of half a billion pounds ($ 793M). The station is a huge […]

In Japan, Manhole Covers Are Canvases for Public Art

m-louis/CC BY 2.0 Public art is crucial to keeping urban life vibrant and interesting, but outdoor space is too often reserved for advertising or covered in graffiti of dubious artistic merit. Japan, however, has capitalized on an unusual canvas for a unique genre of public art: the lowly manhole cover. According to Remo Camerota’s book […]

60,000 sq.ft. Warehouse Grows Edible Mushrooms for Health and Ecology

Fair Companies/Video screen capture From inoculating shiitake mushroom logs to growing oyster mushrooms in coffee grounds, I’ve messed around a little with growing fungi at home. But that’s nothing compared to what large-scale specialty mushroom growing operations can achieve. This latest video from the oh-so-prolific Fair Companies pays a visit to Far West Fungi of […]

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes