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Should Cell Phone Towers Be Put on Residential Buildings?
11 March 2010 02:30:38
Image: Lloyd Alter
Between the upgrading of existing systems and the licencing of new carriers, the rooftop landscape of Toronto, Canada is changing rapidly as new antennae are added daily. While TreeHugger has discussed the question of cell phone safety many times, we are usually talking about the phone itself, where users have some control, rather than the base stations, where residents in apartment buildings with base stations on the roof do not. Is this exposure dangerous? A recent installation raises some questions....Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Woot! Google Bike There Feature to Google Maps! (Video)
11 March 2010 02:21:00
It's about time! Google Maps has finally added a Bike There feature. They've been plugging away for awhile now on ways to get directions for cyclists that avoids hills, excessive traffic, and points you in the best directions for pedaling to your destination. After a long time of lobbying by grassroots groups (it was all the way back in 2008 that we saw the petition circulating to add the feature), we finally have a thorough set of directions for alternative transportation, rounding out the walk there and public transit features. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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New Charging Method Could Mean Exponentially Faster Battery Recharge Times
11 March 2010 01:55:00
Photo of batteries via Moria, molecules via Technology Review
Chemists have figured out a new way to charge up electronics that drastically speeds up how long it takes to fill up to full. Ibrahim Abou Hamad at Mississippi State University show off a new way to recharge lithium ion batteries that could be a huge boon for electronics across the board, but while we immediately think of how much faster we might be able to text away on our cell phones, or go snap photos with our digital cameras, the real impact could happ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Powering Up Electronics With Cotton Fabric? It's Happening.
11 March 2010 01:20:00
Photo via WonderMike
Cornell University is about to have a fashion show. And at that fashion show will be clothing made of fabric that is simply electrifying. No, really. Juan Hinestroza, assistant professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, has developed cotton threads that, while remaining flexible and comfortable to wear, can conduct electric current as well as a metal wire. Simply knotting the threads is enough to create a complete circuit. A solar-powered dress with this technology literally woven into its fabric will be featured at the upcoming fashion show. Bu...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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BP Still Ranked Greenest Oil Company by Greenopia - Citgo Brings Up the Rear
11 March 2010 00:54:00
photo: BP
Greenopia has updated their guide to the greenest oil companies--though it may seem like it, it's not entirely an oxymoron--and BP is still on top. The other positions have shifted a bit, with
Sunoco and Hess taking second and third place:...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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69 Bear Invasions In New Jersey Last Year: Hunt On
11 March 2010 00:36:32
Dog wounded in New Jersey black bear attack. Image credit:News 12, video.
Without getting into what constitutes a black bear "home invasion" or "pet attack" incident, all would agree that black bears frequently in the yard, tipping trash cans, smashing the chicken coup, attacking pets in the yard, and possibly breaking in on a search for food calls for action. There is an environmental side to this story, too, as reported on NJ News 12 Interactive and elsewhere and ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Co-opportunity by John Grant - Join Up For a Sustainable, Resilient, Prosperous World (Book Review)
11 March 2010 00:15:32
We're excited to welcome British author and green marketing guru John Grant back to the top of our reading list. His latest offering 'Co-opportunity' invites us all to "Join up for a sustainable, resilient, prosperous world." In his recent Change Makers interview John said, "I actually think green should be a bi-product of us living co-operativ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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More Efficient Biomass Gasification Through Solar Concentrating Mirrors
11 March 2010 00:10:00
photo: Alex Lang via flickr.
Here's a new twist on biomass gasification, one which more or less merges it with solar thermal. Technology Review is highlighting the efforts of Colorado-based Sundrop Fuels to develop a system which uses the heat of the sun to vaporize biomass and turn it into syngas:...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Electric Assist Bike Fail - Iwatani Fuel-Cell Assisted Bicycle
11 March 2010 00:00:00
Photo via Tech On
When it comes to innovation in the greener electronics sector, there are ideas that are smart, but haven't quite found their mojo when it comes to the finished design or prototype. And then there are just flat out bad ideas. This bike falls into that second category - unfortunate because an electric assist bike that requires no help from the grid is an attractive idea. But this one falls flat. In fact, the makers don't even like it. But there is one benefit to this terrible bike. Starting out by listing what's wrong, we can uncover more about what ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Zoo Explores Poop Power and Insulation to Cut Carbon
10 March 2010 23:47:37
Image credit: 10:10 Campaign/Michele Turton
Paignton Zoo in the UK has already hit the headlines for exploring vertical farming to feed its animals. Now the zoo will be recycling the nutrients from that animal feed to power itself. That's right, Paignton zoo is seriously looking at getting into poop power. Elephant poop. And that's just one element of this innovative zoo's quest to slash its carbon emissions....Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Town Battles Supermarket Expansion and Wins
10 March 2010 21:03:27
Image from Mail online
There can hardly be a town without Tesco in Britain. The supermarket controls 30% of the business in the country and has stores everywhere. As it expands relentlessly it often wipes out small local businesses in its way. Sheringham, a resort town of 7,500 people has held out for 14 years against Tesco. Instead it has butchers and bakers and fishmongers along its main road.
Tesco applied for planning permission to build on the main street and met with opposition by the loca...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Finding the Key to Subsidizing Solar Power
10 March 2010 13:16:00
Photo via International Rivers
The International Herald Tribune has an interesting (if embarrassingly headlined--in the print edition, they went all-out for an Icarus reference) look at the boom and bust of the Spanish solar industry today. Basically, in a rush to jumpstart a pioneering solar industry, the Spanish gov offered far too sweet a feed-in tariff for solar investors--a whopping 58 U...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Who Will Lead The U.N. On Climate Change?
10 March 2010 10:59:14
photo via Climate Changer
A few weeks ago, UN Climate Chief Yvo de Boer stepped down from his post as the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. Who replaces him figures to be a signal of where the UN is going on climate change. Developing countries have had a hard road to climb in the UN process and three are stepping up to nominate a replacement for Boer. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Pre-Dinosaur Era Plant Specimens Brazenly Stolen
10 March 2010 10:38:49
This photo, via The Telegraph, shows just how difficult it is to move one of the large, primitive cycads.
Important specimens from one of the world´s oldest and rarest species of plant were stolen last weekend, covert ops style, from a botanical garden in South Africa. The species, cycads, is so old, in fact, that their broad ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Nitrogen's Impact on Public Health
10 March 2010 09:50:50
Image credit: Grist
Imagine a hot summer day in a town surrounded by glistening pools of water. Now imagine that no one is swimming—that they can't because the water has been contaminated with a potentially dangerous, yet common, pollutant. For many, this terrible thought is a reality and the culprit is nitrate....Read the full story on TreeHugger
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A Good Climate Bill Will Be Strong, Not Easy
10 March 2010 09:30:57
Image credit: Good
Passing a strong climate bill, Good tells us in a recent editorial, is a necessity. Such a bill, they write, must be defined by what is good for the country, not what is easy for the Senate to agree upon....Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Life on the Endangered Species Waiting List
10 March 2010 09:10:25
The greater sage-grouse was deemed to be "warranted but precluded" by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Though it "warrants" protection under the Endangered Species Act, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said, the greater sage-grouse will not be added to the list at this time. Instead, it would join nearly 300 other species that have been "precluded"—essentially placed on a waiting list—while other priority species are considered.
While the ruling was by no means a total loss for the grouse, it falls far ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Let's Not Forget: Even Without CO2, Coal Would Still Be Very Dirty
10 March 2010 08:02:32
"Orthographic aerial photograph of Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill, in Kingston, Tennessee, taken the day after the event." Photo: Public domain
CO2 is Important, But Not the Only Thing
David Roberts over at Grist has a great rebuttal of Thom Friedman's latest column in which he and investor...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Today on Planet 100: Fallujah Birth Defects (Video)
10 March 2010 06:45:44
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Seal Is On The Menu in Canada's Parliamentary Restaurant
10 March 2010 06:45:34
During last year's seal hunt Brian posted about Canada's Governor General gutting a seal and eating its heart. Canada's Minister of Defence helped himself to a seal banquet as well. When it comes to seal, Solidarity Forever.
But now they don't have to go to the Arctic for a traditional Inuit feast; they can just pop over to the Parliamentary Restaurant, where seal is the chic thing, the hot ticket item for those who want to show support for the seal hunt.
...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Crunching the Numbers ($$$) on Bike Commuting
10 March 2010 06:45:31
Photo: CarFree.us
"I knew I was benefiting myself and the environment by commuting without a car, but to see the real impact is very amazing."
If you want to get around faster than your feet can take you while doing as little harm as possible, the bicycle is your best option. An unnamed author has recently started documenting his experience with becoming a bicycle commuter, and the results are interesting (and hopefully encouraging enough that others will do the same!). In a recent post, he does a little math to see how much money his new green commuting habits are saving h...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Captivating Animal Portraits by Andrew Zuckerman Portray Nature In a Whole New Way (Slideshow)
10 March 2010 06:10:38
Image credit: Andrew Zuckerman
When Andrew Zuckerman, a renowned commercial photographer, turned his lens on animals, the result was a series of striking images that resonate with emotion. Collected in his book Read the full story on TreeHugger
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LED Street-Lights are Greenest Choice, Life-Cycle Study Shows
10 March 2010 06:05:26
Image: Knossos
Induction Lights Are Close, But No Cigar
Most people who have been following lighting tech seem to be convinced that light-emitting diode (LED) lights are the future, but it's always good to see new research being done on them. The more sure we are that they're the way to go, the better. It always sucks to invest a lot of time and money into something only to later realize that it's not nearly as good as we were first led to believe (*cough* corn ethanol *cough*). Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have conducted the first cradle-to-grave assessment of LED streetlights, and the...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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eBay Launches a New Portal for Conservation Minded Shoppers
10 March 2010 06:05:24
Image credit: eBay
"Going green" may be turning into a tired refrain for those that have been working hard to decrease their environmental footprint for years. To corporate America, however, the phrase has just as much vibrancy as ever. At the end of February, Walmart announced a plan to cut the greenhouse gas emissions from the lifecycle of its products by 20 million metric tons by 2015. Now, eBay ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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FreeGreen Who's Next Competition A Goldmine of Great Ideas
10 March 2010 05:26:29
The guys who run FreeGreen, the free homeplan website, are so smart; they could have just hired architects to do plans, and would have had to go to the trouble of deciding which architect to hire; instead they write a brief and run a competition. Now they have the work of hundreds of architects to chose from; established firms with the works in the drawer, young designers hoping to be discovered. But they are not the only ones who benefit; everyone can look, vote and learn from over 400 submissions.
The challenge was to "re-envision the typical suburban home in an ecologically conscious manner that also reflects today's modern lifesty...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Green Coffee Table Makes Energy Enough to Power Your Stuff
10 March 2010 05:21:08
Photo via Nectar
For people who aren't satisfied with the fact that the greenest thing about their coffee table is the mug of organically grown joe resting on top of it, finally there's a truly appealing alternative in the Voltpot. Not only does its grassy surface bring a bit of oxygen producing plant-life to your living room--the metabolic process is captured and converted to energy to char...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Nokia Moving Into Kinetically Charged Cell Phones, Files New Patent
10 March 2010 05:20:00
Photo via jurvetson
So far, kinetic charging for cell phones has been confined to the realm of external chargers (which are only now starting to be actually useful) and Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Interview and Video: Director of VBS.tv's "Heimo's Arctic Refuge" On the Most Far Out Americans
10 March 2010 04:30:02
Survivalism may be going mainstream, what will all the new cave men and off-gridders. But for Heimo and Edna Korth, survival in the wild has been a way of life for three decades. The last humans to be living in the 19.5-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and living 130 miles above the Arctic Circle, they are quite possibly the most remote Ameri...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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The Cove Documentary Set To Become A TV Series on Animal Planet
10 March 2010 04:25:00
Photo via The Cove
The Cove has made a tremendous impact on people when it comes to raising awareness about the slaughter of dolphins and the dark story of whale meat in the fish market. It has changed lives, riled people up, won its Oscar, and now it just might turn into a new TV Series on Animal Planet starting this fall. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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No More Downcycling? Breakthrough Organic Catalyst = More Effective PET Plastic Recycling
10 March 2010 03:53:26
Photo: Monica M. Davey/Feature Photo Service for IBM
13 Billion PET Plastic Bottles are Thrown Away Each Year
Certain things are harder to recycle than others. While it's relatively easy to make a new aluminum can out of an old aluminum can, making a new plastic bottle out of an old one is a lot harder. Currently, most recycled plastic is not truly recycled, but rather downcycled to a lesser use. But thanks to a breakthrough in green chemistry by IBM and Stanford researchers, this might be about to change!...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Book Review: Story Of Stuff Goes Into Detail About The Problems with Possessions
10 March 2010 03:50:00
Image via Amazon
The viral video phenomenon The Story of Stuff has made a big impact on audiences worldwide. Since its release in 2007, it's been viewed over 10 million times, showing we're as fascinated by learning about our Stuff as we are with the items themselves. The short movie with its fun and idea-clarifying animations lays out how stuff is made, distributed and discarded - the take-make-waste cycled as creator Annie Leonard calls it. It sums up our processes and problems in a smart, tidy package that has been a source of controver...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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The Greenest Building is the One Already Standing
10 March 2010 02:51:04
Lloyd Alter
Many small towns are experiencing a comeback these days; a combination of aging boomers and the green movement, combined with technology that lets people work just about anywhere make them a viable alternative to urban and suburban life. Sami has written extensively in TreeHugger about the Transition Town movement, where people are looking for resilient communities that can survive in a crisis. Smaller cities also have character, walkable main streets, apartments above shops that could be attractive to relocating urbanites.
Then there are towns like Br...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Totally Cool and Easy to Make Recycled Plastic Bags Rain Boots
10 March 2010 02:00:56
Photos: Courtesy of Louis Rigano.
We've seen plenty of things with fused plastic bags, one of the best being the Chilean plastic bags boots we featured last year. However, few look like something that you would wear or that can be easily done. Until now....Read the full story on TreeHugger
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India Backs Copenhagen Accord - Last Major Emitter To Do So
10 March 2010 01:43:03
photo: Kartikeya Kaul via flickr.
India, the world's last major emitter to formally back the Copenhagen Accord, has done so. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said the decision reflected India's contributions in shaping the Accord. Ramesh went on to list the three conditions under which India will participate:...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Harvard's Tiny "Pocket" Laboratory Could Speed Discovery of New Biofuels, Medications (Video)
10 March 2010 01:22:00
Image via Eurekalert, Credit: Courtesy of Jeremy Agresti, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Just a bit smaller than an iPod Nano, a new pocket-sized laboratory could revolutionize the way biofuels are discovered. The device - a "microfluidic sorting device" - can sort enzymes and compounds about 1,000 times faster than the larger equipment in use today, and thus can sniff out potential for new microbe-based biofuels much faster, cheaper and more energy efficiently, than ever before. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
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