kuros said:
"not in St. Louis Mo
Prop M to fund and expand rapid transit
failed
Big cuts coming this spring..." [read]
John said:
"It's still an island. Any serious poaching is going to be a close-ended proposition pretty quick. ..." [read]
John said:
"I don't know about the cats, but any tool library with four dibbles gets my vote.
Sounds like a locavore's dream...." [read]
Johnny Yuma said:
"Throwing chemicals that can cause injury to others is battery. Fouling the anchor of a ship at sea risks the lives of all hands aboard.
Boa..." [read]
Ron Wagner said:
"All the above are correct and insightful. Please educate yourself on this issue. Read Alcohol Can Be a Gas. Read up on ethanol and cattle fed. The ..." [read]
AJ said:
"Whilst it is mostly cheap wine that appears in the "Chateau Cardboard" packaging, there is at least one wine (Banrock Station) that put the same qu..." [read]
Image credit:Volksbloggin, VW Rabbit trapped in parking garage
When money is tight, people will naturally tend to:- 1.) Purchase less "stuff"; 2.) Postpone repairs; 3.) Prepare meals from scratch; 4.) Play more music (TeeVee ads too depressing); and 5.) Poach .
W-a-i-t a m-i-n-u-t-e. Poaching? Yes, poaching. It happened a lot in the US during the Great Depression. (Blackbird "depression pie" is no joke.) Rural folk commonly venture some extracurricular deer smashing and rabbit snaring when the layoffs hit (we spared you the gruesome trapped rabbit photo): something the wardens might look the other way about if they know a family has come on hard times.
Commercial poaching by organized city-based gangs is another game entirely. Way beyond un-TreeHugger. That's exactly what's happening in the UK. Read on for more.
Bill Gross, Wall Street money manager, recently auctioned off another portion of his British Empire Stamp collection and donated all proceeds to the Millennium Villages Project. Stamps range in estimated value from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars and include rare stamps such as the Indigo Blue shade two-pence stamp of Mauritius; a trial printing "square pair" of 1863 Cape of Good Hope triangular-shaped, carmine red, mint-condition, one-penny denomination stamps; and an 1866 Dominica six pence stamp. The auction brought in $1,491,385 USD.
As usually happens in Argentina, authorities seem to have favored big corporations over environmental common sense. Last Friday, Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner vetoed a law that protected the country's glaciers and that could have restricted mining and oil drilling.
The law had been approved last month and according to Reuters and other media outlets, it was in conflict with gold mining giant Barrick Gold Corp and its Pascua Lama project, which seeks to extract gold from the Andes in a region shared by Argentina and Chile and close to four glaciers (Estrecho, Los Amarillos, Amarillo and Guanaco).
Fernandez argument? "Banning mining and oil exploration and extraction would give environmental considerations preeminence over activities that could be undertaken in a way that protects the environment." Keep reading for more.
The 2008 Transition Towns Conference - Image Credit: Mike Grenville
Peak Oil Response Continues to Grab Headlines
At some point we’re going to have to stop posting each time Transition Towns appear in the mainstream press. From the pages of The Guardian to the BBC’s top radio soap, the movement has been extraordinarily successful – not just in raising awareness about peak oil, but also in showing that we can do something about it. In fact, when UK Members of Parliament were asked about their summer reading, the Transition Handbook came in the Top 10, alongside Obama’s Audacity of Hope and a biography of William Wilberforce. Now Transition Towns are hitting the headlines once again, this time in the Conservative-leaning Times newspaper. While there is little new here, the article does give a good account of the scope and ambition embodied by this community-lead response to Peak Oil:
According to a study released by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health there’s reason to believe that the development of antibodies to cockroach and mouse proteins is associated with a greater risk for wheeze, hay fever, and eczema in preschool urban children as young as three years of age.
The study is the first to focus on the links between antibody responses to cockroach and mouse proteins and respiratory and allergic symptoms in such a young age group, and the implications for children who live in our inner cities where indoor air quality is often poor are truly significant.
They're big, they're burly, and they may have deep pockets, but the popular singer Björk plans to limit their destruction to her home country, Iceland, by supporting a current project in the works called, Náttúra.
Photo: Workers pass buckets of mud and stones at a gold mine in the Ituri region of northeast DRC (Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images)
I stumbled on this compelling short documentary by Journeyman Pictures, Congo's Tin Soldiers, and could not tear my eyes away. As this film emphasizes, the underlying causes of years of conflict – which are again escalating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – are inextricably linked with the “systematic looting” of the country’s mineral wealth, especially cassiterite (tin oxide), cobalt and coltan. From the hazardous conditions under which these minerals are extracted at gunpoint, these are the primary components destined for laptops and cellphones all over the world.
It is a mind-boggling but critical issue. A recent UN report alleges that the use of slave labour and lack of any regulations in Congolese mining operations have been made possible in part by governments of rich countries and international financial institutions who fail to put pressure on mining companies to respect human and environmental rights. Indeed, war may be dirty, but the fully three-quarters of the 85 firms involved are registered in North America and western Europe - and they can't all claim blissful ignorance of exploitative mining operations in the Congo.
If you’re a high school student with an idea to make your community a more sustainable place to live then there’s a new contest that just may be a great way to get the seed money you need to get your project off the ground. Put together by The Weather Channel and the National Environmental Education Foundation as a part of Classroom Earth, they’re looking for smart, innovative, and workable solutions to pressing environmental issues.
And get this; they’ll even pay you a cash stipend for being a local environmental intern to go along with the seed money you'll receive to help make it happen!
There, but for the grace of God, go I- John Bradford
As more people ride bikes, there are more "interactions" between cyclists and motorists. We previously covered Leah's fight over a beef pattie in Kensington Market, and more recently No Impact Man's impact with a senator; they both walked away. However last night in Toronto, a cyclist had a loud argument with a cab driver and the next thing residents heard was a sickening crunch and a man screaming for help- the cabbie rammed the cyclist against a pole and severed his leg. Doctors couldn't fix it and the leg was amputated....
Upon taking office in January, President-elect Obama will face a daunting array of challenges to our nation’s prosperity. Short-term issues include severe financial credit disruptions, economy instability and rising unemployment. But the biggest trial for the new administration will be how to address these pressing issues while, at the same time, solving long-term challenges, like creating a more efficient and sustainable energy future for America.
The good news is that economic and sustainability issues go hand in hand. There is a way to secure our energy future while building our economy and creating jobs. When we talk about creating alternative sources of energy – whether it’s wind, solar or biofuels – we often overlook a vital, untapped resource right here at home: the ingenuity, talent and productivity of U.S. workers.
Mount Everest is a dump. Literally. Almost 3,000 people have climbed the famed peak since 1953 and their toilet-training has been non-existent. Last May Dawa Steven Sherpa made an Eco Everest Ascent of the mountain to raise awareness of the impact of global warming. As part of his mission, he and fellow sherpas cleaned up 2,100 pounds of junk found there and 165 pounds of their own poop. TreeHugger wrote all about it then.
He used the Clean Mountain Can. Made in the USA, it is a portable toilet; an 11 inch high plastic can, weighing 2.4 pounds, with an opening that is eight inches in diameter. Inside it has a gas-impervious insert bag designed to keep in smells ( why worry up there?) and neutralise the waste inside.
...
Photo by Miliquin
A few months ago we reported that the European Commission (a.k.a the parliament of Europe and arbiter of standards), was discussing the possibilities of scrapping the current strict standards of some 26 varieties of fruits and vegetables in the marketplace, including melons, apricots, carrots, peas, and onions.
What are these current standards? You know all those interesting, comical, funky looking, and sometimes even anatomically correct fruits and vegetables we see pop out of our own organically grown gardens, or local farmers markets.
Well, these ugly looking fruits and vegetables have been weeded out of European grocers shelves with only the best looking and most colorful studs being given the right to be sold for human consumption. All other rejects were snatched out of the crowd and carted off to the island of unwanted fruits and veggies, where they would live out their days in denial, tears, and Xanax....
TripAdvisor found a unique way to earn itself some PR by donating $1 million to charity—and letting users vote online on where the money went. The "More than Footprints" program (not to be confused with carbon footprints) ended up getting more than a million user votes (voting was free), allocating the funds between 5 different charities. The people have spoken. Here's the breakdown of funds each charity is to receive:...
Photo courtesy of Timeout
After Election Day yielded a brand new (allegedly) environmentally progressive president-elect, the green-mined media and blogosphere predictably spawned a deluge of To-Do and Should-Do lists for the new head of state-to-be. Everyone from the prestigious New York Times to humble ol' yours truly was guilty of contributing to the advisory frenzy. But as resident TreeHugger John Laumer sagely pointed out shortly after, such suggestions are largely ineffective and potentially counter-productive: the most important thing we can do at the moment is fall in—Obama's suggestion box is full.
However, that doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile to peruse the suggestion box for recommendations drafted by some of the most respected environmental committees and organizations in the nation—even if Obama will likely never get around to reading them. Here are three leading environmental organizations' outlined suggestions for the new president-elect:
...
Rising Sea Levels Move Maldive Residents to Buy Land In Case of Disaster
The Maldives plans to move money from tourism to purchase land in case of climate disaster. Eighty percent of the island country, comprised of 1,200 islands, rests at only one meter above already rising sea levels. More on these future climate refugees below the fold....
Long-awaited in New York City is the "environmentally conscious" Greenhouse Nightclub on Varick Street in New York City's Soho neighborhood, which had a "soft" opening last week. Greenhouse comes right on the heels of GustOrganic, the first "100%" USDA certified organic bar.
Greenhouse isn't trying to be 100 percent organic - it does serve organic Vodka 360, but it is striving to achieve LEED certification, a designation granted by the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Greenhouse is touting itself as New York City's first green party spot, but some say that's impossible, naming another club as a hot, environmentally, conscious dance spot long before eco values hit the mainstream. Hit the jump to find out. ...
Photo via Al Ianni at flickr.
As the host of a recent meeting on the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Turkey touted its expertise on the subject, with the Environment Ministry's Erdoğan Özevren calling Turkey "one of the convention's most active countries."
A five-year plan to plant trees for erosion control and a longer-term "basin rehabilitation" strategy are seen as models for countries in Central Asia and Africa, but as an AlJazeera segment this past summer showed, Turkey is far from solving its own problems with desertification....
The 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year Amare Stoudemire has recently turned his focus away from the court and onto Africa—he's donated a considerable sum of money to fund well construction (a cause he has in common with TreeHugger founder Graham Hill) in Sierra Leone, and he's personally taken a trip there to unveil the various project sites where the work is to be done. ...
Cascades Park, photo courtesy of webshots
The EPA debuted a new award this year—the "Excellence in Site Reuse" honor, which is awarded for, you guessed it, the most innovative and comprehensive efforts to renovate and reuse dilapidated or formerly contaminated sites. And the first ever award goes to Tallahassee for its efforts in completely revitalizing Cascades Park—transforming an abandoned gas plant site into a world class public park....
The Chess-board — Image credit:Victorian Web,Illustration to the second chapter of Through the Looking Glass by John Tenniel. Wood-engraving by the Dalziels.
I declare it's marked like a large chess-board!" Alice said at last. "There ought to be some men moving about somewhere — and so there are!
A few days ago we noted that President-elect Obama's "suggestion box" might be full - and that his transition team was busy with big-picture strategy. See: Fall In TreeHuggers: Obama's Environmental Suggestion Box Is Full
Politico now reports that US Democratic Congressional leaders may have a relatively clean and fast way to dump last minute de-regulatory initiatives: Dems eye midnight regulations reversal. ...
Duke Energy has plants to generate 5,000 megawatts of electricity from wind projects located primarily in the West, Southwest and Midwest. As an early entry, Duke is putting 14 turbines on a ridge along Happy Jack Road west of Cheyenne, Wyoming, to provide 30 megawatts of wind-generated electricity to the Cheyenne area. Via:Wyoming Business Report, Duke Energy rides winds of change in Wyoming Image credit:PhotoBucket,Happy Jack, Happy Jack Road/Wyoming Highway 210...
Image from steven.buss
We all knew the costs of pollution -- both health-related and economic -- were high but $28 billion a year? That is the sum Cal State Fullerton's Jane Hall believes pollution is costing the Golden State on an annual basis, according to the LAT's Louis Sahagun: the result of over 3,800 premature deaths and illnesses associated with high levels of particulates and ozone. (Three thousand of these deaths, which are linked to smog, account for roughly $25 billion alone.) And, if that wasn't bad enough, more than 90 percent of Southern Californians breathe air that is harmful to their health. ...
Talk about seeing light at the end of the tunnel! The Bush Administration still has a couple of months to wreak havoc on the environment -- and I don't doubt that they'll do just that -- but a decision yesterday in response to legal action by the Sierra Club gave me...well, hope....
Shredded paper photo via Venturist
Going green tends to save green. That’s a notion quicky learned by big businesses in this economic crunch. Non-profits have always been on the prowl for ways to reduce expenses. Now, TechSoup, a tech info and education resource for non-profits, is helping out by giving green resources through their newly launched GreenTech Initiative. ...
Courtesy Energy Island
Some artificial islands seem necessary. Some just are and some are excessive. And some may sustain human life in the future. Yesterday LiveScience reminded us of a promising idea that we covered earlier: creating rig-like islands that drill the oceans not for oil but for renewable energy.
At the core of each man-made island -- the brainchild of inventor Dominic Michaelis and his son and architect Alex -- are power plants that rely on ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). That is, they use the differences in temperatures at the depths and surface of the ocean to evaporate and condense another fluid substance, like seawater, which in turn pushes a turbine. The resulting power, they say, would be 250 megawatts (MW) -- enough to drive a small city....
Photo credit: Greenpeace
The international environmental lobby group Greenpeace yesterday opened its first African office in Johannesburg, South Africa. In a statement, Greenpeace said working on the ground in Africa was part of its commitment "to tackling the most urgent environmental problems facing the continent - climate change, deforestation and overfishing."...
There may be some abiguity about the future time of the wind power portion of the Pickens Plan—is Pickens selling turbines, delaying the project indefinitely, or will there only be a slight delay?—but there’s no doubt about Pickens continuing his push for natural gas for transport.
In this clip from the Daily Show (apologies to people who can’t view Hulu clips because of where they live...) Stewart picks Pickens’ brain on whether we’ll have the leadership to have an energy revolution, on Pickens’ feelings about electric cars, and more insight into kicking the foreign oil habit. Check it out.
Note: It may seem like I'm picking on Pickens with the title of this post, but that's not the intent. He's essentially accurate: For people who are adults today and over perhaps the age of 45, the full impact of US energy independence falls on those of us who are younger. I may disagree with Pickens on some things, but not that.
via: Earth2Tech
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We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the weekly archive if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
TreeHugger breaks it down for you in a series of in depth how-to articles that will help you green your life. No time like the present!
Photo: Workers pass buckets of mud and stones at a gold mine in the Ituri region of northeast DRC (Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images)
There, but for the grace of God, go I-
Mount Everest is a dump. Literally. Almost 3,000 people have climbed the famed peak since 1953 and their toilet-training has been non-existent. Last May Dawa Steven Sherpa made an 
Photo by Miliquin
A few months ago we 
Photo courtesy of 
Rising Sea Levels Move Maldive Residents to Buy Land In Case of Disaster
The Maldives plans to move money from tourism to purchase land in case of climate disaster. Eighty percent of the island country, comprised of 1,200 islands, rests at only one meter above already rising sea levels. More on these future 
Long-awaited in New York City is the "environmentally conscious" Greenhouse Nightclub on Varick Street in New York City's Soho neighborhood, which had a "soft" opening last week. Greenhouse comes right on the heels of 
Photo via 
The 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year 
Cascades Park, photo courtesy of 
Duke Energy has plants to generate 5,000 megawatts of electricity from wind projects located primarily in the West, Southwest and Midwest. As an early entry, Duke is putting 14 turbines on a ridge along Happy Jack Road west of Cheyenne, Wyoming, to provide 30 megawatts of wind-generated electricity to the Cheyenne area. Via:
Image from 
Courtesy Energy Island
Some artificial islands seem 
Photo credit: Greenpeace
The international environmental lobby group 
