Photo via University of Warwick One of the most disappointing aspects of Christmas (besides the crazed consumerism) is the piles of plastic packaging left over after the morning commotion. In fact, Science Daily reports that each American consumes an average of 120 grams of plastic wrapping on Christmas gifts, most of which is not recyclable. But that might just change (the recycling part, not the wasteful plastic packaging) thanks to a new technique for processing practically any type of plastic. Now that is some Christmas wish come true… … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …James Hansen Shows Up in UK Court, Testifies for Anti-Coal Activists; Found Guilty Anyway
December 16, 2010 No Comment
Image: World Development Movement via flickr Despite a two-hour testimony by NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen this week, a UK court found 20 environmental activists who tried to shut down a coal plant last year guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo via Gizmag The ability of a solar cell to turn light into electricity is exciting. However, solar cells themselves are boring, and usually ugly too. That’s one of the reasons why integrating them into fashion and home decor has been so difficult. But Sony aims to change that with a new product called Hana Mado, or “Flower Window,” introduced at the Eco Products 2010 exhibition in Tokyo last weekend. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Image credit: Sabianmaggy , used under Creative Commons license. From overpopulation as the elephant in the room , to the idea that less sex and more TV might be the answer to India’s growing birth rate , overpopulation isn’t exactly a taboo subject here on TreeHugger—but it doesn’t get anywhere near the attention of, say,
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Photo A. Streeter. Real Christmas trees – the ones you go out and cut down yourself, are a growth industry, says SF Gate . That’s because young adults are flocking to u-cut tree lots, out for the experience and the family time that Christmas-tree cutting and trimming entails. I love the idea, but I’ve fought the Christmas tree for years, first trying to abolish the tradition altogether after learning the CO2 and chemical burdens of grwoing trees … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: indianblogs Buyers of some electric cars will be given up to £5,000 ($7,800) towards their purchase. With its new £43M plan to encourage people to drive electric and low-carbon cars, the government has announced that buyers of 9 models of cars will be rewarded with a subsidy worth a quarter of the price of the car, in some cases. The winners are: the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the Smart fortwo electric drive, the Peugeot iO… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Not Made in China, Designer Guillem Ferran Proves a Point with Products Made from Used Pallets (Photos)
December 16, 2010 No Comment
VII, a table. Image Credit: Guillem Ferran Here is a series of objects with the unusual label “not made in China”. The Catalan designer Guillem Ferran, whose Where Memory Used To Sit chair collection, Distendido and La Pell leather project we wrote about before, made it his mission to make objects from used pallets locally in Spain. Ferran … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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photo: US Coast Guard / Creative Commons Saying that “violations of safety and operational regulations” led to the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon and the subsequent largest oil spill in US history , the US Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency have filed suit against BP and eight other firms, asking that they be held liable for all clea… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Elon Musk and Solacity Donate Solar System to Hurricane Response Center in Alabama
December 15, 2010 No Comment
Elon Musk hard at work in his office. Photo: OnInnovation , CC It’s the Time for Giving Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX and chairman of Solarcity (yeah, he’s a busy man), and Solarcity have donated a 25-kilowatt solar power system to the South Bay Communities Alliance’s (SBCA) Hurricane Response Center in Coden, Alabama. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: NASA, Public domain R.I.P. Some things are so massive that they can only be appreciated from the vantage point of space. Many of the giant icebergs that are breaking off Antarctica are drifting Northward (is there any other direction that you can go to from the South pole?) and getting stuck on the shallow continental shelf that surrounds South Georgia Island. These icebergs are so large, that when they melt, the fresh water that they release in the ocean is enough to alter the local marine ecosystems…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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