Image credit: BoingBoing I would have loved to send my kids to the Happy Mutant Retreat and Preschool, being built at an undisclosed location and revealed for the first time on BoingBoing. It’s being built of Binishells, which,
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Zebras are naturally barcoded. Photo via wwarby We’ve heard of barcoding trees to prevent deforestation , and tagging animals to track them for scientific purposes is an everyday practice. But what about barcoding the DNA of all animals across the planet to protect them from illegal poaching, trapping or over-hunting? The International Barcode of Life project aims to do just that by assigning a barcode to each individual speci… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Climate Change to Kill 5 Million People Globally by 2020 & It Just Goes Up Each Year After That
December 7, 2010 No Comment
From sea level rise, to extreme weather, to desertification, the US has among the highest risk for damages. Photo: US Army / Creative Commons . Each year there are 350,000 people dying due to climate change, with a total death toll by 2020 of five million; each year after that deaths from climate change are likely to be as high as one million people annually–that is unless we take action to soften the blow with immediate and rapid greenhouse gas emission reductions. Tha… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: Warren McLaren / Inov8 Patagonia Footwear took part in a challenge issued by Backpacker Magazine* to see if it was possible to create a ‘Zero Impact’ boot for the haul of backpack loads up to 14 kg (30lb). Patagonia’s response was the P26, which Backpacker considered had resulted in a 25-35% reduction in environmental impact over business as usual. For the past six months we’ve been thrashing about in a pre-production sample of the P26, which has since become available as part of Patagonia’s Fall 2010 line. How do they hold up in the real world? … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo Catholic Westminster via flickr and Creative Commons license . Pope Benedictus XVI wants to replace his gas-driven ‘Popemobile’ (the ‘Papamobile’ in Italian) with a solar-powered version, according to a cardinal of the Vatican. Benedictus wants to show his concern for the environment. But that’s not all. The Vatican has unveiled a book of the Catholic city-state’s other eco-projects, including the installation of 2,700 solar panels on an ‘audience hall’ in 2008, a solar cooling unit in the cafeteria, and other smaller pr… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Until this point, despite having the environmental impact and energy consumption of a wealthy nation, China has maintained that it is a developing nation and as such would not submit to any binding emission reductions. Photo: Ricky Qi / Creative Commons . Some truly interesting news coming out of the COP16 climate talks in Cancun:
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Photo: lululemon athletica /Flickr, Creative Commons Scientists at the University of Bolton in the U.K. are developing a textile fiber, called hybrid photovoltaic-piezoelectric material , that absorbs energy from its wearer’s body movements and the surrounding elements, including the wind, rain, and sun — Captain Planet would be proud!
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Photo: Close the Door Here’s an idea that is so obvious it should be a no-brainer: shut the door and save energy. The Close the Door Campaign is asking retailers to conserve energy by keeping their front doors closed. Why do shops all over the place leave their front door wide open? Do they really think that if it’s closed we won’t go in? … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Screenshot from YouTube For folks living in the charming beach community of Atafona on the Brazilian coast north of Rio de Janeiro, there’s a sense that the ocean is not only alive — it’s hungry, too. Since the quaint village was first established in the 1950s, hundreds of homes have literally been swallowed up by the ocean as sea levels rise at an alarming rate. Throughout the shrinking town, ominous signs hint at its uncertain future; “Jesus is… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Did you know that this is a real thing? All over sartorial Japan (at least in the Classic Italian sub-genre) guys flip their shirt collar to appear more nonchalant. Even the shops display the shirts with the collars flipped.
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