Image: Media.Ford What looks like a spare tire at the back of the 1958 Ford Nucleon is really a small atomic reactor. In the late 50′s, a personal-use nuclear power plant, with scaled down reactors and shielding, seemed within grasp. Engineers estimated a range of 5000 miles before refueling. The one-piece, pillarless windshield adds to the futuristic style of the 3/8 scale study. With perfect hindsight, we see that the Ford Nucleon was not just a few years from an assembly line, but would remain a footnote in history, alongside … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: Kelly Rossiter If you made risotto for your loved one on Valentine’s day, you probably have a big bowl of it leftover. Here is an incredibly easy way to use that up, especially after all the work of making the risotto in the first place. Just put them into some portobello mushrooms , add a bit of cheese and a side salad and you have a light supper…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Exxon, Shell Both Essentially Admit Peak Oil Is Upon Us – Or Will Be Soon
February 16, 2011 No Comment
Two today on peak oil and how the big oil companies are finally publicly (if quietly) coming around to what peak oil researchers have been saying for a while: It’s here, or will be shortly. First, Wall Street Journal highlights how ExxonMobil is having a hard time finding new oil and has had a hard time for a while now. For the past 10 years for every 100 barrels it’s extracted it’s only been able… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Upcycle Leftover Valentine’s Day Candy Wrappers and Donate to Charity at the Same Time
February 16, 2011 No Comment
Photo credit: Terracycle Valentine’s Day is a wonderful excuse for loving partners, friends, parents, kids and teachers to show they care. And like jelly to peanut butter, candy is an integral part of that. But afterwords, there’s a little problem: What do you do with all that packaging the Valentine’s candy came in? Most of it is at this point difficult to recycle. I know you here reading Treehugger would like to take a different route than tossing your Valentine’s Day candy wrappers… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …Singapore Tops List of Asia’s Greenest Cities – Karachi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hanoi, Manila At Bottom
February 16, 2011 No Comment
photo: Mat McDermott Ranking the greenest city anywhere is a complex thing, with so many factors playing a role, but nevertheless various people always try: In the latest effort by Siemens (and conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit) to rank Asia’s greenest cities , Singapore comes out on top. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Last year Sea Shepherd ‘s harassment of the Japanese whaling fleet halved the number of whales killed. Now it’s come out that the whaling fleet has halted whaling in the Southern Ocean , citing Sea Shepherd’s constant hounding of them, blocking supplies from reaching them and blockading whaling ships as the reason. Since February 10 whaling has ceased. The season normally extends to mid-March. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …China’s Water Plight: Confronting Water Scarcity and Energy Demand in the World’s Largest Country
February 16, 2011 No CommentCircle of Blue has an absolutely fantastic write-up of China’s looming water problems . “Over the last decade alone, 70 million new jobs emerged from an economy that this year…Yet, like a tectonic fault line, underlying China’s new standing in the world is an increasingly fierce competition between energy and water that threatens to upend China’s progress. Simply put, according to Chinese authorities and government reports, China’s demand for energy, pa… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Photo: CleanT echnica It’s well-known that the coal-fired power plants that provide the US with 50% of its electricity also inflict significant damage on the environment and citizens’ health. Coal plants spew particulate emissions that cause asthma and other respiratory woes — and they’re responsible for tens of thousands of deaths every year. And then there’s the environmental damage inflicted during the process of extracting, transporting, and processing the stuff. And then , there’s coal’s contribution to climate change. All told, it costs the nation up … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …When I wrote about the cocaine industry destroying rainforests , many commenters argued that really it is the prohibition of drugs—not the drugs themselves—that create these negative consequences. That debate will most likely get stirred up again by an article over at The Independent, describing why drugs are destroying the Amazon. Whether or not legalization is the long-term solution, you’d hope that descripti… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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