A Green Living Blog

Finding the Key to Subsidizing Solar Power

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:16:00 +0000

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..

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Finding the Key to Subsidizing Solar Power

Tower City is an Ecotopia Stacked Up on Stilts

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:30:44 +0000

Tower City, another concept from the 2010 eVolo Skyscraper Competition , re-envisions the city of Marseilles as a stacked skyscraper that sits on stilts above the water. Rather than letting cities spread out as population increases, a the design calls for a new city to be created out on the water , complete with work, housing, transportation and amenities. The futuristic development is based on a stacked framework built using recycled building materials from the old city.

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Tower City is an Ecotopia Stacked Up on Stilts

Who Will Lead The U.N. On Climate Change?

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:59:14 +0000

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.

READER TIP: Birdhouses Upcycled from Discarded Shipping Pallets

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:45:54 +0000

Olson Lewis Dioli & Doktor Architects recently shared their appreciation of upcycling with youngsters at the Brookwood School Sustainability Fair by teaching them how to turn trash into treasure. The firm taught children at the elementary school how to save simple wooden pallets from the incinerator and craft their very own bird abodes! The children were provided with a premade kit made from the wooden pallets, and had help from architects on the scene to piece the parts together. The result of their efforts was a batch of adorable, hand made birdhouses perfect for encouraging birds’ own form of upcycling – nest building.

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READER TIP: Birdhouses Upcycled from Discarded Shipping Pallets

Pre-Dinosaur Era Plant Specimens Brazenly Stolen

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:38:49 +0000

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

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Pre-Dinosaur Era Plant Specimens Brazenly Stolen

OPOWER Encourages Efficiency With Energy Report Cards

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:00:30 +0000

Most Americans would have a fit if their credit card or cell phone company sent a dollar amount at the end of the month with no itemized description to match. But we tolerate it from our utility companies with little complaint. If we’re going to change our energy habits, we’re going to need more information to do it

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OPOWER Encourages Efficiency With Energy Report Cards

Nitrogen’s Impact on Public Health

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:50:50 +0000

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…

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Nitrogen’s Impact on Public Health

A Good Climate Bill Will Be Strong, Not Easy

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:30:57 +0000

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….

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A Good Climate Bill Will Be Strong, Not Easy

Chef Daniel Angerer Defends Cheese Made From Wife’s Breast Milk

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:13:45 +0000

Last week, we brought you news about Chef Daniel Angerer’s special cheese made from his wife’s breast milk , and boy did that open a can of worms ! While we expected knee-jerk ‘ EEEWWW ‘ reactions from people, we didn’t really imagine the extent to which people would get up in arms about breast milk cheese – something which in our minds is totally natural, organic, and not gross in the slightest. People got so concerned about the breastmilk cheese issue that apparently the New York Department of Health came to pay Angerer a visit over the weekend .

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Chef Daniel Angerer Defends Cheese Made From Wife’s Breast Milk

Life on the Endangered Species Waiting List

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:10:25 +0000

The greater sage-grouse was deemed to be “warranted but precluded” by the U.S.

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Life on the Endangered Species Waiting List