Cities Go Climate Positive

I recently had a friend from Australia stay with me for a few days. We spent some time in Niagara Falls and saw the sites in Toronto. It was a pretty fun filled couple of days. After seeing the falls, we checked out Ben Harper, watched the Jays and the Yankees, went to the Hockey Hall of Fame and climbed the CN tower.

As we took pictures of the city from the CN Tower, I couldn’t help but to notice the number of energy guzzling sky scrappers that I stood face to face with. I thought to myself – imagine if all of these massive buildings supported a natural green environment on their rooftops. I’m sure I am not the first person to think of this and I’m sure it wouldn’t take much. Lay a tarp down, drop some top soil, and wait for the seeds to grow! Think of the difference this would make if half of Toronto’s buildings were able to take part in this green initiative. Carbon emissions would decrease, the environment would be much cleaner, and there may be a few more homes for wildlife. Whenever I have some sort of idea like this, naturally I turn to youtube. Check it out:

Make the switch!

 

Beijing Olympic Venues

 

Olympic greenness might begin with wet scrubbers and traffic schemes, but such measures lack the glamour of rainwater-capture systems and solar-heated swimming pools. Beijing has pulled out all of the stops for its new Olympic buildings — choosing cutting-edge architects, striking designs and new-fangled technology to increase energy efficiency. Beijing will launch its green games from a new city center: the aptly named Olympic Green. Its three central parts — the Forest Park, the Cultural Axis and the Olympic Axis — connect different venues, public areas and subway stops.

The Beijing National Stadium, the city’s newest jewel and the future site of the opening ceremonies, anchors the Olympic Green. China imported the famous Swiss design firm Herzog & de Meuron Architekten AG to design the 91,000 capacity stadium, popularly known as “the bird’s nest.”

Until recently, most Chinese designs came from local institutes once owned by the state. The institutes put out a huge number of buildings, but they lacked creativity and flair. Since then, Beijing’s growth has stirred up an interest in design. Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron are known for their imaginations and use of material skins as sheathing. For the tangled National Stadium, they made the skin double as the building’s structure. The bird’s nest description originated as a way to describe the stadium’s use of structural steel in its exterior. Bird’s nests are also Chinese delicacies.

China also brought in the Australian PTW Architects to design the Olympic Green’s National Aquatics Center, or “water cube.” The walls of the low building imitate the structure of soap bubbles. Gas pumped between two layers of plastic film is cordoned off into smaller chambers to create bubbles. The center will host swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo competitions.

But there’s more to Beijing than the Olympic Games. In the next section, we’ll learn about some of the city’s other attractions.

All At Once

 Check out Jack Johnson making a difference.

Earth Day Network and Google Checkout

Earth Day Network (EDN) grew out of the original Earth Day in 1970. Earth Day Network is a driving force steering environmental awareness around the world. Through EDN, activists connect, interact, and have an impact on their communities, and create positive change in local, national, and global policies.

EDN’s international network reaches over 17,000 organizations in 174 countries. Our domestic programs engage 5,000 groups and over 25,000 educators coordinating millions of community development and environmental protection activities throughout the year. Earth Day is the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities. More than a billion people participate in Earth Day each year.

Take a look at googles positive contribution showing the difference just one person can make.

Women Managers Make Greener Business Decisions

 

A new battlefront has opened on the struggle for equal employment opportunities for women:

Female decision makers are more environmentally-conscious than males.

This is the conclusion of the first of an annual series of surveys to benchmark green business technology purchasing trends in the U.S., conducted by Hansa-GCR under the sponsorship of several companies, including Xerox. The survey also concludes:

Green has arrived as a business issue.

“Green” is good for business and image
The survey found that 64% of respondents agree with the statement that being perceived as green helps their brand. Only 9% disagreed (we’d like to meet those managers!) While that may come as no surprise, the reassuring finding in this study is that decision makers valued real actions over mere commitment to action. It is no longer sufficient to have a “commitment to product stewardship”. Responsible managers put emphasis on

• supporting conservation and recycling,
• offering environmentally conscious products, and
• carbon footprint reduction.

52% believe that their supply chain’s environmental impact is part of their own impact.

Read more at www.treehugger.com

Introducing the World’s Fastest Electric Vehicle

 

 

The guys at Shelby Supercars know a thing or two about defying odds and breaking records. Back in September, the fledgling company’s 1,183-HP Ultimate Aero jacked top-speed bragging rights from Bugatti’s 16-Cylinder, $1.8 million Veyron. But the Aero’s limited to just 50 examples, so the drawing board is particularly important to the West Richland, Washington-based manufacturer. Along with the 220 mph luxury sedan it’s got in the pipeline, SSC has announced plans to build a top-speed, 100 percent green supercar.

Details are scarce, but SSC says an Ultimate Aero EV prototype will be ready by February and it plans to roll out four production models by December. The company describes the Tesla destroyer as a “pollution-free, engineering marvel with an exotic supercar exterior.”

“I think we can do it faster, leaner and cleaner than any other manufacturer,” says company founder Jerod Shelby.

We know that at least one 500-HP electric motor is planned. SSC is exploring a twin-motor configuration that would yield twice the power while still emitting zilch. Rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive variants also are on the table. Particularly interesting is the power source for the drive train, which is said to allow for extended time between charging. That seems logical and realistic enough, but SSC went on to mention the possibility of several years between charging. Needless to say, several industry pundits think SSC has gone mad.

If SSC’s product plans and top-speed credentials are giving you goosebumps, now might be the time to invest. For the first time, SSC is opening themselves up to outside capital. The American supercar maker says most of the private investment will be spent on Ultimate Aero EV.

From Wired.com

350.org: Because the world needs to know

 

Wall E Saves the Day

 

At 7:05pm Eastern Time I hesitantly purchased a ticket to Disney and Pixar’s new hit film “Wall E.” I say that only because there are a few other movies out right now that I haven’t seen. However, I am so glad I did.

 

This movie has everything. Okay, here’s the teaser without totally ruining everything…

 

The movie begins introducing this little robot that has been created to clean up our mess on earth. When the camera initially zooms in there are multiple wind turbines across both land and ocean showing that we completely exhausted all options – and were not successful. So where are all the humans? They’re on some space ship resort thing in a galaxy far away permanently occupying floating lazy boy chairs with TV screens right in front of their faces. And for food, they get all the nutrition they need to survive from milk shakes (everyone is overweight).

 

The scary thing for me is that within 30 years (this is my own hypothesis) we will know if we have totally destroyed the planet. Call me a treehugger, but in the last 5 months I have had the opportunity to read the books, articles, journals that I am actually interested in and watch the videos that apply to what I’m doing. We are destroying our planet.

 

Back to Wall E… I’m glad that Disney and Pixar have created a movie for kids to expose them to the environment and get them thinking about OUR future. I don’t know if that was there original intention but it’s a step in the right direction. Now we just have to teach the ‘leaders of tomorrow’ to make that difference while we still have time instead of going on a mini retirement to outer space and depend on robotics to rescue us from our own destruction.

 

Oh yeah, there’s a bit of a love story too. It’s kinda funny. Check out the trailer.

 

 

Can Bouncing Breasts Charge an iPod?

 Got your attention? Check out this post from www.treehugger.com

This goes out to all the big-breasted women who can hear the echo of their own internal monologue in Adrienne So’s comment in an article at Slate:

As a woman who loves sports, I’ve always found the concept of breasts bothersome. If all goes according to plan, they will fulfill their intended function for about three of the 70 years that I have them. The rest of the time, they alternate between getting in my way and embarrassing me.

 

Thank you to Adrienne So for asking the question: can we harness breast energy and put it to better use? TreeHugger and Instructables teamed up to make a working chest charger which relies only on the rise and fall of the chest during breathing. So the question seems viable.

Adrienne discovers in her research that a size D-cup breast in a low support bra can move up to 35 cm (!!!!!) during exercise. Now, we all know that none of us with D-cups are wearing “low support bras” during exercise. But there’s a lotta bouncing going on even with the best, most expensive sport bra money can buy. So the subject has potential.

Since Slate scooped us on this one, we won’t give away any more secrets. Pop over to Slate to see what Adrienne learned in her survey of sports experts, nanotech fabric specialists and the inventor of the Lightning Pack power-generating backpack. It’s certainly at least as good an idea as running around half-naked in a solar powered bra!