Monthly Archives: July 2008

For all the talk of switchgrass being the next miracle biofuel feedstock, there’s still precious little to show for it. Yes, we did recently report on a study which showed that switchgrass could potentially yield 5 times more energy than was used to grow it and, yes, there are several companies that are working hard to bring cellulosic ethanol to market. Yet, for all its purported merits, we aren’t likely to see it become commercially available for another few years.

That opening is giving other

:: Get published the green way.

:: Splurge on chanterelle mushrooms at your farmers market.

:: Create a perfect summer glow without the toxins.

:: Simplify your life–and the landfill–and unsubscribe from junk mail.

:: Handle your candle soo

Solar Verde is a planned 20-home community near Chicago’s South Chicago Heights subdivision which is intended to have all zero energy homes as defined by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America program. The first two zero energy houses at Solar Verde, now completed, are supposed to be reminiscent of mail-order, Sears catalog-style homes of the early 20th century, except their solar roof panels, on-demand water heating, heat pump and high-efficiency building materials mean the homes should pay you back with significant energy bill savings.

Net zero electric bills?

Eco Tip: Tim Ferris from susty.tv on <a href=”h

Rickshaws driving through flooded Dhaka, Bangladesh streets. Photo by Shahid Sarker.

Put this one in your “life’s cruel ironies” file.

20 Square Kilometers Per Year Gained

The BBC is reporting that researchers in Bangladesh say that their nation is actually getting larger by about 20 square kilometers a year. Sediments washed down the Ganges, Brahmaputra and numerous other rivers of Bangladesh each year are deposited in the delta which forms most of Bangladesh’s landmass. Only about one-thir

An Environmental Protection Bureau van checks air quality near the Water Cube
After over a week of mixed pollution, Beijing today outlined emergency measures for fighting smog during the Olympics, potentially expanding what is already the world’s grandest pollution experiment. Under “extremely unfavorable weather conditions,” like hot, humid air without the winds needed to disperse pollution, the government may enact further restrictions on factories and cars in Beijing and the nearby city of Tianjin as well as

graphic of hydrogen bonds (in green) between oxygen (red) and hydrogen (white): Focus

One problem with wind and solar power is that for either to be able to provide a round-the-clock source of reliable power, you need some sort of back up power source. Or you need to have some way of storing the excess energy produced during the day for use at night or when the wind isn’t blowing. Well, though it’s a long way from being commercially deployed, a new development by MIT chemist Daniel Nocera may bring the holy grail of renewable energy storage a bit closer to hand.

Three projects previously profiled on TreeHugger have won design awards from the Ontario Association of Architects, perhaps indicating that green ideas in architecture are becoming more mainstream, or that my taste in architecture is not as bad as so many commenters suggest. Only one of the three was overtly green and going for LEED certification; the other two had green aspects that I admired. I love the Credit Valley Hospital addition by the Farrow Partnership because of it’s remarkable use of wood. See more at Study Proves Good Design Means Healthier P

Image Credit Danny Bird @ PC Pro/Dennis Publishing

British technology writer and TreeHugger emeritus Matthew Sparkes faced a challenge- could he run all of his technology on solar and wind power, even in gloomy London? It turned into an interesting demonstration of how far technology has come but how far it has yet to go.

Matt started with an advantage- he is a crazed cyclist, usually doing 15 or 20 miles a day on his fixie. That was enough time for a HYmini wind turbine fastened to his handlebars to half-fill his phone. (Although I must say that I think it is possibly one of