Daily Archives: November 8, 2008

Image: The artist Ashley Cecil with her winning entry (Photo: Donald Vish, Oxfam America)
Art can be a powerful tool for social change, disseminating ideas and inspiring people to act together.Oxfam America’s Climate Change on Canvas initiative is doing just that – with the aim of bringing art, activism and concern for climate change together for an exhibition at December’s UN Conference of Parties meeting in Poznan, Poland.

After requesting and reviewing proposals from several emerging artists from all over the nation, Oxfam

The last half-century has witnessed the most dramatic climate-induced ecosystem-level shifts since the advent of human civilization, almost 5,000 years ago, posits a new study published in the November issue of Ecology. Charles Greene, its lead author and an oceanographer at Cornell University, says that current and projected rates of global warming are “unprecedented” in human history and that we could very well see very rapid periods of intense warming in the near future — rivaling the episodes of rapid cooling, during which temperatures dropped by up

Image courtesy of Flip & Tumble

Bringing your own bag to the grocery store/bodega/retailer/wherever is pretty much a must these days—Whole Foods has even stopped giving out bags. And well they should–bringing your own reusable bag or tote is too easy and waste-preventative not to. Flip & Tumble knows this, and they’ve come out with a bag that’s not only uber functional, but stylish to boot

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Image courtesy of Queensland Holidays

The global carbon solutions company Cleaner Climate announced a partnership with Greyhound Australia last week. The companies are initiating a carbon offset program that customers can purchase along with their ticket—for just a single extra dollar. Additionally, the companies are cooperating to create a carbon action plan to improve energy efficiency throughout Greyhound’s offices and terminals.

Photo by Conner395

For several years now the Hummer H2 and H3 police unit has popped up in various spots around the world including Texas, California, and most recently, Melbourne, Australia. Such campaigns have been designed to create a safe feel for citizens when they see these powerful vehicles patrolling their street, as well as promote a high profile vehicle that will connect well with todays youth.

Many green groups question the role-model status of such vehicles as patrol units on our street. The 2008 Hummer H2 V-8 is currently running a 6.2 liter Vortec, unloading approximately 393 horsepower, 415 lb-ft of torque, averaging 11

Image courtesy of Einstein’s Lock

Ever since being implemented in the early 1900’s, considerable controversy has surrounded the use of Daylight Savings Time. The practice benefits sports, retail (the extra daylight after the end of working hours means more shopping), and leisure activities reliant on sunlight. But it causes problems for farmers, who must work after morning dew dries, and the entertainment industry, which loses primetime viewers.

Yet Daylight Savings Time has remained seemingly debate-proof

photos by trevor reichman

Sustainability incorporates lessons leaned from history in order to improve on design to avoid fatal flaws and in this case to prolong the life span of a structure as it relates to its surroundings.

Even though the new homes in the 9th Ward include solar panels, energy efficient everything, and other elements that we think of when we think of sustainability, perhaps the single most important feature on these homes are their stilts. If the ocean should ever intrude again, these new homes could be high enough off the ground to clear the floodwaters, a simple solution to end the debate about whethe

Image courtesy of Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

Tom Green’s new quiz show debuts on Planet Green tonight. It’s shaping up to be exactly the sum of its rather unusual parts—that is, renowned oddball comedian Tom Green + all-green-TV Planet Green + 50 contestants competing to correctly answer rapid fire quiz questions = weird, frenetic green fun.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is proposing to strike a joint climate-change pact with president-elect Barack Obama, an initiative that would seek to protect Alberta’s oil sands projects from potentially tough new U.S. climate-change rules by offering a secure North American energy supply.

Key federal ministers issued the call for a climate-change pact yesterday, less than 24 hours after Mr. Obama won his historic election victory, in a clear bid by Ottawa to carve out a key place for Canada on the new administration’s agenda.

Not to worry Canada; with all the other pressu

Call it Etsy East: But instead of hip young American artists trying to renew the crafting tradition, the hands behind the goods for sale on the online marketplace Kadın Eliyle belong to low-income Turkish women

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