Daily Archives: November 15, 2008

Despite having written at length (some might say excessively) about the sorry fate of Yosemite’s dwindling glaciers and the Sierra snowpack, I’ve always felt as though my posts were missing something — a certain audio/visual oomph, you might say. Though I’m much too busy to visit Yosemite in person these days (I intend to do over the coming months, however), the fine folks at KQED have provided the

Photo courtesy of Terry Mass

The critically endangered leatherback sea turtles are leaving California’s relatively safe coast for their annual Pacific migration to nesting beaches—and they could find a veritable death trap of 5 million new longline hooks waiting for them when they return. This is the plight detailed in a new report, ominously titled “Death by a Thousand Hooks,” which was released last week. The surplus in new hooks would come from a “Deadly Trio”—three new proposed swordfish fisheries slat

The 2003 NBA Rookie of the Year Amare Stoudemire has recently turned his focus away from the court and onto Africa—he’s donated a considerable sum of money to fund well construction (a cause he has in common with TreeHugger founder Graham Hill) in Sierra Leone, and he’s personally taken a trip there to unveil the various project sites where the work is to be done.

Cascades Park, photo courtesy of webshots

The EPA debuted a new award this year—the “Excellence in Site Reuse” honor, which is awarded for, you guessed it, the most innovative and comprehensive efforts to renovate and reuse dilapidated or formerly contaminated sites. And the first ever award goes to Tallahassee for its efforts in completely revitalizing Cascades Park—transforming an abandoned gas plant site into a world class public park

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Beachcombing becomes Filiz Ateş and Christiane Alaettinoğlu–and anyone who puts on one of their driftwood brooches, necklaces, or rings.

The two artists and friends gather materials on the beaches near their home in Alanya, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, and sell the finished products under the name Yalos Alanya, from the Greek word that locals have adopted to refer to driftwood. Their whimsical designs also include sculptures and wall decorations of fish, birds, and other animals, as well as human figures, all crafted with the same philosophy:

The Chess-board — Image credit:Victorian Web,Illustration to the second chapter of Through the Looking Glass by John Tenniel. Wood-engraving by the Dalziels.

I declare it’s marked like a large chess-board!” Alice said at last. “There ought to be some men moving about somewhere — and so there are!

A few days ago we noted that President-elect Obama’s “suggestion box” might be full – and that his transition team was busy with big-picture strategy. See: <a href=”http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/fall-in-treehuggers-obamas-environme

Gen Coel neighborhood of Heerlen, Image credit: France24, Remko Scheepens

We recently published a post about a mine heat project just beginning. (See:- Yellowknife To Re-Purpose Gold Mine For Heat Extraction.) Like, wind mills, it turns out, Holland is already on top of this idea,using it as a basis for community redevelopment.

“The “Mine Water Project” in the south-western Limburg province went into operation last month, heating some 350 homes and businesses in a newly built neighbourhood in Heerlen (pictured).”

Duke Energy has plants to generate 5,000 megawatts of electricity from wind projects located primarily in the West, Southwest and Midwest. As an early entry, Duke is putting 14 turbines on a ridge along Happy Jack Road west of Cheyenne, Wyoming, to provide 30 megawatts of wind-generated electricity to the Cheyenne area. Via:Wyoming Business Report, Duke Energy rides winds of change in Wyoming Image credit:PhotoBucket,Happy Jack, Happy Jack Road/Wyoming Highw