Daily Archives: November 17, 2008

Photo: Workers pass buckets of mud and stones at a gold mine in the Ituri region of northeast DRC (Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images)
I stumbled on this compelling short documentary by Journeyman Pictures, Congo’s Tin Soldiers, and could not tear my eyes away. As this film emphasizes, the underlying causes of years of conflict – which are again escalating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – are inextricably linked with the “systematic looting” of the country’s mi

If you’re a high school student with an idea to make your community a more sustainable place to live then there’s a new contest that just may be a great way to get the seed money you need to get your project off the ground. Put together by The Weather Channel and the National Environmental Education Foundation as a part of Classroom Earth, they’re looking for smart, innovative, and workable solutions to pressing environmental issues.

And get this; they’ll even pay you a cash stipend for being a local environmental intern to go along with the seed money you’ll receive to help make it happen!

This week is Carnival of the Green #154 and it’s being hosted by Fake Plastic Fish, a blog tackling our addiction to plastic because if we don’t solve the problem, plastic fish could be the only kind of fish we have left.

So head on over to this week’s Carnival to find a round up of green news and events from the past week, submitted by other bloggers and green sites.

To learn more about Carnival of the Green, where it will be and how to host, please <a href=”http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/11/treehu

image: Solar Technologies FZE

In an area of the world with no shortage of sunlight, awash in oil wealth (and being able to detect the way the cleantech wind is blowing

) and with a penchant of late of doing things to the n-th degree it should come as no surprise that the Middle East’s largest solar panel manufacturing facility will be built in Dubai.

1-Million Square Foot Facility to Open 2010
Announced at the Green Dubai World Forum 2008 the 1-million square foot Solar Technolgies FZE facility is expected to begin const

Vanno successfully completed beta testing and went live last week.

And, they have many of you TreeHuggers to thank.

More and more people are commuting on their bikes. But what is the best bike for commuting? Our bike expert Warren says a good commuter bike has three main attributes:

1. they come equipped with a heap of accessories, such as fenders (mud guards), lights, cargo rack and strap, safety locks, kickstands, bells, and chain/wheel splash guards;
2. the cyclist sits tall, rather than crouched forward in a racing position;
3. they are simple, single speed models, or multi-speed enclosed, low maintenance, rear hubs.

Another websi

photo: David Carroll

A couple weeks ago we heard that New Chitose Airport, on the Japanese island of Hokkaido plans on using snow, kept cool throughout the summer under insulating materials, to chill the airport’s cooling system in the summer. Such a system would provide up to 30% of the airport’s cooling energy. Now the city of Ottawa, Canada is investigating something similar:

Image source: End Bottled Water.com

Okay so you’ve gotten over the bottled water hump, purchased your own canteen of sorts and now you merrily take water with you wherever you go. You can use a Brita or Pur filter at home when you leave in the morning, but what do you do once you get to the office and need to refill? Do you trust the water fountain or cafeteria sink? Not to worry, Wellness H2.0 is here.

Photo via Make

There is lingerie, and there is whoa

lingerie.

Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch is creating undergarments that fall into that “whoa

” category. Her latest is bustiers, garters and panties made from recycled soda cans and hardware.

photo: Mariah Power

Mariah Power’s Windspire vertical axis wind turbine has caught our eye a number of times: Not only is it a break from traditional wind turbine design, but at $5000 you may be able to actual afford to put one in your backyard. But don’t just take it from TreeHugger that the Windspire is cool. Popular Science just rated the Windspire as one of the magazine’s “Best of What’s New ’08”. This comes on the heels of tw