Daily Archives: December 4, 2008

Honda just announced that they will no longer participate in F1 car racing. The global economic downturn means Honda is trying to save money, just like other car makers, and British driver Jenson Button will have to find a new team. I liked Honda’s Earth Car initiative, but the announcement today is a clear sign of how tough the times really are. Meanwhile, in Washington, General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner yesterday told the Senate Banking Committee that “Forces beyond our control have pushed us to the brink.”

There are no plans here in Japan to ask for a bailout for any of the six Japa

Having spent two days atop the 400-foot chimney stack of the Pątnów power plant to highlight the catastrophic impact that coal-fired power stations are having on the climate, the 11 Greenpeace climbers have come down and are heading for the UN climate talks in Posnan to continue their campaign to save the climate

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Washington, DC, which consistently scores high in sustainability rankings for its excellent public transportation, walkability, and green space, has few accolades in the area of green building. While the majority of the nation’s biggest environmental organizations are headquartered here, some of them with LEED-certified buildings, the priva

:: Look uber-stylish in sustainable clothing made out of discarded umbrella fabric.

:: Serve these bite-sized pieces of puff pastry bliss at your holiday party.

:: Are you an aspiring craft-master living in NYC? Head over to Eyebeam’s Holiday Hackshop party

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Welcome to our new “TreeHugger Deals” column, which offers discounts and specials exclusively for TreeHugger readers.

This week’s TreeHugger Deals comes to you from Guayakí Organic Yerba Mate. Guayakí sells organic, fair trade yerba mate in mate tea bags, loose mate, mate latte concentrates, mate gourds and bombillas, and bottled iced mate drinks. And not only do they offset their CO2 locally, they also take great pride in honoring the locals called the Aché Guayakí people. The Ache live in the sub-tropical rainforests of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, home of the yerba mate tree. Like high quality coffee, high quality mate is

It is really quite clever, if not comfortable; a single U-shaped piece can be linked to other identical pieces with industrial-strength Velcro to make all kinds of combinations

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The top of that mountain on the right has been removed because of coal mining. Photo: Chris

I guess President Bush just couldn’t be content to ride off quietly into the sunset towards Crawford, Texas. It seems instead his administration is determined to create as much environment mischief before the end of the year as possible. The latest act of environmental vandalism: Approving a final rule which will make it easier for coal companies to dump waste from mountaintop mining operations into streams and valleys. (<a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/washington/03mining.html?

Clearly they have never called MY mom, which is harder than navigating an architects website. They predict that “you will talk to the web and the web will talk back.” Among their other predictions of for the next five years:

photos by Danny Bright

Nobody does shipping container architecture like Lot-ek, one of the originals. They have designed a demountable retail space for Puma, with “with large double heights as well as with 4-container-wide open spaces to challenge the modular box-quality of the container inner space; offices, press area and storage occupy the second level and a bar, lounge and event space with a large open terrace is at the top.”

Screenshot from Techdiy Etsy shop

Holiday cards are beginning to arrive in mailboxes, and from the brightly colored envelopes come cards of various levels of intricacy. Some cards can be pretty elaborate, with pop-up scenes and laser-cut layers that create wintery designs.

And some are just flat out excessive.