Daily Archives: January 27, 2009

Today’s TreeHugger Deal comes to you from Original Good, which is World of Good’s signature and beautiful fair trade line of stylish, handmade gifts, fashion accessories, and housewares. Original Good enables artisans and their families in 34 countries around the world to earn a sustainable living. Through the organization’s work with more than 150 artisan groups worldwide, they not only ensure that each of the artisans is paid a fair wage in a local context, but since all the products are handmade and from recycled or sustainable materials whenever possible,

Ever had the urge to ditch the bike and take a spin on a Segway human transporter but didn’t want to buy one? How about: you need to limb-up some trees to enjoy the view of the river, but you only do so once a year? It would be foolish to buy your own tree pruner when you could simply rent one — and from a neighbor at that! The magic of Web 2.0 tech bringing together conservation-minded (and perhaps cheapskate) folks beneath the fold

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Mint Cars on Demand in New York City is a new alternative to car ownership, 24 HR Rental Cars, Taxi’s and Public Transportation. Members get on demand access to vehicles 24/7 for as little as an hour or as much as several days. Mint claims a diverse fleet of fuel efficient vehicles such as Smart Cars, as well as some old-school non

photo: lin padgham via flickr

Back in October of last year, WWF estimated that because of climate change penguin populations were going to face some serious declines: 50% of Emperor Penguins and 75% of Adelie Penguins could die if global temperatures rise 2°C.

The bad news is, a new report predicts an even worse future for Emperor Penguins:

Solar array in Barcelona, Spain. Flickr, CC.

Don’t Worry, Not Literally an Explosion
Analysts expected Spain’s installed solar power base to grow by about 1 gigawatt in 2008. That missed the mark by quite a bit as “Spain’s National Energy Commission (CNE) this week estimated that about 3.1 gigawatts of solar power were connected to the grid from January through November 2008″.

Read on for more details

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Cardiff Weston Barrage. Image: DECC

TreeHugger has covered the long, drawn out, and controversial progress of building some sort of tidal power project in the Severn estuary on a number of occasions. Well, the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change has released five projects that have a made a shortlist of possible tidal power projects to be developed:

“Order the tofu instead,” says the Frog. Public domain image.

Put the Frog Down, Sir. Step Back!
Frogs aren’t very lucky. They are facing habitat destruction and poisoning via various toxins in the food chain. But they’re also getting eaten by humans: “international trade in frog meat represents 200 million to 1 billion frogs eaten each year, or about 11,000 tons of frog meat.” Read on for more details

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photo: © Matthew McDermott

While there are some good reasons to question the ecological sustainability of air travel, you can’t say that at least some airlines are trying pretty hard to green their act. Costa Rica’s Nature Air, which bills itself as the world’s first zero emissions airline (it buys offsets for all the miles in flies

I can hear some of you groaning already), has announced that it will be now be furthering its green cred. The airline will be powering its entire fleet of ground equipment

map: Wikipedia

It may not be the Exxon Valdez spill, still less the TVA coal ash spill, but two miles of coastline on Sakhalin Island in the far east of Russia has been covered with fuel oil, killing hundreds of birds. The spill occurred in Aniva Bay, six kilometers from an LNG plant which is currently under construction. The head of a local diving center was quoted by AFP as saying,