Daily Archives: February 3, 2009

Virtues of free trade. Image credit:Boston Globe

US free-trade advocates have mostly had their way for years. Having heard recent calls for recipients of US Federal ‘bale out’ money to make and buy “In The USA,” free trade advocates are setting up a familiar defensive position. For a well framed example, see the recent opinion piece in the the New York Times, If We Buy American, No One Else Will. The headline tells it all. A compromise

Josh from the Aptera forums was hanging around the TED conference (if you don’t know about TED, you have to check out the videos on their site — just make sure you have lots of free time before starting) where the Aptera will make its public debut tomorrow when he found two Aptera electric cars (the production 2e and the Typ-1 prototype) in a public parking garage. He actually measure the cars and posted his impressions. Read on for more details

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photo: National Grid

According to new research conducted by Ernst & Young, and commissioned by National Grid, if the UK’s various waste streams were harnessed to produce biogas, half of the nation’s homes could be heated from it. The biogas would be generated from sewage, animal manure, food and other waste, and be connected to the existing natural gas grid. Something which seems very attractive to National Grid.

Saying that there are no technical or safety barriers to generating this much biogas, the following government policies should be enacted (<a href=”http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2235535/nation

Flickr: agfazzone

College campuses are brimming with chances to go green, from turning off lights to encouraging recycling (students move every year!) to building awareness around global issues. And given the bonds and formative experiences they engender, campus communities can be like petri dishes for a lifetime of good, responsible living.

But the deal just got a little sweeter. Climate Culture, an upstart social network built around a sophisticated footprint calculator, has launched its massive college g

Bucky Fuller said:

“Our beds are empty two-thirds of the time.
Our living rooms are empty seven-eighths of the time.
Our office buildings are empty one-half of the time.
It’s time we gave this some thought.”

While Bucky notes that beds are used for a third of the time, we are asleep for much of that. So why do we give them so much space? What else can we do with them? TreeHugger has shown dozens of transformer sofas, but what about a more permanent solution?

photo: Paul Mannix via flickr

Even casually following the news you can’t help but hear about the plight of polar bears, mountain gorillas, or tigers, their habitat being encroached upon by humans or melting away a bit more every year. And if you pay just a bit more attention, undoubtedly you’ve heard about declines in shark populations, several species of fish eaten by humans, or one or the formerly much ridiculed spotted owl. Well, there are plenty of species (hundreds if not thousands in fact) whose future is one big question mark. Here are 10 species threatened or endangered which aren’t too

Electric Offroad Motorcycle
KTM has announced that it is committing to mass-production of its Zero Emission Motorcycle, a high-performance all-electric dirtbike. Enthusiasts are promised more torque and less noise. Could this be the ideal dirtbike?

Read on for more details

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Photo credit: Jon Yang

It’s easy to forget that McDonald’s, famous for its Big Macs and french fries, is also in the fish business. But indeed, McDonald’s purchases more than 18,000 metric tons, or 43.2 million pounds, of fish a year for its popular Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. Filet-O-Fish is made with pollock, a whitefish that lives in the cold waters off the coasts of Alaska and eastern Russia. The Marine Stewardship Council has certified U.S. Bering

Press Image of Artistic rendition of NOAA-N Prime Satellite via Lockheed Martin

The NOAA-N Prime, the newest US weather satellite, has some interesting uses beyond just watching clouds pass across the sky. It also can use transmitters to collect sensor data

which means it will be able to track anything that has transmitters, including animals

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With Google Earth around, it seems almost a waste of time to step outside your front door. You can discover rare fringe coral reefs, stop deforestation, travel under the ocean.

and even discover new unmapped forests that harbor unknown species of animals.

And that’s exactly how BirdLife used Google Earth and ended up finding three new species of butterfly, one new species of snake, and seven threatened species of birds

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