Daily Archives: August 11, 2009
Far Foods: Food-Mile Labeling Lays On Guilt Trip
Photo credit: James Reynolds
Simple yet provocative, James Reynold’s alternative packaging concept for supermarket produce is definitely a mind tickler. The London-based graphic designer, whose “Far Foods” idea was featured today on swissmiss, suggests grocers take the guesswork out of food-mile calculations with labels that place that information front and center.
…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Chatting with Fisher Stevens, Producer of Film “The Cove”
Photo from wikipedia
On July 31, 2009 , the film The Cove opened in New York and Los Angeles. Fisher Stevens had a major part in whipping the picture into theater-shape. You may remember him from the 1986 hit Short Circuit. With the release of The Cove, he is showing everyone he’s got an eye for making edgy <a href=”http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/five-document…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Vivesana Solar to Polar Organic Sunscreen Protects Against the Elements
Photo credit: Vivesana
A radiant, bronze-goddess glow is one thing; looking like charbroiled filet mignon is quite another. But the mercury doesn’t have to shoot through the roof before you break out the sunscreen—any prolonged exposure to the great outdoors demands it. Going windsurfing? Sunscreen. Snowboarding? Sunscreen. Stalking the Himalayas searching for self-aware, supra-intelligent Yetis? You betcha Sherpa you need sunscreen.
Vivesana, which means “live healthy” in Italiano, has a couple of broad-spectrum, water-resistant products formulated to ward off damaging UV rays while bathing your epidermis with moistu…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Shaking Off Palin’s Shadow, Alaska Embraces Energy Efficiency
Photo via Millionface
With Palin fresh out of the governor’s seat, the Alaskan legislature wasted no time in overturning her veto of stimulus funds for energy efficiency. You may recall that Palin had previously said thanks, but no thanks to allotting Alaska $28 million in federal money for statewide energy efficiency improvements–apparently, her state felt differently….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Invention Overload! A Slideshow of the 2009 James Dyson Award
Inventors from the world over have submitted to this year’s James Dyson Award, and we’ve got a prototyp-o-licious slideshow of our favorite entries. James Dyson is the iconic designer behind products like the Dyson vacuum cleaners and the Airblade hand dryer. His foundation, which gives out the cash awards, last year chose this smart cycling jacket to take first place. This year’s winner will be announced September 1st.
Browse around and let u…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Bill Clinton Suggests “EVs for Clunkers” at National Clean Energy Summit
Photo: Flickr, CC
What do You Think? Good Idea? Bad Idea?
Yesterday at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Bill Clinton suggested that the Cash for Clunkers program could serve as model to speed up the adoption of electric cars. A kind of “EVs for Clunkers”, if you will. Clinton didn’t give too many details on how he would imagine such a pr…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Congress Scraps Plan to Buy Itself New Jets
Photo via Virginia
You may have heard some of the criticism (it was quite vocal) leveled at Democratic Congressmen who added $330 million to the Air Force budget for state-of-the-art jets that the Pentagon said it didn’t want or need. Much of the furor arose since Congress appeared to be buying unnecessary, extravagant airplanes precisely at a time when the same very lawmakers are lambasting corporations for buying and using such unnecessary, extravagant airplanes. In response to all the hubbub, the Dems have said they’ll scrap the plan….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Insect Infestation as Green Architecture Tool
Photo by James Haefner
So what do you get when you add an invasive bug that kills millions of trees to a heavily wooded area? If you’re the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL), you use the situation as an opportunity to build a world-class green building that takes using local materials to a whole-new-level…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Dept of Energy Spends $377m to Fund 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers Across the Country
The University of Texas at Austin is among the locations for the new EFRCs, photo: Kumar Appaiah via flickr.
There’s no doubt that we’ve got our work cut out for us when it comes to replacing our enormous use of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, so news about the Department of Energy awarding $377 million to create Energy Frontier Research Centers at 46 of the United States’ universiti…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Giant Rat-Eating Plant Discovered in the Philippines
Photos via the BBC
Something about carnivorous plants just strikes the imagination–what kid isn’t awed/grossed out by Venus Flytraps when they first see them? To this day, as a (semi) grown man, I still admit to determining insect-eating plants to be “really cool.” So what would the world think of a plant that eats rats? We’re about to find out–scientists just discovered <a href=”http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/global-warming-could-cause-evolution-ex…Read the full story on TreeHugger