Photo via the New Republic It's a widely held notion that politicians have long been in the pocket of Big Oil. And there's good reason for that perception: oil companies' huge campaign donations, vast lobbying power, and close ties to politicians have ensured that their taxes remain low , that hidden subsidies are around to provide extra funding, and that they receive preferential treatment in US energy policy. But there could be a new, ... View original post here: The Next Big Oil: Big Smart Grid?
So there really isn't anything that deep to this image. It's just a (more or less) life-sized blue whale eye. And on the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society site you can educate yourself/be mesmerized/ waste some time for a while staring at it while the entire life-sized animal scrolls across your browser window. Believe me, it's way cooler than you might think:... Read more from the original source: Ever See a Blue Whale Life-Sized on Your Computer? Now You Can
published January 5, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo: yourtes The nomads in Outer Mongolia created yurts out of necessity, now many people in France are living in them as part of an alternate lifestyle decision. But the French government has come up with a See the rest here: Yurts Cause Controversy in France
Read more...published January 3, 2011 and has No Comments
Photos credit Alex de Rijke at Drmm How did I miss this one? It pushes every button. British architecture firm drmm designed the Naked House for an exhibition in Norway in 2006; it is delivered (and is built on top of) a shipping container, filled to the brim with flatpack panels made from my materiel-du-jour, cross-laminated timber or CLT. ...
Read more...published December 30, 2010 and has No Comments
heat loss from Passivhaus. Source: wikipedia Defining green building is not easy; for many, all that matters is energy consumption. One of the major ways of reducing consumption is to increase the amount of insulation, but that is only one component, and not necessarily the most important one. Earlier this week I wrote a post about "a strange debate ...
Read more...published December 28, 2010 and has No Comments
Image credit: Liz (perspicatious.org) , used under Creative Commons license. The British government has already faced court action over fuel poverty and the number of poor and elderly dying for lack of warm home. With much of the public debate around green housing now focusing on whether or not new homes will be zero carbo... Read the full story ...
Read more...published December 21, 2010 and has No Comments
Image Credit: Resources for a Sustainable Future There is a strange debate going on at Green Building Advisor, where a writer thinks "home buyers have been "brainwashed" into thinking only about R-values, as energy codes give short shrift to the importance of airtightness." The debate goes back and forth, but not once to they address the real point: How ...
Read more...published December 21, 2010 and has No Comments
Image credit: Earthshipkirst Appalachian Gothic architecture made from recycled pallet wood is by no means the only DIY housing option using reclaimed materials. In fact, TreeHugger has featured countless posts on "earthships"—self-sufficient passive solar homes built from old tires, cans, mud and concrete. From Justin's introduction to the earthship concept , via Kristin's post on Read the original here: How ...
Read more...published December 20, 2010 and has No Comments
Wikipedia commons I have always wondered why a sandwich of polystyrene and concrete is considered green, and have taken significant abuse for my position on insulated concrete forms (ICF). Now an interim report from the impressive-sounding MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub attempts to "deliver a new level of clarity" to the issue, and "to demonstrate the potential energy savings due ...
Read more...published December 20, 2010 and has No Comments
Image credit: Fugue State Films From a $50,000 portable recycled house to a tiny green egg house for Chinese students , TreeHugger has already offered plenty of posts that prove that green living doesn't have to mean high-end LEED certified luxury. Rollo, from Knoxville, Tennessee, is another such example. On 7 acres of ... Read the full story on ...
Read more...published December 19, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo: GIPE under a Continued here: What Can This 300 Year Old French Fortress Tell Us About Green Architecture?
Read more...published December 14, 2010 and has No Comments
Images courtesy (fer) studio One post on TreeHugger says The Greenest Brick is the One That's Already in the Wall ; another that LEED stands for "Lunatic Environmentalists Enthusiastically Demolishing" . But now we are beginning to see the best of both worlds, with very green renovations and restorations, like the eponymously named Green Building in Louisville, Kentucky; it ...
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Save the sea creatures! Handcraft your own natural specimens using these these simple patterns, some yarn and a crochet hook. View post: 8 Enchanting Sea Creatures You Can Crochet
A Finnish designer has made a working surfboard from broken skateboards. Read the original here: Hollow Surfboard Is Made from Broken Skateboards
