Blogs & Ecology

photo: Discovery Channel

Here on TreeHugger reports about different geo-engineering projects to mitigate climate change come onto our radar relatively frequently. Some of them involved doing one thing or another to the oceans to change the way in which carbon is sequestered there, while others try to do things to the atmosphere to deflect incoming solar radiation.

Discovery Project Earth Premiere: Friday, August 22nd, 9 PM ET/PT

Image source: Quiksilver

A few ways to other ways to green your time-keeping: use your cell phone for a phone and a clock, don't wear a watch and just ask your friends for the time, make your own sun-dial. Or, if you just want a watch or enjoy accessories, Quicksilver, maker of surf products, now has a watch that is 86% recyclable. For the most part, taking your watch into be fixed is the most eco thing you can do with your watch, but if your watch gets run over and cannot be brought back from the dead, then its helpful to have a watch that can be deconstructed and recycled back into its individual parts.

photo: Lisa via flickr

Here’s a quick one via The Guardian which at first certainly counter-intuitive but upon examination isn’t and really shows how important recycling is.

A new report from the Waste Resources Action Programme says that shipping newspapers and plastic bottles the 10,000 miles from the UK to China actually prevents more carbon emissions that landfilling the waste in Britain and manufacturing new products.
...

photo by Lisa Norwood

Image: Energy Information Administration

Just when we thought there were no more new fandangled ways of deriving energy from our shriveling planet, Australia comes up trumps. Scientists there believe untapped geothermal energy locked in three miles below the Earth’s surface is a worthwhile and completely sustainable alternative to using fossil fuels.

It’s estimated that only one percent of Australia’s geothermal energy, which is often referred to as ‘hot rocks’, could produce up to 26,000 years worth of clean electricity.

Clearly the United States (with roughly 23% of global CO2 emissions has some 'splainin to do when it comes to carbon dioxide emissions, so don't get us wrong, we aren't trying to pass the buck. Yet, we did want to take a look at just how large the impact of CO2 emissions is from the developing world. The rankings below are only targeting human produced (anthropogenic) CO2 emissions, and do not include the other, toxic greenhouse gas emissions. If you look at greenhouse gases overall, then this list changes slightly.

photo by Ian Thorpe

Greenspeak
Some of the words that were introduced in the 11th edition of the Chambers dictionary have green origins. BBC News reports:

"'Electrosmog' refers to the electromagnetic fields emitted by computers and mobile phones, 'eco-village' is a term used for small ecologically-sustainable communities and 'carbon footprint' is the measure of the impact human activities on the environment." ...

Image source: author.

Bucking the tide of many developing nations, South Africa has chosen to set a limit on its greenhouse-gas emissions and to increase its use of renewable energy sources. South Africa's Environment Minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said the country has a target to "stabilize" emissions by 2020 to 2025, "with absolute reductions in emissions...to begin ten years after growth was halted."

Aside from discussing a small project in greening a retail store, (and the old connection to Esprit’s Ecollection and Parque Pumalin in Patagonia) we haven’t made much mention of outdoor clothing and equipment company, The North Face, on these pixels. But now they are celebrating their 40th birthday, the company might get more of a look in.

photo by Adam Lederer

I’d like to continue the conversation begun (most recently) by the Stockholm Environment Institute, when they claimed that the UK’s carbon emissions are 49% higher than claimed by government because so much manufacturing has been shipped to low-wage countries.

Photo: Via Popular Mechanics

Have you checked out the new third generation Toyota Prius 2010? Maybe 80, 90 miles to the gallon, solar panels on the roof…come on! I need that.

It’s no secret that we’re all doomed but now scientists have found that the underwater world isn’t having such a rad time either.

Image by: jurvetson

Since the sea sequesters carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere its pH levels are rising. This means sea animals whose shells or skeletons are made of calcium carbonate are literally dissolving due to the increased acidity in the water, and in some cases failing to reproduce.

The Knesset, Israel's parliament: Soon to be painted green? (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

The Israeli Knesset, perhaps the most hyperactive spot in this more-wired-than-most country, may have caught on a bit late, but it appears that the green wave washing over the country has finally reached the benches of Israel’s parliament.

Maybe it was the teetering of the governing coalition or the multi-year water crisis, or maybe it was just the sticky and oppressive summer heat. Whatever the cause, the summer session of the Knesset closed last week with an unprecedented burst of environmental legislation.