Blogs & Ecology

Photo of the Ridgefield Fitness Club by Green Revolution.

It is now officially a trend. While human-generated energy has previously been mostly limited to one-off solutions rigged together by inventive tinkerers, at least four gyms globally have now gotten in on the act, using the power from their members pedaling to reduce their energy bills, and in one case, even give back a little bit of the savings to gym goers! Started last year at Hong Kong's California Fitness, the idea of saving energy through human power is spreading. Read on.

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Photo via Oscar Lhermitte

OK, so this isn’t break-through technology. But it does show the increasing availability of convenient alternative energy for charging gadgets.

Oscar Lhermitte has designed a cool cell phone charger that clips onto the reflector of your bike....

It may not be the prettiest thing on the road but this pedal/battery/solar powered vehicle is pretty interesting. I admit I was skeptical at first, thinking that this thing sits in a no-mans land between a true automobile, a bicycle, and an auto-rickshaw, but give it a chance.
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Photo Credit: Freeplay Foundation

Photo via Christiano Betta

Technology rocks, and improving upon what we have is a boon for fighting climate change in a lot of ways. But sometimes green gadgets get more attention than the totally effective non-tech solutions to problems in our lives, because, well, non-tech solutions are boring. The latest and greatest is always fun to talk about.

Photo via Mooganic, and Causewired

You're here on TreeHugger, so you likely feel a connection between being online and being active in social change. That connection - using the internet as a means of doing good for the world - is quickly spreading thanks to the rise of social networking, free-to-use platforms for websites, and a broadening number of devices through which we can connect to the web.

Wind up gadgets are typically silly because they require a lot of work for a little output - usually more than the average person is willing to put in. However, there are some ideas that still deserve a nod. Such is the Piranha Dynamo shaver.
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Photo by Guillermo Esteves

Southern India has a zero-emissions ride that is equally as good for laughs as it is for the environment. A fun fair operator created a ferris wheel that is human-powered. A team of men take turns hopping on the top of the wheel and riding it down to keep the wheels momentum up and passengers spinning around.

See a video of the wheel in action after the jump...

Though Amy Winehouse, the pop singer I erroneously reported would open Holland's "sustainable" WATT dance clublast week was nowhere near Rotterdam (Iggy Pop & The Stooges were the opening act), there were revelers enough to light up the dance floors and gaze upon the gray water toilet flushing system in ...