Blogs & Ecology

Europe's Leading Eco-Center Offers Clean Energy Surgeries
Here’s an exciting opportunity for any UK-based folks who are planning a renewable energy project of any kind. The Center for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales is launching a series of Renewable Energy Consultancy Surgery Days to allow renovators, home builders and anyone interested in harnessing the sun, the wind, biomass, ground source heat pumps, small scale hydro or a combination of the above to leverage CAT’s expertise, accumulated over 35 years of leading renewable en...

Al Azhar English Training Center is funded through a partnership agreement between Al Azhar University, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Global Opportunities Fund and the British Council. The Center was supposed to provide English Language courses in its first semester to 125 students from various disciplines until Ali Laban, a Muslim Brotherhood deputy, decided otherwise.

Fatma Sabit - a graduate of Al Azhar university and an instructor there - wrote on Facebook:

We have a bit of a penchant for small wheeled, collapsible bikes around here. In recent times Graham showed us how easy it was to stow a Strida 5 inside a closet, Andrew loves how he can squeeze his Bike Friday into a suitcase and Lloyd enthuses about how quick his Strida folds, so he can sneak it onto trains. Birds of a feather flock together, I guess.

Martino Gamper is surely the king of chair recycling with innovative projects such as 100 Chairs in 100 Days, that recently won a Brit Insurance Design of The Year Award. Last month at the Frieze art fair in London Gamper displayed his latest adventure in chair recycling, this time teaming up with the celebrated Italian architect Carlo Mollino, albeit posthumously....click through to find out how....

Discover TnT Blog pays tribute to Trinidad-born journalism icon Sir Trevor McDonald, who “has stepped down from ITN's main nightly news programme.”

Image credit: Transition Towns Wiki – creator unknown.

Peak Oil Educators Embark on World Tour

images: Dartmouth Wave Energy

Here’s a wave power technology which you may not have heard of: It’s called the Searaser and (though only in prototype stages, I’ve got some reservations about how well it may scale up, as well as the name which somehow I always see as 'Sea Eraser') it may be worth watching.

The principle is fairly simple and proven in a different context: Use the Searaser to pump quantities of sea water up a hill where it can be stored in ponds until needed and then released downhill to drive hydroelectric turbines to create power. This is how the Searaser works:...

The 2008 Transition Towns Conference - Image Credit: Mike Grenville

Peak Oil Response Continues to Grab Headlines

New Guide to Oil Depletion for Local Authorities

Most of the time these photos are merely reprentative of type of project written about, but this really is the Kentish Flats wind farm, which Vattenfall operates. Photo: Phil Hollmann.

Swedish firm Vattenfall, which already operates the 90 MW Kentish Flats offshore wind farm, has announced that it has paid £35 million ($53.8 million) for the rights to develop the Thanet Offshore Wind Project, off Margate, Kent. Total costs for the project, which is expected to be completed in 2010, are expected to be about £780 million ($1.2 billion).

Image Source: Egg Baby

Tiered Parking Fees Incentivize Low-CO2 Vehicles

Photo via spjwebster

With the economic crunch, the price for recycled good has dropped, and now UK local authorities and collection companies have tons of worthless recyclables that they can’t do anything with.

In an effort to store them, they’re requesting for less strict storage regulations to try and keep the recyclables from being dumped while they ride out the economic crisis. ...

Image source: Selina Rose

The idea of putting felt rugs, table runners and wallcoverings around your home might bring back images of arts and crafts projects from elementary school. But the designs coming out of Selina Rose are anything but elementary.

More Selina Rose pieces after the Jump...

Scenes from Malmö, Sweden -- a hidden green city gem -- Björn Söderqvist @ flickr.