Want your phone to sound like a woodpecker? Got’cha covered… that and more at this week’s green tech finds.
Scots get paid to recycle: British supermarket chain Tesco has been testing out Tomra recycling machines (which “pays” recyclers with reward points) at one branch in Edinburgh, and is so happy with the results that its expanding its offerings to another store… with more planned.
Research product sustainability right in the store:GoodGuide has released an iPhone app that “…lets you scan bar codes for what the guide calls “impartial” health, environmental, and social responsibility ratings of not only the products you are scanning but their companies, too.” (via CNET Health Tech)
This video clip, of Paul Nicklen’s encounter with a giant leopard seal, is sweet and frightening all at once. Mr. Nicklen, a National Geographic photographer, tells the story of a 4 day meeting with the huge sea-going mammal. The images are shocking. Seals get that big! He stayed in the water! WTF!?
But the story is sweet too. The seal tries to share a meal, first a live penguin, with the photographer. When he does not partake in the meal she gets restless and brings him a half-dead penguin. Still no. How about a dead penguin? Nope.
Even the most frightening of animals help one another. Just as long as you’re not a poor little penguin.
Quick: think of a hip hop song that addresses urban farming or vegetarianism. You might have a tough time… doesn’t most of the music associated with this style revolve around glorifying gangstas? Not according to the organizers of this weekend’s sixth annual Organic Hip-Hop conference: “Just as Hip Hop as a culture was birthed in activism with the goal of saving lives, we seek to continue in that tradition by providing an alternative lifestyle that will garner better physical as well mental and spiritual health.”
When you were a high school student, how did you prefer to learn your science: formulas on the board and text books, or hands-on experiments involving building things (or maybe even blowing things up, or dropping items from high distances)? Yeah, I thought so… Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District has provided a hands-on opportunity for kids throughout the area to learn about engineering principles, solar power and electrical systems, and even water pollution and other broad environmental issues through its annual Solar Cup boat races.
American oil-giant, Chevron, has been battling against a 27 billion dollar court ruling from an Ecuadorian court that finds the company was guilty of damaging the environment with its oil drilling operations in the country.
If you’ve spent any time looking at the marketing for educational institutions lately, you’ve likely noticed that many schools are working hard to build reputations as “green colleges.” In addition to building green, cutting energy use, and landscaping with water consumption in mind, many colleges and universities are implementing sustainability policies for their food services. Some are composting food wastes. Others are buying locally and organically. A few are even growing their own food.
The Center for Biological Diversity today filed two lawsuits against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect two critically imperiled San Francisco Bay-Delta fish species, the longfin smelt and delta smelt.
Meeting for the first time on Japanese soil, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and President Barack Obama today committed their governments to “a new era in the global fight against climate change” by shifting to low-carbon growth and achieving “a successful outcome” at the UN climate conference next month.
For the first time in decades, the eggs of endangered sea turtles buried on a small strip of Nicaraguan beach will not be collected and sold in local food markets. A program developed by nonprofit Paso Pacífico pays residents up to $2.50 for each turtle hatchling that reaches the surf — almost 10 times what they would have brought from the market.
Satellite observations and a state-of-the art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that the Greenland ice sheet is losing mass at an accelerating rate, reports a new study by a team of British, Dutch and American scientists.
Aluminum cans – with out without color – are recyclable. But so-called naked cans, like the one above designed by Harc Lee, not only eliminate the air and water pollution involved in the initial printing process, but also save on the energy required to later remove the toxic paint before recycling can even begin. It’s a great-looking design and it certainly works for a brand like Coca-Cola, whose logo is so recognizable it hardly needs any color, but I’m not sure how lesser-known beverage companies will take to the idea. Can you imagine confronting a cooler full of aluminum cans and trying to sort through them to find your brand of choice? That’s a challenge I bet a lot of us would be willing to undertake, but how to convince advertising…?
