A new national survey of more than 1,000 Americans found that 'being green' is becoming more mainstream and has less of a stigma tied to it than it once did. According to the survey, getting caught littering is more embarrassing to Americans than getting caught cheating on taxes. Other behaviors that people admit to being socially aware that they're doing include: not recycling plastic bottles driving a vehicles that gets only a few miles per gallon letting the water run while … [Read more...]
If you’re like me and totally haven’t been thinking about Christmas this year, perhaps you’re still in need of some Christmas gifts. Hopefully, I can help you out with this list of last-minute Christmas gift ideas (green ones, of course). There are all kinds of awesome things to get the greener-minded folks on your Christmas list. The cool thing about giving a green gift to someone who cares about the environment, is that the types of things you may give that person are the types of … [Read more...]
This is a really fun new development in the UK. Climate activist group 10:10 is behind it, but really, it’s all about local communities. The short story: 10:10 has created a website, Solar Schools, where people can easily donate as little as £5 to put solar panels on a local school’s roof. The organization creates a webpage for each school involved that shows who has donated (unless you want to remain anonymous) and how much, by replacing some of the solar cells with donor photos, … [Read more...]
Energy efficiency holds HUGE potential when it comes to being better stewards of the environment and stopping climate change (well, human-caused, extremely rapid and destructive climate change, that is). It could also help us save money. Reportedly, the U.S. could save $700 billions dollars with some energy efficiency improvements. How much time do we spend thinking about energy and these potential savings, though? The average American spends about 6 minutes per year doing so, according … [Read more...]
Bicycling is actually really hard not to enjoy, and it comes with a ton of benefits, which is why it’s one of the most popular recreational activities in the U.S. (and why some folks bike into their 100s). But a lot of people still have trouble believing they can bicycle for transportation purposes, or have fears about doing so. The percentage of utilitarian bikers is clearly growing across the U.S., though. Perhaps you’re thinking about joining the green transport trend? If so, or … [Read more...]
As part of this month’s Art on Track festival in Chicago, some greenies with an artistic twinge (or artists with a green twinge) turned the inside of a rail car into a nature wonderland. The rail car “circled Chicago’s elevated downtown loop for five hours with several additional cars decorated with numerous other art installations,” This Is Colossal writes. Art on Track was apparently the “world’s largest mobile art exhibition” and I imagine this is the biggest such … [Read more...]
Following up on my post last week on 7 cool solar power technologies, here are 7 more cool solar power technologies. 1. Solar-powered Cars: I’m not sure if you’ll ever be able to buy a solar-powered car, but some researchers at Japan’s Tokai University and Panasonic, among others, are trying to make it possible, and there are some pretty wicked solar-powered car races out there, like the World Solar Challenge in Australia (the 2011 race is coming up next month -- October 16-23). 2. … [Read more...]
Solar power is cool, and is very widely supported by the public -- who doesn’t support getting our electricity from the sun? But as solar has developed over the years, more and more interesting solar power technologies have popped up. Here are 7 that I think you’ll find pretty interesting. 1. Solar shingles. Want to 1-up your neighbor who just bought a solar power system? Go with some solar shingles! They aren’t available yet, actually, but mass production is scheduled to begin in 2012. … [Read more...]
There are a ton of cool solar technologies out there or in development these days -- solar bikinis, solar-powered 3D printers and cutters, peel & stick solar panels, solar paint, and solar shingles, for example. But, while cool solar technologies are fun, it’s hard to beat a solar vehicle race! The World Solar Challenge is just that. It challenges people to build the fastest car they can that runs exclusively on solar power... and then drive it across Australia. (That would be 1,864 … [Read more...]
These are wicked cool. I don’t know their large-scale usefulness yet, and maybe they’ll never be that useful on a large scale, but they are two of the coolest inventions I’ve seen in a long time -- a 3D solar printer and a low-tech light cutter. The inventor demos both of them in the Sinai Desert of Egypt in the videos below. Solar Sinter — 3D Solar-Powered Printer Industrial designer and inventor Markus Kayser recently created a solar-powered 3D printer, using cutting … [Read more...]
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