We like the wit and imagination being poured into sustainable architecture. We particularly like where green roofs are going. But we weren’t expecting this – a water filtration plant with a green roof so large it’s going to become a golf course. Hole in one, guys.

In a post that couldn’t be more timely, BldgBlog ponders the role that healthily-designed urban architecture has on the transmission of infectious diseases, and wonders: “What would a biosecure world look like?”

And while on the subject of unhealthy urban living – is it really true that 6 out of 10 Americans live in places with air dirty enough to put them in hospital? That’s what the American Lung Association is claiming, as you can read at the Huffington Post.

When we look back from a better, greener future and get all Mount Rushmore about the eco-pioneers who cut through the greenwashing and really made a difference, who would we choose? Okay, so we just know that Al Gore will be there somewhere – but who else? MNN’s Peter Dykstra hazards a few wild guesses.

There’s an awful amount of evidence for climate change nowadays. If you want to quibble or flat-out deny, it’s uphill all the way. Grist’s Auden Shendler has lost patience with these industriously skeptical fence-sitters, and frankly, we see his point.

Ever get the feeling the world is going mad? On the one hand, we have marine conservationists clamoring for a fishing ban on a third of the world’s oceans – and on the other, we have invasive Yellowstone lake trout being killed off with Jell-O. Yep, you heard me. Thanks go to Blue Living Ideas for making my head spin.

Ever wonder how the word plastic came to be so quickly associated with everything tacky and buck-chasing? Green Design has the answer (one of my favorite films, in fact), and goes on to nicely summarize just where we are with this symbol for a throwaway world.

Is there anything more sad and pathetic-looking than a punctured, grubby beach-ball? The end of fun – unless you are designer Toby Sanders, who upcycles them into snazzy beach-ball lamps bouncing with life. Good catch.

Since you appear to have as much of a thing for upcycling and DIY as we do, you’re enjoy Makezine – a crazy, creative collection of tips for turning nothing much into something else.

So, baking at home may be enormous fun and make the house smell positively edible – but is it cost-effective? That’s the question Jennifer Reese sets herself at Slate, checking out the cost of restocking her whole pantry with her own two hands compared with shop-bought products. And the winner? Did you really just ask that?

Lemon juice is amazing. It cleans metal, it bleaches grime out of clothes, it makes floors squeaky-shiny, and it stops puppies barking (put a drip in their mouth – a much friendlier alternative to the threatened rolled-up newspaper, I’m sure you’ll agree). Take a look at these 27 household uses for citrus fruit if you want some more ideas.

Now for an article that could only be described as sobering. In fact, about as sobering as it gets. Could food shortages tip us over the edge? Read if you dare.

If the last article not only got you wanting to roll your sleeves up and do your bit but also pass these principles along to your young ‘uns, it could be you’re that powerful new breed of super-mother, the EcoMom. Have a read of Nancy McDermott’s article at Spiked and see if you fit the bill.

Now, climate change skeptics notwithstanding, we’re all worried about global warming – aren’t we? “Yes and no” seems to be the answer, according to a survey undertaken by George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication. It suggests that twice as many Americans are concerned about the threat to wildlife than the threat to themselves directly. Confidence that our technical ingenuity will cushion us…or head-in-the-sand arrogance that it’s someone else’s problem?

And finally – did you know birds did this?

Image: sanguinie

In the worldwide struggle to get clean water to those in need, it’s people who are the biggest problem.

That’s the conclusion of the World Water Forum, which met this month in Istanbul to examine global water supply problems and offer suggestions to world governments. At the Forum, the United Nations published their summary of the state of world water supplies. In a word – mismanaged. The summary pointed toward the lack of international cooperation, the often unbalanced allocation between commercial, food-producing and domestic supplies and, in particular, the absence of economic development.

At a time when world economies need all the help they can get, it’s particularly damning that investment in water management can turn a tidy profit, paying back between 300% and 3,400% on the initial investment depending on location, according to the World Health Organization. Furthermore, poor water supplies can hobble a country’s GDP – for example, currently costing Africa an estimated $28 billion a year (PDF). Water isn’t just a life-saver – it’s a money-spinner as well.

“The green is being stressed but not the blue…“

- Angel Gurría, General Secretary, OECD

Water is being overlooked for many reasons. It’s easy to associate water supply problems with the most wartorn and socially depressed areas of the developing world, but one severe drought can topple the sturdiest-seeming water management system, as California is currently discovering. The only effective way forward has to be an interdependent one – where businesses and politicians work and legislate in favor of the big picture, not just their corner of it. And as a nice incentive, this appears to be where all the money is.

Image: bortescristian

It just became official: global warming is bad for our health.

You think? This headline may look like something lifted from The Onion – but in fact we’re talking legally and in the Here and Now. For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency appears to have designated greenhouse gases (the most infamous being carbon dioxide) as a danger to human health, opening the way to regulating these gases under the Clean Air Act.

In other words: the government is legally required to directly tackle these gases as pollutants that threaten people right now – not as a form of housekeeping for the future of our planet.

The Obama adminstration has been quick to impress with its unprecedented environmental reforms – but this is potentially colossal. And naturally it has a sizable slice of the commercial sector up in arms. They’re asking the question: is a recession really the time to impose such a check upon economic development? The fear is that all major manufacturing projects will have to comply with stricter emissions controls, which will prove costlier and so hamper economic growth.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is unimpressed, to say the least – but it ties in nicely with the current government’s proposed “cap and trade” system, where companies will have to obtain a permit to be allowed to release emissions.

Whether such hands-on regulation comes from Congress or from the EPA, it appears to be on the way at last. Democrat Edward Markey has stated that the EPA report “will officially end the era of denial on global warming”. And that’s change by anyone’s definition.

Image: Foto43

I’d like to say that Michelle Obama is one smart lady. She’s doing something that many of us garden-loving idealists have been wanting for a long time: planting a White House veggie garden. Not since Eleanor Roosevelt’s WWII Victory Garden has there been such extensive planting at the White House.

Visible from E Street, an 1,100 square foot piece of south-facing lawn is being filled with raised beds and will be planted with 55 varieties of vegetables, berries and herbs, with surplus to be donated to a nearby soup kitchen. Michelle Obama said that feeding her own children was what inspired her to start a garden, as they have been more curious about trying new fruits and veggies if they’ve seen where they’ve been grown or met the actual farmers.

Of course the fresh, local produce will be greatly enjoyed by the First Family and the White House staff, but this garden will have eco-educational value as well; the highly visible White House garden’s soil will be amended with kitchen compost, crab meal and other natural fertilizers, and will use beneficial insects for pest control. Obviously our First Lady doesn’t want her kids eating petroleum-based fertilizers or chemical pesticides any more than you do!

This action shows the Obamas literally putting their walk where their talk is, and, dare I say it, it’s (eco) change we can believe in.

Source: NYTimes

Image: Treehugger

One of my favourite winter fruits is the clementine – it’s small and sweet, easy to peel, packs a punch with the vitamin C and it typically doesn’t have any pesky seeds.

Wait a minute! The only reason it doesn’t have seeds is because the orchard keeper has kept bees from pollinating the fruit. A seedless clementine – or any other variety of mandarin citrus such as a tangerine – attracts such a premium that growers in California want legislation to force beekeepers to move away or reduce hive density. The beekeepers would prefer the farmers netted their orchards instead. Neither side seems willing to budge.

The other reason bees are a pain for clementine growers is that they like to be able to spray their crops for pests and they’re not allowed to if there are bees nearby. As an environmentalist, I’m not so keen on pesticides and don’t think that’s such a bad thing.

The only reason that growers want seedless fruit is because consumers prefer it but if seeded varieties were the norm, then I believe consumer attitudes would soon adjust.

I like seedless clementines as much as the next person, but I’ll put up with the seeds if it keeps the bees happy, and not just because I like honey. Bees are an essential part of our eco-system and most agriculture (with the exception of clementines, bees are unambiguously welcomed by most farmers). Without bees we would lose a huge variety of wildlife and an estimated one third of our food crops.

If ornery clementine growers were the only problem bees had to contend with it wouldn’t really matter. Yet the fact is that the humble honey bee is under severe threat on both sides of the Atlantic and we could have less than a decade to save them. So they need all the help they can get and if that means seeds in my clementines then so be it.

If you are in California, you could consider writing to your local lawmakers and outlining your concerns – it’s the California Department of Food and Agriculture that is making the decision. Also see 5 ways to help stop Colony Collapse Disorder to take further action.

The self-styled eco fur debate rages on. Is it right to support the fur trade in creatures that are becoming a modern ecological menace? Meanwhile, sales in bushtail possum or “paihamu” furs continue to thrive. Ecopreneurist takes a closer look.

Have you had a look at the new-style Mother Jones, the website of the nonprofit organization whose magazine has won umpteen National Magazine Awards? They’ve gone Open Source (their website code is available to anyone for free) – and here’s why.

Dropping off spare clothing at your local charity shop? I bet there’s no underwear in there. Yet there are organizations crying out for your cast-off skimpies – including Project Underwear! (For other suggestions, check out a post on this topic at GreenMomFinds).

For those of you not versed in classic British sitcoms, you’ll have missed The Good Life - a ’70s show where two likable folks escape the rat-race and go entirely self-sufficient, to the utter disgust of their snooty friends. The show’s focus caused a stir at the time (although it was overshadowed by the accolades bestowed upon Felicity Kendal’s bottom) – but now it’s eminently sensible, and with rising food prices there’s never been a better time to follow suit and dig up the garden. Now where are those old episodes of The Good Life? Ah. On VHS.

And speaking of doing things yourself, we can recommend taking a wander through the handcrafted world of S.HOPtalk – the search for a one-off, not mass-produced, lifestyle.

Carrie Pollare gives a personal account of the devastating effect Alzheimer’s had upon her family – and explains why she founded the I’m Tired Of… campaign.

Since the climate is so fabulously complicated, it follows that climatology is often a head-scratcher. And there’s a lot of misinformation out there for the climate deniers to sink their teeth into. So it’s a hearty welcome for Peter Sinclair’s Climate Denial Crock Of The Week series on Youtube, as featured here on Greenfyre. Reassuringly sane.

Facts. We base articles on them. We check them. And sometimes, since we’re only human, we get them wrong. (When we do, we’ll come clean). But there are oversights and minor errors…and there are whoppers. Here’s one from the Washington Post’s George Will, and it’s the size of Texas, California and Oklahoma combined. (Thanks go to Carl Zimmer at Discover magazine.)

Ever wondered how investment in energy compares with investment in the conflict in Iraq? Wonder no longer. (Elsewhere, it’s estimated that Iraq’s total cost is between $2 and $3 trillion.)

Is your kitchen small but perfectly-formed…but mainly just small? SmittenKitchen sympathizes, and wants to to wring the best from your pots, pans, cupboards and stove. (A top tip – just in case my housemates are reading – is to wash up as you go. I’m just sayin’).

Candidate for the unfriendliest eco-friendly innovation – the green bullet. Traditional ammunition is filled with lead-antimony that leaches out of shell casings into the environment. The eco alternative uses “nontoxic alloys“, thus providing a greener way to…shoot things. Um.

Summer Rayne Oakes seems to hold every job title in the known world, but that’s untrue – she’s not an author. Oh, right. Starre Vartan shares her opinion of Style, Naturally at HuffPo.

Some links are good for a lunch-break click and read – and others belong in your Bookmarks. Here’s an example of the latter. MSN Green’s Local Directory can tell you where the nearest item-specific recycling service it, where to get local organic produce and where to snap up green consumer bargains.

A team of British medical researchers appear to have successfully cured a number of children of their life-threatening peanut allergies by feeding them peanuts. Read the full story at the BBC. (via The Alterntive Consumer).

And lastly, for a form of transport that just doesn’t quit – the Segway. The experts said it would kinda bomb, but what happened? It kinda bombed. (Okay, so sometimes the experts are bang on the money). Nevertheless, Chanel was impressed enough to develop their own version, featured here at Ecorazzi. It’s like the standard model, only at least 3 times the price. Can’t fail.

Image: gadgetbubba

First up – free stuff! We’ve rhapsodized about the joys of Freecycle before, and no doubt we’ll do so again – it’s that good. But it’s also an opportunity for people to offload the craziest possessions – take these 18 items at The Daily Green.

Sustainable power is the way to tackle the imminent energy crisis head-on, but a few ground rules need to be laid down first. First, if it’s still using non-renewable resources behind the scenes, then it’s not sustainable. The recent Financial Times Energy Conference in London flagged this as a major threat to these fledgling energy technologies – as New Scientist reports.

If you’re wandering round San Francisco, you might well be lucky enough to stumble upon a studio filled with robots – the quirky, eerily human kind. Now there’s a use for all that metal we’re going to have lying around.

As the Arctic ice melts and breaks up, polar bears (you know, those creatures that shouldn’t be regarded as endangered, no sir) are finding it difficult to move around and hunt. Steven John Kazlowski’s photographs show this magnificent – and yes, threatened – animal in its beleaguered natural setting…

…while elsewhere, polar bear skins (acquired legally) are on sale from Canadian exporters. How very classy.

A common complaint about wind farms is that they’re an eyesore. So how do we feel about the idea of forests of enormous spinning advertisements, as reported by GreenBiz? Um.

As you read this, Boston will have banned drug store sales of cigarettes – following San Francisco’s lead as of last year. Furthermore, promises Dr. Barbara Ferrer of the city’s public health commission, in 10 years time all smoking bars will be consigned to the history books. Sounds like the place to be, doesn’t it?

As does Los Angeles, if you’re still going through your home and replacing incandescents with their greener counterparts. (CFLs are only a stop-gap on the way to universal LED coverage, but they’ll do nicely for now.)

It’s good to be a Brit. Our energy and climate change secretary has just announced that all British homes will receive a green makeover by 2030 (and a quarter by 2020), nicely in line with the UK government’s pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 80% over the next decade. Good show. (And thanks, Guardian).

If you want wood to look good, leave it out in the open. That certainly goes for the boards of Wyoming’s snow fences - as Alternative Consumer reports.

Okay, so PETA. Intentions A+, methodology D-. So what do we think of the Humane Society of the United States? Here’s Passionate Green’s thoughts on the matter.

When the snows howl down across our highways, out come the salters and gritters. Except…doesn’t salinity have a somewhat catastrophic effect on plantlife? It’s a problem Katharine Wroth examines at Grist, outlining a few friendlier alternatives. (And just in the nick of time).

Here’s a link with real value. Click here and you’ll have another hundred places to go – namely, a list of top organic living blogs featured by The Health Monitor. (But don’t click just yet – or you’ll miss all the cuteness at the end of this post!)

Oh, don’t get me started on this one. While too much of the popular media is continuing to confuse weather with climate, researchers are keen to explain how 2008 was still one of the warmest years on record. The climate charts paint a conclusive picture – as you can see in John Timmer’s article for Ars Technica.

And lastly – all together now – awww. And even more awww!

Image: zenera

“Nature Knows Best” is a safe rule of thumb – hence the exciting field of biomimicry. For more examples of ideas that we’ve borrowed from the best, have a look at this fifteen-strong list over at Brainz.

Have you used vinegar to clean your coffee-maker, or chalk to keep ants in check? If not, you might want to flick through these extraordinary uses for 16 household items, over at Woman’s Day.

Uh, Bill, what are you doing? At the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference, Microsoft founder Bill Gates illustrated the threat of malaria by releasing live mosquitos into the audience – accompanied by the less-than-reassuring words “There is no reason only poor people should be infected”. Luckily for his audience it was only a stunt (the mosquitos were malaria-free) but one with a deadly serious message.

If you’re indoors, you’re away from the nefarious effects of air pollution, right? Wrong. In fact, staying indoors might be the unhealthiest choice you could make, as The Daily Green explains.

While the leaders of the electronic industry struggle to clean up their act and get a favorable rating from Greenpeace, it’s a chance for other companies to sneak into the lead by trying something wholly new. Take the fascinating Recompute desktop PC, as featured at core 77. Its body is corrugated cardboard (recyclable, renewable and biodegrading), and it operates on a modular system where you upgrade it by plugging USB devices (eg. a wireless modem) in the side. Lovely idea – but it’s worth reading the accompanying comments for a few question marks over how useful it will really be in practice.

You’ll be aware of the humanitarian crisis enduring in the Sudanese region of Darfur – but you might not know that it’s underpinned by an equally catastrophic environmental meltdown. Desertification is an ecological change that we’ll be seeing more and more of – even now, every year, deserts worldwide swallow up productive land roughly the size of Nebraska. But there are ways and means of pushing back, and in Darfur, the Village Reforestation and Restoration Initiative is on the case. (Thanks to Global Patriot for the details).

And speaking of dessication, you’ll see it bandied around that precious water is fast becoming “the new oil”. Joel Makower would like to amend this statement – he believes it’s closer to the truth to call it “the new carbon”. Read why at Green Biz.

In the last couple of years, something happened that profoundly changes our relationship with the environment – we became a mainly urban species. Most of humanity now lives in cities or built-up urban areas. And the urban paradox facing us is that urban life may be the most efficient and exciting way forward, but it’s also a way rife with social and environmental problems. Can we make our cities fulfill their potential as places fit to live in?

Canadian hairdressers may be having a bad hair week. The chemicals D4 and D5 (siloxanes found in many shampoos) have just been labeled a threat to wildlife, and banned. Expensive shampoos 0, environment 1. (So why not do it yourself, and save a lot of cash?)

Non-eco is, like, so yesterday. It’s the old black. And that’s why green is the new black, see? Except it absolutely isn’t – because that suggest that the eco-friendly revolution is a fickle, transient, ephemeral thing that will dry up like the morning dew. And this couldn’t be more wrong. We’re firmly behind The Good Human on this point.

In the Washington Post’s Checkup column this week: where are we with discovering just how safe hormone therapy is?

Getting dream homes to match reality – it’s quite the challenge. And for Northfield Design Associates architect Don, there’s the added hurdle of squeezing his dream into a 27.5-feet wide plot. Here’s how he got on.

Of all the uses for used coffee grounds – the obvious being to sprinkle them on the garden (in moderation) – I’d never expect them to be turned into printer ink. But as Inhabitat shows, that’s what one designer has done (as an entrant for the Greener Gadgets Design Competition). Love the idea. Although it wouldn’t do good things to my caffeine intake when deadlines are pressing.

We spotted these Botanist Benches over at greenUPGRADER and were intrigued for a number of reasons. The use of super-recyclable aluminum, amongst other sustainable manufacturing techniques. The cutting of each bench with diamond-dust-impregnated water, ensuring no nasty fumes or by-products. But mainly, we were intrigued by the pictures. If there are more unlikely places to use desks than those pictured, we’d like to see them.

And finally, just to lower the tone in the interests of a healthy environment – public transport powered by poo!

Image: Nrbelex

As we’ve mentioned before, there’s a growing trend for municipal authorities taking matters in the own hands when it comes to the environment. And why not? When their own governments get it wrong or take too long to implement innovative new measures, it’s local government that misses out on the benefits, such as substantial savings on power and waste management.

This article from the Wall Street Journal (via Kottke) looks at nine such examples, including:

• rooftops in Chicago that are kept cool by gardens, lowering air-conditioning bills
• a suburb of Mumbai, India, using solar water-heaters
• New York taking the first steps towards hydroelectric turbines providing power for 8,000 homes
• the streetlights of Ann Arbour (near Detroit) shifting to LED bulbs, with a projected power saving of $700,000.

In the U.S., President Obama couldn’t be firmer on his commitment to switching America over to sustainable clean energy production over the coming years. However, that will take time – meanwhile, many municipalities already have their own plans in motion. Take California, where the state government is chasing the “zero net energy” standard of building efficiency. The city of Berkeley’s FIRST (Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar Technology) program is providing the means for property owners to invest in cutting-edge green efficiency. Or how about Riverside’s sweeping Green Action Plan looks to providing a third of the city’s energy needs from renewable sources by 2020? Further afield, there’s the impressive greening of Grand Rapids under its eco-progressive mayor George Heartwell. And on…and on. These initiatives complement the national energy goals nicely, but they’re all proudly homegrown. (Over the border, Canada is similarly busy).

And what about political action? More than 160 countries have now signed the Kyoto Protocol for ecologically sound industrial and economic development. Under the Bush administration, the U.S. rejected it (happily, President Obama has a rather different view). For more than 800 American mayors in 2008, this was unacceptable ““ so they signed their own agreement to adhere to Kyoto’s guidelines.

Support your local city government: there’s no telling what it’s capable of.

Image: jmcmichael

School children across America, like the this group from Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco, gathered to sing songs like This Land is your Land and watch a historic moment in our history. Cheering, high-fiving and hugging, they celebrated not only the inauguration but a victory they badly need as a generation that has inherited a planet in peril and debt from sea to shining sea. The reiterated message has been clear: If someone with Barack Obama’s beginnings can end up as president, we can accomplish anything.

“When I grew up in D.C. it was a segregated city and today, we are swearing in the first African American president of the United States,” Brandeis Middle School head Neal Biskar told the students and parents crowded in the gym.

Many of those parents, like myself, grew up believing we shared a struggle with Black Americans. Jews were instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement, walking arm-in-arm with protesters in the South, and before that, forming the NAACP and Urban League. At the summer camps I attended, songs like We Shall Overcome and If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus were viewed as American anthems. Indeed, we shared a collective consciousness as survivors who have overcome great odds.

A day later, as I watched the national prayer service in Washington the music led me to tears, even though it wasn’t my music. The Rev. Sharon Watkins, the first woman to deliver the event’s sermon, urged the President to make the right choices, loving God by loving one’s neighbors. “Lead us there, Mr. President, she said. “That is a journey worth pursuing.”

While we all know the economy is his first stop on that journey, our country’s top environmentalists have suggested what should be done in the President’s first 100 days on the job to address our energy woes and move towards a sustainable future The green agenda, provided by Alternet, includes these steps:

• Stimulate the economy through investments in clean energy technology, energy efficiency, green-collar jobs, and training.
• Lay the groundwork for legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.
• Work with Congress to end tax incentives and subsidies for high carbon-emitting technologies and projects.
• Enact mandates that 20 percent of the nation’s electricity come from renewable power by 2020 and at least 30 percent by 2030.
• Instruct the Securities and Exchange Commission to require publicly traded companies to disclose the risks and opportunities they face from climate change.
• Institute financial reforms to require honest accounting of the financial risks that companies and investors face from climate change and other sustainability threats.
• Direct the EPA to issue California’s clean car waiver, allowing it and 18 other states to implement stringent fuel efficiency standards.
• Re-engage and provide strong leadership in the international climate negotiation process.

It’s easy to see our President has his work cut out for him, perhaps inheriting more on his plate than any other American leader. Still, we have to think about what those school children will inherit if we don’t get the work done. Loving our neighbors can mean so many things, including caring for the land as a global community and exporting good will and food rather than weapons to those in need. Deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall be the country we want to be.