Tag Archives: healthy

Robotic Plants Serve an Altruistic Purpose (Video)

Photo via Designboom Japanese artist Akira Nakayasu’s specialty is robotic plants. He creates things like sunflowers that react to human movement, making the flower seem to communicate with the people around it. His latest work is called “Plant,” an interactive piece that was inspired by grass blowing in the wind. With 169 artificial leaves that react independently to the presence of a human’s body, such as a hand waving over it, the unarguably interesting and relatively cool piece begs the question, “What’s the point?”… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Robotic Plants Serve an Altruistic Purpose (Video)

Ask Pablo: Ceramic Plates vs Paper Plates

Image Source: akseabird Dear Pablo: A few of my co-workers and I are wondering what we should tell people when they refuse to use ceramic plates for lunch meetings, etc. They want to use paper plates. Do you have any information on the comparison between resources used for dish-washing vs. paper production? This question has been asked by many people in many different forms. Years ago I was asked if it’s better to wash dishes by han… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Ask Pablo: Ceramic Plates vs Paper Plates

Timberland’s Earthkeepers Grant Goes to Worthy Projects

Image from London Orchard Project What a great name for a grant: the 2010 Timberland Earthkeepers Grant. The winners of the prize really are keepers of the environment; they include an urban orchard, a guerrilla gardening scheme, a city farm and an allotment garden. All are located in south London and each is a worthy recipient of the £2,000 of funding that they will receive to pursue their respective projects. The London Orchard Project aims to plant fruit trees in… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Timberland’s Earthkeepers Grant Goes to Worthy Projects

Numbers of Potential Treehuggers Decline As US Birth Rates Drop

photo via flickr Chalk it up to eco-awareness, The Great Recession, or increased availability of pregnancy prevention methods but people in the US are having fewer kids. News stats from the National Center for Health Statistics show that for 1,000 people in the US, there are 13.5 births. That’s down from 14.3 in 2007, and around 30 in early part of the 20th century The question is: Is this good green news or just another statistic that amazes for a minute but carries no consequence?… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Numbers of Potential Treehuggers Decline As US Birth Rates Drop

US Army Finds 3D Printing + Shipping Container = Instant Parts

Images via Clegg Industries 3D Printing is a great way to reduce inventory shipping costs and make good design accessible to anyone anywhere; PSFK writes that the US Army has been demonstrating the benefits for a couple of years. But there are not a lot of computerized machine tools and 3D printers in Afghanistan, so the Army ordered up the Mobile Parts Hospital , (MPH) with a computerized machine tool inside a shipping container sized box…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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US Army Finds 3D Printing + Shipping Container = Instant Parts

Russian Heatwave’s Effect on Agriculture a Sign of Things to Come Elsewhere?

Buckwheat, with 2009 prices… photo: Luigi Guarino via flickr. Take it as a sign of things to common in more places without more concerted action on climate change: As the BBC reports, the recent millennial heat wave in Russia may be over but the effects on the economy will be felt for some time. Estimates of its impact are official reported as knocking 0.8% off GDP, whi… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Russian Heatwave’s Effect on Agriculture a Sign of Things to Come Elsewhere?

Fast Track Program for Green Tech Patents Gets Snubbed

Photo via Steve Snodgrass Back in December we learned that green tech companies were receiving a fast track through the US patent process in order to boost innovation among start-ups and innovators. The first 3,000 applicants would sail through the process in just 12 months, as opposed to 40 months. We asked if zipping through the patent process would really move green tech forward. Turns out, it doesn’t. The fast track program is already off course for filling up the 3… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Fast Track Program for Green Tech Patents Gets Snubbed

Only Public Grassroots Activism Will Force Governments to Act on Climate: Dr James Hansen

In case you haven’t seen it yet, world renowned climatologist Dr James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has an excellent new piece in The Guardian wherein he talks at length about his journey from straight science to self-imposed media silence to seemingly reluctant and outspoken (not to mention arrested) climate activist. There’s lots of good stuff in in so I highly enco… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Only Public Grassroots Activism Will Force Governments to Act on Climate: Dr James Hansen

Adorable Tiger Cub Violates Carry-On Restrictions (Photos)

Image credit: TRAFFIC When security personal at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport scanned a woman’s over-sized carry-on last Sunday, they discovered something unexpected in the x-ray: A live tiger cub . The woman—who has not yet been linked to the UK’s cat-trasher —was carrying the sedated tiger in a suitcase filled with stuffed toy tigers…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Adorable Tiger Cub Violates Carry-On Restrictions (Photos)

39 More Toxic Coal Ash Sites Found to Contaminate US Water Supply With Arsenic & Heavy Metals

Aerial photo of one of the sites discovered, in Uncasville, Connecticut. A new report by the Environmental Integrity Project , Earthjustice , and the Sierra Club has identified an additional 39 sites in 21 states where toxic coal ash is contaminating drinking and surface water with arsenic and heavy metals. These new sites added to those already identified by… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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39 More Toxic Coal Ash Sites Found to Contaminate US Water Supply With Arsenic & Heavy Metals