Ever go on vacation only to find yourself stuck indoors because of the tropical weather? Well now there’s an unbelievably wasteful solution!

A company called SoleiraSun has started manufacturing insane 12,000 watt lights that — you guessed it — replace the tropical beach experience. These lights, which consume electricity equivalent to that of 800 compact fluorescent bulbs, produce 25 lbs of carbon dioxide every hour!

Eep!

Well, maybe when our sun finally burns out…

[via]

The ‘Star Wheel’ was created by Paul Cesewski and weighs 2000 pounds and stands 22 feet in the air. It took Mr. Cesewski 6 months and $7000 to put this together and unlike it’s carival counterpart, it requires no diesel engines to make it go!

So, how does this crazy thing work then? Well, there are three seats inside the middle of the wheel and each rider/driver peddles — the peddlers drive themself around the inside of the wheel causing the outside of the wheel to move forwards!

I read about this and immediately thought I would love to try this thing out… until I saw this video. Not so stable at all, huh? Maybe after a trip back to the drawing board this could be viable!

[via]

I’ve decided that I really enjoy reading about innovative, affordable, sustainable housing designs. I have a friend doing a Masters of Design program at Carleton University right now who’s all over these kinds of projects. The real push for this sort of design-for-sustainability seems relatively new, too — even Carleton University has only just started up this MA program this year. Hopefully it will become popular as it’s got so many benefits!

Take this one, for example — it’s made from recycled matierals, fits in a small space, yet is large enough to fit 3 people, a kitchen, a reading room, a living room, bathroom, and hydroponia area! And it kinda looks like the Deathstar. I mean, maybe that’s not a sell for you, but I’m certainly all ears.

These prefab pod homes can be built quite fast and adding an affordable price tag to that, it makes it an option for any socio-economic level and a viable solution for emergency housing, too.

This particular pod was designed by Broisson Architects of Naucalpan, Mexico.

“The shelter could become another option for developing low cost housing with very short building time and could improve the quality of the life for people without access to decent housing,” say the architects.

[via]

Uh oh! Looks like my time outside yesterday left me sunburnt — entirely my fault, of course, as I didn’t update my sunscreen application as the day went on. So now here I am with hideous white stripes on my back where my tank top was and bright red patches everywhere else the sun hit. I partially blame the unusually nice weather in mid September for my screw up. Shouldn’t it be Fall right now? I haven’t even broken out my sweaters yet.

Don’t have an aloe plant? Here are some other around-the-house tips for treating a sunburn without having to invest in nasty chemicals or lotions. They worked very well for me, try them out yourself!

• Use honey as a salve — put a healthy smear of it onto the burnt areas. It apparently helps ease the pain and helps to encourage the healing process.
• Liquify some potatoes. I know, sounds weird, right? But potato paste can be applied to the sunburn and when it dries, it sucks all the excess moisture (what’s keeping it hot and burning) out of your skin.

These more eco-friendly ways to treat a sunburn have the added benefit of having great odds of being in your home just when you need them. I don’t always have pain killers or burn spray in my medicine cabinet, but 99% of the time I have potatoes!

Recently I was reading an article in my favourite magazine — Scientific American — about how endangered species are sold on the black market.

Apparently poachers often use official lists of endangered species as a sort of shopping list — clamoring for these extra rare animals for illegal pet collectors and zoos.

A perfect example is of the Javan hawk eagle found in Indonesia on the island of Java in its increasingly scarce forests. These birds went almost entirely unnoticed before they were put on the endangered species list in 1993. Since then they’ve become quite a popular bird — zoos want them, collectors want them, and more than 30 have been spotted in Indonesian markets, illegally, since.

Ironically, by listing animals as endangered and rare we’re making them a target; pets, meals, or worse yet — hunting trophies. It’s everywhere, too. Just this year, in fact, NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) got involved in a four-year covert operation to catch poachers and collections red handed in a project called “Operation Shellshock” where they were specifically looking out for illegal trading of lizards, turtles, frogs, and snakes. It was successful in finding more than 400 animals including poisonous snakes and endangered turtles — 26 people were arrested.

So what do we do? Stop listing which animals are endangered?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter — leave me a comment!

Going green is a fun process, actually. I’m learning a lot about things that I didn’t even know existed before I started! And, as with this story, sometimes it’s the little things that really blow my mind — like Muichic jewelry! I know I’m new at all this but… they can make ivory out of nuts? Why on earth would we kill animals (elephants, hippos, narwhals, walrus, etc.) for it then?

I wear a lot of jewelry, myself, but I’ll tell you — I don’t wear ivory. Not before this going green experiment and I certainly won’t now after reading about this botanical alternative:

The jewelry, made in Colombia by hand, is made from tagua nuts — specifically the seeds of the tagua palm trees. Doesn’t it look just like real ivory? It’s a great reason to conserve the tropical rainforests of South America for those interested making money as it’s just as sustainable as clear cutting to make room for grazing cattle. And why wouldn’t you take this over real ivory? It’s almost impossible to tell the difference — not to mention a much more reasonable way to acheive the ivory ‘look’ without causing so much destruction and death.

Check out their website right here for more details.

Alright, this might be the coolest news story I’ve read all week: A report released by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers is claiming that a building covered in algae are awesome for the environment. Now that’s a green building!

“…sealed containers of algae photobioreactors could be integrated into the sides of buildings to produce biofuels and sequester carbon…” (Inhabitat)

And what’s more?

• using algae for biofuels means that it can use waste water and ocean water making spills or leaks relatively harmless
• algae grows much faster than corn or soy
• photobioreactors are expensive, but could very easily be integrated into our existing structures

It’s really good to see the wheels turning — to see engineers really starting to think about these kinds of things. Very encouraging!

How would you feel about your apartment building being covered in algae? I think done well it could look pretty cool, personally. And with all those benefits, I hope to see this in the near future!

[via]

As I’m sure plenty of you reading know by now, SIGG bottles manufactured before August 2008 have recently been found to contain Bisphenol-A (BPA) in their liners. I know it’s bad, but… what exactly is BPA?

Turns out that BPA is a chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins and is part of a group of molecules known as ‘endocrine disruptors’.

Endocrine disruptors are defined by the National Institute of Health as

“…naturally occurring compounds or man-made chemicals that may interfere with the production or activity of hormones of the endocrine system leading to adverse health effects. Many of these chemicals have been linked with developmental, reproductive, neural, immune, and other problems in wildlife and laboratory animals. Some scientists think these chemicals also are adversely affecting human health in similar ways resulting in declined fertility and increased incidences or progression of some diseases including endometriosis and cancers.”

Eeep! Way to let us all down, SIGG! And I was so proud of you recently, too. Look into your reusable bottles before you buy them, folks!

[via]

Hello readers! I’m posting, once again, from my cell phone.

I’m in beautiful Montreal today to take in a concert with some friends.

Just now, while walking down rue Sainte-Catherine finishing off a delicious bottle of sparkling lemonade, I noticed something quite odd about Montreal (well, at least this section of it) — there’s no where to recycle along the streets! I saw plenty of garbage cans but no recycling bins of any sort.

Ottawa has big metal disposals for garbage, paper, cans, and glass on nearly every corner but I couldn’t find a single on in downtown Montreal. It almost broke my heart to have to throw my glass bottle in the garbage. To be completely honest, I did carry it around for about an hour looking for somewhere to recycle it but to no avail.

Are you from Montreal? Do you really not have public recycling bins? If so, why couldn’t I find any downtown?

I did, however, notice that Montreal has rent-a-bike stations and just as I was thinking to myself “yeah, but who uses them?” I saw about 15 of them go by in a row — looked to be a group of tourists. Great way to see the city!

So Montreal: You win some green points but you lose some too. I haven’t made up my mind yet if you’ve broken even though. I’ll get back to you, I suppose.

How fun would it have been to design these?

These cool apartments are called “The Interlace” and they’re built taking into account the surrounding micro-climate, wind and solar resources, and – of course – privacy for its residents. And what’s better? Rooftop gardens and balconies with flower beds. Built efficiently with plenty of green space. Kudos!

And hey, when trying to give directions to your place, you can proudly explain that you live in the Jenga building!

If Singapore sounds good to you, I suggest you hurry — I bet these will go fast.

What a great idea! I hope it’s as structurally sound as it looks. Well, as long as no one pulls out the wrong apartment block, I suppose…

[via]