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!

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Remember way back in April when I wrote about the city of Ottawa’s TREE Program? Well, my delivery day is fast approaching!

I received a letter today explaining to me that my tree would be delivered to me sometime between September 22nd and October 2nd and will include everything I need to plant this tree right away: a sapling, some soil, a pot, some soil nutrients and compost.

I wonder what kind of tree it will be? They make no promises that you’ll get a tree of your choosing (you choose 3 options on your application) but they do say that they try their very best to get you one of your choices. I chose, in order:

1. Japanese lilac
2. Hackberry
3. Crabapple

I’ll be taking the tree up to my parent’s house to plant on their farm. My mom is very excited to see what we get and has a place picked out for it already. What a better way to show my commitment to going green than to plant a tree! I’ll be sure to post some pictures/video when the tree comes. I’m so excited!

What are you waiting for, Ottawa residents? The next tree delivery season is May/June so be sure to fill out your application now! Don’t have anywhere to put a tree? You can also fill in a form recommending a spot for the city to plant a tree for you.

Hey US readers, do you Tweet? Are you a Twitterer? A Tweep, as it were? Well, if you’re following me, odds are this movie is right up your alley.

I love the tagline: “Can you save the planet without driving your family crazy?” It’d definitely on my must-see list.

Check out the trailer, then read below to see how you can get free tickets to see the film premiere!

No Impact Man is in theaters September 11, 2009. Click here for theater information.

In the following cities:
New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Philadelphia, Washington DC, San Diego, Boston, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City

Follow these two easy steps:

1. Follow them on Twitter
2. Tweet the following:

#NIMtix @oscopelabs is giving away tix to No Impact Man in theaters Sept 2009 www.noimpactdoc.com

Winners will be announced shortly.

Good Luck, readers!

This video, taken at this year’s GEL (Good Experience Live) Conference, features a pretty funny speaker named Graham Hill. Hill was asked to give a 20 minute talk about climate change this year and managed to do so in a very engaging way — I watched the entire 20 minute video with absolutely no problems understanding what he was on about, which is more than I can say about a lot of climate change/enviro science videos. This one’s in plain english!

He points out some interesting things — like, what’s the use of creating a product that can be recycled, but not creating the facilities needed to recycle that product? Hill also offers up a plan that could save you $1000, make you healthier, and lose 10 tons of carbon in just one day a week.

Check out Graham Hill’s climate change soloutions now. And if that tickles your fancy, check out the rest of the videos here.

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I’ve recently been quite curious about how global warming is affecting the rest of the world. I know that in Ottawa, we’ve had some pretty odd weather these past few years. This year was full of extremes: Extreme rain, extreme heat, extreme humidity… Certainly a noticable difference in weather patterns as time goes on. I’m no meterologist, but I definitely notice when Chicago has it’s coolest July 8th in 118 years, North Dakota has it’s first snowfall in June in 60 years, a summer of record low temperatures right here in Canada, and a likely-to-be-accurate prediction of a green Christmas.

Well, here’s a video featuring some Greenlanders talking about how they’ve been affected by climate change this year. Some of what they say is sadly what I’ve come to expect but some affects are quite surprising to me.

Have something to add? Let me know in the comments!

This recipe really speaks for itself. Show me a person that dislikes warm goat cheese, toasted pistachios, and caramelized onions and I’ll show you a person that hasn’t lived.

Okay, maybe that’s extreme. But this is really good salad. And that’s extremely truthful.

Ingredients:

• One bunch of arugula, washed and dried
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup
• 4 Tbsp fresh goat cheese
• 4 Tbsp green pistachios, shelled (or walnuts)
• 3 Tbsp blueberry balsamic vinegar
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• Fresh black pepper and sea salt to taste
• Optional: Red onions, pears

Method:

1. Divide the greens and goat cheese between two plates. DO NOT eat all of your goat cheese right now impatiently, you need it for the salad. PUT IT DOWN.
2. Now, put a dry frying pan on med heat and toast the pistachios until golden and fragrant. Again, don’t eat all of your pistachios right now, save them for the salad. Trust me, you don’t want to eat too many pistachios anyway. Your stomach will hate you for it.
3. Remove from pan and place to one side. Melt the butter in the same pan and slowly cook the onions over low heat for about twenty minutes.
4. Add the maple syrup and let it thicken. Whisk together the vinegar and oil and set aside.
5. Divide the pistachios between the plates and top with the onions and dressing. Add pepper to taste.

I’m trying out blogging on the go — on my mobile!

I was thinking that bringing you pictures, audio, and video on the road would be a neat way to show you the green things that inspire me in the moment!

Stay tuned for interesting stores around town? Neat products I see, and anything else ecoIfriendly that really catches me eye!

I’ve been passing this around to every student and every teacher I know:

In this video, called The Lazy Greenover, Brita shows some of the fruits of their partnership with Nalgene to create FilterForGood — a campaign to reduce bottled water waste.

I’m sure some of my readers are students or at least know students — listen up! You could win one of five $10,000 Eco-Challenge grants just by submitting a proposal letting FilterForGood know how you would make your campus more sustainable.

Check out the website for more information!

TreeHugger has just posted a funny article entitled “7 Funniest Moments in Green YouTube Video” and in the list is my all-time favourite commercial. I wanted to share it with you here because it really sets itself apart from other Green commercials. I won’t ruin the plot by explaining it to you — watch it to know what I mean, heh.

Runners up for best green YouTube videos go to:

• Get clean coal clean! (made better by the fact that it was directed by the Coen brothers)
• Human Virus (I love this one — the voice over really makes it.)

While learning to be more eco-friendly, I run into things daily that I don’t quite understand. Some of it, honestly, takes me by surprise. Solar power is a perfect example. I’d love to say that I completely understand solar power, but I really don’t. Sure, I know it’s energy from the sun… I’ve seen solar panels, certainly. But do they… collect the suns rays? How do they turn the sunlight into energy?

Here’s a 7 minute video made by PG&E, a giant utility company in California, that exlains solar power and how it’s converted into electricity.

There’s also a video on PG&E’s website that’s definitely more detailed and informative. And if you’ve got the time — 1h47m, that is — I highly recommend it!

“We will have solar energy as soon as the utility companies solve one technical problem — how to run a sunbeam through a meter.” — anonymous