Growing a Greener Apartment
Living in a city, especially one as walking and public-transport oriented as New York, is way more sustainable than the ‘burbs or the country, since resources for so many people are centralized. You can go even greener by renting or buying an apartment that’s in one of the green buildings…
Ewwww…..This is Why You Need a Water Filter!
On the left is the filter that was replaced, on the right is the new filter. Bottled water sucks, we all know that (if you don’t know why, read this article and you’ll know everything): You can Go Here and read my top 5 reasons for eschewing the bottle…. –It…
An American Corporation in China
Deadly pet food, poisonous toothpaste, carcinogenic shrimp, and toxic Thomas the Tank Engine toys aren’t the only dangerous exports coming out of China. According to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, a trusted source amongst academics and UN environmental envoys, The People’s Republic of China is now the largest producer of…
Not Only Are They Gas-Guzzlers….
….they’re not very safe either, according to this MSN report. The seat of a sport-utility vehicle or a pickup truck isn’t necessarily the best place to be in a rear-end crash. Despite the considerable weight and size of these kinds of vehicles that convey a sense of safety, more than…
The Car-free Life in Paris
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the trend toward building entire subdivisions as car-free communities here in Germany; though these neighborhoods eschew cars and roads for bikes and courtyards, they also offer a bit of storage space to house the bikes (either as covered garages or, in the single-family…
Love Lost and Hope Found at "Design for the Other 90%"
Text by Guest-Blogger Josh Wiese Images by Starre Vartan and Josh Wiese Have you ever just known that the person who’s call you’re eagerly awaiting is the one for you? I mean THE ONE. It’s this strange penetrating feeling you just can’t shake. You want to. It doesn’t make sense,…
How Good is Good Enough?
Cartoon by John Darkow A few years back, in the middle of a cultural studies seminar that sidetracked into a tag-team Wal-Mart bash, the woman sitting next to me rolled her eyes. “This argument is so last year. Can we get over Wal-Mart already?” she said. I’m one of the…
Solar to power the world
The amount of energy hitting the earth from the sun every minute is great than the amount of energy the would burns up in fossil fuels in one year. That’s a whole lot of energy just sitting around waiting to be used while we continue to use oil and crap…
Casual Car Pool
Every weekday morning, mostly in the East Bay, you see them lined up like lemmings — sedans, SUVs, pickup trucks and the odd sports car, creeping along the curb. Coming up the sidewalk toward them, dressed for the day’s battle with the city, are the hardy commuters. — San Francisco…
Can You Go No Impact?
Image by Nicole Bengiveno for the NYTimes Fascinating article in the NYTimes about a family in Manhattan who is practicing a “No Impact” (on the Earth) lifestyle. Of course, his family were uberconsumers to begin with, and now they’re going cold turkey: Colin Beavan, 43, a writer of historical nonfiction,…
