Here are our favorites for starting your week in a green way:
Impulse buying, one of the great eco-curses of our age, just got hi-tech. As ABC News reports, new phone technology allows you to buy clothes the split-second you see them, cutting out all that tedious thinking about whether you need it or not.
Red means Danger – and never more so than in this map of areas of the US that have been offered for leasing by major oil companies. Unsettling.
Eco-friendly Internet search engines? Yes indeed – and there’s 27 of them listed over at Web Ecoist. (If, like me, you’re a touch skeptical, have a read of Blackle‘s well-argued explanation).
Totally recycled clothing is a goal that the fashion industry can’t ignore. It looks like the message is getting across – take the 100% recycleable plastic shoes, as made by Melissa (and reported at Feelgood Style). Word is a few of our EcoSalon fashionistas own these chic slippers.
However, let’s hope designers take sustainability a little more seriously than they take functionality.
How’s this for escapism? The stunning Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (Wyoming) has a new eco-boutique, Hotel Terra – and to celebrate, it’s giving away prizes of three days & nights of luxury pampering, complete with (offset) flights to and from Jackson Hole and much more besides. Go here before September 30th to join the competition – good luck! (And if you win, we’d love to hear about it while we grouse about not winning ourselves).
A huge round of applause for Wayne Smallman, who proposes a mobile electronics manifesto for greening up our favourite gadget, over at Blah Blah Technology (actual name; not Mike being lazy). Piezoelectric sensors are a fabulous suggestion for the future of electronics.
And on the subject of dazzling lateral thinking, what about the way asphalt becomes roastingly hot in the midday sun? As EcoGeek reports, researchers have found a way to channel that energy into water pipes. Ingenious.
If you want a forest to be the most effective collector of carbon dioxide it could be….leave it alone. Replanted forests have just a third of the capacity of untouched woodland, suggests a study from the Australian National University.
After writing about sea glass last week, it struck me that the word I was searching for, to describe the opaque finish on freshly retrieved sand-scoured beach glass…was frosted. Like these jewel-tone bottle vases from our sponsor Viva Terra. (I promise to buy a better dictionary).
Have a great week!
Image: Andrew*