“Nature Knows Best” is a safe rule of thumb – hence the exciting field of biomimicry. For more examples of ideas that we’ve borrowed from the best, have a look at this fifteen-strong list over at Brainz.
Have you used vinegar to clean your coffee-maker, or chalk to keep ants in check? If not, you might want to flick through these extraordinary uses for 16 household items, over at Woman’s Day.
Uh, Bill, what are you doing? At the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference, Microsoft founder Bill Gates illustrated the threat of malaria by releasing live mosquitos into the audience – accompanied by the less-than-reassuring words “There is no reason only poor people should be infected”. Luckily for his audience it was only a stunt (the mosquitos were malaria-free) but one with a deadly serious message.
If you’re indoors, you’re away from the nefarious effects of air pollution, right? Wrong. In fact, staying indoors might be the unhealthiest choice you could make, as The Daily Green explains.
While the leaders of the electronic industry struggle to clean up their act and get a favorable rating from Greenpeace, it’s a chance for other companies to sneak into the lead by trying something wholly new. Take the fascinating Recompute desktop PC, as featured at core 77. Its body is corrugated cardboard (recyclable, renewable and biodegrading), and it operates on a modular system where you upgrade it by plugging USB devices (eg. a wireless modem) in the side. Lovely idea – but it’s worth reading the accompanying comments for a few question marks over how useful it will really be in practice.
You’ll be aware of the humanitarian crisis enduring in the Sudanese region of Darfur – but you might not know that it’s underpinned by an equally catastrophic environmental meltdown. Desertification is an ecological change that we’ll be seeing more and more of – even now, every year, deserts worldwide swallow up productive land roughly the size of Nebraska. But there are ways and means of pushing back, and in Darfur, the Village Reforestation and Restoration Initiative is on the case. (Thanks to Global Patriot for the details).
And speaking of dessication, you’ll see it bandied around that precious water is fast becoming “the new oil”. Joel Makower would like to amend this statement – he believes it’s closer to the truth to call it “the new carbon”. Read why at Green Biz.
In the last couple of years, something happened that profoundly changes our relationship with the environment – we became a mainly urban species. Most of humanity now lives in cities or built-up urban areas. And the urban paradox facing us is that urban life may be the most efficient and exciting way forward, but it’s also a way rife with social and environmental problems. Can we make our cities fulfill their potential as places fit to live in?
Canadian hairdressers may be having a bad hair week. The chemicals D4 and D5 (siloxanes found in many shampoos) have just been labeled a threat to wildlife, and banned. Expensive shampoos 0, environment 1. (So why not do it yourself, and save a lot of cash?)
Non-eco is, like, so yesterday. It’s the old black. And that’s why green is the new black, see? Except it absolutely isn’t – because that suggest that the eco-friendly revolution is a fickle, transient, ephemeral thing that will dry up like the morning dew. And this couldn’t be more wrong. We’re firmly behind The Good Human on this point.
In the Washington Post’s Checkup column this week: where are we with discovering just how safe hormone therapy is?
Getting dream homes to match reality – it’s quite the challenge. And for Northfield Design Associates architect Don, there’s the added hurdle of squeezing his dream into a 27.5-feet wide plot. Here’s how he got on.
Of all the uses for used coffee grounds – the obvious being to sprinkle them on the garden (in moderation) – I’d never expect them to be turned into printer ink. But as Inhabitat shows, that’s what one designer has done (as an entrant for the Greener Gadgets Design Competition). Love the idea. Although it wouldn’t do good things to my caffeine intake when deadlines are pressing.
We spotted these Botanist Benches over at greenUPGRADER and were intrigued for a number of reasons. The use of super-recyclable aluminum, amongst other sustainable manufacturing techniques. The cutting of each bench with diamond-dust-impregnated water, ensuring no nasty fumes or by-products. But mainly, we were intrigued by the pictures. If there are more unlikely places to use desks than those pictured, we’d like to see them.
And finally, just to lower the tone in the interests of a healthy environment – public transport powered by poo!
Image: Nrbelex