Cool Eco News, Gadgets, and Innovation: Hippie Magazine » Lists

10 World Famous Trees

Dusty — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 15:35:16 +0000

We don’t often think of trees as famous. Every now and then, one rises above it’s brothers and sisters with a unique distinction. Either due to celebrity connections, unique life or even a trip to outer space, these trees are famous. You might even recognize a few of them.

Thanks to the folks at Treehugger that put in some major effort in originally assembling this group.

This lone Cypress tree rests on the coast of Pebble Beach and symbolizes the difficulty of the golf course as well as the ruggedness of the coast.

This tree was brought to the moon as a seed by Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa. How many people can say they have a moon tree?

In Sherwood Forrest, this tree allegedly sheltered Robin Hood. Yea, picture Russel Crowe in one of those branches.

This tree gave Anne Frank hope whilst hiding from the Nazis. A sad and inspiring tree at the same time.

Named the tree of life, this 400 year old tree is strong with no clear source of water.

The Cedars of God are actually mentioned in the Bible multiple times. Enough said.

This 1500 year old tree was reportedly used as a prison at one point.

Trees in California's Redwood Forrests have been carved in such a way that cars can pass through them. Imagine this baby as your front gate.

Siddhartha Gautama, founder of Buddhism, stared at this tree for a week as part of his process of enlightenment. Respect.

William Jackson loved this tree so much, he granted it independence from ownership. It became self aware in 2011 and will soon rule the world.

100+ steps to a green home

Dusty — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:42:33 +0000

The green movement is becoming less and less of a movement and more and more of a way of life. We all want a green home, and there are lots of ways to get there. We have sorted through the silly, the pointless and the too expensive to get down to the real ways to get a green home.

Taking any number of these steps will help you transform your home into a thriving, environmentally friendly habitat.

Buy Local
Buy Organic
Buy free range/cage-free
Avoid packaging
Do your research on products
Insulate or additionally insulate your home
Drive less
Make your own cleaning products
Wash clothes in cold water
Get a dishwasher
Convert to CFL bulbs from incandescent
Avoid greenwashing
Recycle
Eat less meat
Eat no meat
Reuse instead of buying new
Use Craigslist
Sell that extra car
Ride your bike
Take a staycation
Turn your computer off
Cancel your newspaper delivery and read it online
Offset your carbon footprint
Rake your leaves, don’t blow them
Get a reel mower (and ditch the gas one)
Start composting
Repurpose old things
Shop at garage sales, not stores
Turn down the heat
Turn down (up) the air conditioner
Eliminate phantom energy waste
Use power strips and turn them off at night
Shut doors to unused rooms
Stop printing things you don’t absolutely need
Use coupons
Make a donation to an environmental program
Convert your 2 stroke engines to 4 stroke
Mow your lawn less
Start a flower garden
Grow your own food
Paint instead of renovate
Use low VOC paint
Buy energy star appliances (only when you absolutely need a new appliance)
Don’t buy a hybrid (huh??)
Telecommute
Buy organic dog food
Ditch the paper cups for coffee and bring a mug to work
Dry your clothes on a rack
Dry your clothes on a clothesline
Seal up your home to stop heating (and cooling) the outdoors
Turn your AC completely off (we need heat to survive, we don’t need cold)
Wrap your water heater in one of those silver blanket things
Install a timer on your water heater so you only have hot water when you typically need it or…
Install a tankless (on demand) water heater
Convert to electric hot water and/or heat and…
Install solar panels or…
Install a wind turbine or…
Buy clean energy from your utility provider
Get netflix (instead of driving to Blockbuster) or…
Even better: download your movies
Cancel your junk mail and extra catalogs and magazines (the mail system is incredibly inefficient)
Give gift certificates for birthdays and holidays instead of shipping presents
Give to an environmental charity instead of buying “things”
Only run that dishwasher when full
Use electricity during off-peak demand times whenever possible (avoid mornings and evenings)
Clear off the top of your fridge (both inside and out)
Fill up your freezer (it’s more efficient when full)
Clean your fridge’s rear-end (the coils should be clear of dust and pet hair)
Take the bus
Start or utilize a ride-sharing program
Work four 10 hour days instead of five 8 hour days (cuts your commute waste)
Stop buying bottled water – bring a water bottle of tap water
Buy a filter if you can’t stand the taste
Turn off the TV and…
get some exercise
Turn off those extra lights or…
Install some light timers
Turn off those holiday lights at night
Turn off those fans
Turn down up the refrigerator temperature
Host your website with a green web host
Print with an eco-font
Reuse an older cell phone or…
Buy a used one or…
Stick with the one you’ve got
Read by candlelight (instead of electric light)
Light a fire (in a fireplace or something)
Keep plastics out of the microwave or…
Ditch plastics altogether and switch to glass containers
Bring leftovers, don’t buy your lunch every day
Recycle your metal, even old electrical wire and computers (did you know you could do that??)
Don’t burn yard waste (let it rot… seriously)
Eat less (a lot of a human’s carbon footprint comes from growing, processing, preparing, cooking and *cough* disposing of food waste)
Don’t even think about using paper plates
Drink green wine
Don’t host a progressive party (it’s wasteful to drive lots of people from place to place)
Send an e-vite
Serve and buy seasonal food (can YOUR region grow strawberries in January?!?)
Join a CSA Farm (community sustained agriculture)
Read this blog!
Keep your car instead of upgrading
Shovel snow instead of plowing or snowblowing
Turn the TV OFF (we already said this once but it’s double-important)

Do you have an idea for making a green home? Post it here as a comment.

This article is CROWD SOURCED! What does that mean? Our goal is to grow this list, and for each item to have a link to a helpful resource. For example, if you have a resource for #91, recycling your metal, post it here as a comment and we’ll try to create a link for you.

Sources/Additional Resources:

Image credit: souzablog.com

2009 in review: how far have we come?

Dusty — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:47:39 +0000

Everyone seems to be writing “Year in Review” posts right now. We considered that too, but since everyone else is doing it, why would we?

We settled on a different idea. We looked back on 2008 year in reviews to compare between then and now. We asked: How far have we come? Are we where we hoped to be? Is our slope of innovation steep enough? There are so many more questions to ask but these were enough to get started.

T. Boone Pickens was getting some press. His plan is still out there: to use our domestic wind resources to power the country. Although this hasn’t happened yet, it is catching on as a realistic idea. But coming from a man who made his billions from the oil industry – can’t we rely on anyone else?
Big money was getting pumped into solar. From unconventional solar installations to micro-solar applications on your roof, we saw big investments in solar. This hasn’t come to fruition yet either, but solar is steadily growing in terms of infrastructure and capacity. As we invest more and more in this renewable energy source, we predict the U.S. will reach the solar tipping point in 2010.
President Obama had just picked a green technology expert to lead us into the next decade. Steven Chu, an alternative energy and green tech guru was picked to lead the U.S. into the future of renewable energy policy. We have yet to see sweeping changes in this area. To be fair, the Administration has been focused on healthcare and the horrific mess in the Middle East.
Flexible computer displays promised to put energy-efficient computers in every hand. The race for the $100 laptop was similar to the race for the smallest, most mobile and flexible computers. Flexible displays promised to put more mobile devices in people’s hands – thus limiting the reliance on big, energy-sucking desktop computers. This also hasn’t happened yet, but would be great to see in the near future. Our prediction: the price is (and will remain) too high for the average consumer for some time.
Cloud Computing was going to take the CPU out of your computer. The idea of cloud computing is amazingly simple. It would decentralize your files, your computing power, etc. and only place minimal components in your hands. This would lighten the energy load of your computer and allow you to access files and computing power from virtually anywhere. This has not come to reality just yet. Some companies are still pushing the idea, including Google. Maybe in 2010?
President Obama was poised to change the U.S.’s position in the world of climate change. We were set to become the leader in progressive energy policy. From Ecollo.com we saw this prediction for 2009 “Speaking of the U.S. government, President-elect Barack Obama could turn the country into climate change leaders by the end of the year, says the Globe and Mail. The columnist for the paper also predicts that the price of oil is now reasonable enough to implement a cap-and-trade and that climate change will be the – for lack of a better word – hot topic of 2009.” This has not happened and Copenhagen was a giant disappointment.
The Huffington Post predicted the United States Government could make bottled water a thing of the past. Again, the Government has failed us.
JetsonGreen.com predicted the non-green would perish. This is partly true. We have certainly seen an increase in the number of green products available. Although some of these are greenwashing, there are many companies innovating and inventing like crazy to keep up with consumer demand for environmentally friendly products. The economic down-turn helped with this, but we would love to see the next evolution of this movement be to de-consumerization (I think we just made that word up). Rather than buying more eco-friendly products, should we just buy less products?

So we ask, have we made the progress we hoped to make? Have we grown in environmental courage like we planned? We have made tons of progress and many eco innovations. However, we put entirely too much faith in our world leaders to make the changes the majority of us are asking for.

What we hope to learn from the minimal progress made in 2009 is that real change begins at the bottom. Originating with the people, lasting and effective change happens when citizens collect themselves to identify a need and offer a solution.

Sources:

Image Credit: JetsonGreen

Green holiday gift idea roundup

Dusty — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:49:40 +0000

Everyone is pushing gifts this year, but consumers are buying less – which is a good thing. Not only does it leave money in your pocket but it leaves resources in the ground. (You know what we mean)

Here is a roundup of some of our favorite green gift guides for 2009.

(even more) Alternatives to wrapping paper for the holidays

Dusty — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:51:16 +0000

A short time ago we posted 10 Alternatives to Wrapping Paper. Well we’ve found even more alternatives with some businesses that can offer you a waste-free holiday season.

Reusable gift bags from Lucky Crow will pass on environmentally friendly wrapping and a reusable gift bag.
Botanical Paperworks offers wrapping paper with 100% post consumer content and seeds embedded so you can plant the paper after you’re done.
Of The Earth offers wrapping paper with at least 50% post-consumer content.

5 most over-used "go green tips"

Dusty — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:00:06 +0000

Instead of a “top 5 ways to go green” list, which everyone seems to be doing, we thought it would be nice to share a list of what we feel are the most over-used tips for going green.

Change to CFL bulbs. – Ugh! They used to be $10 each, now they’re $1. That’s all the motivation people need.
Switch to low-flow faucets and showerheads. – Ok, we got it.
Use the cold setting on washers and dryers. – This one’s a good tip, but still over-used.
Turn down your thermostat. – This tip has been used as a money saving tips for probably 100 years.
Carpool. – Ditto, seriously. It’s common sense folks.

18 excellent green blogs to follow

Dusty — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:00:48 +0000

These are some of our favorite blogs that deal with the climate crisis. We strive to bring you excellent resources to incorporate into your green lifestyle. If you have your own eco favorites, feel free to add them as comments below!

10 alternatives to wrapping paper

Dusty — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:01:45 +0000

Wrapping paper is one of the most wasteful products. We do not need to cover our already over-packaged, unneeded products in a thin, heavily dyed paper. But that doesn’t mean we’re against the excitement and surprise of Christmas. So challenge yourself to try one of these waste reducing alternatives to wrapping paper this year.

Tote bags – We have done a great job moving away from plastic and paper bags, but some of us are finding tons of extra tote bags lying around. Use this handy video to learn how to wrap presents with one of these tote bags.
Newspaper – if you still get a wasteful newspaper delivered to your door, think about reusing it to wrap your gifts this year.
Takeout menus – These are constantly being delivered to urban doorsteps, they are perfect wrapping alternatives to smaller gifts.
Small food boxes – Mac & Cheese, jell-o, and other boxes make great gift boxes, and they’re good for a laugh or conversation starter too.
Fabric – All you crafters have fabric lying around, throw together a quick bag to hide presents in.
Don’t Wrap! (who needs the surprise anyway? The holidays are about spending time with loved ones, not presents.
Other gifts – Are you giving towels, shirts, etc.? Try wrapping your secondary gift in one of those soft items.
Just a bow – this is really nice on larger presents.
Give an intangible gift – There are many non-profit organizations that will simply send an email to your gift recipient informing them a donation was made on their behalf.
A tote bag – for those who haven’t converted from plastic bags yet, this can be a double-whammy of a green gift.