Solar Sheep to the Rescue!
Many solar farm designers didn’t plan for the high grasses that would grow up and block precious sunlight from solar panels. The solution? Solar sheep! Here’s an eco-business that’s new, different, and in demand.
Vertical Gardens for Urban Areas
If you have only a small exterior space for growing plants and flowers, why not try a vertical garden?
Tesla’s Autopilot: A Disincentive to Public Transit?
The debate is on! Will Tesla’s Model S Autopilot usher in an era where commuting is easy and public transit loses its appeal? Does Tesla’s Autopilot feature contribute to urban sprawl?
A Contest to Fight Urbanisation
What can a bunch of grad students do to try to combat urban sprawl? We’ll find out as the entries for The Geneva Challenge arrive on July 31, 2016.
Help the Yes Men Activists Create a Climate Change Public Revolution
The Yes Men are brilliant satirical social activists who are adept at political impersonations, hoax interviews and using humor to highlight the absurdity of entrenched destructive corporate influence. The group is now making a documentary entitled: The Yes Men are Revolting. The movie chronicles some of the group’s clever disruptive actions, focusing on impending climate change disasters in store for our planet if we all continue to do nothing.
When it Comes to Labeling GMO Food, Monsanto Prefers to Flip-Flop
Monsanto is trying to destroy California’s Proposition 37, a piece of legislation that they once supported.
The Exxon-Valdez Obituary: Failed Attempts at Rewriting Reputation
Recently, the notorious Exxon-Valdez ship was transported to Indian waters for dismantling; but its toxic reputation had preceded the vessel, which began drowning in a quagmire of litigation, controversy and concern. The ship is a 27-year-old behemoth that grabbed the headlines in 1989 with one of the worst oil-tanker spills in all of human history.
Capturing Sunlight in a Bulb to Eliminate Kerosene for Lighting
It is estimated that almost 1.6 billion people on this planet live without electricity. That means to have any kind of light in the darkness (12 hours of darkness in countries near the Equator), toxic fuels such as kerosene are used to fuel lanterns for reading or cooking. While they provide much needed light, they also pollute habitats and endanger the health of those living inside.
The Beaver Manifesto Shows Us the Way
Canadian professor Glynnis Hood’s fantastic new book, “The Beaver Manifesto”, just arrived in the mail today. I started reading the small volume immediately, and found both the writing and the message most engrossing. I am already a devout fan of the beaver, and was immediately sold at the first few words of the manifesto:
“If I could design the perfect animal, it would be the beaver…”
Banktransferlujah!! Money Transfer Action Day!
This Saturday thousands of people around the country are transferring their money from large corporate banks, into small financial institutions, community-oriented cooperatives and credit unions. We’ve been doing this for some time, check out our own Dragonfly’s amazing stealth video during our successful campaign against JP Morgan Chase and their financing of Mountaintop Removal.
Scotland — Home to World’s 1st Online Urban Green Space Map?
I recently read a headline saying that Scotland had made the “World’s First Urban Green Space Map.” Now, while that sounds pretty cool, I’m not sure if I caught what’s first about it. As you may or may not know, my master’s degree was in city planning — making urban green space maps is nothing new in the field. Even making online, interactive versions of the maps like this one is not at all unheard of. My only thought is that it might be the first national-scale map of its kind….
In Praise of PARK(ing) Day
On PARK(ing) Day each year, citizens take back a bit of the green spaces lost to parking spaces. There is a message behind this event, and that is to demonstrate, in a very visual way, the quick decline in green spaces for humans, sacrificed for the ever-growing need for places to park our cars.
Earth Preaching
Believing that the Earth is our god, government, economy and culture – all wrapped into one big institution – that is simple common sense!
Raising Awareness, Markets and Dollars by Raising issues
Why was Avatar such an international hit? Pundits and viewers/reviewers cite animation effects and a combination of fantasy and real global issues such as themes of indigenous cultures, corporate eco-terrorism, and the supremacy of the forces of nature. What Avatar may not have pushed completely with their merchandising (though the audience saw it as they watched) was the integrity of the values that the viewers were pulled to the box office for time after time. Seth Godin may interrupt this paragraph with his adage that the Fox consumer division is just selling what people are buying…. But are they? When Joe Smith bought a movie ticket for the third time, he was probably buying values at that point.