Environmental

When I was a kid, we had a Toastmaster toaster. It was, as the ad says, "Lovely to look at, delightful to use, sure to endure." I think my mom still has it and still works. But being "a combination of classic beauty, perfect product performance and remarkable time-defying endurance" (yes, the ad says that too) is no longer what drives product design; now it is to be sold in Walmart for five bucks, in itself a remarkable story of manufacturing and retailing efficiency. The five dollar toaster and the 50 year toaster are both laudable goals, but when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions and getting off oi...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via the Telegraph It's time to get creative. Climate legislation, as we all know, is kaput. Hope is dim for any kind of greenhouse gas limiting policy to emerge over the next year -- or years, more likely. So climate activists and green groups are starting to think outside the box for how to cut carbon in large scale, meaningful ways. One promising option that has arisen is to push for more stringent fuel economy standards -- a coalition of environmental groups has just launched a campaign urging the Obama ad...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Canyons of the Ancients. Image Credit: Bureau of Land Management Southwest Colorado's Canyons of the Ancients is home to the greatest known concentration of archaeological sites in the United States. However, though it is protected as part of the National Conservation Lands, this ancient home of the Anasazi people is in trouble, and it's not alone. Overseen by the Conservation Lands Foundation, the Na...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via NY Mag Earlier in the week, I looked at a hypothetical scenario laid out by columnist David Brooks in which he imagined Obama and the Democrats had gone forward with an energy bill instead of doing health care reform. Joe Romm of Climate Progress had looked at the same scenario, and commented in the end that ""Future ge...Read the full story on TreeHugger

The age where this sign applies is older than it used to be... photo: Ethan Prater via flickr. While it might not seem at first that a new study, being highlighted by BBC News, on the overestimation of how much health care costs for our aging populations are likely to increase has an immediate connection to environmentalism, in fact realizing that we may have to spend considerably less money here, as people are productive at much older ages than they used to, has big ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

The Potomac, which runs through the heart of the United States Capital, has suffered centuries of environmental degradation. Water quality has declined steadily as more humans have populated its watershed. However, according to new research, the river is beginning to benefit from restoration efforts that have improved water clarity and reduced nutrient overload. The result has been a ten-fold increase in native submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). This SAV consists of plant life below the water surface which is an important habitat for fish and other marine life.

Increasingly erratic rainfall patterns related to climate change pose a major threat to food security and economic growth, water experts said on Monday, arguing for greater investment in water storage. In a report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), experts said Africa and Asia were likely to be hardest hit by unpredictable rainfall, and urged policymakers and farmers to try to find ways of diversifying sources of water. The IWMI research estimates that up to 499 million people in Africa and India could benefit from improved agricultural water management.

Sunny Delight Beverages Company’s recently released 2009 Sustainability Report outlines the company’s accomplishments over the past year, the most significant being the achievement of their Zero Waste to Landfill Goal by all U.S. and Spanish manufacturing plants more than 3 years ahead of schedule. The zero waste goals were achieved at Sunny’s Anaheim, Mataro and Littleton plants in 2009, 4 years ahead of the company’s 2013 goals.

The United States reiterated on Friday that it was committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 even though the Senate has failed to pass legislation. "I am in no sense writing off legislation over time. And I'm quite sure the president isn't," U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern told a news conference during two days of talks in Geneva among about 45 nations reviewing climate finance.

Image of Rajendra Singh in the documentary Flow via Mongrel Media Considered the Gandhi of water issues, Rajendra Singh is an activist about to begin an incredible walk in order to bring attention to India's water problems. Starting on October 1st at the threatened Goumouk glacier in the Himalayas, the head of the Ganges River, he will walk along the river's length to its mouth at the Bay of Bengal. Singh is embarking on this 37-day journey for a singular purpose -- to illustrate how the health of our fresh water systems determines the health of human populati...Read the full story on TreeHugger

We have to stop building polluting infrastructure, now. Photo: eutorphication & hypoxia via flickr. If you think all the carbon-spewing stuff we've built to date, from power plants to cars to airplanes, will just drag us over the climate change tipping point, think again. A new study, published in the journal Science, by scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology shows that there is still suffic...Read the full story on TreeHugger

There is widespread knowledge of airborne creatures taking to the water. Everybody knows about ducks and geese, penguins, and seabirds that dive for their prey. But, there is scant attention for the seaborne creatures that take to the air. Flying fish really do fly. A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology takes a look at how these amazing animals do what they do.

Image via Plumen A couple years ago, we told you about a concept light bulb called Plumenmade it from concept to market, proving we light strange twists to our CFLs. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

All images via Austin-Mergold Grain silos, made from corrugated and galvanized steel, are among the cheapest and most efficient enclosures one can buy; that's why Bucky Fuller played with them during World War II, with his Dymaxion Deployment Units. Updating the idea, Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG brings us Austin + Mergold's House-In-A-Can, recycling these grain s...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image via Ecorazzi In a further effort to provide animal-cruelty-free food options to consumers, PETA slapped their logo on a jar of peanut butter to remind eaters that yes, there are well-loved vegan options for lunch. They didn't however, slap their logo on any vegan-friendly bread, the more obvious area where consumers would need help quickly eyeballing options that are animal product-free. What is PETA up to with this new label?...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via Designboom The Retroreflector Tie by Jasna Sokolovic and Noel O'Connell is a somewhat subtle fashion statement for the safety-minded cyclist. And it is one of thousands of entries in Designboom's Seoul Cycle Design Competition 2010. For this tie, the designers wanted to add something useful to the options on store shelves for reflective clothing for cyclists -- something that was more than just functional. It's a statement many designers are making in a comp...Read the full story on TreeHugger

San Rafael Falls, Ecuador's tallest waterfall, is threatened by a Chinese-funded hydroelectric project, reports Save America's Forests, an environmental group. The 1,500 megawatt Coca-Codo Sinclair Hydroelectric Project will divert water flow away from the 480-foot San Rafael Falls, leaving it "high and dry." Worse, the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2016, will put pressure on the Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, an area renowned for its biodiversity...

Only an estimated 3,200 tigers remain in the wild worldwide. Image credit: Wildlife Conservation Society Worldwide, the loss of biodiversity has reached an alarming rate—one that many have compared to the greatest mass extinctions in the planet's history. Unfortunately, assessing the problem is not easy; most biodiversity studies are forced to rely on secondary and retrospective data. To fill this gap, the Read the full story on TreeHugger

Terrific ad campaign by the World Wildlife Fund in South Africa and SASSI, the South African Sustainable Seafood Foundation to encourage people to eat fish caught in an environmentally friendly manner that avoids bycatch. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via The Daily Mail What's going on in the animal world this week? From bugs with personalities and 50,000 minks set free in Greece to baby pandas, baby rhinos, and a newly-discovered chameleon, find out in our Week in Animal Photos slideshow. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger