SalvaEco

The merits of beer have been heralded from the plays of Shakespeare to the roofs of frat houses. Almost all of us have sipped a cold one at least once (or several thousand) times in our lives. Have you ever given a thought, however, to that bottle in your hands? In a time when we're becoming more clever in creating dual-purpose functions from the most obscure of items, the beer bottle has found a new afterlife: assisting in the creation of hot water.

Sure, this probably isn't very new. With the right materials to capture heat, almost anyone can create their own hot water. This is the first time, however, that I've seen a beer bottle solar collector used so effectively. If necessity in the mother of invention, then Ma Yanjun from China's Shaanxi province is proof that a little motherly love can push you in the right direction. Yanjun came up with the idea of stringing together a collection of green beer bottles to heat water after his Mother became less than comfortable with their previous setup. From the article,

Uber-Eco-Towers: The Top Ten Green Skyscrapers
New Device Turns Waste Heat into Electricity
Sooty Vessels Try to Turn Green
Eating Radiation: A New Form of Energy?
Building Better Biofuels

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(Posted by David Zaks in News and Views at 6:49 PM)

We are pleased to announce the launch of Worldchanging’s new podcast series, hosted by our colleague and ally, Jennifer Leonard.
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(Posted by WorldChanging Team in Media at 5:38 AM)

A couple of events happening this weekend came across our radar over the last few days, and we thought you might be interested

Tonight in San Diego, the newly-formed Eco-Investment Club will hold a "Greenmeet" at the Hotel Solamar (downtown). International real estate investment strategist Gary H. London, of the London Group, will be speaking about his recently-published article “Green Economics as Applied to Development." Gary will be joined by Kyle Cross and Ruben Robles of Destino Real Estate; they will speak on "Wholesaling Green Propeties."

Tickets for the event are $25 for the general public, and $10 for club members — details and ticketing information are available at the Club's website. We're especially pleased to announce this event, as Eco-Investment Club founder Yeves Perez will soon be joining the Green Options writing team!

On the other coast, in New York City, Tomorrow Unlimited will present Jennifer Leonard, a designer and writer who co-authored Massive Change, and Sarah Rich, a solutions-based journalist who co-authored Worldchanging: A Users Guide to the 21st Century in a discussion entitled "Sustaining Change." Jennifer and Sarah will explore ideas about making the ideas of sustainability sustainable themselves for the long haul. They’ll also discuss ways their own thinking on sustainability has changed since completing their respective projects. In doing so, they’ll ask questions about the role of innovative design and technology in our global future, confront the trendiness of contemporary environmental thinking, and consider the importance of change itself for the long-term viability of the sustainable movement.

Our guest blogger, Sheryl Canter, is an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

If you have a garden, you know the climate is warming. In temperate zones, the last frost in spring comes earlier, and the first frost in fall comes later. The longer growing season may allow you to grow vegetables you never could grow before. But you also may have noticed your weeds are more aggressive, insect pests are more of a problem, and pollen plagues you all summer long. You're not imagining things!

For over 40 years, gardeners have relied on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map as a guide to what they can grow in their area. But the USDA zone map hasn't been updated since 1990, and gardeners have seen detectable shifts since that time.

In 2003, the American Horticultural Society (AHS) updated the zone map with a grant from the USDA, and published a draft of the new map [PDF] in The American Gardener. Based on temperature information from July 1986 to March 2002, the map showed widespread warming, with zones edging northward.

The USDA rejected the new map without explaining why, and said they would update it themselves. Four years have passed and still they have not released a new map. But the National Arbor Day Foundation has just released one, current for 2006. Like the 1990 and 2003 maps, the Arbor Day map is based on 15 years of data. The changes between 1990 and 2006 are dramatic; the U.S. is clearly getting warmer.

We speak frequently about the tension between small personal steps and large systemic changes, but we don’t offer explore the hardships and joys of the big things we do as individuals. Take transit — no, literally take transit in much of North America, and you will discover a mode of conveyance that is generally greener (much greener if traveling within a dense city) but at least on occasion far more inconvenient: checking timetables, waiting for late buses and trains, dealing with the crazy and homeless, moving at the mercy of large bureaucracies. There is a quiet heroism to those of us North Americans who not only don’t drive, but don’t even own a car and thus go everywhere they go by public transportation. Enter Transitman! Seattle artist (and my close friend) Christian French spent a stint as artist-in-residence for the public transportation agency Sound Transit. In the process, he decided that what was most interesting was not the routes the agency was building, or the new railroad cars that would run on them, but the people who would decide to ride in them. To dramatize the hard, quiet work demanded of those riders, French created a persona, TransitMan, a superhero… (more)

(Posted by Alex Steffen in Arts at 5:36 AM)

Editor's note: This week, Ecotality blogger Steve Caratzas takes a look at a recent New York Times article that outlines Thomas Edison's green thinking. This post was originallly published on June 3, 2007.

The New York Times has a terrific article about Thomas Edison, and his unparalleled impact on our daily lives, as well as our current (you should pardon the pun) environmental situation.

No individual deserves more credit, or blame, for America’s voracious electricity consumption than Edison, who conceived not only that generating station but also the notoriously inefficient incandescent bulb and a slew of volt-thirsty devices.

However, Edison was also a green visionary of sorts, whose ideas about sustainable energy encompassed windmills and an energy-self-sufficient home.

Anna Dumitriu is the Director of the Institute of Unnecessary Research and an artist whose work is deeply grounded in scientific research. I met her a few weeks ago at the Mobile Music Workshop in Amsterdam where she was presenting Bio-Tracking, a mobile phone-based exhibition using GPS and a software called Socialight which enabled the placement of virtual sticky notes around various locations in Brighton. Anna sampled various locations in the city for bacteria and molds, revealing this unseen world to us through digital micrographs. Luciana Haill, Ian Helliwell Ollie Glass and Juliet Kac created a series of sound works to accompany the images. Microbiologist John Paul wrote scientific text descriptions of the microbes. The use of GPS to map the locations where the microbiological swabs were taken brought together the microscopic and the macroscopic, drawing a thread between the satellites orbiting the earth and the bacteria at our feet. Visitors could download the software and wander around the sites receiving SMS, sound files and images to their phones. Due to the nature of Socialight the exhibition is still live and can be viewed now. I was so impressed by Anna’s enthusiasm and the sense of poetry she brings to… (more)

(Posted by Regine Debatty in Arts at 5:33 AM)

Want to improve the indoor air quality in your home or office? Get a houseplant.

Plants can absorb air pollutants and can alleviate some "sick building syndrome" symptoms such as headaches and eye, nose or throat irritation which may be caused by inadequate ventilation, chemical contaminants (ie. VOCs, carbon monoxide) or biological contaminants (ie. mold, pollen).

You don't have to overdo it. One plant for every 10 sq yards of floor space should be plenty.