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Car Green Blogs
Experts and activists from the city and from the rest of the country met to share ideas on how to make Chicago a more bike-friendly city. Check out this great video of the event!
Last week I showed a new British design for a cycling backpack for suits; turns out that there is already one on the market, made in Vancouver.
This is up from the previous estimate, which was 87 MPGe. But this being a plug-in, that number can be misleading, and there are a few things you need to know about it...
A wind energy company is turning its attention to electric car charging. And the results are appearing in rest areas up and down the country.
Brad Pitt is right. Cars are ridiculous. 
Finally some serious promotion to the dangers of cycling and the responsibility of drivers.
ORBEA has devolved the GROW system that lets kids' bikes be adjusted in size for better ergonomic, economic and ecologic performance. It just hot the Spanish market, see what you think!
Even multi-millionaire pro-basketball players can ride bikes to commute to work!
A computer programmer gives us a new view of the city's transit system, a rush hour compressed into fifty-seven seconds.
In London, there's now an all-electric car you can hail like a cab. No more range anxiety, congestion charge, or parking panic.
10,000 new bikes will appear in NYC next summer when a new bike-sharing program is launched. You can help decide where bike stations will be located in your area by going to community workshops. Do you part!
The Hirikio electric microcar seats two and folds to just under 5', and is set for trial production starting next year.
Building new roads has been a major contributor to the city's unsustainable growth, newly released Landsat photos show, but more of the same appears to be on the horizon.
You can now watch Chris Paine's sequel documentary to 'Who Killed The Electric Car?' for free!
More than 275 people from 20 states and three countries came to the second annual Youth Bike Summit in New York City.Source:Tree Hugger Currently more and more cities continue to grow and act as hubs for employment around the world. It's unlikely that the issues associated with commuting will disappear anytime soon. To try to gain more knowledge on peoples attitudes concerning traffic congestion IBM conducted the 2011 Commuter Pain Survey. By using a speedometer graphic IMB ranked the emotional and economic toll of 20 different cities around the world.
According to IMB, the index is comprised of 10 issues:
1) commuting time, 2) time stuck in traffic, agreement that: 3) price of gas is already too high, 4) traffic has gotten worse, 5) start-stop traffic i... Read the full story on Planet Green What do little girls want to grow up to be? Princesses? How about scientists and teachers? Time Warner Cable and other corporations (Discovery included) are behind a push to foster "Green Girls" and boys for the next generation.
Time Warner recently helped put on a program with the New York City Parks Department where girls learned about the ecology of dragonfilies and damselflies (how appropriate).
Now some girls, my two daughters included, may think bugs are yucky, but they think science and "saving the Earth" are cool. And what... Read the full story on Planet Green Brett Dennen is a modern day rockstar. Instead of sex and drugs, he's into living healthy, cooking from his backyard garden, and eating mostly raw. Does that make him totally uncool, or just a too-unusual role model?
Brett is currently on tour with Reverb, a Maine nonprofit that greens concert tours and venues, including for artists like Dave Matthews Band. Brett is on the Matthews' Caravan tour this year as well.
So... Read the full story on Planet Green Super Mario Bros., Tetris, Zelda
aside from seriously working the fingers, plus the occasional shoulder and back action as your body uncontrollably gets into the gaming action, video games of the past were, yes, sedentary activities. Not anymore. The Wii put fitness gaming on the map, and now with the new Kinect for Xbox, playing a video game can rival, if not beat, any gym workout (a fact that some personal trainers are expressing concerns over).
E3, the annual video game expo, showcased some of the most technologically advanced in video gaming. Yes, there were lots of games that require little more than finger movements. And then there were those that, even just doing the demo, leaves you sweating buc... Read the full story on Planet Green As more and more cities implement bicycle-share options into their city infrastructure, cyclists and eco-conscious folks around the world can rejoice knowing there are convenient green transport options around that do not contribute to further to traffic congestion. While modern bike sharing is often thought of as a western idea, it's interesting to observe how cities outside of Europe and North America are coping with bike-share programs.
China has always had a history of cycling, since it is a nation with a massive popul... Read the full story on Planet Green It's easy to get excited about getting new gadgets, but we rarely give an afterthought to what happens to our old laptops or cell phones after we put them out on the curb. Some of us might be more responsible and bring them to the nearest recycling facility for proper disposal, but the fact of the matter is e-waste -- which includes any discarded or end-of-life appliances that used electricity or has electrically-powered parts -- contain both valuable and hazardous materials such as lead or mercury. And like other toxin-containing goods, Read the full story on Planet Green If you don't like being tethered to an office chair, then you've likely learned to appreciate wi-fi. Ah, the freedom. Work at the coffee shop. Or on the beach. With freedom, however, comes responsibility, right? Like taking responsibility for our carbon emissions, both personal, national and international.
If this sounds too preachy, and you're tired of the climate change alarms, just consider one more: A warming planet egged on by human-related emissions of greenhouse gases could affect wi-fi signals.
So much for traveling and working from the road or a more relaxing place if this prediction comes to pass. The wi-fi trouble is being predicted by Read the full story on Planet Green Let the flame wars begin. I still have friends who are Apple nuts. I used to be one. I moved to a PC years ago. I was tired of being a pioneer. And tired of hearing "the Mac version will be released soon." PCs cost less, they're more widely used, etc.
Of course, not everyone agrees on those undeniable points. And I still use an iPhone and an iPad (and Pages doesn't beat Word, by the way).
But I digress. The purpose of this post is to share news that Greenpeace says Apple is the dirtiest Information Technology (IT) company. While Newsweek has named Dell as the greenest computer company. ... Read the full story on Planet Green The first time I saw a Prius, Dustin Hoffman was behind the wheel. Then celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston were seen pulling up to red carpets all over Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Brentwood in the hyped hybrid. Thats when I began to dismiss the Prius as merely a statement car.
And then my dad, who has always been a car guy at a distance, got into an argument with a friend of his over his friends recent purchase of an SUV. My dads argument was that in this day and age the environment had to be considered when buying a car. Now keep in mind that, while my dad does enjoy outdoor activities, he has never been considered exactly ecocentric. In fact, he himself drove a Holly... Read the full story on Planet Green Super Mario and the gang might have been onto something with all their mushroom gathering. The mighty mushroom is brain food -- they are packed with vitamins, minerals and probiotic immune strengthening properties and are also incredibly diverse and versatile. Not only can certain types of the gilled fungi be consumed, they can be turned into sturdy packaging materials and furniture that are non-toxic, biodegradable and non-disruptive to the environment.
Innovative design comp... Read the full story on Planet Green Solar technology is great for generating renewable energy and revolutionizing transportation as we know it, but they also require a lot of space. One solution is to look at incorporating existing roadways and cycle paths. Bicycle-friendly Netherlands offers a smart solution with this latest project by Dutch research organization TNO.
Remember Scott Brusaws Solar Roadways project? His concept involved using the U.S. superhighway infrastructure to supply the countrys current energy demands. Brusaw proposed using a system... Read the full story on Planet Green With the National Day of Unplugging approaching, Im gearing up to make the most out of my tech-free 24-hours so theyre relaxing, rewarding and enriching. Basically, the antithesis of my myriad of days consumed by Facebook, Twitter, website updates, and blog posts. All things I love, but that all have the capacity to pull me away from the balance I seek between rest, play, and work.
The Unplug Challenge going on sunset to sunset, March 4-5, 2011, will be all about restoring my sanitythe balance. And heres exactly what I... Read the full story on Planet Green Bomb-sniffing dogs may soon have a new ally in the effort to detect bombs before they can inflict harm: plants.
Dr. June Medford of Colorado State University published a recent study in the journal PlosONE detailing her team's work with the tobacco plant to help detect explosives.
The team engineered tobacco plants (Nicotiana) to turn from their typical green color to yellow when they detected trace amounts of TNT and other explosives in the air. The system isn't ready for airport security yet; the plants' leaves take several hours to change from gree... Read the full story on Planet Green Have you always wanted to learn guitar? How about helping set a Guiness world record? Steve Vai, the legendary guitarist who's played with artists from Frank Zappa to David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, is giving an online guitar lesson on March 3. For free. The point is to leverage the Internet, make music history and raise money for the Steve Vai Online Scholarship Fund.
Where does the money come from? It won't cost you anything but your time and a willingness to be schooled by a Stratocaster master (too much?). The Berklee College of Music, which helped Steve Vai learn a thing or two, is donating $1 for every student who joins the online lesson... Read the full story on Planet Green God said, On the seventh day thou shalt rest. The meaning behind it was simple: Take a break. Call a timeout. Find some balance. Recharge. Somewhere along the line, however, this mantra for living faded from modern consciousness.Facebook, Twitter and E-Mails, Oh My! God or no god, it's safe to say a Facebook-free day, disconnected from e-mails, web searches, business calls, "I'm-running-late" calls, and commute-time twitter updates are rare to come by. You likely know a similar routine. It feels familiar, and safe even, but if we were to add up the hours on time spent in front of a screen, we might, well, scream. A group of Jewish artists felt just that, cre... Read the full story on Planet Green Anyone who has ever had their bicycle stolen knows the anguish you feel when you first discover its absence. As the popularity of cycling grows, so do the number of bicycles on the road, along with the opportunity for bike theft.
Not only can it be expensive to replace a stolen bike, it also feels like a slap in the face. Fortunately, cities everywhere are looking at smart designs for better bicycle locks, more parking space, and innovative Read the full story on Planet Green Its that time of the year where many of us are in the thick of winter, the worst part of the season, with temperatures dipping to their lowest. While we try to keep warm as the mercury drops, it is evident that body heat is a precious commodity. The Central Station in Stockholm, Sweden, recognizes that fact and has begun to harvest the warmth that bodies produce naturally to heat another building across the street. About 250,000 passengers pass through the Stockholms largest train station daily generating an enormous amount of excess body heat.
How does the system work? The real estate company that owns Central Station uses heat ex... Read the full story on Planet Green In his fantastic book "The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer," Joel Salatin has a lot to say about farmers and their toys. Most specifically, the drive for the biggest, newest tractors (and other machines) that money can buy. Often, this lust/need for bigger and better drives farmers straight into debt. Salatin states:
"The average farm requires $4 worth of buildings and equipment to generate $1 in annual gross sales. In other words, a farm generating $300,000 in annual gross sales is, on average, operating with roughly $1.2 million in equipment."
We've seen a huge decrease in the number of family farms -- from over 7 million in the 1930s to just 2 million in 2000. Less than 2% of the U.S. population farms for a living. A huge factor in the decrease is that federal farm programs fa... Read the full story on Planet Green 2010 surprised us with technological developments that have changed the way we view and interact with the world. Starting with amazing 3-D experiences, the Apple iPad, the Kindle, and even game consoles like the Kinect. What will 2011 surprise us with? Here are five thoughts... 1. Flying CarsBill McKibben, Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, is the author of a dozen books about the environment, including The End of Nature (1989), regarded as the first book for a general audience about global warming. He is also founder of the global grassroots climate movement 350.org, which organized what CNN called "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history." Most recently, he was the recipient of the annual $100,000 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. Of this honor, McKibben said:
"I'm a beginner as an organiz... Read the full story on Planet Green Robots have been a fascination of kids and scientists alike for generations. But while we've grown used to the idea of robots in our lives, from the mechanical arms that manufacture our automobiles to the more whimsical robot housekeepers and servers coming out of Japan design labs, there are far more high-tech robots being created that put us on the edge of our seats. Here are five of those strange and fascinating new inventions that call into question everything from the need for our flesh-and-bone bodies to human consciousness.
World-reknowned inventor Dean Kamen travels the world for amazing innovations like these. Don't miss his adventures on Dean of Invention Fridays at 10 pm o... Read the full story on Planet Green There's two new Dean of Invention episodes premiering on Planet Green this Friday, November 19th at 10pm Eastern and 10:30pm Eastern; the first of them contains a segment that really intrigued me and made me think about some future transportation possibilities that might seem very science-fiction to us, but they could show up faster than expected.
After all, it's very hard to predict the future. If you had asked someone 20 years ago if it would be possible to sort through billions and billions of documents in less than a second and find a very specific phrase or piece of data, and all that for free, would they have believed you? Yet most of us used Google and other search engines daily. Not so long ... Read the full story on Planet Green When it comes to finding solutions for flooding in towns during rainy seasons, the answers can be as simple as making use of the strategies Mother Nature has already employed. Urban landscapes strip away elements of natural flood control, such as deep top soil and trees with their wide-spread root systems. But the town of Pickering in North Yorshire has finally acknowledged how important these pieces of the puzzle are when trying to deal with annual flooding.
The town is planting more trees and increasing soil absorption as a cheaper, more practical, and more sustainable solution to concrete and steel structures for protecting towns against floodwater. Here, BBC explains the strategy:
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