Clean & Green
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »There’s No Such Thing As Green Cocaine
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on July 20, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green
Sunday, July 20th, 2008The Colombian government’s ill-conceived environmentally conscious anti-cocaine program.
Okay all you liberal elitist, environmentally conscious cokeheads. If you really care about the environment, it’s time to take the money from your nose and put it where your mouth is. [No wonder our high school English teachers warned us about mixed metaphors – Ed.] According to this article on CSMonitor.com, Shared Responsibility, the Colombian government’s eco-conscious cocaine awareness campaign, is convinced that if you only knew how your cocaine usage affected Colombia’s environment, you’d stop using it. Nice concept, but I have a hard time imagining wealthy cocaine-snorting Americans caring about much more than the next line. For the record though, 43 square feet of forest are cleared to produce just one gram of cocaine, and coca growers have cleared nearly five million acres (an area the size of New Jersey) within Colombia over the past 20 years. You can visit the Shared Responsibility web site or view some of their PSA’s at AdsOfTheWorld.com for more info. By the way, that picture at left is not actually green cocaine, it’s Meryl Streep snorting the mysterious green powder in the film Adaptation
Blowing Up Buildings Is Fun, But…
[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 16, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008An amazing alternative to blowing up buildings: lower them a floor at a time.
The Kajima Corporation of Japan has a very cool method for demolishing buildings. Instead of the implosion method commonly used to bring down buildings, they do it one floor at a time, by inserting computerized supports as they dismantle the first floor, and literally lowering the building one floor at a time as they demolish. The benefits: saves time and space, pollutes the air less, and makes material recycling easier. Kajima calls this the daruma-otoshi method, after an old Japanese game in which players knock out stacked pieces of a doll one-by-one without toppling the doll. See the time-lapse video below.
Detroit: Turning Fords into Plowshares?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 11, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green, Lifestyle & Culture
Friday, July 11th, 2008A non-profit called “Urban Farming” has innovative ideas for sustainable urban renewal.
Having grown up in the shadow of Detroit’s Beirut-like inner-city crumbling buildings, it’s exciting for me to find out that someone’s working on an innovative and green idea for re-vitalizing parts of the city. Urban Farming is a non-profit whose mission is to “eradicate hunger while increasing diversity, motivating youth and seniors and optimizing the production of unused land for food and alternative energy”. Sounds to me like a great prescription for many of Detroit’s problems. This BBC News piece has a nice overview, and Urban Farming’s media page has many more press links.
Do Cow Farts Cause Global Warming?
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on July 10, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green
Thursday, July 10th, 2008Surely there’s a more humane way to measure cows’ gaseous emissions.
One of the joys of not having an editor is that one can choose to use phrases like “cow fart” in your headlines. That being said, I think I’m going to put off buying that Prius and stop worrying about my carbon footprint until agribusiness takes care of its methane assprint. Who would’ve guessed that a single cow produces 800 to 1,000 litres (no mention of whether that’s gaseous or liquid) of “emissions” every day? And I have to say (after seeing the photo at left) that there must be a better way to measure these life-threatening farts and burps. The next time PETA goes on a save-the-furry-animals rampage, I’m going to have to stand on my soapbox and scream: “WHAT ABOUT THE COWS???” If you really want to learn more about bovine buttprints, watch this Reuters News clip on YouTube.
Spread the Word, or Spread the Compost?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 3, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green, Lifestyle & Culture
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008Is leaving your leftovers on top of trash cans really going to feed the homeless?
Call me cynical, but maybe the people that are so worried about this issue and have time to design nifty graphics for it could just order less food? Or think of a way to convert their waste pizza to fuel? I’m not sure what I think about RePlate.org’s idea of putting your unfinished food on top of trash cans instead of in them to make it easier for homeless people to eat it. It seems to me there are plenty of people who are happy enough doing the necessary diving for dinner that we’d really just be creating a trash problem rather than performing a public service. Interesting concept though. Read their FAQ and decide for yourself.