Environment – Page 170 – Things Are Good

Off-Grid Trailer House

home? The Mini Home is a portable house that allows the inhabitants to live off the grid. Off-grid basically means not using water and power from public (or in some places private) sources, almost a self-sustianable lifestyle.

The mini home itself looks like a futuristic trailer park home because of the layout and materials used. Power comes from solar panels, I don’t know where the water comes from (or goes to) though.

It’s good to see companies making living spaces that can function without sucking power from non-renewable resources.

Seven Hybrid Concerns?

People seem to not like change and changing from a car that produces smog to a car that produces less smog is shocking for some. They don’t know what is true and what isn’t true when it comes to information about hybrid vehicles. CNN has tried to clarify what people should consider when buying a hybrid car and other points that aren’t that important.

Of their list below only three are “legitimate” concerns.

Hybrids have complicated technology that is difficult or expensive to fix
Hybrids have limited battery pack life
Hybrids have technical problems like stalling and sputtering
Hybrids do not pay for themselves to justify their premium cost
Hybrids do not offer the driving performance needed
Hybrids will not hold resale value
Hybrids do not get the level of mileage promised

Clean, Green Apple

Greenpeace has started a campaign to bring awareness to Mac Computers about the toxic waste that comes from their tossed computer parts. In China, for example, children wade through mountains of computer parts filled with toxic materials such as lead and mercury finding items their families can resell while plastic cables and chords burn nearby. Local water sources are also made undrinkable due to heavy metal content.

So Greenpeace wants the help of the people like you! Rather than tying themselves to the side of Macs headquarters, they have decided to give Mac the benefit of the doubt and use creative measures by the public to get their attention. On the Greenpeace website you can take part in letting Apple know about the effect they are having on the Environment and on hundreds of peoples lives. Check it out, it’s rather fun!

NYC Garbage Cube

A lot of people’s garbage is another man’s, er, art.

An artist in New York City scours the streets looking for dropped metrocards, gum wrappers, coffee cups, etc. until he creates the perfect mixture. He then encases the rubbish in a glass cube that you can purchase NYC garbage over the internet.

Highlights include garbage from the Republican National Convention!

You can also see where NYC garbage has been exported to in cube form on his map.

Canada’s Forests are Worth $93B Each Year

An economist, Mark Anielski, has looked at the benefits of keeping Canadian forests. The conclusion is that each year Canada’s forests do $93 billion in carbon regulation and tourism. Anielski says that we need to take this into consideration when we talk of chopping down trees and our overall approach to the boreal forest.

“Boreal forests regulate the climate by capturing and storing an estimated 67 billion tonnes of carbon in Canada alone – a job worth $1.8 billion, based on the price of carbon emissions from the global insurance industry.”