Urban Arcadia

Story of Stuff

greenman — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:46:13 +0000

Story of Stuff. If you are a parent of a school age kid in the U.S., it’s hard to avoid the back-to-school marketing that is in full swing, even with 3 more weeks of summer vacation left. The last thing most kids want in the middle of a sunny August day is to be reminded [...]

Density vs. Sprawl

greenman — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:16:54 +0000

Originally posted on TreeHugger: At NYC’s Density, the World’s Population Could Live in Texas by Alex Davies, Paris, France on 07.27.11 Images Courtesy of Tim De Chant, Per Square Mile It turns out that if you wanted every person in the world to move to Texas, finding room for everyone wouldn’t be your biggest [...]

Sham panel to decide on fracking in South Africa | Care2 Causes

greenman — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:23:58 +0000

Sham Panel to Decide on Fracking in South Africa by Andreas S. July 28, 2011 9:30 pm In May, I wrote a cautiously optimistic article about the South African government’s decision to put a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, the super-controversial, water-intensive and environmentally dangerous technique for extracting shale gas from underground layers of rock, also [...]

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

greenman — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:47:54 +0000

The inspiring story of Malawian William Kamkwamba: Unable to afford school and forced to drop out at age 14, Kamkwamba used his spare time educating himself at a local library. His interest was sparked by the sciences and in 2002, after coming across a diagram in a tattered textbook, he built a functional windmill out [...]

Agent Orange Being Used to Clear the Amazon

greenman — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:36:52 +0000

Written by Stephen Messenger, a Treehugger blogger Agent Orange is one of the most devastating weapons of modern warfare, a chemical which killed or injured an estimated 400,000 people during the Vietnam War — and now it’s being used against the Amazon rainforest. According to officials, ranchers in Brazil have begun spraying the highly toxic [...]

UK stands in way of Tar Sands ban

greenman — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:26:41 +0000

Right now, EU law makers are introducing an important bill which would impose strict pollution standards on car and lorry fuels and would effectively ban tar sands fuel, the world’s most filthy and environmentally destructive transport oil. But shockingly, the UK is opposing it. Our government is bending under pressure from the oil industry and [...]

YouTube – DON’T REVOKE BP’S CORPORATE CHARTER!

greenman — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:43:46 +0000

YouTube – DON’T REVOKE BP’S CORPORATE CHARTER!.

Biofuels: Ethanol and Biodiesel

greenman — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:03:54 +0000

“Biofuels” are transportation fuels like ethanol and biodiesel that are made from biomass materials. These fuels are usually blended with the petroleum fuels — gasoline and diesel fuel, but they can also be used on their own. Using ethanol or biodiesel means we don’t burn quite as much fossil fuel. Ethanol and biodiesel are usually [...]

Compost your old sofa

greenman — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:16:19 +0000

Image via Wikipedia Your old sofa – and much more – could be composted, say University of Manchester scientists 22 Feb 2010 Polyurethane plastics used to make a host of products from furniture fillings to shoe soles, cable insulation and paints – and which can be difficult to recycle – could soon be degraded in [...]

Secret Life of the Motorway

greenman — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:27:19 +0000

The End of the Affair: Watch on BBC iPlayer Part 3 of the BBC series documenting the history of the British motorway, looking at how we began to question the promises made by the motorway and along the way found our voice of protest. After the first 1,000 miles or so had been built, the [...]