The Skyfarm by German designer Manuel Dreesmann allows people to grow food in their own home. The hanging spherical gardens offer city dwellers fresh greens without the carbon footprint and pollution of long distance transport.

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Part Two of Treehugger's investigation into what causes the price of gasoline to rise.

Part one of TreeHugger's investigation into what causes gasoline prices to rise. Hint: Whether or not Obama expands domestic drilling isn't even close to the top of the list.

Copenhagenize, a tremendous bicycling blog based in… Copenhagen, recently posted four awesome bicycling videos (ads/commercials, basically). None of the videos are in English, but Copenhagenize’s Mikael Colville-Andersen took the time out of his day to translate them. They’re great advertisements for bicycling, I think, and most of them are just plain funny, too. [...]

Stephen Gordon describes the coffeeshopification of our education, our jobs and our lives.

Guest commentary from Barry Bickmore (repost) via RealClimate.

The Wall Street Journal posted yet another op-ed by 16 scientists and engineers, which even include a few climate scientists(!!!). Here is the editor’s note to explain the context.

Editor’s Note: The authors of the following letter, listed below, are also the signatories of “No Need to Panic [...]

Cycling and gardening have long been two fantastic components of a green-minded lifestyle, but given the obvious logistical difficulties, doing both at the same time had never really been an option -- until

Cycling and gardening have long been two fantastic components of a green-minded lifestyle, but given the obvious logistical difficulties, doing both at the same time had never really been an option -- until

Cycling and gardening have long been two fantastic components of a green-minded lifestyle, but given the obvious logistical difficulties, doing both at the same time had never really been an option -- until

 
Climate scientists are being hacked and attacked like there ain’t no tomorrow… really, like there ain’t no tomorrow. It’s a shame for humanity, but it also makes these climate scientists’ lives a lot harder and less enjoyable.

Want to help out?

The Climate Science Legal Defense Fund takes donations from people like you [...]

Jack Hurd is the director of the Asia-Pacific Forest Program for The Nature Conservancy. This is the second in a series of posts on Myanmar; revist the first post to catch up.

Myanmar (also known as Burma) has long been associated with rich tropical forests. In fact, what is now known as the Myanmar Selection System was developed more than 150 years ago as the ideal approach to managing tropical forests with many tree species but only a few with commercial value.

Unfortunately, forest management standards in the country went into a long period of decline over the past 50 years thanks to a succession of military rulers, and the concept of sustainability was subordinated to more pressing political and economic interests. Now, the landscape in Myanmar is changing fast.

Myanmar has about 30 million hectares of forest, representing 45 percent of its land. Approximately 16 million of those hectares can be considered teak forest. What is stunning, however, is that this represents approximately 85 percent of the world’s naturally occurring teak. There are other valuable tropical hardwood trees — mahogany, ironwood, etc. — but in Asia, teak is king. And, as a brand, teak resonates in markets around the globe.

So what’s the government of Myanmar doing about the management of its forests? At this point, we’re not totaly sure. But as the country opens its doors to foreign involvement, there’s a better chance that some of the following actions may take place in Myanmar.

• Develop a Grand Plan for Forest Management: Due to sanctions levied against Myanmar by the US and the EU, international institutions like the World Bank that would normally assist countries with planning around natural resource usage have been forbidden to help out. If the political process of re-engagement continues and sanctions are lifted, those international institutions could return, and the government would be wise to take advantage of international forestry expertise. Adopting a sector-wide approach to managing this key strategic resource would clearly be in the best long-term interests of the country.

• Refine Forest Zoning: Different forests require different management solutions. In areas where communities are heavily dependent on forests for their livelihoods and survival, local people need to be involved in management. In forests of high value to biodiversity, forests should be managed by the government for strict protection. And in many teak forests, management should revert back to a version of the Myanmar Selection System designed to ensure a sustainable supply of high-quality teak for domestic and international markets. Myanmar has valuable forestland that requires a mosaic approach, incorporating multiple land use forms and objectives.

• Bring Transparency to the Management of Production Forests: Currently, there is little faith in discerning high-value markets as to the legality, let alone sustainability, of Myanmar’s hardwoods. Yet, given its enormous supply, the government can strengthen and differentiate its brand in the marketplace by adopting better tracking and reporting practices. While Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification is a long ways off, third-party approval of Myanmar’s forestry practices would assuage international concerns in a big way.

• Attract the Optimum Amount of Value-Added Processing Capacity: International sanctions have stymied the development of value-added processing (or, the ability to make wood-based products for both domestic and international markets). As such, Myanmar’s timber is primarily exported as raw material. By attracting investment to value-added processing, the value of forests increases, as timber generates higher returns, creates jobs and provides tax revenue.

Right now, Myanmar’s forests are under-valued, and that’s led to overexploitation and forest degradation. In a country that’s plagued by poverty, where forests have long served as a social safety net for community groups, that outcome has been devastating, removing an important source of livelihood and income for villagers. It’s a bleak picture, but there are two reasons for hope.

The first is that, even over the past few decades, the forests have had advocates in Myanmar — people trying to help officials and land managers build on what they have. This means that there are local experiences in place, and international organizations can and should seek to build on this foundation.

Second, the country’s increasing openness means there’s a good chance that international sanctions will be eased this year. The EU recently committed 150 million Euros in assistance to Myanmar and will revisit the idea of listing the sanctions later in the calendar year. This would provide the country with the opportunity to learn the lessons of other regional developing countries and use the latest critical thinking in managing forests to protect valuable natural resources that will sustain its people for generations.

(Image: Building teak rafts to transport logs down a river. Credit: Anne-Carole Fooks.)

If you thought $4 gas was bad, imagine actually paying the full cost—which is closer to $15 per gallon, according to CIR.

Rescue robots could come in snake-like forms, thanks to research looking at how slithering could be a better way for robots to move up an inclined plane.

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Legislation and Policy, Bright Automotive

Bright Automotive will shut down after the maker of the extended-range plug-in utility vehicles said the federal government took too long to make good on its planned loans to the Michigan-based company, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a letter company executive sent to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu yesterday.

Bright Automotive, which applied for about $400 million in loans in 2008, had been told for the past 18 months, that the loan was close to funding, but things just took too long. Bright warned the DOE that time was running short just a week ago, saying "If our ATVM application is not moved forward to the next level by March 2, 2012, our mission ends. Period." Yesterday's letter says, in part:

Last week we received the fourth "near final" Conditional Commitment Letter since September 2010. Each new letter arrived with more onerous terms than the last. The first three were workable for us, but the last was so outlandish that most rational and objective persons would likely conclude that your team was negotiating in bad faith.

(Find the full text of the harshly worded letter after the jump.)

The company, which also received a $5 million equity investment from General Motors, had planned to use an old Hummer plant in Indiana to build its Bright Idea utility van by 2014, the Journal said, but reports of problems have surfaced before.

Bright Chief Operating Officer Mike Donoughe made a public statement late last month saying it was ready to add as many as 2,500 direct and indirect jobs through its vehicle production but needed its loan request to be processed "swiftly." Ford, Nissan and Fisker are among advanced-powertrain vehicle makers that have received loans from the federal government.

"This program is an unmitigated disaster."

Michael Brylawski, who co-founded Bright and was an executive vice president there, told AutoblogGreen that the bigger question is about the ATVM program itself. When the government says it will dump $25 billion into one sector of the economy, that changes things, he sadi. "In theory, this is not a hostile administration [to plug-in cars]," he said, so the disconnect between the expressed promotion on one hand and delays in getting ATVM money out the door on the other is incredible. "[The delay] hasn't only distorted the market, it killed the market," he said. "This program is an unmitigated disaster. There needs to be some real answers coming forth from our community."

Bright planned to make a vehicle that would be able to go about 40 miles on electric power alone before a gas-powered generator kicked in to give the van a range similar to that of the Chevrolet Volt. Bright was founded in 2007 by a consortium of Google.org, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Turner Foundation, Alcoa, and Johnson Controls.

What happens next? Brylawski said that the technology and engineering in the van remains an asset of the company, so "we're trying to get value from that, but Bright Automotive is winding down." The business model and the product still has merit, and the vehicle was really progressing to be something special. The prototype (pictured above) is almost three years old, but because there is a need to protect the intellectual property, Bright can't disclose images of the updated van, but "it was looking awesome," he said. Who knows where it may appear next.

Sebastian Blanco contributed to this report.

Continue reading Bright Automotive gets dimmed, will shut down because of DOE loan program delays

Bright Automotive gets dimmed, will shut down because of DOE loan program delays originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Roughly two-thirds of Americans now believe there is solid evidence the planet is warming, an increase over immediately previous years.

 
This is a great post from the Penn State Climate Ethics Blog that I thought I should repost in full. The title says it all: Ethical Analysis of Disinformation Campaign’s Tactics: (1) Reckless Disregard for the Truth, (2) Focusing On Unknowns While Ignoring Knowns, (3) Specious Claims of “Bad” Science, and (4) Front [...]

I wrote on the uniting of three of the United States’ largest bicycle organizations last week (something I’m very excited about). The wonderful folks over at Streetsblog took the time to sit down and speak with Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, and Jeff Miller, president of the Alliance for Biking & Walking, about [...]

More on our food and labelling GMOs

From Huffington Post: Why We Must Occupy Our Food Supply
From Label GMOs: Spread the Word!
From EatDrinkBetter: Judge Sides with Monsanto in Lawsuit

Joe’s cartoon archive, twitter ramblings and StumbleUpon page…

We’ve written about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the past on a few occasions. However, it seems it’s a hot topic right now (perhaps getting some national TV news coverage tonight?), so I thought I’d revisit it and drop in some updated information on the huge garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean.

[...]

Some top green news from around from the past day or so:

Global Warming

 

Heartland associate taught ‘biased’ climate course at Ottawa university 

An associate of the Heartland Institute, the thinktank devoted to discrediting climate change, taught a course at a [...]