Sep 2 2010

Alexandra Cousteau, the Ocean Ambassador (Podcast)

alexandra cousteau treehugger radio photo
"We all live downstream from one another," says Alexandra Cousteau. In other words, what we do to the water, we do to ourselves. A third-generation Cousteau explorer, Alexandra is an ambassador of the sea. She's the host of Planet Green's Blue August, is currently traveling the world as a documentarian with her organization Blue Legacy, and, when she has a spare moment, does things like c...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Aug 31 2010

Sigourney Weaver Deconstructs Disasterous Belo Monte Dam in ‘Defending the Rivers of the Amazon’ (Video)

weaver water documentary image Image via Ecorazzi Brazil has received a whole lot of negativity regarding the Belo Monte dam. The $17 billion complex would divert nearly all of the flow of the Xingu River, a massive river known for its biodiversity, to generate hydroelectric power. A new video narrated by Sigourney Weaver illustrates through a 3D tour using Google Earth video the catastrophic social a...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Aug 31 2010

3D Look Inside Whales’ Heads Shows Negative Effects of Marine Noise

whale head image Image via UCSD What happens inside a whale's head when it encounters sound? The mammals have highly developed capabilities of detecting and processing sound waves, something that helps them communicate over long distances, but which also spell their demise in an ocean filled with intense, loud human-generated noise. We've seen research that shows scientists looking into how too-loud noise can damage and even kill whales, but now r...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Aug 31 2010

Sewage As Hurricane Protection? New Orleans Could Use It To Regrow Wetlands

sewage creates ecosystem photo Image via National Geographic What Hurricane Katrina and many other hurricanes have told us is that wetlands are on the coastlines for a reason -- they act as a vital buffer protecting land from storms coming in from offshore. The fact that wetlands in the south have been developed or otherwise ruined has been a contributor to the amount of destruction a hurricane can cause. New Orleans recognizes that it needs to build up that buffer once again, and researchers think partially treated sewage will do the trick. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Aug 25 2010

TED TALK – How Cartoonist Jim Toomey Infuses Sketches with Activism

jim toomey photo Photo via TED We've featured the work of cartoonist Jim Toomey before. He has a knack for educating readers on the issues surrounding marine litter and ocean pollution without the lecture-y tinge that too often turns people away. But how does he do it, and why? Toomey was on the Mission ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Aug 25 2010

MIT’s Fleet Of Solar-Powered Oil-Cleaning Robots a Solution for Gulf Spill (Video)

mit oil robot photo Images via SENSEableCity MIT's Sensable City Lab directo Carlo Ratti and associate director Assaf Biderman have come up with the SeaSwarm, a robot that uses nanofibers to absorb 20 times its weight in oil, and their hope is that it can be developed into a viable solution for cleaning up the Gulf oil disaster. The 7-foot-wide robots sport at 16-foot-long conveyor belt of paper-like nanofibers that absorb the oil, and are rotated through the machine where the oil is cleaned off. Skimming the surface of the water and powered by sunlight, the robot can continually collect oil. They estimate that ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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