Over the century after it was first launched, the British-built steamship, the SS Ayrfield , hosted a variety of different sailors and cargo. During World War II, it was used by the Australian government to transport food and supplies to soldiers in the Pacific theatre, and afterwards...
Like the mice of New York , cockroaches are being shaped by urban environments. Scientists have found that a particular strain has evolved in such a way that it can outsmart human traps. In the first part of the experiment, the researchers offered the hungry cockroaches a choice of tw...
The sun, to many of us, is like water to a fish. Very important, but we kind of forget about it because it's always been there. But the great nuclear fusion reactor in the sky is a fascinating astral body that deserves our attention, not only because it powers almost all life on Earth...
Attempts at introducing legislation on fracking in Berlin have been postponed several times. In mid-May, Merkel's cabinet agreed on a proposal to ban fracking in catchment areas for lakes, such as Lake Constance in southern Germany, that are drinking water sources. But several areas w...
Watching a diverse, powerful coalition of groups in North Omaha, Nebraska, come together against a coal plant has been inspiring in the past few months. Residents are working with members of the local NAACP, the Malcolm X Foundation, the Sierra Club, and many others to call for clean ...
The UK-based grocery store chain announced in its intentions to help consumers reduce wasteful shopping habits. The Guardian reports that marketing and deals lead consumers to buy more food than they will eat: After criticism of the prevalence of supermarket "bogofs" (buy one get one ...
Just as we saw following Hurricane Sandy, the devastating tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma raised the question of whether the storm could be attributed to climate change. As noted earlier , while global warming is making many weather events more extreme, tornados are harder to attribu...
With gyres of it swirling in our oceans , to landfills packed to overflowing with it, plastics are a true, non-biodegradable modern day bane. To tackle this pervasive problem, we've found various ways to recycle, upcycle and transform plastics into clothing , architecture and art , of...
![Grilled portobello mushrooms stuffed with sauteed leeks and spinach [Vegan]](http://static.todayeco.com/assets/pages/d4/0d/d40d712facfdae43f955af2d604a654e_100.jpg)
Jaymi's Notes: I can't pass up a grilled portobello mushroom, especially when it is stuffed full with sauteed leeks and spinach. Talk about a hearty summer main dish. This recipe is extra flavorful thanks to the balsamic vinegar mixed in with the leeks and spinach. The melted cheese o...
Javan leopards may be one of the rarest, most highly threatened species in the world , shrouded in mystery and legend. But as it turns out, when they think no one is watching, they're really just adorable big cats -- and well worth saving. Camera traps have long been a favorite tool a...
Internet giant Google has always been a strange company with a finger in many pies. Renewable energy is one of those, and so far it has make huge investments in wind and solar power. So it's not too surprising to learn that it has just bought Makani Power , a startup working on airbor...
The recent collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries, has drawn much attention to dangers of unregulated working conditions of the garment industry. The big question is how the consumers of these products can not only avoid ...
Many people think the idea of putting composting toilets in homes is crazy. One commenter noted earlier when I suggested it : "No one will want this inside their house. I know this, because I still have a few teeth in my head and a few friends in town." But more and more, people are g...
There's an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal about just how cheap electric cars can actually be once you factor in incentives and saved fuel costs. Bottom line, if you live in a state that has good incentives and you take a short lease, it's possible that you could be payin...
Available soon in California and Oregon The Chevrolet Spark EV, the first 100% electric vehicle by GM since the EV1 , is getting close to its launch date. It'll first be available in California and Oregon in mid-June as a 2014 model, and at some future point, GM will roll it out in ot...
We have admired the Bullitt Center from afar, and wondered about the claim that it was the greenest building in the world. Now Alex Wilson of BuildingGreen tours it and concludes that it probably is. Alex notes that just meeting the high standards of the Living Building Challenge is t...
If you're not familiar with This American Life , you should know that it is one of the most popular radio programs and podcasts around. That's why it is important to note that the most recent episode, "Hot In My Backyard ", covers climate change. Here's the show synopsis: After years ...
gave us permission to share their project for making a solar-powered phone charger for only $5. It's as small as a smartphone and doesn't include a back-up battery, which is more environmentally friendly. ASCAS tested the device on both Apple and Android devices and it worked well wit...
Today, May 23rd, is World Turtle Day. It is a day of celebrating the many unique and ancient species of turtles and tortoises around the world, and bringing awareness to their need for protection. Of the 207 species of turtle and tortoise alive today, 129 of them are listed by IUCN as...
We are fans of creative DIY designs for gadget charging and lighting. So of course we were drawn to this entry in the Instructables Green Design contest for creating a simple thermoelectric emergency generator for an LED light (or possibly other gadgets) using just a handful of parts....
Earlier this month, our atmosphere crossed an important - and potentially dangerous - milestone: Based on readings from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, we reached 400 ppm of CO2 for the first time in about 3 million years.NASA has posted some reactions from 10 climate scientists ...
Let's reason by analogy a little bit. Let's pretend that there's someone with a gun to your head, and he gives you a hard quantum mechanics (a famously counter-intuitive branch of physics) problem with two answers, only one of which is correct. If you answer wrong, bang , you're dead....
Toyota has been rather slow to adopt lithium-ion technology compared to some other automakers, but it seems like they want to catch up.. Japan's Nikkei is reporting that the company is increasing its lithium-ion battery production sixfold to 200,000 packs per year. The article says th...
After raising about a billion dollars in a new stock and debt offering , Tesla has decided to use about half of its new mountain of cash to repay the $465 million Department of Energy loan all at once, 9 years ahead of schedule, rather than do it in half the required time like it had ...
is a great tool to solve problems. Rather than reinvent the wheel, we can often look at the solutions that nature has come up with over millions of years of trials & errors. For example, the study of how ants can so quickly move underground and dig relatively stable tunnels in all kin...
China struggling with environmental issues A few months ago I wrote about how pollution was now the #1 cause of social unrest in China . Well, it's not that surprising considering the stream of news out of the country (f.ex. thousands of diseased dead pigs found in a river upstream fr...
It's estimated that as much as 20 to 50 percent of energy consumed in the world is dispersed as heat. We've seen waste heat harnessing technologies before that convert that loss back into usable energy, but usually they only work with high temperatures. Out of a laboratory at EPFL, a ...
![Strawberry-blueberry scones made with coconut milk [Vegetarian]](http://static.todayeco.com/assets/pages/dc/e0/dce013d48c32124cf1a60624fa21587e_100.jpg)
There's something about scones hot out of the oven, with a steaming cup of coffee, that really makes a morning special. This recipe fills warm scones with sweet fruit. Served with a little butter or honey drizzled over it and it is a delightful breakfast for a weekend morning. This re...
Skinny urban land lots present a difficult design challenge, especially when they are as thin as they are in ultra-dense cities like Tokyo. Here, with a lot that is barely wider than a parking space, Japanese architect Yoshihito Ikeda makes this tight space seem much larger than it is...
Dolphins have long been one of our favorite ocean-going animal counterparts , blurring the line that separates human intelligence and emotion from the wildness of nature. Sadly, though, this attraction has resulted in dolphins around the world being exploited for our entertainment, su...
