Name Name
titledescript
Is Singaporean designer Tan Lun Cheak a mindreader? Just the other day we were thinking about how if all products should had at least two distinct functions, then the world would need half as much stuff. Then today we stumbled upon a Dezeen post about the Glowbelly Steamboat, Cheak's table lamp slash hot pot. Made of glass, the components of the lamp can be reconfigured to form a......read more
It's tempting to attribute much of the recent dischord in North Africa and the Middle East to politics. And in the most direct sense, it's true. In Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and now Syria, the people have risen up against brutal and corrupt regimes. But dig a little deeper, and you find that the unrest is more broadly driven by drought and food shortages -- themselves linked to environmental shifts......read more
We've known for a while that fracking was doing some funny things to our drinking water. Now the EPA has come out of the closet on the issue and made it official. In a landmark report released this week, the EPA declared that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is causing groundwater pollution in the Wind River aquifer, located in the Pavillion region of Wyoming, where locals have complained of......read more
Heavy snowfall and intense storms in much of the U.S. this winter has climate change skeptics asking, "If global warming is real, then why is it so cold and wet?" We've got your answer. As the planet heats up, more water is evaporated into the atmosphere. And because the atmosphere is warmer, it is able to hold that water. When the atmosphere becomes saturated, intense storms ensue.According to......read more
It's 2011, we've known about the problems of plastic pollution for, oh, a few decades now. So why the hell is excessive plastic packaging still so pervasive? On her Design Observer blog, superstar designer Marian Bantjes challenges product designers to think beyond plastics. In Brooklyn, Pratt Institute's newly opened Myrtle Hall flexes the school's commitment to sustainability. The......read more
Gordon Matta-Clark was an eco-art O.G.. In the 70s, Matta-Clark's conceptual projects included recycling glass bottles, digging out a basement to create a “guerrilla” garden, and turning a dumpster into an open house. An exhibition centered on Matta-Clark's time at 112 Greene Street, one of the first artist-run venues in New York, opens this weekend at David Zwirner in NYC. In a......read more
Goodlifer debuted Heather Heron's second collaboration with Environment Furniture, featuring a nice little range of bags made from surplus military fabric. The collection is available here. Massachusetts will become the latest U.S. state to institute emissions regs, with a plan that's among the nation's most ambitious: slashing emissions by 25% below 1990 levels over the next......read more
Shouts out to Jim Moriarty and Surfrider Foundation. In 2005, the coastal conservation group set a goal for 150 "coastal victories" by 2010. They defined a coastal victory as “a decision made in favor of the coastal and ocean environment that results in a positive conservation outcome, improves coastal access, or both.” On December 1, they nailed it. Kudos, Surfrider. (via QPeeps)......read more
Aww, is it "too cold" to ride your bike in the winter? No matter where you are, it ain't as cold as St. Petersburg, Russia, where Adams Carroll rides his Ukrainian beast — made from surplus military tank parts — through the snow. Check Carroll's notes on winter cycling at the Fader. On a one-way path to wind energy dominance, China is steady flouting world trade laws.......read more
James Bowthorpe is bad ass. Last year, in a bid to raise awareness for Parkinson's, he rode his bike around the world in 174 days, setting a new world record. Earlier this fall, he built a boat from construction waste and rowed it down the Thames. Now he's doing the same thing on the Hudson River. Feel lazy now? Same. Read an interview with the man at Nowness. Everyone is going off......read more
