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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
Adventurer extraordinaire and record-setting cyclist James Bowthorpe is busy prepping for his next madcap quest: a journey down the 315-mile length of the Hudson River in a kayak made of NYC construction waste. "We see cities as something separate from the wilderness, but the former evolved from the latter," says Bowthorpe, who undertook a similar expedition down the Thames. "I’m......read more
In an announcement that's as laden with symbolism as rivers are with sediment, American Rivers has named the Potomac River, which flows through the nation's capital, the most endangered river in the United States. "America’s Most Endangered Rivers," the annual report from the clean water advocacy group, noted that the Potomac is under increasing threat from pollution caused by urban......read more
Is it just us or are teens doing more and more impressive stuff these days? 19-year-old Dutch university student Boyan Slat adds to the youth movement with his ingenious Ocean Cleanup Array, a green tech concept aimed at addressing the immense problem of oceanic plastic pollution. Comprised of an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms, is said to be capable of removing up to......read more
Biologists Kai Tiedemann and Anne Lummerich are finding ingenious ways to help people living in arid regions find and develop new sources of water. Bellavista, a small, hillside settlement near Lima, Peru that is unconnected to the municipal water supply is enveloped in fog through most of the winter. There, the pair designed a fog-catching system that captures and collects fog-water for use by......read more
This is the discovery that could put the College of Wooster on the map: glass that swells like a sponge. Put together like a nano-matrix, the new glass can unfold to hold up to eight times its weight. The glass binds with gasoline and other pollutants containing volatile organic compounds but it does not bind with water, so it acts like a “smart” sponge, capable of picking and choosing from......read more
New York artist Roni Horn makes sculptures, drawings, photographs, and books informed by her frequent excursions to Iceland. The island nation's volatile geology, the volcanoes and the hot springs, the ice and the sea, suffuse Horn's work, which deals with metaphors of climate change and shifting identity. In one piece, columns of glacier water harken the core samples drilled by climate......read more
Visualizing the spill: From our friends at GOOD, an animated simulation of a 25,000-barrel oil spill — less than half the estimated daily amount gushing into the Gulf. Dropping the ball: A scathing account of the U.S. Interior Department's handling of the offshore oil industry. Oh phew, at least there's that: Oil-Splattered BP Promises Uninterrupted Flow of Art Funding. The type of......read more
In London, the "seriously water stressed" UK capital confronts summer water shortages with a creative — and very British — solution: A new bio-diesel desalination plant that will run partly on used vegetable oil from fish-and-chip shops. Also in London, the newly erected Speedo Swimsuit Pavilion is made from obsolete swim suits. True story. Upgrade the grid: The US electricity grid,......read more
Plug and play: The Yves Behar-designed GE WattStation will juice up electric vehicles and spruce up the streets. Oh, the humanity! When Humans Ruled the Earth explores the human consumption machine in animated form. An efficient water solution in the rural West: Farmers and ranchers are replacing windmills with solar power wells. Want to take an exotic holiday AND help the environment? Try one......read more
