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Ten (More) Ways to Change the World Through Social Media
Blogging, social news, peer-to-peer philanthropy, microblogging, social networking, wikis, video sharing, and more. These are the new agents of change. Back in May, we penned the original 10 Ways to...
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Paper Matters
Paper appears to be high on the agenda of a number of organizations this week. It’s necessary. Paper is so ubiquitous – from tissues to toilet paper to memo pads to catalogs to the mess on your desk –...
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Living Off-Grid: Our Micro Hydro Alternative Energy System
As a follow up to Sean’s post on Micro Hydro Essentials, I thought I would share an overview of my system, which has powered my home for over 13 years. We are fortunate to live on rural mountain...
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Organic Farming Would Be Better In Terms of Climate Change Impact. Right?
[social_buttons] I’m probably going to irritate some people with this post. I apologize in advance because that is not at all my intention. For those readers that don’t think climate change is a real...
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The Recycled, Post-Industrial Green Building Material: Urbanite
This is urbanite. Urbanite is the perfect symbol for the new natural building movement, the new wave of building that incorporates natural, local, and recycled materials in place of high embodied...
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Five Key Limitations of Organic Farming
No-till Soybeans following Wheat (NRCS) (updated 8/22/11) Yesterday I posted about what I believe to be the five best things about Organic farming. These are attributes that I seriously believe are...
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A Surprising Reason We Don’t Farm As Sustainably As We Could
I recently posted a description of a highly sustainable form of row crop farming that combines high productivity with low environmental impact. This is not just a theoretical vision but something...
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A Vision For Truly Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Farming
An Orchard with a cover crop between the rows Many responsible consumers would like to be able to buy fruits and vegetables that have been raised in a sustainable manner, and many retail and food...
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Building with Tires for Energy Efficiency and Disaster Resistance
An Earthship build near Wheatland, Wyoming. Scrap tires have been a disposal menace for decades: the EPA notes that “There are at least 275 million scrap tires in stockpiles in the U.S.,” and in 2003...
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How to Build a Rocket Stove: 7 Plans
UPDATE: Just updated this post for the first time in four years – we’ve now got seven rocket stove plans on this page. The newest one is also the easiest… check it out! Just back from a weekend trip...
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DIY Biomass: Briquettes, Presses, Logs, and More
Image credit: dam at Flickr under a Creative Commons license “Biomass” is one of those terms like “alternative energy”: it could be a sustainable approach to energy generation, but isn’t always. I once...
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Offshore Wind Energy Development Picking Up Pace
By J. Matthew Roney Wind power is the world’s leading source of renewable electricity, excluding hydropower, with 238,000 megawatts of capacity installed at the start of 2012. Thus far, almost all of...
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The DIY Aquaponics System: 6 Plans for Bringing Fish and Plants Together to...
Aquaponics is one of those concepts that I’ve known of peripherally for years, but didn’t really give much thought to until I came across plans for The Plant in Chicago. Putting fish and plants...
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The Great Transition, Part I: From Fossil Fuels to Renewable Energy
By Lester R. Brown The great energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is under way. As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about pollution and...
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Cyborg Insects May be Post-apocalyptic First-responders
Imagine a terrible disaster that leaves the air toxic and the soil contaminated with radiation. A disaster like that, one like Fukushima or Chernobyl or London towards the end of 28 Days Later, that...
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Charge Your Cell Phone with Fire! (w/ video)
Introducing the FlameStower, a portable charger for small electronics that converts heat energy to electrical energy to keep your high-tech gadgets alive off the grid. Way off, if it comes to that....
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U.S. Nuclear Power in Decline
By J. Matthew Roney Nuclear power generation in the United States is falling. After increasing rapidly since the 1970s, electricity generation at U.S. nuclear plants began to grow more slowly in the...
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Forage the Urban Bounty: 11 Crowdsourced Maps of Edible Plants
The art of foraging goes back to our hunter-gatherer days, but most of us don’t spend much time any more walking the neighborhood looking for edible weeds and fruit trees. That’s changing, though, as...
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Generation Gap: Wind Power Opens Big Lead over Nuclear in China
China’s Ningxia Yinyi Wind Farm By J. Matthew Roney In China, wind power is leaving nuclear behind. Electricity output from China’s wind farms exceeded that from its nuclear plants for the first time...
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How Energy Efficient is Induction Cooking?
Induction cooking is the hottest new technology in the kitchen. With grand claims of offering the best of both worlds — the responsiveness and control of gas and the heating power of electricity —...
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