Photo credit: Eamon Mac Mahon Michael Pollan said in the Omnivore’s Dilemma that if you eat industrially, you are made of corn. In Corporate Knights , “the magazine for clean capitalism”, Toby A.A. Heaps picks up on this theme and looks at the causes and effects of corn’s dominance, delivering “the skinny on what’s expanding our waistlines and crippling our health system” in his article ” Killer Kernel” . Food activist Wayne Roberts calls corn “the most subsidized crop in the world, and it has only negative health consequences.” Roberts notes that not only is our food system broken, but our health system too: “We have a health care system that doesn’t care about food, and a food system that doesn’t care about health.”… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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How Corn Is Expanding Our Waistlines And Crippling Our Health System
Photo: Stephen Messenger Wildlife in Florida have an unlikely new ally in the fight against poaching — a remote-controlled buck lovingly known as Robo-deer. Although he can do little more than flick his tail and turn his head, Robo-deer is so convincingly lifelike that some illegal hunters can’t help but take a shot at him. But when they do, those poachers end up getting served something a lot worse than steel veal — that’s because Robo-deer works for the cops. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo: acritica Climate change is having an impact on many countries in different ways. In the Maldives the sea is threatening to overcome the islands and in Brazil the Amazon River is drying up . Last month it fell to its lowest level in one hundred years and revealed etchings from the Stone Age that had been submerged for 3,000 to 7,000 years. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Drought in Amazon Allows Art to Surface after 7,000 Years
Though it’s been a well-known ingredient to chefs in South East Asia for some time, the lizard is new to science. Photo credit: L. Lee Grismer Though it has been a regular item on menus across the Mekong delta for as long as anyone can remember, the lizard, now known as Leiolepis ngovantrii , has just recently been introduced to science. The unusual description of the species places it in the one percent of reptiles that reproduce via parthenogenesis —in which embryos are clones of their mothers…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Newly Discovered Lizard Species is All Female, Survives by Cloning
Image source: Livedoorbiz Ever since Archigram presented the Suitaloon in 1968, (shown below fold), ideas have been put forward for minimalist shelters that one can carry on their back. This looks like just about the simplest one yet- a poncho designed to turn into a tent, from a Japanese source via Geekologie . … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Carry Your House on Your Back With The Wearable Tent
What Next? This short animated film made by the Post Carbon Institute gives a quick and entertaining history of our use of fossil fuels to power most of our lives, and what the post-carbon world might look like. I don’t quite agree with all the macro-economic statements they make (but this is something about which reasonable people can disagree), but the film is good food for thoughts and should definitely be seen. The most striking thing to me was the mention that from the beginning of the industrial revolution to now is only an amount of time equivalent to about 3 human lifetimes. So much has changed in such a short period, and it’s a reminder that we can change again. Not as fast as many of us would like, but we can do it. The important thing is to steer towards a better world. Via Youtube . See also: Today Would Have Been Carl Sagan’s 76th Birthday … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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A Brief History of Fossil Fuels (Video)
We Need More Separated Bike Paths The video above shows the transformation of Prospect Park West in Brooklyn. The addition of a two-way separated bike lane has had a calming effect on traffic, making the area safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and the extra-safety of the new bike lane is attracting lots of new cyclists of all skill levels. It clearly shows that “if you build it they will come” when it comes to bike infrastructure. Via Streetfilms . See also: How Copenhagen Became a Great People-Oriented City (Video) … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Awesome New Two-Way Bike Lane on Prospect Park (Video)
Image: Wikipedia , CC This Document Was Not for Public Consumption A leaked study by the German military reveals that the Bundeswehr is taking the possibility of peak oil (the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, leading to a gradual decline) very seriously. The authors of the study, led by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Will, forecast a “shifts in the global balance of power, of the formation of new relationships based on interdependency, of a decline in importance of the western industrial nations, of the ‘total collapse of the markets’ and of serious political and economic crises.”… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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The German Military is Freaked Out by Prospect of Peak Oil
Photo: The Godfather Cosa Nostra Goes Green It seems like the mob has discovered that there’s money to be made with wind power in Italy. The mafia is up to its usual tricks: fraud, extortion, bribery, money laundering, etc. Police wiretaps even caught an alleged mafioso telling his wife: “Not one turbine blade will be built in Mazara unless I agree to it.” Read on for more details…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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The Italian Mafia is Making Money with Wind Power
Telegraph Angelo Vassallo was Mayor of the pretty little Italian town of Pollica, which Eric Reguly of the Globe and Mail calls “a cultural and environmental treasure.” He said no to illegal construction that Reguly says ” spreads like a cancer over so many seaside Italian towns”. He said no to smokers who littered. He made the town part of the Slow City Movement. On Monday, he was killed in a Mafia-style execution…. Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Being An Environmentalist and Preservationist Can Get You Killed