Fwd: Where Hairy Solar Panels meet the Rhynochocyon udzungwensis

[Guest guest]

The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. AOL Music takes you there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got something to say? Can you do it in

just Six Words? In a new

competition, SMITH Magazine, (who publish

Not Quite What I was

Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers

Famous and Obscure) and

TreeHugger challenge you to define your

eco-lifestyle in a mere half

dozen words. We call it, Six-Word Memoirs: The

Green Life. And we want your

contribution. You might even win

something!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hairy Solar Panels from Nanowire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solar panels are constantly

improving and breaking records. We often

hear about new exotic materials and strange

shapes, but this could be

the weirdest announcement yet: Researchers at

McMaster University

(coolest name ever) have succeeded in

'growing' light-absorbing

nanowires made of high-performance

photovoltaic materials on

carbon-nanotube fabric. The nanowires are

made from exotic materials

like gallium arsenide, indium gallium

phosphide, etc, and they can

absorb more energy from the sun than silicon,

allowing the creation of

both efficient and flexible solar panels. And

it's theoretically

possible to achieve 40% efficiency. Current

thin-film technologies is

between 6 and 9 percent!

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TreeHugger Interview: Yvon Chouinard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The founder of Patagonia

started out when little more than a teenager,

selling his home-forged climbing hardware to

"dirtbagger"

mountaineers, like himself. Chouinard

Equipment Co. evolved into

Patagonia, arguably the most successful

outdoor clothing company in

history. In his fifty years of

experimentation, Yvon has racked up a

list of industry firsts that defies

enumeration. In the first part of

our interview we asked what vision he had for

Patagonia 100 years from

now. "Well, I don't. I live for the moment.

I'm basically a

Buddhist-type person. I'm just here right now

[...] but I'm really

trying to run this company like it is going

to be here a hundred years

from now. That's what's important."

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Wind-Powered Building for Argentina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buenos Aires' most famous

summer destination recently got its first

wind-powered building. Its name is Cefira (in

reference to Cefiro, god

of the wind), and has a generator called IV

4500 which can produce 4,5

kilowatts: more than enough for the

building's common-spaces

requirements. The eight-storey building,

besides having clean energy

has 80% of its apartment's walls as glass, making it possible for the

units to take advantage of solar light. The

spaces also have isolation

systems that keep control of temperature and

independent heating

control. Common-spaces also have intelligent

lighting to avoid waste.

Apartment owners are said to also be

receiving a care manual for the

building.

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Wintles: "Britain's happiest eco-town"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So many things have to change

in the way we live to really reduce our

footprint and actually improve our standard

of living-sense of

community and general all-round happiness.

Bob Tomlinson has tried to

do that in the Wintles, in Shropshire, UK.

Tomlinson is passionate in

his belief that an eco-town must not only be

built using the latest

low-carbon technologies but must also

engender a sense of place, to be

a town that will work from one generation to

the next and be able to

feed and clothe itself from local products.

Wintles has 12 acres of

shared woodland and allotments, so that

people can feed themselves,

and they even bought a failed pub in town and

are turning it into a

micro-brewery!

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TreeHugger's Valentine's Gift Guide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone knows that you can't

buy love. Still, it's never a good idea

to show up empty-handed on Valentine's Day.

Our guide to a day of

pure, green romance shows how you can pamper

your sweetheart without

spoiling the planet. We cover the phases of

the day from morning to

night, and even the afternoon delight. Of

course there is the usual

organic chocolates and fair traded flowers.

But how about donating to

your lurve's fave animal shelter? Hand making

your own card? Kelly

Rossiter's Hold the Phone! series of recipes

to wow that special

someone. Washed down with organic champagne

and/or biodynamic wine.

Not forgetting the bamboo sheets, Good Clean

Love Personal Lubes, and

err....

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If Green Tax Credits Go, So Do Jobs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The American Wind Energy

Association (AWEA) and the Solar Energy

Industries Association (SEIA) hired Navigant

Consulting to do a study

about the impacts that a non-renewal of

renewable energy tax credits

by the U.S. Congress would have. Here's what

they found: Over 116,000

U.S. jobs and nearly $19 billion in U.S.

investment could be lost in

just one year. Approximately 76,000 jobs are

at risk in the wind

industry, and about 40,000 in the solar

industry. The states that

could lose the most jobs include: Texas,

Colorado, Illinois, Oregon,

Minnesota, Washington, Iowa, North Dakota,

Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and

California. The lion's share of these states

would lose over 1,000

jobs.

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A Bout of Africa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a. The Alliance

for a Green Revolution in Africa

is working with 4 million farmers

to regenerate 6 million hectares of farmland.

b. 330 kg of 7,000 unique seed samples from

36 African nations has

headed to chilly Norway for storage in the Seed

Bank

c. Just discovered in Tanzania is the Rhynochocyon

udzungwensis, related to

elephants, aardvarks and more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Winter Blues Greens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a. Researchers in Europe

found a Atlantic Ocean seawater

nasal spray eased wintertime cold

symptoms.

b. Lloyd discovers that bicycling in snow

filled Toronto is challenging,

but possible.

You just have to get out there to make it

happen.

c. A German company, Grown

Ski, have reinvented wooden skis

as an eco-alternative to the

plastic clad snow planks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's In the Bag

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a. Even though they've been

around for over 30 years, some folk were

getting a little excited about milk

packaged in plastic bags.

b. Ecopak

is new type of recycled paper and cardboard

pulp packaging that can be

printed just like smooth card.

c. Soybeam

Scents is a line of soy wax

aromatherapy candles packaged inside

reusable drinking glasses and recycled boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Green Basic series makes a welcome

return with a post on just what

Ecological

Footprint means. (it's the process

that calculates that everyone

in the world lived like the average U.S.

citizen -- that is, had

similar eating, transportation, living, and

consumption habits -- we'd

need 5 1/3 planets to support ourselves!) And

of course you're already

in the know (because we courteously inform

you each week) that

TreeHugger newsletters can also be had

packaged in cute bite sized

bytes, like our Daily newsletter. And see

that lil blue, left-hand

link below? Clicking on it will forward this

missive to your mates.

More phun than phacebook!

 

 

 

 

 

 

a la prochaine,Team TreeHugger

 

 

 

 

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Whether you're a business, a student, an

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