NewWays for Environmental and Social Change

More parks, fewer cars. The Zen-like philosophy behind Park(ing) Day — the annual event that attracts artists, urban planners and open space advocates interested in setting up ad hoc miniature parks in metered parking spaces on urban streets — appears to have hit a tipping point. What began as a quirky San Francisco-based project by [...]

(Photograph by Bob Stefko/Getty Images)

A tidal wave of televisions is headed for the electronics hereafter. As the United States transitions to all-digital TV, the shutdown of analog broadcasting next February actually won’t affect most televisions in the country—87 percent of U.S. television-watching households already get their TV through cable or satellite. Nevertheless, the deadline is [...]

High on the Alantejo Plain, near the small town of Mouro in Eastern Portugal, the world’s biggest solar photovoltaic farm is nearing completion. When the £250 million ($500 million) farm is fully operational later this year, it will be twice as large as any project of its kind in the world. It is expected to supply 45MW of electricity every year, enough to power 30,000 homes.

Converting your vehicle to run on veggie oil is a good move economically and environmentally. And here’s what BP and Exxon don’t want you to know: it’s not hard to do.

In the last oil crisis of the ’70’s, Alternet says that America pulled together and reduced their driving speeds across the country to 55 MPH to save fuel. However they continue with “Fundamental rights were at stake. How dare the government infringe on the “flow of commerce” and my right to declare my independence [...]

In the forested Northeast, where I live, you occasionally come across big stands of red pine. They’re wonderful trees–jigsaw puzzle bark, a gorgeous hue against snow or blue sky–but if you know the history, they have another meaning, too, just as sweet. Red pine are a fairly rare native species in this area, but they were one of the trees of choice for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s. They grow straight; they make good phone poles. For whatever set of silvicultural reasons, there are a lot of these groves of 70-year-old trees. Every time I wander through one, I think of Franklin Roosevelt and try to imagine the crews that came out to plant them.

During a recent visit to MSI here in Taiwan, we learnt of an interesting and new technology which they are working on with another Taiwanese company
called Polo-Tech. It all falls under their ECO friendly design program.
It is still very much a work in progress but from the working concept design we saw in action at [...]

Ah, Summer is almost upon us, and that means most American families are plotting madly to get out of town for a week.

Image from Kaydee did on Flickr
via environmentalgraffiti.com
Never mind that the economy is in the tank, or that you’ll use just
under half of your vacation days at once– it’s time to go to the [...]