Environment Archives - Page 2 of 4

20 Universities That Encourage Green Living

1) Nanyang Technical University – School of Art, Design and Media - The architectural structure of this building maximizes interior daylight, makes smart use of lack of space and land in the local area, minimizes materials, and uses lower water and electricity uses. 2) Yale University – Kroon Hall - Kroon Hall at Yale University is made from 80% certified timber, 16% recycled content. Also, 34% of the purchased materials came from regional sources. As a result, there is an 81% reduction in annual potable water use, which saves an average 500k gallons of city water a year. They are also seeing a 61% reduction in energy use compared to a similar building and program. It features rooftop photovoltaic panel providing 25% of the building’s electricity. Half of the red oak paneling came from a forest in northern Connecticut that’s managed by the school itself. 3) Carnegie Mellon University – Gates and Hillman…

California Officially Joins the War on Plastic Bags

Great news for the environment occurred last night, when CA government voted to ban single-use plastic bags across the state. “The bill, SB 270, will phase out single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and pharmacies beginning July 2015, and in convenience stores one year later, and create a mandatory minimum ten-cent fee for recycled paper, reusable plastic and compostable bags” states Stephanie Spear, author at EcoWatch, who wrote California Bans Plastic Bags. If the already agreed upon bill is signed by the CA governor, California will be the first state to ban these environmentally un-friendly products.

“More than 120 California local governments have already banned single-use plastic bags with more than 1 in 3 Californians already living somewhere with a plastic bag ban in place, in an effort to drive consumers towards sustainable behavior change,” affirms Spear. With such a large amount of the population already embracing the plastic ban bag, this measure will …

Jellyfish: Menace to Medicine

Recently, jellyfish have found themselves in the news as causing quite a bit of havoc among the seas. Fishermen, tourists, and even some power station workers are finding themselves negatively affected by these slimy characters. The Environmental News Network, reported on such issues this week; yet, they went a little further and found a research group who has discovered, and is working on, helpful aspects drawn from the jellyfish’s biological properties.

The Trouble with Tentacles

“Jellyfish have overwhelmed the marine ecosystem as a result of the overfishing of more competitive species [and] consuming fish eggs and larvae of weaker specimens…” claims ENN. This is causing a damaging imbalance among the seas. By blocking up the systems of power stations using seawater, jellyfish are causing a bump in the road for productivity. Furthermore, “jellyfish have had a dramatic impact on the world fishing industry, snagging and blocking fishing nets …

Saving The Planet, One Green Surfboard At A Time

by Amanda Crater. See her full article at MainandPCH. It is no secret that surfers love the ocean and want to protect the environment, but who knew that surfing can be toxic? In a sport that is constantly evolving, in a town at the very heart of the surfing industry where pros and brands are born, Larry Bertlemann -- Hawaiian surfing legend who shook up a generation of surfers with his unique style and approach to the industry in the 1970s -- is once again carving his mark onto future generations of surfers through his company, "Be Better Boards" by Bertlemann. Larry "Rubberman" Bertlemann was on the scene of this year's US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, getting inducted into the surfing Walk of Fame and drawing attention to an issue that is near and dear to the heart of surfers everywhere: the health of the ocean and the people who love to be in it. "There are only two types of people in this whole world, leaders and followers, and I don't follow nobody," Be…

6 Freeway Removals That Changed Their Cities Forever

By Allssa Walker

It seems counterintuitive, right? Rip out eight lanes of freeway through the middle of your metropolis and you'll be rewarded with not only less traffic, but safer, more efficient cities? But it's true, and it's happening in places all over the world.

Many freeway systems were overbuilt in an auto-obsessed era, only to realize later that cities are actually healthier, greener, and safer without them. Like freeway cap parks, which hope to bridge the chasms through severed neighborhoods—Boston's Big Dig is a great example—freeway removal projects try to eradicate and undo the damage wrought from highways, while creating new, multifunctional shared streets that can be utilized by transit, bikes, walkers and yes, even cars.

Okay, you're thinking, but where do all the cars go? It turns out that when you take out …

Costa Rica: Where Environmentalism and Tourism Live in Harmony

The country is creating a model using its natural resources. March 17, 2014 By Scott Johnson Scott Johnson has headed Newsweek’s Mexico and Baghdad bureaus, and is the author of "The Wolf and the Watchman: A Father, A Son and the CIA." This article appears in full on www.takepart.com Standing on the beach at Playa Guiones, on Costa Rica’s northwest Guanacaste coastline, and looking eastward, the only thing one sees is an unbroken line of forest. There are no high-rises, no big hotels, no smog-filled taxi corridors catering to drunken tourists. Instead the trees are filled with monkeys and birds with brightly colored plumes. The only sounds are the crashing of the ocean’s waves and the thrum of forest creatures. Not all of Costa Rica looks like this, but a lot of it does. According to last year’s report from the World Energy Council on global environmental sustainability, Costa Rica nabbed second place, after Switzerland, and was far ahead of Central American neighbo…