Elsa Mary’s Posts

• Sour economy not cramping some green groups' style

  We got tanked at the Architecture for Humanity holiday fete 0

  Posted 10 months, 3 weeks ago

  What happens when your nonprofit asks for a donation of nine bottles of vodka for its "recession special" holiday party and gets nine cases of Grey Goose instead?

  We crashed Architecture for Humanity's offices last week to find out. The organization has become a media darling for harnessing open source, Web 2.0 technologies to bring greener buildings to communities from Biloxi, Miss., to Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

  Architecture for Humanity shares an office space with other hip, do-good groups in San Francisco's South of Market area.

  Armed with crutches, the world's cheapest video camera, and a week-old pink… Read More

• Suffer the little children -- from carbon offsets?

  A clean tech firm accuses a carbon credit nonprofit of forcing kids to do fieldwork 4

  Posted 2 years, 1 month ago

  You might blame a leading carbon-offset provider of forcing poor kids to work, according to The Times of London. Or not.

  

  Carbon credit firm Climate Care pays families in India to use human-powered treadle pumps to get water out of the ground for drinking and farming. As a result, half a million foot pumps have replaced diesel ones, which pollute and cost a lot to fuel. Unfortunately, Climate Care doesn't ensure the diesel pumps are retired instead of finding new life with other owners.

  Nor does it stick around to… Read More

• Engines could easily gulp less gas

  MIT lab rats cook up a less wasteful gasoline engine 0

  Posted 2 years, 3 months ago

  Don't hum the requiem for the gasoline engine just yet. MIT brainiacs say it's easier than imagined to flip a car between the usual gas-guzzling state to a low-pollution, ultra-efficient mode.

  The researchers have tested a system that can run on a quarter less than the usual amount of gas without needing any fancy fuel. With the flick of a switch, the setup alternates between regular, spark-triggered combustion and experimental homogeneous charge compression ignition.

  In the latter system, premixed fuel and air combust when compressed, spewing less soot and NOx from the engine. Volvo has explored the hybrid… Read More

• Sex is suicide: The peacock principle

  Are we raping the planet in some cracked attempt to look hot? 8

  Posted 2 years, 3 months ago

  Got it? You'll flirt and flaunt it. But the human drive to mate could be killing our planet and ultimately our species, according to Matt Prescott via the BBC. We're collectively thinking from the seat of our pants and using the wrong brain, so all of our little earth-saving intentions add up to vain fluffing, he adds. Why? Cheap energy and oil have given us new, ecologically toxic ways to compete for partners:

• PowerPoint to the planet's rescue

  Showing off sustainability slide shows from around the world 1

  Posted 2 years, 3 months ago

  Al Gore's PowerPoint presentation (which was actually done in Keynote on a Mac) may be the most famous global-warming slide show, but it's one of probably millions. Scores of save-the-planet slide shows have been shown off in boardrooms and classrooms around the world. Here are some cooked up by people from around the globe.

  Alas, the cute factor is conspicuously missing.

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Elsa Mary’s Recent Comments

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  get some cats for the church

  There would be less mice if there were more mammals to eat them. Transport the mice for now, but then add some cats to the grounds and let the problem take care of itself naturally and gradually. But oops, then I guess some people would accuse you of cruelty if you let the cats go outside.On Umbra on live trapping posted 2 years, 1 month ago 28 Responses

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  lmao

  awesome postOn The absurdity that is Bush administration climate meetings posted 2 years, 1 month ago 6 Responses

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  Climate Care details more

  Update:  Climate Care spokesman Michael Buick calls the charge by the Times of London "perverse" here: http://tinyurl.com/387vrz

  Buick also clarifies that Climate Care helps to fund the work of groups including International Development Enterprises India, which has been promoting treadle pumps and other tools to fight poverty for many years. Studies have shown that the foot pumps help children by relieving some poverty in the family.

  Wired examines the lopsided arguments of Brendan O'Neill, author of the Times' piece:
  http://tinyurl.com/2p59f6On A clean tech firm accuses a carbon credit nonprofit of forcing kids to do fieldwork posted 2 years, 1 month ago 4 Responses

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  all about clout

  This part of the country is about as corrupt as Louisiana.On It's easy being not green posted 2 years, 3 months ago 31 Responses

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  great rundown! I'd like to ditch my cell too...

  ...but instead ditched my landline. Yipes. If you're a slave to your cell but want a greener one, here's an anal-retentive chart that I made comparing plans from major carriers against those from Earth Tones and Working Assets:
  http://greenerside.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/11/_if_your_cellul.html

  As mihan mentions, Eco-Cell is good option for getting rid of your old model...though it's best for the environment to just hang onto the old phone instead of buying the latest handset and feeding the industry's relentless product release cycle.On Umbra on cell phones vs. land lines posted 3 years, 9 months ago 12 Responses