Tired of the doom and gloom? So are we. Our world may be in crisis, but it’s a world teeming with bright, hopeful ideas. And it’s about time they found an audience.
We filled the September-October issue of Utne Reader with
good green news
, spotlighting the designers, artists, inventors, attorneys, investors, academics, and citizens who are working to fix the planet’s problems. We’ve added others here (use the menu below to navigate) and we’ll keep discussing fresh ideas and innovations in the Utne Salon.
Eco-Design for Green Cities and Structures
Ecosystem Services
More Environmental Innovations To Give You Hope
Eco-Design for Green Cities and Structures
Urban Re:Vision’s eco-smart urban design competition turns “what ifs” into “what is.” Read about some of the brilliant designs the judges have seen so far, and learn how to enter at the Urban Re:Vision website.
The next era of green architecture isn’t just about buildings that use less energy. It’s about structures that can be labeled “net-zero” and “energy positive”–those that use no energy, or those that might even generate a little extra for others to use. The August-September issue of
Plenty
reports on the architects behind these bold new designs (article not available online).
Boston architecture firm Moskow Architects has designed a Pez-like Zipcar Dispenser, which could boost car-sharing by making pickups and dropoffs much simpler. The tall, thin edifice, designed for dense cities like Boston and New York, could be squeezed into tight spots, spitting out Zipcars instead of candy.
Toilet-to-tap recycled water is whooshing into our drier cities, reports Governing
, but getting the PR right is even trickier than turning sewage into drinking water. So far so good in Orange County, where a new groundwater replenishment system produces 70 million gallons of recycled water per day, writes Elizabeth Royte for the
New York Times Magazine
.
Check out
Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A Do-It-Ourselves Guide
, by Stacy Pettigrew and Scott Kellogg of the Rhizome Collective, just out on South End Press, and the handy
Utne Reader Online Guide to Green Building
.
Image by Joe Shlabotnik, licensed under Creative Commons.
Are capitalists the new conservationists? The burgeoning field of ecosystem services puts Mother Earth to work at what she does best.
A team of economists evaluated the value of the “natural capital” in Washington’s Puget Sound region–its forests, wetlands, mountains, etc.–and estimated that it’s worth at least $243 billion, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
.
As resorts and other development projects have popped up along Mexico’s Gulf of California coastline, the area’s mangrove forests have taken a hit–as have the snapper, mullet, and other fish that dwell in these underwater forests. That’s bad news for the region’s commercial fishing industry, reports National Geographic News
: The government has overestimated the economic value of coastal development, and “grossly undervalued” the economic benefits of mangroves to local fisheries.
Countries like Portugal, New Zealand, and the UK are dipping their toes into ocean power, says IEEE Spectrum
, but there’s still not much tidal talk in the States.
World Watch
takes a broad, skeptical look at the technology behind ocean-generated energy, which still has quite a few kinks to work out–including dispatchability, or the ability to transfer the energy, once harnessed, to a site that needs it.
Poison that’s meant to kill mice and gophers often finds other victims, including birds and household pets. The Hungry Owl Project encourages people to enlist natural predators to wipe out their rodent problems, by putting out owl boxes instead of nasty chemical pesticides (via
Sierra
).
Image by tlindenbaum, licensed under Creative Commons.
More Environmental Innovations To Give You Hope
Scientists and conservationists around the globe are using satellite technology to catch poachers and keep an eye on natural resources, according to
Environment: Yale
.
European hotels are getting greener, says Green Futures
, upping water and energy efficiency and, in some spots, composting kitchen waste. In the United States, progress is a bit slower, argues Mother Jones
, but change is on the horizon: at hospitality-management schools, eco-themed classes are filling up.
Plenty has a fun map showing all the countries that have enacted plastic-bag bans.
The Aquaduct, a tricked-out, three-wheeled bicycle, uses pedal power to filter water. More info (and a very helpful image) at
Stanford
magazine.
Ten reasons why organic foods can feed the world, from Ecologist
.
A campaign to keep Louisiana’s threatened cypress trees out of your garden mulch has been largely successful,