Green Blog of the Week: Jetson Green

We here at EarthFirst.com loooove Jetson Green.  It’s without question the best source of green design news and info on the web, it’s well laid out with eye-catching photos and the writing is always spot-on.  Jetson Green always seems to have the latest scoop on the most exciting green building projects before anyone else.

The man behind Jetson Green is our own Hot Guy in Green Preston Koerner.  He’s the founder, sole owner and chief editor of the green web magazine, and started Jetson Green as an MBA student in the summer of 2006.  His goal? To research, document, and discuss trends in green building.  Since then, green building has emerged as one of the major sources of innovation in modern technology, so it’s an exciting time for Preston and everyone who loves architecture.

Wednesday the 23rd marked Jetson Green’s 2nd anniversary on the web, and in that spirit, they’ll be giving away some awesome green gifts.  The giveaways are open until midnight (mountain time) tonight.  To participate, just leave a comment in the article for each giveaway post – you’re welcome to participate in all of them if you like.  Preston will be picking a random number for each article which corresponds to the number of comments received.  Winners will receive emails requesting their physical address.  If you win and send him your address, your green gift will be in the mail next week.  The prizes are the following books:

• MOO Green Pack of Eco-friendly Business Cards
• Book Duo: Worldchanging & Nature by Emerson
• Building Green with Kevin Contreras Season 1 DVD
• e² Season 1 & 2 Design and Energy 3 Pack DVD Set
• Ripple 3D Recycled Wallpaper Set & The Lazy Environmentalist

Be sure to check out the legal terms here.

Props to Jetson Green for 2 years on the web, and we hope you have many many more!

Link [Jetson Green]

Galactic Green: How Eco-Friendly Is The Return Of The Jedi?

We’ve been examining the hidden green cred of the Star Wars Trilogy (Eps 4-6, 1-3 don’t count) for the last few weeks here on EarthFirst.com and have come around to the last chapter as we throw down a few of the green things to be found in Return of the Jedi.

1) That Bikini. Yeah, you know the one.

This is pretty simple: less clothing in a desert environment means you don’t have to crank up the AC and pump loads of carbon into the atmosphere. This probably has something to do with why Jabba is always naked, too. Ewww….

2) Jabba’s Eco-Friendly Executions [Read more]

Special Edition Wind Turbine Lego Kit for Vestas

Legos are just about the coolest kid toy ever. One set of Legos lasts virtually forever, and you can make just about anything you can think of out of them. So, of course we love the limited edition set Lego made for Vestas, a wind energy company. The turbine actually spins (but, alas, from battery power). Groovy Green thinks it would be cool to use it to send a message to your zoning board or homeowner’s association:

Town zoning board getting you down? Anti-wind organizations befuddling you with their concerns? Feeling the ache of not being able to install your own personal turbine? Well, now you can shut out the rest of the world and focus on this great new kit from Lego called “The Vestas Windmill Kit”.

Though this set is for Vestas promotional use only and not for sale, we’d love to see more kids’ toys with environmental themes like this. While a lot of fusty old folks afraid of change are fighting the green movement, kids will readily accept it as part of their lives, and that is indeed exciting.

Link [Groovy Green]

Bad Idea: Hotlinking Image From Your Blog. Even Worse Idea: Hotlinking to Earthfirst.com From Your Blog

Everyone can relax. It turns out that Global Warming is a big hoax. We can all calm down and get back to our normal lives of driving Hummers and leaving the front door open in the winter.

I was a little worried there for a bit after hearing that the worlds scientific community had come to consensus on the fact that our world was heating up due to the massive amounts of CO2 and other nasties that we’ve been pumping into the air in earnest for the last few hundred years or two.

Imagine how relieved I was to read that Myck Kilcup, a homeschooled teenager who wants to be a history professor when he grows up, has figured out that Global Warming is a bunch of ‘hot air’. He knows because he’s been a ‘fierce fighter against the theory of “global warming”‘ and has written “lots of papers” about the subject. Plus, his dad thinks he is a “great thinker”, and you know that dads are never wrong.

Myck doesn’t let verifiable fact get in his way and has figured out that the planet has gone through this all warming before in the High Middle Ages when all of a sudden there was a lot more food to go around.

Isn’t that awesome news! Instead of looking at the possibly destruction of our world (at least the parts that allow us to live comfy lives) due to our shortsighted use of fossil fuels, we’re looking at a booming harvest (and maybe an Inquisition or two)! Kick ass! Bring on the High Middle Ages Redux!

Thank the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster that the world has mental giants like Myck Kilcup to think for us, otherwise we’d all end up as slaves to Al Gore and his army of Carbon Trading Evil Doer Greenies.

(Lesson to be learned here: Don’t hotlink to EarthFirst.com photos, especially if you’re some asshat teen with a stupid theory on Global Warming. See Myck’s blog and the hotlinked photo while it’s up. If Myck gets around to taking the photo down you can see a full sized screenie by clicking the thumbnail there on the left)

Edible Landscaping Advocates Wait a Week in Line for iPhone 3G

If you’re wondering what edible landscaping has to do with the iPhone, you’re not alone. Undoubtedly, people who were waiting in line for the iPhone 3G were wondering the same thing about the group of five activists who were first in line when the phones went on sale last Friday. They had been there for seven days and seven nights, seeking the Guinness World Record for “longest time waiting in line” and also a little publicity for their cause.

From Fortune:

Who’s crazy enough to camp out for a week on the streets of New York City for a chance to be first to buy an iPhone 3G?

TheWhoFarm, that’s who, a newly minted publicity-seeking environmental collective with an agrico-political mission: to persuade the 44th President of the U.S. — whoever that turns out to be — to transform the White House’s 17-acre lawn into an organic farm.

“We’re here to restore the edible landscape,” says Daniel Bowman Simon, 28, the group’s organizer and spokesperson and a young man given to making grand pronouncements. “We want to bring seeds of change back to the White House.”

Nice green activism publicity hack. In an open letter to several leaders including Sen. Hillary Clinton and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, TheWhoFarm listed the tasks it wished to accomplish during their week waiting on line, which included using mobile solar power, drinking NYC’s tap water, eating local food delivered by NYC community gardeners and talking to anyone who would listen about local organic farming. And, they got iPhones out of it as well. Not bad, not bad.

Link [Fortune]

The Circular Bike

I love that the guy who made this circular bike, Robert Wechsler, just leaves it in public places.  I mean, it’s not like anyone’s going to get far with it.  He should hook that thing up to generate power.

Link [FrostFireZoo] + [Robert Wechsler]

Surfing May Help Cystic Fibrosis Sufferers

Talk about a natural remedy: researchers have found that cystic fibrosis sufferers who surf tend to have healthier lungs than their non-surfing counterparts. It might just be the key to prolonging the lives of those with cystic fibrosis, who used to die as children years ago but as of now can expect to live into their 30’s and beyond. Cystic Fibrosis is an inherited disease that affects the sweat and mucus glands, leading to lung and pancreas problems.

From Inventor Spot:

A few years ago, Australian doctors discovered that young surfers with cystic fibrosis had noticeably healthier lungs. The doctors determined that inhaling saltwater mist had a powerful effect on rehydrating the lining of the lungs and allowing cystic fibrosis patients to more easily eliminate bacteria-contaminated mucus. Knowing this, researchers then developed a hypertonic saline solution, which is now used daily by people with cystic fibrosis.

Called the “saltwater” breakthrough treatment, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation would like to raise more awareness and be able to continue research into a possible cure for this disease. A chapter of the foundation formed a “PIPELINE TO A CURE” campaign to raise funds and to bring about global awareness of the unique bond between the sport of surfing and those with cystic fibrosis.

Sweet, brah. Now you have a good excuse to move to Hawaii.

Get more info at Pipeline to a Cure.

Link [Inventor Spot] + [Pipeline to a Cure]

Photo credit: Flickr user afu007

The Best, Most Smart Ass Green Ads

In case you haven’t noticed, we love sarcasm around here. So naturally, we love the collection of smart ass green ads that Green Home has compiled, including the ‘Undo it’ campaign by Environmental Defense and the lovely ‘asshole’ ads by the Greenfamily Youth Association of Environmental Protection in China. There’s also the great ‘Join the zero mile high club’ ad by Method, and the nekkid ‘Planet Green’ commercial about saving energy.

Check out the rest at Green Home.

Link [Green Home]

Galactic Green: How Environmental is The Empire Strikes Back?

After the commenters here and on Digg gave us a world-class education in Star Wars trivia, we really felt like there was no choice- if we were going to explore the green cred of one movie, we had better get all three (remember, Eps 1-3 don’t count).

As you might expect, a film so thoroughly dominated by the Empire doesn’t have too many opportunities for tree hugging–and even the rebels drop the green ball a few times, wearing fur-lined parkas, mining gas on Bespin (ok, so technically that was Lando), and yes, Artoo gets plugged in– but we did our best.

Here are five Green things in The Empire Strikes Back.

1) Tauntauns

Tauntauns are used by the Rebels on the ice planet of Hoth because their speeders haven’t been modified to handle the cold yet. This ice-friendly cavalry horse is a sustainable method of transportation on the icy world it inhabits. Better than that, even if they’re a little less than carbon neutral–see our own horrible experience with cows–Hoth might be the one place that global warming would be welcomed with open arms.

2) Echo Base

Those Rebels. They’re seriously chasing a LEED-certified revolt, what with the re-purposed base on Yavin, and a naturally-insulated base on Hoth. Even when (or maybe because) they’re running for their lives from the Empire, they’re able to take the time to squeeze every advantage out of their surroundings. Ask the Inuits, ice and snow makes a great insulator.

3) Solar Tie Fighters

Yeah, we know. They’re in all three films, and the commenters (once again proving they’re smarter than us) pointed it out right away, but the Empire has green death machines at their disposal. Maybe we were thrown off by the seeming lack of light that the Star Wars universe provides for them to function on?

Yeah, we wouldn’t buy it either. But look at the size of those panels! They have to be way more efficient than what we’re rolling, even if it was a long, long time ago. Gimmeh.

4) Escaping In The Trash

This isn’t positive green so much as it is “gee, empire, if you’d recycle more maybe you would have caught Han and Leia and would win the damn war.” Dumping giant chunks of garbage–which look suspiciously like structural steel (where to use that on a spaceship? MAYBE KEEPING THE KILLER COLD VACUUM AWAY FROM YOU WITH BIG STRONG WALLS)–allows the Millennium Falcon to just drift away from several thousand people bent of capturing or destroying it. The Empire needs to read Cradle to Cradle.

5) Everything About Yoda

He lives in a tree. When he needs a weapon against R2-D2 he uses a stick. Those are clearly some organic threads. He picks up that starship that Luke just seemed content to litter Dagobah with. And oh yeah- HE’S FSCKING GREEN, literally.

We get it, Frank Oz. Yoda is the most badass hippie treehugger ever.

All praise Yoda.

Make Your Own Gas Station Sign

Wheee! Make your own gas station sign! It might help you quell the urge to do it in real life.  Being a smart ass is fun, but, you know, that could get you arrested and stuff.

Link [Atom.smasher.org]

Monster Smart Car – Does it Get Any Cooler?

When we first saw this we were pretty sure it was Photoshopped, but nope – it’s real. The Smart forfun2 concept car debuted in 2005 at the Athens Motor Show, so it’s been around for a while, but this is the first time we’ve seen it. Where do I sign up? I’d love to roll up behind some pussy ass Hummer in this smart little bad boy.

From the Chrysler press release, via Serious Wheels:

DaimlerChrysler has always had an unusually large range of off-road vehicles - from the M-Class to the G-model and the Unimog. One look at the smart forfun2 (pronounced smart forfun to the second) and you see straightaway that it is based on a Mercedes-Benz Unimog 406 series.

This is what makes it so fascinating: the combination of two vehicles, each of which has achieved cult status in its respective segment. So it’s no wonder that the smart forfun2 awakens the inner child in everyone who sees it.

Link [Serious Wheels]

EarthFirst.com Movie Review Funtime: Wall-E’s Green Message Is Wrapped Up In a Great Flick

You might have been waiting to see Hancock or Wanted or some other action flick with exposed and then blown-up flesh, but you should take your cue from the preschool set and go see Wall-E.

Wall-E is the latest film from the folks at Pixar, those that brought you Toy Story and Nemo and Monsters, Inc. Pixar has certainly earned their reputation for smart stories and innovative animation. But WALL-E is something else altogether.

In many ways Wall-E is a small movie love story that breezes through its 103 minutes. That the lovers in this story are robots limits their range of motion and emotion somewhat, and it eliminates the need for backstory. There is only a little change in these characters – when the fembot protagonist comes around. We aren’t waiting for Wall-E to turn from playbot to settled down housebot. It’s just sweet.

But what makes Wall-E an Official EarthFirst Movie Selection is the subtle and not-so-subtle messaging that turns this kiddie film into a powerful critique of what’s wrong with America.

The core plot of Wall-E is that a giant corporation sold us so much stuff that we littered the Earth to the point where it became uninhabitable. All the people of Earth then boarded ships with the plan being that the big company would clean up while they were away. The people would then return to a nice fresh smelling Earth. In the film we come in 700 years later, while the people are still living on their space ships. So in the most fundamental way this is a film about how consumerism run amok will inevitably destroy the planet – a very EarthFirst idea.

The deeper messages are, however, more interesting. The giant corporation is called Buy N’ Large – or BNL for short. They get so big that the CEO of the company becomes the President. They are the government. Sound familiar?

Pixar has gone that extra mile with marketing and set up a BNL website so you can get an idea of how big this company got and how it moved into control of government and news. Check it out at http://www.buynlarge.com

When all of your needs are met, the next step is “convenience.” Convenience means having everything packaged to such a degree that you don’t have to work. Or walk. Or use a fork. In the dystopia of the BNL spaceship, all food is served in a cup that looks a lot like a 7-Eleven Big Gulp. People ride on levitating platforms and have a screen affixed 24/7 in front of their eyes. They have grown so obese they can barely walk. They literally don’t see what’s right in front of them. Sound familiar?

The most subversive idea in the movie is that all of the abundance has made the people stupid and allowed their so-called leaders to control them. Deep down they retain their values and have a pioneering spirit. They are not bad people. But with constant media entertainment provided by the giant corporation, they failed to notice the erosion of what they valued most in the world – their world. They gave up community and hard work and a meaningful life for video games and big gulps. Sound familiar?

As Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times in lamenting the current political discourse, “While the real-life grown-ups on TV were again rebooting Vietnam, the kids at “Wall-E” were in deep contemplation of a world in peril — and of the future that is theirs to make what they will of it. Compare any 10 minutes of the movie with 10 minutes of any cable-news channel, and you’ll soon be asking: Exactly who are the adults in our country and who are the cartoon characters?

I think we know the answer to that.

Michael Hoffman is President of EarthFirst.com and CEO of See3 Communications.

The Size of Your Car is Inversely Proportional to…

In the middle of a very cool comic was this gem.  You’re welcome.

Link [Virus Comix]

Galactic Green Cred: The Environmentalism of Star Wars

Not to make sweeping generalizations, but it’s probably safe to say that if you’re reading this blog you’re more than just a little familiar with Star Wars (and by Star Wars we mean the first three Lucas made). Maybe you can quote the movies at will. Maybe you still have your Return of the Jedi bedsheets. Maybe you read the fan fiction (hell, maybe you write the fan fiction). But, if you, like us, are nerdy little fanboys at heart, well, buckle up, because you’re about to love George Lucas’ space opera even more. It turns out that there’s actually a fair bit o’ green to be found in Star Wars.

1. Clean Energy For The Droids?

We see C-3PO and R2-D2 shut down occasionally, but we never do see them do anything to power themselves. Solar? Really big batteries that last through the film? The Mr. Fusion from Back To The Future? We don’t know. But we don’t see them suck in anything remotely resembling a fossil fuel, nor do we see them plug in. [Read more]

Disney’s ‘Dream Home’ is Tacky, Lame, and So Not Green

I’ve just seen the future, and it’s lame. Luckily, it’s nothing more than Disney’s ‘Dream Home’, not an actual vision of how we’ll be living our lives in the years to come. Unlike the innovative, futuristic 1950’s version, this ‘home of the future’ looks like a typical suburban McMansion, but with even more worthless electronic junk. Lloyd Alter of Treehugger agrees, and he’s written a scathing review of the home:

The builder said “The 1950s home didn’t look like anything, anywhere. It was space-age and kind of cold,” “We didn’t want the (new) home to intimidate the visitors. We want the house to be real accessible to our guests.” So Disney designer Tom Zofrea made it a mix of Art Nouveau and Craftsman Style. “The design celebrates the inventive thinking and optimism of both yesterday and today” But there seems to be nothing inventive at all, just more electronic junk than I have ever seen in one place, most of it off the shelf Microsoft and HP stuff. As one commenter said in an earlier post, “Instead of fantasizing about advancements in science and technology, we are once again led to simply fantasize about being rich.”

This ‘dream home’ is the antithesis of what a true dream home of the future should look like. Instead of moving in the direction of more pointless empty space, energy inefficiency, and dozens of gadgets plugged into the wall, we should be seeing something far smarter. I choose to treat this like an alt-timeline version of the home of the future: “Look at the tacky homes we could have been living in if we hadn’t started on the path to smart green design.”

Lloyd truly said it best:

Watch the appalling video on the hideous website with the nauseating music. Walt is spinning in his cryogenic cylinder.

Link [Treehugger]

America: This is Why the World Hates You

Aah, America.  Land of the freedom fries, home of the people so lazy they walk their dogs while riding alongside them in an SUV.  We guess this person could have a legitimate reason for this – like, say, if he were a single guy with a newly broken ankle and a high-energy dog with a full bladder.  But, we prefer to just assume that he’s a fat ass lazy American (apparently with the license plate number of DZY 3671).

Link [Remiq.net]

Man Saves a Bear from Drowning in the Ocean

Adam Warwick is a hero. This wildlife officer took off his clothes and plunged into the ocean to go after a bear weighing 364 pounds, to save its life. The bear had been hit by a tranquilizer dart and surely would have drowned otherwise. It had been found roaming in a beachfront community in Florida.

From The Daily Telegraph:

Wildlife officer Mr Warwick, 29, who works for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission-wasted no time in stripping off to help.

”I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I jumped in,” he said.

”It was a spur of the moment decision, I had a lot of adrenaline pumping.

”I was swimming towards the bear, trying to prevent him from swimming into deeper water.

”He was losing function in his arms and legs, and was obviously in distress. I knew I had to keep him from drowning.

”The clearly confused bear looked at me as if he was either going to go by, through or over me . . . and at times he even looked as if he was just going to climb on top of me to keep from drowning,’ he said.

As the animal struggled to keep its head above water, Mr Warwick slipped one arm under the bear to cradle its body and clamped the other on to the scruff of its neck, dragging it ashore.

That’s quite a feat of strength, and bravery to boot. Once Warwick got the bear onto the beach, a local resident used his mechanical digger to lift the bear the rest of the way out of the water. The bear was later released into a state national forest.

Link [The Daily Telegraph]

Industrial Eyesores Disguised with Art

Nobody wants to look at a ugly factory smokestacks, whether they live nearby or have to drive past them every day.  Some cities have taken to allowing artists to spruce up the eyesores, giving them a facelift with some paint and a lot of imagination.  Artist Frederic Gracia painted these smokestacks in Bagnolet, France – a huge improvement over the formerly rusty-brown intrusions into the sky.  To produce the trompe l’oeil (trick-the-eye) effect, an assistant on the ground guided Frederic with a  walkie-talkie.  The largest of the water droplets is 1.1 meters wide.

Link [Neatorama]

Cross-Border Yoga in Tijuana and San Diego

Yoga enthusiasts sat cross-legged on their mats, preparing for a seaside session. Beach yoga is not all that unusual, but beach yoga on either side of a giant rusty metal fence is, especially when that fence is dividing up the U.S. and Mexico. The group, which convened on Sunday the 23rd, stretched and meditated, and hugged (as well as you can with a chain-link fence between you) when they were done.

From SignonSanDiego.com:

The session was organized by the Border Meetup Group, which promotes cross-border understanding by staging social events on the divided beach.

Coordinator Dan Watman said the group aims “to make friends across cultural, political, societal, even emotional barriers.”

The Tijuana beach is a popular destination for families who come to chat through the fence with loved ones on the other side.

How cool. It’s nice to hear stories of peace and friendship along the U.S./Mexico border, instead of hate and murder - as hippy-dippy as that sounds, especially since we’re talking about yoga.

Link [SignonSanDiego.com]
Photo credit: Guillermo Arias

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