Eco-Thinker

ZapRoot is a weekly webcast show from ViroPOP, a green pop network, and is the next generation approach to educating the asses on how to live greener. Host Jessica Williamson enlightens us with some of the more uncommon yet fun ways to be green. Yes she is gorgeous, and yes she talks about sex toys a lot!

In this episode the eco-beautifying host reports on toxic perfumes, edible plant internet maps, Paris Hilton pulling an Al Gore first, a system to recycle your household’s urine oversupply, and more informative green pop culture witticisms.

ZapRoot episode 30 | Paris Hilton is Greener Than You!

Don’t forget to stop by ViroPOP and join the community.

Links referenced:

Eco-Chick

This is an incredible idea and reflects one of the most green uses I’ve ever seen for the internet. Go check this one out!

Urban Edibles

Ecorazzi

TMZ: Paris Hilton

Drink Pee

Rice Field Art

Retro Rocket Ships

Superfund365

…which is always good news for the solar industry.

In the video below, CEO of Solaria, Suvi Sharma, is interviewed and discusses Solaria’s new technology for manufacturing solar panels. Solaria solar panels use only half the silicon that older conventional panels use. This is an improvement from an economical and environmental standpoint, cutting costs and waste. The new panels can be produced using the existing equipment and facilities saving even more on time and expense.

That’s why our technology is so critical. By doubling or tripling the ability of the industry to produce the kilowatt hours from the existing silicon supply, we can really make the industry more scalable with less silicon which I think is the key to unlocking the potential of solar.

solaria.com

Via:Technology Review and Good Clean Tech

Check out this attractive building of sustainable proportions set to be built in Chicago. It comes equipped with wind turbines and solar panels. Clean Technology Tower.

Read the full story and see more pics at Metaefficient

Mike Adams wrote a fantastic article over at NaturalNews.com detailing the tricks and psychological secrets used by the food and dye chemical industries to fool you into believing your purchase is the nutritionally optimal choice.

Humans have the innate ability to see exactly which foods have the most enticing amount of nutrients, by simply examining the color of them. When you shop for fruit, do you not choose the brighter more vibrant looking of the bunch? This is your brain letting you know that this particular fruit is the most favorable choice for your body. These instincts have served humans well for thousands of years, if not hundreds of thousands of years.

Mike says:

For example, a red cabbage that is actually a dull grey doesn’t look very appealing, but a purple cabbage with a saturated, bright-purple color looks fantastic. That’s because we have an innate perception gauge telling us we should be attracted to these foods — they are healthier for us, and the health quality is indicated by the saturation of the color.

And the corporations are fully aware of these facts, and have built an entire market around this lesser known reality. Artificial dyes such as Yellow #2 and Blue Lake #40 can cause health problems on a scale so complex that it is difficult for even doctors to trace. These dyes, along with the bleached sugar in candy, are disastrous combinations for your health and should never be considered as a food supplement for you or your child. These toxic ingredients are hardly limited to candy. Other chemical additives such as MSG, bleached flour, bleached sugar, or some other form of preservative, are found in most all processed foods, chips, junk foods, and just about all non-water shelf drinks.

Get educated on how to shop for foods that are petrochemical free. Getting involved with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and buying locally grown organic produce is a way to ensure a high quality exchange, plus reducing the distance the food needs for transporting, using even more fuel, more emissions, not to mention the more hands your veggies have to pass through or get tossed around by. Buy locally and support your community. That is one of the most positive and sustainable choices you can make.

Mike also tells us how salmon feed farms add toxic chemical dyes to the salmon to give them a more appealing appearance. We are more likely to prefer the lively colored salmon.

And don’t miss the finale of the Health Ranger’s report, explaining how some of the food colors comes from boiled and ground up insects!

Carmine Wikipedia:

Carmine may be prepared from cochineal, by boiling dried insects in water to extract the carminic acid and then treating the clear solution with alum, cream of tartar, stannous chloride, or potassium hydrogen oxalate; the coloring and animal matters present in the liquid are thus precipitated. Other methods are in use; sometimes egg white, fish glue, or gelatine are added before the precipitation.

Read the informative article at: How food companies fool consumers with food coloring ingredients made from petrochemicals and sign up for Mike’s newsletter @ NaturalNews.com with more than 800,000 monthly readers.

Ultraviolet rays take a toll on solar cells, just as they do human cells. While it may not manifest itself as a sunburn, UV light does expedite degradation of solar cells. As a promising answer to this dilemma, a scientist at the University of California in Los Angeles, Yang Yang, says his new material can change UV rays into visible light, reducing damage and even enhancing efficiency of a solar cell.

The new “photon conversion material” (PCM) converts harmful UV into longer wavelengths, enhancing efficiency of solar-energy conversion and reducing damage to cells. This should help the solar cells last longer, as well as increase their electrical yield. - Source article

The process for manufacturing solar semiconductors already has a nasty byproduct called silicon tetrachloride which is highly toxic. To add another layer of a polymer, and a fluoride compound at that (”polymer blue polyfluorene”), could make solar power an even less attractive alternative for energy. Of course this new PCM material is made just for adding sustainability to solar cells. If the lifespan of the solar cell, which is already in question, is greatly extended then I suppose the reduction in pollution would be worth the new technology. Besides, emissions resulted from solar production plus the new material cannot compare to the pollution levels of coal combustion and other unsustainable electricity generating methods.

EAT GREEN

The first step in greening out your St. Patrick’s Day feast, is to have green foods. Duh? And I don’t mean the clever marketing term that signifies environmental consciousness, I mean the color green. We’ll get to that, but think green. Not only does it adapt perfectly with Ireland’s national holiday tradition of green, but green fruits and vegetables provide cancer fighting antioxidants, phytochemicals, beta-carotene, fiber, potassium, vitamin A,C,E and many minerals such as calcium and folate vital for life. You will need to include a variety of the following for your menu: broccoli, romaine lettuce, zucchini, collard greens, artichoke, brussel sprouts, turnip greens, spinach, asparagus, celery, cucumbers cabbage, kiwi, honeydew, melon, lime, green bell pepper and so forth.

Secondly, to truly go green with your holiday feast you should have 100% organic foods. Non-genetically modified, pesticide free, naturally fertilized veggies for your celebration. Organic food is a no-brainer. Not only are you virtually eliminating toxic chemicals in the food itself, but eliminating eco-unfriendly pesticides from food crops and promoting a clean and sustainable method of agriculture long forgotten by the top tier agriculture corporations.

WEAR GREEN

In order to claim a green unofficial U.S. et al holiday you will also have to consider the material of your apparel. All synthetic fibers must go! No nylon, and for all drunk Irishman’s sake don’t get out the spandex. Sorry. These types of fabric are petroleum based fibers which, as we know, are destructive to the environment and all lifeforms. No recycled petro fibers, especially. To support our green habit and passion you’ll have to find some organic cotton, organic wool, hemp fabric, cork, bamboo or other more renewable and toxin free fabric to drape over your oversensitive and susceptible skin. Conventional cotton requires more pesticide than any other crop in the world, and account for 25% of the world’s pesticide usage, so make sure it is 100% organic.

The very dyes in your clothes are the toxic products of one of the largest petrochem industries in the world, dyestuffs. So keep in mind your already pricey green threads will also require an eco-friendly coloring process. There are various methods and products for coloring fabrics but usually dyes can also be made from berries, roots, and flowers and require only natural fixatives such as salt. Researchers are even working on ways to use pond algae to produce fade resistant eco-friendly dyes for fabric and paints.

DRINK GREEN

Now on to what is no doubt our favorite part of the celebration, the drinking of the green. The brew industry is another complex beast to tackle, but know that the best way to acquire your suds is to make it yourself, from organic ingredients, of course. This also eliminates the unnecessary overproduction of aluminum cans and glass bottles, both of which are heavy polluters during production and as waste we end up recycling or discarding into landfills.

If you haven’t found the time to plunge into such a hobby as homemade brewing then you can always shop for organic beer. This way you at least can at least drink assured that your your barley, hops, yeast, sugar, and water are from the highest quality sources free of any unwanted chemicals.

Green Dye for your Green Beer? If you do not want toxic dyes in your clothing, then your most certainly do not want to consume them. There are alternatives.
Browse over to Seelect Organic Natural Green Dye to make your perfect St. Patrick’s Day brew as green as possible, for you and your environment.

Have a great St. Patrick’s Day everyone and keep sustainability in mind even if you can’t pronounce it by the end of the night.

First we had hybrid-busses and then plug-in hybrid busses, and now a no-plug-in hybrid wirelessly rechargeable bus? Say what? So the terms may need tweaking. From Tokyo, check out this interesting new project by Hino, a subsidiary of Toyota. Before the majority of society can even ingest the news of a prospective electric-car-future, we have a design that can keep a battery charged without having to stop, plug in, and “fill up”. But, as EcoGeek pointed out, the available wireless energy transmission technology is rather inefficient. So to actually make it a truly green project would mean the source of the energy providing the grid would have to be solar power or some other efficient energy production.

Learn more: Wireless Hino hybrid a hit at Haneda and Asashi: Bus takes charge in green travel

I spy a little instrument that I really like. Even though I have yet to test one out, the name speaks for itself. Thanks to Alternative Consumer for pointing this one out to me. This is the Gibson Les Paul SmartWood, and deserves notice by those shopping with sustainability in mind, and especially for fellow guitar pickers. These guitars are made from one of six exotic woods from regions certified by the Rainforest Alliance which ensures the wood comes from forests managed with a focus on sustainability .

I admit I was unfamiliar with this particular line of exquisite guitar. Unfortunately I have let myself slip out of the music loop for some years now. This article is a good reminder to find more time to play. But, as a guitar player I can easily appreciate the Les Paul guitars. The neck action is smooth and responsive and of course an unmistakable tonality recognized by just about all guitar players, and most who regularly listen to, well, any style of music. The Les Paul shines in all genres.

I had spent quite a few hours at the local guitar shops in my day just sampling instruments and rarely did I miss a chance to try out the latest offerings by Gibson. Ok, so I played and tested just about every guitar in the store. I am a retail salespersons’ nightmare, after all. What sustainable and green minded consumer wouldn’t be? Keep sustainability in mind for everything you shop for, not just your Les Pauls.

When I do finally break down and find myself in a position to purchase the Les Paul I had always fancied owning, this is what I will have my eyes on. The Curupay finish is impressive looking and easily my favorite..

Visit this page and download sound demos of the Les Paul SmartWood. Here’s the product page.

Via: Alternative Consumer