Video by Martin Connolly The other day, as my friend and I were on our way to sell a load of plastic bottles and paper boxes to our local recycling man, we were stopped by one of our vigilant neighbors. "Whoa, he's not there! He won't be back for two months!" The ...

photo by Craig Forrester In the ongoing effort to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector, the airline industry has been the focus of a good deal of criticism. Some airlines themselves have announced plans to reduce their environmental impact—Lufthansa, JAL, and Virgin Atlantic have all taken steps in this direction. Now comes word from the EU that...

The electricity supply in Paris was pretty intermittent in the spring of '45, so an "ingenious beautician hires unemployed 6-day bicycle racers to peddle away on a bike, the back wheel of which is attached to a small generator! The current runs 6 driers." Charlie at Modern Mechanix doesn't buy it- "Hair dryers use a LOT of electricity." Having tried to keep a lightbulb going at the Ontario Science Centre as a kid was a lot of work; the Eco-Geek says that "the maximum output for a toned adult...

photo courtesy of General Motors Yet another “world’s largest” in solar power: General Motors has partnered with Clairvoyant Energy, Veolia Environmental and the Government of Aragon to install what will be the world’s largest rooftop solar array on its Zaragosa, Spain assembly plant. According to GM the array will be 12 MW in size and cover two million square feet and consist of approximately 85,000 panels. Installation is expected to be completed this fall. The space for the project will be leased from General Motors by Veolia Environment and Clairvoyant Energy, who will operate and maintain the installation. According to GM the project will help the corporation reduce cost...

:: Live happily on this flavorful rice & beans lunch. :: Transform your old desktop computer into something useful. :: Book a greener vacation with help from the Sierra Club. :: Seek out grill-friendly veggies at your farmers' market. :: Resolve to de-clutter your living space with tips from the show,

Every summer we rant about the retailers who leave the doors of their air conditioned stores open to attract customers in, while the units work overtime to cool the sidewalk. We might just rant, but over at Racked, they are doing something about it; they have started a section of their website called This Store Blows, where readers are invited to send in submissions of photos of stores egregiously wasting energy and creating greenhouse gases for no purpose at all. These are all in New York, but if you have any examples from where you live, put them up on Flickr tagged treehuggerstorefront and let us know in comments, or <...

Copper Nanorods Reduce Energy Needed by an Order of Magnitude After super-efficient solar panels that are "hairy" on the nanoscale, here come "hairy" pots & pans, as well as computer chip heatsinks and other heat-transferring devices. Researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute made the "unexpected" discovery: "by adding an invisible layer of the nanomaterials to the bottom of a metal vessel, an order of magnitude increase in efficiency is achieved in bringing water to boil. [...] The potential applications for this discovery are vast and exci...

Image from Wikimedia There really is no respite for our battered coral reefs. As much as I'd like to say that there has been some good news on this front, the latest headlines have been growing bleaker by the week. Now a new report released by NOAA, hardly your alarmist types, has revealed that close to half of all U.S. coral reefs are in "poor" or "fair" condition -- a direct result of anthropogenic activities such as coastal development and overfishing and climate-influenced ef...

Image via Sparking Tech We're looking for a full-time blogger who can cover the latest, hippest, greenest gadgets and electronics. We are looking for someone who has in-depth knowledge and passion about this topic, can identify and explore current and emerging trends, un...

Paper or plastic bags: which is better? It's an age old question, when it comes time to check out when grocery shopping: paper bag or plastic bag? It seems like it should be an easy choice, but there's an incredible number of details and inputs hidden in each bag. From durability and reusability to life cycle costs, there's a lot more to each bag than meet the eye. Let's take a look behind the bags. Where do brown paper bags come from? Paper comes from trees -- lots and lots of trees. The logging industry, influenced by companies like

Tomm Stanley is the author of The Big Tree at George and Charlotte's House and Going Solar and we are happy he has submitted yet another green tip for our TreeHugger Tips project. Tomm's tip helps your refrigerator mainta...

Home air conditioning accounts for about 5 percent of U.S. electricity usage. In the winter, snuggling under the comforter and turning the thermostat down is a time-honored tradition, but what about in the hot and sweaty mid-summer season? Texan Ken Tompkins wanted to cut his high summer electric bill by turning his thermostat up, so he designed a small fan cooling system that attaches to a bed. The fans nestling next to the floor underneath the bed blow cooler air up into the sheets, moving body heat out of the bed. Sounds kinky but Bedfan claims it can cut an electric bill by up to 20 percent in summer if the user turns a home's thermostat up aro...

"A major component of the Democrats' energy legislation is, and the Democrats' answer to the energy crisis is, hold on, wait one minute, I'm not making this up, it is"promoting the use of the bicycle! Watch this extraordinary two minute video of Rep Patrick McHenry decrying "19th century technology for a 21st century problem." In Colorado more recently, Sen. Josh Penry says <...

Robert "Chip" Beam built his own wood-powered pickup truck. The wood-burning, or rather wood-gas burning truck is now a sort of mascot for Beaver Energy, the Williamsport, Pennsylvania based startup company Beam and partners Larry Shilling and Aron Lantz have formed. If he did it, you could too. Read on for tips and links to learn how to make your own Wood-powered Pickup Truck, with videos of the wood-powered pickup truck in action and a video guide to building your own wood-gas generator....

"Religion is no more the parent of morality than an incubator is the mother of a chicken." ~Lemuel K. Washburn

Now most folks either just plain love or really hate fried chicken...I'm in the first group. My friend Lynda makes the most mouthwateringly delicious, spicy fried chicken I've ever had. (I wish I could eat it every day!)

Love it or hate it, fried chicken has certainly left its mark on our culinary landscape. Here is some food for thought on the oft-praised dish:

1. There's a town in Alaska called Chicken.
While pecking around for a name, the residents of a small town in Alaska almost settled on Ptarmigan. (...heh?) Problem was that nobody there could agree on how to spell it.

Seemingly determined to become the butt of jokes, they simply decided on the name "Chicken" instead. Moist, plump, juicy, and with all the delicacy and richness you'd expect, the year-round population of Chicken, Alaska usually wavers somewhere between 17 and 37 people (they have no power grid and no phones). And when visiting you'll find the usual breasts, legs and thighs -- as part of the poultry and the local citizenry alike.

2. Where to find the best fried chicken.
In the off chance of your being lucky enough to ever experience Lynda's amazing culinary craft, as per the 2007 Bon Appetit search for the "Best Fried Chicken in the U.S," you'll need to travel either to Blackberry Farm in Walland, TN, Price's Chicken Coup in Charlotte, NC, or to Willa Mae's Scotch House in New Orleans to find anything close.

And if you're not a gourmet, and don't mind your chicken fresh from the hopper and served up in a bucket while tailgating, there are pedestrian mainstream varieties available, too. The most famous chain is the one with the old dude with the white hair, beard and suit...you know who I'm talking about. "The Colonel" made fried chicken his finger-lickin' lifetime passion. As the company's spokesperson, he touted its eleven secret herbs and spices all day, every day.

Rupert Murdoch's first speech to the Wall Street Journal Staff A year ago Justin wrote "Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation, has announced that he is becoming a green campaigner. He is making the whole of his worldwide operations carbon neutral and setting out to "educate and engage" his readers and viewers about global warming". According to Mark Bowden in this month's Atlantic, Murdoch "has announced his intention for the remade Journal not just to supplant The New York Times as the nation’s preemine...