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Oil is spilling at a rate of 5,000 barrels a day into the Gulf of Mexico. The oil slick covers an area of nearly 4,000 sq. miles and growing. It is shaping up to be one of the worst man-made disasters to ever strike the planet. To put the leak in perspective, 5,000 barrels a day is 0.00026% of the U.S.’s daily oil consumption. We “spill” the remaining 99.99974% of that oil into the atmosphere each day.

We love raucous festivals like Burning Man and music jamborees like Bonaroo, but we’ve never heard of one that combines the spirit of these events with the mission to actually accomplish something. Like building a build a micro wind turbine farm.

Such is the idea behind “Villages in the Sky: DIY World Change” — a a family-friendly renewable energy and sustainability celebration located in the Ozarks and scheduled for June 2010. Unlike gatherings that strive to leave things the way they were before anyone arrived, Villages in the Sky is looking to take advantage of crowd sourcing to create a better place than existed before. Participants will help build a micro wind turbine farm and bio-mass systems as well as giant play structures (zip lines, tree houses, ropes courses, etc). The entire event is internally cash free event which promotes a volunteer ethic and strangers working cooperatively for a shared goal. In fact, the main goal is to leave behind the beginnings of a locally self sufficient eco-village. Perhaps even one inspired by the Ewoks. From the website,

“Villages in the Sky is about more than wind mills and climate change. It is a full celebration of the element of air. Everything from paper airplane contests, to bubble blowing, to frisbees, to zip lines, to tree house villages complete with connecting bridges are being considered and encouraged.”

The VIS site is a 40 acre portion of the over 1000 acres owned by host East Wind Community in the Ozark mountains of south western Missouri. In other words, bring your GPS.

Right now, the event organizers are looking for help with funding and currently are in the hunt a $5K grant over at Brighter Planet. You can check out more details on the proposed plans — and help vote them through here!

Bottled water is surely one of the biggest jokes ever played on humanity. With plentiful supplies of clean water, first world countries still spends a horrifying amount of money on boutique water — some sourced from half-way around the globe.

The image above is but a piece of a stunning infographic from Online Education detailing the damaging effects of bottled water on our planet — and wallets. Check out the full image after the jump below:

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A 12-mile-long massive iceberg (twice the size of Hong Kong island) is headed towards Australia in what scientists are calling a “once-in-a-century event.”

The 54 square-mile ice slab known as B17B, is currently about 1,000 miles south of the continent. Initially three times as big, it broke off of the Antarctic about 10 years ago and has been slowly floating around. It’s current path north is unusual — and incredibly rare. “I’m guessing you would probably have to go back to the times of the clipper ships,” one glaciologist told USA Today.

B17B is expected to break up into smaller, but still hazardous chunks as it enters warmer waters and moves closer to Australia. It joins two other large icebergs currently floating down under — as well as several hundred currently infesting the waters around New Zealand.

Researchers warn that as global warming effects the colder regions of our planet, icebergs of this size are likely to occur more often.

To make the production of its hybrid Prius that much greener, Toyota has engineered  two new plant species that absorb harmful gases and help take heat out of the atmosphere. It’s a move straight out of science fiction, but it’s not the first time the automaker has played God to help lower its carbon footprint. The grass around its Tsutsumi plant in Toyota City, Japan was developed to grow shorter — requiring cutting only once per year, compared with three times for the previous species. From Drive.com.au,

The flowers, derivatives of the cherry sage plant and the gardenia, were specially developed for the grounds of Toyota’s Prius plant in Toyota City, Japan. The sage derivative’s leaves have unique characteristics that absorb harmful gases, while the gardenia’s leaves create water vapour in the air, reducing the surface temperature of the factory surrounds and, therefore, reducing the energy needed for cooling, in turn producing less carbon dioxide (CO2).

Other green initiatives at the plant include roof-mounted solar panels, photocatalytic paint on exterior walls, reflective solar tubes that provide interior light, bathroom lights that automatically turn off, and reduced air conditioning.

Image credit: Drive.com.au

Looking like something out of a science-fiction movie, the concept for a proposed algae farm and vertical garden on the outside of an old Boston historical building is drawing some big attention.

The pods, which are prefabricated and designed to be interlocking, contain algae-incubators on the inside and plants on the outside. The architects for the project would use the old Filene’s Basement site in Boston’s Downtown Crossing as a temporary home for research and biofuel production. The city planners, meanwhile, would have plenty of time to work through the red tape of zoning, financial, and legal webs for any permanent ideas. From the article,

The pods, which are used as incubators for growing algae for biofuel, can be configured in several ways depending on the needs of a given site. Individual pods can also be rented out by researchers for algae-based projects, according to Howeler Yoon. The spaces that form between the attached pods allow for planting and creating a vertical garden.

What do you think? Would you want something like this in your city? I think it’s a pretty wild project that might give us a glimpse of permanent vertical gardens in buildings years from now. For others, however, such a radical shift in architecture might be less than pleasing. Still, better to take advantage of something just sitting there, right?

Back in June of last year, we dropped the story that harvesting rain water in Colorado was actually an illegal activity. We commented on just how dumb this law was — and over 100 comments later, many of you agreed. Almost a year later, the Colorado legislature has revised the draconian law to give some homeowners rights the water that falls from their roofs. But not everyone will be happy. From the article,

If you live in the city, don’t install a barrel under your gutter spout just yet. The legislation lets residents on wells collect rain and establishes 10 pilot projects for new developments. Residents on municipal water still can’t legally collect rain, and water suppliers are leery of legislation that would let them. “All the water was spoken for here in the Arkansas Basin 100 years ago or more,” said Kevin Lusk, water supply engineer for Colorado Springs Utilities. “If the water falls as rain, that’s water that was going to get to the stream system, and somebody already has dibs on it, and if somebody intercepts that, it’s the same as stealing.”

The same as stealing? Give me a break. If a homeowner owns property, they should have rights to use the water that falls on that parcel. “If you can just use what’s coming out of the sky, it saves energy costs, it saves transportation costs, and ultimately, at the end of the day, it should save us on using forms of water that have to be treated,” said CO State Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan. I agree with her 100%.

Even with the new laws, you’ll still need to fill out a stupid application if you’d like to legally collect rainwater on your property. For more details on how to jump through the hoops, click here.

Back in November, British banking giant HSBC did a clever thing with a swimming pool: they took a picture of New York City from above and applied it to the bottom to make a point about climate change and rising sea levels. The effect is nothing short of amazing. My eyeballs are still having trouble not believing these people aren’t swimming a thousand feet above the NY skyline. Granted, sea levels would never rise that much — and the water probably wouldn’t be crystal clear (or toxin-free) — but, it still makes you think.

via neatorama

Ever forward on my mission to get more people using rain barrels, I wanted to draw some attention today to the beauty of rain chains. Since aesthetics outside the home is often of great importance to some, plastic or metal downspouts can sometimes be less than pleasing going into your rustic rain barrel. Rain chains are a nice alternative if you’re looking for something else to complete the picture. Harvest H20 gives us a great description of how they work:

They are hung from the corners of your roof or canale to guide the flow of water into large barrels to catch the water from the roof for household purposes and gardening. They have been used for hundreds of years in Japan, and are a perfect expression of the Japanese knack for combining aesthetics and practicality. The principle is simple – rain chains do exactly what downspouts do, but they do it in a way that brings visual pleasure and delight. Rain swirls and flows down, creating a mesmerizing sense of motion and tranquility right outside your window. And they are beautiful on dry days too, as over time, copper rain chains develop a rich blue-green patina.

It should be noted that rain chains are not recommended for areas prone to severe rain storms — or where gathering every drop is crucial. Downspouts are most efficient for that type of climate. However, if you’re still contemplating adding a rain barrel to the mix — but want the system to blend a bit better with your home — something like a rain chain might be a great idea. For a good selection, jump here – or try here.