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Ecobob Bi-Weekly Top 10 - 18th Edition

Monday, January 10, 2011

Welcome to the 17th edition of the Ecobob Bi-Weekly Top 10 where every two weeks we bring you snippets of info and links to interesting eco stories on the web. We keep you updated with any interesting news, events or happenings in the environmental arena.

You can place your feedback at the bottom of the page.

A Sustainable City in the Desert

Designed by Foster & Partners, a firm known for feats of technological wizardry, the city, called Masdar, would be a perfect square, nearly a mile on each side, raised on a 23-foot-high base to capture desert breezes. Beneath its labyrinth of pedestrian streets, a fleet of driverless electric cars would navigate silently through dimly lit tunnels. The project conjured both a walled medieval fortress and an upgraded version of the Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland.

Read more...

Local Eco-Activism (Must watch video)

Transition Towns Movement

You may have heard of Transition Towns recently. It is one of the fastest growing movements in the world, and one of the few which offer a practical vision and hope to those people who have become aware of the twin challenges of Peak Oil and Climate Change - which are beginning to impact our lives, and will more and more as the years pass.

Read more here: http://jamessamuel.posterous.com/transition-towns

The Carbon Video for Everyone (incl Skeptics)

Carbon Nation is an optimistic, solutions-based, non-partisan documentary that illustrates why it's incredibly smart to be a part of the new, low-carbon economy: it's good business, it emboldens national and energy security, and it improves health and the environment. Through a cast of engaging and endearing characters from across the country, in towns big and small, Carbon Nation introduces us to the new wave of American ingenuity. From one-armed Texas cotton farmer Cliff Etheridge, who is banding together small farmers' land to create one enormous wind farm, to green jobs innovator Van Jones, who is bringing clean technology and jobs to inner cities, it's clear that the creative solutions needed to combat climate change are already being created by entrepreneurs, visionaries, scientists, and the everyday man. By bringing their innovations to light, Carbon Nation is a film that celebrates solutions and inspires action.

Wind Power Without the Blades

Noise from wind turbine blades, inadvertent bat and bird kills and even the way wind turbines look have made installing them anything but a breeze. New York design firm Atelier DNA has an alternative concept that ditches blades in favor of stalks. Resembling thin cattails, the Windstalks generate electricity when the wind sets them waving. The designers came up with the idea for the planned city Masdar, a 2.3-square-mile, automobile-free area being built outside of Abu Dhabi. Atelier DNA’s “Windstalk” project came in second in the Land Art Generator competition a contest sponsored by Madsar to identify the best work of art that generates renewable energy from a pool of international submissions.

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Putting cow dung to work

A massive biogas facility in China will turn manure from dairy farms into electricity and fertilizer.

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Fighting Hunger One Vegetable at a Time

Who needs expensive seed catalogs? People were harvesting food long before the gardening stores ever existed. There is a solution to hunger, and it's in your own backyard. Holly Hirshberg and Pamela Price give you the simple and inspirational tools to harvest fresh, nutritional food that families can feel good about.

The Good News: Freshwater wildlife thrives

Otters, water voles and many species of freshwater fish make dramatic recovery as water quality continues to improve in the UK. Otters, water voles and species of freshwater fish which had all but vanished from waterways have made a dramatic recovery following the healthiest decade for rivers since the industrial revolution.

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Electric car names

The UK government has announced the electric cars that will be eligible for a subsidy, and similar programmes operate in the US. But what's behind the exotic names these futuristic vehicles have?

Would you drive a Nissan Leaf? Would a Vauxhall Ampera tempt you to part with your hard earned cash?

There is a perception on both sides of the Atlantic, and in Asia, that electric cars are at a watershed - that one big push is all it would take to build up the momentum to persuade the world's motorists to start switching away from petrol in significant numbers.

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Share your home grown produce

Swap your home grown produce and other gardening stuff. List gardening items such as produce from your garden or gardening equipment you wish to sell, swap or give away. The garden trader on MyGarden allows you to freely swap veggies and other gardening stuff online.

Visit the gardening web site...