photo from IQ2

Intelligence Squared organises debates on high profile issues with the biggest names around. Chaired by a well-known moderator, the panelists are knowledgeable, wittty and always in top fighting form. Now IQ2 is turning its talents to an investigation of climate change and bringing together speakers from around the world.

Among the brightest thinkers taking part are: Mohan Munasinghe, Vice Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who shared the Nobel peace-prize with Al Gore in 2007, TIME Magazine Hero of the Environment, Christine Loh, Jeremy Leggett (Solarcentury CEO) and former Director of Friends of the Earth, Tom Burke. To add a dash of controversy, and a chance for some fighting words, Philip Stott, famed anti-climate change proponent will also be there.

Honda Accord Runs on Trash
We’ve got excited about waste gasification before, especially at news of the first US waste gasification facility. We’ve even got excited about DIY wood gasification. But howabout the folks at All Power Labs creators of the open source Gasifier Experimenter’s Kit in Oakland, California, who have converted their Honda Accord to run, cleanly they say, on anything from walnut shells to wood chips? Read on to learn how they did it…

Photo: Flickr

The Good Ol' Book is Back in Vogue
When green advocates talk about product service systems (PSS), many might be left scratching their heads (if that's you, check out the linked Wikipedia page). Yet we're all familiar with public libraries, a great example, and when times are harder economically, people increasingly turn to these alternatives to owning stuff. Read on for more.

Recent Comment by söve : "thanks...." [read]

Labels and standards are a touchy and confusing subject. Who sets them? What do they cover? TreeHugger readers have seen companies just calling themselves green, companies inventing their own labels (like SC Johnson), Companies going to third party labels-for-hire to certify what they think is important but may not be, (Like LG Eden and SCS) Labels that cover only one aspect (like Energy Star and Greenguard), and labels that let the manufacturer submit data for claims without verification (like EPEAT).

Then, for the last hundred and sixteen years, there have been Underwriters Laboratories. They are a pain. They are expensive if you have a product you need certified. They are expensive if you want to buy a copy of a standard. They are rigorous and thorough and slow and did I mention expensive? But when a product has a UL label you know it has been put through the wringer. And now they are going to certify products and tell us if they are truly green.

photo: David Silver

You may have missed it over the holidays of the past ten days but the BBC ran an interesting piece on the sort of transformation that will be required in the 21st century to feed a projected world population of 9 billion by 2050, without continuing to simply pump more chemicals into fields to replace what has been lost by intensive industrial farming. Professor Tim Lang of the UK government’s Food Council described our current agriculture system as one which “was laid down in the 1940s” and then went on to describe his vision of the future:

Photo: Lotus Evora

Lotus Electric Car in the Cards
These words were recently spoken by Lotus CEO Michael Kimberley, making us think that being a supplier to Tesla Motors inspired the company to throw its hat in the ring. The concept EV is expected for the Geneva Motor Show in March. Read on for more.

Photo via Flickr

A few weeks before we even rang in the start of 2009, I was already thinking about my New Year's resolutions. And then I started wondering what resolutions other people were making. I heard both the usual: eat better, exercise more...and the unusual: write more thank-you notes, focus on organics, for example. And that last one got me thinking: there are so many people who are still dwelling on the fringe of greener living. What better time to take the plunge than the start of a new year?

Here are three progressive ways to live greener in the New Year.

Recent Comment by Willy Bio : "Cheeky much? Or have you simply missed all that stuff about the term "green" and how i..." [read]

photo: Dominic Alves

With the honeymoon phase of support for first generation biofuels (those derived from food crops such as corn, soybeans, etc) pretty much over, and research into second generation fuels (cellulosic fuels and those derived from non-food crops) ramping up, you’ll have to forgive me to jumping ahead to what may one day be termed third-generation biofuels: Ones using genetically engineered microbes to produce fuel. Yale Environment 360 has an interesting piece outlining some of the work being done in this area: