Wednesday, December 17, 2008

No More Plastic Water Bottles on Penn State Campus?

I learned about this encouraging news today. I would have joined the protest if I were still in school! -

Members of the newly formed Penn State Environment, Ecology and Education in the College of Education (3E-COE) group and other environmental activists gathered to protest the sale and use of plastic water bottles at Penn State. The activists also delivered a letter to Penn State President Graham Spanier's office asking him to ban the sale of disposable water bottles on campus.

"Eliminating water bottles on campus isn't without precedent," said Alexandra D'Urso, co-founding member of 3E-COE, citing Washington University in St. Louis as a university that prohibits the sale of plastic water bottles on campus. "We're not asking people to make huge cultural changes."

The letter to Spanier spelled out the environmental and health concerns 3E-COE says are associated with the use of plastic water bottles and gave examples of their negative effects, particularly the amount of discarded plastic polluting the oceans.
(full report)

Instead of creating mountains of landfill out of plastic bottles, why can't we carry water in an eco-friendly and artful bottle such as SIGG's product? A simple change in our daily habits can make a huge difference on our planet!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Fish in Forest


Is it a dream that fish can swim in the forest? No, it does exist in reality! During the rainy season in the Amazon, the water level of the rivers can rise 10m or more. Thus the rainforest is transformed into part of the river where fish and dolphins swim through the tree trunks. The flooded forest becomes fish's paradise, for they have more places to hide from predators. The trees can also stand in the water for 6 months or more. I learned all this from BBC's Wild South America, another amazing natural world series.

I'm so fascinated with this magic transformation of space in nature. I can't help thinking that even the natural world possesses such flexibility and possibility, what about architecture? Shouldn't there be more wonders to be created?

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Greener Xmas Tree


What a great idea to make a Xmas tree out of recycled cardboards! The tree was designed and developed by Cloud Gate Design LLC, a Chicago based design house. Cloud Gate Design was founded in 2006 by two designer friends, Nick Ng and Dan Greene, as a way to bring environmentally conscious alternatives to market.

In addition to taking the pressure off existing tree farms, a portion of the profits from the Cardboard Christmas Tree sales are donated to the Arbor Day Foundation’s Trees for America Program. For every one dollar donated to the program, one tree will be planted in a damaged forest.

source: Inhabitat