Green Options

Kids growing up in the mountains where I live love to tie young trees’ trunks into knots. As you drive along the roads, you often see older trees with trunks twisted long ago by young hands.  Plantware has taken this concept even further in designing a living playground for children by manipulating roots and trunks.

Plantware has made benches, love seats, street lights, gates, etc. from living trees.  “Kinder Forest: A Living Playground” takes the idea even further:

KinderForest gives children real trees to play with, gives parents a natural alternative for their children and gives earth urban reforestation that is functional, enjoyable and green. Creating structures from living trees means that ~95% of the playground’s mass is taken from the air using local sunlight and rain. No gasoline-burning chainsaws, trucks, ships or waste. Such structures can live for 700 years and are self repairing, earthquake safe, oxygen producing and provide a habitat for wildlife coinciding with their purpose for humans.

From action steps to green your child’s school to kids actions inspired by green media games and eco-focus, today we’ll continue where we left off in Part One of our Eco Child’s Play Green Media Mini-Series, honoring kids’ green media that embeds positive cues and meaningful play, and turning that inspiration into action.

At left is Dizzywood’s celebration of Wildwood Glen’s reforestation, where kids planted 15,000 trees in online to offline eco-parity, partnering with The Arbor Day Foundation. I’ve added a slew of other tree-planting ideas and sites at the end of this piece to get ready for 9-22-08, worldwide Tree Planting Day coming up in the next couple weeks. In keeping with the green media theme of hope, promise and eco-renewal…here’s more from my interview with Scott Arpajian, Co-Founder of preteen virtual world, Dizzywood…

What are 100 pennies worth?  $1.40 in zinc.  Zinc mining is an “environmental disaster”, and demand for the mineral is growing in China.

Source:  Eco Geek

Image:  wikimedia commons

When we launched the Green Options Media blog network back in November, we knew that we wouldn’t be alone for long: both green blogs and sites, and more focused blog networks, are popping up on a very regular basis. As a company, we were sure we could hold our own in terms of competition; as environmentalists, we were excited about the potential of blog networks to further communicate green ideas to a mainstream audience. So, we [...]

I’ve just finished reading The Lazy Environmentalist by Josh Dorfman. While not every chapter was for me (babies and children?!) the book contains a gigantic amount of information on how to make good, informed, green decisions. Without condescension or guilt trips, Dorfman lays down easy-to-digest information on how to live a cleaner greener life that isn’t a big pain in the ass.

We recently had a chance to talk to Josh about his book,

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When Ron Hochstetler graduated from Purdue with a degree in aviation technology, he didn’t know how different his path would be from the other graduates of his class. Though trained to work with the helicopters and jets that we today associate air travel, Ron became fascinated with a different type of craft. An aircraft that "belongs in the sky."

Now, twenty years later, Ron is one of the world’s leading experts in "lighter than air"

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Editor’s note: A few technical glitches kept us from getting EcoGeek of the Week up on time this week — we apologize for that. We didn’t want to skip this one, as the featured EcoGeek is a good friend to all of us in the green web.

Jonathon D. Colman is the Senior Manager of Digital Marketing at The Nature Conservancy. As such, it’s kinda his job to understand the wild

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Dear EcoGeek,

Have there been any developments in the pursuit of sustainable, cost-effective alternatives to plastics? I am aware of the recent gains in using corn starch to produce biodegradible plastics (chocolate candy trays, shopping bags, etc.), but what about durable goods such as toolboxes, exercise equipment, or any other product made from plastic that is designed to last.

Thanks for your time and expertise.

Jim

Hey Jim,
It does seem a bit silly that we

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Editor’s note: This week’s EcoGeek of the Week interview was conducted by our own Philip Proefrock (who also writes at EcoGeek.org).

Tobias S. Buckell is a Caribbean-born speculative fiction writer who grew up in Grenada, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He has published stories in various magazines and anthologies. He is a Clarion graduate, Writers of The Future winner, and Campbell Award for Best New SF Writer Finalist. We

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Dear Mr. EcoGeek,

I've heard that it takes more energy to produce photovoltaic cells than the cells will ever produce throughout their lifetime. Is there any truth to that, or are those naysayers just saying nay?

David
Spokane, WA

Short Answer:

Those naysayers are just saying nay! But that doesn't mean there's not more to this story.

Long Answer:

This myth was probably perpetuated by studying solar panels created for NASA. If

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Editor's note: We're particularly excited about this week's "EcoGeek of the Week," as EcoGeek.org's Matt James interviews author and thinker Daniel Quinn. If you haven't read Ishmael, put it on your reading list… and be prepared to see the world differently once you've finished it.

Daniel Quinn, I think, is more a thinker than a writer. His ideas are what change the world, his books are merely attempts to

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