This short Technology and Entertainment Design Conference clip is by Rachel Armstrong who states :

“Scientists need to work outside their own areas of expertise to make new technologies that are pertinent to the 21st century and to collaborate, both with other scientific disciplines and the arts and humanities.”

“Metabolic materials” - is what TED Fellow Rachel Armstrong researches - construction materials that possess some of the properties of living systems, and can be manipulated to “grow” architecture.

Rachel thinks of this as we think about awesome parks or gardens because “metabolic materials” are made from terrestrial chemistry…

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The algae! Yes – the same slimy brown-green ‘plant’ that makes a pond or a lake look yucky – is the creating a great buzz as the most promising source of alternative energy. And now nanotechnology is being leveraged to add some more zing to the promise!

Algae are some of the simplest of the living organisms and can’t even be classified as plants as they lack any differentiation into various structures such as leaves, roots or other organs that characterize a plant. Yet this simple structure is the very reason for the alarming growth rate of the algae: Under optimal conditions, it can double its mass overnight.

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It’s plentiful, it’s homegrown, and it could help clean up the environment while powering our cities. The idea of transforming algae into a fuel is a reality. Nowadays there are numerous implementations of algae into the renewable energy market.

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This past week in Vegas ushered in new designers and a new category, the ECOllection, at the steadily growing, highly anticipated annual Magic fashion event.

One of this year’s standouts was Loka Kouture. The rocker chic collection by Paloma Posford and Dahiana Cedeno, launched in 2007 from a small studio in Venice, CA and line brings a new edginess to the glam rock look by blending sexiness and socially responsibility. The line is eco-conscious, vegan and sweat shop-free. Rock on ladies.

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Tourism has been part of the life of Venice for centuries; however, in the last years, the city has faced grave problems due to the tremendous volume of tourists each year. Residents say that whereas the centre of Venice was once full of shops selling ‘real things’ but now most shops sell souvenirs such as Merano glass and carnival masks.

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When the US Green Building Council’s LEED® rating system became the standard for green building in the US a few years ago, it provided a way for builders and homeowners alike to have an immediate and measurable impact on the environment. Though certified buildings are increasingly common in commercial design, few platinum-certified homes exist in the US. Now, one of the most environmentally-friendly homes in California will be open to the public.

The brainchild of builder/developer Tom Schey, the Venice home at 710 Milwood Avenue – dubbed project7ten – was built to educate and raise awareness of better, healthier choices that we can all make, every single day. It has been certified Platinum by LEED®, the highest level that can be achieved.

Inspired by An Inconvenient Truth and the installation of solar panels on the roof of actor Ian McKellen’s home (in notoriously grey-skied London, no less), Schey realized that he had to do something to help educate people. As Schey was active in the real estate business, that seemed like a logical place to start. By partnering with environmentalist and philanthropist Kelly Meyer, and architect Melinda Gray of GrayMatter Architecture, project7ten was born.

The new project7ten home was designed to emphasize the symbiotic relationship between a home, its inhabitants, and the land. It incorporates many elements of green building. For example, the house will not emit harmful gases either inside or out. With rooftop solar panels that double as shade-producing overhangs (a very cool idea), the house will create its own energy. Of course, Forest Stewardship Council-certified lumber was used throughout. It sports systems for irrigation through captured rainwater and recycled greywater. The home’s slab was made from 30% recycled fly ash, the floors from fast-growing bamboo, and the insulation from post-industrial denim waste (that’s blue jeans to you and me). The list goes on and on…

But green building doesn’t always begin with the first nail – it often starts with demolition of an existing structure. In this case, the old home’s concrete slab was recycled, and all useable wood from the existing building was sent to Guadalajara to be used in building homes for low-income families.

The house will be open Thursdays through Sundays from October 11th through October 28th. There is a $20 fee for touring the house, but all proceeds will be donated to Healthy Child Healthy World, a non-profit dedicated to protecting children from harmful environmental exposures. There will also be drawings each weekend for eco-friendly prizes such as Shaklee Get Clean Starter Kits, a Naturpedic organic baby mattress, and Going Green Consultations.

The Canary Project

Founded in 2006, The New York-based Canary Project initially set out to build public awareness of climate change by photographing landscapes around the world that are already feeling the impact. It has since expanded its mission "to support a wide variety of other artists working at the intersection of art and ecology." But it’s still the photos, all featured on The Canary Project Website, that pack the most punch.

"Art has the capacity to penetrate received notions, generate media attention and create lasting visceral impact — all of which can be a more effective catalyst to action than mere rational apprehension," wrote co-founders Edward Morris and Susannah Sayler on their Website.
The Canary Project offers up photos illustrating several aspects of climate change: disrupted ecosystems (the Barrier Reef of Belize and the cloud forests of Costa Rica); droughts and fires (the American West); extreme weather events (New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina); glacial, ice cap and permafrost melting (Alaska and Austria); and rising sea levels (Venice, Italy).

It also features some images of encouragement: the massively built Maeslantkering storm surge barrier in the Netherlands and a windmill farm in Palm Springs, California.
Some of the images, like the picture of patterns on the surface of the melting Pasterze Glacier in Austria, are fascinating (who would have thought a flowing river of ice, close up, would resemble an elephant’s gray and wrinkled hide?). Some, such as the photograph of a Venetian crypt, its door opening directly onto a wide stretch of water, evoke the works of surrealist painters.

Others — like the bleak photo of a stripped-bare building slab and a stretch of leafless trees in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana — are chilling.
And more photos are to come. Sayler has so far taken images of 11 of 14 landscapes where the early signs of global warming are making themselves visible. Once she has visited all the locations, she plans to assemble the photographs into a book and traveling exhibition. She also intends to continue taking photos of two to three different regions around the world starting next year.

Some of Sayler’s images have already been on display at various locations, including the Sheehan Gallery at Washington’s Whitman College and The Spring’s Preserve Desert Living Center in Las Vegas. In November, the project has planned an exhibition, video installation and presentation at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, as well as a presentation at the Chicago Humanities Festival.

With more locations yet to be photographed — the Gobi Desert, Siberia, Greenland, Tuvalu, Bangladesh and others — The Canary Project promises to deliver even more climate-oriented inspiration in the months and years to come.