Semi-permanent floating homes may be the future in Coastal areas.

The Netherlands, which for years has fought the encroaching ocean, is now considering how to embrace the waters in future city design, Reuters reports.

A number of prototypes for floating cities are being considered. Indeed, the Netherlands may well become a laboratory for such thinking.

A goal is to be able to remove or relocate a building without harming the surrounding environment; the ultimate in sustainability.

Watch Reuters video here.

Cool Recycled Plastic Chair!

Check out this great looking lawn chair made from recycled plastic!

Made of post-consumer HDPE (high-density polyethylene), the Cabrio lounge chair by Loll is highly durable and waterproof and diverts about 320 milk containers from ending up in the landfill.

Loll Designs believes green products should be superior to those that are not green and the company is dedicated to "creating long lasting products that are made from recycled materials using sustainable business practices not only for our business to grow, but more importantly, for the planet to keep growing too."

To order or see other designs, go to lolldesigns.com.

Women Make the Energy Decisions

While Congress is contemplating a new energy policy, American women are paying the electric bills at home and making the critical decisions on energy use in their homes and businesses, according to the national Women’s Survey on Energy & the Environment, the first in-depth women’s survey on attitudes and awareness about energy.

In addition:

-- Women want clean energy

-- Women need more information on electricity and clean energy
-- Air pollution’s effect on family health is a major concern
-- Women business owners lead the way

More survey results here.

Solarmonkey Sale!

Great Father's Day gift!

Powertraveller's portable solar mobile device charger is on sale until June 24th.  Capable of charging and working with both sunlight and incandescent lighting, the solarmonkey is two folding solar panels that attach to most cell phones.

Only $55 until Monday at Green Home environmental store.

Going Green TV

Things that make you go Hmmmm......

A UK retailer installed moving metal plates in their parking lot that generates energy when cars drive over them, which is then converted to electricity to run their cash registers.

This is a part of their sustainability effort which includes collecting rainwater to flu

sh toilets, solar thermal for hot water and sending food waste to a biomass plant instead of the landfill.

The idea is novel, but I question the benefit of the amount of

 resources needed to install and maintain this power-generating parking lot versus the amount of resources an electric company uses to produce the same 30 kWh per hour.

Hmmmm......

Electric Jet Car - I want one

The 500th electric Tesla Roadster was recently delivered and a 60-mile road rally with about 30 Roadsters in California commemorated the event, the largest gathering of Tesla Roadsters on public streets.

San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla is the only production automaker selling highway-capable EVs in the United States or Europe. The Roadster beats nearly every other car in acceleration yet is twice as energy efficient as a Toyota Prius. It costs roughly $4 to refuel and can be completely recharged in as little as 3.5 hours.

"People who buy Roadsters are getting a superlative sports car that drives more like a performance jet than a car – and they are supporting a new American automaker committed to building well designed, high performance vehicles with a level of efficiency far greater than any other automaker in the world," said Jeremy Snyder, Tesla's General Manager for the South Western Territory.

The 500th Roadster went to Martin Tuchman, former chairman and CEO of Interpool, and chairman of The Tuchman Foundation and a board member of The Parkinson's Alliance and Parkinson's Disease Foundation of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. Tuchman said he plans to charge his Roadster partly with solar energy thanks to photovoltaic panels he helped install throughout his hometown of Kingston, NJ.

Search for Air France 447 Hindered by Garbage

Earlier in the week, rescue workers reported that they had found debris--two buoys and a cargo pallet--that had come from the downed Air France Flight 447 plane, but it turned out to just be floating garbage. Officials have had to turn to costly submarines to aid in locating signs of the plane amid the floating piles of waste.

Ocean-bound refuse tends to congregate in gyres. There are about five major “trash islands” in the world. Air France Flight 447 did not even go down in one of these major gyres; It fell into an area of minor trash congestion. The major gyres are mind-boggling and are 90% plastic waste. One of them, between North America and Asia, is twice the size of Texas.

It has a devastating impact on ocean life. Notably, sea turtles mistake the plastic bags for jellyfish and try to eat them. Birds also attempt to eat the floating chunklets of plastic. The floating-garbage problem doesn't stop at marine life. The plastic acts as a sponge for harmful chemicals. The chemicals work their way through the food chain and end up in our food.

This art piece was inspired to bring awareness to the debris gyres in our ocean. The Environmental Cleanup Coalition is focused on removing this debris accumulation from the ocean. www.gyrecleanup.org.

Hilarious!

The "call letters" for going green is RRR - reduce, reuse, recycle.  An extreme example of reuse is the Cosmic Muffin, once a Howard Hughes TWA-owned Boeing 307 Stratoliner.  Destined for the scrap heap, the 307 was rescued in 1969 and converted into a "sleek and uniquely sensational motor yacht."

Yes, a boat.  Planeboats.com