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On MNN: Water heaters and Legionnaires' Disease

And more blaming the millennials, robots and boomers and kitchens are exhuasting.




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On MNN: We are all Flint (NOT), ban disposables and your thermostat is spying on you

And dancing robots!




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Swedish Fair Fashion, Hold the Macaroni

In addition to its social conscience, Sweden is also extremely fashion conscious, and recent media debate plus campaigns by local group Rena Kläder (Clean Clothing) have brought ideas about ethical fashion to the forefront. Right on cue, in Sweden's




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Skinny Swedish Packages A Staple In China

There's always clung to the Tetra Pak a bit of uncertainty regarding its environmental credibility: is it or isn't it green? Tetra Pak recycling rates are lousy, but in at least one life cycle analysis it came out ahead of glass and PET plastic in energy




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Swedish Tourism Cold Comfort For Warming Globe

The Swedish travel industry is woefully under-prepared for a changing climate, says researcher Stephen Gössling. Tourism to and from Sweden contributes 10 percent of the country's total measured CO2 emissions,




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Solros delivers sunlight in a cable from dish to table

A new way to deliver natural light to rooms without windows.




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Spectacular forest-dwelling swallowtail discovered in Fiji

Scientists call it a remarkable discovery in an area where butterfly wildlife was thought to be well known.




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Why Sri Lanka Will Be Hit Hardest By Iranian Oil Supply Disruption

An important, if short, cautionary tale on being dependent on any single foreign source of energy.




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How modern, minimalist design (and washing your hands) can fight disease

The modern movement started as a way of dealing with tuberculosis. The same rules apply today.




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The Jill Stein Presidential Campaign Was Both a Dismal Failure and a Remarkable Win

Stein may have gotten only 0.3% of the national vote, but that's actually a huge increase over what Greens have gotten in the past two elections.




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Paper wasps recognize each other, have long memories, & display logical reasoning

Why do we always think other animals are so simple?




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Delhi bans disposable plastics

India's capital city has taken a strong stand against plastic pollution, but now it needs to convince its residents.




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Four-Piece, No Screw No Glue Modular Shelving System By Disenaveral In Buenos Aires

Another interesting find from Buenos Aires design fair, Feria Puro Diseno (FPD), this is a modular system designed by local studio Disenaveral to build different kinds of shelving spaces that adapt to changing situations.




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What if all the spiders disappeared?

Although some may wish it so, a world without spiders would be a miserable place.




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Paleontologists discover lost ecosystem off the coast of southern California

The ecosystem had thrived for thousands of years but collapsed less than two centuries ago.




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Scientists just discovered billions of organisms underneath the land and sea

Not in the ocean. Below it.




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Recycling is hard. That's why we have to eliminate single use packaging and not get distracted.

StackitNOW is a great idea but also demonstrates how intractable the problem is.




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Is It Time to Consider 'Energy Sprawl' When Discussing Future Energy & Climate Policy?

A new article published in the online journal PLoS ONE takes on the issue of energy sprawl -- namely how much land is required to produce energy from different sources -- under different potential US energy and climate policies in 2030.




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Doing Away With Disposable Packaging

Go Box founder Laura Weiss has worked hard to make Portland (foodie paradise) just a little more sustainable, waste wise, with her system of reusable to go containers.




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No distraction here: Harman introduces "helpful" dashboard for Maserati

It runs the full width of the car. What could possibly be the problem?




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Are touchscreen displays a good idea in cars?

"If a touchscreen must be used, it should be embedded alongside a set of fixed, physical buttons that support muscle memory and single actions."




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Detecting Plant Diseases? There's an App for that

The Gene-Z app works with Apple and Android and can detect plant diseases in 10-30 minutes.




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Microsoft puts disposable wifi routers into magazine advertisement

Microsoft decided that a good way to advertise its cloud-based Office 365 software would be to actually put a T-Mobile wifi router with 15 days of free wifi inside a magazine advert.




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Vancouver grocer uses embarrassing slogans to discourage plastic bag use

Unfortunately, people like the slogans a bit too much.




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10 tips for making your dishwasher more efficient

Today's technology makes dishwashers much more water and energy efficient than hand washing dishes. Here are some tips for taking that efficiency to the next level.




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Save a Cyclist...Stop Distracted Driving

I can't stop thinking about Natasha Pettigrew. She was 30 years old, a Green Party candidate for Senator in Maryland, and killed this month in the early morning hours by being struck from behind by a woman in an SUV. The driver did not stop, dragged




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Urban-like post-disaster rural housing incorporates rooftop gardens

This reconstruction scheme in China encourages resilience and self-sufficiency.




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Food, Water, and... Permaculture? Rethinking Disaster Relief for Haiti and Beyond

A growing number of environmentalists are re-envisioning 'disaster relief' as something that can provide hope for the future, not just a hot meal and somewhere to sleep. Their tool of choice? Permaculture.




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Beyond the Gulf Oil Spill: Five Ongoing Ecological Disasters With No End In Sight

Living some 6,000 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that the oil spill often seems like an abstraction to me. A big, big abstraction, but still.




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Haiti Bans Plastic Bags & Disposable Foam Products

The big question is how well will it be enforced and what alternatives are currently readily available.




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Disaster-Resistant Earthbag Homes for Post-earthquake Haiti

How one crowdfunded organization is using earth building techniques to build impressive and durable structures for Haiti.




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District Cotton Takes On Organic Cotton, Mosquito Netting

The contents of your bag reveal more about you than you might think, but what about your choice of bag itself? District Cotton, a New York City-based company dedicated to fashion with a conscience, has a couple of sturdy options that are as socially




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New "Corpse Plant" Species Discovered in Former Khmer Rouge Territory

Previously unknown species in a relatively undisturbed bioregion of the Mekong River in northeastern Cambodia have been uncovered by a recent study — 24 in total, including a so-called "corpse




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Venice Fest Forgets the Eco-Details, but Green Art Installation Doesn't Disappoint

Despite the fact that Venice, CA seems to be the epicenter of SoCal's green lifestyle movement, the 24th annual Abbott Kinney Festival that took over the city's main drag on Sunday, September 28th was far from eco-friendly. After claiming last year




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Offshore Drilling: Is Energy Worth the Ecological Disaster of Oil Spills?

Taking a step back from the emotional response of the recent environmental devastation, let's take a look at offshore drilling more broadly: How much oil do we currently produce from offshore drilling, and how much might we potentially recover?




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Vast water reserve discovered in drought-stricken Kenya

The newfound aquifer contains enough water to quench Kenya for decades to come.




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Why is there such a disconnect between climate reality and climate action?

How can we be moving away from fossil fuels and spending billions on building pipes for them at the same time?




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Robotic ocean gliders discover new answers to why polar ice is melting

The robots have gathered new information that will help scientists determine how fast the ice is melting.




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Giant Antarctica ice shelf about to disintegrate, says NASA

The 10,000 year-old ice shelf is half the size of Rhode Island; its collapse will add greatly to global sea level rise.




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How I gave up plastic bottles for shampoo, dish soap, and rinse aid

I tasked myself with buying no plastic bottles for the year; here's how it's going so far.




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EcoCor brings Swedish building tech to the USA to produce passivhaus prefabs

It's a mix of good design, a tough standard and sophisticated engineering.




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Playground for giant manta rays discovered in the Gulf of Mexico (video)

For the first time ever, a nursery for endangered ray pups and adolescents has been discovered – giving researchers hope to learn more about these rare gentle giants.




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Compact all-in-one kitchen unit hides stove, fridge and dishwasher (Video)

Perfect for tiny spaces, this multifunctional unit can be used as a kitchen, storage and workspace.




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8 dishes that are ideal for a summer potluck

Fresh and seasonal, these recipes offer maximum flavor for minimal effort.




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Distributed Energy Generation Would Produce More Than Gigantic Tidal Barrage

The Severn Barrage could create 50,000 jobs and provide 5% of the UK's electricity needs. Critics say we can do better than that.




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Link Between BPA and Heart Disease Seen in Urine, New Study Reports

A new study finds those with heart disease had higher concentrations of BPA in their urine.




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Turkmenistan Starts Building New Desert Sea: Glorious Deed or Disaster Waiting to Happen?

The Aral Sea, Central Asia's most (in)famous body of water, has become a global symbol of environmental mismanagement. But at least one government in the region doesn't seem to have




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Swedish company is building wind turbine towers out of timber

It seems that you can build just about anything out of wood.




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11-foot-tall bird discovered in Crimea

Discovered in a cave, the surprising find reveals a fast and giant bird that weighed almost as much as a polar bear.




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Why are London's house sparrows disappearing?

If you guessed that climate-crisis-fueled, disease-carrying mosquitoes are wiping them out, you may be correct.