Kayakas!

Maybe you”ve heard of the Dinosaur Tree? We first noted it back here. The Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) was previously only known from fossil records dating back 90 millions years, give or take a day. It was considered to have gone extinct about two millions ago, until rediscovered deep in the wilds of a National Park NW of Sydney, Australia. With less than 100 trees surviving it was decided to keep the location secret and cultivate them for sale through nurseries worldwide to reduce the threat of poaching. This has been a huge success with the pines being a massive hit with the public. How often does one g…

In 2003, London implemented a congestion charge - if you wanted to drive in Central London, you had to pay. New York, or more specifically, Mayor Bloomberg, now wants to do the same. He came to London this week in order to get a feel for how it”s going in the UK, and London Mayor, Ken Livingstone apparently explained how it”s driven us all to cycling to work instead. …

When it comes to combining rigorous sustainability standards with high-end design, it doesn”t get much better than Q Collection — see our previous coverage of their excellent work here, here and here as one of TreeHugger”s Best Sustainable Designers for more. If you”re looking to combine top-notch design with top-to-bottom sustainability considerations, you can”t go wrong with Q, so we”re excited to see that they”ve extended their offer…

Wildflower Organics offers a range of cuffs, earrings, and necklaces fashioned from scrap leather salvaged from a shoe factory in Indonesia. Carved into polished organic shapes and available in either black or mocha hues, the pieces are simple yet striking, and are meant to develop a patina of character with wear. Prices start at $33 for a pair of earrings with sterling-silver hooks. Wildflower Organics See also: ::Greenbelts” Recycled Leather Cuffs, Collars and …

Trending up: Many commodity prices have risen sharply in 2007, reflecting increased interest in biofuels, strong demand, weather-related events and geopolitical concerns. Source: IMF On the heels of an ominous report on rising food prices by the FAO comes another warning from a U.N. expert that the rush towards converting crops to biofuels could potentially have a destabilizing effect on global food security and political stability. Jean Ziegler, the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has called for a five…

We at TreeHugger think HGTV’s show “Living with Ed” has great potential to educate about green lifestyles, and we met up with Ed Begly earlier this year for an interview. This week we were pleased to learn that the show won an Environmental Media Association Award for best Reality Primetime Program. Living with Ed, the series that takes viewers into the lives of six-time Emmy nominated actor and environmentalist, Ed Begley, Jr. and his actress wife, Rache…

Photo credit: t-bet At events where food is served buffet style, I start by surveying the entire selection before I get in line to fill my plate. That way, I don’t take everything that is offered. Instead, I end up only with foods I am most likely to enjoy without straying too far from my dietary goals. When salad is among the offerings, I pile it on the plate first, leaving less room for some of the more caloric selections. Because fruit is usually among the dessert offerings, I eat that first so I have less room and desire for higher-calorie choices….

The folks over at the Porter School for Environmental Studies are organizing a one-day event at the Watec conference tomorrow in Tel Aviv, but with a focus on air pollution and the global “ZeroCarbonCity” campaign. Last time we checked, there were about 6,500 Israeli-based TreeHugger readers. And out of you, there must be a few activists. Right? If you are one of them, slip on your flip-flops, jump on your bike, and head over to the Tel Avi…

This clever advert gives drivers something to think about when waiting for the bridge to lower. The car is a lot rarer in Amsterdam than most cities, and it”s great to see that, despite that, they still run campaigns like this. ::Wooster Collective…

In today”s issue of the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry a report from researchers at the University of Kuopio in Finland finds that human urine is a great organic fertilizer for plants, especially cabbages. What makes this post great for today is the fact that the diligent Finnish researchers collected the urine for their experiments by going door to door in the neighborhood. How”s that for trick or treat! Then they doused the fresh pee (urine is sterile and contains nitrogen) on rows of cabbages, with a control row of conventionally fertilized cabbage. The researchers found that the peed-on cabbages grew …