Inhabitat

THE INHABITAT GREEN HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE IS HERE!

Who doesn’t love the holiday season? The trimmed trees, the colorful lights, that first sip of hot apple cider… But wait, you can’t forget the crowded parking lots, the long lines, the screaming babies and the unflinching parents violently fighting over the last Beach Party Barbie doll. Well, we here at Inhabitat strongly suggest taking a rain check on the latter and “picking up” the INHABITAT GREEN HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE instead!

With over 200 of the greenest gift ideas, you can spare yourself the perils of holiday shopping and spend your time enjoying only the best and most eco-friendly of what the season has to offer! From green gifts on a budget to slick green gadgets to DIY ideas for that extra personal touch, we’ve got hundreds of ideas for mom and dad, boys and girls, new parents, him and her, tots and even pets to choose from! No stocking will be left un-stuffed!

INHABITAT 2009 GREEN HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE >

In this modern age of light pollution, cities that never sleep, 24 hour streaming TV and addictive RSS feeds, regulating one’s own circadian rhythms can be, well…difficult. And for those of us who have a computer strapped to our torsos at all times, watching a sunrise or sunset (somewhere other than Youtube) is a luxury that we are lucky to experience once in a blue moon. Luckily, the Whitney Museum of Art has developed a way for us to check out more sunsets – on their website. That’s right – EcoArtTech’s Cary Peppermint and Christine Nadir have programmed the WMA site to dim and illuminate, corresponding with New York’s real-life cycles of light.

READ MORE >

THE INHABITAT GREEN GIFT GUIDE IS HERE!

It’s that time of year again! Today is Black Friday, the most infamous shopping day of the year, and the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season. This year, instead of dragging your tryptophan-infused body up at the crack of dawn, blearily driving your car to the nearest big box store, shop the eco-friendly way (from the comfort of your own computer) with the INHABITAT GREEN HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE!

This year’s green gift guide is better than ever and chock full of sustainably-made gifts and stocking stuffers that everyone on your list will love. From green gifts on a budget to the hottest green gadgets to homemade gift ideas you can whip up yourself, we’ve got over 20 different categories for mom and dad, boys and girls, new parents, him and her, tots and even pets to choose from! Check out our full green guide here and get shopping!

INHABITAT 2009 GREEN HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE >

In case you missed the big news in the wake of your Thanksgiving celebration, President Obama is, in fact, planning to travel to Copenhagen next month to deliver a speech and participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference! Armed with a tentative plan and an emissions reduction target for the US, Obama’s trip is a great sign of leadership and a chance to achieve a global commitment towards reducing the effects of climate change. Now this is truly something to be thankful for!

READ MORE >

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We can’t be believe that Thanksgiving has already come round again, and as we savor the holiday with friends and family we’d like to take a moment to pause and give thanks for all of the great things that the past year has brought! It’s been an incredible year for the Inhabitat family, and with the launch of new sites, exciting new features, and a growing community of readers around the world we feel that we have a lot to be thankful for. Read on for our top 10 list of things to be thankful for in 2009!

READ MORE >

Algae is often touted as the next big thing in biofuels, but the slimy stuff could also be the key to paper-thin biodegradable batteries according to researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden. Eventually, the bio batteries could compete with commercial lithium-ion batteries.

READ MORE >

Inhabitat has done a lot of coverage of living walls, particularly those of French botanist Patrick Blanc. They are complicated things, requiring pumps, hydroponics and a lot of care. If they don’t get it right they can fail, like the Paradise Park Childrens Centre in London did.

Edouard François does a different kind of green wall, known as green façades. In these much simpler structures, no pumps and technology are needed, as the vegetation is planted in the ground and the walls become the growing medium. It takes time; Inhabitat has pictures of François’s Eden Bio project, which will take about seven years to grow out and look like the renderings. But some of his other projects are completely grown.

READ MORE >

It was a great pleasure to step away from the computer and check out a fabulously beautiful book sent to us by Artisan publishers on the eco-friendly practice of restoring townhomes, brownstones and row houses. Written by Ingrid Abramovitch, Restoring a House in the City is a wonderful resource on the process of restoration and is full of stunning photography of gorgeous homes around the country. Renovations are near and dear to our hearts at Inhabitat and it was even more enlightening to learn how these older homes are naturally eco-friendly. We had a chance to ask Ingrid some more questions and ask for tips on how to eco-renovate an older home – read on for our interview!

READ MORE >

Making environmentally conscious consumer choices can be difficult when walking down supermarket aisles awash with hyper-marketed products. Enter GoodGuide, who has just released a new barcode scanning iPhone application that gives shoppers the power to seek out socially conscious products, right in the palm of their hand.

READ MORE >

The winner of the extremely exciting Re:Vision Dallas competition to create a completely sustainable community on a run-down city block in downtown Dallas was just announced yesterday – and it’s incredible! “Fowarding Dallas,” submitted by Portuguese-based architectural firms Atelier Data and Moov took the grand prize with their hillside-inspired design that consists of a series of peaks and valleys, runs completely on renewable energy, is covered in vegetation, and can even grow its own food. The coolest part? This mixed-use eco-community won’t just a concept – it will actually be constructed in Dallas in 2011!

READ MORE >

Imagine a machine that could suck carbon dioxide right out of the air and magically transform it into a usable product. It may seem like wishful thinking, but that’s exactly what researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories hope to do. They’ve created a protoype of a device that can turn carbon dioxide into a liquid fuel.

READ MORE >

Since Slovenia joined the European Union in 2004, its capital city Ljubjana has lead the way in economic and social development. Unlike other nations who have just begun to find wealth and the new construction that comes with it, the Slovenes remain conscious of the urban and social impact of what they are breaking ground for. Designed by Sadar Vuga Architects, the new Sports Park Stozice integrates a football stadium, a multi-purpose sports hall and a big shopping center, all beautifully tucked away into an expansive green landscape.

READ MORE >

Costanera Sur is a proposal for a vertical zoo in Buenos Aires that transforms a pile of rubble into a towering pillar of falling water. Designed by Visiondivision, the project aims to reclaim debris left over from the construction of Buenos Aires’ decades-old highways, is entirely self-sufficient, and could theoretically provide water and energy to surrounding structures.

READ MORE >

Conspiracy! Author James Hoggan realizes the ridiculousness of that word, asserting that it “strains credulity and is offensive in its own right.” Yet the massive media sway that he details in Climate Cover-Up feels like something a squinty, scruffy, clipboard-wielding man would accost you with. It turns out that most of the oft-quoted global warming skeptics are not climate scientists, and are not published in credible scientific journals. They are funded mostly by think tanks which are, in turn, funded by fossil fuel companies. “There are conspiracies aplenty,” he writes, ” documented and undeniable.” The central conspiracy here is the perpetuation of global warming uncertainty. His book puts out the serious details.

READ MORE >

Last year Cloudgate Design brought us the Cardboard Christmas tree, and this year they’ve just launched the all new SMALL Cardboard Christmas Tree, which at 1 ft tall makes a great gift, is easier to transport, and works well as a table centerpiece. Like its larger 3 ft. tall predecessor, the SMALL tree is a nifty extended use of recycled corrugated cardboard and comes ready-made with decorations.

READ MORE >