2011 October 15

GM’s Super-Smart Pod Vehicle Looks at Future Transportation

An end to gridlock. An end to accidents. An end to driving. In fact you can conduct a video conference in traffic, and this podcar parks itself. As GM readies to roll out its electric mini-car, the Chevy Spark, as reported in Treehugger last week, its concept electric vehicle, the Chevy EN-V, a two-seater that the automaker has developed was a-buzz at last year's Shanghai World Expo. This next-generation v...Read the full story on TreeHugger

BPA Identified As Potential "Environmental Obesogen"

Tomato sauce. Image credit:Flickr, pdstahl Just when I thought it would be fine to cook with canned tomato sauce - bis-Phenol A recently having been granted toxicology probation - emerges the possibility that BPA can make you obese. Ohhh wait - not so fast. What Bruce Blumberg of UC Irvine specifically seems to be saying is that exposing a fetus or a young child to to BPA confuses cell receptors, which may add to the ris...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Toxic Algae Bloom in Lake Erie Worst in Decades

Blooming Lake Erie. Photo Credit: NASA EO Pure Michigan is a slogan used in the Great Lakes State, to bring in tourists and celebrate the beauty of nature. You probably won't be seeing these images in any Pure Michigan ad campaign. They're of algae, including some of the toxic kind. Stuff so big and nasty that you can see it from space. Be happy that you're not close enough to sme...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Middle Eastern Artists Eye Environmental Threats

Exhibit poster for the Tehran Monoxide Project. With water shortages and air pollution posing increasingly grave threats to the Middle East, artists in the region are working to make environmental issues more visible, both at home and in international forums, including Iraq's first pavilion since 1976 at the Venice Biennale....Read the full story on TreeHugger

Deadly Floods in Thailand Are A Symptom of a Larger Problem

Flooding in Lopburi, Thailand. Photo: withit / CC Since July, floods have ravaged Thailand, causing $3 billion in damage and killing nearly 300 people. But as the waters approach the capital city, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says he is confident that Bangkok's defenses will hold, reported Reuters. The flood walls, dikes and dams are all that stand between the city's 9 million residents ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Why the USDA Rejected NYC’s Food Stamp Soda Ban

Photo: Ilovebutter New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been outspoken on the subject of obesity even stating that "[i]n spite of the great gains we've made over the past eight years in making our communities healthier, there are still two areas where we're losing ground -- obesity and diabetes." In an effort to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages like soda, Bloomberg asked the Federal Government for permission to ban the purchase of sugar-sweetened bev...Read the full story on TreeHugger