There are a lot of product recommendation engines in the world. In fact, one could make a pretty good case that there are, in fact, too many. But Huddler may have actually gotten it right this time.
They've launched their service with a green spin at greenhome.huddler.com. The site is a blog, a social network, a wiki, and a recommendation system all rolled into one. I've spent the last hour on it, enjoying myself tremendously.
I've written reviews of a few green products I own (like the Earth LED CL-5) and I marked a few items as things that I very much would like to own (like the Chevy Volt.)
The system is extremely simple to use, not to mention pleasing on the eyes. There seems to be a pretty good community growing up inside of the site, not to mention a huge amount of information on thousands of green products. You can subscribe to users, discussions, topics...anything! It's a joy to use.
Of course, like all social sites, there is a battle to be fought for participation. It will only be a truly enjoyable and robust platform if a large community adopts the site. In order to entice folks, they've got a giveaway going on right now, which you enter yourself into every time you do ANYTHING on the site. So that's nice.
But we'll have to wait and see if huddler can somehow create a chicken without an egg.
We've been expecting Al Gore to sweep out of left field and announce a presidential candidacy ever since the primaries got underway, but so far no dice (though we give a high-five to Grist for their awesome April Fool's post -- we fell for it).
Anyway, the Nobel-winning ex-Veep says he's not interested in running for the presidency again, and not interested in government in general. We might get the next best thing, though: Barack Obama has emphatically stated that he wants to call on Gore to fill a cabinet-level post to help deal with climate change.
At a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania, a supporter asked Obama yesterday if he'd pursue Gore's involvement. The answer? "I would. Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem. He's somebody I talk to on a regular basis. I'm already consulting with him in terms of these issues, but climate change is real. It is something we have to deal with now, not 10 years from now, not 20 years from now."
While political strategists dismiss the possibility of Gore serving under Obama -- and it's unlikely that any president is going to create a cabinet-level Secretary of Climate Change position -- we wonder what would happen if Obama offered Gore the position of, say, Secretary of State. That might be a hard one to turn down, especially given the even larger platform it would give Gore to work internationally on climate change solutions.
Since leaving the Clinton White House, Gore has shed his formerly passionless, dry political persona for a surprisingly fiery career in advocacy and public education on global warming. We think it'd be pretty interesting if he brought that fire to a new administration -- and lit it under the butts of policymakers and lawmakers who are currently more interested in stonewalling and repaying their campaign debts.
Gore, however, has indicated no interest in rejoining government, and has lately masterminded a series of TV and internet spots that aim to increase public awareness of climate change.
Over the last couple of months, a test pilot has taken Boeing's hydrogen fuel cell prototype up up and away!...at low altitudes and low speeds. Hydrogen fuel cells produce electricity and electricity, unfortunately, isn't very good at powering planes. So far, it's been difficult to produce enough power in such a small, light space.
In fact, the fuel cell airplane actually needed assistance from a lithium ion battery pack to take off. Once in the air, however, the power came entirely from the much more energy-dense compressed hydrogen.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like hydrogen is going to solve our problems with consumer air travel. Boeing is hoping that the technology could find a home in unmanned or light-weight aircraft. Keep reading for Boeing's full press release.
In a bid to help out Californians looking to lessen their carbon footprint and heighten their green cred, the State of California has - in cooperation with the California Center for Sustainable Energy - issued a total of $1.62 million to be given to owners of eligible alternatively fueled vehicles.
Now, this is a wonderful initiative. However, even at the time of issuing their press release, the CCSE had already reached the end of their budget for vehicles running on compressed gas, leaving the rather short list of eligible vehicles even shorter, with only the Vectrix Maxiscooter and some GEM cars eligible for any kind of rebate until the fund is fueled with more cash, which is unlikely to happen 'till mid-ways through next year as this fund was set to last until March 31st 2009.
While it kind of dampens the mood a bit for the non-electric car owners, it shows some foresight on the part of CCSE. They earmarked part of the money for fully electric vehicles, leaving open some space for people who might consider going electric in the near future. Also, we can only hope that the success of this grant will encourage them to pour even more money into this in the next round, because it's the sad truth that many of us won't budge a millimeter unless we're shown a wad of cash.
If I had lived in California, and had I not been living off my student loans, I will gladly admit I would have jumped at the chance to get what essentially amounts to a 11-13% discount on a sexy little electric scooter.
A new joint venture between Danish electricity company Dong Energy A/S and Silicon-Valley based Project Better Place plans to build an electric car network throughout Denmark.
Due for completion by 2011, the scheme will install 20,000 recharging stations at parking lots and outside homes.
Vehicles are to be provided by Renault, using Nissan produced Li-ion batteries, and will have a 90-mile range between recharging. Batteries will use excess power from Dong’s wind turbines, but revert back to coal-powered sources on calmer days. Even then, project organiser’s claim that CO2 emissions will still be around half of that associated with gasoline engines.
Currently, there are many days when Denmark's wind capacity actually exceeds its country's needs, and power costs approach zero. In order to continue to make money, the power is sold cheap to neighboring countries. Theoretically, this new project could use that wind power to charge thousands of car batteries in cars and at Project Better Place's battery swapping stations.
Denmark, a relatively small, densely populated country, with closely packed urban centres, should be an ideal location to experiment with a project of this scale. Another similar network is currently being rolled out in Israel.
Organisers expect expansion to other European countries in the near future, but at this stage it’s unclear how viable such networks will be in larger or less densely populated countries.
About a year ago Dell promised us all that they would soon be a 100% carbon neutral company. Now they're making good on that promise, and they look to be going about it in the right way. Instead of buying carbon credits that would theoretically offset the power that they're using in at their corporate campus in Austin, they're actually buying renewable power right there from companies making it available in the Austin area.
Waste Management's nearby Austin landfill is producing natural gas that is powering 40% of the 2.1 million square-foot campus where over 10,000 people go to work every day. The remaining 60% of the power is coming from wind energy produced by TXU Energy.
Dell continues to develop plans to take its other facilities to carbon neutrality and to decrease energy use through efficiency measures.
Nanosolar just can't stop making news! After completing it's $100M manufacturing plant and starting up the manufacture of nearly 500 megawatts of solar generating capacity per year, NanoSolar is taking yet more investment.
EDF Energies Nouvelles, a renewable energy provider that serves up 1.4 gigawatts of power throughout Europe, has invested $50 million in NanoSolar, at least in part in order to get access to some of the panels they're producing. Already, NanoSolar is undercutting the price per watt of every other photovoltaic provider on the planet. They've done this by developing a technique whereby they can basically print solar panels. It's fast, simple, and cheap (now that they've got the plant up and running) and they've been selling everything they can produce.
EDF's investment ensures that they'll be able to buy some of the highly in-demand solar panels from NanoSolar in 2009.
But NanoSolar's vision isn't without problems. Long-term efficiency of their cells has yet to be established, and some worry that they could degrade faster than traditional panels. Additionally, these thin-film solar cells require indium, an element that has recently become scarce due to a huge increase in use for flat-panel televisions and solar panels. The near-term shortage might force Nanosolar to increase its prices.
Other companies like Miasole and HelioVolt are working on creating similar panels using the same chemistry, but only NanoSolar has begun selling them in significant quantities.
Bottled water is either the largest hoax every pulled off on mankind, or a marvelous example of exactly how lazy we, as a species, really are. The world spends $100 billion on bottled water every year. Strangely enough, this water does not get to the millions of sick and dying people who do not have access to clean drinking water.
To bring potable water to the entire world would cost around $30 billion...less than half of the amount that people who have access to clean drinking water spend on bottles of the stuff every year.
I am honestly very angry about this, and I haven't even gotten into the environmental problems. In fact, I'm not going to...I'm just going to leave it there... and have this be my monthly rant at EcoGeek.
Cords suck. But, y'know, we need them. We've got to power our fantastic new digital lives! But maybe some day we'll be able to enjoy the capture the energy that surrounds us daily, and our lives will get a bit more wireless. There's power everywhere. The sun's rays, the wind, the motion of our bodies. At Inhabitat's Greener Gadgets Conference last year, there was a panel on just this kind of energy harvesting. I realized that I've never shared it with the folks at EcoGeek, and so I wanted to do that now.
Featured in this video: M2E (kinetic energy), HyMini (mini wind chargers), Solio (portable solar chargers), Boston Power (long-life batteries), and MTI (fuel cells). The summary video (above) is definitely worth watching, while the full-length panel is also available for more diehard ecogeeks.
There's no shortage of giveaway contests on the internet, but the popular tester of green products, Lifegoggles, now wants to give all the ecogeeks of the world a contest of their own. Up for grabs is an ever-growing stack of gadgets and other products that has so far reached 69 prizes, all of which are of the "green" persuasion.
You can enter the contest in five different ways, all of which lead to varying amounts of exposure for the Lifegoggles and, consequentially, more exposure to various green gadgets and beauty products and the green movement in general. The news is also good for us people not of the United States, as quite a few of the prizes are available for international contestants.
So get your hands on those ecogeeky gadgets, widgets, gizmos, and creams! Check out the Great Green Giveaway for the list of prizes and how to win!
As if it wasn't bad enough that your computer will be obsolete next week, now someone is doing the same to your clotheslines!
While drying your clothes on lines outside is decidedly eco-friendly and gives your clothes a fresh, outdoorsy smell, it's not without its problems. You've probably had your clothes fall off the line, leaving you picking your undies down from your neighbour's hedge. Let's also not forget the clothespins that tend to disappear or break.
Well, drying your clothes the eco-friendly way has just gotten a lot easier. The CordoClip promises to heal all your out-door drying woes, with clips that never leave the line and make sure your washing doesn't either, until you say so. Not only that, but it promises to make your loading to go 60% faster and the unloading to go up to 90% percent faster, thanks to the automated clipping system.
Be sure to check out their site for a highly instructional and old-school video on how the system works.
I've been clawing my way through the blogosphere today, realizing that many of the things I write on a daily basis are very far-fetched...but also true! So on a day when the world is filled with lies (see below) it's hard to indentify the legitmate news.
So here are eight green stories that I found today on the intertubes that have no references. Figure out which one you think is true...and then hit the jump to find out if you're right...and see links to sources for all of them.
In an unprecedented move, America's ultra-powerful Coal Lobby today admitted that they, in fact, are the world's dirtiest source of energy. Their new campaign, highlights not only the short-term economic benefits of coal, but also the long-term disaster awaiting us!
This marks the first time in the history of the industry that they ever mentioned anything about pollution. The campaign, entitled The Alliance for Burning Every Chunk of Coal (ABECC) stands alongside their much more polished campaign Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC).
ABECC proudly proclaims that they produce 50% of Americas power and 95% of its sulfur dioxide emissions. They also admit that there are many cleaner sources of energy, but that converting America to those sources of power would be really hard!
They even have a bit to say about blogs like EcoGeek:
The Internet -- powered by coal! -- is a great source of information. has lots of information. Of course, not all of it is true. And sometimes, even when it is true, it hurts our feelings.
Following traditional coal techniques ABECC says that their mission is to ensure that to "our shouts will be loud and well-funded enough to drown out all dissenting voices."
My favorite bit of this exciting new initiative may be the FAQ.
Let's try to stick to the point. We're 70 percent cleaner on the stuff the government legally requires us to care about. Is it too much to ask for a simple thank you? And a simple promise to never, ever discuss any alternative sources of energy ever again?
Science, technology gadgets and...baby seals. We're in a bit of an eco-mess, but we've got the brains to lick any problem. And that's why EcoGeek.org publishes up to ten stories daily about innovations that are saving the planet.
And if that sounds interesting to you, then congratulations, you're an EcoGeek.
Over the last couple of months, a test pilot has taken Boeing's hydrogen fuel cell prototype up up and away!...at low altitudes and low speeds. Hydrogen fuel cells produce electricity and electricity, unfortunately, isn't very good at powering planes. So far, it's been difficult to produce enough power in such a small, light space.
In a bid to help out Californians looking to lessen their carbon footprint and heighten their green cred, the State of California has - in cooperation with the 
About a year ago Dell promised us all that they would soon be a 
There's no shortage of giveaway contests on the internet, but the popular tester of green products, 
As if it wasn't bad enough that your computer will be obsolete next week, now someone is doing the same to your clotheslines!
In an unprecedented move, America's ultra-powerful Coal Lobby today admitted that they, in fact, are the