Beaver Creek Housing Cooperative

Image: EPA Making Guzzlers Stand Out Even More One way to nudge people into making better decisions is to make it easier to compare different products and services. There are still many people out there who have no idea if 16 MPG is a good or bad, but if they saw a big red "D" on a sticker, they might be tempted to find a vehicle with a better grade. That's the goal behind new fuel economy labels proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT). Read on for more details....Read the full story on TreeHugger

photo: Forest Peoples Programme Take this one as reinforcement of what plenty of environmental NGOs have been saying for some time: The commercial palm oil industry in Indonesia and Malaysia is trampling the rights of indigenous people and destroying rainforests as it rapidly expands. A new report from the Forest Peoples Programme details the damage....Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Image: Google Maps 276 Extra Miles Per Year on Average According to a study by British insurer Sheilas' Wheels (watch out for the bright pink website), men waste about £2,000 in fuel over their lifetime because they won't ask for directions when they are lost, leading to an average of 276 extra miles being driven per year. Definitely not green......Read the full story on TreeHugger

image: IPCC Though the Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC has done good work in its past assessments of climate change science, an independent review of the way the organization operates says "fundamental reforms" are needed-- among those are shorter terms for the organization's chair and establishing an executive director to oversee operations and act as spokesperson. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photos by Benjamin Boccas via Paul Coudamay TreeHugger has shown many ways to hide the bed; most are designed to gain more space. But the Red Nest by Paul Coudamay doesn't; the bed is still there taking up space, but is hidden by the sliding bookcase. Why do it?...Read the full story on TreeHugger

From An Illustrated History of Furniture, Frederick Litchfield: Dining table made of boards and trestles TreeHugger founder Graham Hill is trying to radically reduce his footprint and live happily with less space, less stuff and less waste on less money, but with more design. He calls it "LifeEdited." At TreeHugger we are going to go seriously back to first principles, looking at the design and furnishing of his 420 square foot apartment. Why Do We Have Furniture? Witold Rybczynski writes in Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image via National Geographic Insect eggs are neat, but we had no idea they looked this neat. Gizmodo points us to a phenomenal slideshow of insect eggs photographed from and ant-eye view, making the less-than-2-millimeter eggs look other-worldly. Using a scanning electron microscope, National Geographic and Prüftechnik Uri and School of Applied Sciences, FHNW, show us what the beginnings of life look like for bugs. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo by cogdogblog Locally raised organic food -- it's what anyone who wants to eat the healthiest foods with the smallest environmental footprint hunts for, right? Whether from their own garden or the local markets, anyone should have access to produce, dairy and meats that are from their own county. But what do we do when we live in a place that's not exactly conducive to raising crops, like, say, Phoenix, Arizona. After finding myself in this very city for a long enough visit th...Read the full story on TreeHugger

photo: jon smith via flickr If you buy a carbon offset for the flights you take, you're in a small minority--at least according to a new survey by the UK Civil Aviation Authority carried out at Stansted airport last September. As reported by The Guardian, only 7% of flyers surveyed bothered to buy at offs...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via MinnPost We rely on the sun for everything from powering up our electronics to basic heat and warmth for survival, but this massive star does more than just send light our way: It's a huge nuclear reactor with explosions, eruptions, storms, and magnetic fields that affect both itself and Earth. Check out our slideshow for stunning space photos of the solar flares, spicules, coronal mass ejections, and other jaw-dropping phenomena that make the sun one of the most fascinating parts of our s...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image credit: OrganicNation I've been thinking a lot about scale recently. "Small is Beautiful" has long been a rallying cry of the green movement—and yet in light of the massive challenges we face, I'm thinking we shouldn't turn our backs on "big" either. It's true, my post on more sustainable industrial monoculture was met with derision from some, and I'm not sure my follow up Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photos: Kristin Rule A couple of years ago Kristin Rule, alias 'The Unconventional Cellist' undertook a 20 week music tour, toting her cello on a motorbike with a solar trailer. With a new album recently released, she is soon to be touring again, but this time by bicycle accompanied by a solar-powered, electric-assist trailer. The 30 watt solar photovoltaic panel on the 'Mechanarchy 'Watt-Bot' trailer stores electrical energy in a pair of 12 volt batteries. These provide up to three hours of electrically assisted riding for pedalling a cello laden ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Magnetic Island house exterior Photo: Robin Gauld for Sanctuary magazine issue 12 When it came time for our architecture writer, Lloyd, to select the Best Shelter Magazine for TreeHugger's 2010 Best of Green Awards in Design and Architecture he quickly made his choice: Sanctuary Magazine, from Australia's Alternative Technology Association (ATA). Indeed he gushed, "s...Read the full story on TreeHugger