Eco-Vlog

If you’ve been wondering how to maintain a kitchen that produces no waste whatsoever, take a look at this project. Designed by Austria -based furniture designer Ivana Steiner, this modern zero-waste kitchen incorporates unique features to be as environmentally conscious as any room of the home could ever hope to be. Steiner put in the work to develop this zero-waste kitchen concept. She conducted field research, put together a zero-waste focus group and spoke with local shopkeepers and customers in Vienna. Related: How to replace single-use and plastic items in the kitchen The design uses recycled materials such as stainless steel and glass and is built around a large table that can be used for cooking, food prep and eating. The kitchen itself has everything you need to create an environmentally friendly space. There’s a worm box, baskets for fruits and vegetables and glass containers to store all sorts of other foodstuffs.There are linen storage bags, and there’s a vertical her...

A recent study on the mortality cost of carbon emissions has revealed that the average emissions created by 3.5 Americans are enough to kill one person. Further, the study found that emissions from a single coal-fired power plant are enough to cause roughly 900 deaths. The study, published in  Nature Communications , is the first of its kind. The analysis draws from several public health studies to determine the exact mortality cost of every metric ton of carbon emissions. It was established that every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere above the 2020 rate of emissions would lead to the premature death of one person globally due to increased temperature. This amount of CO2 is equivalent to the lifetime emissions of approximately 3.5 Americans. Related: Least developed countries tell rich nations to cut emissions Additionally, the study established that adding a year’s worth of the average U.S. coal-fired power plant’s CO2 emissions (4 million metric tons) wi...

While the  pandemic  had humanity burning up the world’s resources more slowly than usual, the trend has reversed. Earth Overshoot Day, alas, arrived yesterday on July 29. If you’re not familiar with this day, it’s the date that humans’ use of ecological resources and services exceeds what  Earth  can regenerate in a year. Last year, thanks to global lockdowns, Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 22. Although the pandemic is still raging in many countries, the world has somehow crept back to where we were in 2019. Related: Earth Overshoot Day comes 3 weeks later this year “With almost half a year remaining, we will already have used up our quota of the Earth’s biological resources for 2021,” said Susan Aitken, leader of Glasgow City Council, as reported by EcoWatch. “If we need reminding that we’re in the grip of a  climate  and ecological emergency, Earth Overshoot Day is it.” Another way to look at the data is that humanity is using  nature  ...

Lone Madrone is a 1,600-square-foot vacation retreat located on a rocky, south-facing shoreline on Orcas Island, a horseshoe-shaped islet in the San Juan Islands archipelago off Washington state. The home’s green roof is landscaped with a variety of plants and vegetation that are both native and drought-tolerant, a feature that designers hoped would increase the biodiversity value of the area. The home, called Lone Madrone, is built for a family of four and is clad in wood . It utilizes a simple design to blend into its natural surroundings and mimic the hillside slope that hits behind it. What’s more, Lone Madrone is also tucked into a naturally forming depression in the shoreline landscape (known as “wedge shape geometry”) in order to diminish its visual impact and minimize exposure to the weather as well. Related: Kauhale Kai is a solar-powered, pavilion-style home on Hawaii’s Big Island Although the living spaces are completely open to gardens on the northern side and water ...

Looking for the ideal way to build up strength at home can be challenging, especially if you don’t have that much space to get workout equipment or build your own home gym . Besides using your own body weight, you can make use of a resistance band, a simple tool to help with your workout at home. These bands provide enough challenges where you can build your strength from various exercises. One of their main benefits is that they allow you to strengthen your natural body movement patterns. [1] They are also very small and won’t take up much space in your home. Resistance bands are designed to simulate weight lifting . While these bands are very light, the various movements you’ll be doing will be met with resistance depending on the band that you got. For this list, I’ve picked out some of the best ones that you can use to build up your strength at home. How We Picked the Best Resistance Bands Before diving into the list, here are the criteria that we used to determine the best res...

Oh, honey. This ultra-sweet concoction is nature’s candy, a product of hardworking bees. It can be controversial among plant-based eaters, but the reality is we can enjoy this natural sweetener if we learn to live in harmony with the bees. Unfortunately, bees are in trouble. Bee hives have decreased about 60% since the 1940s, and these important pollinators are only facing more crises as the planet heats up. Organizations like Appalachian Beekeeping Collective are here to help. Appalachian Beekeeping Collective (ABC) is a nonprofit organization that helps sustainably support partner beekeepers in lower-income communities. ABC provides beekeepers with training and equipment plus mentors to help them along the way. The organization then extracts, packages, markets, and sells honey on behalf of the beekeepers to help them earn income without diverting their focus from sustainably caring for the bees. The final product is far superior to any honey you’d find at the grocery store, too. ...

3D-printed houses and other structures are becoming increasingly more common, but none have a creation story quite like The House of Dust, a livable structure in Wiesbaden, Germany that connects 1967 to today through the words of a poem. “The House of Dust” was initially a poem , created in 1967 by Alison Knowles and James Tenney with the aid of a Siemens 4004 computer. Knowles created word lists that describe attributes of houses. The words were then translated into Fortran computer programming language, and the computer was allowed to spit out word combinations. The resulting iteration of the poem read, “A house of dust / on open ground / lit by natural light / inhabited by friends and enemies / A house of paper / among high mountains / using natural light / inhabited by fishermen and families”. Related: Habitat for Humanity develops its first 3D-printed home in US One year later, the poem was turned into a physical structure in Chelsea, New York and later found new life in...

A Maui parrotbill that was thought to have died over one and a half years ago has been spotted on the slopes of a Maui volcano. The golden thick-billed bird was spotted on Wednesday by Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources researcher Zach Pezzillo after recognizing its song. The bird is one of seven kiwikiu birds introduced to Maui’s Nakula Natural Area Reserve in October 2019. Five of the birds died from avian Malaria, while the remaining two were believed to have died in the wild.  The spotting has reignited hope among researchers about restoring the population of the kiwikiu. Commonly referred to as the Maui parrotbill, kiwikiu birds are an  endangered species according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. The bird once occupied all of Maui and neighboring islands, but human activities and preditors have driven their population to about 150 birds. Related: Critically endangered regent honeyeaters are losing their song Pezzillo says that it was easy recogn...

If photos of Chicago dying its river bright green for Saint Patrick’s Day give you the heebie-jeebies, don’t even think about reading on. An Argentinian lagoon turned hot pink last week from chemical pollution. And it stinks. #Argentina | The Corfo Lagoon in Patagonia, has turned pink after waste from fishing companies was dumped in its waters, sparking alarm among local residents and authorities. pic.twitter.com/aayh76bJJc — teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) July 25, 2021 The lagoon near Trelew in the Patagonian province of Chubut is suffering from an overdose of sodium sulfite. In the best-case scenario, this chemical is used to preserve prawns slated for export. But now it is scaring locals, who are afraid they will be poisoned by pink  pollution . Related: Florida waterways demand their rights The pink problem started when residents of nearby Rawson got sick of trucks hauling  fish  waste through their streets en route to a treatment plant. They prote...

Located on the Dutch island of Texel in the Netherlands, this small holiday home is found just a short walk to the North Sea. Rotterdam-based Orange Architects decided to take a different approach to the villa’s design in order to save space with the use of prefabrication and flexible design. Instead of building separate rooms for different purposes that are divided by walls like a traditional home, the designers incorporated prefab , multifunctional spaces with the ability to divide and transform them according to different functionalities. Related: Modular home in Delft boasts low-carbon timber build and a green roof Orange Architects recognized that holiday homes are more likely to have different purposes when compared to everyday homes. For example, people tend to spend more time together in communal areas by day and only use private spaces at night. As a result, these private spaces, like bedrooms, often go unused for a large portion of a vacation stay. In an effort to keep...