How's this for a positive spin on global warming (if the words belong in the same sentence), our production of carbon dioxide, in precipitating hothouse conditions on Earth, may have also staved off an ice age. Our impact on Earth's climate might be even more profound than we realise. Before we started pumping massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the planet was on the brink of entering ... Read full entry

Some days I feel like WALL·E, sitting here by myself, sometimes for days at a time, churning out content, here and elsewhere, wondering if it is just garbage, and feeling as if the occasional cockroach (that chances a visit in here) is the only friend I have. Does the life of a content ... Read full entry

Doubling the current US price of petrol, from $4 a gallon, to $8 by way of a tax, could bring about all sorts of benefits... if you can overlook the negatives first that is. Cheap gas is unfair. Driving creates huge social costs in the form of traffic, health-damaging pollution and global warming that aren't suffered solely by the person buying the gasoline. Governments usually set up idiotic systems ... Read full entry

For a minute I thought these "super toilets" could only be found in six-star hotels, but in Japan they are apparently a little more commonplace. While they sound like fun, these "always on" toilets are starting to take their toll on the environment though. Japanese toilets are super-bidets. As well as warming and washing one's bottom, they whisk away odours with built-in fans. Female-only ones play water noises that ... Read full entry

Apparently night-clubbing is bad for the environment. Unless of course you get down in a sustainable nightclub. And if you're in Rotterdam (in The Netherlands) you are spoilt for choice (to put it mildly) when it comes to finding an eco-friendly boogie... More pettily, a rival outfit in Rotterdam seems to have come up with the idea of a "sustainable dance club" long before Mr Charalambous. It unveiled plans ... Read full entry

Top 100 weirdest amphibians list launched. The title of this list is enough to make anyone who loathes creepy-crawlies cringe. Top 100? You mean there are more of these creatures who didn't make the top 100? They have tentacles coming out of their heads, live underground for months on end, do not need to feed for up to 10 years, and survived whatever killed the dinosaurs. The Zoological Society of London ... Read full entry

Cities and Icons. Sydney certainly fits the bill in this regard: Unless a city has some sort of icon - be it a building, the physical setting, whatever - it will be nondescript, especially to people not familiar with it. While I haven't travelled as much as I would like to, I can't think of one major city, or town, I have visited that hasn't had an "icon", landmark, or natural feature ... Read full entry

Engines of Progress: The Great Green Auto Race. Interesting chart posted at Good Magazine which compares the environmental credentials (fuel efficiency, exhaust emissions, etc) of eight car manufacturers in the US. Even as the world's automakers try to outdo each others' environmental claims, their dealerships remain stocked with smoke-spewing internal-combustion engines. Marketing and research, it seems, are pointing toward a gas-free automotive future, but inventory remains mired in the fossil-fuel ... Read full entry

Day 26. Happy Australia Day everyone :)I’m sure most locals have heard about the Google Plane, an aircraft that will be buzzing around Sydney today, taking photos of what’s on the ground below.And this is the scene in Centennial Park (as of 7pm yesterday) which I believe is on plane’s flight path. Apologies for the poor quality of the snap, it ... Read full entry