Green Thing Blog

This stop motion video is brilliant- and not just because it uses 2770 timlapsed still framed shots across America. Mike, the handsome star of this viral (apparently) walks from New York to San Francisco. You can even see his trip highlights on this google map. Levi's advertising aside, doesn't it just make you want to embark on a cross-country walking trip?!

Ps- You don't need a new pair of levi's to walk. In fact you don't need trousers at all to walk the walk.

(Spotted on Welovestopmotion)

SHARE THIS

This week marks the 40th anniversary of America's Clean Air Act which has kept big polluters in check to protect public health and the environment. But lobbyists are attacking the law. To fight back, Repower America has created this video asking "Who does the air belong to?"

Look out the blink-or-you'll-miss-it appearances from the likes of Alec Baldwin, Margaret Cho, Brandi Carlile and a host of other celebs. Who else can you spot?

For more clean air inspiration, check out this video directed by the Coen brothers.

SHARE THIS

If you're experiencing snow during this time of year, check out this rather impractical but oddly satisfying contraption aimed at clearing copious amounts of snow. The Bike Plow is a homemade pedal powered invention. All you need is a tricycle (or homemade 3 wheeled bicycle), a couple of bungee cords and a lever mechanism. Craig Smith, a maker in Milwaukee is the man behind this machine.

For those of you who aren't experiencing a snowy winter, this one is for you.

Students who entered the third annual Engineering, Mechanics and Aeronautics design competition at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have invented the Mowercycle.

Working like the old-fashioned push mowers that do not require fuel but with the size and maneuverability of a ride on mower, the prototype of the contraption is powered by the person using it so it's completely emission free and it uses the frame of a recumbent bicycle but is four wheeled. The blade is connected to the rotation of the wheels but moves 6 times as fast in order to cut your grass. Collin Bezrouk, one of the five students who designed the machine says, "It depends on your athletic ability. But we figure the average person could pedal it for about an hour, going twice the speed of a push mower."

Since it's only at the prototype phase, the idea still needs a lot of work, namely whether the blades will actually trap the grass enough to cut it! But it's a great idea that just needs a little more development in order to offer you a product that keeps your lawn kempt, your garden emission free and gives you a bit of exercise!

(Spotted on MAKE and TriplePundit)

SHARE THIS

Carbon Nation is a film about solutions. Hitting cinemas in America this month, and being screened at various venues around the world, the film is a fresh and optimistic take on tackling climate change. The producers explain,

Carbon Nation is an optimistic, solutions-based, non-preachy, non-partisan, big tent film that shows tackling climate change boosts the economy, increases national & energy security and promotes health & a clean environment.

The film is a series of vignettes of individuals and projects highlighting the future potential of technology as well as showing changing attitudes and behaviours. It's great to see that the film has set a positive tone. Hopefully Carbon Nation will illustrate to the wider public that alternative ways of consuming products, producing energy, travelling slowly and more, are in fact the way forward.

To find out more, visit: http://www.carbonnationmovie.tv/

(It's .tv because that's the domain for Tuvalu, a country that will be entirely submerged underwater by 2100. Proceeds from .tv domain name sales go towards paying the country's UN fees and helping residents relocate to New Zealand).

SHARE THIS

Remember drive-in movies? Well, they're so 1993. What's way more up-to-the-minute is the cycle-in cinema.

In fact, one already happened in Brooklyn last month. Forking Tasty, a Brooklyn based supper club and blog wanted a way to promote their Reel Tasty dinema (that's dinner crossed with cinema) club season so with a bit of help from creative marketing agency Manifold they paired up dinner with cinema and bikes (it was National Bike Month, remember?) to celebrate the arrival of summer in style. The result was a free outdoor screening of Ferris Bueller's Day Off (an incredibly fine choice, I must say), accessible by bike, and accompanied by tasty snacks from the Forking Tasty team, including gourmet flavours of popcorn. A perfect combination in Do the Green Thing's many eyes, and apparently in lots of other people's too as the night was such a success that they're planning more similar events for the rest of the summer. Sweet.

We're hoping very hard that something similar will happen round our way. We'd love it even more if not only could you cycle there but the cinema was pedal-powered too.  So get up with the new urban landscape and go to a bike in movie. 

Here's a pedal powered community and here's a pedal powered pub. Perfect!

(Spotted on PSFK)

SHARE THIS