Inhabitat

That’s a great perspective to have. It reminds me of the student who designed a cleaning machine that filters plastic out of the ocean. https://inhabitat.com/19-year-old-student-develops-ocean-cleanup-array…

Solutions to ocean trash are well known, we just need to do them. This absolutely will fail. There is no question about that. edit: https://www.kcet.org/redefine/6-reasons-that-floating-ocean-plastic-cl… https://inhabitat.com/the-fallacy-of-cleaning-the-gyres-of-plastic-wit… Folks, I do quantitative work in ocean conservation. I know what I am talking about here. Everyone in ocean conservation, including marine engineers, ecologists, etc, consider the Ocean Cleanup project to be misguided at best.

The author mentions the tersorium, but I'm surprised that he doesn't bring up family wipes (also know as "family cloth") https://inhabitat.com/family-cloths-gross-or-great/. It seems like the idea never truly died out.

Unlikely a problem given the discovery of a largest fresh water bodies ever known was just discovered: http://inhabitat.com/scientists-discover-freshwater-reserves-under-oce…

This is the right answer. Instead of letting suburbs rot, we select some for renovation and reuse. With a little work, we can make suburbs more walkable, bikeable, and environmentally friendly. A book on the subject: http://www.sprawlrepair.com/index.html Great Illustrations: http://inhabitat.com/urban-sprawl-repair-kit-offers-simple-plans-to-fi…

This is pretty cool but lower-tech than i was expecting when i saw the link. I went by their loft a few times in 2008 or 2009 but haven't followed them since. I think Makani is a sister company. http://www.google.com/makani/about/ There's also other companies working on e.g. computerized winches that can react in hunderdths of a second, if I remember correctly http://inhabitat.com/power-your-boat-with-kites-wind-power-by-kiteship…

I wonder if something like Graphene would have any applications for bicycle locks? I would love a lock made from this Graphene paper, which is allegedly 10 times stronger than steel: http://inhabitat.com/new-graphene-super-paper-is-10x-stronger-than-ste… New materials are giving us great opportunities to re-think old problems, which is why I regularly enjoy browsing http://www.inventables.com/

Thank you for your kind words! We have been getting a decent amount of attention lately, but we are very much heads down, working on our science and deployment of our experiments. We announced in April, on Earth Day, that we have found a pair of bays in the Caribbean where we will run our first experiment(s). And in May, Stripe announced their selection of CDR purchases and we were selected for 3333.33 tonnes @ $75. There was a lot going on in the world at the time when it was announced (and for whatever reason Stripe's post or the following article didn't receive traction on HN), but that announcement made it into Reuters-> Stripe picks $1 million in carbon-removal projects to spur industry https://www.reuters.com/article/climate-change-stripe/stripe-picks-1-m… This was our first bigger article, that came from our poster in December at the American Geophysical Union with our plan to take our coastal enhanced weathering "from the lab to the beach"-> Could putting pebbles on beaches help solve climate change? https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/Could-putting-pebbles-… Recently, we were in MIT Technology Review - How green sand could capture billions of tons of carbon dioxide https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/06/22/1004218/how-green-sand-cou… Fast Company -> Ever been to a green sand beach? The newest geohack to fight…

There's actually disagreement about oceans self cleaning (or not). From https://inhabitat.com/the-fallacy-of-cleaning-the-gyres-of-plastic-wit… (and Flotsametrics): > to clean the ocean of floating plastic, you don’t need to go out and get it, it will come to you. Yep, that’s right. Oceanographer Curtis Ebbsmeyer, author of, Flotsametrics [33] describes a rarely talked about phenomena that occurs naturally in the ocean called Gyre Memory. Gyre Memory demonstrates that upon each orbit of a gyre, the gyre will spit out about half its contents. These contents will then either enter another current or gyre or wash up on land. As this repeats, it means that eventually, all the plastic in the ocean will be spit Slat's reply, from https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/responding-to-critics: > There is no data to support this statement. Actually, using the best models currently available (the Van Sebille and LebretonModels) we attempted to quantify the natural loss of plastics from the gyres, producing a figure of <0.1%/yr. Based on communication between our modelers and the makers of the models, we eventually decided to exclude this figure from the report, because the models are unreliable near the coast. But it’s safe to say a gyre does not spit out half of its contents per rotation. Unfortunately, it appears that the plastic that’s already trapped in the currents of the gyres does not simply go away by itself.

> The problem isn’t the science as much as the proposed solutions. The more extreme solutions are more about income redistribution rather than actual science. Whether or not climate change is unequivocally human caused, there are those that would use “climate” as a means to enact economic proposals they favor regardless of the climate impact. https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/goldstein-failed-c... a link to an opinion piece in the toronto sun isn’t enough evidence imo (sorry just calling it like i see it, please feel free to provide more evidence) > For example, what about nuclear? If we are “serious” about climate change, nuclear is the best choice for large scale electrical production, but nuclear faces opposition from those that scream loudest about the danger of fossil fuels. what about it? there are serious problems with nuclear, for example what to do with the waste (we already saw the disaster waiting to happen at fukushima), what about proliferation of potentially refinable nuclear materials (weapons)? i agree compared to coal it’s a potential short term option, but why do nuclear when we have high powered solar (molten salt) stations [1] that cost a fraction of nuclear stations [2] to say nothing of traditional wind and hydro electric generation again, i’m not 100% against nuclear but there are much faster, agile and cleaner alternatives already in production > What about the Paris climate meeting? The local airport was filled to the brim with private…

They also have policies in place to support parents at the beginning of a child's life (i.e. the most important developmental phase of life). They also have a lower GDP per capita and somehow still afford all of these benefits that we are continually told would bankrupt our country. Truly a country of "family values". - Maternity boxes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternity_package - New child leave - Expecting mothers in Finland can start their maternity leave seven weeks before their estimated due date. After that the government covers 16 additional weeks of paid leave through a maternity grant, regardless of whether the mother is a student, unemployed, or self-employed. The country also offers eight weeks of paid paternity leave. - https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-with-best-parental-leave-201… - Partial Care Leave - After a child turns three, parents may take partial care leave, meaning, you can work fewer hours per day or week in order to spend more time with your child — and though you can’t take partial care leave at the same time, both the father and the mother can take the partial care leave at a different times. This innovative leave lasts until the end of the child’s second school year. - https://inhabitat.com/inhabitots/finlands-family-benefits-prove-why-it… - Universal Healthcare - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Finland

This project is hugely problematic, both because there are some pretty fundamental flaws in how he characterizes plastic pollution and the lack of any responses from the Ocean Cleanup about the criticism from just about every ocean plastics expert out there. None of the major plastics pollution nonprofits endorse this work, not out of jealousy but frustration with an idea getting so much attention and funding purely because some charismatic kid has talked about it. Assuming that it is engineered to survive storms (which is DEFINITELY not an easy feat given the design), anything like this will have an impact on marine life. Anything that floats like this will act like a FAD (fish aggregating device) and attract animals, and should be designed in a way to minimize impact or incidental catch. It seems like his discussion about what that includes has been pretty vague to date. This includes the small things in the ocean that will certainly be harmed by this device. The dispersion of plastics in the ocean seems to follow a different profile than this device addresses. Contrary to what people imagine when they think of the “Pacific Garbage Patch,” the bulk of plastic in the oceans is not large pieces that are floating. Pretty much all plastic in the ocean has broken down into small pieces and sits through the entire water column following the mixed layer phenomenon. There’s been a lot of great research on that, including microplastics which are now found in practically every…

"We need to look forward to what the best use of resources is today for the people of NYC. And that's not a pretty building -- it's increased capacity, resiliency, and safety." But those two things needn't be be mutually exclusive right? There are plenty of modern examples that offer both. The Santiago Calatrava World Trade Center Station in downtown Manhattan, The Gare de Oriente in Lisbon, the Rotterdam Centraal in the Netherlands, Liège-Guillemins railway station in Belgium are all examples that combine both practicality and good aesthetics. For those interested: http://www.archdaily.com/783965/world-trade-center-transportation-hub-… http://inhabitat.com/santiago-calatravas-gorgeous-oriente-station-is-t… http://www.dezeen.com/2009/12/02/liege-guillemins-station-by-santiago-… http://www.archdaily.com/588218/rotterdam-central-station-benthem-crou…

The above plan will have the effect of landlords knowing how much those only on the minimum living allowance can pay. Combine that with the ability to still perform credit checks and it's ripe for abuse. If you have a guaranteed minimum income that is suffcient to qualify you for the apartment, you should probably be able to skip the credit check for it. Citing Hong Kong struck me as odd. It's probably better being homeless in certain states. I think most people have seen the following, or similar, set of pictures about Hong Kong micro-apartments: http://inhabitat.com/exhibit-on-the-micro-apartments-of-hong-kong-expo… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cage_home Real urban planning has low income housing distributed throughout the city. If not, the wage slaves have to be shipped in. Some form of rent control/social housing incentives have to be in place. Otherwise you get situations in the states where welfare mothers have to bus 3 hours each way to get to their minimum wage job.

Realizing the impracticality of it (and that such approaches often collapse under the infeasibility of it) ... wouldn't it be better to... say... cover the Sahara in solar panels instead? That's gotta be cheaper than shipping them into space. https://inhabitat.com/worlds-largest-solar-project-sahara-desert/ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/nov/01/solar-power-sahara-eu… (and a retrospective from 2023 - https://www.ecomena.org/desertec/ )

What ever happened to that research on incandescents that were more efficient than LED about 5 years ago? https://inhabitat.com/mit-makes-a-warm-incandescent-light-bulb-nearly-…

please consider this reference https://inhabitat.com/ted-moallems-braille-it-labeler-is-made-by-the-b…

I thought this post was going to be about tree (species) maps that you see in parks sometimes: https://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/03/Tompkins-Sq… These are awesome too.

There are these things called "ice bears". Could they be what you're looking for? See https://inhabitat.com/efficient-ice-battery-provides-247-coo... for one article.

Seems like we should be testing geoengineering in deserts first before we try it in much harsher environments like Mars. I think desalinated ocean water via low tech solar might be a good way to start - https://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/08/Fayez-al-Hi…

Should have taken more than one year so they wouldn't have to haul away sewage by truck. https://inhabitat.com/the-incredible-story-of-how-the-burj-khalifas-po…

https://inhabitat.com/mit-team-unveils-airplane-that-uses-70-percent-l… https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20100042401/downloads/20100042401.…

Cars gained popularity in America with the rise of road systems that allowed for suburban life. Car companies has a huge history of damaging public transit infrastructure goals in cities to further their cars. In LA car companies literally bought rail car lines and turned them into buses. Hyper loop is absolutely an interest of Elon but yes it is a red herring. He’s doing it to distract from other goals so more people want teslas. Eg the Las Vegas tunnels that use teslas instead of train cars. https://inhabitat.com/what-happened-to-los-angeles-streetcars/ https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/elon-musk-s-boring-company-to-…

You might simply be sensitive to Roundup, which is found as residue in bread in North America, since it is used as a pre-harvest desiccant. https://inhabitat.com/roundup-bread-the-real-reason-americans-are-into… Try consuming organic wheat products only.

1) The worst polluters are countries like China and India and 3rd world countries that dump trash directly into the ocean. 2) But... it's "PER CAPITA" pollution that is the _actual_ problem. 3) ??? But then we stop right before the truth is that the 1% are the biggest polluters on the planet. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-richest-emissions-poorest-analysis.html https://inhabitat.com/1-of-global-population-causes-50-of-all-carbon-p… https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/05/carbon-top-1-perce… https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/carbon-emissions-richest-1-per…

https://inhabitat.com/the-incredible-story-of-how-the-burj-khalifas-po… 15 tons equates to over 10k liters, if you are interested https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/conversions/common/liters-to-metric-…

Crushed parasitic beetles -> Starbucks strawberry drink [1] [1] - https://inhabitat.com/starbucks-admits-its-strawberry-drinks-are-color…

> ... power generation side can be bypassed in a storm even by just opening another air path. This surely presents the opportunity for an art installation along the lines of [1] ‘Sea Organ’ uses ocean waves to make beautiful music , but perhaps adapted to sound loud but harmonious storm alerts for, say, five minutes or so to warn coastal dwellers. Different tunes could cut in at varying storm strengths, maybe ... . [1] https://inhabitat.com/incredible-sea-organ-uses-ocean-waves-to-make-be…

This smells like some really bold and really ridiculous PR attempt. "Ikea uses about one percent—yes, one percent—of the world's entire commercial wood supply. That amounts to about 17.8 million cubic yards of lumber last year. " [1] I guess they need this PR purchase to appease some eko organization. And this is equally ridiculous. Ikea is making furniture, something people really need. Why they have to explain themselves for doing something useful? What should they use to produce furniture? Would plastic be any better? Iron? Stone? [1] https://inhabitat.com/one-percent-of-all-the-worlds-commercial-wood-is…

Url changed from https://inhabitat.com/u-s-contributes-5-times-more-ocean-plastic-than-… which points to this.