If you've read our post on becoming a bike commuter or our tips for female cyclists, you're got plenty of practical knowledge about how to incorporate cycling into your daily life. But bikes can be more than just an ecofriendly form of transportation--the two-wheeled wonders are rapidly becoming a must-have fashion accessory and clothing designers have taken notice. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, cyclists need clothing that "moves with them when they ride, protects them from the elements, and doesn't get caught in any of their machine's moving parts."
Beyond those basic requirements, bike messengers and road bikers have always sported signature styles, but now the fashion industry is embracing bike culture too. In U.S. cites like New York, Portland, San Francisco, and even Salt Lake City, models are pedaling or pushing bikes onto the runway to compliment their hip, bike-centric clothing.
The Replacements: The St. Louis Zoo installed electronic polar bears as stand-ins for deceased bears. The zoo's last living polar bear suffered from cancer and was euthanized this spring. Inhabitots and Huffington Post
Literary Offsets: A San Francisco bookstore is donating 100 percent of the sales proceeds from Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue: An American Life to the Alaska Wildlife Federation. Ecorazzi
Portrait of the Artist: Jeanne-Claude, collaborator with husband Christo, died in New York City. The art duo produced large-scale environmental installations including The Gates in Central Park. Treehugger and Philadelphia Inquirer
Whodunit? Researchers studying ancient lake deposits have ruled out habitat loss due to climate change and asteroid impact as the cause for the extinction of woolly mammoths. The possibility that humans hunted the large animals into oblivion is still under consideration. Los Angeles Times and New York Times
Chatter: Thousands of emails and documents from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia were stolen by a hacker and posted online. The content of the emails has stirred controversy, and global warming skeptics claim that the correspondence shows collusion and data manipulation. Wired and Examiner
Every Wednesday, we review a selection of new and upcoming books
addressing a specific aspect of environmentalism. Since the last time we recommended nature books for kids, a new crop of books has found its way to us, so here's another roundup of children's books about adventures in nature.
The Looking Book (by P.K.. Hallinan, $17, Ideals Children’s Books, Oct. 2009): Kenny's and Mikey’s mom is tired of watching her kids watching cartoons all day so she gives them “lookers” and tells them to go outside. The special glasses help Kenny and Mikey see all the wonderful things in their backyard. They explore the sights and smells of nature and discover that going outside is way more fun than staying inside. The beautifully illustrated book and thoughtful story reminds children how important it is to discover nature and reminds parents to be creative when encouraging their kids to go outside.
I Know the River Loves Me (by Maya Christina Gonzalez, $17, Children’s Book Press, Sept. 2009): Fine artist and author Maya Christina Gonzalez shares her love of rivers, describing her favorite river and explaining why it loves her. This is a simple story that any young child can appreciate, and the illustrations are colorful and imaginative. The book can be read in English and Spanish.
The newest digital collection at the University of the Pacific’s library will excite any John Muir enthusiast. The library has scanned more than 6,500 of his letters and posted them online.
Reading through the letters will give you glimpses into his personal life and conservation efforts, including his founding of the Sierra Club. The letters are both handwritten and typed. The handwritten ones are more fun to read, though, because you get to see his beautiful, fluid penmanship.
The collection isn’t really organized, but you can search for topics, letters to and from correspondents, or by date. It’s also enjoyable to just go through the collection at random, piecing together instances from his life.
The library has also made collections of Muir's photographs, drawings, and journals available online. These collections are free to view; you don’t even need a library card to access them. But beware: You could easily spend hours clicking on images, getting lost in his world.
--Julie Littman / photo courtesy of the National Park Service
Escape to the movies with one of our Movie Review Friday selections. Each week we review a film with an environmental theme that's currently in theaters or available on DVD. Seen a good eco-flick lately? Send us a short review and look for it in the next Movie Review Friday.
In his 1963 book, Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak used fewer than 350 words to tell the story of a unruly little boy who discovers an imaginary, monster-filled kingdom. Spike Jonze's intimate film is darker and more complex, but the spellbinding adaptation preserves the lean force of the slim text.
Sprawling landscapes and intricately sculpted forts create a hypnotic and otherworldly setting where Max, the newly crowned king of the wild things, leads a group of motley monsters on a spree of vandalism and roughhousing that ultimately fails to cure his loneliness. Max has inherited a world of unlimited possibilities, yet the tenor of relationships in the kingdom can be best described by a monster named KW: "I'll eat you up, I love you so."
Trees, rocks, snow, and dirt bear the brunt of the movie's violence, but the characters' emotional hunger claims victims among the monsters as well. Max's ultimate (and rather abrupt) decision to return home to his family is, in some ways, an admission of failure: He realizes he isn't fit to be king.
Jonze's compassionate treatment of these hopeful, reckless characters resonates beyond the theater. Like Max's kingdom, Earth's shrinking forests, polluted oceans, and soot-filled skies prove that humans can be beastly. But unlike Max, we can't sail home to our mothers. This wild world is all we have; now we must learn how best to love it.
Veterans Day may have come and gone, but it's still VeteransWeek, so we should expect to see more military messages; most images of war will arrive via the mainstream media and official military sources.
But at a site called UnderMars, soldiers anonymously submit their own photos. That means we get to see their view of the world – tanks and guns, yes, but also desert landscapes, schools of fish in the sea, sunsets, and blooming flowers.
Most of the photos on the site were taken in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. For us at home, it’s an honest, unpolished look at soldiers’ daily lives. UnderMars doesn’t take a political stand, and neither does it glamorize nor demonize soldiers’ jobs. It’s just meant to provide a glimpse through their eyes.
Warning: There are very graphic, bloody pictures, but they’re only in the section labeled “Gore.” Don’t click on that section if you don’t want to see it.
Fine Dining: Michelle Obama welcomed the cast of Iron Chef the White House garden to film an episode of the cooking show. The episode will premiere on January 3 on the Food Network. Ecorazzi
Poop Portrait: Artist Sam Mahon created a cow-dung sculpture of New Zealand environment minister Nick Smith to protest Smith's stance on dairy farm pollution. The manure bust sold for $2,220. Associated Press
Let's Work Together: President Obama met with 400 tribal leaders to discuss environmental coordination with the tribal nations. ENS
Underwater Matters: Sweden and Finland approved the construction of a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. Environmental groups have expressed concern about the pipeline's impact. Reuters
Less Thirsty: A study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that Americans used less water in 2005 than in 1975. Treehugger
OnFashion Monday, we highlight a hip, green fashion item. Got a stylish
eco-friendly product to recommend? Tell
us about it and look for it in an upcoming blog post.
T-shirts are a wardrobe staple, so it makes sense to buy environmentally responsible ones. Recycleatee makes men's and women's organic-cotton tees printed with graphics submitted by artists from around the world. Some of the designs are nature-inspired, a few have eco-messages (like "Don't Talk Trash"), and others just feature cool designs like this Star Wars-inspired one. All are made in the U.S. and are printed with water-based inks. When you're done with your shirt, you can send it back to Recycleatee (in any condition!), and the company will recycle the shirt and give you 25 percent off your next purchase. Recycleatree is also a member of 1% For the Planet, so they donate 1% of their sales to environmental nonprofits. The shirts cost around $29.
More people would develop ecofriendly habits if the environmental movement were more playful. Or at least that's the premise of the above video, which turns recycling into an arcade-style game, reminding us that even the most routine green chores can be fun.
Inspiring good behavior through creative approaches is the focus of Volkswagen's new initiative the Fun Theory. Another video in the series shows an ordinary subway staircase being transformed into a working "piano." As people climb the "keys," tones are produced. The result: 66 percent more people than usual opted to take the stairs instead of the escalator.
While neither of these videos will negate the CO2 emissions produced by Volkswagen's vehicles, we're pleased to see that the car company is encouraging people to make the world a better place through the cultivation of fun. Being green shouldn't be a chore, so if you have ideas about how to enliven your green routine, tell us how in the comments section below or compete for the Fun Theory Award by submitting a video of your own.
Meet Congaree National Park. It's a peaceful marshland in South Carolina boasting old-growth floodplain forests, tranquil fishing spots, and a 50-mile paddling trail for canoeists and kayakers.
But as of August, Congaree had only gotten about 63,000 visitors in 2009. Compare that to the 3.5 million Yosemite gets each year and we're left thinking: where's the love?
Don’t get us wrong – we adore the heavy hitters on our national park lineup. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and others of the in-crowd have rightfully earned our affection. But there's a whole realm of overlooked parks packed with prime hiking, camping, and paddling opportunities. Visit them, and you can expect fewer gift shops and more chances to connect with nature.
