Last July at Turin's Traffic Festival, Daft Punk and Arctic Monkeys put on performances that we would've paid good money to see. But we didn't have to because it's been free since its inception in 2004.
This year from July 7-11, the event line-up of punk, trip-hop and electro performances, cinema and contemporary art will not only be free, but also green. And to accommodate all the happenings, the fest is expanding from the main stage in Turin's Parco della Pellerina to include the Arena Civica in Milan and other smaller venues around Piedmont.
Check the event schedule before you go to avoid showing up at the wrong venue and looking like a music fest rookie in front of your friends. Besides, you'd be kicking yourself if you missed the Sex Pistols' first-ever Turin performance along with Brit punks The Wire. Others headliners not to miss include Patti Smith, Tricky, Afterhours and Justice.
Air New Zealand's trying it with jatropha, and Virgin Atlantic thought that coconut oil would do the trick. Now it's time for Japan Airlines to give biofuel flying a whirl.
Japan Airlines, aka JAL, is planning a biofuel demonstration flight before the end of March 2009 in a 747; they won't say which Japanese airport they'll fly from yet, but expect the flight to take an hour and to be the first biofuel test flight in Asia.
The other thing JAL won't say is what biofuel they'll use--because apparently they haven't decided yet. They are sure it'll be a second-generation biofuel (that means one that doesn't compete with food crops) so Richard Branson's coconuts are out. We'll have to wait a few months and see what those clever Japanese scientists come up with.
There's a new green-gunslinger in San Francisco, and it's traveled from its former Howard Street location to lush Golden Gate Park. The new California Academy of Sciences center--which opens in late September 2008--is aiming not only to stand out as an architectural icon in the city but also to operate as a Platinum LEED certified green space.
What's keeping this building greener than Kermit wrapped in a banana leaf? The main component is the "living roof" which consists of an undulating hill-like design that's lined with seven inches of soil and planted with grasses and local flora to prevent millions of gallons of rainwater from becoming storm drain water.
Honeymoon travel used to be about leaving all your worries and guilt behind and indulging like a couple of heathens in a beautiful locale without regard to the consequences. But this bubble of nuptial euphoria has been pricked of late, as newlyweds acknowledge the impact of their travel choices on the environment, with many preferring to enter into wedded bliss with a clean bill of eco-health.
Spain's oldest town, Zaragoza, has been on the lookout for a tourism boost. And they're hoping to get it with the 2008 Expo which starts on Saturday and runs until September 14.
While the "water and sustainable development" theme doesn't sound too sexy to us, the 60 acres of exhibitions from 100 countries are meant to be focused on entertainment and education--only 20 percent of the space is allowed to be about selling stuff--and we're open to a bit of edu-tainment.
If you're one of the estimated 7 million visitors to Expo 2008, you'll get to see stuff like the multimedia iceberg show every night, the "air bound theater" of Hombre Vertiente and the midday Awakening of the Serpent parade. It's kinda like Disneyland with an environmental conscience.
A gigantic greenhouse complex is being built in Thanet, England. The development covers 565 square miles and will boost the UK's vegetable crop by 15 percent.
The complex, known as "Thanet Earth," will grow 1.3 million tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers year-round in seven separate greenhouses. The $157 million project is the brainchild of a British produce supplier and three Dutch farming companies. We can't help but wonder if more of these mega-greenhouses might be the answer to the whole "global food shortage" thing.
Maybe Bono can get some other eccentric rich people to buy one? Or maybe the Netherlands will build the next mega-greenhouse: This one is all hydroponic.
The good ship Ryanair has remained an oak among other sapling LCCs that have gotten ripped up in the whirlwind of rising oil prices and a near global recession. But a new foe for free flights emerged this week in the form of an EU mandate that will require airlines to pay for the harm they do to the environment. CEO Michael O'Leary said this could turn into a green surcharge for fliers.
With plans to double in size in the next four years, the new payments to Brussels could cost Ryanair upwards of €250 million, half its 2007 profits. O'Leary defended the airline saying its been a trailblazer, flying planes slower than average for the last 10 years specifically to save fuel, a practice most airlines are just now introducing.
The EU wants to put the mandate into effect by 2011, so there's still some time to get crunk in a random foreign city for little to no cost. But maybe it's time for the Europeans to start investigating some alternative fuels?
Air New Zealand is getting so green it's gonna blend right in with the trees soon. Enabling domestic passengers to buy carbon credits is old news now, and that program's been extended to international guests now, too. The surcharge you pay gets directed into projects like the Tararua wind farm on New Zealand's north island.
Beyond carbon credits, Air NZ has been carefully optimizing things like speed and weight with the goal of reducing their carbon emissions by 100,000 tons in five years--and they're doing so well they're ahead of schedule.
And now they plan to become the first airline in the world to test a biofuel made from the nut of an Indian plant, called jatropha. They'll test it later this year and already plan to be using it on 50 percent of domestic flights by 2013. Soon the carrier will have to paint all their aircraft green.
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by Jaunted
