california

Eastern elevation rendering courtesy of BAPS Shree Swaminarayan Mandir

Recently I wrote about how Hindu temples in India have been making efforts to green their energy usage and commented that, given the core belief of the interconnectedness of all life in Sanatana Dharma, it wasn’t surprising that Hindu temples would embrace cleaner energy. Now comes word, via Inhabitat, that a new mandir (temple) and cultural center in Chino Hills, Calif...

This years Coachella festival was the first of its kind with its own train and train station. To help reduce the carbon footprint of a 3-day music festival held in the desert, organizers found a way to make one giant carpool – that came in the form of the Coachella Express. After a year of planning between Coachella, Global Inheritance, Golden Voice and Amtrak, this train idea got, well, rolling....

The Pacific Mexican state of Baja California is swiftly becoming the region's solar panel manufacturing powerhouse, boosting its profile as the "Silicon Border." In recent weeks, two foreign companies -- Q-Cells of Germany and Kyocera of Japan -- announced new investments totally nearly $4.9 billion in plants that will produce for export mainly to the United States.

Q-Cells, the biggest producer of solar panels in the world, is investing $3.5 billi...

Image from ESA

There is still no light at the end of the tunnel for fire-besieged Northern California. According to some reports, there are still over 1,000 wildfires burning in the region with little hope for improvement in the near future. Over 1,400 square kilometers of land have already been burnt, and there are more than 19,000 firefighters on hand, many from around the country, helping to put out the blazes.

The image was captured by the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite on June 2...

Getty Images

Pacific Gas & Electric comes onto the Treehugger radar screen quite a bit: offering carbon offsets which go towards planting sequoias, purchasing wave energy, using hybrid solar thermal-biomass plants. Here’s their latest green step.

In an effort to further increase its renewable energy obligations under California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, PG&E has signed a long-...

This year’s Sea No Evil event , also known as the Sea Shepherd Art Show aims to bring art, music and the environment together under one roof in Riverside, CA. The location – The Riverside Art Musem. The date – Saturday, July 12, 2008. The acts – recording artist Matt Costa, DJ Shephard Fairey and art by over 53 artists will be on display. The event is co-hosted by RVCA, the Artist Network Program and Monster Media.

For those of you in the LA or Riverside area, mark your calendars now to come out to Riverside for a good cause. Musical acts include Mat...

Image from uhuru1701

In 1999, California passed the landmark Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) which directed the state to create and manage the state's first network of marine protected areas (MPA) along the coastline. The move was seen as a necessary countermeasure to widespread coastal loss and degradation, which had already resulted in over 90 percent of the state's wetlands being lost and in la...

Tesla Electric Car Factory in the Bay Area
This story is still breaking, but here's what we know so far: The Tesla Motors electric car factory that was supposed to be built in New Mexico will instead be built in California, in the Bay Area, thanks to help from governor Schwarzenegger (a $9 million incentive package is mentioned by TechCrunch).

Whitestar Electric Sedan now "Model S"
From the start, we knew that Tesla's plan was to start at the top of the market with the Electric Roadster, and then progressively move down. The second step is an a...

“Go easy on me,” Tommy Lee said in a whisper. “You know I’m a green virgin.”

“Sorry Tommy,” I said with a smile. “I like to go deep.”

Earth Day celebration in San Francisco is probably the perfect place to give Tommy Lee and Ludacris the Green 101. The artists, (both who are participants in Planet Green’s Battleground Earth), paid a visit to the Bay Area during the Green Apple Festival. They may have well been on another planet though, because y...

The Long John in April’s recent post on Five Cool Cargo Bikes reminded me of the wonderful looking Small Haul. This is an exquisitely detailed, hand-made bike frame that includes a vast cargo-hold right under the handlebars.

Joshua Muir, who crafts them in his workshop in Santa Cruz, Calfornia, describes them as “quick and surprisingly light.” The front basket is rated to carry up to 80lbs (36 kg) as indicated by the above pic of the Labrador. The Frances Cable Steering System is employed to ensure turning is nimble...

Renzo Piano's new green museum, the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco is almost finished and what a natural phenomenon it is. Located in famous Golden Gate Park, and housing an aquarium, planetarium, and natural-history museum under two "hills" which are really a two-and-a-half-acre “living roof”, the building looks like a part of the park from some views.

As Piano says: “The building had to be green and sustainable to go with its purpose—study of the earth and science. It is also in a very unusual place, the middle of one of the most beautiful parks in the world. You almost never g...

Is it possible to keep Kosher and still keep a vegan diet?

Wales, China, and South Africa are only a few of the places with sustainable cities in the works.

An urban family in Pasadena, California turn their average city lot into a sustainable homestead.

Pedal powered telephones hit the streets of Nicaragua.

Conscious companies in the U.S. commemorate Arbor Day with tree plantings.

Most Huggable is a regular roundup of some of Hugg's top green news stories. Why not

The Bush administration's plan to make federal fuel economy standards stricter and regulate a mandatory 31.6 MPG fleet average by 2015, an addition to last year's energy bill that mandates 35 MPG by 2020, has been well received so far. Some of our eco-friends even applauded the initiative. But (and there's often a 'but') now that a few experts have had time to read the whole document in its 417 pages glory, a big problem became apparent:

"Tucked deep into a 417-page 'Notice of Proposed Rulemaking' was language by the Transportation Department stating that more stringent limits on tailpipe emissions embraced by California and 17 other states are 'an obstacle to the a...

The hair on your legs, silly! If there is a way to improve on leg-waxing, then Moom has done it. This Canada-based product works just like regular wax in theory, only its better because its nicer on your skin, Certified Organic and has reusable applicator strips. We aren’t here to argue the merits or politics of hair removal, but if you’re in the market (male or female) for an easy, eco-way to rid yourself of hair then Moom is a great option. ...

Patagonia have updated their Webby Award nominated Footprint Chronicles website with five new product lifecycle assessments (LCAs). The additions are their Nine Trails shorts, Sugar and Spice shoe, Capilene 3 bottoms Vitaliti strappy dress and Puckerware shirt.

That last product (seen above) traveled 22,000 km from its fabric source to distribution centre expending enough energy per shirt to run a 18W light bulb nonstop for 49 days. The shirt created the of 41 times it’s own weight in CO2 emissions and created waste equal to 2/3rds of its weight. And Patagonia can’t yet find...

The following is a possibly entertaining but highly unedited rant, thank you:

Brooklyn, NY: The inner-sanctum of Hipster-dom, along with it's spiritual annexes; Austin, Minneapolis, Seattle, Hollywood etc. tends to house avenues and streets that bleed fresh creative explorations before vulturous bacterias grow within and feed off of the collective right-brain hemorrhages. Well, maybe not Hollywood, anymore.

Hollywood seems to have been reduced to having it's heart valves that used to gush blood for the sake of flowing become clogged with festering deleterious dyssocial disease long-time go.
The reasons for why Hollywood, unlike some other metropolises that house a constant, age-old war of what reduces down to Jedi versus Sith, has chosen to become a breeding pen of cultural ouroboros remains unclear.