The Smallest Homes

Well what I'm talking about here is the smallest apartment, but is the most function too for its space. This apartment is in Hong Kong, China. (Go here to watch the video and others. I couldn't get the video to show up in my blog.)

Anyway, Gary Chang designed his apartment to be the most efficient in its small state. Everything in his apartment is collapsible or slides out from the walls. He said "Everything moves for me," which it does. His kitchen is behind his TV, which behind that is his washer and dryer; his couch is underneath his bed; and his bathtub is behind his dresser, which is behind the CD/DVD case. Everything is on tracks on the ceiling and wheels on the floor. He even has enough room for a projector screen the size of his living room window to watch movies on while relaxing in a hammock.

Here are the different variations he can have his apartment in. There is a total of 24 ways of how he can utilize his apartment.

How would you like to live like Gary Chang?

My Experience With Green Beer... Or I Should Say Hard Cider

Didn't realize but the other night I picked this up. It's a Pear Cider beer, which was not too bad. It could have been a little more pear tasting though. It's a good drink if you want something that is sweet, but has a little kick to it.

Spire is made in Olympia, Wa by Fish Brewing Company. They rekindled the love of hard cider in 1985, after the fall out from the Prohibition times. They don't just do Pear Cider, they also have an Apple Cider and a Dry & Dark Apple Cider.

They also have a Fish Tale Brew Pub in Leavenworth, which serves Fish Tale Organic Ales, Leavenworth Biers, and Spire Mountain Cider.

To find out more go to www.fishbrewing.com.

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Raising Hope

Well by this title you might think that this blog post would be about raising the hope of a greener life...well it's actually the title of my new favorite TV show. But they are even on board for this year's Earth Day (4/22). Watch  this video for some quick tips. Each actor/actress talks about ways to have a greener home or life. Actress Martha Plimpton actually talks about the Pacific Garbage Patch, which I just did a blog post on it last week. Go there if you haven't already checked it out.

Green Beer, Not Just For St. Patty's Day

Here are some quick tips for green beer drinking from treehugger:

1. Drink organic brews
   
   • if there's an organic label, it's certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which means there are strict regulations for farming the barely and hops
2. Support green beer companies
   
   • some breweries are now solar powered and are moving towards sustainability, like Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada and Anderson Brewery in Chico
3. Drink beer from draught instead of from bottles
   
   • hundreds of beers are held in a keg, so go for the keg and save those bottles and cans
4. Recycle your bottles, cans, and other packaging
   
   • aluminum cans are usually back on the shelf within 60 days and with the bottles they will save 1,300 lbs of sand
5. Reuse the bottle caps
   
   • they are usually thrown aside in the recycling process, so make them have a better use, like a decorative feature or a belt or magnets
6. Try vegan beers
   • some beers have gelatin or isinglass (fish bladder!) to clarify beers without having to put them in the filtration process, which potentially lessens the flavor
     
   
7. Drink local, and  use a growler
   
   • save a little gas and go downtown and save a little more by cutting emissions from shipping imported beers
8. Opt for paper free bottles
   
   • look for the ones with the label printed on the bottle. (These bottles look cooler anyway.)
9. Don't use disposable cups when serving beer
   
   • go with reusable instead; the disposable end up in the landfill!
10. Avoid Big Beer
    
    • like Anheuser Busch or Coors, they have mass demand to supply

Here are some interesting numbers:

- 85% of alcohol consumed in the U.S. by the gallon is beer
- 2 organic beers are made by Anheuser Busch (biggest beer company in U.S.)
- 95% of ingredients that are needed to earn beer an organic certification are certified by USDA
- U.S. is ranked 13 in annual per capita consumption in the world (Czech Republic is #1, Ireland #2, and Finland bet us at #9)
- $25,000,000 organic beer sales in U.S. in 2007
- 4 solar powered breweries in U.S.

A Tree house Hotel?

This is pretty awesome. I was curious if there were any tree house hotels around the world...and what do you know, I found one in Washington state. It's called Cedar Creek Treehouse and it's not too far from Mount Rainer.

There's only one tree house with a solar power system and no shower, so you better be happy with the person you bring. The tree house is built 50 feet up in a 200 year old Western Red Cedar. This tree house was created by Bill Compher in 1981-1982 and is one of the world's top 5 tree houses.



































In 2000-2002, they added onto the tree house with the octagonal Cedar Creek Treehouse Observatory that is 100 feet high. There is the spiral "Stairway to Heaven" staircase is 82 feet high and connects to the "Rainbow Bridge" to the Observatory.

Just in 2010, they added yet another aspect to the treehouse. During the summer, they added the "Sun Bridge," that is 68 feet long and connects to a floating web platform. This platform is to support another treehouse they plan to build this summer.

Guests are able to enjoy the view of Mount Rainer and Mount Wow.

Eating the Plastics We Produce

As I was wandering around PlanetGreen.com, I found an interesting article about The Pacific Garbage Patch. I love going to the beach during Spring and Summer (and Fall, if it's warm enough.) So this article really hit home to me. I've seen other pictures and small articles about this issue, but I never pursued it until now.

I knew that there are lots of our "recycled" plastics have ended up in the oceans and beaches, but I didn't realize how much was actually there. After reading this, I then thought how much is actually there? How far does it go? In the article for the "Pacific Trash Vortex," they said that it is impossible to come up with a number of how much plastic is ending up in our oceans. Here is the map that Planet Green uses:

 " Researchers peg the trash gyre to be as large as the continental United States, and according to HowStuffWorks.com, every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic and plastic constitutes 90 percent of all trash floating in the world's oceans.." Just trying to imagine what that looks like is unbelievable. With all this plastic in the water this means that small sea creatures are eating the plastics thinking it's food, then the big fish eat them, and well...we eat those fish, which we end up eating the plastics we made in the first place. Way to go Karma! Hope this makes us learn a lesson or two.

A couple days ago, I was looking at pictures of sea birds that had died because of ingesting plastics and thinking they were food. I didn't know this problem was that bad.

We have to start caring for our beaches and recycle and throw away garbage so it doesn't end up like this. I would like to go to the beach and have it be clean and with healthy marine life. Because...

I don't want my beach to end up as...

Or my favorite sea creature to be eating this...

Who Doesn't Like Taking Quizzes?

Here is just some fun stuff for you to do. I went to planetgreen.discovery.com/games-quizzes/ and found some pretty interesting quizzes.

I took the "Are you a green beauty?" quiz and didn't do too well on it. My score was 2/10. I did it just for fun to see what I got, but apparently I know a lot less than I thought I did about the chemicals in make up.

I did learn a lot though from my wrong answers. If you get an answer wrong, they explain what the right answer is and the harmful side effects. As you answer correctly, they add in more little facts about that answer.

To take up some more time before my next class, I took the "What's Your Clothing Footprint?" With this one, I got 4/10. I was a little more knowledgeable, but still didn't know what I thought I did.

There are others, so check them out and let me know what quiz you took and your score!