GoblinAero – Human Power / Power Assist Model at Goblin Motors from $4995 standard human powered to the $6445 motor assisted with all the bells and whistles.
Goblin Motors

GoblinAero is a human-powered or motor assisted velomobile from Goblin Motors that will be available February 2009. This could be an awesome solution to the once again rising gas prices – and you know it will only go higher – maybe much higher. (which might not be so bad when you thing about it) The motor assisted option Goblin has either a Honda 35cc or 50cc engine which can give you up to 150 miles a gallon. Great for errands such as trips to the supermarket – the rear truck can hold 5 bags of groceries. Maybe even your daily commute to work. Can get up to 30 mph on a flat surface and is able to drive up steep hills with no problem – tested on the 9000ft Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, Az. It has 8″ disc brakes and as this vehicle is such a head-turner most people will likely take notice and give you lots of room which should enhance safety. If we could only melt down some hummers and recycle them into these!

UV Natural ADULT Sunscreen SPF 30+
5.29 oz. 37.80 at uv natural sunscreen store

Blue Lizard Australian Suncream, SPF 30, Sensitive
5 fl oz (148 ml) $10.29 at drugstore.com

What’s the greenest sunscreen?

Despite that it’s the middle of winter, I’ve been worrying about what to do about sunscreens. On one hand I am concerned about protection from skin cancer as I spend a lot of time outdoors here in relentlessly sunny San Diego. On the other hand I also worry about the studies I’ve just read about which says the some of the ingredients for most brands of sunscreen may contain potential hazardous chemicals to your body as well as the environment.

One such chemical, Oxybenzone, is able to be absorbed through the skin and has been shown to be excreted in urine and can accumulate in fatty tissue. Studies have shown Oxybenzone, may be able to disrupt the human hormone system and may have other detrimental health effects. Center for Disease Control scientists gave results from a 2008 national survey of 2,500 Americans showing that oxybenzone readily absorbs into the body and is present in 97% of Americans tested. Another thing that freaks me out about Oxybenzone is that it is potent to the degree that when people’s sunscreen washes off in swimming and urine excreted, enough of it winds up in the ocean to cause viral infection in coral reefs and cause feminization of male fish. This link from the Environmental Working Group has an in depth article about this issue. Also there seems to have been lax oversight by the FDA in regard the safety of some of these chemicals. Here is some excellent info on what you can do about this issue here.

Rather that wait till the FDA gets it act together under the Obama administration I am looking at some greeener and healthier options available right now.

thegreenguide.com has a comprehensive study and article here called Sunscreen 101
which should give you most everything you’ll want to know about the issue and has a list of all the major brands and shows their pros and cons in a comparison table. Plain and cheap – old Zinc Oxide Ointment is also the least toxic and most green as well as offering reasonable protection, is it better than the chemical laden brands in terms of prevention of skin cancer and ability to block all the harmful rays? The jury seems divided on this issue and I personally don’t like the way it seems to take forever before dissolving from its white cream to something more acceptable to walk outside with. But for children and people with sensitive skin this might be your best bet.

The UV Natural Sunscreen is the only officially recommend sunscreen by the greenguide.com, if that influences you at all. It does seem a cut above the others in that you need less of it and that its ingredients offer good protection as well as having all natural ingredients. Its price seems a bit steep but its no surprise that a quality product will tend to cost more.

At the recent CES 2009 conference, Energizer promoted its soon to be released Solar Battery Recharger. This won’t be the most earth changing green gadget to hit the market, It’s still cool that you can power all your pocket electronics completely off-grid. You can charge both AA and AAA batteries with renewable solar power.

This Solar Charger holds several batteries at once and also contains a USB port that can charge some cell phones, GPS units, cameras, and iPods. If the sun isn’t handy you can also connect to the electrical outlet for charging.

The solar charger is expected to go on sale this summer for $49.99 and comes with two rechargable batteries.

via goodcleantech and inhabitat

Check out this excellent 1/7/09 article from Greenpeace on why greener gadgets matter and also their blogs various articles which discuss how green are some of the items at this years consumer electronic industry’s biggest trade show in Las Vegas (CES 2009).

Here is another great You Tube video about electronic waste dumping.

When we think about green gadgets we need to consider where they will eventually end up. As this Greenpeace video shows, many of our computers, monitors and other electronics which contain many highly toxic components may be dumped in electronics waste yards in places like Ghana where extreme poverty and lax or non-existent environmental laws encourage e-waste dumping.This related article from Greenpeace explains further.

It is now only a little more than a month away until analog TV broadcasting will end and be switched over to digital broadcasting. With the economy crashing there has been some talk about postponing it but right now this conversion remains on schedule.

The 15.5 million people in the US who still only watch TV with antenna reception will have make the change by either getting a digital TV converter box or signing up with a digital cable or satellite service if they want to continue watching TV. However, this change is confusing to many people who think they also will need to go out and buy a new TV (if they haven’t already) Many will be tempted to buy the giant 40″ – 60″ Plasma TV’s with their insanely cheap pricing but what they might not realize is how amount of energy they consume. A 42″ Plasma screens can use up to 600 kilowatt-hours per year – add another 250 kWh from the cable box and you are talking massive energy consumption, a 42-inch plasma TV set can draw more power than a large refrigerator, even if the TV is only used a few hours a day.

If millions of people start adding this additional new energy drain on our electrical grid it starts to become a significant percentage of energy use. Televisions now consume about 4 percent of household electricity nationally we can expect this percentage to grow as more people opt for the big screens.

Most of which is not only wasted by the vast emptiness and mindlessness of network TV programming but also from the fact that much of this power is used when the TV isn’t even being watched or turned on. This is all happening at exactly the wrong time, when we should be figuring out how to reduce energy use, reuse and recycle – millions of TVs will now be headed for the dump and millions more brand new energy hogs will soon be let loose to forage our electric grid.

If you want find the best green options for the your TV, the best solution is to simply keep whatever TV you currently have and hook it up to a convertor box – and unplug it except for the rare occasion you need to actually watch it. Or just use your computer to watch many programs. But if you are like me and want to watch the Colbert Report and the Daily Show, Lost, Sundance and HBO in high-def then a newer and smaller LCD (32″ or less) is your best option in terms of saving energy. Here is a good Scientific American article on choosing an energy efficient TV.

Sony recently announced its new 32-inch Bravia KDL-32JE1 LCD model as “the world’s most energy efficient television.” It went on sale in Japan in August 2008 but I couldn’t find any information on when it would be available elsewhere. Sharp has some more energy-efficient models and also showed a prototype of a solar-powered energy efficient TV, which seems a bit strange – but there you have it. Treehugger recommends the Sharp Aquos LC-20B8U-S 20 inch set as being the least power hungry of high def TV’s.

For some excellent information on everything you would need to know about reducing energy use from your TV check out the GreenNav’s Open Blog article here.

Create an Oasis with Greywater Choosing, Building and Using Greywater Systems By Art Ludwig 2006 $20.95 from Oasis Design

This great book, Create an Oasis, 5th Edition, on oasisdesign.net which has 145 pages including 53 diagrams and 130 photos which comprehensively explains how to dramatically reduce your water usage by reusing your laundry, shower, sink and dishwasher water for landscape irrigation instead letting it all go down the drain.

The book also discusses grey water sources, requirements for irrigation, plumbing and irrigation issues, which cleaning solutions are compatible, maintaining soil quality, and much more. Even if you don’t want to buy the book their website is a great resource with tons of info on greywater systems.