Award Winning Pyua Freeride Ski Jacket Is Recycled and Recyclable

Photos: Pyua Pyua is a German outdoor clothing company, who were Finalists in the ISPO Brandnew Awards in 2009. This year they've managed to score a ISPO Eco Responsibility Award in the Textile category for their Climate 2L Padded Jacket and Pants. The judges liked that these freeride ski garments was made waterproof, by virtue of a Sympatex membrane, which unlike the ePTFE (teflon) substrates used by eVent and Gore-Tex can b...Read the full story on TreeHugger

China’s Water Pollution Twice the Officially Listed Levels

Photo via Guardian A recent report from Reuters reveals some disturbing news about China: the water pollution levels recorded in the official reports were found to be merely half the actual levels. Meaning that China's water pollution is literally twice as bad as its government claime...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Fewer than 50 Wild Tigers Left in China, Says Wildlife Conservation Society

Photo: World66, CC Wild tigers in China are on the Brink of Extinction Xie Yan, the China Country Program Director for the Wildlife Conservation Society, estimates that fewer than 50 South China Tigers are left in the wild, with about "10 still live in the southwestern province of Yunnan, some 15 in Tibet, and 20 or so in northwestern Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces." Even if take a step back and look at 12 Asian countries and Russia, it is estimated that only about 3,500 tigers are left in...Read the full story on TreeHugger

NY Times Duped by Climate Disinformation Campaign?

Image via Climate Progress I think for the most part, the New York Times is still the most reliable source for breaking news and good information out there. But they have been seeming to slip in their coverage of climate change--for instance, they ran a story on the front page today crying U.N. Climate Panel and Chief Face Credibility Siege. But in an irony perhaps lost on the piece's author, not a single climate scientist was contacted or quoted--thus leaving the piece with very little credibility itself....Read the full story on TreeHugger

California Toxic Waste Dump Feared to Cause Fatal Birth Defects

Photo via the LA Times There's been an unusual spate of tragic birth defects over the last year in the central California town of Kettleman City. Five out of the twenty children born in just over a year have been born with birth defects or "other maladies, including cleft palate and cleft lip," the LA Times reports. Three of them died, and the other two are receiving medical treatment. That's a full twenty-five percent of children born with serious ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Mapping Water Vapor for More Accurate Weather Predictions

Image credit: Mike-wise/Flickr The same thing that limits the accuracy of your GPS unit to within a few meters also prevents meteorologists from making precise weather predictions. Atmospheric water vapor interferes with radio signals as they are sent from GPS satellites and this same vapor scrambles weather radar, making certain things like storm predictions very difficult. One researcher believes that by creating a map of atmospheric water vapor, some of this interference could be accounted for, leading to much more accurate weather for...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Where are Ethics in the Not-So-Great US Climate Policy Debate?

Flooding in Bangladesh. Photo via Leroo Why don't US politicians ever really talk about the ethical imperative of stopping climate change? Are we too selfish to care whether or not our greenhouse gas pollution will cause intense suffering in some of the poorest parts of the world? Don't senators and representatives have an ethical obligation to prevent global warming from taking its toll in the states they represent? A column written by Donald A. Brown, Associate Professor...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Fisker Says ‘Bye-Bye Michigan’, Brings Whole Team to California

Photo: Fisker At the end of 2008, Fisker announced that it was opening and engineering center in Michigan, near Detroit. Was it just to help sweeten its position for its government loan approval? Who knows... But now the company is focusing on its next vehicle (codename: Project NINA), and has announced that "Beginning March 1 Fisker Automotive's global headquarters in Irvine, California will house all design, engineering, sales, marketing, and administrative operations." Bye-bye Michigan....Read the full story on TreeHugger

Man Fined $1 Million for Shipping Trash Overseas

Talk About Junk Mail! Last June, the Brazilian authorities discovered 91 shipping containers full of trash in the nation's ports, all exported from Britain. After some investigation, the tons of household waste were linked back to businessman Julio Cesar da Costa, who owned a trash-collection company outside of London. Attempting to Read the full story on TreeHugger

Neon Green’s Soular Backpacks Hope To Be Everything to Anyone

Image via GoneOnGreen Neon Green has decided to bring solar to the fashion forward among us, from tween girls to guys working in the financial district. The makers of solar bags have come up with a variety of designs that incorporate thin-film solar cells into trendy bags with "soular" for off-grid charging and backup power for hand-held gadgets. Neon Green claims the bags are so awesome, they'll "transform [you] from a mere mortal to a super hero with soular powers." Now that's quite a statement. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Ford Unveils Electric Version of Transit Connect Utility Van

Photo: Ford Not Sexy, But the Business World Needs Electric Vehicles Too Ford has just unveiled the electric version of its award-winning Transit Connect utility van in Chicago, and it's not just a "maybe far in the future" announcement. Transit Connect Electric vans should be in the hands of customers "later this year", says Ford, though full volume production is only scheduled for 2011....Read the full story on TreeHugger

Sen. DeMint: DC Snow Is Revenge on Gore

Sen. Jim "Health Care will be Obama's Waterloo'' DeMint of South Carolina is once again making his state proud by posting on his Twitter account the following: "It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries 'uncle'". Classy, Senator, real classy. It's to be expected that climate change skeptics and deniers would use any strange weather to back up their case that climate change is a hoax, but this is beyond the pale. It does snow in February in DC, Senator. You've been in DC long enough to have realized this. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Today on Planet 100: Facebook’s Dirty Secret (Video)