io9: environmental collapse

Which of Your Toys Will Suck Most Next Year?

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:00:59 PST

Good magazine has whipped up an amazing chart that shows how much energy your electronic toys will suck up next year — even when they're turned off. Most electronics stay in standby mode when turned off, maintaining a clock in a microwave, say, or a timer in your DVR that tells it when to turn on. After the jump, see the full chart showing how much money people in the US will spend next year just to keep devices on standby. It ain't pretty.

The numbers you see are kilowatt hours used per year, and the money is amount spent. Red is for devices that stand by in passive mode, and blue is for ones standing by in active mode. Oops, I think I own all the ones that suck most. But I love my plasma screen electron-guzzler! Good magazine [via TreeHugger]

Are You in a Climate Change Hot Zone?

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:30:58 PST

An international team of scientists has crunched the numbers and predicted which areas of the world will be hit hardest by the effects of climate change. They created this map of the "socioclimatic" future of the world. The reddest areas, which include China, India, and the United States, are in the most danger because they suffer from a deadly combination of social problems and lax policies on toxic emissions (it's no coincidence that all three countries are not signatories to the Kyoto Treaty). Check out the stats for yourself. [Eurekalert] Image by Pamela Burroff-Murr/Diffenbaugh et al./Dan Annarino/NOAA.

Reaping the Flip Flop Harvest on Kenya's Polluted Coast

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:40:29 PST

Plastic flip flop sandals discarded in the oceans off the coast of Asia have formed a new kind of fauna on the coast of Northern Kenya. So many sandals wash ashore that over the past decade locals have begun harvesting them, turning them into colorful toys, and selling them for more money than they could make from fishing, the area's former main industry. After a 2003 documentary, Flip Flotsam, called attention to Kenya's flip flop harvests, a small nonprofit called UniqEco began methodically helping locals ply their craft via the Flip Flop Recycling Project.

According to TreeHugger:

Today, the workers behind the Flip Flop Recycling Project run the gamut from beachcombers to bead-makers and artisans and sculptors and are producing jewelry, sculptures, toys, household products and accessories. Part of the project's mission remains social — to create jobs for people with limited opportunities. Recently, the project expanded to begin reusing the garbage of low-income communities in Nairobi such as Kibera, Musongari and Ongata Ongai.

Since so much of our cultural debris is non-biodegradable, we're likely to see efforts like this proliferating. Over the next decade it may become more and more common to see plastic shoes drifting in on the tides than seaweed. Image courtesy of UniqEco.

Flipping Kenya's Coastal Flotsam [TreeHugger]