The cost of BP's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reached about $1.25 billion, the company said Monday.

Tony Hayward - Gulf of Mexico - BP - Chief executive officer - Business

BP buys up spill-related search terms to direct people to its Web site.

VENICE, La./LONDON (Reuters) - Shares of BP Plc gained Monday after it announced progress in containing its Gulf of Mexico oil leak but the energy giant still faced tough questions from investors and U.S. lawmakers as the spill threatened more of the U.S. Gulf coast.

Small, stylish and comfortable is what most of us see the future cars as. Offering us just what we want is the Audi Contour concept. This electric car of the future is a 4-seater vehicle that flaunts its good looks. The hybrid city car is powered by electrical power engine that gets energy from the batteries and additional fuel engine. Its compact size makes it ideal for city use.

Designed by Biser Boyanov, the Audi Contour concept has doors that open at their maximum. Not only this, one of the doors features a down opening system that forms a step for the passengers to get down comfortably. The step incorporate LED lights that shine at night, making sure that the passengers can see the way while getting out. With its elegant and mesmerizing looks, it is sure to turn heads.

Via: Design-r

The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico finally has a face.

The word luxury has never been associated with a trailer, but it seems like Xanthos Design is here to change our perception. The company’s latest trailer is luxurious, stylish, elegant and sustainable. Dubbed the “Xanthos Micro”, this 500litre capacity trailer comes loaded with an integrated hitch stand, 12v power pack, solar recharger, wireless blinker and independent suspension. Weighing mere 160kg, the light carriage has a body that is completely recyclable and durable.

The Xanthos Micro’s light and compact size lets even the smallest car to haul it. The interior space is fully lined with carpet and LED interior lighting gives added security at night. The light, aerodynamic body and independent suspension makes it perfect for a smooth, efficient ride with minimal fuel consumption. The trailer has a fibreglass body that is fully recyclable, strong and durable. Coming in standard or custom colors, it not only provides extra space to small cars, but also enhances the beauty.

Via: AustralianInternationalDesignAwards

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan aims to transform several of its outlying islands into models of green energy production as part of a 10-year effort to cut its overall greenhouse gas emissions, the government said on Monday.

None of the present trash-disposing techniques will hold good after 40 years from now. However, if we could encourage people to dispose of the litter themselves without caring too much about separating trash into decomposable units, and introduce incentives for doing the same, it’s will bring down the amount of stench and filth around us. Designer Diego Guevara thinks along the same lines as he conceives TRU (Trash Recycling Unit).

First, you put the trash with a cloud of nanobots in the recycling unit. The nanobots cloud makes sure that the trash decomposes safely by stages, according to density of the trash elements. Once fully decomposed, the trash is directed to recycling industries. Finally, the recycling unit is washed so that it can be used again.

A novel recycling progress display shows how much energy is produced from organic materials. It will also show the stage where recycling unit is in. The energy you generate through this system wins you points that you can use to buy groceries or to pay your bills.

The Coast Guard warned that even if the flow of oil was capped by summer, it could take until autumn to deal with the damage spreading across the gulf.

San Francisco-based Chromascope fully realizes the fact that a product design should always meet the needs of its target customers. Accordingly, it puts in over 5 years of experience to come up with the GOZA eCYCLE for an essentially Japanese customer base. The electric concept trike offers a low, stable center of gravity to ensure minimum exertion through an uphill commute.

For greenhorns, the three-wheel design ensures stability and self-balancing. A hubless crank design combines with a VDP transmission for conserving power.

In place of hefty chains and locks as anti-theft tools, GOZA features a shape-shifting frame that renders it immobile. When you remove the special locking pin and GOZA buckles at the center, the steering linkage is locked.

Lest you start believing that some other vehicle has deliberately run into the incorrectly parked car, allow me to tell you that the above image has altogether a different story to tell. Seen on the Santiago de Chile streets, the car in ruins is one of the unparalleled artworks of cardboard artist Don Lucho, who has mastered the art of recycling cardboard and paper into arresting pieces of art. Well, did you say “impressive”? We do feel the same about it.

Have a look at some more specimens of his recycled art to realize it yourself how art transcends credence sometimes:

Via: TrendsNow

KUALA LUMPUR/BEIJING (Reuters) - ExxonMobil warned against quick reactive changes to deepwater drilling laws that damage long-term investment decisions and urged governments to take time to assess the reasons for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Victor Vetterlein brings a beautiful creation that gets life from the trash and after a short but meaningful life cycle returns to the trash. Dubbed as “Trash Me”, this lamp gives significant use to egg boxes. The lamp is made using four egg cartons that are mixed with water, and then neatly poured over a mold. It takes several days to dry up and take the desired shape, after which the various sections are joined together using aluminum screws.

In order to give the products bright illumination a cloth-covered electric cord is blended with recyclable electrical fixture parts. For the Trash Me desk lamp, a paper bag filled with bird seed is placed in the base to provide stability. These lamps amalgamate creativity, fun and innovation with a pinch of eco-friendliness.

Via: Technabob

Some architecture graduates from Tulane University School of Architecture City Center have pooled their resources with building studio to develop the Botanical Garden as part of a salutary project for Katrina’s sufferers. While allowing the New Orleanians to see sustainable technologies fusing to raise a hearty, recycled aluminum-made, 12-ft. cubical living wall, the proposed construction will also include graphic information inside it to instruct residents on how to reduce their carbon footprint.

Lumber for its three interior walls, floor and ceiling comes from homes demolished by the hurricane. The west wall screen is made of bamboo grown on site at the Botanical Garden.

The pavilion roof harvests enough water to nourish the vertical garden. The harvested water treks through an open downspout onto a catch basin that contains certain native water plants within a sandy-medium trough for purifying it.

All of the pavilion’s electrical components rely on solar energy that comes to them through a photovoltaic array. Certain horizontal planting trays allow native plants to extend out from the pavilion’s interior.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Flooding and landslides caused by heavy rain have killed 53 people in China's southwestern Guangxi region since late May, including three children swept away as they walked home from school, state media reported on Monday.

What would you associate a foul smelled filthy log tailed rodent as rat with? Epidemic outbreak, food grain loss or may be even as an acceptable form of food to a particular social or economic class. How about them being a green source of electricity generation? Believe it or not that’s what’s new and what’s next to help us meet our energy needs. Zhong Lin Wang, a materials science and engineering professor at Georgia Tech, has shown that nanowires inside a rat can convert the power of breathing and heartbeats into electricity. When attached to the rat’s diaphragm, the animal’s breathing stretched the nanowire, and it generated a tiny amount of electricity — about four pico-amps of current at two millivolts.

When it was attached to the rat’s heart, the nano-generator produced about 30 pico-amps at about three millivolts. Although the energy generated is a very tiny amount, but the technology according to Wang has the potential to power nano-sized devices.

Via: Gizmodo/Technology Review

OFL architecture gears up to change the face of regular, uninteresting and dull housing forever. Redefining potential relationships within the contemporary city and its existing urban conditions, their new project called the Enoki project sees the installation of futuristic housing above Rome. The “Enoki Rome Ecocity” is a cute little self-contained city that houses residences, commercial spaces, green areas, spaces for community activities, sport and cultural activities within them.

The self sufficient and highly innovative building blends beautifully with the historical part of the city of Rome. Erected over parks, green areas and water, the main cellular structure of the Enoki is made from molecular shaped steel and glass. The 150 stories project will include flying shuttles running outside the Enoki to take inhabitants to and from various levels of the building and the old city. The building’s outer skin made using steel diamond-shaped panels enhance the aesthetics. OFL architecture claims that Enoki can house up to 6,000 residents with an area of 240,000 square meters and 300,000 square meters for recreational activities.

Via: Designboom

As nations struggle to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, the European Union is taking on a potentially more complicated environmental challenge: Preserving the world's biodiversity.

While reading this story on Treehugger, a comment that said, “Quit trying to enforce your will on what you think is right”, made me think how forced eco-didacticism could lead to such violent retorts. A British Greenpeace activist Frank Huston was protesting against tuna fishing in the Mediterranean when a French fisherman harpooned him in the leg.

Greenpeace France has released a video of the bloody encounter:

No matter how strongly you feel about a certain cause, forced implementation of the same isn’t justified at any cost. Just keep up the good work by moralizing them, and let them decide whether they want to follow or disregard it.

Lincoln is all determined to make certain that its customers are also the most efficient motorists by introducing an updated version of the Smart Gauge that debuted last year on the Ford Fusion hybrid. Similar in design as its previous counterpart the new adaptation of Smart Gauge is a twin 4.3-inch LCD, which will bracket a centrally mounted speedometer, only this time, it will feature a green-gold design, along with long-term efficiency indicators in the form of apple blossoms, which also happens to be the Michigan state flower. Good mileage gets applauded by appearance of small little buds on the screen display which finally blossom into large flowers. Earning all flowers is good since it means saving about $8,000 in fuel costs and 30 tons of CO2 over the life of the car however, earning flowers may not be that easy, since the more you get the longer it takes to get more.

Via:GoodCleanTech/Autoblog Green