The members of the Week 4 Group present to you treehugger.com. Founded in 2003 it is one of the most frequently read environmental blogs on any subject. It is dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream and covers everything environmental from green news to eco-design and green products. This blog also invites its readers to get involved by interacting in their surveys and forums and encourages readers to take action by reading their "how to go green" articles, for example.
We really like this blog because it focuses on environmental issues within a wide range of topics from business and politics to fashion and beauty so please browse through the articles until you find something that catches your eye. We would love to hear what you guys think!
Enjoy!
Arielle Cowie, Tyler Ranft, Ming Guan and YJ Chua.
I found an article called, "Floating Kitchen Might Feel At Home In A LifeEdited." It's about an innovative design for a compact kitchen that can "float" or move around the room. The article has very good, clear pictures that I noticed in numerous other spots on the site as well. While the idea looks really cool, rather than just praising the new invention, the author analyzes whether or not it is really as good, environmentally speaking, as it sounds. He questions whether or not it is an improvement to the conventional kitchen. What was interesting was the many posted comments after the article. Most of the comments were in disagreement to the inventors eco-friendly design claim. In fact, some of the blog readers had some insightful information about why it wasn't necessarily saving on any plumbing or why it would still take up a lot of space. It seemed like the commenters were thoughtful and serious about being green. One guy even used logos to share his knowledge about plumbing and convince other bloggers that this wasn't a good idea. This speaks to the type of audience that visits treehugger.com. The people agree on the issue of "going green," but they don't necessarily fall for some of the new fads associated with it that aren't really "green" in their opinion. The interaction amongst the commenting bloggers was pretty casual, though, and no one seemed to get really upset about what anyone else said.
ReplyDelete@Kesley Gerber: I too found this article very interesting. I am glad that you brought logos into the picture when analyzing the comments from readers as well.
ReplyDeleteI read an article called, "European Cities Crack Down On Free Parking to Reduce Car Use, Make Room for Biking, Walking." It is known that the air pollution and limited space are serious issues in big cities. This article mentions how European cities do to reduce the car use and therefore reduce air pollution and offer more space for walking and biking. Take Paris as an example, the city reduced on street parking, increased parking fees, and also encourage the citizens to use public transportations to reduce car use in Paris and therefore achieved a 13% decrease in diving. Isnt that good? As far as i concern, the big cities with serious problems in air pollution and limited space should learn from Enropean cities like paris to offer better environmental conditions for citizens.
ReplyDelete@Tingting: I completely agree with you. I think in most cities it is unnecessary to drive most of the time just because of the availability of public transportation, bikes, and so on. I think that these changes should be applied to many cities in the U.S. Great comment.
ReplyDeleteRecently I read a very interesting article on Treehugger named “Does Protecting Endangered Rhinos Conflict With Traditional Chinese Medicine?” This blog mainly talks about a universal view that the use of Rhino’s horn in Chinese Medicine is one of the most important reason that causes Rhino population decreasing. Documented in Chinese history and believed by many customers as well as Chinese Medicine experts, Rhino’s horn can efficiently help to treat fever and other ailments, which was recently proved to be inaccurate by modern technique. Therefore, the issue has developed into a conflict between environmental protection and traditional culture. The author not only stated the fact but also successfully used ethos and logos to support his own idea. In the article, the author David DeFranza cited the study conducted at Chinese University in Hong Kong to prove rhino horn's low efficacy as a fever reducer. Moreover, instead of sitting on one side’s bench in this “battle”, the author put forward his own solution to the problem which helps readers jump out of the “conflict” and reconsider the issue from a different perspective.
ReplyDeleteI've decided to look at the blog's design. First off, its obvious the use of the color green in their design because of the significance of this color in nature. After all, the environmental movement uses the "Go Green!" catch phrase. I noticed some interesting things though. This site is a blog...but their header at their top intentionally serves the purpose of guiding the visitor through articles designed to inform them about what is happening, then to discussion so they can see what other readers are saying (something I've found very important), and then what they can do. The way that the blog assumes this flow of thoughts that the reader will have makes it have the effect they want. A new visitor is likely to say "What IS this green thing anyway?" - they'll read and see "3. Take action" which will prompt them to continue from there.
ReplyDeleteI genuinely enjoyed this blog site. I thought that it was set up in an appealing way that drew readers in with many large photographs and videos. I even found many of the articles I skimmed to be quite interesting and even comical(Cat Born in Tree Refuses to Come Down). While the title of the blog site, treehugger.com, made me believe that this the site would be solely based on major environmental issues, I realized that the topics span from cars and technology all the way to fashion and beauty. This is definitely a site for all people. The green header and "going green" advertisements increase the overall rhetoric of the sight, while also adding to the modern feel. I found the blogs post to be both relevant and interesting. Trehugger.com knows how hook a reader.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Codie. I am looking at the design of the website and how they lure the reader in. I have also noticed that they include quotes from the person who blogs. For instance the article with the metro bus, the mother makes for her 2 year old. It has many pictures and also tells hows her sun gets excited and why he loves it. Another article, was the snowplow made out of a bicycle. Once again it showed a picture of this invention and quoted the inventor on why he invented it, and its convienence. This website is more personal and encourages people to get ideas on some topics.
ReplyDeleteI found this site to be really interesting because it has a specific section for Design and Architecture, which is convenient because my major is Interior Design. I found this article, it's not really about controversy but it's about the advancement of recycling things and using them for different purposes. The article is titled, "NYC Apartment Has Recycled Subway Doors, Deli Counter Floors". Basically, an architect spent a total of $200 to re-do an apartment's floors and doors out of New York subway cars. I think his logic of using recycling things at a low price helps show people that are stuggling in this economy that they can renovate their house at low or no cost, which is appealing to any person since house design is expensive, making this article interesting. Anyways, this was a really cool site that I'll definitely reference to my design class.
ReplyDeleteAlong with others, I personally like the way the website is designed as well. The layout is user friendly and there are many topics within environmental activism that one can read about. I read an article titled "Dubious Dubai May Have To Demolish See-Through Office Buildings". My family currently lives near Dubai, in a city called Abu Dhabi. I spent my high school years in Abu Dhabi. Dubai is only an hour away and we frequently visit it. Having lived in the region, I would agree with the claim this article is making. The information in the article suggests that the rate of construction is much higher than the rate of occupation of the space. At this rate, even a drastic event causing people to occupy more space will not catch up to the speed of construction. Therefore, the cycle of many new buildings will not justify the amount of CO2 emissions they create since they will have to be demolished or used as non-office buildings. This will waste a lot of money that the city does not have, as it was hit hard by the recession. Most of Dubai's expenditures are covered by Abu Dhabi as all the oil of the UAE is in Abu Dhabi. Also, the article mentions that a building's justifiable life cycle takes decades. In cities like Dubai, buildings that are only 1 decade old are demolished and new skyscrapers are built within a couple of months. Therefore, I would also argue that even Dubai's present buildings are not justifying the CO2 emissions that they have created. Overall, in this article, the author conveys their point through logical statistics and facts. I am convinced when reading this article and I hope to display similar emotions when reading others.
ReplyDeleteTo go along with what everyone else, I too was very impressed by the layout. It was modern, organized, and was generally easy to navigate. Its professional look gave me the impression that it was a credible website. I found an article, "Steven Chu: Solar Should be 4 Times Cheaper by 2020", which was basically a follow up on President Obama's state of the union address. It talked about the progress that the administration wants to get into motion so that the U.S. can catch up to other countries that are farther along in energy conservation. The article makes the comparison to the countries initiatives to get a man on the moon. I tend to agree, our nation is falling short to the efforts of other countries more advanced in this area. We need to come together as a country and achieve that 'Man on the moon' moment. The only thing that makes me curious is that we have been hearing a lot about energy conservation for a while now and I am confused on why it is taking so long and there has been little tangible results. I know all about solar power, wind turbines, and hybrid cars. But these are quite costly and unrealistic for a middle-class person such as myself. Then again this article is all about the lowering price of energy efficiency, so I guess for now people like me will have to continue waiting and just try and do small conservation efforts.
ReplyDeleteI read an article titled "Can Political Opposition to transit/rail/bikes be explained by the rual/urban divide?" The article is about how the opinoin differences in political parties effect the enviornment in both rural and urban areas. However, it is not known whether enviornmental differences in rural and urban areas are due to population density or the fact that politicians are not doing enough to solve this enviornment crisis. The use of pathos and logos by the author makes his theory on how political division directly effects the enviornment causes the reader to may more attention to not only what citizens can do to improve the enviornment but politicans as well.
ReplyDeleteThe article that I read was called “e360 Documentary on Pollution in China Nominated for an Oscar” It was about how someone filmed a documentary about the pollution that is caused by a chemical plant in a town in china named Quigang. The documentary was only 39 minutes which is not long at all but in the 39 minutes it must showed some very strong points of what the citizens of Quigang go through with the pollution in order to be nominated for an Oscar which is a very prestige award that takes a lot of effort to be awarded with. It shows how strong the material in that video is and I think it appears to be stronger then it because its new to society meaning that this problem went unnoticed for so long and now it is being recognized at somewhat ground breaking.
ReplyDeleteThe article I read was "Higher Meat & Dairy Taxes Could Reduce Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions Up To 42%." I chose this article because I found it very surprising and informative. Just as the title says, the author explains the effect that higher taxes on certain products would play on greenhouse gases. I thought this article was effective because the authors realize that a tax like this won't force people to become vegetarians "but [people should be] merely moving towards a slightly more climate-smart diet." It was very alarming to learn that if you replaced beef with chicken, green house gas emissions would be reduced by 90%. It is even more interesting to know that if you replaced beef with beans, the emissions would be reduced 99%. I think I liked this article so much because I would have never guessed that reducing your meat intake would affect the environment so much. I knew it played some part but after reading this article I definitely want to try to eat less meat.
ReplyDeleteI read an article called, "Clean Energy Can Power the World in 20-40 Years: New Study." The article filled me with optimism, but at the same time I am a little skeptical about the world's ability to truly change itself in that amount of time. They claim that 2.5 - 3 million lives could be saved a year if we switch to clean power. Most of the suggestions are to switch to electric and hydrogen powered devices, instead of oil. I think it will be hard to match the needed demand for energy with fully clean resources. People today use oil for everything. There is so much demand for it, that we would have to come up with many different alternatives and bundle them together to match the demand. This is just what the article suggests. Human kink has always adapted to adversity when faced with threats - hopefully it will happen again.
ReplyDeleteI read the article “Hawaii Proposes Legislation to Bring Devastating Fish Farms Under Control.” It was about the devastation that’s being brought to Hawaii’s local ecosystems by factory fish farming. In efforts to fight the careless and irresponsible expansion of the fish farms, state legislature introduced two bills to force fish farming companies to evaluate the full impact their businesses have on the surrounding environment. The fish farms are causing the spreading of disease and harm to marine mammals. The article gave a brief description of the harmful affects of the fish farms in Hawaii within a couple short paragraphs. I found it to be informative and to the point. Pointed out within the article are representatives and senators actively fighting the fish farm companies, which emphasizes to readers the importance of the issue. At the top of the article is a picture of a fish farm, which moderately illustrates how the fish farms are destructive to the environment.
ReplyDeleteI read the blog "Clean energy can power the world in 20-40 years". This blog talks about exactly what the title insists; clean energy. According to the blog, with wind and solar energy made possible, we can power about 90% of the needed energy. However, what I thought was interesting, is that the blog does not talk about price. It is awesome to sit here and discuss how great solar power is as opposed to nuclear power, but how COST effective is it going to be to implement? I am all for clean energy running our earth, but don't you think the United States needs to get back on its feet before implementing costly programs such as these?
ReplyDelete@Colleen Zhu: I enjoyed the thought that you put into the ethos and logos part of you analysis. As for the topic, I believe it would be best if they somehow put regulations on Rhino hunting.
ReplyDelete@Tyler White: Im glad that you decided to be different and comment on the layout and design of the site. Your observations were very detailed as well.
ReplyDelete@Codie: You are definitely right, this site has just about anything that any activist could want to read about on it.
ReplyDelete@Susan Pollack: I also enjoyed the pictures on this site and I thought it was a nice change from some blog sites that have nothing but words. It keeps the reader more intrigued and wanting to read on.
ReplyDelete@fisk.22: I think that recycling ideas such as this should be used more often in the Architecture/Interior Design field. Maybe once you graduate you can look into doing that yourself!
ReplyDelete@Rishab: I thought that your post was very interesting, both on the subject matter and the fact that you lived in Abu Dhabi. Thats very cool. I do agree with you as well that the never ending construction must be slowed or stopped.
ReplyDelete@Sean Tennant: You would think that after so long and so much research more ways to conserve for the common citizen would be developed, but as you said I guess we must just keep waiting...
ReplyDelete@Nia Banks: Great use of pathos and logos in this article for sure, Im glad that you brought that out.
ReplyDelete@Tim Brown: I also think that documentaries are a great way to get the attention of a large amount of people, due to the accessibility and enjoyment in watching them. I would actually like to watch this documentary sometime and see how good it actually is.
ReplyDelete@Rosie Zimmer: Those numbers that you brought up from the article are shocking! Some kind of regulation should be put into place to cause at least a small change of this type.
ReplyDelete@Mike Daugirdas: I dont doubt that a switch to clean power could in fact save millions of lives, however, I have to agree with you that this is very unlikely to happen just because of the amount of people and time spent using oil already.
ReplyDelete@Sarah Tirrell: You would think that Hawaii would have enough fish that they wouldn't need fish farms. These places must be controlled or stopped if they are harming the environment around them.
ReplyDelete@Michael Petrarca: You bring up a good point about the cost of a clean energy movement such as this. I believe that if it was cost effective to make a change with such great benefits such as this it would have been done already. Therefor, I believe that you probably hit the nail on the head when asking if the price was worth making the change.
ReplyDeleteI read the article named "Dog Takes Two Bullets to Save the Life of His Owner".It is a very sweet story. The man's pet save his life with the dog suffer two bullets. This is a story only can see in the movie. This is a story only heard between human beings. This is the first time I heard something about the human and the other spice of animal. If this is sweet, it reflects other tragedy properly. It makes people think that human as one kind of animal should play what kind of role on the earth.
ReplyDeleteI was moved by this story. I remember another very moving video which is that soldier meet their family without sign. The family was so so happy to see the man's back. They ran to him, hug together with tears in their eyes. But who can make sure that the battle is for the real justice?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/01/alternative-fuels-wont-help-military-new-report.php?campaign=top_news
ReplyDeleteI have read in this article that as of right now, an alternative fuel for the military was out of the question. The expenditure for the alternative fuel production would cost more than the fuel they are using right now. However, if more military funds were directed to making a much more cost beneficial fuel, I believe that the expense required to maintain a different fuel for the military could be knocked down significantly. I think that this is whole topic has a grand potential. Switching fuel would not only reduce costs to maintain a military, (in the long term anyways) but would also lessen the impact wars will have on the environment.
The article titled "Genetic Architecture: When Buildings Think With Their Surroundings" caught my attention immediately when I log on the blog. It talks about a new ideaology of architecture, which enables buildings to construct and regenerate by themselves. In spite of the fantastic idea stated by Karl Chu, the article also cites other resources, for example the Comlubia's Living Artitecture Lab, to back up this idea, which strongly improves its authenticity and possibility to be realized. The intriguing picture and video also help explain the surreal concepts. This article also inspires me to think widely and deeply of environmentalism. Volunteering to working in a national reserve definitely helps but much more could be done if we put out minds in it.
ReplyDelete@Chao: That really is a touching story, especially to a pet owner who can understand what that loss would feel like. great post.
ReplyDelete@Kevin Kim: You are definitely right and i completely agree.
ReplyDelete@Meng: That is awesome. great post!
ReplyDelete