Earth, you beautiful whore you!

So today being Earth Day I thought I'd post a few random Earth-related things...

Terra Grass Chair

This chair frame can be planted in your lawn, filled with dirt and seeded with grass to eventually grow into a seat. The frame is biodegradable and I think you could probably build one using paperboard since the set is a bit expensive (the only one I found for sale is $100). The curves would be hard to copy but you could experiment with the shape. Amanda (who grew the one to the left) says she had to cover hers with sod using some long staples when the seeds failed to blanket it, but I think St. Augustine grass would work well enough.

(via TreeHugger)


Bio Bench



In a similar vein is this bench made of biodegradable cardboard tubes covered with seeds using a cellulose adhesive. Not sure if it's actually available but it was designed by Julian Lwin. I think the shape may make it hard for seeds to take hold but cool idea none the less.

(via Inhabitat)


How To: Build and electric car

My first car was a MKIII Toyota Supra, white old and busted. I always loved the design though and I wished I had the skill to rip out the gas engine and throw in an electric one. TreeHugger came up with a small but very cool guide to building your own electric car recently, and while it would just barely work with the 3,500lb Supra if this design could be tweaked you could make something as cool looking as the Tesla Roadster. Now if we could just get past all this coal-based electricity...


The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

I noticed World Without Us at the bookstore and picked it up because I liked the premise. Imagine that all of humanity suddenly vanished, what would happen to the planet as the traces of our existence sink into the maw of time and decay? Weisman starts in New York with subways flooding, roads collapsing, and all manner of structure deforming and crumbling overcome by wild animals and vegetation. He travels to old growth forests, the Korean DMZ, abandoned cities in Cyprus and Ukraine, and petrochemical plants in Texas to show how all things man-made eventually succumb to nature. If you want to read about environmental degradation from a completely new perspective I really recommend this.

You can watch an interview with Alan Weisman on The Daily Show or hear and interview with him on NPR's Talk of the Nation Science Friday. Here's a pretty cool little timeline to see the progress (regress?) of the earth without humans.