Designed by Mareines + Patalano, this great beach home outside of Rio de Janeiro stands as a beautiful compliment to nature and adds to the planet’s beauty and tranquility.

Except for a stunning architectural show, the Brazilian Leaf House packs many green features, a perfect combination of form with function. Designed as a giant tropical banana leaf and looking like a blossoming delight, the roof helps harvest rainwater for house use, and the whole design helps providing natural ventilation and cooling, thus reducing the need to rely on the grid. The interior is “just” as green, using locally harvested wood crafted in a sustainable fashion, stone and natural fabrics.

Most often constructions that crop up on the beaches, are costly real estate properties with lavish designs that does nothing beyond destroying the natural beaches and further degrade the ecosystem. This one really looks like a dream house, isn’t it? – via World Architecture News

Jatropha is a weed that grows in plenty in nations like India, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania and is often a serious threat to food crops as it grows at a rapid pace and uses up all nutrients in soil. But Air New Zealand along with Boeing and Rolls Royce’s testing unit are turning this unwanted pest into biofuel for flights of tomorrow.

Boeing committed to going the biofuel way for jets because it sees a very urgent need to change from fossil fuel dependency that has been affecting the planet and the aviation industry in a seriously negative way.

Air New Zealand is helping them in this regard as both of them are coming together for a test flight on December 3 that will be powered by a 50/50 blend of Jet A-1 fuel and a synthetic paraffinic kerosene derived from Jatropha that was developed by UOP (!! pdf link)

Rolls Royce has successfully tested this mix and has found it good enough for a Boeing flight. Now it will be just a matter of time, some fine tweaking and maybe a little luck before we have jets that are completely powered by biofuel derived from algae and weed. – via Ecogeek

Image courtesy of Thomas@Bod

There is absolutely no doubt that carbon emissions caused by excessive use of fossil fuel and our callous cutting of trees have caused global warming to creep up to such dangerous levels that it is causing a serious threat to the polar ice caps and all the animals that reside in the cold paradise.

Polar Bears have been stranded on melting ice caps and have often eventually drowned to their death because of this new climate pattern. But, ADDI has come up with a very unique concept for these stranded animals, in the form of a Lifejacket.

The Polarbears are drowning because of the ice that are melting. They have to swim up to 100 km to find food. Global warming needs to be stopped.

However, his effort is more an attempt to promote awareness in an artistic way than to actually make a realistic lifejacket and strap it onto these animals, because it would seriously hinder their ability to swim and fish and even compromise their natural camouflage.

The whole message is simple and far more significant. Stop the pollution (and be better stewards to our Planet – like Bill would say) or the day we’ll need to wear lifejackets, is not really that far away! – via Dvice

Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions hit a record high making Japan the world’s fifth-largest CO2 producer and putting them at risk of an embarrassing failure to meet its Kyoto target over the next four years. The increase of 2.3 percent last year was largely due to the closure of Japan’s biggest nuclear power plant after an earthquake.

Emissions rose to 1.371 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent in the Japanese fiscal year through March. The year before Japan finally saw a decline of 1.3 percent decline. Japan needs to cut emissions by an estimated 13.5 percent to hit its 2008-2012 target under Kyoto of down 6 percent from 1990 levels.

The task of cutting emissions may be its worst since the onset of a global recession, a diversion of governments’ focus away from climate change the investment needed.

Japan is not going to make their goal.

Source: Yahoo!

Though GreenPacks may not have gotten everything right with the Faroe Whale Cull tradition, it’s not a stretch to say that the Japanese are headed out on their annual slaughter of whales. This morning, a Japanese whaling ship left for the Antarctic Ocean to do its ‘research.’

The vessel, Nissin Maru, sailed under the protection of the Japanese Coast Guard … protected from the environmental group Greenpeace. Japan is permitted to catch 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales.

Different than usual, this year there was not a departure ceremony. Japan kills about 1,200 whales annually under a scientific program that studies the feeding habits and distribution of mammals in the seas of Antarctica.

Greenpeace’s Sea Shepherd says it plans to follow up on its attack of a Japanese ship last year when it dumped a foul-smelling acid on the whaling boat and collided twice with another boat.

That’ll show them, Greenpeace. The more obnoxious you can be the more headway you will make…NOT!

Not Evil Just Wrong Documentary is pledging to do to Al Gore and his Inconvenient Truth what Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 did for George W Bush.

You all can yell at me later, but I totally believe in free speech, open and honest discussion. Watch out as I attempt to take a leap into the Prop 8 arena here. When Prop 8 passed, immediately the pro-gay marriage group started protesting and demonstrating and such. Had Prop 8 not passed and the Right started their demonstrations and law suits, “Foul! Sore Losers! Shut up and Go home!” would have been the rants.

When Moore came out with 9/11 to hit on Bush, the left ate it up.

So, how will the Left take it when the non-global warming alarmists say their piece? Anybody care to weigh in?

What others are saying:

NOT EVIL JUST WRONG Doc Seeks to Debunk Inconvenient Truth

Global Warming Hysteria ‘Not Evil Just Wrong’

This fantastic amalgamation of architecture with green design has been conjured up by Mass Studies Architecture and has taken shape in Gangnam, Seoul.

The beautiful structure is more like a set of living breathing walls clad in green and the entire space has a feeling of refreshed atmosphere even though it is caught in a concrete filled suburb. With a mossy exterior composed of a geo-textile planting with herbaceous perennial it has an amazing finish.

The green theme also makes its way inside and spills along the walls of a downward staircase leading to the subterranean Multi-Shop. The alluring design is matched by an interior that is equally ergonomic and space conscious. The restaurant on top of the building and the shopping space sub-terrain also incorporate green design features to further enhance the eco-friendly outlook of the designers.

This really is a fabulous example of how one can integrate simple yet effective green features into modern structures to obtain a wonderful and useful blend of the modern and the green. – via Trendir

What happens when a species is categorized under “least concern”, meaning there is no threat of being threatened? The answer is simple and you’ll likely get the idea by the time you finish reading.

The Faeroes are a group of islands in Northern Europe, between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, an autonomous province of Denmark since 1948. Every year, young boys trying to prove themselves as adults gather on the beaches for the Annual Dolphin Massacre. Apparently, the only way to let the world know about their “hairy chests” is by turning into merciless killers, luring the Risso’s Dolphin to the shores and …. you can see what happens.

A playful animal that only feels curiosity towards human kind, the Risso’s Dolphin is the slaughtered victim from a bad movie that is being played each year in the Faeroes Islands. Why would you kill an animal that wants to play? Why? Can they sleep after seeing the sea of blood and so many slaughtered souls? Do they build up statistics and ranks to see who’s the best killer? Do they race for the first position? Are parents happy with their “kids”?

Who’s to blame? I know that GreenPacks readers are smart and they can come up with their own answers. For me, it’s pretty obvious that the human kind is not as advanced as many think, if these kind of actions happen these days.

Denmark! Shame on you! Faeroes! Shame on you!

Though I’m not a fan of petitions, here’s one that I’m supporting.

If you think you can take it (be warned – high cruelty), there’s an image gallery after the break. (more…)

With the modern world stretching out vertically, rather than horizontally, it’s also inevitable for our green structures and gardens. Amin Taha Architects are building gardens in the sky in their new Vauxhall tower, with 25,000 square feet of communal gardens, each three stories in height.

The new green structures may not only be a great place for evening walk and social activities, but also our first step towards vertical farming on skyscrapers. Apparently, the one on the top, won’t be just a garden in the concrete jungle that surrounds it, because it may produce food to feed the hungry. Of course, the space also offers a great way to create fresh air and should be a portal for healthy living.

The planned tower will stand 130m tall and will feature 178 residential units, as well as office space. Let’s hope future developments will include all these … and more. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea, at all. – via TreeHugger

Covering a distance of over 3700 miles in air, purely powered by biofuel is something that even the aviation industry would be proud of. But UK’s Skycar Team is trying to do that in a car with a giant fan, a powerful engine and a parachute.

Skycar is probably the most exciting green vehicle that is waiting to make it out on to the streets sometime in the future and the fact that it is not just a concept, but the real deal is something that is far more alluring.

Skycar will aim to prove its potential with a flight of over 6000 Km from London to Timbuktu. They use a lightweight Para-Wing that is filled by a huge fan built into the back of the vehicle to achieve theoretical airspeeds of 100 mph and thanks to a light-weight chassis it seats two people and goes some 3000 feet high. The distance to be covered is a daunting and probably a fitting challenge to Skycar as a successful journey will prove its true worth.

The car converts from flight mode to ground mode and vice-versa in just 3 minutes and can run completely on biofuel when needed (for ground, it can run on ethanol using a Yamaha R1 engine).

This is truly one eco-journey that we wish the very best as the success of Skycar could usher us into a clean new era where we just lift up from the traffic of rush hour and fly home ala Jetsons style! Check out the gallery after the break. (more…)