Due to our addiction to plastics, the human race has created the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive accumulation of trash dominated by synthetic, non-biodegradable objects. Turning a blight into an advantage, architects Park Sung-Hee and Na Hye Yeon from South Korea have designed the 7th Continent: Kinetic Islands which are structures that use rubbish as construction elements for a floating city.

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Post tags: "eVolo", 7th continent, debris, evolo skyscraper competition, farm, FLOAT, garbage, grasslands, great pacific garbage patch, honorable mention, kinetic islands, mangrove, na hye yeon, pacific ocean, park sung-hee, plastic, Resort, south korea

Sometimes we get so caught up in exciting new sustainable homes designed in Japan and Scandanavia, that we forget to honor the original masters of organic architecture. Take Mickey Muennig, who designed this gorgeous glass domed “Greenhouse” in California in 1976. This tiny home features a round floor plan favored by our ancestors, a simple, rustic material palette, and a view of Partington Ridge and the Pacific ocean that we would die for.

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Post tags: "natural materials", big sur, California, eco design, glass roof, green design, greenhouse, mickey muennig, Nature, organic design, pacific ocean, round houses, sustainable design, Sustainable Materials

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Post tags: big sur, California, carver schicketanz, eco design, green design, natural ventilation, pacific ocean, photovoltaic, pv, Reclaimed Materials, renewable energy, Solar Power, sustainable design

Liquid Robotics, a Silicon Valley startup behind the surfboard-sized robots known as Wave Gliders, announced today that the Papa Mau robot completed a record-breaking 9,000 mile trip across the Pacific Ocean from California to Australia. During its more than 365 days at sea, the robot reportedly survived shark attacks, weathered gale-force storms and battled the East Australian Current. But the wave-powered robot it reached its destination, setting a new world record for the longest distance traveled by an autonomous vehicle.

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Post tags: australia, Bill Vass, environmental science, liquid robotics, oceanic science, pacific ocean, Papa Mau, renewable energy, robotics, Solar Power, wave glider, wave power, wave powered robot

Read the rest of Google Adds Underwater Panoramic Sea Views To Study the World’s Reefs & Promote Awareness

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Post tags: catlin group, catlin seaview survey, coral reefs, diving, eco design, environmental awareness, Google, Google maps, google sea view, Google Street View, Great Barrier Reef, ocean awareness, pacific ocean, reef study, scuba diving, seaview, Street View, streetview, underwater panoramas, water issues

People aren’t the only ones getting a jolt from caffeine these days; in a new study published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, scientists found elevated concentrations of caffeine in the Pacific Ocean in areas off the coast of Oregon. With all those coffee drinkers in the Pacific Northwest, it should be no surprise that human waste containing caffeine would ultimately make its way through municipal water systems and out to sea – but how will the presence of caffeine in our oceans affect human health and natural ecosystems?

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Post tags: Boston Harbor, caffeine, coffee, contaminated water, intertidal mussels, marine life, Oregon coast, pacific garbage patch, Pacific Northwest, pacific ocean, scientific research, septic tanks, wastewater pollution

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Post tags: "natural materials", big sur, California, eco design, green design, human nests, locally sourced materials, Nature, nest, pacific ocean, Spirit Nests, sustainable design, sustainably sourced wood, tree houses

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Post tags: eco design, garden, green design, lima, LYCS Architecture, pacific ocean, peru, population growth, residential tower, sustainable design, urban green space, urban planning, Writhing Tower

Low levels of radiation from last year’s Fukushima Diaichii disaster in Japan have been discovered in bluefin tuna swimming of the California coast. Scientists say the trace amounts are not necessarily harmful to people if consumed, and were far less than safety limits the Japanese government has established. But the radiation evident in the tuna caught in August 2011 surprised scientists and revealed just how quickly fish can carry these compounds faster than winds or water currents.

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Post tags: becquerels, bluefin tuna, cesium, cesium-134, cesium-137, Daniel Madigan, Fukushima, fukushima daiichi, fukushima daiichi disaster, Fukushima disaster, Japan, pacific ocean, radiation, stanford university, tuna

40 tons of debris from last year’s tsunami in Japan just washed up on Montague Island in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Today workers today launched a massive cleanup on the largest uninhabited island in the United States, which has been inundated with everything from buoys to fuel jugs. The project is expected to last two weeks and is the first large project to collect and dispose of tsunami debris.

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Post tags: alaska, barnacles, CACS, center for alaskan coastal studies, GoAK, gulf of alaska keeper, japan tsunami, Mark Begich, Montague Island, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, pacific ocean, polystyrene buoys, prince william sound, tsunami, tsunami in japan

On Wednesday the World Trade Organization ruled against the sale of cans of tuna labeled “dolphin safe,” arguing that the practice discriminates against Mexican fishermen and that the United States’ definition of “dolphin safe” tuna unfairly restricts trade. The WTO decision threatens a business practice that has been in place for over 20 years. Environmentalists and businesses both criticized the ruling for potentially threatening dolphin species in the Pacific Ocean as well as interfering with U.S. consumers’ choices.

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Post tags: canned tuna, dolphin safe tuna, dolphins, earth island institute, mexico, pacific ocean, public citizen, purse seine nets, tuna, TWO, world trade organization

Researchers at San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography have released a study that claims plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has increased by 100 times the amount of what was found in the region 40 years ago. Insects at the bottom of food chain are laying eggs in the pieces of small plastic that are ubiquitous in this area the size of Texas. While the Pacific Garbage Patch is commonly perceived to be an endless mess of plastic bottles and trash bobbing up and down in the water, the reality is that thousands of square miles of the ocean’s surface is covered by tiny bits of plastic that have broken down to the size of a human fingernail.

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Post tags: ecosystems, pacific garbage patch, pacific ocean, plastic, plastic waste, scripps, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sea skaters, seaplex

As debris from last year’s tsunami in Japan now washes up in North America, much of it is also settling into the Pacific Garbage Patch. Stretching northward from the outermost Hawaiian Islands, this swirling gyre of trash is estimated to be twice the size of Texas and growing. Now more debris from the Japan disaster is appearing near Midway Atoll, 2500 miles southeast of Tokyo.

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Post tags: Hawaiian Islands, International Pacific Research Center, IPRC, Japan, japan tsunami, midway atoll, pacific garbage patch, pacific ocean, tsunami

The first identifiable pieces of debris to be washed across the Pacific Ocean in the wake of last year’s tsunami in Japan, a volleyball and a soccer ball, have reached the Alaskan coast. Discovered on the remote Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska, markings on the sports equipment trace their origin back to a school which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirms was within the tsunami zone, though not “seriously damaged by the disaster.”

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Post tags: fukushima daiichi, japan disaster, japan earthquake, japan ghost ship, japan tsuanmi, Ocean Debris, pacific ocean, volleyball debris, volleyball japanese, water garbage, water pollution

Ghost ships aren’t the only remnants of Japan’s March 2011 tsunami that are washing up on the shores of North America. Cal State Long Beach marine biologists studying kelp beds along the California coast have collected samples of radioactive iodine that spread to the US from the meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant last year. The highest concentration contained 250 times more radioactivity than levels before the accident.

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Post tags: algae, beach, California, fukushima daiichi, Japan, Kelp, long beach, nuclear disaster, nuclear meltdown, nuclear power, orange county, pacific ocean, sand, Santa Cruz, Seaweed, tsunami

The Japanese ghost ship that recently appeared off the coast of Canada has recently come under cannon fire from the U.S. Coast Guard. The 164-foot Ryou-un-Maru fishing vessel washed out into the Pacific Ocean after the 2011 tsunami hit Japan’s eastern shores, and the ship is now reported to have floated within 150 miles of the Gulf of Alaska coast. The Coast Guard is taking the dramatic measure in an effort to sink the vessel before it runs aground or endangers any other vessels in the area.

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Post tags: Diesel Fuel, environmental disaster, fukushima daiichi, Ghost ship, Gulf of Alaska, japan tsunami, japanese ghost ship, Ocean Debris, pacific ocean, Ryou-un-Maru, US Coast Guard

After Japan was hit with a devastating earthquake in March 2011, the Pacific nation was rocked by a massive tsunami that destroyed thousands of coastal houses, cars and boats and swept millions of tons of debris out into the ocean. Now, it looks like some of that debris could be approaching North America. Last week, a unmanned boat identified as a Japanese fishing vessel was spotted off the coast of Canada, indicating that after more than a year, some of that debris could still be on its way to American and Canadian shores.

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Post tags: Environment, fishing boat, Ghost ship, Japan, japanese tsunami, pacific ocean, Pollution, trash, tsunami, Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

On Monday morning, James Cameron completed his historic journey to the Mariana Trench – the deepest point on the planet. The director of such blockbuster movies as Titanic and Avatar dove almost seven miles under the surface of the Pacific Ocean and spent three hours filming the dark seabed. For Cameron, the dive is the culmination of a lifelong fascination with the oceans. He began incorporating themes of the deep sea in his 1989 move The Abyss, and after the 1997 release of Titanic, followed that up with a documentary on the Titanic’s wreck in 2003. Meanwhile, he has made 73 trips far beneath the ocean’s surface and will follow today’s historic milestone with more ventures into the Mariana Trench.

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Post tags: Deepsea Challenger, james cameron, Mariana trench, National Geographic Society, ocean exploration, pacific ocean, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, university of hawaii

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Post tags: Aptos Retreat, California, ccs architecture, Corten steel, Daylighting, eco design, green design, pacific ocean, radiant flooring, reclaimed lumber, Reclaimed Materials, Santa Cruz Mountains, solar thermal system, sustainable design, weathered steel

Read the rest of Enchanting ‘Eco Truly Park’ is a Self-Sustaining Paradise on Earth

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Post tags: Architecture, Art, bamboo, biodegradable materials, eco-tourism, eco-travel, green holidays, green materials, green resources, Healthy Living, lima, mud houses, Organic vegetables, pacific ocean, peru, recycling / compost, reiki, sand dunes, Solar Power, sustainable food, Sustainable Materials, vegetarian food, yoga