The Ferris Files

The most visible class of finalists were those with ambitious plans for “kite power” — harnessing the powerful and consistent winds that blow high off the Earth’s deck.

Silicon Valley leads solar, hypermilers go electric, and British Airways makes jet fuel from trash.

Why is it that many solar panels are the size of a hallway rug, while a typical wind turbine is the size of an office building? I’ve always wondered whether we would ever learn to harvest wind on a smaller, simpler scale. Turns out we can.

Farmers in Bangladesh have long had an irrigation problem. Water is often plentiful in ponds or in the shallow water table underfoot, but getting that water onto the crops is no easy task. A solution has appeared in the form of the treadle pump, a sort of Stairmaster that pumps water.

The very idea of a solar refrigerator is a contradiction: Use the hot sun to keep things cold. How could such an oxymoron possibly work?

In parts of India they’re called chulhas, in Malawi chitetezo mbaula, in Central America the Lorena, and in East Africa the jiko. The names and designs vary, but the principle is the same: a low-cost, efficient stove that replaces the open fire.

Today I’m sad to learn that Mt. Aconcagua, a giant South American peak I attempted to climb several years ago, has become a collection point for the dangerous chemicals known as PCBs.

My lady Anjali and I just moved to Washington D.C. and I are trying to figuring out where to buy a house. Do we live in the suburbs, or in the District itself? We’re both children of the suburbs but are conducting our search from a sublet apartment in Adams Morgan, a hip neighborhood in the middle of the city. As I walk around to its stores and restaurants, I ask myself: Could I see living in a big city, not as a lark, but forever?

A hot commuter cup reveals that our relationship with throwaway food containers has reached a new level of intimacy.

Recently, the artist Chris Jordan flew to the Midway Islands to take photographs of dead albatrosses. Why travel so far to take pictures of such a small thing? Jordan wanted to make a point.
The photos he took reminded me of others you might recall. Remember how photos of baby seals were everywhere a few years [...]