Mad Mats are outdoor rugs designed to look like real living room carpet but made of 98% recycled polypropylene plastic - used soda bottles, milk bottles, packing, and the like.

Here are the highlights: each rug is reversible, they are constructed using a unique flat weave and soft tubular threads that will not absorb dirt or stains of any kind, they can easily be rinsed off with a hose.

Produced under fair trade conditions.

A U.S. Energy Department report is, uh, reporting that wind turbines could provide 20% of the country’s electricity supplies by 2030. This could be a key move in delaying development of new coal plants and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the Toronto Star, wind power is the fastest growing renewable energy source in the U.S., powering 30% of power-plant capacity last year.

Is the sweet sorghum plant the miracle crop that we’re looking for to provide cheap animal feed and fuel without straining the world’s food supply or harming the environment? Some scientists say it might be.

It has high positive energy balance, producing about eight units of energy for every unit of energy invested in its cultivation and production, roughly equivalent to sugarcane and about four times greater than the energy produced by corn. Sweet sorghum requires little or no irrigation, limiting the use of fuel-burning water pumps that emit carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas contributing to climate change…

Read on, dear reader.

CarbonTeeshirt.com produces carbon-reduced, climate neutral “Carbon T’s” using 100% organically combed cotton and organic, water-based dyes.

The manufacturing process is also pretty green - their climate neutral manufacturing facilities use sustainable energy generated from solar power and wind power. No fossil fuels are burnt in the manufacture of the t-shirts and the organic cotton is even planted and harvested without mechanization.

For every Carbon Tee that is purchased, a donation is made to the Plant A Tree Today Foundation (PATT), which is currently working in Asia to campaign for better environmental practices and implement reforestation projects.

Break time. Time to play a game. Uh, not during work hours of course.

Congo Jones And The Loggers Of Doom is a new online game from the Rainforest Foundation (think Sting). Meant to raise awareness, the game players’ goal is to save a village before loggers arrive.

The game challenges players to map and protect the Congo rainforest by working with local communities living in the forest. Jump logs, climb waterfalls and avoid the chainsaws to help gain legal protection for rainforest peoples and their land.

And speaking of fascinating reads, that same New Yorker also features Jonathan Frantzen’s The Way Of The Puffin (link is abstract only) as he traces the origins of a stuffed puffin golf-club cover back to the factory in China where it was made.

…southeast Asia: a region well on its way to being clear-cut and strip-mined into one vast muddy pit, since China itself is hopelessly short on natural resources to supply the factories that supply us. The Chinese people may bear the brunt of Chinese pollution, but the trauma to biodiversity is being re-exported around the world

Bonus feature, an audio interview with Frantzen himself.

Let’s start the week off slowly, shall we? We spent some of the evening last night pouring over a recent New Yorker and thought we’d bring you one or two of the more prescient pieces. To begin, Jared Diamond’s Tigerland - a first-hand look at one of the last vestiges of the Royal Bengal tiger, the the Sundarbans, which also just happens to encompasses the largest single mangrove ecosystem in the world.

As they say, “If the Sundarbans goes under, the tiger episode on earth is over.” And that’s what makes this such a fascinating read.

For the first time in a long time, we’re not sure what we’re going to do next week. A top 5? A bunch of new product reviews? Should we launch our new BPA feature? Give us a couple of days off and we’ll think about it.

Until then, enjoy a look back at the week that was. We learned, we barked, we drove, we sang, and we, uh, looked at a stuffed animal. Good times.

See you Monday.

Skincare product-maker derma e recently announced the launch of The Paraguay Project, a unique non-profit initiative that creates fair trade, economic opportunities for people and non-profit organizations in Paraguay.

According to the press release, the new project works in two ways. To encourage fair trade, The Paraguay Project purchases Spiderweb Lace, a delicate and colorful needlework lace that is a traditional Paraguayan craft, directly from co-ops in Paraguay. The Spiderweb Lace is then sold online in the U.S. through the project’s website. All profits will be donated to two Paraguayan non-profit organizations, Global…Infancia and Guyra Paraguay.

The second tier of the project donates a percentage of the sales of all derma e’s 90+ products to The Paraguay Project.

it’s always nice to see a little social responsibility.

Huaraches are a simple, comfortable, back to the basics type of sandal. In this age of air pumped inserts, fancy outsoles, and flashy brands, huaraches are a call back to a simpler time.

It’s amazing how a simple design can be a comfortable and practical piece of footwear. Take these Organic Hemp Vegan Sandals from DownBound for example. No sweatshops. And the shaft-like structure of the hemp fibre allows the shoes to wick moisture right off the foot and dry quickly.

Just in time for summer.

We’re not too sure about this one as of yet, as details are a bit scant. But here we go: VW is promising to bring us the VW 1L in 2010. What is the 1L? It’s a 2-seater toboggan-style car (one in front of the other) with a plastic/magnesium shell and all-glass roof that uses only 1 liter of gas to go 100 km (230 miles per gallon) while hitting speeds of up to about 75 MPH. More details as they come.

The San Jose Mercury News is such a downer…

Science has provided the souped-up seeds to feed the world, through biotechnology and old-fashioned crossbreeding. Now the problem is the dirt they’re planted in. As seeds get better, much of the world’s soil is getting worse and people are going hungry. Scientists say if they can get the world out of the economically triggered global food crisis, better dirt will be at the root of the solution. Soils around the world are deteriorating with about one-fifth of the world’s cropland considered degraded in some manner. The poor quality has cut production by about one-sixth, according to a World Resources Institute study. Some scientists consider it a slow-motion disaster.

Enjoy.

This is an officially snarky and sarcastic comment-free post. This piece from CBC is a great read, especially if you’re looking to get yourself up to speed on the current rice shortage situation that has recently touched our shores as well. What lies behind this ‘silent tsunami’? Click.