Artist Sonia Rentsch created this striking series of sculptures for January Biannual (photographed by Albert Comper and art direction by Olivia Nichols), using natural materials like leaves, sticks and seed pods to mimic the form of guns and other weapons. Entitled “Harm Less,” the images stir thoughts of beauty and violence within man and nature.

See the rest: Artist Sonia Rentsch creates guns made from nature

Coral Davenport at National Journal has an excellent piece on the “coming civil war in the Republican party.”

Already, deep fissures are emerging between, on one side, a base of ideological voters and lawmakers with strong ties to powerful tea-party groups and super PACs funded by the fossil-fuel industry who see climate change as a false threat concocted by liberals to justify greater government control; and on the other side, a quiet group of moderates, younger voters, and leading conservative intellectuals who fear that if Republicans continue to dismiss or deny climate change, the party will become irrelevant.

“There is a divide within the party,” says Samuel Thernstrom, who served on President George W. Bush’s Council on Environmental Quality and is now a scholar of environmental policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “The position that climate change is a hoax is untenable.”

via The Republican civil war on climate change

© Thorncrown Chapel

“An odd set of corporate, municipal and grassroots bedfellows has coalesced in Northwest Arkansas around opposition to a proposed Southwestern Electric Power Co. power-line project that critics say could encroach on some of the most scenic places in the Ozarks. The proposed project would push through a 150-foot-wide cleared right-of-way studded with 150-foot-tall electrical transmission towers. One route for the project would bring the power lines within 1,000 feet of the iconic Thorncrown Chapel in the woods near Eureka Springs.”

via Arkansas’ Thorncrown Chapel under threat from energy company

Creamy fennel, spinach and asparagus soup — a vegan recipe

Solar Electric Scooter spares the environment, gives to charity

Make a fire-powered smartphone charger

Build your own log lounge chair for $30 

One year of the sun’s activity captured in one image

It’s National Pet Week! Here’s how to celebrate

Flying across America, from San Francisco to New York City, in a solar plane. Awesome!

http://www.treehugger.com/aviation/solar-impulse-flying-san-francisco-new-york-city-solar-plane.html

Happy National Wildflower Week!

Enjoy these gorgeous images: 15 photos celebrating National Wildflower Week

tackett:

“As a medium for social change, posters record our struggles for peace, social justice, environmental defense, and liberation from oppression.”

via Art for Advocacy: 13 Posters for Sustainable Social Change

10 salsa and guacamole recipes for Cinco de Mayo