Photo: PAUL FARMER

A British gold medal Olympic rower reportedly has stopped training on the Thames River, Britain’s most famous water, and the reason may surprise you. The river has too much raw sewage in it.

The rower, Andy Triggs Hodge, gave up on the Thames after a sewage overflow for which the local water utility has apologized.

The River Thames flows through southern England.Even without the overflow, however, the Thames is pretty much a stink hole during the summer, according to this Bloomberg article. At least 30 million tons of excrement and waste spill into the Thames every year.

“The effects on our health became a major concern,” Triggs Hodge told Bloomberg, explaining why he relocated to Reading, England.

Did you know that NASCAR pace cars are electric vehicles? Did you know that a NASCAR track is solar powered, and that the racing cars are equipped to use corn-based biofuel? NASCAR also recycles and buys carbon offsets. That’s six ways in all. Not bad for a sport that once was synonymous with puffs of tailpipe smoke. Learn more about NASCAR’s green programs at http://green.nascar.com.

An environmental group has gone to court to prevent the New Jersey community of Bernardsville from cutting down a couple hundred trees in order to expand the school district’s athletic fields.

The group, called Active Citizens for Responsible Sustainability, or ACRES, is challenging the expansion in part because the area that would lose the trees is a wetlands and habitat for threatened or endangered species.

The group objected on other, more legal reasons, but let’s keep this simple.

Earth Preservers wants to know whether, if you lived in Bernardsville, NJ, would you support or oppose a plan to cut down a couple hundred trees in order to expand school athletic fields?

Ever heard of piezoelectric energy? That’s the energy produced when people move.

In Paris this month, some 40,000 competitors in the Paris Marathon ran over tiles laid out on a street. The tiles vibrated, collecting piezoelectric energy that got fed by wires back to an electrical storage battery, an example of a process scientists refer to as energy harvesting.

The electricity from the battery was used to power signs along the route.

Stop to think: piezoelectric energy may be the most environmentally-friendly source of electricity of all, right?

Cheating the sort of thing that gets an Olympian sent home in disgrace. But what if the alleged cheater is the home of the Olympics?

London hosted the 2012 Olympics, which was hailed as the “greenest” Olympics ever held.

But now London and it mayor have been accused of cheating to artificially keep pollution levels down during the 2012 Olympic Games. A number of environmental groups claim that London Mayor Boris Johnson applied a sticky glue to the streets of London during the Games. The glue allegedly kept a lot of dust from getting into the air.

While this sound like much ado about nothing, if the European Union finds that the environmentalists’ charge is accurate, London may have to pay a hefty fine.

To learn more, read this story from Britain’s Telegraph.

Last year we told you about a couple of really smart students who invented a soccer ball that doubled as a source of electricity. After kicking the ball around all day, people in poor countries can have a free source of electricity to light their homes. As our story explained, all that kicking charges a magnet inside the ball. The power of the magnet can be tapped by sticking an electric wire into the same spot where you put air into the ball.

Fast forward to today: that soccer ball is about to go into production, thanks to a successful fundraising campaign on Kickstarter, the website that helps people raise money for projects that help people.

Want to make a difference? Don’t forget to think about the possibilities Kickstarter may be able to open up for you!

To learn more, go to the Kickstarter page for “Soccket,” the students’ name for their power-producing ball. And go to website for Uncharted Play, the company the girls formed that will make the ball.

Photo: Marlins Park. Credit: Miami Marlins, Kelly Gavin.

It’s almost “Batter Up!” time, and so we present the most energy-efficient stadiums played in by Major League Baseball, as compiled by the group Alliance to Save Energy.

Not to be confused with its last-place finish last season, the Miami Marlins are said to play in THE most energy-efficient stadium.

Marlins Park shouldn’t be at the top of the list, given how much energy is needed to open and close its retractable roof. But the club uses super energy-efficient motors to do the job. Along with its 250 waterless urinals and the club’s emphasis on getting fans to the ballpark via public transportation, Marlins Park is in first place.

Not far behind is Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins.  It too has water-saving urinals, and it uses rainwater to wash down seats. It also has high-efficiency lighting and an emphasis on public transportation.

The other stadiums in the top seven are in Seattle, Washington, DC, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Milwaukee. To find out where one placed, check this out. 

Watch and see.

Courtesy: ecouterre.com

You all know LeBron James. But we bet you haven’t heard that his new line of sneaker from Nike has a top made from environmentally-friendly cork.

We’re not about to give “King James” a new crown as “World’s Greenest Athlete.” His new cork-top sneaker was made to commemorate his Miami Heat winning the National Basketball Association championship. (The sneaker highlights how the Heat popped champagne corks after their victory.)

Still, because it is made in part from cork, which is a renewable substance, LeBron’s sneaker also shows how the stuff we wear every day can be eco-friendly.

To learn about, read this Ecouterre story.