Eco-Saturday: From Rooftop to Tabletop

The growing farm-to-table movement just got kicked up a notch by chef John Mooney, who has transformed the rooftop of his West Village restaurant in New York into a farm with a 21st century twist.

From the actual roof, which has been painted white to reflect and maximize sunlight, to the scores of tall planting cylinders, which bubble with water and nutrients, the entire operation is high-tech. Well, almost. How do they get the 70 varieties of herbs, fruit and vegetables from the roof to the restaurant? The old-fashioned way--gravity.

Urban Garden Magazine says Mooney's new Bell Book & Candle is NYC's first hydroponic rooftop-to-table restaurant. You'll find lots of ideas for the home gardener in this video, from CNN.com.

The backyard orchard: You don't have to be a restauranteur to grow your own--just ask Sean Conway, who offers up great tips on creating your own backyard mini orchard.

Green remodeling pays: It might sting a bit while you're writing the check to pay for that eco-friendly remodel, be it a tankless water heater, energy-efficient windows, or a solar array on the roof. But, says Ecoinstitution,com, do the math and in the not-so-long run, the savings add up.

NBA goes green(er): Look for new uniforms in the NBA next season. They're lighter, take less drying time, and are made from 60 percent recycled materials.

Is an electric car in your future? Forbes says yes, and lays out the reasons that 2010 may well be the pivotal year for the average car buyer to stop viewing the gas-free vehicle as a novelty.

Deep orange: Graduate students in North Carolina have built a hybrid car that can drive 20 miles with zero emissions before the gas engine has to kick in. Dubbed "Big Orange", the prototype can go 400 miles on a single 7.5-gallon tank of gas.

Rare earth blockade: Meanwhile, geopolitics have put a glitch into the hybrid car market as China blocks the sale to Japan of rare earth minerals, which are needed to produce hybrid batteries.

Dolphins! Check out this Q&A in The New York Times with Diana Reiss, the 61-year-old psych professor who has made it her life's work to learn what dolphins and whales are doing with those enormous brains.

Coral reefs in danger: Extreme heat is wreaking havoc on the world's coral reefs, which are reacting to the spiking temps by going into survival mode and shedding their color. This is only the second known global bleaching of the reefs, and it has scientists scrambling, reports The New York Times.

Monkey business--literally: Wish you could learn to spend less and save more? Capuchin monkeys may be able to help. The tiny simians quickly learned to value the tokens introduced to their world by scientists, and began to "spend" and "save" them. Details at Discovery.com.

Green site of the week: The ever-useful (and often entertaining) Envirogadget.com. The name says it all--it's everything you ever wanted to know about environmental gadgets.