Last May an earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale killed more than 70,000 people in the Sichuan province of China. The terrible tragedy left many people homeless , and they are still homeless 8 months later.

To help the victims of the earthquake Chinese authorities shipped old subway trains that were used for the Olympics to Sichuan to be used as homeless shelters.

Altogether 10 trains that have six subway cars will accommodate up to 1,200 people.

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Here in the U.S. we try our best to get the word out about recycling bottles and cans.

Well, in Thailand they’ve gone a step further beyond recycling and used 1 million beer bottles to build the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple.

The bottles are a mix of Heineken and local Chang beer.

Here are some pictures of the eco friendly temple (courtesy of TreeHugger):

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I’ve never had a yacht. I’ll never have a yacht.

But one thing I do have is a desire to own a yacht that I can take out on the weekends to sail away from the stress of reality.

What would be even better was if the yacht was eco-friendly and ran on solar and wind power.

Well, Erik Sifrer has just designed a 187-foot green luxury sailboat yacht that is completely controlled by a touchscreen computer!

Take a look:

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We often don’t think about our staircases as being eco-friendly, but these skateboard steps show that just about anything can be reused and refurbished:

Tony Hawk should definitely endorse these!

We’ve all seen the obnoxiously expensive homes of Tommy Lee, Master P, Mariah Carey and more on MTV’s show Cribs. Some of the homes’ garages and backyards are even nicer than an average person’s entire house!

But even though these homes are amazingly nice, they are also damaging to the environment because they consume way too much energy, construction material and water.

Some of these homes have up to 20 bedrooms, as well as a lavish swimming pool complete with waterfalls and a hot tub, so it makes me think that many a celebrity’s obsession with excessiveness is going to be a large factor in draining the planet of its natural resources.

Of course it would be nice to have a huge house, but wouldn’t it be better to have an all-natural tree house?

Could you imagine how much money celebrities could give to charities and disaster relief organizations if they lived life simply in a tree house?

There are actually many people out there who design modernized tree houses that look amazing. The houses are made with sustainable material and often use solar panels to harness energy.

Here are some actual tree houses I discovered that would be perfect abodes for anyone, including celebrities (click on the pictures for more info):

TreeHouse Workshop Construction and Design

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