Going green office tips
We are always hearing of different ways to improve our green credentials in the work place, but how many of those ideas actually apply to you and what can you, as an individual, do to help in your office? More »
Apps that reduce congestion
Imagine a city with no traffic at all. You wouldn’t have to get up at 6.30 and skip breakfast. More »
Adopting environmentally-conscious air travel
“Travel broadens the mind” or so the oft-cited saying goes. But, as an environmentally-conscious business person, how can you reconcile travel for work (or indeed pleasure) with the environmental degradation that goes with most mechanised forms of transportation? More »
Australian Carbon Farming Initiative
The Australian Carbon Farming Initiative (“CFI”) is a voluntary domestic offset mechanism geared towards the agriculture sector, which is not covered under the Australian emissions trading system (“ETS”) More »
Delayed infrastructure for green energy
At the European level, time scale of establishing a grid connection is recognized as a severe barrier for the spread of technological innovation and renewable technologies More »
Guerilla gardening takes off – why not get involved?
Joanna Lumley advocates guerilla gardening. Photo: Colin Pumphrett
In the last few years, guerilla gardening has taken off in the United Kingdom: activists have thrown seed bombs into parks to transform them into wildflower meadows, herbs have been planted around trees, pavements have been “pimped” by the planting of flowers and roundabouts have become vegetable patches.
Guerilla gardening in Munich has been legalised and spaces in New York that began in this fashion are now official projects. Illicit gardening in Britain has been dated as far back as the Diggers of the 17th century, socialists who strived for the right to cultivate common land. The movement was founded by Gerard Winstanley in 1659. The First English Civil War had ended in 1651 and there was much talk of alternative forms of government to replace the old order. One of Winstanley’s most oft-repeated quotes is, “Words and writings were all nothing, and must die, for action is the life of all, and if thou dost not act, thou dost nothing.”
The State of Nature affects us all
Published last week amid as much of a blaze of publicity that the media ever grants to environmental issues, the State of Nature report was launched by veteran documentary maker and national treasure Sir David Attenborough at the Natural History museum. The report represents a groundbreaking collaboration between 25 of the UK’s leading wildlife and conservation organisations led by big-hitters such as the Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB
Whilst the report makes a brave attempt at striking an optimistic note by highlighting some of the conservation success stories that have occurred in recent years such as the recovery of species such as Corncrakes, Red Kites and Otters from the brink of extinction, much of the content makes grim reading: 60% of species have declined in recent decades, 31% strongly so. Some bird species that used to be a byword for the British countryside have declined alarmingly – Nightingales down by nearly 50%, 73% fewer Nightingales and a shocking 90% of Turtle Doves gone.
Experiential education: the future of sustainability
Tuesday evening saw the launch of the innovative new Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) based at the University of Cumbria. Hosted by the Royal Geographical Society and titled ‘Adventures in Sustainability’, an audience of sustainability professionals, students and enthusiasts were treated to talks from a range of leaders in the field to discuss the future of sustainability.
Ed Gillespie of Futerra Sustainability Communications spoke engagingly of the need to take a “doom and bloom” approach to the urgent problems we face and called on us to enlist the “contagious” power of hope. We heard from Dr Kate Rawles’ about her intrepid 4553 mile cycle ride along the spine of the Rockies, asking everyone she met along the way what they thought about climate change. Cutting the tethers of our electronic lives and stepping out of our “spreadsheet mentality” and into the wild was the advice offered by Daniel Start, author of cult classic ‘Wild Swimming’
Pig manure biogas production – what has always been disdained could become a source of wealth
image: Tina Phillips / freedigitalphotos.net
67 percent of the meat eaten in China is pork, and demand for this meat is growing worldwide. As a result, China features 1.8 million pig farms with more than 700 million pigs, which produce 1.4 million tons of faeces a year. Pig manure contains antibiotics and growth hormones to promote growth, which find their way into human bodies with adverse consequences.
Currently, only 10 percent of this manure is used productively – as fertiliser – which presents profound health issues. While not at all nice, porcine excrement is rich in nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate. In an act that rates as alchemy, all that shit is now being used as pig manure biogas.
CO2 levels rising but no one takes any notice
image: njaj / freedigitalphotos.net
To be fair to the Prime Minister, he did have a lot on his mind on 10th May 2013. The Conservative party was embarking on one of its periodic spasms of self-destruction, this time following the strong showing by UKIP at the Tories’ expense in the local elections the previous week. With a Euro-Sceptic backbench rebellion to add to the ongoing unrest about “Gay Marriage” among his MPs, David Cameron could perhaps be excused for allowing the latest news from Hawaii on CO2 levels rising to sink below the surface of the Downing Street In-Tray.
