SEPTEMBER 15th, 2009
This Friday parking spaces across the UK will be transformed into miniature urban oases as PARK(ing) Day comes to Britain for the first time. PARK(ing) Day is an annual one-day event that has been growing steadily since its inception in 2005, with over 500 PARK installations created in over 100 cities worldwide in 2008.
More than 70% of outdoor city space is dedicated to cars. PARK(ing) Day aims to reclaim some of this space by encouraging artists, eco-activists and members of the public to turn parking spaces into temporary, miniature parks.
Find out more here
SEPTEMBER 15th, 2009
It might be the greatest challenge facing humanity but getting people to engage with climate change has long proved difficult. Two of the main obstacles preventing people from relating to greenhouse gas emissions are the abstract nature of the term ‘carbon footprint’ and the fact that greenhouse gasses are invisible. The Carbon Quilt is an interactive tool, endorsed by top scientists, that aims to create a visual language to help communication.
The tool converts statistics such as: “every day we pump 80 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere” into more meaningful amounts such as: “at the rate we emit Carbon Dioxide it would take four seconds to fill the UN building seven times”. The Carbon Quilt also personalises the CO2 emissions by being applicable to any scale, from continental emissions to those of a single light bulb.
Try it out and find out more at carbonquilt.org
Source: Green Thing Blog
SEPTEMBER 11th, 2009
Almost a decade after the last short-haired bumblebee flew through Britain’s meadows, ambitious plans are underway to reintroduce the extinct species. Although the short-haired bumblebee officially died out in the UK in 2000 a small community survived in New Zealand after being exported there in the late 19th century to pollinate red clover.
Scientists intend to spend two months capturing queen bees as they emerge from hibernation in Mackenzie Country New Zealand. They propose to rear the queens in captivity in the hope that they produce a second generation of queens, which could then be shipped back to Britain once they enter hibernation. Another team of volunteers is already working with local farmers, landowners and members of the public in Kent to restore the habitat where the bees are to be released in late Spring, early Summer.
If the plan succeeds it will be the first time a species of bee has been reintroduced to a country after the native population has died out.
Sources: Guardian & Ecologist
SEPTEMBER 11th, 2009
The arctic is sending us a clear message - climate change is occurring more rapidly than anyone ever imagined. This video made by the Extreme Ice Survey supporting 350.org dramatically illustrates the extent that the Mendenhall glacier near Juneau, Alaska retreated in 350 days.
350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis. Ahead of the Copenhagen climate talks this December 350.org are calling on people around the world to organize an action on October 24 incorporating the number 350 at an iconic place in their community. This event aims to send a clear message to world leaders:
“The solutions to climate change must be equitable, they must be grounded in science, and they must meet the scale of the crisis.”
350ppm (parts per million) is the threshold for safe levels of CO2 in the upper atmosphere. Once this number is exceeded irreversible damage begins to be done to the Earth’s climate. CO2 Levels have already reached 390ppm, the highest in recorded history, and are rising by 2ppm every year.
Summer levels of sea ice in the Arctic have decreased by an area five times the size of the UK between 1979 and 2007 and many experts now believe the Arctic will be completely free of summer ice between 2011 and 2015. It’s not too late to reverse the damage we are doing, join the global movement to reduce CO2 levels at www.350.org and send a message to Copenhagen.
Source: Do The Green Thing
AUGUST 27th, 2009
We live in an age of information overload, attention deficit and general brand-bashing. It’s a bad time to be a brand, nobody likes big brands anymore they’re just not fashionable. So how do the big names fight back and beat the brand-boycott? They get subversive, and suddenly nothing is what it seems and it gets a bit difficult to tell who’s selling what.
McDonalds has spent generations actively building one of the world’s most instantly recognizable brands. However, you wouldn’t know it by looking at the latest two McDonalds to open in Toyko. “Quarter Pounder” (pictured above) offers only two choices on the menu and there’s not a glimmer of golden arches.
Meanwhile another high street giant, Starbucks, is undergoing a process of complete brand-abandonment. The famous coffee shop is opening new stores that not only make no mention of their owners but also deliberately mock the much criticized faux-ambiance of traditional Starbucks shops.
It is hard to know what to make of these changes but one thing is for sure, ‘no brand’ is the new brand and its seems to be working.
Source: WebUrbanist
AUGUST 26th, 2009
Last Thursday we were lucky enough to be given a guided tour of BedZED by BioRegional co-founder Pooran Desai. BedZED is one of the UK’s most exciting and inspirational eco-developments that has successfully improved residents standard of living while reducing their impact on the planet. So take that Tony Blair, who recently declared it ‘completely unrealistic to say to people you can’t have a car, you can’t use a motorbike. It is just not going to happen’. At BedZED car usage has been reduced by 64% just through clever design and making sustainable choices easy and normal.
Designed by BioRegional and Bill Dunster architects ZEDfactory Ltd and developed by the Peabody Trust, Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) is the UK’s largest sustainable community with both residential and commercial spaces.
As we walked around the site Pooran explained how the various successes and failures of BedZED led to the development of the “One Planet Living” concept. Seven years on BedZED is a thriving eco-community where residents know on average 20 of their neighbours by name (as opposed to the national average of three!).
The One Planet Living principles have now been brought to life for the first time in a new development, OneBrighton, the UK’s first sustainable development on similar scale. Neo is working with Crest Nicholson BioRegional Quintain LLP to promote the commercial units available at OneBrighton. Watch this space for updates!
AUGUST 25th, 2009
We blogged about it a couple of weeks ago and last Friday we went to take part. So what is this flashmob business all about? Organised by environmental charity Thames21, the idea was simple: get a group of people together and clean the Thames foreshore at various locations. The section of the operation we were involved with ran between Putney Bridge and Wandsworth Bridge.
The whole project was part of the Cleaner Thames Challenge, which has been running for four years and is part of an ongoing drive by Thames21 to mobilise volunteers to clean up waterside grot-spots, remove graffiti and create new habitats for wildlife.
Although the day was slightly too well organised to have the true feel of a flashmob, it was still an enjoyable experience and all in all the morning was a success. It was great to be a part of such diverse mix of people teaming up to clear such a diverse range of rubbish - everything from buired tires to vacuum cleaners and even an electric wheelchair.
AUGUST 24th, 2009
“So many of the photographs I’d seen of polar bears failed to show the power of the animals or any sense of the harshness of the polar environment.”
It was this assumption which led Miguel Lasa to take this amazing shot of a Polar Bear silhouetted in the Polar sunrise. The photo went on to win the Visitor Choice award at the 2008 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.
The competition, which has been running for 45 years, showcases the very best in international nature photography. This year’s winners will be announced on the website on 22nd October and will be available to view at the Natural History Museum in an exhibition opening on the 23rd.
