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
