Whether you’re traveling to Italy or trying to reduce waste, you’ll benefit from knowing that Italians don’t do takeout.
Styrofoam containers do not biodegrade well; plus they come from petrolium-based chemical feedstocks. They’re just plain bad for the Earth and they’re not great for your food either.
I lived in Italy for more than a year. Once, some American friends told me of their attempts to get spaghetti to go. The waiter had looked confused, so they mimed out “bag” and “box.” The waiter smiled weakly, nodded and took their plates to the kitchen. After a minute he returned and, thinking these people were crazy, handed them their spaghetti in a plastic shopping bag. Read the rest of this entry »
The German intellectual, Georg Lichtenberg, once said that “to do just the opposite is also a form of imitation,” but reversing Saint Nicholas’ image is certainly not the most sincere way to flatter it.
What’s the truth about Santa Claus? Who is this large, jovial fellow with flying reindeer and hordes of merry elves? If the truth about Saint Nicholas can lay the commercial icon to rest, maybe it can also restore the true meaning of Christmas as a time of peace on Earth, love and goodwill toward all.
Santa as a commercial icon undercuts the ideology of benevolence and humble giving. See this video on the chain of consumption for an idea of who gets left out when Santa goes corporate. A truer idea of the real Saint Nicholas and his current image around the world might reconnect us with the greater feelings of compassion and caring that should symbolize this (and every) season. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever thought of dressing green along with living green? Organic clothing is a new option for wearing your favorite t-shirts without harming the environment and your skin. A typical conventional cotton t-shirt uses about 150 grams of acutely toxic pesticides and insecticides; that’s the size of a cup of sugar. Indigo clothing, a UK based company, offers a variety of organic t-shirts, v-nekcs, polo shirts and jerseys from “a number of brands, who manufacture promotional clothing and work wear with a difference; clothing that is made to exacting standards using quality organic cotton.” According to the company, “that means that you have purer, cleaner fabric and a comfortable, durable, well-finished garment.”
Check out their organic clothing product page here but before that, have a look on the story of organic cotton and how organic farming methods benefit farmers and their communities.
Disclaimer: I am not by any means associated or affiliated with Indigo Clothing
It’s summer in the Antarctic Ocean and many whale species have migrated to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, an important feeding ground. One would think that in an internationally recognized sanctuary at the ends of the Earth, these whales would be safe from the boating, fish netting, noise pollution, and other man-made hazards.
However, Japanese whaling fleets have already left harbor to hunt the whales for meat in this sanctuary as they have done increasingly since 1997 in defiance of international bans on whaling.
Each year, Japanese whalers slaughter more and more whales. This year, the Japanese whaling industry has vowed to kill the greatest number of whales yet, about 1000 in all. These numbers will be made up of near-threatened Minke whales and 50 endangered Fin whales.
But this year, they will not be alone on the rough seas against the Japanese whalers. Australia’s new government is joining Greenpeace in saying “enough is enough.” As Josh Hill writes, this pressure is already beginning to bear fruits. Japan has agreed to suspend–at least for the moment—its plans to kill an additional 50 threatened humpback whales.
Australia is sending ships usually reserved for tracking down marine poachers to monitor the whaling vessels. That’s not all. There will also be eyes in the sky as an Australian surveillance plane record the whaler’s every action from above. This is all just part of a larger effort that Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, hopes will help put an end to Japan’s horrible whale hunt once and for all.
In a day and age where many of us see the planet spiraling further and further in to an orgy of environmental devastation, it comes as a surprise to see a ray of light shining through. Granted, I may be on the pessimistic side of things, in fact, past evidence will prove such a point. But the point remains, we simply don’t get enough environmental wins.
So when I saw that Japan had been considering backing down from killing the humpback whales, and subsequently doing so, I was flabbergasted.
Never have I been so interested in Australian news. I do not like the news, as it is a harsh and unpleasant reminder of the crap world in which I live. (I’m really not a very sunny person.) But whenever I would hear our newsreaders mentioning something about the Japanese whale hunt, I would rush in to the room and watch.
A man calling himself Spiderman has been arrested for apparently wasting police time.
He climbed 100m up the side of a building without the aid of any safety gear in a bid to raise awareness about climate change. Read the rest of this entry »
It took developers almost 20 years since the “Wind of Change”, a 1990 power ballad written by Klaus Meine, vocalist of Scorpions, to come up with maglev wind turbines. The new type of wind turbine uses full-permanent magnets to eliminate friction and claims to be 1000x more efficient than the windmill next door. The new wind turbines can produce electricity with wind speed as low as 5Km/h or 3 miles per hour. The technology is scalable and can be used to build turbines in capacities from 400 to 5,000 watts with 500 years life span and lower cost than today’s windmills.
Sounds too good to be true, but it looks like the Chinese power company Zhongke Hengyuan Energy Technology is currently building a $5 million factory to produce those maglev wind turbines and save humanity from thousands tons of CO2.
What’s it like helping to clean up after the single worst ecological disaster in a nation’s history? Ecolocalizer went to the Taean Peninsula–the site of South Korea’s recent oil spill–to lend a hand and find out.
There is, perhaps, the sense in the West that Asian countries are less concerned about the environment. Ten years ago, this may have been true. However, ask one of the tens of thousands of Korean volunteers who have come to help clean up the massive 10-million liter (2.6m gallon) oil spill off the West Coast of their country, and you’ll hear another story.
Jun Ho Kim, a university student and volunteer at the oil cleanup, says, “All of the Korean people think about the environment. People used to think that development was best; they only thought about development. Their consciousness has changed. Their concept about the world has changed. Read the rest of this entry »
We send out fishermen in all weathers to the North Sea – a brutal piece of water that is freezing and ravaged by storms – and we demand they come back with nets heaving with our favourite fish.
Cod.
To supply our favourite dish. Cod and chips.
It’s time for a rethink. We’re gorging on creatures that can’t breed fast enough to keep up with governmental ineptitude.
Fish stocks around the British Isles are approaching extinction. European Union (EU) legislation is crazy. Read the rest of this entry »
Think globally, act locally has been a mantra for the environmental movement for decades. At EcoLocalizer, you can find local news and information about citizens, organizations and businesses that are taking positive green steps forward in their neighborhoods and communities.
Whether you’re traveling to Italy or trying to reduce waste, you’ll benefit from knowing that Italians don’t do takeout.
