Written by Gavin Hudson
Published on January 24th, 2008
Laos sits at #1 on the New York Time’s list of places to go in 2008. According to the Times, it’s a country where “ancient sites like the Wat Phou temple complex and the capital city of Vientiane are drawing culture seekers.”
Loas also offers exciting opportunities for seekers of eco-adventure. If your travels bring you this way, seek out The Gibbon Experience.
The Gibbon Experience is trying to bring sustainable self-sufficiency to local people in the Bokeo Nature Reserve. The vision is “to transform their economy from one based on slash-and-burn farming, logging and poaching, to one based on long term, conservation focused activity.”
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Written by Mark Seall
Published on January 23rd, 2008
Nestled within the heart of the Swiss Alps, the ski slopes of Davos are unusually quiet this week as the mountain resort plays host to over 6,000 CEOs, presidents, prime ministers, media representatives and rock stars attending the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
As forum participants breath the fresh mountain air and marvel at today’s particularly sunny blue skies, the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy together with the Earth Institute at Columbia University have released their 2008 Environmental Performance Index. The report fittingly awards their Swiss hosts top place amongst 149 other countries based on 25 indicators of pollution control and natural resource management.
Switzerland takes the number one spot ahead of Sweden, Norway and Finland having performed particularly strongly in the areas of environmental conservation and renewable energy. The report shows a general correlation between national wealth, sound environmental management and positive human health scores. European nations perform particularly well amongst the developed world.
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Written by Gavin Hudson
Published on January 23rd, 2008
In December, Samsung was responsible for the worst oil spill in Korea’s history, a spill about 45 times larger that the recent spill in California. The oil caused widespread economic devastation up and down the coast and affected some of the most delicate marine ecosystems in the Yellow Sea. Still, nearly two months later, the electronics giant remains silent on its role in the spill, hoping, maybe, to sidestep its financial responsibility for the spill.
Last weekend, fish sellers affected by Korea’s massive oil spill held a protest calling for financial support as they try to recover their livelihoods. The protest turned tragic when one protester committed suicide by lighting himself on fire to demonstrate the severity of the troubles caused by the spill. His was the third such suicide since the spill.
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Written by Joshua S Hill
Published on January 23rd, 2008
For those of you like me – with a sizeable Star Trek/Sci-Fi fetish – then this news is going to make your heart leap. The world’s first zero-carbon city will begin construction soon in the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi, starting in February.
Named Masdar City, the city will be able to house 50,000 people and will run entirely on renewable energy. This will include using solar power to its limits in the sun drenched desert. “This is a place that has no carbon footprint and will not hurt the planet in any way,” Khaled Awad, director of the Masdar project’s property development unit of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), told AFP. “At the same time the city will offer the highest quality of life possible for its residents.”
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Written by Pem Charnley
Published on January 21st, 2008
It’s a topic that, by its very nature, provokes a passionate response.
Should population growth be curbed?
Immediately, we are faced with important moral, ethical and religious quandaries.
I write this in the light of a piece that appeared in the UK’s Observer. In it, John Gray, a political philosopher, states:
The uncomfortable fact, which is ignored or denied by both ends of the environmental debate, is that an energy-intensive lifestyle of the kind enjoyed in the rich parts of the world cannot be extended to a human population of nine or 10 billion, the level forecast in UN studies for the middle of this century.
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Written by Joshua S Hill
Published on January 21st, 2008
Japanese whaling efforts have created a sour spot in many mouths whenever the Japanese are brought up in conversation. No doubt an overgeneralization is not fair upon the entire country, but human nature will not be denied. Unluckily for us all, we are now presented with the “Land of the Rising Sun” making steps forward in wind generated power.
Japan is already home to several land-based wind-farms, generating power for 35,000 homes, in the case of the Nunobiki Plateau Wind Farm north of Tokyo. But so far the renewable energy generation is yet to make a dent in their Kyoto Protocol obligations.
So that is why Japan, following after Europe – the world leader in wind power – is looking to the ocean. Japan is beginning to plan a series of offshore wind farms, that will be able to tap in to the powerful winds of the Pacific Ocean.
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Written by Stefanos Kofopoulos
Published on January 20th, 2008
In a collaborative effort for public environmental awareness, electronics giant Philips and news station SKAI are giving away 50.000 compact fluorescent lamps in Greece. When compared to incandescent lamps of the same luminous flux, CFLs use less energy and have a longer rated life, saving thousands of tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
On January 26th, Philips and SKAI representatives will be giving away CLFs in the city of Athens, Piraeus, Marousi, Thessaloni and Ptolemaida. A week after, on February 2nd free CLFs will be given away in the city of Ag. Paraskevi, Koridallos, Kallithea, Ilioupoli, Patra and Aliveri.
The momentum of the effort is so great that the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs decided to mimic the initiative and suggested [.doc] the nation wide replacement of all incandescent lamps found in schools with CLFs. Feedback from the general public is also positive but some people are concerned about the mercury in CFLs.
Disclaimer: I work for SKAI Radio 100,3
Written by Gavin Hudson
Published on January 20th, 2008
Like the U.S., South Korea has seen a massive popular shift of focus toward health and the environment. The word that sums up this generation’s mentality best: “wellbeing” (with an e).
What is wellbeing? Outside of norebang (Korean kareoke) and polar bear hats, it’s just about the biggest trend to hit South Korea. Since 2000, it’s helped Koreans to stop smoking, buy organic foods, and get back to nature.
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Written by Whitney Hannaford
Published on January 19th, 2008
If the foot feels the foot when it feels the ground, as the Buddha said, then does the hand feel the hand when it feels a tree?
Due to commercial and illegal logging, the rate of deforestation in Thailand has been one of the highest in Asia.
Most of the primary forest in Thailand is gone, with secondary forest only covering roughly 20% of the land area. This is compared to over 70% forest cover prior to World War II.
As Perry Garfinkel states in Buddha or Bust: “The environmental impact [of this deforestation] is inestimable—from silting that kills fish and leaves riverbeds dry, to the loss of nesting and feeding for birds and other wildlife.”
Enter the forest monks of Thailand, who have come to be known as environmental or, “Ecology Monks.”
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Written by Pem Charnley
Published on January 19th, 2008
Over the past few years, the UK has enjoyed the dubious pleasure of having its terrestrial TV channels jammed with celebrity chefs.
Turn on the TV and you’ll see one of them drizzling olive oil over some preposterous dish hardly suitable for a family of four on a tight budget.
But recently, there’s been a refreshingly unsavoury turnaround.
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