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A Better Beer Bottle Part 2: One Million Beer Bottles Used...
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Category Archives: International
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Adam Williams in Action & Activism 571 days ago
Project H has completed a Learning Landscape design, putting reclaimed tires to uses of exponential value: educating youth at the Kutamba School for AIDS Orphans in southern Uganda. The tires are used in various math lessons, teaching the kids addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. When the sandbox grid of tires is not being used for… Read More…
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Jennifer Lance in International 571 days ago
The UK imports cheap roses grown in Kenya for Valentine’s Day that are “bleeding that country dry,” says Dr. David Harper, an ecology and conservation biologist at the University of Leicester. Of particular concern is the region around Lake Naivasha, where cheap rose growers have no concern for the environment. Roses that come cheap are… Read More…
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On January 28, 2009, the Indonesian Ulemas Council issued a fatwa, a religious edict, forbidding all Muslims from practicing yoga that includes meditation and chanting. The council is not a government entity, but it receives funding from the Ministry of Religion. The fatwa is an attempt to influence morality in Indonesia, but yoga class attendance… Read More…
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New “secondary” forests are emerging in Latin America, Asia and other tropical regions rapidly as land that was once farmed is abandoned as people move into the cities. In fact, it is estimated that for every acre of rainforest that is cut down, 50 acres of forest is revitalized areas that were once farmed, logged,… Read More…
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Allison Boyer in International 589 days ago
One Japanese study shows that an eye-level poem on a poster in public bathroom cubicles can reduce the amount of toilet paper people use by up to 20%. From Reuters: “We asked ourselves what we could do for the environment in the toilet?” said Ryusuke Nagahara of the Japan Toilet Labo. “The answer is to… Read More…
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Using colorful sand from the Iranian southern island of Hormuz, 25 artists have created the world’s largest sand carpet. This 12000-square-meter carpet consists of 70 different colored sands and is truly amazing! Via: payvand Images: Iranian Students’ News Agency
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The Aral Sea is landlocked between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and it was once the world’s fourth largest inland sea. Due to Soviet irrigation projects, the Aral sea has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s. In 2007, the sea had shrunk to 10% of its original size, and what remains is heavily polluted from weapons testing,… Read More…
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Innowattech, a green energy technology company in Israel, is developing energy-generators for three main transportation methods: railroads, roads, and airport runways. The concept uses piezoelectric generators — Innowattech’s specialty — to transform kinetic energy from passing planes, trains and automobiles into electricity. From Innowattech: The system,based on a new breed of piezoelectric generators, harvests energy… Read More…
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The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Division keeps tabs on what it considers some of the planet’s most egregious foes — and it has recently released that most wanted list. John Karayannides (above) is one of a couple dozen offenders on the EPA’s list. Along with the headshots and descriptive information, the crimes are… Read More…
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Obama has promised massive public works projects to get Americans back to work, but if we look at the last six years, China has lead the way in sustainable public works programs (at least when it comes to transportation). Since 2002, China has built a new subway system each year. Sure, six subway systems may… Read More…
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Flood waters Venice, Italy reached a depth of 1.56 meters (5 ft, 1 in.) on Monday. This is the deepest flood in 22 years, and it is the fourth highest flood level in recent history. Is climate change affecting the frequency and depth of flooding in Venice? Via: Boston.com Images: ANDREA PATTARO/AFP PHOTO/AFP/Getty Images
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Seed banks help out farmers in times of natural disasters; however, the Global Crop Diversity Trust is preparing for such a disaster on a global scale. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault will store and preserve 4.5 million samples from other seed banks. The vault is located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. Conde Nast explains… Read More…
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On Wednesday, thousands of Macedonians planted six million trees to reforest their country. Buses took people, including 1000 soldiers, to planting sites. The tree planting project was organized by opera singer Boris Trajanov, “If Macedonia, a country of two million people, can plant six million trees, we can only imagine how many trees can be… Read More…
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The Sirius Star, an oil tanker with the capacity to carry two million barrels and longer than three football fields, was seized by Somali pirates off the coast of East Africa. This high tech tanker, staffed by only 25 crew members and owned by Saudi Aramco, was headed south toward the Cape of Good Hope… Read More…
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According to the the UN, the newest threat to the global environment is pollution affecting our food supply. Atmospheric brown clouds caused by pollution contribute to glacial melting and reduce sunlight that negatively impacts agricultural production. Extreme weather caused by global warming is also of concern for farmers. From Beijing to Cairo, dark clouds have… Read More…
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Improper disposal of medical scanners and industrial equipment has led to nuclear waste being included in consumer products made from recycled metal, such as beer kegs, cutlery, purses, sinks, and tools. Last year, the US customs rejected 64 shipments of radioactive goods from India and China. The French nuclear regulator found elevator buttons from India… Read More…
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In the sixties, Heineken created the beer bottle that could be used as a building brick. With similar inspiration, Buddhist monks have created the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple in the Sisaket province of Thailand from one million recycled beer bottles: Heineken bottles and Chang Beer bottles.
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Shirley Siluk Gregory in Climate Change 685 days ago
Climate change might be putting Australia in the throes of a long and devastating (and probably permanent) drought, but the “d” word is making farm families feel bad, government officials have decided. Their recommendation: use the word “dryness” instead. That’s right: it’s the word “drought” that’s so disturbing and not, say, oh, the acre upon… Read More…
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If an ordinary picture is worth a thousand words, an extraordinary one — like those chosen as finalists in the Prix Pictet sustainability-focused photo competition — should be worth even more. Better yet, their value should be measured in terms of the action they inspire to right wrongs. See if you find inspiration to act… Read More…
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Green Christmases could be coming soon to the U.K. The Daily Mail reports that climate change is causing oak trees to shed their leaves later and later each year … between Nov. 23 and Dec. 13, compared to between Nov. 4 and 21 in the ’30s and ’40s. “Environmental experts say it is only a… Read More…
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The world’s most ambitious “eco-city” has broke ground in the United Arab Emirates. Masdar City will be a zero-waste, zero-carbon community powered by renewable energy. All garbage will be recycled, and inhabitants will grow organic produce. The first residents, 100 alternative energy postgrads at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, who will move in… Read More…
