In recent posts on Planetsave and EcoWorldy about moratoria on soya and cattle products related to Amazon destruction, it was mentioned that McDonald’s is helping to save the Amazon. With the company also delving into green building, progressive energy saving software, and charging stations for electric vehicles, is McDonald’s a green company?
Technological innovations can solve some of the world’s biggest problems right? That’s what a firm of Chilean architects would like us to believe. They’ve come up with a creative idea for how land-locked Bolivia could regain access to the ocean. It was not too long ago, in 1883 to be exact, that Bolivia lost the little coastline it had in a war with Chile. Since it’s only be gone for a short time, now’s the perfect time to get it back!
It’s beginning to become a perennial question I ask myself when a celebrity goes on an environmentally-themed speaking tour or does something “green” I’m supposed to appreciate. Should I care?
This time, I woke up to read news about how today is the first day of Prince Charles’s South American environmental-themed tour. First country up: Chile. Among his activities he will participate in a round table discussion about global warming and also will attend a kick-off event for an energy efficiency campaign, all while along the side of conservation-credible Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. But the fun doesn’t end there.
I had the good fortune to recently visit the Southern hemisphere and explore a good portion of the country of Chile. And in whichever city or town I was in, handmade goods and local artisans and craftsmen were in abundance.
While on the island of Chiloé, the second largest island of Chile, the majority of the artisans sold hand knitted items and hand spun wool. I couldn’t have been more delighted!
Chiloé was a magical place for me, the views of the ocean and rolling farmland with happy and healthy looking cows and sheep and chickens, were such a pleasure to behold. The island holds much lore and is seeped in tradition, with hand spun wool being one of these traditions.
In exploring the markets filled with handmade goods, many of the women would sit and knit, creating their wares as people browsed. Or they would spin. Several had spinning wheels and would spin their wool into yarn, right then and there.
As quoted by Reuters, the principal scientist working on the study said the following: “In just one day, more than 1,000 individuals and possibly as many as 2,000 whales in eight separate pods — each one containing up to 400 mammals — were spotted over a 50-kilometre (31-mile) stretch of coast.”
Wow! Personally I think that this is a very exciting and cool discovery. The researchers also claim that the area is rich in other forms of ocean animals, like sharks and sea turtles. It highlights the need for greater protection of biodiverse ocean areas like these from unregulated fishing– a challenge given East Timor’s desire to develop their fishing industry.
As mentioned earlier, 2008 was a gigantic year for whale news. Here’s a roundup of some of the stories that were written about whales on EcoWorldly and on other sites in the Green Options network.
The Brazilian government has today signed a federal decree establishing the Brazilian Whale and Dolphin Sanctuary, which will drastically increase protection for all cetacean species along the country’s entire 5,000 mile long coast.
According to José Truda Palazzo, Jr., Brazilian Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission, “the initiative sends a clear and powerful message to the international community in relation to Brazil’s commitment towards whale conservation, and also reinforces our campaign for a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary to be established in the entire oceanic basin.”
Former playboy playmate Vanessa Carbone has staged an unconventional protest against Japanese whaling, by holding a naked demonstration outside the Japanese embassy in Santiago, Chile (pictures).
The Argentinian model was among a group of protesters demanding that the Chilean government create a whale sanctuary in the country’s territorial waters. Stripped down to nothing more than a skimpy thong, she unsurprisingly drew the most attention from passers-by.
This article is part of EcoWorldly’s week-long spotlight on Politicians You Can Believe In. To read more, subscribe to our RSS feed, or view our posts about politics.
On the previous day, she helped designate a new national park and also announced that six additional protected areas will be created in Chile next year.
She’s setting an excellent example for other world leaders on the conservation front.
An area in northern Chile has created a novel solution to their agricultural irrigation needs. Why not power water pumps with natural sunlight?
Four new solar powered irrigation systems were developed by a team consisting of Chile’s National Energy Commission along with Chile’s Agriculture Ministry and a regional government. Each system has a generator that can produce up to 500 Watts of energy. When there is not a need for irrigation, the energy produced by the solar power systems goes back into the general electricity grid.
According to the Associated Press, the government of Chile has chosen to build three new volcano monitoring centers. Several of the country’s 122 active volcanoes have erupted this year, the most notable event being a sustained eruption of the Chaitén Volcano that started on May 2nd.
After the initial volcanic activity began, approximately 4,500 people were evacuated from the town of Chaitén, which sits at the base of volcano. The eruption lasted through various levels of intensity through July, and several amazing, cool, and intriguing photos depict an electrical storm that occurred one evening directly above the volcano. Currently, a different eruption that commenced on July 2nd within the Llaima Volcano has other Chilean communities on alert.
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