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?

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Japan has been whaling illegally for several years, despite the International Whaling Commission’s global ban on whaling since 1986. While South Korea has more or less adhered to the whaling ban, they now would like to do it again.

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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.

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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.

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Australian and East Timorese researchers say that while conducting research, they “found” an amazing whale “hotspot” off of East Timor’s coast.

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.

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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.”

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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.

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Having initially proposed to make Chile’s offshore waters a whale sanctuary earlier this year, on Wednesday President Michelle Bachelet officially signed the whaling ban into law.

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.

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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.

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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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“We have the obligation to lead the renewable energies development here in Chile. Currently we own 50 percent of the electric market and we want to keep this number also for the renewable energies,” said Rafel Mateo, the Chilean manager from Endesa. Endesa Chile, an Endesa Spain subsidiary, will invest 40 million dollars in the first solar power plant in Chile.

The chosen location for the plant is the northern part of Chile, possibly Tarapacá or Antofagasta. The northside of Chile is warm and desert, with sunlight almost all year long. Those attributes make the place ideal for a solar energy plant.

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In an effort to build consensus, the chair person of the conference urged for there to be little debate and no voting at the meeting this year. The goal is to “pay it forward,” and use any additional good will that is created this year at next year’s meeting with the hope that more can be accomplished. Many environmentalists find the chairman’s plan to be intolerable, as they claim that Japan is using “scientific research” as an excuse to hunt approximately 1,000 whales each year. But Japan isn’t the only country ignoring a 1986 ban on commercial whaling that was agreed upon by the commission.

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This picture was taken 50 miles up a desert canyon in the middle of nowhere in the Chilean Andes, underscoring that when there’s a will, there’s a way.

I’m writing this in a city in United States where it’s difficult to recycle paper. In the town where I went to high school, you still can’t even recycle glass.

Photo Credit: Clayton B. Cornell. One of the first signs of human habitation after an 11-day mountain trek, just outside the ‘town’ of Conay, Chile.