Green Options

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Like other wonders of the modern world, these amazing green wonders are places you must see before you die. These structures are unique in the world for their brilliantly creative methods of melding aesthetic beauty, functional design and environmental sustainability.

Built in Darmstadt, Germany, this structure is called Waldspirale or “Forest Spiral.” It was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a celebrated Austrian architect and painter. Planted along the 12 floors of the rising roof are beech, maple, and lime trees. The structure even incorporates a running stream. The building comprises 105 apartments. In the tower on the Southeast corner, a restaurant and cocktail bar rises over the entire structure. Source: Wissenschaftsstadt Darmstadt.

Nestled in Pembrokeshire, in Southwest Wales, this structure is truly an eco-dream home. It was built about three years ago by a single family and their friends over the course of four months. The family estimates that it took about 1,000 to 1,500 hours of work and cost only about £ 3,000. It was constructed mostly out of logs, straw and mud, which acts as an effective insulator. According to the house’s inhabitants, the home “feels gentle. Feels to me more like being part of the (natural) world, less like a commodity in a box.” Source: Simondale.

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.

Editor’s note: While I highlighted the group sessions and activities in my coverage of the Symi Symposium in Paros, Greece, last month, I also had the great pleasure of meeting a number of people engaged in important and interesting work on environmental protection and restoration. One of those individuals was Gerd Leipold, the executive director of Greenpeace International. Gerd and I were originally going to do a

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Under pressure to meet Kyoto Protocol targets and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, several ministries in the Japanese government have issued a report recommending increasing ethanol production from domestic biomass resources.

The report advises boosting ethanol made from wood waste and mass-produced grains to account for 38 million barrels, or about 6 percent of Japan’s annual gasoline consumption.

Currently Japan produces very little ethanol on its own and is heavily dependent on imported gasoline.

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