Green Options

The European Union (EU) and MTV are working together to get young people involved in the climate debate. The major entities started their “Play to Stop – Europe for Climate” campaign this month. Working with international music artists and other international celebrities, this is a major campaign to mobilize the youth around the topic of climate change, and especially for the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December.

The campaign targets 11 EU countries — Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The campaign will involve celebrities from the various participating countries.

I’ve been living in Poland for ten months now. When I first got here, a few food ideas stood out to me that I thought were cool. After ten months, I have picked up a couple more as well. Hope you enjoy the food tips Poland has to share.

Ever wonder who leads the world in global warming emissions? And by how much? A report released this month by the New Zealand government gives us this information.

I have lived in Europe on two occasions now — for five months in the Netherlands (two years ago) and for ten months in Poland (currently). I have been green-minded since I was a young child, and knew that Europe did better on many green issues. Nonetheless, to come here and live here has given me more insight on the perspectives of the people and more of a practical understanding of why Europe fairs so much better than the US on many environmental issues.

Recently, I came up with a list of seven things that really stand out to me as good environmental practices in Europe that could be transferred to the US. These could all be adopted in the US, but some are more personal in nature and some are more systematic. Furthermore, some of the personal ones regard large, life decisions, and some are much simpler in nature and easier to implement into your life now.

Of course, Europe is not one country and things vary from country to country. Nonetheless, there are also several similarities across borders. I have friends in other countries and have traveled a bit as well, so I hope to be sharing the best of the best.

Here’s the list!

Divisions within the EU have led to an agreement which ignores Carbon Dioxide as a pollutant and allows member nations to delay implementation of stricter emission standards.

With other countries failing to show any commitment to either contribute to the climate fund or reduce carbon emissions, the European Union has backed out from its plan to release billions for the climate fund.

As I mentioned earlier this week, Greenpeace will be holding rallies in 30 cities across America. Here in San Francisco, they will be showing off a 30 x 50 ft. banner (pictured here) in front the Golden Gate Bridge. Check back here at 1pm PST to see photos from the event.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland is ground zero for world leaders looking to take the next steps in tackling global warming. The international conference is aimed at negotiating a new agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, and to be finalized in Copenhagen in December of 2009.

To celebrate the record-breaking environmental achievement, the driver arrived at the World Climate Change Conference in Poland and plowed through a wall of Styrofoam, releasing some of the only harmful emissions on the car’s 32,000-mile trip.

Louis Palmer, 36, drove the “solar taxi” through 38 countries, picking up celebrities and global officials for short legs along the way. Palmer says his passengers included U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Monaco’s Prince Albert, Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron, and Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

The UN Climate Conference in Poznan, Poland, starting today is raising hopes and fears across the green spectrum. As reported in the Christian Science Monitor.

A year-long push to devise a new global climate-change treaty – one that picks up where the Kyoto Protocol leaves off – gets under way Monday in Poland, with delegates from more than 190 nations set to resume grappling with the thorny issues of how much more to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and who will pay.

The talks, in their first round, are focused on reducing human influence on climate from occurring, according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). More or less, this means keeping global warming to about 2 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels by the end of the century. Expectations however are low for this meeting.

President-Elect Obama’s pledge to reduce greenhouse gases to pre 1990 levels in the next 12 years notwithstanding, this group has a lot of challenges ahead. This first round of talks is primarily to develop working groups to tackle the various issues surrounding climate change in both developed and developing countries. But, with the global economic crisis on everyone’s mind, it will be hard to keep the conversation on track and work toward lower carbon emissions.

And while they are working to devise ways to reduce carbon emissions, they’ll create quite a few. AFP reports:

Change, it is what we are all promoting in this field.

We identified that we are on a crash course in life, the life of future generations, others, all of the species that are suffering due to our inconsiderate and consumptive ways, and the natural environment as we know it and as it has come to be after a slow, lengthy process of evolution. Now, we are trying to change course, we are trying to change.

What is this change we are seeking, and how do we achieve it?

We are seeking a fundamental change in the larger effect we (as a society and as a species) are having on the earth. We are seeking this in many ways, but one great opportunity in seeking this broader change is to change our own needs, our own desires, our own habits and lifestyles. When is this a greater possibility than when we are going through tremendous life changes anyway. With change comes the opportunity for greater change. We decide to go into the basement to get something out of a box, and we end up finding all kinds of things we can toss forever or use or give away.