In order to protect the trees and shrubs from damage in area parks, thousands of rabbits are culled in Stockholm neighborhoods every year.  Last year alone, nearly 6,000 rabbits were killed during the annual cull.  The rabbits are shot by specially hired people armed with a “special rifle.”   The rabbits are usually killed at the first crack of dawn, as they peek out of their rabbit holes. 

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A new study by nearly 30 of the world’s best scientists concludes that we have crossed three of the world’s nine thresholds. It is not only about climate change.

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In this current gold rush climate for green energy words such as “biggest” and “largest” get thrown around all the time in an effort to grab some headlines.  But this project in Sweden is big no matter how you parse it.

With 1,101 turbines it would be Europe’s biggest wind farm, and as organizers told the Norrbotten county board in the region where the project would be built, possibly the biggest in the world. It would cost 55 billion kronor or roughly $6.9 billion. It would be located in the northern part of Sweden, near Markbygden and occupy 175 square miles.

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A fleet of scientists, business leaders, and policy makers have convened at the 2008 World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden for the past week to exchange views on the world water crisis and promote initiatives to build a clean and healthy world.

Organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the conference this year focuses on sanitation and hygiene issues related to water, which compliments the United Nations’ 2008 International Year of Sanitation theme.

“Sanitation is one of the biggest scandals of all times,” Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who heads the UN Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, was quoted in an article by news agency Agence France-Presse. “It’s something that we have to put on our radar screen. Some 7,500 people die every day due to this lack of sanitation,” he added.

According to the UN, 2.6 billion people around the world lack access to adequate sanitation, while half the world’s population lacks access to clean water. Consequently, citizens in underdeveloped countries experience premature deaths, illness, a degradation of living quarters and damage to the environment and local economies at alarming rates. Combined with the effects of global warming and the world water crisis, this creates cause for alarm.

A goal of World Water Week is to encourage the 2,500 international conference attendees to strategize ways to advance best practices, scientific understanding, and policy making processes related to water, health, poverty, and the environment.

Using preventive medicine, building sustainable cities, changing human behaviors, and comprehending sanitation’s link to global warming are other items highlighted during the week.

Another honorable mention for WWW is its commitment to arranging an environmentally responsible conference; using less bottled water, promoting carbon off-setting, recycling, providing organic and fair trade food, and supporting eco-hotels are all part of the conference’s plan to bring the issues home.

More information on conference topics:
WWW press releases

Photo: Stockholm International Water Institute

It was only last year that I began to fully appreciate the concept of incidental heat gains within buildings - heat gained indirectly via a window facing the sun, the heat generated from electrical appliances and rather surprisingly, the heat generated from our own bodies.

I thought the latter would be insignificant. Not a bit of it.

In fact, whilst sitting down, we provide the same amount of heat as a 60 watt light bulb. This can increase to 250 watts depending on the type of exercise we are doing.

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