By Lucille Chi •
January 17, 2010
What? An International Eco Fashion Marathon
Where? Magazin in der Heeresbäckerei, Köpenickerstr. 16/17, 10997 Berlin Germany
When? January 20-23, 2010 Press: from 12am - 9pm
Open to the public: from 12am - 7pm
Website? http://thekey.to
What else? They offer workshops too. Details on the next page.
Our wonderful fellow writer Frans Prins writes in today for all our Berlin readers:
“You might have heard of our event THEKEY.TO, the new international event for green fashion and sustainable lifestyle in Berlin, taking place the coming week from 20th to 23rd of January 2010 during the Berlin Fashion Week. We are presenting a selection of over 50 gorgeous green fashion designers all in a Berlin-like artistic atmosphere, with sustainable architecture and a boosting workshop & party program.
I would be delighted if you would spread the word about our amazing project! Off course you are very welcome to come over and visit us. More info you can find on our website: http://thekey.to.
I am looking forward hearing from you and thank you for your support!
All the best, Frans”
This event represents the first in the city of Berlin that is exclusively focused on sustainable fashion. Read on for details.
For the first time in decades, a controversial wolf hunt is underway in Sweden. The Swedish Environment Protection Agency approved the limited cull of 27 wolves, or about 10 percent of the Swedish wolf population. In October, the Swedish parliament voted to limit the wolf population to 210 animals for the next five years.
By Dave Harcourt •
December 27, 2009
The Fur Seal - victim of possibly the most emotive culling.
A recent post on the culling of rabbits on Robin Island, prompted a quick look at news items on culling over the last month. This revealed a variety of motivations for culling, very different numbers culled and a range in the opposition to the culls. The culling of a quarter of a million dairy cows in an attempt to raise milk prices with almost no protest is the outlier in the group.
40,000 Domestic Goats and Sheep in Netherlands
The Dutch government is culling 40,000 goats and sheep this month in an attempt to limit the spread of Q fever, an animal-borne disease that can cause flu-like symptoms in people. It is believed that Q fever has caused six human deaths in the Netherlands in 2009.
For the first time in 45 years, a wolf hunt is expected to take place in Sweden. In October, the Swedish parliament made the decision to limit the wolf population to 210 animals and will issue hunting permits in areas where the wolves have reproduced in the past three years.
A trek across a frozen lake proved to be a deadly journey for hundreds of reindeer last week. Sami herders in Sweden were leading 3,000 reindeer to “greener pastures” across a frequently-traveled route during their annual migration to their winter grazing grounds when tragedy struck.
By Zachary Shahan •
November 13, 2009
A new report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), attempts to bring to the world’s attention the truly great economic value of ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as the benefits of taking these into account when making policies.
The value of the world’s natural ecosystems and biodiversity is something lacking in most economic analyses. Lack of value for what is truly priceless doesn’t just hurt the environment, however. It is also a sort of economic suicide. This new report, hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme and supported by key EU, UK, German, Swedish, Dutch, and Norwegian bodies, attempts to bring all of this to our attention more and show some positive case studies of how taking the environment into consideration can actually save us money.
As the report says: “the failure of markets to adequately consider the value of ecosystem services is of concern not only to environment, development and climate change ministries but also to finance, economics and business ministries.”
By Nick Chambers •
September 11, 2009
A group of researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden have discovered that a particular type of algae — with a bad reputation for causing damaging algal blooms in oceans throughout the world — produces a substance that can be used to make inexpensive, non-toxic, simple-to-build, flexible, thin and durable batteries that, after optimization, are expected to perform on par with today’s most advanced lithium-ion batteries.
The key to the discovery lies in the way in which the algae, Cladophora, produce a unique type of cellulose with a very large surface area (approximately 80 square meters of surface area per gram of material).
By coating this algal cellulose material with a thin layer of a well-known, conductive polymer, called polypyrrole (PPy), the team has “succeeded in producing a battery that weighs almost nothing and that has set new charge-time and capacity records for polymer-cellulose-based [non-metallic] batteries,” according to Gustav Nyström, a doctoral student in nanotechnology and one of the main researchers.
Officials in Sweden have introduced a shoot to kill and cull campaign in an effort to reduce the amount of vehicle accidents and damage to forests due to the growing number of moose in the country. 42 people have been killed and almost 2,000 people have been injured in road collisions involving moose over the past five years.
By Zachary Shahan •
August 25, 2009
World Water Week (August 16-22) brought some interesting information and important research findings to the world. We got a peek at the true water usage of developed countries, we identified some critical concerns for Indians and all of us who rely in Indian products, we learned more about water usage for beer, we saw the installation of the first commercial-scale hydrokinetic power plant in the US, and more. The following is a wrap-up of some key topics from the World Water Week Conference in Sweden.
The Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec), a subsidiary of ECOtality, Inc. and Nissan North America win a $99.8M grant from the Department of Energy to support the largest deployment of electrical vehicles (EVs) and charging infrastructure in U.S. history.
The project will use Nissan’s LEAF, an early stage zero-emission EV to study and develop the logistics and necessary scale behind the implementation of a national charging infrastructure, that will in turn, support large-scale EV deployment. Initial stages of the project include the deployment of 5,000 EVs and EV charging stations in Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. Don Karner, President of eTec, sums up the industry e-coup:
By studying lessons learned from electric vehicle operations and the infrastructure supporting these first 5,000 vehicles, the Project enables the streamlined deployment of the next 5,000,000 electric vehicles…Nissan and over 40 government and industry partners, will enable this Project to successfully pave the way for electric transportation nationwide.
