By Gavin Hudson •
April 27, 2008
Following, organized by region, are the top international environmental news for during the week of April 20 - 27. See an archive of top international environmental news here.
Asia
Working the land the natural way: Organic farming in China
It’s been almost four years since the project was launched, and of the nine households who have tried organic farming, only four are still at it. The others decided it just wasn’t worth it. Organic farming requires much more labor, the yield can be half or less of that of conventional farming, and besides, hardly anyone in Chengdu is eating organic. Our stock broker-turned-farmer estimates their customer base to be only 0.01% of Chengdu’s population.
Anlong farmer Gao Shengjian believes there’s a link between the use of pesticides and fertilizers on farms and the growing incidences of various diseases among the rural population.
Source: Crossroads China. Vote for this article in social media: StumbleUpon.
China down to 12 days worth of coal
China only has enough coal for 12 days of consumption, three days less than a month ago, state media reported Wednesday, sounding the alarm bells over the nation’s most important source of energy.
The paperless office idea emerged along with the personal computer, its premise being that someday in the future, we will no longer need to use paper because everything will be in a digital format. While the truly paperless office may still be a myth and a seemingly impossible goal, it is still something we can move towards in our business operations. Paper and paperboard products constitute the largest portion of our waste stream, so reducing our paper use and recycling paper materials has a lot of potential to reduce the waste flowing into landfills and save trees at the same time.
While planning my business, I have been trying to find a few ways I can be a nearly paperless operation. I already send digital PDF files for invoices, agreements, and proofs rather than sending my clients paper documents. I use digital signatures for contracts, communicate via e-mail or phone, and avoid printing anything that I don’t absolutely need to. Still, my office is hardly paperless and there’s a lot more I plan to do as I formalize my practices and launch my business. Below are some suggestions for going paperless.
When I sat down with Enterprise Rent-a-Car’s VP of Corporate Responsibility and Communications Pat Farrell, and Christine Conrad, VP of Public Relations, in January, both spent a fair amount of time talking about the company’s large fleet of greener vehicles: hybrids, flex-fuel vehicles, and higher-mileage cars. As a couple of commenters noted on those posts, though, finding the greener car you want may be a challenge. Enterprise’s Dan Miller, general manager for Atlanta, also heard these concerns from their customers (particularly corporate accounts), so he decided to do something about it. Now, Atlanta residents wanting to rent either a hybrid or higher-mileage (28 mpg or higher) vehicle from the company know where to go: one of the area’s four “green” branches.
Each of these branches carries stocks about 100 cars, and about 60% of the vehicles at each branch consist of greener vehicles. In a short call last week, Pat (and colleague Lisa Martini) told me that these branches are not focusing on flex-fuel vehicles, as the fueling infrastructure in Atlanta doesn’t support their widespread use. He also noted that Miller’s decision was based on “the need for green in Atlanta” because of the high amounts of traffic congestion, as well as customer demand for the vehicles. He stressed throughout the call, though, that this was a “grassroots” decision: Enterprise sees itself as a “confederation of local operations (owner Andy Taylor’s phrase), and Miller’s decision reflects any local managers ability to manage his/her fleet to meet local needs. He expects that other regional managers will be watching developments in Atlanta closely.
By Gavin Hudson •
April 13, 2008
Top international environmental news for during the week of April 6 - 13:
Europe — World’s first commercial tidal turbine installed (EcoGeek)
“The world’s first commercial tidal turbine has been installed in its home in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough.
Though it has yet to be turned on, it will be the first commercial power-producing tidal generator when it is (sometime later this year). The turbine has two 16 meter-wide rotors and will be able to run for 18-20 hours a day. The turbine was installed off the coast in an area known for fast moving waters, and because the rotors will only spin 10-20 times in a minute, it is unlikely to disturb marine life.”
Source: EcoGeek. Hot in media: Digg EcoGeek, Digg TimesOnline.
Africa — Tree-Nation (Tree-Nation)
“Tree-Nation is an ecological project with a focused objective: To plant 8 million trees in Niger, Africa to fight desertification! Large-scale plantation of trees will increase the land’s productivity and re-generate the soil.
Farmers in Northern Queensland, Australia, are investigating another approach to producing renewable fuel: growing diesel trees. As weird as that sounds, it’s real, and it isn’t a scientific breakthrough. We’ve actually known about the trees for over 300 years.
As Treehugger reported earlier this week, farmers in the more tropical region Queensland purchased about 20,000 Brazilian diesel trees, or Copaifera langsdorfii, with the intention of having a living oil-mine in 15 years. According to Purdue University, a 100 acre plot of trees could produce about 25 barrels of oil per year.
By Gavin Hudson •
March 30, 2008
The top 10 headlines in international environmental news for the week of March 24 - 30.
1. World — Earth Hour 2008
As the clock struck eight in the evening, people across each time zone turned off their lights on March 29. It’s activism en mass and it’s called Earth Hour. The purpose: to inspire people to take action on climate change and to demonstrate that massive and immediate action is possible.
Earth Hour began as a city-wide voluntary blackout in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. This year, they’ve moved the date ahead two days and invited the world to join in. Even Google’s joined in. People from roughly 35 countries participated in this global event, which has become a yearly call to action. Read more: EcoWorldy, CNN.
2. Asia — Japanese Man Crosses Pacific with Wave-Powered Boat
A Japanese man named Kenichi Horie is attempting to be environmentally friendly by boating across the Pacific without sails and without fossil fuels.
How does he do it? With a wave-powered boat. Wave power has been discussed quite a bit recently, with a lot of applications including traditional grid energy generation. However, Kenichi is taking things to the next level by powering his ocean going vehicle with the very thing it bobs atop. Read more: Gas 2.0.
Baltimore’s Parks & People Foundation is offering a special kind of tree sale this spring aimed at boosting the region’s tree cover quickly.
The foundation teamed up with RPM Ecosystems, a wholesale native plant nursery in Dryden, New York, to sell year-old trees grown with a root production method (RPM) that helps them grow three times faster than normal … meaning they can sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere three times faster than conventional young trees.
Editor’s note: Last week, our friends at Eco-Libris announced this partnership with Kedzie Press. Congratulations to them… this is a great step forward for Eco-Libris, Kedzie, and the environment. This post, written by Raz Godelnik, was originally published on Tuesday, February 12, 2008.
We’re very happy to update you with a new partnership - Kedzie Press, an independent publishing house based in Seattle, Washington is collaborating with Eco-Libris in a new initiative called Million Tree-A-Thon.
The goal: planting one million trees for one million books to be sold by Kedzie Press until the end of 2009.
Kedzie Press is already a green publisher — it publishes books with socially conscious and or environmentally-friendly messages, as well as the occasional work of fiction. It strives to help its readers lead better lives and all of our titles are printed on 100% recycled, 100% post-consumer waste paper (FSC certified), and processed chlorine free. It means that by pledging to plant one tree for every book sold, Kedzie Press actually maximizes the positive impact it already has on the environment.
By Martín Cagliani •
February 16, 2008
If you follow me, I’ll take you on an eco-trip around the world, visiting the most beautiful green places of our living planet Earth. The idea is to know the forests and trees that we want to save when we fight for an eco-friendly world to live on.
The first eco-place, will be the National Park Los Alerces in Argentina. You can find it at Chubut province, in the Argentinian Patagonia. It has some of the most beautiful biodiversity in the world, with a wide and rare vegetable variety.
Six lakes are nestled in there. The Lake Futalaufquen, flows to Lake Verde and Menéndez by the Arrayanes river, and Lake Verde flows to Lake Rivadavia by the deep green Rivadavia river.
Plaintiff: a Sunnyvale, California, man with solar panels on his roof; defendants: his environmentalist neighbors and their redwood trees. Verdict: a judge finds the couple in violation of California’s Solar Shade Control Act and orders them to cut down two trees that are keeping the solar panels shaded.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
By Gavin Hudson •
January 16, 2008
Biotech company, ArborGen, is taking steps to eliminate the demand for rainforest logging. The plan: cultivate a half-dozen fast-growing, genetically modified tree species that can be harvested and sold for lumber cheaper than trees from the rainforest. The cost: a smooth $120,000 USD per square mile. The downside: it won’t change clear cutting for farming.
