I’m doing what I can to help the environment. I started a compost pile. It’s in the back seat of my car. - Janine DiTullioкомпютри втора употреба
I don’t subscribe to a newspaper, but I just might so I can recycle and save a tree. - Paula Poundstone
Do you ever wonder where all the farts go? They go up into the atmosphere, and they form the fart zone. It’s right above the ozone layer, and that’s why we have to protect the ozone layer! - Steve Martin
I’m glad there’s a big hole in the ozone, because you can get a tan in a split second. -Joe Keyes
коли под наемThese quotes were found in, The Comedy Thesaurus, by Judy Brown.
It was one of those moments as we stood in the taxi line from the train station in Barcelona, Spain. Two 45+ year old Spanish woman blowing smoke directly at the back of our heads as I turned around and thought…wow…now that’s green!
So they are kicking the environmental action into high-gear over in this part of the world. Unlike many countries instead of heavy advertising…they are using a more active approach instigated by the Government.
Last Saturday, the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) was celebrated in many cities around the world. This event was created to promote cycling as a real alternative to cars. As they claim “shifting on a carfree lifestyle is one of the most powerful things a person can do to make a real difference in reducing negative environmental impacts on this planet”. And there is no better way to get attention than demonstrating nude. So - solely in the interest of our readers - AutoblogGreen went down to where the riders were gathered in Plaça Universitat, in downtown Barcelona, and took a picture for our readers. The ride finished at Sant Sebastià beach, where there’s a nude beach (it’s claimed that Barcelona has the only nude urban beaches in the world).
The organizers, who used the internet to gather participants, said that this event had to be like this to raise awareness on how unprotected is the human body against the domination of cars in our cities. They also claim that it shouldn’t be considered indecent: car pollution is real indecency.
Nevertheless, promoting the use of cycling is a very good thing and this event is really a festive way to promote it.
[Warning: Read link contains nudity, if there was any doubt]
If you are one of those “I hate math peeps” then you have some sweating to look forward to…with the Carbon Footprinting knocking on your door like the “Green Tax Man”. Get out your carbon calculators unless your like the newest genius kids from China. This article was taken from another company looking to capitalize on the new industry of Carbon Offsetting…read below.
On another note: Watch this 3 year old girl solve Rubik’s Cube in 114 seconds. Our future.
Neutralize Your Pollution
Before you buy, calculate
How does it work?
Even if you have already reduced your driving and electricity use, there’s more you can do. You can neutralize the rest of your pollution—through offsets. When you buy offsets, you essentially pay someone to reduce or remove global warming pollution in your name.
For example, when you buy 10 tons of carbon offsets, the seller guarantees that 10 fewer tons of global warming pollution go into the atmosphere. While the pollution you produce yourself is the same, you get the credit for that 10-ton reduction.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for balance. I took gymnastics in preschool. I carefully ballet stepped across that tall beam while figuring that if I leaned too much right or left that I would end up on my head. Now as an adult the balance beam has become managing time, the PH levels in my body, and the amount food intake to stay fit. So, It makes perfect sense that innovators would create a positive way to balance the negative effects on the earth’s atmosphere with ‘Carbon Offsetting’ as the new axis.
First I must say…I’m guilty. I used a lot of Aqua Net hairspray throughout my teen years to get that Farrah Fawcett hair style to stay in place while doing a herky as I cheered on the football players, and recently, I did not click ‘Yes’ to ‘Carbon Offset’ my already pricey flight on the British Airways website. It’s not that I don’t care about the environment, but I am still trying to get over why it’s standard to tip the Starbuck’s lady to wring up my order. So let’s get to the point. It’s still this notion of paying extra to “feel green” that doesn’t resonate through my intellect. So how does it work? Am I suppose to keep emitting by traveling and pay extra money and then give myself a pin with a green smiley face to put on my jacket that says, I Am Environmentally Conscious? This is going to take some getting use to and a little research to find out exactly how that works, who is benefiting, and how much of the percentage of guilt I can wipe out from this newly proposed balancing act. Read the rest of this entry »
What is this magnet that pulls foreigners from their native countries, leaving their homes behind, painting pictures of money as they reach for this elusive ideal they call the ‘American Dream’. They arrive on new soil and find they have to work hard to survive. No one hands them a wad of cash as they cross the border. They can’t mail order a new business, and they don’t always fit in so they congregate to areas where their native people have begun to pave the way. Years go by and they find themselves working long hours to make ends meet and one day they look in the mirror and say aloud, “Is this the American Dream?” Okay. So it’s quite possible this example is a little outdated, but not unrealistic for many of the early emigrants coming into North America around the late 19th century on. They came into this country seeking ideals, fleeing their lands for a better way of life and hoping to own their own business. Some whole heartedly jumped into a ‘new way of life’, while others were not able to change their mental molding and found themselves displaced…working in coal mines and steel mills. Although they found religious freedom, they couldn’t shake what had seeped into their consciousness. They never could embrace that dream. It is this concept that has me convinced that ‘The American Dream’ is a state of mind. This brings me to the present.
In my recent stay in Barcelona, Spain, I was able to examine the undercurrent of a political history of Dictatorship. It started with my desire to understand how these Spaniards could party so much and for so long! Every other day is a fiesta, they begin their dinner at 10pm and all ages stay out until 4-8am the next morning. I had to ask, “what’s going on here?” It was then I began to learn that this all started as a survival mechanism in response to the Spanish civil war that broke out in 1936. It left many poor, repressed and afraid. To pass the time they congregated in the streets and partied their way through the misery. I realized that I would probably do the same. Many children were taught “do what your told”, “get a government job”, “and keep quiet”. I had forgotten that this country and many others were babies in democracy, and that I, as an American, was not born with these constraints or fears. For early America was founded on ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’. Read the rest of this entry »
Living in Barcelona one must cover a large portion of the city to find those hidden veggie, organic, and health joints. It seems that the movement to organics is taking the slow approach in most of the Barrios throughout the city with the exception of El Raval. With Restaurants such as Organics, and BioCenter at the forefront. It just being born here and I imagine in another 5 years…the biological (as Spain calls it) will spread its wings into more and more of the neighboring Barrios. In the meantime…El Raval described by Nei Sowerby in www.manchesteronline.com:
Welcome to the Raval district - Boho to the core, seedy cool. It grew up around a cluster of medieval convents. Raval comes from the Arabic for a place where animals lie down to rest.
In the 19th century it was a place of sweatshops and hard living. At its heart, once, was the Barrio Chino (sailors’ Chinatown), a haunt of renegades and whores, absinthe dives and vice dens, which made the upright citizens of La Gracia, at the top of the Ramblas, shudder in their shiny boots.
Today organic cafés, fusion food, independent couturiers, artists and the like are taking over Raval’s grey tenements, the catalyst being MACBA, the museum of modern art, that was plonked in the northern half of the district. (view more by clicking link above)
It must be the newest trend for good looking male celebrities: green construction…and why not? Most grounded men that enter that successful peak in their life want to do something creative, and challenging. Build a hotel. A neighborhood. Seems that Leo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt have their minds in this direction.
Leo has plans to open a new eco-hotel in the Caribbean. DiCaprio already owns some jungle land in Belize and has allegedly struck a deal with the Four Seasons Group to build a green hotel there.
Okay. When I see articles like this one reporting the new legislation for Carbon Footprinting…I think…New Jobs. New Opportunities. So, if you are thinking the same thing then jump into the mix of newbies with understanding this Carbon stuff and make yourself valuable.
The world will need you and pay you for their needs. Its not just in Europe…its happening all over…but here is an example of the competitive edge: check out www.procarton.com. They are a company trying to convince the world that their product will be the best for carbon counting and packaging…social responsibility. They are going the miles to track carbon and this is exactly what I am talking about. NEW OPPORTUNITIES.
A picture of their socially responsible packaging taken from their site.
Article from www.procarton.com
European Policy & Legislation
LIFE CYCLE - Carbon Footprint
BACKGROUND
Although there is no agreed definition of a Carbon Footprint, several Carbon Footprints initiatives have been publicised recently, including:
- On 18 June 2007, the European Parliament’s Bureau decided to commission a carbon footprint study.
- UK Carbon Trust and British Standards Institute to develop a Publicly Available Standard for greenhouse gas emissions in products and services by the end of 2008.
In France, Ademe to develop a methodology of evaluation on the carbon footprint of plant, company or product .
- Retail companies (such as Tesco, Carrefour,Walmart Packaging Scorecard) publicised requirements about the carbon footprint of some products and their packaging
- NGO’s e.g.WWF, developing calculation methods to measure carbon footprint.
The development of Carbon Footprints is in its early stages and there are both disadvantages and advantages. For example:
Disadvantage: the carbon footprint could become a basis for future taxation and labelling systems.
Advantage: the carbon footprint of products and their packaging could become a means of differentiation on the market
