The Chinese government has left no stone unturned to control pollution in their capital city in the wake of the Olympic Games. The skyline is accentuated by a hazy smog that just refuses to lift as more and more foreign journalists pour into the 2008 Olympic city. In fact, the government is so worried about the whole thing that measures which should be invoked only in ‘extremely unfavourable weather conditions’ were posted on the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection Website on Thursday. And this crusade against pollution was started on 1st July with a ban on 300,000 high polluting vehicles. Soon driving and traffic restrictions were imposed removing almost two million vehicles in the city.

Looks like the stereotypical preventive measure are not enough for the Chinese government as they have also come up with innovative traffic restrictions. Apparently, odd number (licence plate) vehicles can hit roads on odd days and even number vehicles on even days. More than 105 heavy polluting factories too were padlocked. The sky gods seem to be ppreciating the Chinese effort to bring down pollution with the approaching rains. Environmental officers claim that pollution has dropped by 20 percent due to all these efforts. However, the foreign journalists beg to differ.

Via greendiary

Makeup is an essential part of our lives today. When we wake up exhausted or hung over from a late night party, we all reach out for the bottles of colour and sprays on our dressing table to make oneself look good. But at what cost do these little extravagances of good life come from? C’mon none of us wants to enjoy something that may impact our health as well as that of our planet. Come to think of it, aren’t the two one and the same!

It is a good thing that the beauty industry has taken its fare share of responsibility to prevent the environment from further damage. Providing fashionable yet less-toxic makeup has become a popular trend with all major brands. But Kaia House, Futurenatural and Beautorium lead the pack. We have already seen how consumer pressure can encourage companies to consider the impact of their products. But there are professional makeup artists whose say also influences rest of the pack. The owner and founder of Futurenatural Emma Pezzack claims that the days of organic and natural makeup being hippy-dippy are long past. There are now plenty of products that are as amazing as conventional stuff. And to create awareness about the same she is having talks with Sarah Brown at Vogue, as well as editors at Body and Soul and Lucky.

Via Eco-chick

Environmentalists the world over are perturbed over the breaking of a large ice shelf extending to about 8 square miles from the 150 square miles large Ward Hunt area in Canada. The cracks in Ward Hunt indicate chances of more breakage following later this year. One can imagine the catastrophe in store for the earth’s inhabitants as this 3000 years old mass broke up and began slowly drifting into the Arctic Ocean. Findings indicate that temperatures in the Arctic have risen faster than the global average in recent decades. Yep, the root cause is global warming. Very few of us know that the rise in temperature of the earth over the last 100 years has not been duplicated over a history of 650000 years. And the first to melt because of the heat are the ice caps causing a rise in the water level. Apparently, every year we are crossing new thresholds in environmental change which will lead to huge repercussions in the near future.

And people were carefree thinking that melting of the mammoth sized chunks would take ages but the Canada episode of ice suddenly slipping into the oceans has shaken those myths. Probability of sudden avalanches and submerging of icebergs have increased tremendously that will eventually devour cities altogether.

Via GreenDiary

What happens when we do not switch off that light in the room before leaving it? Or when we cook elaborate meals on pans and not the pressure cooker? Or even when we go to meet a couple of friends on an evening out with each of us going the same way from the same place in different cars? Does it really matter if we let the water running while we are doing the dishes; it only makes it easier, doesn’t it? Well, while all these things make life easier for us, what we are implicitly doing is literally murdering our children. It might sound a little radical but come to think about it, if there is no earth to live on, no food to eat, no air to breathe, is there really any chance for the future generations? What seems trivial now has grave consequences if we, the most advanced species on the planet, the one that’s been blessed with intellect and wisdom; do not look at the bigger picture. With the polar ice melting faster than we speak, what are the most definitive ramifications of global warming? Let me put it in simple words. The ice is melting and in a couple of decades it would be nonexistent. Hundreds of thousands of species co-existing in that ecosphere would perish which would inadvertently mean a huge chaos in the food chain. These species have already started to show disturbing behavioral changes. Without the ice, the layer of coolness, so to speak, would cease to be and that would mean that the earth would be warmer. Think of the bread that you eat every day. Wheat production relies heavily on that layer of coolness. Connect the dots. Do the math. You remember hurricane Katrina. Think of the damage cause due to hurricane Katrina and multiply it with thousand and that would give you a conservative figure of damage cause when cities after cities will drown. Irony of it all, water everywhere and yet not enough.

What needs to be done? We need to use that wisdom and listen to the inner voice every time we do something that we know to be harmful for our planet. Turn off that power switch, rethink that car-pool, turn off the tap, and plant that extra tree. There’s so much more that needs to be done. Don’t you think that what would have happened if the billions of dollars spent in creating bombs and other weapons of mass destruction were spent on taking definitive measures to counter global warming? We need to make a choice. We can either chose to live or chose to perish.

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It is not a small feat that in a country where majority of the population is obese and suffering from one or more diseases linked to unhealthy life style like diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension etc., California became the first state to ditch trans-fats, well, to some extent. Much to the discontent of the restaurateurs all across the state, Governor Schwarzeneggar passed a law that bans restaurants and retail food establishments to use food products and raw materials containing trans-fats. Despite the ire of the California Restaurant Association, what comes as a pleasant surprise is that the bill has been taken in the right spirit by the Californians.

Although the bill seems like the proverbial tip of the iceberg, but it’ll have a huge impact on the health of citizens in the long run. Healthy life style begins with the healthy eating practices. Considering that California shells out a whopping $21.7 billion a year on obesity problems, this bill will not only improve the general public health but its consequences can be felt even in the economy. Such radical steps need to be taken in order to make amends to the damage already done as well as rid future generations of the ill effects of poor lifestyle choices.

via Source

(Ilya Katz, Israel,Photograph: Ilya Katz)
What does cartoonists & cartoons have to do with issues like global warming, climate change, floods, deforestation, carbon emissions, air pollution, salting of lakes etc.? (The list is quite long actually!). Most of us might dismiss the idea of laughing over grave issues mentioned above which are rapidly taking human lives around the globe. But the fact is cartoons can do something which huge texts and sermons (read lectures) on global warming or climate change can’t do! That’s “Awareness” in a bitter-sweet manner, a sarcasm which will force you to smile but think upon the situation as well. The work of around 150 artists from more than 50 countries makes it all clear and concrete at the competition organized by The Ken Sprague Fund.

(First prize: Coat Star, by Mikhail Zlatovsky, Russia,Photograph: Mikhail Zlatovsky)

Here’s what John Green, secretary of the fund has to say over cartoons on climate change: “Cartoons can reach parts that other arguments can’t. We have been inundated with doom-laden predictions and scientific facts on the inevitability of global warming, but here we can exorcise our fears. Powerful, uncompromising and uncomfortable images bring home to us what it will really mean - not a Costa del Sol on the Welsh coast and palm trees in the garden, but desertification, hunger and poverty.”

(Second place: Butterflies, by Constantin Ciosu, Romania,Photograph: Constantin Ciosu)

(Third place: The Hand, by Tawan Chuntraskawvong,Thailand,Photograph: Tawan Chuntraskawvong)

In other words, the cartoons that won accolades at the fund’s competition are tour de force if you have the eye for art and creativity laced with concern!

(Blind date, Stefano Gamboni,Italy,Photograph: Stefano Gamboni)

The first, second and third prizes were given to entries from Russia, Romania and
Thailand respectively. Those of you who think that cartooning is as easy is ordering a pizza over phone must realize these winners have been in this field for years which reflects in their posters as bitingly satirical, preposterously funny, acrid or even fatalistic take on grave eco-concerns of 21st century.

(Cartumagua, by Aluir Amancia, Brazil,Photograph: Aluir Amancia)

via: guardian

Gardening connects us with nature and brings us joy & peace which many people would vouch for. Taking you a step further in your eco concerns & gardening skills, comes this simple yet beautiful eco-designer Torre plant pot from Zurich-based Postfossil Design Collective. Designed especially for indoor gardening, this lovely pot grows with your potted plants thereby giving them full freedom to evolve their roots below soil and flourish lavishly above earth.

This becomes possible as a result of a flexible design comprising individual ceramic rings. As the user attaches these new elements (filled with fresh earth), it effectively cuts back the user’s painful task to re-pot their actively developing seedlings and saplings!

Torre is the brainchild of designer Annina Gaehwiler and is available through her website. It comes in 3 varieties: Terracotta, White and Black; each in a choice of finishing: Smooth, Lined or Raw. She designed Torre in a manner that each ring element comes in two different radii for bigger and smaller plants. Besides, there’s no limitation to the kind of plants you want to pot in case you thought Torre is fit for only straight shooting stems! Go ahead and experiment with sprawling and hanging plants. Torre is equivalent to Flexibility + Sustainability!

Via: postfossil

Scientists and environmentalists from world over have expressed their concerns over the far-reaching devastating effects of rapid destruction and drying of wetlands.
Gathered at the 8th INTECOL International Wetlands Conference (Cuiaba, Brazil), some 700 experts from 28 nations believe that quickly drying up wetlands invariably lead to climate change via global warming.
Wetlands store a vast amount of carbon (in form of CO2). Their complete destruction will lead to massive release of this stored up CO2 into atmosphere, thereby heating it up. Besides, carbon dioxide other greenhouse gases like methane (more potent than the former) will also be released which will further strain our Earth’s atmosphere.

It is interesting to note that, wetlands (including peat bogs, swamps, river deltas, marshes, mangroves, tundra, lagoons and river floodplains cover only 6% of Earth’s land surface. But, they store upto 20% of its terrestrial carbon! According to an estimate these waterlogged areas contain nearly 771 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases (this is equivalent to present-day carbon levels found in atmosphere).

To understand the graveness of the concerns voiced by these scientists it is very important that we all should know how wetlands play an important part in maintaining ecological balance on our planet. The peat bogs of Siberia, North America and Scandinavia contain a third of all carbon in the world’s soils.
Besides soaking up carbon,

• Wetlands slow the decay of organic material trapped and locked away over the ages in low oxygen conditions.
• They support biodiversity in form of unique water ecosystems.
• Wetlands act as reservoirs of water supply.
• They can soak-up flood water.
• Wetlands filter nitrate and phosphate runoff from surrounding land.

Studies reveal that 60% of wetlands worldwide and up to 90% in Europe have been destroyed in the past 100 years by human activities like drainage for agriculture, construction of dams& canals, groundwater pumping, urban development, peat extraction and other activities that are polluting by nature.

At this international gathering of scientist, this grave situation will be dealt with in terms of solution-generation that can be suitably adapted by the governing bodies of the world in order to stabilize the condition of wetland decay. Wetland preservation and their rehabilitation represent viable measures, which should be immediately applied to check the rampant destruction and drying up of world’s swamps.

Source: sciencedaily

The summers of New York City are becoming hot with the scorching art pieces displayed at The New Museum of Contemporary Arts. The latter these days, houses a provocative and environmentally charged exhibition-”After Nature” show (named so after W.G. Sebald’s visionary book with the same title).

This exhibition displays the thoughtful and creative work of twenty-six multigenerational artists, filmmakers, writers and outsiders. Many of these workers are showcasing their work for the first time in an American museum. The exhibits are lined-up on the museum’s three floors.

The paintings from these distinguished artists draw their inspiration from heterogeneous sources. They seem to unfold before or eyes like a brilliantly written taut novel and with force capture our attention for their ‘raw’ appeal.

The press release sums it up as “a story of abandonment, regression, and rapture”. The paintings being an “epic of humanity coming apart under the pressure of obscure forces and not-so-distant environmental disasters”.

 This eco-feverish exhibition (organized by Massimiliano Gioni) is a must see for its communion of artists like Werner Herzog, Zoe Leonard, William Christenberry, Roberto Cuoghi, Erik van Lieshout, Diego Perrone, Thomas Schütte, Dana Schutz, Tino Sehgal, August Strindberg, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, and Nathalie Djurberg to name a few.

Source: newmuseum

Knut mania if here to stay! Celebrity polar bear cub Knut has become a pop-star in his own ways. The cuddly cub was born in captivity at the Zoologischer Garten Berlin aka Berlin Zoo. The media-savvy bear cub now gets its own music video! Being a popular tourist attraction and a craze among millions of school children makes him hot enough to get listed as an iconic animal who receives human adoration in form of an exclusive music video.

The cub also happens to be the latest symbol of climate change and global warming concerns. Single handedly, this furry creature has made Berlin Zoo a must see among international tourists thus bringing in the largest number of visitors to the zoo premises ever in its 100+ year old existence!

If you haven’t viewed Knut’s music video so far then you are surely lacking something in your life! And for those of us wanting enough but for whom a visit to Berlin Zoo is like a pie in the sky, this video is just the thing to be watched, enjoyed and grooved at! Halo Knut, Kleiner Eisbär.
Knut, Kleiner Eisbär: Knut\’s own German music Video!

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