Archive for the ‘Gaia’ Category

Posted on August 27, 2010 - by Andrew

David’s bee beard

Here’s a good idea. The population of honey bees is dropping dangerously low so someone needs to petition governments to do something about it – even if that something is just investigating why this is happening. No one knows. It’s a mystery.

A website called Cameron’s Bee Beard has just been set up to let people add a virtual bee to the face of British Prime Minister David Cameron and build a petition. A petition composed of bee tweets! The actual petition will be on recycled paper when it’s presented to Number 10 but I’m sure the imagery will catch attention.

The site asks you to login to Twitter (using Oauth so it’s safe) and share your message. You can even follow the bee beard on Twitter at @davidsbeebeard.

In Pure Spirit

This blogger thinks this is a fantastic idea. Clever. Attention grabbing – without resorting to glueing yourself to the bank’s front desk – and productive. Will you be adding to David’s Bee Beard?

Posted on July 20, 2010 - by Andrew

Google signs green Power Purchase Agreement

Today has some good news for Mother Earth. Google, the search and ads site, has been trying to be carbon neutral since 2007. Today they’ve signed a big deal – a 20-year deal, in fact – on green Power Purchasing.

Come July 30th they’ll be buying clean energy from the wind farm at the NextEra Energy Resources Story County II facility. That’s 114 megawatts of clean energy. What Google has wisely done is agreed a 20 year price for that energy.

That long purchase means the developer has financial security. They’ll be getting cash from Google for 20 years. That’ll allow the developer to build more clean energy projects.

I’m sure Google won’t mind having to wonder what the energy price will be like in 20 years either – although, I very much doubt this windfarm deal covers anything even close to the energy Google consumes all around the world. Google says it’s enough energy to supply several of its data centres.

It’s worth noting that Google still buys carbon offsets, trying to account for those emissions they can’t find away to avoid. Carbon offsetting has become far less popular in recent years with companies like Responsible Travel suggesting it doesn’t work.

In Pure Spirit

Is this a good, green and clean move from Google? Or do you think there’s a small of PR about this? Can it be both at the same time? Let us know what you think.

Posted on June 16, 2010 - by Andrew

Destroying 7 million tons of glacier – and bragging about it

The current chairman of Current TV is a cool dude. He also happens to be the former President of the United States of American.

Al Glore has blogged about ( Huffington Post resurfaced it )  an old advert that Humble Oil ran in 1962.

It says;

Each day Humble supplies enough energy to melt 7 million tons of glacier

Damn you, Humble, damn you.

If you’re not familiar with the name Humble Oil it’s because they chaned it in 1970. They’ve called themselves Exxon Mobil ever since then.

In Pure Spirit

Do you think we should do – if anything – about the world’s oil companies? Some economists say they’re needed. The world would stop without them. But can the world cope with them?

Posted on May 25, 2010 - by Andrew

Selling your old o2 mobile phone

Prompted by Al Write Now I’ve had a quick look into which of the mobile operators let you sell your phone back to them.

Turns out o2 have the lead in this area and operate o2 Recycle. Now, o2 were the first network in the UK to be allowed to sell Apple’s famous iPhone. A glance at the site suggests you can sell your iPhone back to them for over £200. That’s pretty impressive. You don’t even have to be trying to sell your old o2 mobile phone as the site says they’ll accept phones from any networks and even gadgets like GPS systems.

I predict the other operators will get into this market pretty swiftly. In fact, they may already be here but haven’t grown their offering into anything I noticed. I also predict there will be more people looking to sell their o2 mobile phone as time goes on, as people become much more aware of this option – good for the environment and good for mobile adoption in the third world too.

In Pure Spirit

Have you used any of these mobile phone recycling options? Which would you recommend?

Posted on May 22, 2010 - by Andrew

21 cute pictures for International Biological Diversity Day

The 22 of May is the International Day for Biological Diversity (aka IDB). It’s supported and promoted by The United Nations.

The theme for the 2010 International Biological Diversity Day is “Biodiversity, Development and Poverty Alleviation” and we would like to support that by sharing 21 animal pictures.

In Pure Spirit’s IDB suggested mascot

International Biological Diversity Day Animal Gallery

In Pure Spirit

These pictures where taken from a LiveJournal community are are believed to be free for public use. If you disagree/have a royality claim and don’t wish your image to be used in supporting the International Day for Biological Diversity then get in touch.

If you are a supporter – why not comment below and share your own ideas on what we can do to help biological diversty.

Support: If you’re moved by this and want to do good then why not donate to the World Land Trust.

Posted on May 20, 2010 - by Andrew

After 300 years, the gray whale is back from the dead

Here’s some good news from earlier on this week. A gray whale has been sighted off the coast of Israel by Herzliya Marina.

This is good news because the gray whale was previously thought to be extinct across the Atlantic Ocean. It’s shocking but good to find one in the Mediterranean Sea!

The Grey Whale (aka Gray Whale) was believed to have died out in the North Atlantic as far back as the 17th of 18th Century – though no one’s really sure why.

The sighting by Israel Marine Mannal Research and Assistance Centre back at the start of May is good news but confusing.

Nicola Hodgins of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), which has its headquarters in Wiltshire, UK, was quoted in the BBC;

“Gray whales are well known for performing one of the world’s longest migrations, making a yearly round trip of 15,000-20,000 km,”

“Over a lifetime, a gray whale migrates the equivalent distance of a return trip to the moon.

“However, these new images show that this particular whale would have had to beat all previous distance records to end up where it has.”

In Pure Spirit

Do you have any theories to explain why we might have once again, after hundreds of years, at least one Grey Whale in the Med?

Posted on May 20, 2010 - by Andrew

The Gulf oil slick from space

NASA has published photos from its MODIS (ahem; that’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometre) from its Terra satellite of the Gulf of Mexico.

The strange arm like curl is nothing other than the BP disaster. The oil silk from the well.

These photos come to IPS via Tree Hugger and the excellent Michael Graham Richard. That’s why we see “Holy Crap!” added. That wasn’t NASA. Got to agree with Michael on this one.

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Posted on April 26, 2010 - by Andrew

Space Monkey: It’s not a planet, it’s our home

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Posted on March 10, 2010 - by Andrew

Middlemist’s Red rescued by Chiswick House restoration

There are only two surviving blooms of the rare camellia; one is in Waitangi, New Zealand, and the other one is in Chiswick House in London.

It is thought that Middlemist’s Red has been present in Chiswick conservatory since the early 19th century. The plant is believed to have come from China, brought to Britain by John Middlemist of Shepherd’s Bush.

The camellia is thought to have arrived in the UK just after 1823 – only a decade after the conservatory first opened in 1813. The conservatory has stood, but slowly run down, over the centuries. At one point the home actually served as a lunatic asylum. The conservatory was hit by an unexploded bomb during World War II; it survived but all the glass was broken.

The current restoration of the conservatory was cost more than £12 million and was co-managed between Chiswick House and Gardens Trust and the English Heritage.

In Pure Spirit

Are you pleased to see such a rare planet safe and sound in a newly restored, historic conservatory? Or is £12m too much for projects such as this?

Posted on February 3, 2010 - by Andrew

Rwanda’s Forest of Hope: Gishwati National Conservation Park

Officials in Rwanda have announced they will increase the size of Gishwati National Conversation Park from 3,018 acres to 3,665 acres. That’s an increase of about 21%.

This is good news as it’ll reclaim land lost to small-scale agriculture that once connected the forst from the banks of the Sebeya River. The newly extended park is being called the Forest of Hope.

Dr Beck, director of the Conservation Program at Gishwait, said;

The water quality of the Sebeya River is linked to the health of local people and the national economy…the Sebeya is not only an important source of drinking water for local residents but it also provides hydroelectric power and water for beverage production downstream.

Notable beneficiaries of the project will be a group of endangered chimpanzees. It’s expected that growing Gishwati will be a challenge but a worthwhile one. Beck added;

The reforestation of Kinyenkanda is a perfect example of win-win-win sustainable conservation. There are local and national economic benefits, the chimpanzees and other fauna will enjoy expanded habitat, and the environmental quality of the river and the atmosphere will be enhanced.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Is this really a win-win-win scenario or does have Rwanda have countless other things it should be doing first?