By Ryel Kestano on August 31st, 2009
New Zealand has long been associated with the eco-travel movement, having implemented a number of eco-friendly practices in their tourist industry over the course of many years. Just about any outdoor activity can be enjoyed in an eco-friendly manner, from whale watching and bird watching to trekking, biking, and caving. There are hundreds of New Zealand guide and outfitting companies that specialize in eco-tourism; most of them care deeply about sustaining their local habitats and work with both local and national conservation organizations to promote sustainability.
Black Cat Cruises, an established marine tourism guide company in Lyttelton and Akaroa, is a great example of how conscientious many New Zealand guide companies can be. They use new and efficient engines and energy efficient lighting for their fleet, plan routes that travel the least distance, train all their staff in environmental awareness, and employ locals to reduce commuting times (among a host of other eco-friendly steps that can be found here).
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By Simon Leufstedt on March 11th, 2009
Mayors from 400 cities around Europe have signed the Covenant of Mayors agreement and promised to go beyond EU’s 20% by 2020 energy and climate goals.
The whole idea with the Covenant of Mayors pact is to “go beyond” EU’s 20% greenhouse gas emission cuts and 20% renewable energy by 2020. The German city Hamburg plans to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2020. Paris on the other hand says it hopes to reduce emissions by 25 percent over the same period.
EU’s Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said the plan, which will affect 80 million Europeans, is equivalent to reforest each year a surface larger than the whole of Hungary, or taking out from the streets more than 35 million cars or closing down 20 coal-fired 50MW power plants. At a conservative estimation the plan will save around €8 billion ($10.4 billion) in energy costs every year.
“Most of the energy produced in Europe is consumed in urban areas. The battle against climate change will have to fought and won in the cities. This is why, the commitment shown by Mayors across Europe by signing the Covenant of Mayors send us a strong message of hope, particularly in the difficult times that we are facing “, said Commissioner Piebalgs.
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By Dr Gideon Polya on June 14th, 2008
The image shows the old Cahokia Power Plant in Sauget, IL which has been decommissioned for 31 years. Photo:
Jay DuggerTop British climate scientist Professor James Lovelock FRS has warned that over 6 billion people will die this century due to unaddressed climate change. Already 16 million people die avoidably in the world each year due to deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease (see: “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007). It is already clear from declining agricultural production due to drought and massive storm surge disasters in India, Bangladesh, Burma and the US that global warming is already impacting on global avoidable mortality.
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By Simon Leufstedt on January 8th, 2008
Here is a rather old, but good, documentary about Greenpeace’s famous Rainbow Warrior.
The documentary tells the story about the very first Rainbow Warrior who were sunk by the French foreign intelligence agency (DGSE) while docked in Auckland harbour, New Zealand, on 10 July 1985.
Video after the jump. (more…)
By Simon Leufstedt on November 21st, 2007
Japan’s whaling fleet has once again sets sail for Antarctic, on a mission to brutally slaughter whales. Let’s call it what it’s actually is and not “scientific research”, like Japan calls it.
But this time it’s a little different. This year they have decided to go big and brutally murder around 1000 whales. That’s the largest whaling mission Japan has ever done. Included in that amount are 50 humpback whales. That means that Japan will break a 44-year ban on hunting humpback whales.
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