How Good Eating Habits Can Save Our Environment

While browsing the website,i have found the article about saving the environment by good eating habit. Honestly, this issue never pop out in my mind, maybe because it was really too simple to my mind, so that i never realised about the consequences of our eating habits to our environment.But when we look it deeply, yes, we can save our environment by practice good eating habits. Make a good decisions about what we eat has both positive effect on the environment and also our health.Lets check this out!

1. Buying locally grown produce

Saving the environment by watching what you eat? Yes. Many people do not realize what an impact their food choices have on the environment. Something as simple as buying locally grown produce can reduce truck emissions, put more money into the locally economy, and have a positive health impact for those that consume the produce.

2. Purchasing meat that is hormone free

This is another effective way of saving the environment. Cattle and pigs that are injected with hormones pollute the water supply which can lead to health problems. A recent study revealed that children are reaching puberty at a much younger age and it can be directly attributed to the increase in hormones from the food they consume.

3. Buying fruits and vegetables that were grown without the use of pesticides or growth chemicals

It is also a good step towards saving the environment. While it is true that farmers may have a reduction in their crops when they do not use pesticides, the damage these chemicals cause is reason enough to accept this minor reduction. Anyone that is older than 20 years old can remember DDT and the problems this pesticide caused the environment and the people that consumed the foods sprayed with the chemical.

4. Select grocery stores that purchase locally as well as ones that practice power saving techniques

A new trend in stores has been lights that only come on in the frozen isle when a motion detector detects someone walking past. These simple measures can mean a lot to the consumer as well as the area the grocery store is in. Stores that take the initiative to be environmentally conscious develop a strong customer base.

5. Handle your food properly

Storing food correctly in your home will reduce waste and this waste reduction will ease the burden on farmers and suppliers. As the burden is eased, the impact on the environment is also eased.

Saving the environment does not have to be a radical, life changing experience. It can be done simply and without notice, by changing your purchasing and consumption habits. And in this case, changing your bad eating habit to a good eating habit looks like one of the easiest ways to save the environment.These fresher foods will taste better as well as reduce your impact on the world around you. Creating a healthier lifestyle for yourself as well as a sustainable future is a good step towards saving the environment.

Palm Oil Dilemma

Palm oil, one of the world’s leading agricultural commodities, is widely used as a food ingredient and cooking oil. As the world is looking for fossil fuel alternatives, palm oil fits the “green oil” perfectly as biofuel. But how “green” is actually palm oil industry has to the environment? Further reading has lead to discovery on few environemtal studies on the palm oil “green fuel” impact to the environment.

The palm oil industry is forecast to be the world’s most produced and internationally traded edible oil by 2012. Our country Malaysia and neighbour Indonesia account for 83 percent of production and 89 percent of global exports (but ironically, at least once a year we will have cooking oil supply shortage). Oil palm is grown as an industrial plantation crop, often (especially in Indonesia) on newly cleared rainforest or peat-swamp forests rather than on already degraded land or disused agricultural land. Since the 1970s, the area planted with oil palm in Indonesia has grown over 30-fold to almost 12,000 square miles. While in our mother land, the area devoted to oil palm has increased 12-fold to 13,500 square miles. That is 11 percent of the total land area (about 62 percent of the total agricultural land). Companies sometimes profit from selling logs from the rainforest and then burn the area to make way for oil palms (this is when we have our annual haze episodes).

A study had reported that associated with the destruction of enormous tracts of tropical rainforest, are some of the world’s longest lists of threatened wildlife. Of the more than 400 land mammal species of Indonesia, 15 are critically endangered and another 125 threatened. Of Malaysia’s nearly 300 land mammal species, 6 are critically endangered and 41 threatened. The numbers of threatened species climb higher when terrestrial reptiles, amphibians, and birds are included. Among the these animals are the Sumatran tiger, Orangutans (the only great apes that exist outside of Africa), Asian elephant and the Sumatran rhinoceros. The associated road-building, soil erosion, air and water pollution, and chemical contamination also have contributed to the loss of wildlife habitat and the displacement of indigenous peoples.

Looking at these facts, i realised that being a consumer, i had (in a way) contributed to these unfortunate situation. By buying products that uses palm oil (almost all of it), i had generated more market and demand. But do i really have alternatives? Products that is really “eco friendly” can be not so friendly to my wallet instead. So in the end, its back to square one. In the name of rights for development and poverty, major companies ravages our forest and ecosystem for their own profit and growth while we busy thinking ways how to be eco friendly in a cheap way.

Here is a video from Greenpeace for some insights about the palm oil industry impact to the environment. Cheers

Eco-friendly City

Ecological friendly (or ecologically-friendly) refers to activities or products that are not harmful or affecting the environmental quality. This concept also known as ecologically and environmentally friendly. Using the same definition, an eco-friendly city is the city that is designed and built properly for the activities carried out in the city will minimize waste generation and not affecting the quality of the environment.
Now, there are initiatives around the globe to build an eco-friendly city. This includes the construction of a new eco-friendly city and improves the existing situations to be more ecologically friendly.
In designing and building a city that is ecologically friendly, there are several components which should be considered:
Minimal environmental pollution
- Air pollution can be reduced by reducing road congestion and increasing use of high technology in manufacturing factories.
- Water pollution can be prevented by locating waste-generating activities far from water sources.
- Noise pollution can be reduced by taking steps such as planting more trees and provide the sound barrier in the area.
Solid waste management
- Good solid waste management should be implemented, this includes reducing the generation of solid waste and increase recycling of waste materials. Waste disposal sites should be designed and placed in suitable locations for hazardous waste, to prevent the soil and underground water resources contamination.
Efficient transport system
- Traffic congestion is among the highest contributors to pollution in the cities. Therefore, the efficient transport system should be provided in the urban areas in which the priority is given to public transport over private transport.
Sustainable energy use
- Buildings should be designed in a way that electrical energy usage can be reduced. For example, the use of automatic lights, increasing the flow of natural air to reduce the reliance on air-conditioning system and the use of diesel to generate power board from sunlight.
Provision of green spaces
- Preparation of green areas such as landscaping parks and street for screening purposes pollution, improve local climate and as the recreational areas in the city.

Primate- Human Conflicts

Crop raiding by wildlife is neither a new phenomenon nor a rare one. Crop raiding is one of the primates-human conflicts happened in Malaysia. Not only Malaysia, the crop raiding problem happened throughout the world.
In Malaysia, the primate conflict had reached the climax which they had tried several of mechanism to move out the wild macaque to another place. The primates will create lots of disturbance to residents. But in fact, No one are allowed to trap or export the primates unless succeed in getting permission from the Malaysia Department of Wildlife and National Park.

Many might get curious why “they” are so successful in the crop raiding? Why??
a)Intelligence
Primates are being recognized as being highly intelligent animals. Their intelligence helps them to overcome deterrents such as fences, scarecrows. They have ability to quickly learn new behaviors to reach success of their crop raiding activities.
b) Adaptability
Primates can be quickly adapted to new circumstances and environments. In areas under serious ecological change and habitat modifications, many herbivores are unable to adapt and eventually they are disappear. Primates are among the most adaptable of all animals and a few species.
c) Complex social organization
Primates often live in large groups with an extensive of co-operation behavior. This gives them an advantage when crop raiding as they can work together to maximize their gain.
d)Protected by wildlife laws
Traditionally farmers would have set snares and cage traps to capture crop-raiding primates, and would also have hunted in their fields. But now, with wildlife laws and hunting prohibitions protecting many primate species these control methods are no longer available to farmers.

From human perspective, primary conflict start with non human primate arises from agriculture field. In many parts of the tropical world, humans rely on garden plots to satisfy their basic nutritional needs. When their garden raided to other non human primate habitats, which can become an easy and favored food source for the monkey and apes, they will have some trouble. In Asia, both macaque monkeys and leaf monkeys normally raid human gardens. In some areas of central and western Africa chimpanzees and gorilla have using human crops as food sources. Changing with the human social, economic, political and associated with deforestation result in nonhuman primates coming into increasingly regular contact with humans.

But problem having now, there are many primates in the danger zone, headed for extinction, known as critically endangered species!! Of the 394 primate species in the world, 114 are classified as threatened due to habitat destructed, trade in live animals or their body parts, and the sale of their meat for human consumption. In the Unites State and Europe medical research relies heavily on the use of nonhuman primates as test subjects. The research crab-eating macaques, pig-tailed macaques marmosets, squirrel monkeys and tamarins are the common used in researcher at all in the U.S. As a food source, it is not uncommon for nonhuman primates the bush meat, which known as meat of wild animals for sale at markets in Africa. In Asia, and South America, nonhuman primate meat is less likely to be sold in markets, but it is quite likely to be a part of dweller meals.

How do we solve this problem for sustainability live between primates and human? I think we have to carefully evaluate park boundaries to minimized primate human conflict. In order to reduce such conflicts, it is critical that in some regions, detailed studies of primate community’s home ranges, ecology and diet are carried out before establishing boundaries of new reserves of national parks. It will provide essential refuges for the population of primates and assurance for their future and present conservation. And what do u think?

Solar Cooker

New way for cooking food is through this new explored technology. By using 'fuel' from the sunlight and by promoting using the solar cooker, it help to slow of deforestation and desertification by less use of coal or methane as fuel for cooking. Quite interesting when no cost incurred and in Malaysia, we have enough source over the year just by 'harvesting' the sunlight out of your home. New cost-free method that absolutely need to implement in our home!

Belows are some info on type of current solar cooker and some principles on how it working.

Types

The most common types of solar cookers are as below:

1. Box cookers

This box cook at moderate to high temperatures and often accommodate multiple pots. This is the most popular type of solar cooker.

2. Parabolic cookers

Curved concentrator cookers, or "parabolics", cook fast at high temperatures, but require frequent adjustment and supervision for safe cooking. They are very useful for large-scale institutional cooking.

3. Panel cookers

Panel cookers incorporate elements of box and curved concentrator cookers. They are simple and relatively inexpensive to buy or produce. The most popular brand for this panel cooker is "CooKit".

Principles

Basicly, the solar cooker is using this basic principle; sunlight is converted into heat energy that is retained for cooking. It work best when in dark, shallow, thin metal with dark surface, tight-fitting lids to hold in heat and moisture.

Sustainable Fashion

Sustainable fashion, also called eco fashion, is a part of the growing design philosophy and trend of sustainability as well as environmentally friendly. It is also a part of the trend of “ethical fashion”. According to the May 2007 Vogue appears not to be a short-term trend but one could last multiple seasons. Nowadays, fashion designers have adopted the ides of sustainability where they were using more environmentally-friendly materials such as organic cottons and methods in clothing production. They were some designers said that they are trying to incorporate these sustainable practices into modern clothing, rather than producing “dusty, hippy-looking clothes.” However, sustainable fashion is typically more expensive than clothing produced by conventional methods. There are many factors when considering the sustainability of a material in sustainable fashion. The renewability and source of a fiber, the process of how a raw fiber is turned into a textile, the working conditions of the people producing the materials, and the materials total carbon footprint. All of these factors are needed to be considered when practicing the sustainable fashion. In my point of view, although sustainable fashion is expensive but the idea of sustainability practiced can be promoted through out the world due to sustainable fashion and it is worth.

There are several celebrities and designers like Bono and Stella McCartney have recently drawn attention to socially-conscious and environmentally-friendly fashion. Besides that, Portland Fashion Week which has featured sustainable designers and apparel since 2005 has also attracted international press for its efforts to showcase sustainable designs in a 100% eco-friendly and sustainable production. Furthermore, there are also some organizations working to increase opportunities for sustainable designers. The National Association of Sustainable Fashion Designers is one of those organizations. Its purpose is to assist entrepreneurs with growing fashion related businesses that create social change and respect the environment. Well, fashion is now going to idea of sustainable and we shall do our part to promote sustainable as well. Small step of practicing sustainable method in your home can make the change to better environment. ^-^

Organic cotton which from non genetically modified plants and being grown without the use of any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.

Amazon Rainforest…

A movie named ‘Piranha’ was screened around August… well, I not really interest on this kind ‘meat feeding’ fish… ^^ the things I wanna let u guys know is some facts about piranha hometown – the Amazon forests... I’m sure everyone got heard a pieces of news about this famous rainforest directly or indirectly… Amazon river, Amazon rainforest, new species found in Amazon and so on and so forth… so, I gather some information from the web… lets look at some fun facts about this.. relax before we start our final exam and thesis presentation for those final sem coursemate… XD

1st… Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world… how large is it?? The rainforest spread over eight South American countries, i.e. Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. If Amazon is a country, it will be the ninth largest in the world… they cover 6 million square kilometers of land (for your information, Malaysia is only ranking 65 for land area coverage^^)…

2nd… Nile is the longest river in the world… Amazon River is the second… The length of the Amazon River is more than 4000 miles where it is originated from Andes and end up at Atlantic Ocean. The water discharge rate is around 3.4 million gallons per minutes… the Amazon has more than 1100 tributaries and 17 of them are longer than 1000 miles… 2/3 of the fresh water in the world can be found in the rivers, streams and tributaries associated with Amazon River...(Malaysia longest river – Rajang River is approximate 350 miles)…

3rd… Amazon Rainforest has been described as the ‘Lungs of Earth’ because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20% of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest… but now, deforestation is getting serious… this cause a lots of scientist , environmentalist, biologist etc started panic… :(

4th… fauna… Guys, how many species of ant can you found in your home?? In Amazon, 43 species of ant can be found in 1 single tree.. amazing is it?? Haha :) More than half of the world’s estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforest. The bird species native to the Amazon rainforest constitute approximately 1/3 of the total bird population on the planet. Some of the animals native to this rainforest include Jaguar (a bit look like leopard, but definitely different^^), spider monkey (this creature has long limbs and tail, live in the upper layer of rainforest and forage of the canopy, from 25 – 30 m.. wow~~ sort like living in high rise condos… haha), Anaconda (another favourite topic for movie >.<), Amazon pink river dolphin (personally, I love this… thinking is it they stay together with piranha… @@) and many others… 2500 species of fish… 1500 species of birds… 1800 species of butterflies… 4 types of big cats… 200 species of mosquitoes…

5th… flora… Estimate more than 40,00 plants species in the Amazon… 50 – 200 different trees species per hectare can be found in Amazon… Those plants have numerous medical uses with many of the possible medical uses are still undiscovered (around 90% of the plants used by native tribes have not been studied by scientist for more possible medical purposes)... Besides, more than 3000 fruits growing in the Amazon; native tribes use more than 1500 of them, but only 200 are grown for outside use…

6th… well.. not only flora and fauna… human also… around 250,000 Amazon natives are believed to be living in the rainforest and they comprise 215 ethic groups speaking 170 different languages… about 50 native Amazon tribes living deep in the rainforest have never had any contact with civilized world (sort like the lost world… haha^^)

Thought of just end the article here… but I think should share this pieces of info also…

As I said just now.. deforestation is getting serious in Amazon rainforest… between 2004 and 2005, the mean annual deforestation rate in the Amazon had increased up to 13,900 miles per year.. If this rate is continues, the forest cover of the Amazon will reduced by almost the half in the next 2 decades around 2020… this means that numerous of flora and fauna species will be invariable driven to extinction…. The rainforest covered around 14% of the surface of the earth at one point of time, now have been reduced to a 6%... within this 6%, the Amazon rainforest holds more than half of the 10 million species in the world… it took millions of years for these rainforest to evolve… but at the rate at which we are destroying them… they will not last for more then a few decades… how sad of this… haizz….

check this for more information…
http://www.ehow.com/about_5431539_funny-amazon-rain-forest.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/amazon-rainforest-facts.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/20_facts_about_the_amazon_rainforest
http://www.rainforest-facts.com/amazon-rainforest-facts.html

ITER Project potential as future energy

ITER is a large-scale scientific experiment intended to prove the viability of fusion as an energy source, and to collect the data necessary for the design and subsequent operation of the first electricity-producing fusion power plant. Launched as an idea for international collaboration in 1985, the ITER Agreement includes China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States, representing over half of the world's population.

The ITER platform in Cadarache, where construction will begin in 2010 on buildings and facilities. Photo: Agence ITER France.

ITER is an important step on the road to fusion power plants in Cadarache, Southern France. The project is being planned with great respect for the local environment, in keeping with the aim of producing an environmentally benign form of energy.Fusion has the potential to play an important role as part of a future energy mix for our planet. It has the capacity to produce energy on a large scale, using plentiful fuels, and releasing no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.

Water is essential to the ITER installation. The terrific heat generated by the fusion reaction inside the ITER machine will be evacuated by a water cooling system. Approximately 1.5 million cubic metres of water will be necessary per year during the operational phase of ITER. This water will be supplied by the nearby Canal de Provence, and transported by gravity through underground tunnels to the fusion installation. The volume of water needed for ITER represents only 1% of the total water transported by the Canal de Provence.

Electrical supply to the ITER site will be assured by an existing network that feeds the Tore Supra Tokamak - part of the adjacent CEA Cadarache research facility. A one-kilometre extension will be enough to link the ITER machine into the network, without changing the current distribution of electrical lines. Operating the ITER Tokamak will require from 120 MW to up to 620 MW of electricity for peak periods of 30 seconds. No disruption to local users is expected.

The incredibly complex ITER Tokamak will be nearly 30 meters tall, and weigh 23000 tons.The very small man dressed in blue at bottom right gives us some idea of the machine's scale.

During ITER operation, the products of the fusion process are Helium, which is inert and harmless, and neutrons, which will lodge in the vessel walls and produce heat and activation of materials. ITER is an experimental facility and is not designed to produce electricity; the heat produced by the fusion reaction will be evacuated by water circulating through the components inside the vacuum vessel and by water circulating in the vacuum vessel walls.

ITER is not an end in itself. It is the bridge toward a first plant that will demonstrate the large-scale production of electrical power and Tritium fuel self-sufficiency. This is the next step after ITER, the Demonstration Power Plant, or DEMO for short. A conceptual design for such a machine could be complete by 2017. If all goes well, DEMO will lead fusion into its industrial era, beginning operations in the early 2030s, and putting fusion power into the grid as early as 2040.

While ITER is being constructed and DEMO is in its conceptual phase, several fusion installations, with different characteristics and objectives, will be operating around the world to conduct complementary research and development in support of ITER. In Japan, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) program has begun. This installation, part of the "Broader Approach" Agreement, will test and qualify the advanced materials needed for a full-scale fusion plant.By the last quarter of this century, if ITER and DEMO are successful, our world will enter the Age of Fusion - an age when mankind covers a significant part of its energy needs with an inexhaustible, environmentally benign, and universally available resource.

you can see more information about the ITER Project through this website, http://www.iter.org/

wind power

Wind power is one of the power plant,it is friendly with environmental.Wind is kind of power that could convert to new type of energy.This conversion is useful.Wind power can use in wind turbines to make electricity,wind mills for mechanical power,wind pumps for pumping water or drainage,or sails to propel ships.

Human have been using wind power for simple usage as propel sailboats and sailing ship.Windmills have been used for milling grain, in fact wind power slue the windmill,so water could pump so machine worked and grid. The new style of usage of wind power began in 1979 with the serial production of wind turbines by Danish manufactures Kuraint, Vestas, Nordtank, and Bonus.These turbines were smaller than today.And they just had 20-30 kW capacities.But today their capacity increase and deliver up to 7 MW.

Now a days, many country could produce these turbines.

There are now many thousands of wind turbines operating, with a total nameplate capacity of 157,899 MW of which wind power in Europe accounts for 48% (2009). World wind generation capacity more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006, doubling about every three years. 81% of wind power installations are in the US and Europe. The share of the top five countries in terms of new installations fell from 71% in 2004 to 62% in 2006, but climbed to 73% by 2008 as those countries — the United States, Germany, Spain, China, and India — have seen substantial capacity growth in the past two years.

I saw in my class that Malaysia has these turbines on water,because in Malaysia the speed of wind on ground is not suitable for produce other energy,but in ocean or sea the government could use from wind for production electricity power.

In my country(Iran),we have many windy area,one of them is Manjil (windy city),the city is famous because of the wind,and has lot of wind turbines.In those area electricity power supply with wind,more over that if the wind flaw is powerful,it could transfer power to other city.These are some photos from Manjil's turbines.

Although wind turbines supply electricity power in Manjl,but there is a dam which protect from electricity power in there,because as u know these kind of sources couldn't be trusted.

Compared to the environmental effects of traditional energy sources, the environmental effects of wind power are relatively minor. Wind power consumes no fuel, and emits no air pollution, unlike fossil fuel power sources.So big companies could use from this sources for production electricity power by build their buildings near the windy area and make wind farm.

Although this power is friendly with environment but scientist are worried about birds that

fly near this farm,because turbines movement could kill them.

Overall, I hope human utilize more from these kinds of power which are friendly with environment and are more less or without harmful.

Jim Carrey - Environmental Guy!

This is some simple joke from Jim Carrey, but you know what...some celebrity have the power to changes the peoples thought like Oprah Winfrey. They just need to say something and others will follow just like that. When we do some campaign for better environment, this celebrity can make our campaign be more effective and better result...

JAMES BOND GO GREEN?

Environmental Friendly Celebrities who support green building, conservation and various aspects of sustainability and alternative energy. Being “green conscious” has become a deeply held cause embraced by many of Hollywood’s elite. Pierce Brosnan (picture) who act as James Bond focuses on marine mammal and wetland protection, headlined Natural Resources Defense Council campaign against effects of Navy sonar on whales, and has been awarded in 1997 Green Cross International Environmental Leadership Award. A wide array of stars have made it an avocation to champion their favorite environmental and green causes. Many are advocates for every aspect of saving the environment while some lend their names and influence to specific areas.

While domestic environmental issues draw continued attention, many environmentalists are now placing international issues at the top of their list of priorities. Issues like global warming, population growth, deforestation, and the continued loss of many species of plants and animals have reached increasing prominence on the environmental agenda.


Leading Green Celebrity Players

Dave Matthews Band: offsets CO2 emissions produced by their multi-city tours by funding projects such as tree plantings and wind turbine construction.

Cate Blanchett: plans to equip Sydney Theatre Company building with solar panels, rainwater collection systems to make it completely eco-friendly. Sydney home is fully powered by solar energy, donates to Forest Guardians.

Richard Branson: Virgin Group chairman, a former global warming skeptic, who in Sept. 2006 pledged to spend all profits from his airline and rail businesses (estimated $3 billion over 10 years) on investments in biofuel research and projects to tackle emissions.

Ward Burton: Ward Burton - Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation: NASCAR driver and winner of the Daytona 500, he is the founder of this foundation whose mission is to conserve America’s land and wildlife.

Gwyneth Paltrow & Camerson Diaz: Act Green: "unite to conserve energy and reduce our reliance on oil."

Cameron Diaz: Trippin', MTV Series: "Cameron Diaz and a group of her close, personal friends think globally and act globally too as they travel to unlikely getaways...from Chile to Yellowstone, on a quest to safeguard the environment."

Leonardo Dicaprio: started the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998 to promote environmental issues, drives a hybrid car, currently writing and producing a feature length documentary on global warming called "11th Hour".

Harrison Ford: vice chairman of Conservation International, has a Central American ant named after him, won the Global Environmental Citizen Award in 2002.

Jane Goodall: The Jane Goodall Institute: Purpose to advance the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment of all living things

Daryl Hannah: arrested in June 2006 for staging a 23-day tree sit-in during a bid to preserve an urban community garden in Los Angeles, traveled across America in 2005 in a biofuel car, home is entirely off-grid. dh love life: a video blog focused on green topics

Woody Harrelson: "transforming the world together." This is a guy that is inspiring, focuses on biodiesel, getting off the grid, organic & overall good green-ness.

Josh Hartnett, Orlando Bloom, Maroon 5, Kt Tunstall: promoting 2007 Global Cool initiative to cut carbon emissions by encouraging people to turn off TVs, mobile-phone chargers and other energy-draining gadgets.

Barenaked Ladies: run their tour buses and trucks on biodiesel fuel.

Alanis Morissette: given 2003 Environmental Media Association Missions in Music Award; campaigns against oil drilling in Alaska; has solar panels on home.

Willie Nelson: singer, co-partner in the Willie Nelson Biodiesel Company.

Edward Norton: launched the BP Solar Neighbors Program in 2003 which matches each celebrity purchase of a solar energy home system with a solar installation in a low-income family home in Los Angeles.

Brad Pitt: co-creator of design competition to build 20 affordable, reduced energy, environmentally friendly homes in New Orleans.

Robert Redford: 30 years on board of Natural Resources Defense Council, founder of Sundance Preserve, winner of 1993 Earth Day award, 1987 United Nations Global 500 award. In April 2007, launches weekly three-hour slot called "The Green", dedicated entirely to the environment, on his Sundance TV channel.

Sting: founder in 1989 of Rainforest Foundation to protect rain forests and their indigenous peoples.

Kt Tunstall: ran her US tour bus on biodiesel fuel, performed at eco-friendly "Golden Green" at the 2007 Golden Globe awards in Los Angeles.

Neil Young: 2004 North American tour fueled entirely with biodiesel.

Why landfill mining could be the next big thing...

If the UK keeps dumping rubbish at its current rate it will run out of landfill space by 2018. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

A new project that will reuse 16.5m tonnes of rubbish from a Belgian landfill site could help solve a host of environmental problems. This is quite an intresting sustainability news that I'd come across recently.

It might sound like a load of old rubbish, but landfill mining could be the next resources idea to sweep Britain and the rest of Europe. UK company Advanced Plasma Power (APP) has formed a joint venture to dig up a giant landfill site in Belgium, and will recycle half the rubbish and convert the rest into renewable electricity. The project, which will become operational by 2014, is thought to be the first of its kind in the world.

Other companies are also examining the viability of similar projects across the Continent to free up much needed landfill space and because the value of recycled metals which can be recovered has risen.

The 30-year project will reuse 16.5m tonnes of municipal waste dumped since the 1960s at the landfill site near Hasselt in eastern Belgium. APP will use its plasma technology to convert the methane produced by the rubbish, which is more than 20 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide, into usable gas. This will fuel a 60MW power plant capable of supplying 60,000 homes.

The idea of digging up old rubbish is not new. The chief executive of one British landfill operator told the Guardian he had considered it 15 years ago. But the increasing shortage of landfill space, a need to produce more electricity renewably and higher metal prices are now combining to make firms consider it more seriously.

If Britain keeps throwing away rubbish at current rates, it will run out of space by 2018. Landfill taxes will almost double in the next five years in an effort to delay this point. The costs of landfill mining are only likely to become economic on a large scale in Britain if companies can recoup this tax in return for emptying the site. But the process can be dangerous, particularly if asbestos or other hazardous waste is found on older sites, while trapped methane can ignite when released.

Paul Davies, an environmental law partner at City law firm Macfarlanes, said: "The greatest challenge aside from dealing with the cost-benefit of materials recovery is overcoming health and safety risks posed by boring down into sites where, in many cases, for older "mature" sites, there are inexact records of what lies below."

So friends what do you think about this?

What is a carbon footprint?

Carbon footprint has become a popular term nowadays but what does it actually mean?

Footprints carved in wood. Photograph: Reinhard Krause/Reuters

Carbon footprint is a horribly abused phrase, so it's worth spelling out exactly what it means.When talking about climate change, footprint is a metaphor for the total impact that something has. And carbon is a shorthand for all the different greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. The term carbon footprint, therefore, is a shorthand to describe the best estimate that we can get of the full climate change impact of something. That something could be anything – an activity, an item, a lifestyle, a company, a country or even the whole world.

CO2? What's that?

Man-made climate change, or global warming, is caused by the release of certain types of gas into the atmosphere. The dominant man-made greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO2), which is emitted whenever we burn fossil fuels in homes, factories or power stations. But other greenhouse gases are also important. Methane (CH4), for example, which is emitted mainly by agriculture and landfill sites, is 25 times more potent per kilogram than CO2. Even more potent but emitted in smaller quantities are nitrous oxide (N2O), which is about 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide and released mainly from industrial processes and farming, and refrigerant gases, which are typically several thousand times more potent than CO2.

In the UK, the total impact on the climate breaks down like this: carbon dioxide (86%), methane (7%), nitrous oxide (6%) and refrigerant gases (1%). Given that a single item or activity can cause multiple different greenhouse gases to be emitted, each in different quantities, a carbon footprint if written out in full could get pretty confusing. To avoid this, the convention is to express a carbon footprint in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2e. This means the total climate change impact of all the greenhouse gases caused by an item or activity rolled into one and expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide that would have the same impact.

Beware carbon toe-prints

The most common abuse of the phrase carbon footprint is to miss out some or even most of the emissions caused, whatever activity or item is being discussed. For example, many online carbon calculator websites will tell you that your carbon footprint is a certain size based purely on your home energy and personal travel habits, while ignoring all of the goods and services you purchase.

Similarly, a magazine publisher might claim to have measured its carbon footprint but in doing so looked only at its office and cars while ignoring the much greater emissions caused by the printing house that produces the magazines themselves. These kinds of carbon footprint are actually more like carbon 'toe-prints' – they don't give the full picture.

The carbon footprint, as I have defined it, is the climate change metric that we need to be looking at. The dilemma is that it is also impossible to pin down accurately. We don't stand a hope of being able to understand how the impact of our bananas compares with the impact of all the other things we might buy instead unless we have some way of taking into account the farming, the transport, the storage and the processes that feed into those stages. So how should we deal with a situation in which the thing we need to understand is impossibly complex?