Melting Glacier in Norway

One of the difficult things in making a difference to the climate change that our planet is experiencing is breaking things down into chunks that people can handle (hence the name of this blog!). Very often we have a picture of planetary despair painted for us with little or no hints as to how we can help.

This can also be the case with the effects of climate change, with very little physical evidence being given for the changes that are being observed around the planet.

However with more and more attention being paid to climate change this is changing. As this wonderful but distrurbing set of photos shows the dramatic effect of climate change on glaciers in Norway. The difference between the glacier's size in 2001 compared to 2006 is staggering, as seen from the pictures are the beginning and end of this post.

The end of single use plastic bag - success starts at home!

I feel quite pleased with myself this week since I've taken another step to forcing my housemates into using linen bags.

Every time one of them goes to the shops they come back with a plastic bag, no matter how few items they buy. It's an issue which thoroughly winds me up and in turn winds them up because of me harping on about it!

But at Camden Green Fair on the weekend, I picked up of a load of linen bags that were being handed out for free and have hung them on a hook on the back of the front door. Now I have given all my housemates the strict orders that when they go to the shops that they have to take one off the door to save on plastic bags.

Now all I've got is beast them enough that they continue taking them!

World Ocean Day - 8th June 2008

http://www.optimistworld.com/Articles.aspx?id=aa840bcc-e90e-4469-882e-4825371fbf9c&style=news&page=1

Oxfam Boutique

We all know the benefits of recycling in terms of making the most of the planet's resources and this is especially relevant for second hand clothes. There are loads of charity clothes shops on most major high streets which have benefit from both being a great means of recycling but also generating funds for various causes- both seem pretty sensible to me!

Oxfam have jsut announced this week the opening of a couple of "boutique" stores in London, which will offer a collection of donated fashion items, Fair Trade, organic, recycled and restyled clothes and accessories.

They appear to have teamed up with a load of students from the London School of Fashion to produce ranges of clothes from sustainable and recyclable means.

Read more about it from the Oxfam webpage.

Hopefully more stores like this will start emerging soon and really promote greener clothes, hopefully ending up being a really good scheme. Plus you've got to admit that everyone loves a bit of vintage clothing!

More bad news for sharks

New report puts 11 shark species at high risk of extinction:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7413948.stm

It's scary to see reports like this and then read about how countries like Australia are trying to set up shark fin fisheries on the Great Barrier Reef:

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_080516_1.html

When will people realise the damage they are causing by seemingly trying to exterminate these wonderful animals that play such an important impact on the underwater ecosystem.

Camden Green Fair 2008

Camden council are running the UK's largest free green event on 1st June in Regent's Park. Running from 12 noon to 7pm it will have speakers forums, science zones and a Mad Hatter's tea party to enjoy whilst delievering the message about how waste, transport, energy, procurement and water affect the environment.

It'll likely be a great way to learn about how we can tackle climate change, with small changes to our lifestyles.

Visit the website at Camden Green Fair for more details.

Food waste in the UK

One of the big problems when faced with such large issues as increased global warming, is being able to break the solutions into bite-size chunks so that the average person can actually begin to make a difference.

A recent study by WRAP - a business focused on reducing waste and boosting recycling, has shown that in the UK a third of all the food we buy ends up in the bin. This generates a total wastage of £10 billion a year.

This food waste obviously has serious consequences in terms of the amount of resources being ploughed into the growing, processing, packaging, transporting, and refrigerating of food, a huge proportion of which are apparently being thrown away.

When converted into a carbon dioxide equivalents it appears that if this waste could be totally eradicated then it would have the effect of taking 1 in 5 cars of the road- a staggering statistic!

It is studies like this that can highlight areas where the average person can make a conscious effort to reduce their waste and with enough people doing so, then we can begin to make a real difference to the climate change that our carbon emissions are causing.

For the WRAP press-release click here and the Love Food Hate Waster campaign can be found here.