THE GREEN PLANET BLOG - Our World and Environment...

All about conservation, ecology, the environment, climate change, global warming, earth- watch, and new technologies etc.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Mama hippo and baby hippo swimming together - cutest video ever...

Mama hippo and baby hippo swimming together - cutest video ever


A CHRISTMAS BONUS FROM THE GREEN PLANET...


Mama hippo and baby hippo swimmingIn case you missed it, last Friday, we published Mother hippo rescues a baby wildebeest in Kenya - African wildlife. Today we have yet more hippo love to share: a video of a mother hippo and baby hippo swimming together at the Bioparc Valencia, the smashing zoo in Valencia, Spain. I think it's safe to say we love hippos.

I filmed this myself with an HD Flip camera on my latest trip to Valencia, Spain. Having recently visited Zambia on a safari, I thought the African animals at the zoo might not impress me as much as usual. Boy, was I wrong.

Bioparc Valenica allows you to get so close to the animals -- and not because the enclosures are small (they're actually larger than most I've seen). Furthermore, it provides you with experiences you definitely wouldn't have on a safari, like watching hippos swim underwater right in front of you.

Acknowledgements: gadling.com

www.gadling.com/2010/12/13/mama-hippo-and-baby-hippo-swimming-together-cutest-video-ever/

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Sunday, December 12, 2010

In Cancun, Mexico, there was a green roar of indignation...


President Evo Morales of Bolivia addressing a crowd at the climate conference on Thursday.Agence France-Presse — Getty Images President Evo Morales of Bolivia addressing a crowd at the climate conference on Thursday.
Green: Politics
As the United Nations conference on climate change in Cancún, Mexico, entered its last official day on Friday, one thing was clear: whatever the final outcome, real progress on reining in the emissions responsible for global warming would have to wait for another time.

But even as some diplomats expressed cautious optimism that modest action on small-bore issues like deforestation and emissions verification could be wrung from the negotiations, a bellow of indignation came from the developing world, in the form of remarks at the proceedings by Evo Morales, president of Bolivia.

In a news conference on Thursday, Mr. Morales warned that the failure to drastically curb emissions soon would cause millions of preventable deaths. “If, from here, we send the Kyoto Protocol to the rubbish bin we are responsible for ecocide and genocide because we’ll be sending many people to their deaths,” he said.


“We came to Cancún to save nature, forests, planet Earth,” Mr. Morales added. “We are not here to convert nature into a commodity. We have not come here to revitalize capitalism with carbon markets.”
Bolivia is part of a small coalition of Latin American countries, including Paraguay, Cuba and Nicaragua, that has vocally opposed a plan under negotiation at the conference that would create a carbon-trading market to pay developing nations to conserve their forests.
“We don’t want to transform our forests into a trading token, because basically they are worth much more than what they’re being valued for. Monetary terms are just incapable of engulfing all those values,” Miguel Lovera, the chief negotiator for Paraguay, told Democracy Now recently in an interview

Last week, Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, made his own incendiary remarks on climate change, appearing to blame recent devastating floods in the country on a “criminal development model” by countries like the United States.

Last year in Copenhagen, a handful of nations led by Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba and Sudan refused to ratify the conference’s climate accord over objections to the treatment of developing nations in the deal
.
In remarks on Friday, however, Claudia Salerno, chief climate negotiator for Venezuela, struck a conciliatory tone that seemed to suggest the country would be more cooperative this year. “Willingness of countries at this time to reach agreement is huge,” Ms. Salerno said..



http://ecospree.com/

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Friday, December 10, 2010

Connect with Nature this Christmas...

Christmas treeImage via WikipediaConnect with Nature Christmas is a time for giving, and a time for family. What a great opportunity to start a family tradition of giving back to the earth and instilling the values of sustainable living to your children, friends and community. Start an annual, earth-friendly Christmas family tradition! It will also get you outdoors for a few hours to build an appetite for the big dinner.
Annual Christmas Day Bird Count
- take your binoculars, a field guide to local birds, a small pad or journal for each participant and walk a course through your neighborhood, local park or countryside. Try to identify and count every bird you see, and make a note of it in your journal. At the end of the hike, list the species seen and number of birds per species. There's always a surprising discovery, and the activity highlights the presence and value of our feathered friends.
Compare the results from former years and you'll become experts on your local bird population and migration habits.
This is a great family activity because even the youngest eyes are just as good at spotting the birds and contributing to the event.

For more information, see our page
Annual Bird Count
Family nature hike - a peaceful walk through nature on Christmas day will be remembered and valued more than the score of the football game.

Nature restoration activity - planting a small tree together symbolizes the value of nature and offsets the 'taking' of the Christmas tree. An hour spent cleaning up or enhancing a natural area also enriches the giver and acknowledges nature as the source of our well-being.

Decorate a tree for the birds
- place seed bells, suet, pine cones with peanut butter and seed trays on any tree in your yard, preferably a tree in the open where cats can be seen easily by the birds. Yo attract a wide variety of birds, use varied seed types such as black oil sunflower seed, wild bird mixed seed and nyger seed bells. This is a great activity for kids, and offers an important food source for birds during the winter.

   
"This year our family is planning a "Merry Christmas to Nature" day. We found some "decoration recipes" in library books and plan to decorate the outdoors with edible ornaments for the birds, chipmunks, rabbits, etc..
Another thought is to visit a local animal shelter or sanctuary... "       Jo and Amelia Guelph, ON
"Another way to make the Holidays more sustainable is to use a living tree as your Christmas tree. For many years, my family has use.

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