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

A car's glass roof by day and heating by night - Ole Oleds...

2012-01-25T18:44:00.000-08:00

The photos above are a bit of Rorschach test, in part because many of us have never seen anything quite like it. Depending on your view, it might appear to be a futuristic dentist’s chair, or perhaps even a new millennium toilet (we’ve been known here at SmartPlanet to provide such visual treats).
Or mabye you’re seeing it for what it is. According to German chemical giant BASF, the image shows what the inside of your car might look like one day.

Focus on the roof. The glass-effect, hexagonal openings allow a clear view upwards by day. Open the car door or push a button come night time, and they provide interior illumination - having been charged up by solar cells, nonetheless. BASF developed the dimples in partnership with Holland’s Philips Lighting, using OLED, or organic light emitting diode, technology. Read more about this real 'green technology' here:
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/cars-8216glass-roof-by-day-becomes-interior-light-at-night-oh-oleds/12253?tag=nl.e660

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Agapanthus - flowering lily plant from South Africa or a NZ weed...

2012-01-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Image by Jonathan Gill via Flickr

Is Agapanthus a flowering lily plant from South Africa, or a New Zealand weed? Opinions differ it seems. http://www.botany.com/agapanthus.html

Weedbusters in New Zealand is calling for Agapanthus to be added to the National Plant register(NPAA). Agapanthus is allegedly a prolific seeder and can crowd out native plants.
http://news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8401404/call-to-ban-popular-agapanthus-plant

Gardening experts and bio-diversity advocates are at odds over one of New Zealand's most popular plants.

The Agapanthus is loved by Kiwi gardeners because it is a low maintenance, hardy, fast growing plant.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/home-garden/6239495/Battle-lines-on-agapanthus

The Green Planet will keep a watching brief over future developments and will post again if any official action is to be taken against this beautiful South African introduced plant.

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Today's Working Woman: GBE2: Week #33 - Work#links

2012-01-01T22:54:00.000-08:00

Today's Working Woman: GBE2: Week #33 - Work#links

Rare white Kiwi chick born in NZ wildlife centre in time for Christmas...

2012-01-01T21:50:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

CUTE: A rare white kiwi bird was born at Pukaha Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre in New Zealand. Picture: Tourism New ZealandSource: Supplied

RARE: Staff at the centre were "gobsmacked'' when the second chick was born. Picture: Tourism New ZealandSource: Supplied

A NEW ZEALAND wildlife centre has received a white Christmas present of a different kind, with the birth of a rare white kiwi chick
.

The chick hatched at Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre last Sunday - the second born at the sanctuary this year.

Manukura - the world's first white kiwi hatched in captivity - created global headlines when she arrived in May.

Staff at the centre were "gobsmacked'' when the second chick was born last weekend.

A local Maori tribe has named the chick Mauriora, meaning sustained life.

"While every kiwi is precious, to have a second white chick is a delightful gift, especially at this time of year,'' centre manager Kathy Houkamau said.

"We thought Christmas had come early in May when Manukura arrived but now its come twice."

The centre is located in the Wairarapa district, about a 90-minute drive north from Wellington on New Zealand's North Island.

Tourists will be able to see the new chick being hand-reared in the nursery from Boxing Day.

The parents of the two white chicks were among 30 kiwi transferred from Hauturu/Little Barrier Island last year to boost the adult kiwi population at Pukaha.

The white gene is thought to have found its way into the kiwi population on Little Barrier Island after a white kiwi was put on the island early last century.

A small number of North Island brown kiwi carry a recessive white gene which both the male and female must have to produce a white chick.

Department of Conservation captive breeding ranger Darren Page said it was remarkable that two birds with the rare white gene had paired up in 940ha Pukaha forest to produce two white chicks over two seasons.

There is a one-in-four chance of such a pair producing a white chick.

"Both white birds have the same father, who we have identified through his transmitter," he said.

"The probability that the pair will breed again is quite high but we have no influence over the pairing and no way of knowing if they have produced more chicks together unless they're white.''

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http://news.discovery.com/animals/kiwi-chick-big-pic-110524.html

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/rare-white-kiwi-chick-born-at-new-zealand-wildlife-centre-in-time-for-christmas/story-e6frg12c-1226228720659

Pirate fishing alive and well in the Pacific...

2011-12-17T19:49:00.000-08:00

The high seas pockets have long been a playground for pirate fisherman making it difficult for surrounding Pacific Island countries to manage their shared fish stocks.Since 2008, the Eastern and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (the international body responsible for the overall management of the Pacific tuna fisheries) closed high seas pockets 1 and 2 to purse sine fishing.

But despite all these moves, pirate fishing is alive and well into the high seas.

Illegal fishing costs the Pacific region an estimated Aus$1 Billion per year.

Read and view :http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/news/blog/pirates-of-the-pacific/blog/38033/

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Wolf conservationists stay killing...

2011-12-13T00:21:00.000-08:00

Image by Todd Ryburn via Flickr

by Brittany Lyons (Guest writer)

The timeless struggle between man and nature continued in the Oregon Court of Appeals last month. The court has decided on a temporary stay of the killing of two grey wolves blamed for the death of livestock in Wallowa County, Oregon. The proceedings illustrate the complexity of the arguments concerning the conservation of wild animals, which as been debated by environmentalists and students in PhD programsfor years. As the human population grows, how can the needs and interests of farmers, and of all those who benefit from their labors, be balanced with the need to protect the wonder and diversity of the natural world?

The case centers on two members of the Imnaha wolf pack (including the alpha male) who were involved in the killing of a calf in September. The incident brought the number of livestock killed by the pack in the last year and a half to 14. The wolves were slated to be killed following an order issued by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in September, but conservation groups challenged the decision. The groups argue the Oregon Wolf Management Plan, which states wolves that kill cattle can be destroyed, does not comply with the state’s Endangered Species Act. However, wolves are no longer protected in Eastern Oregon under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Although the wolves are no longer considered an endangered species in the area, the conservation group Oregon Wild points there a number of negative implications of the decision. First of all, the killings would reduce the pack to just two members, the alpha female and her young pup, making it unlikely that they would survive the winter. Secondly, Oregon Wildplaces the livestock deaths in perspective, stating that there are only 23 confirmed wolves in Oregon, yet there are more than 1.3 million cattle. Of those livestock, 55,000 were lost last year to weather, disease and thieves while fewer than 20 were lost to wolves. Additionally, when livestock are lost to wolves the rancher is compensated for the loss by provisions made by the legislature. Finally, Noah Greenwald, the endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Seattle Pisuch killings do nothing to save livestock. Greenwald claims, “There are much better non-lethal options, including fencing, guard dogs, and removing the carcasses that attract wolves in the first place.”

The Oregon Cattlemen's Association, counters that wolf numbers will grow at least 33 percent a year, causing the attacks on livestock and wildlife will double. Thus only complicating problems for cattlemen already facing the difficulties that have come with the current recession. The cattlemen also argue this particular wolf pack has been an ongoing problem. The Association's President Bill Hoyt declares: “They had confirmed kills on the same ranch over a period of time and by the same pack. The plan calls for after having multiple confirmed kills (sic), they will take lethal control. That’s what the plan says”. We didn’t like the plan to begin with. But we are learning to live with it. Now, all of a sudden we can’t even do that.”

Ultimately the Appeal Court determine that while nothing in the Endangered Species act prohibits the killing of wolves, there also is not anything to authorize such killing. As a result, the plan to prevent the killings of the two wolves has been stayed while the case is deliberated further.

Clearly the case demonstrates the complexities of weighing the needs of business and the rights of farmers to protect their livestock against the preservation of the natural world. Farmers are only doing what they have been doing for centuries, but then again, so are the wolves. As humans continue to expand into what was once the undisputed territory of animals such as the grey wolf, the debate is sure to continue. Add to that our insatiable demand for of meat and ever cheaper food, and the problem is only likely to grow. The issue is a complicated one, and an understanding of the debate prompts us to question our habits and the part that we all play in the future of animals such as the grey wolf.

http://huttriver.blog.co.uk/2011/12/13/wolf-conservationists-stay-killing-12300548/

http://freeasthewind6.blog.co.uk/2011/12/28/dancing-under-the-grandmother-moon-12360188/

http://www.causes.com/causes/145201-wolf-haven-international
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http://freeasthewind6.blog.co.uk/2012/01/01/howling-at-the-moon-12379980/

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Save the seals - keep oil out of Arctic waters

2011-12-05T23:56:00.001-08:00

Image by mizmak via Flickr

Protect seals from an Arctic oil spill disaster

Shell will stop at nothing to drill in the Arctic and they are mobilizing right now.

Wherever there is drilling, there is the risk of spills. Spilled oil collects in the same breaks in the ice that seals and other animals use to come up for air. And in the remote Arctic, no one can clean up spilled oil fast enough to prevent animals from inhaling toxic fumes or becoming coated by oil.
But we can prevent Arctic oil spills – by stopping Shell's plans.
We can't wait until there is another oil spill disaster to take action. The time to speak up for seals and our Arctic waters is before permits are signed, wells are drilled, and oil is pumped. Stand up for seals and other Arctic animals by December 6 and put a stop to Shell's plans to drill in the Arctic.

http://act.oceana.org/letter/l-shell-arctic/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=offshore&source=facebook

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The invasive Argentine ant is apparently dying out in NZ...

2011-12-03T19:59:00.001-08:00

Image by naturalismus via Flickr

Image by Pedro Moura Pinheiro via Flickr

DISAPPEARING: The Argentine ant.

One of the world's worst invasive species, the Argentine ant, is mysteriously disappearing from New Zealand.

The Argentine ant poses a huge risk to horticulture and is a threat to native species.

They attack birds, have been known to eat lizards in New Zealand and the World Conservation Union classed them as one of the world's 100 worst invasive species.

The small, brown insects were first found in New Zealand in 1990 and have spread throughout the North Island, usually attracted to warm climates like Northland and Hawke's Bay. Their colonies reach as far south as Christchurch.

But, the population has just started dying off, though the reason for their deaths is unclear, Victoria University associate professor Phil Lester said.

Lester and masters student Meghan Cooling concluded the species naturally collapses after about 10 to 20 years.

The pair assessed about 150 sites throughout the country that have been populated by the ants.

The colonies disappeared from at least 40 per cent of the sites and populations had significantly shrunk at the other sites, Lester said.

They discovered some dead ants, but believed the others had decomposed or been eaten.

"At some sites they've disappeared all together and other native ants have reinvaded these areas," Lester said.

It was unclear why the invasive ant was disappearing, but Lester suspected it was due to a virus of some sort.

"Because they're collapsing on their own the country could save millions," he said.

When the species was first discovered in New Zealand the Government estimated the ants would cost about $68 million a year in pest control, Lester said.

They have destroyed farms overseas and killed off other species, but they haven't been so disastrous in New Zealand.

But they could potentially threaten the viticulture and horticultural industries if populations got out of hand.

If they were to reach Department of Conservation protected islands the results could be disastrous.

The ants are about 2-3 millimetres long and produce multiple queens and can form huge super-colonies that extend for thousands of kilometres, according to the Biosecurity New Zealand website.

They can bite and cause a reaction in some people. However, most New Zealanders are probabably not aware of their existence. Some, like myself, may have read some fleeting comments about them.

Their demise will not result in any conservationists criticising any attempts not to preserve them.

Acknowledgements: - Stuff NZ

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http://anzacbloggersunite.blog.co.uk

Greenpeace Russia: One world - two realities

2011-11-28T23:50:00.001-08:00

One world - two realities

Last week I heard two completely different views of the same thing. One came from a top Swedish government official at a seminar on board the Greenpeace flag ship Rainbow Warrior dedicated to drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic.
The second view was voiced by an old Nenets woman from the Yamal peninsula at the very top or Russian mainland, an area which over past few decades has become one of the most actively developing gas fields in the world.

Nenets reindeer herders of the Yamal peninsula, whose traditional lifestyle is threatened by encroachment of oil and gas production in the Arctic. Lena Ek - Swedish Environment minister
At the seminar in the balmy November Stockholm, the Swedish minister of the environment Lena Ek defended the Swedish ambassador to the Arctic Council Gustaf Lind. As befits a top diplomat, Gustaf had to find a polite way to explain to the Greenpeace campaigner and to the leader of the Swedish Greens why the government of Sweden, who holds the Arctic Council presidency at the moment, is not actively using this opportunity to fight against opening up the Arctic to the oil and gas industry that increasingly sees the (formerly) frozen and (relatively) untouched North as nothing more than a resource base. Despite the increasing urgency of the climate crisis that is nowhere more visible then in the Arctic, despite the horrendous record of oil spills and environmental contamination in the Arctic oil fields, the Swedish presidency continues to accept the development of the hydrocarbons fields in the North.
Right, not much can be said in moral defense of this. But face must be saved, and Lena Ek tried by rolling out the “poor people up there” argument. “It’s important to take responsibility for the people (of the Arctic)”, she said. “The people there should have a decent life”.

Maybe she should listen to what the “people up there” consider to be a decent life. The Swedish Minister’s namesake Lena Sarteto, a Nenets grandmother interviewed by the Russian journalist seems to think that the life before the “development “ was a hell of a lot better. Lena does not think that being forced away into towns from the traditional habitation areas in order to open up new gas fields underneath the tundra is “decent”. She doesn’t seem to think that the traditional reindeer migration paths getting broken up by roads and pipelines is decent. The children being taken away to boarding schools in towns, part of a conscious effort to urbanize the Nenets – I don’t believe she thinks its decent. And the land itself getting destroyed – Lena doesn’t seem to find much decency in that. She says to the journalist:
“The fish tastes dead; we feel sick after drinking water out of the lakes; our reindeers get stuck in wire loops or trip over pipes, break their legs and die,”
No she doesn’t seem too excited about the prospect of development that oil and gas production brings to the “people up there”. The journalist ends her story by an image of Lena praying to an animist idol ““Let Gazprom leave soon, and Yamal become only ours again.”
So Lena Ek. Please. You may think that Sweden should not take a firm position against oil and gas drilling in the Arctic. You may think it’s too uncomfortable diplomatically. You may think it would be bad for the price of petrol. You may think that it would mean a loss of opportunities for Swedish businessmen. But for the sake of decency, don’t pretend that it’s best for the people of the Arctic. The other Lena, the one living in Yamal, does not agree.
Acknowledgements: Dimitri Litvinov
Chairman of the Board
Greenpeace Russia

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http://blogging-along-with-pete.wallinside.com

Rainforest Action Network...

2011-11-22T23:57:00.001-08:00

Weekly Panther

Dear Peter,
Wow, it’s been an incredible year and it’s time for us to say thank you.

It’s activists like you that got us to the negotiating table with Disney to get rainforest destruction out of their supply chain. It’s activists like you that pushed President Obama to make the decision to delay (and possibly kill) the Keystone XL pipeline.
Together, as Rainforest Action Network, we have amassed a lot of hard work, skill and passion to fight for thriving forests, the rights of Indigenous frontline communities and a stable climate. It is not easy work. Not even close. But the rewards of success are so great, it is worth every moment.

So to thank you for everything—the emails, phone calls, rally support, financial contributions, direct actions, and all the events you showed up for—we put together this little video.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

For the planet,

Your friends at Rainforest Action Network

Rainforest Action Network
221 Pine Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104 USA
Phone: (415) 398-4404 Fax: (415) 398-2732

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Pod of dolphins delights Paremata, Wellington, locals...

2011-11-20T15:59:00.001-08:00

This pod of dolphins delighted Paremata, Wellington, locals. They had been fishing under the bridges in the Paremata inlet.

This pod attracted crowds of onlookers and prompted locals to make regular visits and even play music to this endangered species of dolphins. There is a close affinity between dolphins and their human friends.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/6001169/Paremata-dolphin-pod-draws-crowds

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/5934650/Rare-dolphin-death-alarms-experts

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Shocking: The video Sealord and the global tuna industry don't want you to see...

2011-11-16T17:15:00.001-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Today we've released shocking footage of ocean life dying in gruesome ways at the hands of industrial tuna fishers in the Pacific Ocean. When I first saw it I was outraged by the obscene waste of ocean life shown and I think most New Zealanders will be too.

This is the same destructive fishing method used by the fishing fleets that supply Sealord, New Zealand's biggest canned tuna brand. The widespread use of fish aggregation devices (FADs) with purse seine nets is to blame for high levels of bycatch and even threatens the very future of the fishery itself by catching large numbers of baby tuna. Local tuna brands Pams and Greenseas know this and are phasing out tuna caught this way.

The footage was shot by a New Zealand helicopter pilot turned whistleblower, who undertook aerial reconnaissance for tuna boats in the Pacific in 2009. To protect the pilot from reprisals we've disguised his identity.

It is not for the faint hearted, but here is what many tuna fishing vessels bring up with their catch. This is what fishing on FADs looks like:

Read more and view the video from the whistle-blower's revelations:

http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/news/blog/the-video-sealord-and-the-global-tuna-industr/blog/37873/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gpnzblog+%28Greenpeace+New+Zealand+Weblog%29

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The Rainbow Warrior: the boat that rocks...

2011-11-15T00:36:00.001-08:00

Image via WikipediaThe Rainbow Warrior: the boat that rocks...

It was an incredibly moving sight last night as we walked by Tower Bridge and saw the Rainbow Warrior III, at anchor on the Thames, come into view. Lights illuminated her majestic 50-metre tall masts, and a full moon shone down on the river as we headed into the Design Museum for a gathering of supporters and friends to mark the inaugural visit of the ship to the UK – and the 40th anniversary of the birth of Greenpeace.
Read more and view below:

http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/news/blog/rainbow-warrior-the-boat-that-rocks/blog/37823/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gpnzblog+%28Greenpeace+New+Zealand+Weblog%29

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NZ Kiwifruit growers's profits hit by Psa disease

2011-11-02T00:49:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage via Wikipedia

The type of damage that PSA can cause to New Zealand kiwifruit vines. - Source: ONE News

Seeka Kiwifruit Industries, the country's biggest kiwifruit grower, is forecasting lower earnings from fruit as the Pseudomona Syringae pv actinidiae bacteria ravages more kiwifruit orchards.

Net profit before tax, non-recurring items, fair value adjustments and asset revaluations, is expected to be in the range of $10.6 million to $11.6 million in the year to December 31, 2011, down from $12.9 million in the nine months to December 31, 2010.

Lower fruit returns account for the majority of the difference between periods. The company reported an $18.8 million profit in the six months to June 30, 2011.

Still, the Te Puke-based company expects to comply with all banking covenants at December 31, 2011.

It is cutting costs because the virus is reducing revenue and is selling surplus assets to reduce debt
.
"The outbreak of has become widespread throughout the Bay of Plenty, and is considered to be a fundamental threat to the New Zealand Kiwifruit Industry," the company said in a statement to NZX today
.
The company did not forecast a profit after asset revaluations.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, fair value adjustments and asset revaluations will be between $18.5 million and $19.5 million in the 2011 year compared to $19.9 million in the nine months to December 31, 2010, it said.

PSA-V has been detected on a total 341 gold orchard hectares out of a total area of gold Seeka supplying orchards of 517 hectares.

It has also been detected on approximately 428 green hectares of a total of green Seeka supplying orchards of 2130 hectares.

Secondary symptoms have been detected on both green and gold orchards.

Zespri held an urgent meeting with 500 growers in Tauranga yesterday, Television New Zealand reported.

Seeka also said it has identified PSA-V on nine orchards, comprising 89 gold hectares and 22 green hectares, leased under long-term lease arrangements.

An adjustment was made to reduce the value of land and building assets by $7.6 million in the June 30 2011 first-half accounts in accordance with international financial reporting standards (IFRS) requirements.

Seeka leases its orchards so it is not affected by a drop in orchard land values. Its processing assets are expected to reduce in value, reflecting lower revenue and the value of the crop on long-term leased orchards will also fall.

The company said that prior to any year-end revaluation adjustment due to the impact of PSA-V its long-term leased orchards would be expected to have a carrying value of $8.5 million excluding the value of crop on the vine.

Any reduction to the biological asset value will not impact on the company's cashflow.
The value of the crop on long-term lease orchards would normally be approximately $3.5 million at December.

This represents the cost of growing the crop on the vine to that date, and is normally added to the value of biological assets provided there was a reasonable expectation that it would be recovered at the time of harvest.

So far 41 roles have been restructured at a cost of $600,000 in the current year.

http://www.tripbase.com.br/content/EcoPlaces/index.html

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http://www.phoneservice.org/blog/2011/10-great-reasons-to-consider-prepaid-cellular-service/

The Big Tree Plant in England...

2011-11-02T00:20:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage via Wikipedia

You have planted

108,194

trees so far

About the campaign

The Big Tree Plant launched in December 2010. It’s a campaign to increase the number of trees planted in towns, cities and neighbourhoods throughout England.

The Big Tree Plant is a national partnership bringing together the wide range of organisations who already plant trees, as well as civic and community groups working with Defra and the Forestry Commission. The logos of the national campaign partners are at the bottom of this page.

Campaign aims

The campaign is aiming to support the Big Society by getting more people involved in planting and caring for trees and establishing local community tree projects throughout England.

Current projects

Three exciting new projects have been funded by Defra and the Forestry Commission to get tree-planting underway this season:

Keep Britain Tidy - 100,000 trees across 750 sites

Keep Britain Tidy are working with BTCV to plant trees in areas that are accessible to local communities and will be planted by children, volunteers and community groups.

Keep Britain Tidy and BTCV - find out moreOpens new window

The NHS Forest – 65,000 trees across 25 sites

These projects will bring together a range of professionals and volunteers to plant trees on NHS sites and community land.

The NHS ForestOpens new window

The Tree Council - 1000+ trees across four sites

The Tree Council will work with the local council and volunteer tree wardens in the Walsall area of Birmingham to plant an orchard with the local community.

Tree Council Big Tree PlantOpens new window

http://thebigtreeplant.direct.gov.uk/index.html

A great idea from the United \Kingdom Government - encouraging people to plant trees.

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http://www.tripbase.com.br/content/EcoPlaces/index.html

Amazing footage: How the hagfish repels predators...

2011-10-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

Massey University:

GOT TEETH TOO: Research shows the hagfish is not just a scavenger, it is a predator too

The hagfish's scary protruding teeth could be enough to scare any predator away, but it's its sliminess that deters the sharks.

The hagfish - also known as the snot-eel - which can be found in New Zealand's deepest waters has proven to be one of the planet's ultimate survivors.

Graphic underwater footage from Massey University and Te Papa shows for the first time how the hagfish defends itself by emitting a choking, gill-clogging slime.

"Our video footage in New Zealand waters has proven that hagfish secrete slime at an incredibly fast speed when under attack by predators such as large sharks or bony fishes," Te Papa's Vincent Zintzen, lead scientist of the deep-sea animal diversity study, said.

In the video, various fish try to attack the hagfish off Three Kings and Great Barrier Islands as it feeds on bait attached to the camera.

But it releases a gooey mucus-like substance from its slime glands and up to 200 pores, causing predators to gag before retreating.

A paper published online in Scientific Reports describes the effectiveness of the "copious slime" in choking predators without apparently poisoning or killing them.

The study also discovered the hagfish was not only an ocean scavenger, but also a predator.
The footage reveals its bizarre method of burrowing into sand in pursuit of a red bandfish. It knots its tail for additional leverage as it grabs its hidden prey before unknotting and emerging from the sand.

Massey professor Marti Anderson, a marine biologist, who co-authored the study, said the video explains how the hagfish has endured successfully for around 300 million years.

Anatomically modern humans have been around for just 200,000 years by comparison, she said.
"We know so very little about the deep sea. Simply dropping cameras into the water at a range of depths in a systematic design not only gives us good quantitative data to model diversity and behaviour, it also has a high probability of finding something new."

"Using underwater video cameras, we can actually see fish in their own environment, which is far more informative than what can be learned from the often bedraggled specimens brought to the surface in research trawls."

Clive Roberts, co-author and curator of fishes at Te Papa, said the ecological role of the hagfish may be far more diverse than previously considered.

"Hagfish, which are quite abundant in the deep sea, were previously observed feeding on carcasses of dead whales, fishes and invertebrates. Our video footage now clearly shows that hagfish are also hunters able to prey on live fishes."

Since 2009, scientists have deployed cameras at depths ranging from 50 to 1500 metres around New Zealand. Over 1000 hours of footage has been collected off the Kermadec Islands, Three Kings Islands, Great Barrier Island, White Island and Kaikoura so far, with surveys to extend in 2012 to the sea off the Otago Peninsula and down as far as the Auckland Islands.

The research was funded by a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund Grant, a Te Papa Collection Development Grant as well as support by the Ministry of Science and Innovation via NIWA and the University of Western Australia.

Acknowledgements: - Stuff.co.nz

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Worst food additive ever - its in half of all food...

2011-10-27T00:50:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage via Wikipedia

On August 10, police and security for the massive palm oil corporation Wilmar International (of which Archer Daniels Midland is the second largest shareholder) stormed a small, indigenous village on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. They came with bulldozers and guns, destroying up to 70 homes, evicting 82 families, and arresting 18 people. Then they blockaded the village, keeping the villagers in -- and journalists out. (Wilmar claims it has done no wrong.)

The village, Suku Anak Dalam, was home to an indigenous group that observes their own traditional system of land rights on their ancestral land and, thus, lacks official legal titles to the land. This is common among indigenous peoples around the world -- so common, in fact, that it is protected by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Indonesia, for the record, voted in favor of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. Yet the government routinely sells indigenous peoples' ancestral land to corporations. Often the land sold is Indonesia's lowland rainforest, a biologically rich area home to endangered species like the orangutan, Asian elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros, Sumatran tiger, and the plant Rafflesia arnoldii, which produces the world's largest flower.

So why all this destruction? Chances are you'll find the answer in your pantry. Or your refrigerator, your bathroom, or even under your sink. The palm oil industry is one of the largest drivers of deforestation in Indonesia. Palm oil and palm kernel oil, almost unheard of a decade or two ago, are now unbelievably found in half of all packaged foods in the grocery store (as well as body care and cleaning supplies). These oils, traditional in West Africa, now come overwhelmingly from Indonesia and Malaysia. They cause jawdropping amounts of deforestation (and with it, carbon emissions) and human rights abuses.

"The recipe for palm oil expansion is cheap land, cheap labor, and a corrupt government, and unfortunately Indonesia fits that bill," says Ashley Schaeffer of Rainforest Action Network.

The African oil palm provides two different oils with different properties: palm oil and palm kernel oil. Palm oil is made from the fruit of the tree, and palm kernel oil comes from the seed, or "nut," inside the fruit. You can find it on ingredient lists under a number of names, including palmitate, palmate, sodium laureth sulphate, sodium lauryl sulphate, glyceryl stearate, or stearic acid. Palm oil even turns up in so-called "natural," "healthy," or even "cruelty-free" products, like Earth Balance (vegan margarine) or Newman-O's organic Oreo-like cookies. Palm oil is also used in "renewable" biofuels.

A hectare of land (2.47 acres) produces, on average, 3.7 metric tons of palm oil, 0.4 metric tons of palm kernel oil, and 0.6 tons of palm kernel cake. (Palm kernel cake is used as animal feed.) In 2009, Indonesia produced over 20.5 million metric tons, and Malaysia produced over 17.5 million metric tons. As of 2009, the U.S. was only the seventh largest importer of palm oil in the world, but as the second largest importer of palm kernel oil, it ranks third in the world as a driver of deforestation for palm oil plantations.

Indonesia has lost 46 percent of its forests since 1950, and the forests have recently disappeared at a rate of about 1.5 million hectares (an area larger than the state of Connecticut) per year. Of the 103.3 million hectares of remaining forests in 2000, only 88.2 million remained in 2009. At that time, an estimated 7.3 million hectares of oil palm plantations were already established, mostly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Indonesia plans to continue the palm oil expansion, hoping to produce an additional 8.3 million metric tons by 2015 -- this means a 71 percent expansion in area devoted to palm oil in the coming years.

Ecospree

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Planet Green

Supporting the Rainforest Action Network...

2011-10-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

Help keep the Keystone XL Pipeline off my daughter’s land.

RAN’s standing by us, please stand by RAN.

An open letter to my readers:

My wife and I bought 20 acres in East Texas a few years back. The property is full of 100-year-old trees, wildlife, wetlands and spring-fed creeks. Our intention from the beginning was to leave this land as a legacy to our daughter.

We never dreamed that we’d live to see any part of it destroyed—until TransCanada paid us a visit. Surveyors had driven scores of stakes right down the middle of our property, reading “XL PL 36in.”

My fight against the Keystone XL pipeline began right then and there. Thankfully Rainforest Action Network has been there to back me up.

Will you stand with me in my fight for this land, and for my daughter’s land, by making a donation to support RAN?

RAN’s Energy team organized the Stop The Pipeline Tour so that other affected landowners and I could travel the proposed Keystone XL route to educate people about the leaks and spills that TransCanada is known for, to confront the company head on, and eventually to join the Tar Sands Action—the largest act of civil disobedience on climate in history—at the White House.

To put it bluntly—my fight is your fight. The Alberta tar sands project is a carbon bomb, and the Keystone XL is the 1700-mile long fuse. According to the EPA, the well-to-tank greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands crude would be approximately 82 percent higher than the average crude refined in the U.S. The world simply can not afford the tar sands.

RAN is doing whatever it takes to stop this carbon bomb—from direct actions to organizing mass protest to orchestrating media storms. I need your support to resist this pipeline and to fight for our clean energy future.

RAN played a major role at the Tar Sands Action this summer, and will be there on the ground again November 6—organizing, supporting and participating—as thousands encircle the White House to tell President Obama that he must say no to the Keystone XL.

Will you stand up for me and my daughter? Will you make a difference for the future of our climate? Please support the smart, strategic work of Rainforest Action Network right now.

		Sincerely,
		David Daniel Founder, Stop Tarsands Oil Pipelines (STOP)

Rainforest Action Network
221 Pine Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104 USA
Phone: (415) 398-4404 Fax: (415) 398-2732

Not junk

Empty

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No drill - No spill...

2011-10-17T02:48:00.000-07:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

‘Where has the oil gone?’ we asked ourselves. First it was coating the beaches, rocky shorelines, birds and seals then the rest in the sea disappeared. There was little official information we could get and media reports suggested it was heading south somewhere between Whakatane and Whangaparaoa Bay (where our flotilla opposing deep sea oil drilling set off earlier this year).

Fortunately a friend emailed me that a hui was called at Te Kaha Marae for officials to inform and discuss a localised response.

So while Greenpeace volunteers worked on Matakana Island to clear oil with hapu, a small team headed to Te Kaha. On the way there I saw with new eyes coastal areas most vulnerable to contamination as we travelled east and contemplated how everything could change by the end of this week if more oil chunders from Rena .

This is what could change for the foreseeable future:
- Quiet Sunday morning whitebaiters and waka ama practise in the Whakatane River.
- Stunning Ohope and Okiwa estuaries fringed with marshlands of reeds that act as kidneys filtering between land and sea, which are home to endangered fernbirds and lanky bittern that will now be nesting. These estuarine plants are essential to the lifecycle of the many inanga/whitebait species which deposit their eggs on the plant’s wet feet. Toxic oil would change all that.
- Seeing the mouth of the Waiotahi – like many river mouths, too rough for a boom to successfully keep oil at bay as massive volume of water surges in and out of the mouths.
At Te Kaha, Bay of Plenty Regional Council officials told us that the oil had sunk and that nobody knew where it was, but it was possible degraded globs of oil would wash up if the currents and wind forced it south. This coastline is vast and sparsely populated. It will require local hapu and communities to organise daily searches after high tide for any oil and for that info to be passed on to the Regional Council 0800 OIL SPILL to receive help and the appropriate clean up gear (including skip bins to take it away).

DO NOT TOUCH THE OIL WITH BARE HANDS OR FEET.

On our way through Opotiki we stopped at my favourite fish and chip shop. As I ate some delicious terakihi I realised that when Rena breaks up and oil spews out it will be some time before fish and shellfish is safe to eat again in the Bay of Plenty region.

Local communities need to make preparations with this in mind – both in terms of the pantry (for Labour Weekend and Christmas) and also economically. I have a horrible feeling that those communities that will bare the brunt will be those who have fought hardest to keep deep sea oil drilling away. There was a message loud and clear next to a Marae: NO DRILL, NO SPILL.

On Wednesday morning Te Whanau a Apanui skipper Elvis Teddy will be in the Tauranga District Court the same day as the captain of the Rena. One a hero, trying to prevent disaster, the other, a sea Captain that has caused a disaster which continues to unfold.

Compliments: Greenpeace NZ

Ecospree

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Planet Green

Today a new Rainbow Warrior has set sail...

2011-10-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

Today a new Rainbow Warrior has set sail...

Dear friends,
Today a new Rainbow Warrior has set sail!

At a small ceremony we christened the Rainbow Warrior III - the world's first sailing vessel purpose-built for environmental campaigning. The new Warrior will be a voice for our oceans, our forests, our climate, and our future. She is built to last for at least 50 years, and she is a promise to you - our supporters - to never give in, never give up. Join us in watching the christening ceremony and learning more about the ship.

If you're one of the 100,000 donors who bought a bolt, an action boat, an anchor, a chart, a soap dish, a piece of her sail or the whole of her wheelhouse, thank you. If you're one of our 3 million regular annual donors, merci bien. If you're one of our 17 million email or mobile subscribers, Facebook fans or Twitter followers, gracias. If you're one of our 14,000 volunteers, danke schön.

Thank you for your continuing support and here's to setting sail for a green and peaceful future!

All of us,
Greenpeace International

http://ecospree.com

http://greening.planet.blogspot.com

http://blogging-along-with-pete.wallinside.com

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A Green Halloween - Reduce Footprints...

2011-10-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

A Green Halloween+

A Guest Post:

It's that time of year again ... when the veil between the living and the dead becomes thin and spirits can be seen walking the earth. Shadows come alive and threaten to grab us ... witches fly and ghosts materialize before our very eyes.

In other words ... it's almost Halloween and time for our annual "Spooky" post!

Question: What's the ratio of a pumpkin's circumference to its diameter?

Answer: Pumpkin Pi

It's almost Halloween ... that creepy night of ghosts and ghouls. Little goblins everywhere are getting ready. Can Moms and Dads make it green? Well sure!! Here are some tricks and treats ... I mean tips:

-Are you going to carve a pumpkin ... or decorate one?

If you haven't grown your own, buy one from a local farm or farmer's market.
Use every part of the pumpkin. The seeds can be toasted and eaten as snacks ... they are healthy and taste great. One can toast them in the oven or in a dry frying pan on the stove. When they are brown, carefully remove them (they are very hot at this stage) and immediately sprinkle your favorite seasoning on them (mine is creole seasoning but kids might prefer something less spicy ... like a little salt). Not in the mood for toasting seeds? Try tossing them, either wet or dry, into the yard for birds ... they love them.
Use the flesh of the pumpkin to make a pie, soup, cookies or flan ... it might require a bit more sugar than the smaller, pie pumpkins.
After Halloween ... compost the shell instead of sending it to the landfill.

Question: How do you mend a broken Jack-O-Lantern?

Answer: With a pumpkin patch

-Are you planning a party for your little ones?

Send email invitations rather than the "snail mail" variety. There are a lot of seriously spooky e-cards on the Internet.
Use re-usable plates, cups, utensils, napkins and tablecloths. Paper party goods can be expensive and just add more clutter to our nation's landfills.
Serve some healthy, fun treats that aren't individually wrapped ... popcorn, apples, fruit leather (in the shape of worms and snakes) and ghostly cookie skeletons.

-Get creative with costumes.

Make costumes from old clothes (downsize adult suits, dresses, etc.)
Check your closets for "retro" clothing (got any old "hippie" duds? Cool, dude!).
Pull out costume jewelry ... little princesses, gypsies and pirates love "bling".
Hats of any kind can "top off" an outfit.
Shop at Goodwill ... they have not only organized merchandise into a special Halloween section but also offer some creative costumes ideas made from second-hand garb.

These are just a few ideas. I'm sure that with a little thought ... you can conjure up a few of your own.

OK ... one more ... then I'll stop ... I promise!

Question: What is a pumpkin's favorite sport?

Answer: Squash

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Rena oil spill potentially NZ's worst environental disaster...

2011-10-08T03:08:00.000-07:00

The Container ship Rena inexplicably crashed into the Astrolabe Reef, about seven kilometres north of Motiti Island, near Tauranga early on Wednesday. It is carrying 1700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, some of which has already started to leak into the sea.

Since then, fears of a potential environment disaster have grown as the leaking oil has spread threatening wildlife, including whales, birds and seals. Indeed, Environment Minister Nick Smith was quoted as saying that the spill from the ship "had the potential to be New Zealand's most significant maritime pollution disaster in decades”. This is very disturbing news.

Oiled seabirds have already been found dead close to the Rena and more birds have been spotted in the water, covered in oil. It is also potentially disastrous for the blue whales and dolphins presently calving in the area, as well as numerous other marine species.

Response teams have so far been unable to deploy oil booms to contain the spill. The response so far as been to use a dispersant called Corexit 9500 - which is being sprayed on the water to disperse the oil. Corexit is the same chemical used in the Gulf of Mexico to deal with the oil from BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill.

Unfortunately ‘dispersal’ essentially means never cleaning up the oil. It will just stay out there and continue to pollute the marine environment. The reason being that Corexit acts like a surfactant and attracts the oil. The oil then forms globules and sinks to the bottom.

Some studies have shown that Corexit 9500 is four times as toxic as the oil itself. Both are now going into the ocean water. It’s not a good situation.

As the authorities battle to get the spill under control and mitigate against the worst environmental effects, we also hope that this incident gives the Government pause for thought with regards to it’s deepwater oil drilling plans. This accident is an unfortunate reminder of just how difficult it is to deal with oil spills at sea. It's a slow spill in a relatively accessible place, and the weather and sea conditions have been favourable yet even so, it is testing NZ's response capability to the limits.

It’s shaping up to be a significant disaster but, bad as it is, it will be a walk in the park compared to what would happen if we had a Deepwater Horizon type spill.

Greenpeace has offered Maritime NZ the support of our inflatable boats, experienced drivers and volunteers to assist in the oil clean up and the New Zealand Wildlife Health Centre is calling for volunteers to assist in the recovery and rehabilitation of oiled wildlife but as yet there is little anyone can do.

Despite the best intentions, the oil spill response team in Tauranga will not be able to do enough. There is no ‘enough’.

The tools we have to respond to oil spills are orders of magnitude too small to combat the damage they do.

We can’t fix oil spills; we can only prevent them. And we can only prevent the really catastrophic spills by saying no to deep sea oil drilling.

http://blogging-along-with-pete.wallinside.com

Ecospree

Kiwipete

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Ecospree: Can you grow you own bicycle?

2011-10-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

Can You Grow Your Own Bicycle?

By Rhonda Winter via Ecolocalizer Ecospree

When we speak of “growing” a more sustainable local economy, the term is usually not meant literally; but in the case of an innovative design for a new transport vehicle, we may actually be able to grow our way into a more sustainable future. A beautiful new three-wheeled recumbent bicycle has been created that is constructed from renewable organic materials. The bamboo bike was derived from techniques used in arborsculpture, a more complex form of topiary, which utilizes specifically modified and grafted plants to create shaped structures which are very strong. The process is also known as “grown mobility”.

This award-winning velomobile is known as the “Ajiro”, and was created by student designer Alexander Vittouris. Building this machine involves using sustainable principles to create a transportation vehicle that is almost entirely made of natural biodegradable materials. Using an easily renewable resource like bamboo, with its rapid growth rate (as much as one meter in just a 24 hour period), coupled with its amazing structural integrity, makes this vehicle a very sensible choice. Mr. Vittouris explains a bit about how the recumbent is made:

“In this case, the manipulation and intervention is more akin to a farming process, whereby bamboo plants need time for thorough establishment to form the required energy mass to produce new culms. The vast array of species available also lends such a mobility concept to be locally grown, creating distributed, localized production. For the sake of the research experimentation, Bambusa Oldhamii seems most appropriate for climatic suitability in Australia, and whilst progress has been made in proving its growth and viability, more plant establishment would be necessary.

Embracing a natural process, affords knowledge of a somewhat different kind — products take time to create, they take resources. Growing sections to be used in ones personal mobility teaches that material worth is beyond that of ‘discardability’, ones own efforts, witnessing growth, creates a tangible link to the very history of the product. Growing materials for direct transference to products also indicates other possibilities for maximizing a single materials use, rather than relying on either multiple materials or processes to fulfill criteria.

Possibilities unheard of in conventional production process may allow the opportunity for community farms of vehicles growing once thorough plant establishment has taken place. The Ajiro concept is about rethinking our approach to both design and ecological sustainability of the products we create. Approaches towards sustainable personal mobility will surely be necessary, and growing vehicles may provide that answer.”
Source: EcoLocalizer (http://s.tt/12YGa

Ecospree

Ecolocalizer

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Can You Grow Your Own Bicycle?

2011-10-06T23:54:00.000-07:00

Can You Grow Your Own Bicycle?

New Zealand marine dolphins are at risk and need to be conserved...

2011-10-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

New Zealand's Hector marine dolphins future are threatened by fisheries bycatch (the use of plastic nets), pollutants and boat disturbance. While recent surveys have estimated an abundance of about 7400, these are fragmented into three areas in the South Island and also include the threatened Maui subspecies which is down to 100 animals in the wild. Dolphins are mammals, not a fish species.

The Maui dolphin as described above is a subspecies of the Hector dolphin, and is the world's most rare marine dolphin. While they are down to 100 animals in the wild, the fact there are more than one human induced death every seven years, is a concern because it threatens the Maui's recovery. This dolphin is found on the west coast of the North island.

Ecospree

Kiwipete

Hectors dolphin

World Wildlife Fund

Tripbase

Bearing witness to the threatened beauty of Indonesian rainforests...

2011-10-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Blogpost by Cakra Prathama, Greenpeace Indonesia

"For ten days now we have been touring Sumatra to bear witness to the true state of Indonesia’s rainforests - and everywhere we go we see forest destruction. It’s distressing, but at the same time it drives us to keep fighting against deforestation, like that caused by the creation of industrial plantations for pulp and paper by companies like Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). My name is Cakra, I am one of the ‘tiger’s eye’ activists participating in the tour, and although it is tiring, our desire to protect Indonesian rainforests keeps us going.
This week we travelled to Tesso Nilo National Park, one of the last remaining natural forests in Sumatra, but its existence is under threat. I’ve been imagining the beauty and biodiversity of our rainforests and hoping to see some of it at Tesso Nilo.
Instead what we saw on our way there worried me. Timber trucks were a regular sight during our journey. Si Maung (my bike’s name) kept moving, the King of the Forest – the Sumatran tiger – is a big inspiration for this trip and his stripes decorate my bike. Our team leader, Adhon gives us instructions to slow down and suddenly we see a big signboard ahead. It reads: PT. Arara Abadi. This is one of the companies owned by APP. My GPS (global positioning system) shows this location is not far from the spot where a Sumatran tiger became trapped and later died. This tragedy happened in July on the border of the concession area where we’ve now stopped.
Entering the concession area of PT. Arara Abadi, we’re immediately met with a view of destruction. We stop to document it and together our whole team approaches an area of peatland, which has been destroyed. It used to be the tiger’s home. The peat dome was opened to dry the peat, releasing the large amounts of carbon stored there. This destruction of peatlands contributes to Indonesia having the third highest carbon emissions in the world, after the US and China. After the peatlands have dried, this concession will become a monoculture plantation for producing pulpwood. This is exactly the kind of destructive activity that we are trying to stop.

Tiger activists crossing the canal in concession area of PT Arara Abadi, a supplier to Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). The activists are touring Sumatra to highlight Indonesia's deforestation. Image: Ulet Ifansasti
After documenting the destruction at PT. Arara Abadi concession, we continue our journey, to Tesso Nilo. Arriving there we were greeted by Novi, Dono, Indro, Tesso, Nela, Ria, Rahman, Lisa, Villa and little Imbo. They are a group of Sumatran elephants from the Flying Squad Camp WWF (World Wildlife Federation), inside Tesso Nilo National Park. We enjoyed the most unique welcome ceremony so far on our tour as we were given leis (garlands) by the elephants themselves.

One of the Tesso Nilo Fling Squad elephants places a lei on a Greenpeace activist dressed in tiger costume during their visit to the National Park - one of the last remaining natural forests in Sumatra. Image: Ulet Ifansasti
Syamsuardi, the WWF Riau Flying Squad Coordinator, explained that the importance of elephants and tigers as ‘umbrella species’ is because their roaming distance can be very far. One Sumatran tiger (Panthera Tigris Sumatrae) has a roaming range of up to 100 km square. And the elephant’s range is up to 60 km square. This means that if elephant and tiger habitat can be protected, a lot of other species that live within the vast areas they roam in will also be protected.
In the afternoon, it’s time for the elephants to take a bath. We get the chance to shower and feed them, and then tour Tesso Nilo National Park. It’s a fascinating place, but also a challenging place, as it’s one of the last remaining natural forests and must be protected from the kind of destruction we just witnessed at PT Arara Abadi concession.

During our tour we pass close to forest next to a river and find tiger’s footprints. These footprints show us that this area is natural habitat for the Sumatran Tiger, seeing the paw marks is so exciting. It makes us feel closer to the animal and the forests we are trying to protect. As we continue our tour throughout Sumatra we will keep collecting new facts on the status of its natural forests. We will continue asking for all Indonesian people - and people all over the world - to bear witness, to become the ‘eye of the tiger’ with us, and urge companies to stop destroying forests and become more responsible for protecting nature.

I know that deforestation and animal extinction will be closely related to the loss of Indonesian culture. I do not want to be the generation who failed to protect Indonesia’s forests from the greedy. The future of our forest is the future of Indonesia. I hope the next generation - such as Almira (one of the Indonesian President’s grandchildren) – will still be able to enjoy the beauty of Tesso Nilo and its biodiversity. I hope that Almira’s grandfather – President SBY - and all Indonesian people will take the necessary action to protect Indonesia’s forests now.
There is still time to stop the destruction."
Cakra’s account of the destruction he’s witnessed is alarming. It serves to remind us of how obscene and unjustified it is that such extraordinary and unique habitats are being systematically destroyed to make throwaway products such as Cottonsoft toilet paper. Despite their deliberate attempts to mislead the New Zealand public, this is the reality of what Cottonsoft suppliers are responsible for on the ground in Indonesia.
And this is why it is so important that customers and retailers send a very clear message to Cottonsoft and APP that they must immediately commit to ending rainforest destruction and ensure that they only sell paper products that meet the highest possible environmental standards.

The Green Planet continues its support for Greenpeace to save rainforests from global industrial exploitation.

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Wellington City Mayor tests battery electric green bicycle...

2011-09-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

Celia Wade-Brown, who last year famously peddled to Wellington Airport to welcome the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave a new battery-powered bicycle a test run around the capital.

She tried out two eZee electric bikes, riding from Island Bay to Oriental Parade.

Wade-Brown said the extra zip in the front wheel would take ten minutes off her commute to the council chambers. It would also have a cosmetic bonus.

"I usually aim to arrive not red in the face and sweating, but if I was going up some of the hills like Khandallah, this would enable me to arrive looking more mayoral and less sweaty," she said.

Electric Bike Hub director Jace Hobbs, who has been importing the bikes to New Zealand, said electric bikes could go up to 30km per hour.

It comes with a lithium battery which can be recharged by plugging in to the wall and cost between $2300 and $3650 depending on the model, including delivery and GST.

Wade-Brown said riding the electric green bike was "not cheating", but "helping" cyclists face uphill roads and strong winds.

"You'll be peddling at the same level intensity and just go faster. No need to use it downhill.

"It will make it more accessible for more people of all ages," she said.

Wade-Brown was not planning on treating herself to an eZee, though she was keen to upgrade by getting a battery installed on her bike for $1790.

The bikes were also available at The Bikes Hutt in Upper Hutt.
Stuff

Acknowledgements- http://stuff.co.nz

Ecospree

Blogging along with Pete

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On the edge of extinction - New Zealand's Archey's frog...

2011-09-11T03:44:00.000-07:00

The world’s most important frog lives here in New Zealand. In fact it is not only the most important frog but the most important amphibian in the world. It is critically endangered with its population in decline. It is beautiful, and more ancient than the Atlantic ocean. It, like many human kiwis, is the quiet type and has amazing patterns on its skin. It is also a great father.

Archey’s Frog is found on the Coromandel Peninsula and near Te Kuiti and it is ranked no. 1 on the EDGE list for amphibians. Scientists have brought the world a unique scoring system; the world’s mammals and amphibians are scored according to how Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) they are.
Interestingly, Maori do not appear to have a special name for the different frog species – they are all called ‘pepeke’ (or some variant of that). The frogs here are very small and probably did not elicit much attention.

To give you a comparison with how critically endangered and unique Archey’s frog is, lets compare it to the New Zealand greater short-tailed bat (Mystacina robusta), which is number 4 on the mammal list and is thought to be extinct.

There are no other mammals listed from NZ (not even Maui’s dolphins appear on the list). Blue whales are listed at 74 on the scale. I guess it is because the Maui’s dolphin is not that evolutionarily distinct – but we should not take any less care of them for that matter.

So why isn’t this very beautiful frog one of our iconic species? Well I think it is because it isn’t a CMF – a Charismatic Mega Fauna like a lion, a dolphin or a kiwi. We shouldn’t evaluate how valuable an animal is by how beautiful or ugly it is. But we cannot really help doing that – we are humans and our brains are hard-wired for beauty. But is should be one of our iconic species it is hard enough being green whilst also being small!

New Zealand frogs are quite distinct from all the other frogs in the world and very ancient.

Ecospree

Frog

Frog's blog

Cottonsoft supports rainforest destruction - Greenpeace claims...

2011-08-22T02:51:00.000-07:00

Cottonsoft supports rainforest destruction...

Greenpeace claims:

Only 400 or so Sumatran tigers are left in the wild...

A well-known toilet-tissue brand is being accused of sourcing its paper from Indonesian rainforests, the home of critically-endangered Sumatran tigers.

Greenpeace, the Green Party, and WWF New Zealand have spent eight months investigating Cottonsoft, and sent samples to a US laboratory for testing.

Greenpeace spokesman Nathan Argent says traces of mixed tropical hardwoods were found.

"Cottonsoft is owned by one the world's most notorious rainforest destroyers, Asia Pulp and Paper, and over the years Greenpeace has repeatedly shown that Asia Pulp &amp; Paper's suppliers are trashing tiger habitats to feed its paper mills."

Cottonsoft has refused to divulge where it sources its paper.

Greenpeace says companies such as Kraft, Nestle, Unilever, Tesco and Carrefour have stopped working with Asia Pulp &amp; Paper because of its actions.

"We're asking customers to tell retailers to stop selling toilet paper that has come from trashed rainforests," says Mr Argent

.
One in four rolls of toilet paper sold in New Zealand are made of paper sourced from Indonesia.
There are only about 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.

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Change the World Wednesday - Reduce Footprints...

2011-07-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

A Green Site you might like to visit some time...

THE IDEA BEHIND THE CHALLENGE

What if a whole lot of people did the same "green" activity during the same time period? Would we have a positive impact on the environment? I believe we would! That's the simple concept behind Change The World Wednesdays (CTWW). Each week a new challenge will be posted, here on Reduce Footprints ... something which is easy to do and when done "en masse" will have a positive effect on the earth. It's the idea that when a lot of little actions are joined together ... the impact can be huge. We hope to take a huge step towards saving the earth.

Reduce Footprints

I Love A Green NZ

Ecospree is Green

My Likes

The Blogfrog

Ireland says no to GM crops in that country...

2011-06-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

Ireland says no to GM crops in that country...

Ireland has taken the bold step of banning the cultivation of all GM crops. Photo by ellievanhoutte via Flickr.

Prince Charles has called it the "biggest environmental disaster of all time," while Monsanto and others maintain it's safe for humans and the environment. Genetically modified foods are a contentious issue, but Ireland is erring on the side of caution, placing a ban on growing any genetically modified crops.

Ireland will ban growing of GM crops, and a voluntary GM-free label can be placed on all animal products--such as meat, poultry, eggs, fish, crustaceans, and dairy--that are raised with GM-free feed, according to a GM-Free Ireland press release. Ireland joins Japan and Egypt as one of the few but growing number of countries that have banned the cultivation of GM crops.

Smart Move for Irish Farmers:

The agreement, signed by the government's two coalition partners, declares Ireland a "GM-free Zone."

The move will help Irish farmers who can't compete with subsidized agriculture powerhouses, says GM-Free Ireland Co-ordinator, Michael O'Callaghan...

Read more...

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The Frogblog

Palaentologists in a race against time to uncover huge ice-age treasure trove of fossils...

2011-06-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

Palaeontologists are in a race against time to uncover a treasure trove of huge ice age fossils before the site becomes flooded by an expanding reservoir.

Enormous skeletons belonging to woolly mammoths, giant sloths and bison have been discovered in a lake bed in Colorado in what is one of the most significant finds in recent years, the Aspen Times reported.

The ice age animals are believed to have sunk into the muddy lake edge and drowned, with the heavy clay preserving their skeletons perfectly.

But the palaeontologists must have their work completed before July, when the lake bed will be flooded for a new reservoir.

Denver Museum of Nature and Science curator Kirk Johnson said the specimens found at the site were "gorgeous", showing a giant sloth claw to journalists.

"This looks like it fell off a sloth last Tuesday," Dr Johnson said.

"I have no question that if you got too close to one of those sloths, it would immediately rip your face off."

Scientists estimate the bones date from between 50,000 and 150,000 years ago.

Treasure trove of ice-age fossils

ecospree.com

Kiwis should send Sealord a strong message about its source of tuna...

2011-06-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

Kiwis should send Sealord a strong message about its source of tuna..

Sealord needs to do more than change its logo. Sealord needs to change its tuna.

http://greenpeace.org/

Sealord wants to be the ‘most trusted seafood company’. But, how can we trust Sealord’s sustainability messages when your company uses one of the worst fishing methods around, killing endangered sharks, turtles, juvenile tuna and other ocean life in addition to the tuna for Sealord cans.

As New Zealand’s largest brand of canned tuna, Sealord, the self-proclaimed ‘seafood experts’ should be leading the way on sustainability. So it shocks me to learn that your company is sourcing tuna caught by a method which you know catches far more than just tuna – up to 10 times more bycatch than more sustainable practices. That’s exploitation, not expertise!

I see that your website states that Sealord will avoid sourcing tuna from “fisheries that use indiscriminate fishing practices that result in significant quantities of catch being discarded or landed as juveniles or unmarketable species”.

So, live up to this promise and stop using fish aggregation devices (FADs) with purse seine nets. This would dramatically reduce the amount of bycatch. http://adl.brs.gov.au/brsShop/data/PC12777.pdf

If you are serious about the sustainability of Pacific tuna you would take this simple step as has occurred in the UK where all but one of the major brands have committed to source only pole and line or FAD-free purse seined tuna.

I am encouraged that Sealord is supporting plans to create marine reserves in the high seas.

Please let me know when Sealord will end the use of FAD-caught purse seined tuna to help save Pacific tuna and other ocean life - and become a leader for sustainability amongst New Zealand canned tuna brands.

Your information is safe with us. Greenpeace will never share, sell or swap your information with any other organization. Read our Privacy policy.

Sealord is New Zealand’s largest supplier of canned tuna but it’s also one of the worst.

That's because Sealord gets its Pacific tuna from companies using one of the worst fishing methods killing endangered sharks, turtles, juvenile tuna and other ocean life as well. These creatures are known as bycatch and are often thrown back into the ocean dead or dying. That’s exploitation, not expertise.

Sealord needs to clean up its act if it wants to live up to the ‘seafood experts’ image it advertises, and achieve its goal of becoming the ‘most trusted seafood company’. Sealord must stop sourcing tuna caught using fish aggregation devices (FADs). FADs are used to lure tuna but, also attract other ocean life which is then scooped up in huge purse seine nets. FADs increase the bycatch of purse seine fisheries up to 10 times more than other more sustainable methods.

If Sealord is serious about sustainability it would stop sourcing tuna caught using this indiscriminate method.

All but one of the UK’s major canned tuna brands have announced they’re phasing out purse seine tuna caught with FADs.

Sealord and other brands of canned tuna sold in New Zealand can do it too.

Last week Sealord announced it was updating its branding. Sealord needs to change more than just its logo. Tell Sealord to change its tuna and move to more sustainable fishing methods.

A message to Sealord

http://ecospree.com/

The Blogfrog

Worms from hell found far below the surface of the Earth...

2011-06-05T04:16:00.000-07:00

Worms from Hell found far below the surface of the earth...

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a study published this week in Nature, researchers Gaetan Borgonie from Ghent University in Belgium and Tullis Onstott from Princeton University announced the discovery of new nematode species living kilometers below the earth in several South African mines. Nematodes had been previously found much closer to the surface, but this discovery of deep-dwelling nematodes, or roundworms, are the first multicellular organisms to ever be found at these depths.

Halicephalobus mesphisto was named after Mesphistopheles which is the literary nickname for the Devil. It was located in a mine some 1.3 km (0.8 miles) below the surface where the temperatures reach 37C (98.6F). This was believed to be a higher temperature than most nematodes could tolerate. H. mephisto measures 0.5mm and eats films of bacteria. It was found in the Beatrix gold mine some 240 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg.

The Driefontein mines revealed two more nematode species. Plectus aquatilis and another unkown species from the Monhysterid order were located at 0.9 km (0.55 miles) below the surface at a temperature of 24C (75.2F).

The most amazing discovery came from the Tau Tona mine where researchers discovered DNA from another unknown monhysterid. This DNA was recovered from some 3.6 km (2.24 miles) below the surface where temperatures reach 48C (118.4F).

In order to rule out contamination and the possibility these nematodes were from closer to the surface, Borgonie tested the water’s chemical composition that the nematode was collected in and found levels of oxygen, sulphur, and other chemicals that were expected to have come from the source location. He used carbon dating and determined that the water had been isolated from the earth’s surface for 3,000 to 12,000 years.

More information: Nematoda from the terrestrial deep subsurface of South Africa, Nature 474, 79–82 (02 June 2011) doi:10.1038/nature09974

Since its discovery over two decades ago, the deep subsurface biosphere has been considered to be the realm of single-cell organisms, extending over three kilometres into the Earth’s crust and comprising a significant fraction of the global biosphere. The constraints of temperature, energy, dioxygen and space seemed to preclude the possibility of more-complex, multicellular organisms from surviving at these depths. Here we report species of the phylum Nematoda that have been detected in or recovered from 0.9–3.6-kilometre-deep fracture water in the deep mines of South Africa but have not been detected in the mining water. These subsurface nematodes, including a new species, Halicephalobus mephisto, tolerate high temperature, reproduce asexually and preferentially feed upon subsurface bacteria. Carbon-14 data indicate that the fracture water in which the nematodes reside is 3,000–12,000-year-old palaeometeoric water. Our data suggest that nematodes should be found in other deep hypoxic settings where temperature permits, and that they may control the microbial population density by grazing on fracture surface biofilm patches. Our results expand the known metazoan biosphere and demonstrate that deep ecosystems are more complex than previously accepted. The discovery of multicellular life in the deep subsurface of the Earth also has important implications for the search for subsurface life on other planets in our Solar System.

© 2010 PhysOrg.com
http://physorg.com/

http://www.theworld.org/2011/06/worms-from-hell/

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http://theblogfrog.com/Users/home.aspx

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Solar company announces solar cell breakthrough...

2011-06-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

Solar Company Announces Solar Cell Breakthrough...

Ecospree

By Antonio Pasolini of Energy Refuge

A Californian company called HyperSolar earlier this week announced that new solar design models “show potential magnification of 300%”. HyperSolar develops technology that increases the power output of solar cells, one of the technological challenges the industry faces.

“We believe that a critical advancement will be to actually control the delivery of sunlight onto solar cells. We are developing the world’s first thin and flat light magnification layer for direct application on top of standard solar cells to increase their power output”, said HyperSolar’s CEO, Tim Young. “Our plan is to move to the prototype stage early next year and then to a commercial product.”

The magnification layer employs thousands of very small light collectors on the surface that funnel light into a proprietary light routing network in the middle. From there, light is carried to a smaller output area on the bottom where a solar cell can be attached.

Instead of using three solar cells to cover an area on a solar panel, only one solar cell is needed underneath a 300% layer called HyperSolar layer. The company says this will allow solar panel manufacturers to reduce the number of expensive solar cells in their panels by 66%, reducing the cost per watt of their solar panels.

“The higher the light magnification in the HyperSolar layer, the higher the power magnification of the attached solar cell. As part of our development plan, we are exploring various designs and microphotonic elements to increase the magnification by as much as 400% in the final product”, Mr. Young said.

Eco Spree - Solar Cell Breakthrough

A record leap in greenhouse gas emissions - stem the tide of global warming...

2011-05-31T18:42:00.000-07:00

Helen Clark at United Nations...

Read this important article:

A coal-powered power plant in the notoriously polluted city of Linfen in Shanxi province. China is focusing on carbon emissions in its next five-year plan. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

The record leap in global greenhouse gas emissions last year has thrown the spotlight on the world's only concerted attempt to stem the tide of global warming – the United Nations climate negotiations.

Next week, governments will convene in Bonn, Germany, for the latest round of more than 20 years of tortuous talks, aimed at forging a binding international agreement on climate change which so far has eluded them.

Little is expected of the meeting, a staging post on the road to a bigger conference in Durban, South Africa, in December. But the data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) should shock even the most jaded of negotiators.

"I hope these estimates provide a wake-up call to governments," said Lord Stern, a London School of Economics professor and author of the landmark review on the economics of climate change. "Progress in international discussions since the modest successes [at the last UN meeting] in Cancún last December has been slow."

Tom Burke, founding director of green thinktank E3G and a veteran environmental campaigner, is even more forthright. "Be frightened – be very frightened," he said. "This rise in emissions underlines the urgency [of tackling climate change]. The politicians had better come back on this very fast, or we are all in trouble."

The contrast between the snail's pace of negotiations and the rapid rise in emissions catalogued by the International Energy Agency could scarcely be more marked. The Bonn and Durban meetings are widely expected to produce only a few clarifications of countries' emissions targets – already deemed inadequate by campaigners – and some detailed wording of the rules on issues such as forestry and carbon trading.

Yet the jump in carbon dioxide emissions comes less than 18 months after the climate change summit at Copenhagen, which was billed as the most important international meeting since the second world war but produced only a partial agreement and failed to set out a path to a binding treaty.

Another small step was taken at Cancún, when emissions-cutting targets were firmed up and financial commitments from rich to poor fleshed out, though the cash has yet to hit the streets.

"This is clearly an incremental process," said Chris Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary. "But the steps forward at Cancún showed that the UN framework convention on climate change is capable of progress."

According to the IEA, the problem the UN process is seeking to address is growing faster than anyone predicted. If emissions this year rise at the same pace as last year, the world will exceed 32 gigatonnes of Co2 in energy-related emissions alone in a single year. This is the level the IEA had expected emissions to reach by 2020, indicating that the growth of CO2 emissions has been much quicker than expected.

Unless these rises can be turned to reductions within a few years, the world will soon be well beyond what scientists say is the limit of safety.

Stern, chair of the Grantham research institute on climate change and the environment at the LSE, said: "If we are to give ourselves a 50% chance of avoiding a warming of more than 2C, and radically cut the risk of a 4 degrees rise, global annual emissions will need to peak within the next 10 years and then fall steadily, at least halving by 2050."

Even the worst economic recession in 80 years failed to make a lasting dent in emissions. "The global downturn bought us only a very temporary and now vanishing breathing space and the need for significant cuts in emissions remains urgent," Stern added. "The window of opportunity to meet the 2 degrees target is closing, and further delay risks closing it altogether. The challenge is not simply to meet the targets agreed at Cancún but to raise our ambition from there."

While warnings grow louder, analysts say politicians are turning off. Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, said governments have lost interest. "The significance of climate change in international policy debate is much less pronounced than it was a few years ago," he said. "It's difficult to say that the wind is blowing in the right direction."

This gloomy assessment was borne out at last week's summit of the G8 group of leading industrialised nations in Deauville, a two-hour train ride from the IEA's offices in Paris, where hopes that world leaders would discuss climate issues were dashed. Russia, Japan and Canada reportedly told the meeting they would refuse to join a second round of carbon cuts under the Kyoto protocol. Greenpeace accused leaders of "gambling with our future".

Some participants remain optimistic. "The key success criteria [in Bonn and Durban] are whether we can start to deliver the Cancún agreements, as well as make progress on the difficult political issues not resolved there, such as the legal form [of any future agreement] and the level of ambition of emission reduction pledges," said Huhne.

At Bonn, a sticking point is whether there will be a second phase to the Kyoto protocol, the 1997 pact in which developed countries agreed to cut their emissions by about 5% by 2012. While the EU is on track to meet its commitments, other countries are not and some – including the US, which opposes Kyoto – would prefer to discuss a replacement. Developing countries refuse to countenance this, insisting Kyoto must continue as the prerequisite for continuing talks.

To an outside observer, this argument over the legal status of a 1997 agreement that has never been enforced, has been rejected by the US and that puts no obligations on the world's biggest emitter and second biggest economy, China, may seem arcane. But this debate has been the bread-and-butter of the UN talks.

Since Copenhagen, some countries have suggested another approach may work better – agreement among key countries that would bypass objectors, for instance, or a "bottom-up" approach where countries invest in renewable energy to cut emissions. All such attempts have been rejected by developing nations and green groups, who say only an international treaty will deliver accountability.

Huhne believes the UN negotiations can still deliver. "The UK has no intention of letting up in its efforts to get a legally binding agreement," he said.

Britain's adoption of ambitious carbon targets for the mid-2020s, as well as pushing the EU to take a tougher line on emissions, "shows we are serious about meeting the climate challenge, not just arguing for it."

There are signs of progress among emerging economies. Stern said. "China is now really focused on this issue [of emissions] via its five-year plan published in March, covering 2011-2015, and the country hopes to learn enough in the next five years to exceed and perhaps tighten its Cancún target for 2020."

Stern says the key to progress is to see tackling emissions as an economic growth opportunity, rather than a curb. "All countries, particularly in the rich world, should now be taking still stronger action to tackle climate change and to embark on the transition to low-carbon economic growth. This will be a new energy-industrial revolution and full of creativity and innovation and great benefits beyond simply cutting the risks from climate change. We can see its beginnings – it is time to accelerate."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

http://ecospree.com/

Yorkshire Rainforest Project...

2011-05-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Yorkshire Rainforest Project...

The Green Planet presents...

We’re the tea and coffee company that loves trees.

Twenty years ago we launched our Trees for Life appeal with a pledge to plant one million trees. With the help of our customers and staff we reached that milestone in 1999 – but didn’t stop there. Two million trees came and went, and in 2007 we planted our 3 millionth tree on Blue Peter, the children’s TV programme.

Of course there are still more trees to plant, but for now, with an acre of rainforest destroyed every second and half of the world’s rainforest already lost, there’s a new commitment. We’re asking our customers and the whole of the Yorkshire community to help us save an area of rainforest the size of Yorkshire … welcome to the Yorkshire Rainforest Project.

To start our campaign we’ve joined forces with the Rainforest Foundation UK to save an area the size of the Yorkshire Dales in Peru’s Amazon rainforest – one of the most threatened rainforests on the planet.

Yorkshire Rainforest Project

http://ecospree.com/

http://mylikes.com/signup?token=huttriver


Nenets reindeer herders of the Yamal peninsula, whose traditional lifestyle is threatened by encroachment of oil and gas production in the Arctic.	Lena Ek - Swedish Environment minister

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