Men's Things

Independently some people could think that organic food is something for spoilt guys, there also some other people who state that pesticides and insecticides affect the brain, the liver and the reproductive system. Respect to the latter, there was in 2007 a research carried out by the Copenhaguen Rishospital that stated that the organic food achives men have a 43% more sperm than a normal block. I perfectly know that somebody will think that this is a strange post and with no much message, for not saying nothing at all, but as the article spoke about organic food and I felt like speaking about that... what you see is what you get.

I got the information from a spanish newspaper in 2007, now here you have a simmilar piece of news but in English: Organic Food In Relation To Nutrition.  

That's all for now.

There's Something Wrong

Before consuming some wood or paper... Think twice please...

• A surface equivalent to a football stadium disappears every two seconds.
• Non Stop. Every day a surface equivalent to 43,200 football stadiums disappears. Every year a surface equivalent to 15,500,000 football stadiums a year disappears. It would be something similar to the surface of Spain and Portugal together.
• In the last 80 years we have lost so much forests as in the last 10.000 years and what is worst... the pace is accelarating: in the last 30 years we have lost so much forests as in the last 5,000 years. And last but not least, the loss of biodiversity goes in parallel with the loss of forests.
• Many forests finishes their lives transformed into toilette paper, packing, wrapping and office paper.

It's up to you.

Xmas Time Is Coming: Keep This In Mind

Oceans Empty Of Life And Plenty Of Noise And Rubbish

The Footprint Of Your Bottled Water

First of all here you are a report about the footprint of bottled water consumption: click here. Second, when we buy something I think we should take into account the point of departure of the product so that way the thought would become part of what is called "responsible consumption".

Among the products with an important footprint is not only the bottled water but also off-season fruit. We could say that eating the off-season fruit has become second nature but if we take into account that such fruit has been brought from Equator to Spain for example, that could be something bad as it has surely been brought by plane (a really important machine for generating CO2 emissions). If we speak in general terms, a ship emits 0.002 Kg of CO2 per kilometre and ton transported. The same distance and weight for a train is 0.069, 0.11 for a truck and 2 for the plane. It is, for the same distance a plane pollutes 1000 times more than a ship, I don't know if you get the idea... Because of this I raise, the spanish government plans are focused on promoting the railway network and sea routes. Time will tell.

And speaking about bottled water another question would be: why not using glass bottles as we did some years ago? I don't know if in other countries has happened but here in Spain, a twenty years ago, it was something usual to get a discount for returning an empty glass bottle when you bought a new one (filled up with the product of course). It is true that the majority of the bottled water which is sold is bottled in plastic and because of that we should get in contact with the company which makes the product asking for a change  respect to the bottling. The glass bottles are 100% recyclable, in other words, we could use the same material for ever in practical terms (the quantity of missing material is trivial compared to plastic) and the quantity of energy and material necessary in the process is far less than making plastic bottles. The moral today would be: The more glass-bottled water you use the tinier your footprint will be.

And finally, please, keep in mind this is not an apology for consuming bottled water, keep in mind we should drink tap water but just in case we need to buy bottled water for any reason, be responsible and opt for glass bottles as far as possible of course.

And now a nice story to summarise the impact of plastic bottles on our environment and pockets.

I Want To Be Optimistic...

...but every day it is more difficult.

Not Another Nature Film from WWF on Vimeo.

WWF's Living Planet Report 2010

Something Simple and Efficient: A Bicycle

Sometimes I become angry because of the prices of the energy, not because it is expensive but cause I think there many interests into play. However, every time I ride the bicycle along the city and see the way in which we use our cars and air conditioning in homes and shops I said to myself: We don't pay enough for energy, it is cheap till...

Now the thing is: How to make people to understand that our life style of excess and waste should be over? Every day I'm more convinced that many people don't really care about environment and the state of the planet. They just think about themselves or simply, as a human way of scape, they assume that environmental problems are not such a big deal. In other words: human resistance to accept CHANGE.

I don't know what readers will think about what I'm going to say. It's obvious that an environmental education is necessary at schools and centres of education but, most important, for all those ones who "don't care", controlling their expenditure is the key. High prices for energy is the way to understand that we humans can't continue wasting around and eating up natural resources. I could give two examples of how people would behave in front of increasing prices of fuel:

1. There are surveys which point out that 20% of the mileage is unnecessary. Have you realized how many energy could be saved at a planetary scale?


2. More than one would stop speeding. They would keep tyres pumped up (so they would last longer and would also save more money), they wouldn't accelerate hard and driving would be a bit slower (which would save human and wildlife lifes on the roads).

Once more the key is: Everyone should accept that CHANGE is necessary. Fuel efficient cars (including hybrid and electric) are not the solution but part of it. And now, as always, speaking about cars... Who speaks about something or reminds that there is something really efficient and cheap as a bicycle? Mssers. Politiciens... Who bears the cars in the cities? Mssers. Politiciens... Who bells the cat?

If I Pug Can Do It So You Can Do It

Don't wait for the change, you are the change. The change will come when everyone of us changes.

Thanks Charles for the link.

End of 2009: Year of the Gorilla

I know I arrive a bit late but what matters is the thought. Some days after having begun 2010 I would like to wish it to you.

Year after year, one that comes another that goes, that's life: someone comes, someone goes. I have taken advantage of the last post of the year to dedicate some words to the animal of the year 2009: The Gorilla.

This is not the first time I make a reference to this animal but sadly, this species like many other big mammals are on the brink of extinction and I think it is a moral obligation to me to remind my readers the nowadays situation of one of our nearer relatives in the Line of Evolution.

I always insist in the same words: The Change has to come out from everyone of us and this is usuful for different aspects of life. We don't have to wait for the Messiah, just live in the way we would like things to be. And of course I'm not the author of this quote, it is the philosopher Kant and it is something that I try to put into practice every day:

Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

If continue reading, below you'll see I have left several links to information about the gorilla although we could reduce its problems to deforestation and it has three main causes:

1. Search of wood for furniture for rich people (WE).


2. Search of wood for cooking and meat for the ones who are very poor (THE OTHERS).


3. Coltan minery for the posh people who want to change their mobile at a good clip (and I say mobiles for not saying more electronic devices).

So if you consider yourself a responsible person:

• Buy wood when really necessary and take into account its origin. Look for FSC certificates or at least ask the shop assistant about any other warranties: Get the word out.

• Reuse, try to buy second hand furniture. You can find some good oportunities with a bit of patience.

• Calm down with your mobile and don't be so flashy, take profit of it for at least two years if possible and ask your mobile provider any kind of certification which shows that the coltan in your mobile has been taken out under environmental and social responsibility policies because not only elephants and gorillas are killed but also children and farmers are made slaves.

I also want to pay tribute to Dian Fossey who gave her life for defending these incredible animals and without her sacrifice gorillas would've been wiped out. Here you are some links: Wikipedia, the charity which takes her name and another where I've got the picture below.

We also have to pay tribute to Jane Goodall: link 1, link 2 and link 3. You are her foto below and one of her books made me think twice about the way I was conntected to the world and also made me give the first steps to become vegetarian.

Finally, as I paid tribute to the bucardo (link in English), I'd like to do the same with Digit because I think is not fair they fall into obscurity because of a world plenty of "noise", vanity, shallowness and greed. To those who don't know it, gorillas almost don't fight for food, their territory or mating, but leaders put into risk their lifes for trying to stand the group together. Digit was a leader whose loyalty to her family brought her to death when in 1977 she kept a tight rein on six pouchers and their dogs. Her death highlighted the inexorable human interference into the mountain gorillas habit in Central Africa. I hope Gaia has Digit in its glory and from this moment in our hearts.

In the name of gorillas (maybe they can't understand this lines but sign languaje) and mine, we would like to appreciate this time of reading and I sincerelly wish you a very happy 2010.

P.S. Here you are the link to the picture of Digit's tomb: click here.

A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

We are used to the nice puppy which appears on TV advertising Scottex, one of the products of one of the biggest destroyers of ancient forests in the world: Kimberly-Clark. Greenpeace have been fighting the policy of the company since at least 2004 and, finally, both have got an agreement thanks to which by the end of 2011, Kimberly will begin to carry out a greener policy which takes into account the FSC policy (100% FSC? Who knows!).

I leave you a Greenpeace's video against the company which squatters this post and some more related links.

The links:

• Kleercut - Case Closed!
• Marc Gunther's Blog
  

Despite what I have said, I have my own compromise with the forests:

• Fisrt, I ask myself if it is completely necessary to use paper.
• Second, in case I finally needed paper, I'd use recycled for everything and in case it wasn't possible because of circumstancies, I would try to find some made from other sustanaible sources like FSC (the most restrictive) or PFEC among others.

That's all for today friends.

Destruction At Your Feet

I can and I must accept that an indian or a native wear shoes made of leather as a consequence of their hunter-gathering life. What I shouldn't accept is that we, supposed civilized people, make an abuse of that, not only because in the way we keep and kill animals but moreover we are destroying rain forests. As I have said many times, to be many people is not a question of space but resources.

In any case, if you continue wearing shoes made of leather, at least try them to last as much as possible and sign the petition I link below the video. Sign the petition to ask shoes makers to be more careful whith their methods of production. It's a good idea to have a business to earn money, but not at any price, it is also important to be res-pon-si-ble. And by the way, have you ever thought how many shoes makers produce in the poorest countries and sell their products in the richest? Are they pulling our leg?

That's all for today.

Sign The Petition

Something You Should

Something I usually do when I go abroad, is to buy an English book about any subject related with climate change or the state of the planet. In this way, I found in Paris the book whose cover you can see on the left.

And what special thing has this book that many others don't? The first thing is the content. The second is that you can downloaded it for free. I think you can't lose such a opportunity to read a book with points of view that not everybody has. Give yourself the opportunity to see in another direction.

I will let you here some quotes from the Preface to have an idea of what you are going to read, if you do, of course.

Our world is changing fast.When Plan B 2.0 went to press two years ago, the data on ice melting were worrying. Now they are scary....

By 2030, when China's income per person is projected to match that in the United States today, China will be consuming twice as much paper as the world currently produces. If in 2030 the country's 1.46 billion people have three cars for every four people, U.S. style, China will have 1.1 billion cars. And it will consuming 98 million barrels of oil per day, well above current world production...

The challenge for our generation is to build a new economy, one that is powered largely by renewable sources of energy, that has a highly diversified transpor system, and that reuses and recycles everything. And to do it with unprecented speed...

In the following paragraph you have four of the mainstay of my religion... There are four overriding goals in Plan B 3.0: stabilizing climate, stabilizing population, erradicating poverty and restoring earth's ecosystems....

I don't want this post to be longer, so I'm going to finish with the following quote of the book: We have the technologies to restructure the world energy economy and stabilize climate. The challenge now is to build the political will to do so. Saving civilization is not a spectator sport. Each of us has a leading role to play.

Here's the link to download the book and here some more useful information.

Have a nice weekend.

P.S. If you decide to print the book, please, do it using recycled paper and if impossible, buy the book, it is printed that way. Save trees. Respect the Planet.

Something Happened in Las Vegas

CES is the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow. With the digital conversion deadline approaching next month, these undead TV Zombies and their toxins are lurking around Las Vegas hoping to get a hold of some of the shiny new electronics on display.

Thanks to the impending zombie invasion, it seems that Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba have finally stepped up to the plate by announcing, last January 9th, that they will launch a 50-state recycling program by the end of the month.

Get more information by clicking here

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Take Care With Your Xmas Gifts

Now it's time to buy many things as a gift to our mates and folks. And now more than before, we have to take into account things on the background of the things we get. Remember you have many things to say with your buy. You can decide the politics of many companies getting some products instead of others. And of course, think twice before getting something. Think that doubling the time you use something you are reducing twice the quantity of waste. And of course, if you are getting electronic devices, take also into account the word coltan.

I leave you a video to think about my words.

Buy Nothing Day

Imagine that suddenly, we run out of money and, to prevent collapses, more fast than say Jack and Robinson somebody is pumping liquidity once more in our banking system. But in the background of this financial crisis, a crisis much more important is showing: we are working out of nature limits... fish, forests, fresh water, minerals, ground. What are we going to do when these resources are completely exhausted?

There's only one path to prevent the collapse of this human experiment on Earth: we have to consume less.

Click on the picture to get more information.

One More Step

Little by little supermarkets are more concerned about responsible shopping. I don't know the reason, perhaps beacause "green" now is fashionable or perhaps because they answer to the interests of their customers. Everytime I have to buy a new product, the first thing I do is to check if it is ecofriendly, both manufacture and use. When we go shopping house products one of them are paper. We have two options, some times is possible to buy recycled paper and another ones it isn't. In this last case, we have to opt for paper which has an icon in its wrapper (in my case, I look for WWF's bear, the picture of this post).

The first time I saw the icon was great, it was cool to know that somebody was more or less concerned and responsible with the products he/she offered. In this way, I think, we costumers, have lots of things to say, we can opt for not buying certain products, sending e-mails to ask for more ecofriendly ones and so on. But of course, to get to that situation, we have to be informed and want to.

Big things are made with small ones so remember the moral: do your bit.

Here you have an interesting link to do little things.

Bye.

9

This is the number of planets that we would need whether all inhabitants of this planet consumed the same resources as the mean american. So I think you should take this into account before buying unnecessary things. The title for today would be: think twice, do you agree?

The most of the green house gases come from power generation, the energy which is consumed by industries to generate everything you buy and later on for recycling them, although many times things finish in the trash, not in the recycling machine...

We dive in a consumer society, without stopping generating trash and every day more quantity than the previous one. The question is... What can we do? Here you are some examples. Don't change your mobile every six months. Conserve your car eight or ten years at least. Every time you do the shopping take your things inside a cloth bag, don't waste so many plastic bags. Try to buy products with the least wrappers, choose big bottles becasue you will generate less waste. Have you thought in reducing your flights? A plain is an authentic predator of fuel... I would be able to continue for some lines more.... Anyway, have your say, now is your turn, think about what I have just said, remember, thinking doesn't kill you.

Bye, Bye.