The ancient cedar, located near the parking lot of the park, was attacked by poachers last year. The poachers cut 80 per cent of the way through the tree but were unsuccessful in felling it. The tree however was sufficiently damaged that BC Parks staff had to cut the cedar down for safety reasons.

After the damaged giant was felled, the cedar poachers returned at their leisure to cut up and haul out most of the tree. All that remains of the 800 year-old cedar is a stump – nine feet in diameter. The poachers were still removing sections of the cedar in the last couple of weeks.

“We are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to a conviction because someone needs to stand up for BC’s parks and our provincial government clearly isn’t doing the job,” said Gwen Barlee, Policy Director with the Wilderness Committee. “With only 10 full-time park rangers for over 1,000 parks and protected areas poachers know there is almost no chance of them being caught.”

The management of BC parks has been a hot potato for the provincial government. A series of unpopular measures have been introduced over the last decade including: weakening the Parks Act, changing park boundaries to allow for industrial development, cutting the operating budget, reducing park rangers by over 50 per cent, and axing government-funded park interpretive programs. Since 1999 visits to BC parks have dropped by over 20 per cent – a decline not seen in neighbouring jurisdictions.

“Hopefully the reward will result in someone coming forward to the RCMP, and these poachers will answer for this criminal act,” said BCGEU president Darryl Walker. “These kinds of incidents are the unfortunate result of having too few eyes and ears on the ground to protect our public parks.”

British Columbia has only 10 full-time permanent park rangers to patrol 1,000 parks and protected areas covering 14,000,000 hectares. In the summer months 87 additional part-time park rangers are hired, but even at the temporarily increased numbers there is just 1 park ranger to patrol 10 provincial parks. Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park is 16,450 hectares in size.

Source: Wilderness Committee

We are part of the earth. We are also fashion consumers. Therefore everyone of us is responsible for the pollution caused by the fashion industry.

Hong Kong-based NGO, Redress have set themselves the task of promoting environmental sustainability in Asia’s fashion industry by reducing textile waste, pollution and water and energy consumption. They launched the EcoChic Design Award, which is currently in it’s second year. It provides an opportunity for the public to learn more about sustainable fashion.

Textile waste, water pollution and excessive carbon, energy use and their impact on society are currently at odds with the positive cultural and social aspects of the Fashion industry. In Hong Kong alone 234 tonnes of textiles are sent to landfill every day.

The competition was organised specifically to educate, raise awareness, inspire and change the design ethic of emerging designers. Entrants are encouraged to use sustainable design techniques in their collections to aid the future of sustainable fashion.

Although not as easy or straightforward as mainstream fashion, sustainable fashion is becoming more and more popular within the industry. With major brands like H&M, Stella McCartney and American Apparel using ethical and sustainable practices within their production processes, there is a definite shift in the market. Eco-friendly fashion is becoming less of a specialist niche market for the few that are interested and is infiltrating the mainstream and in turn the high street.

The exhibition took place over 2 weeks in April and showcased innovative textile waste minimising garments. Hong Kong-based designers up-cycle garments and materials from the Esprit surplus factory textiles, while established British Designers Ada Zanditon and Junky Styling (both exhibited at Estethica in February’s London Fashion Week) exhibited alongside Orsola De Castro – Founder of London’s Estethica Exhibition.

The Grand Finale takes place during Hong Kong Fashion Week in July, where each finalist will present a six-piece sustainable collection.

The winner of the Award wins:

1. The EcoChic Design Award, in partnership with Esprit and The British Council, will design a sustainable collection for Esprit using recycled textiles.
2. The EcoChic Design People’s Award, in partnership with the British Council, which includes a Tour of London and a visit to London Fashion Week’s Estethica.
3. The EcoChic Most Promising Student Award, which includes a Trip to Shanghai Fashion Week.

Handwritten by Turlington and Marley’s daughter Cedella, the lyrics from the Reggae singer’s famous song “Get Up, Stand Up” is strategically printed on the inside of the tee near the heart and all over the scarf, which are both priced at $45.

Part of the proceeds will be donated to Turlington’s charity ‘Every Mother Counts’, which aims to educate and support women in order to reduce worldwide maternal mortality rates.

The collaboration isn’t the first for Lyric Culture, which was founded in 2005 by singer-songwriter Hanna Rochelle, who wanted to merge the fashion business with her passion for music.

Partnering with 1Love was also fitting not just because of Bob Marley’s lyrics, but their missions which is to inspire Marley fans everywhere to carry out one small act of love and kindness every day.

The website says: “Though a single deed may seem small, together our efforts will add up to something very big. Something that will change the world.”

In this case, contributing to women who face risks that can be life threatening could be that one good deed.

Helios Power has been a strategic partner for the company in Bulgarian market starting from 2010. Since the beginning of 2012, China Sunergy has shipped a total of 22.32 MW to Bulgaria, on top of 18MW sold last year, which accounted for above 30% of the Bulgarian market in 2011.

Bulgaria’s solar market has gained pace since the country introduced a preferential feed-in-tariff in December 2006 and entered the European Union in January 2007. The first renewable energy projects were hydro-electric and wind, followed by solar, for which the country’s southern part with relatively warmer climate is well-suited. In recent years, Bulgaria’s energy grid has experienced some instability as demand sometimes outpaces supply during the daytime.  Power generated by solar installations has helped to moderate the supply of electricity to the grid.  Solar power industry has experienced rapid growth in Bulgaria, and companies like Mitsubishi and Helios Power have partnered to develop large-scale solar projects.

Yerussalimovo Solar Plant is located in the vicinities of Yerussalimovo Village, Southern Bulgaria. “This Solar Plant is the seventh of a series of PV projects that we plan to develop in the next couple of years. We rely on China Sunergy’s efficient products and services to achieve high project performance, and ultimately to guarantee the outcome of investments,” said Mr. Ivo Georgiev, Managing Director of Solaren Park Bulgaria EAD, which is a subsidiary of Helios Power.

Mr. Stephen Cai, CEO of China Sunergy commented, “We have built up a very large market share in Bulgaria. Our 18MW in shipments last year comprised nearly 32% of this market, which, according to the latest Solarbuzz report, totaled about 57MW in 2011. The Bulgarian market is forecasted by the same report to increase to 2.7 times last year’s level, to 152MW, in 2012. We hope to continue to maintain 30% market share this year, even considering the tripled market size. Bulgaria is a great example of high potential emerging markets for China Sunergy, and we believe we can build on the solid relationships we have there to sell more in the future.”

Source: China Sunergy Co., Ltd/PRNewswire-Asia

Restaurants that offer an abundance of choices often deal with huge amounts of wasted food, particularly from buffets. But how many would actually put their foot down and do something about this problem? Not very many I think.

Kylin Buffet in South Shields however have taken a stand against this and have implemented a policy where they charge customers £20 if food is left wasting on their plate.

Beverly Clark experienced this on her visit to the restaurant with her son, 10, and her niece aged six, when she was charged the wastage fee after leaving some of their starters. They were told by a waiter that they would have to pay the additional fee if they did not finish their starters and of course, she was outraged.

Clark said: “I was furious and said we were already paying £18 for three meals, but the staff kept checking if we had eaten the food. In the end I wrapped it up in a serviette, and put it into my bag when they weren’t looking, so it looked like we had eaten it.”

She got £3 off her bill after complaining to the management. The matter was resolved with them leaving and skipping on the main course.

What amuses me is the way she was fuming about paying £18 for three meals, which considering today’s economic climate is quite good. Of course everyone is feeling the strain but what makes you think that restaurants aren’t? Food wastage is a huge problem with an annual value of £23 billion and while most of us will sit there and think ‘that has nothing to do with me’, it actually does.

Wasted food leads to inflated prices in the developing world and reduces overall supply, while increasing food prices. This then has a knock-on effect on people in under-developed countries. So essentially, wasting plate after plate of food in restaurants or even at home, results in prices being bumped up and charges being implemented like the one at Kylin Buffet. Tell me now that we are not guilty of this.

I actually commend the restaurant for sticking with their policy and not bowing to pressure. Clark may think their customer service was appalling but if they were to make an exception here and there, then what would be the point in the charge at all?

Those that think this is another way to be ripped off need to think of the bigger picture. I know that i would always be forking out a fee for food wastage having been described as a “picker” but why create a mini-Mount Everest on your plate if you know that you’re not going to be able physically manage to eat everything?

In a way, a food wastage fee makes you re-evaluate the way you look at food and may even aid you in cutting back on portion size, which is a huge problem where obesity is concerned.

The issue of food wastage isn’t one that restaurants should be tackling – it’s something that we all should be directing our efforts to.

At home there are an abundance of things we can do to prevent throwing away bags of food as highlighted by the “Love Food Hate Waste” website.

Things like freezing food in an airtight container and marking the date for later use is a key way to saving meals. Making sure your fridge is set at the right temperature can go a long way in preventing food waste. Fridges should be set below five degrees celsius, which will keep provisions fresher for longer.

Making shopping lists so you buy what you need instead of engaging in excessive shopping that is unlikely to be consumed before their best before date may help, and once again the solution of portioning food comes into play here. Have tools ready like scales, measuring jugs and freezer bags, which will help with controlling portion sizes and making sure you store food in the correct places, making them last longer.

18 million tonnes of edible food end up in landfill every year, which we all contribute to. So if you find yourself eating at a restaurant that makes it clear they have a wastage charge, take into consideration the bigger picture and eat with your stomach, not your eyes.

The OCF is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping those affected by the disease. Douglas has agreed to appear in the PSA which will be aired in June in the US.

“The Foundation is indebted to Michael Douglas for partnering with us in the battle against oral cancer,” Brian Hill, OCF”s Founder and Executive Director, said. “Michael is a highly visible, well known actor, and a consummate professional.

“Those qualities, when coupled with his personal cancer experience, yield a respected voice to this fight. His willingness right from the beginning of his journey, to openly talk about his difficult personal experience with oral cancer on TV and in print, has certainly created awareness in the public of a cancer too few have even heard of.”

Oral cancer can be treatable when caught early, but there is little awareness and many people only discover they have the disease when it is already too late.

The newest campaign aims to raise that awareness. Research shows that in the US alone, 40,000 people will be newly diagnosed with oral cancer in 2012.

Latest statistics say that oral cancer kills one person every hour of every day, but if caught in the early stages of development, there is a 80 to 90 percent survival rate.

The two-time Oscar winner fought throat cancer for six months with chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and was given the all clear in early 2011.

Photo sourced from The Epoch Times (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images).

It is estimated that up to 12,000 bears are still trapped on Chinese farms. Bear bile farming is a very lucrative business in the Asian market where bile is extracted straight from a living bear. This fluid has been used for decades in traditional Chinese medicine and is said to treat fevers, combat cancer and other bodily ailments.

The conditions in which the animals are kept are always horrendous and the method to get the fluid even more so. Trapped in cages just big enough for a bear to be stuffed in, the large animal is left with no room to stand or turn. Their confinement is usually positioned in such a way where farmers have easy access to the bear’s gall bladder where needles are directly inserted and bile is extracted.

In China, even though the practice is still legal, a movement – which includes conservation organisation Animals Asia Foundation (AAF), government officials and medical experts – has been mobilised to take action for more than a decade.

Founder of Animals Asia, Jill Robinson, made it her life’s work to free these animals. The organisation has so far assisted in the closure of 43 farms in China where animal welfare standards have not been upheld. But larger farms remain – they are primarily owned by the state or pharmaceutical companies – where thousands of bears are subjected to exploitation in torturous conditions, most of them for years on end.

Maggie Q and the bear cub Taurus © Animals Asia

Last year, Guizhentang Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. – owner of one of the largest bear bile farms in China – applied for an initial public offering (IPO), which will see its 400-strong bear farm expand to 1,200 bears. The huge public outcry that followed caused a tremendous backlash for the pharmaceutical company. A backlash that intensified after the China Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine wrote a letter to the media condemning Animals Asia whilst appealing for support from the press.

The reaction to bear bile farming has certainly drawn national as well as international attention. More public and media support are in favour of the abolishment of bear farming. It has prompted support from Chinese and international celebrities, such as Jackie Chan and Maggie Q, who are encouraging people to turn away from using bear bile, and Virginia McKenna OBE, who is patron to Animals Asia UK.

If pharmaceutical companies are the big players in bear bile trade in China, then the tourism industry in Vietnam could be attributed for playing the same role.

Bear farming in Vietnam is illegal, but it is permitted to keep bears as pets. The people who are involved in the trade are individuals and small – mostly family-owned – businesses.

There is an emerging trend of Korean tourists visiting Vietnam for bear bile purchases, especially in Ha Long Bay. Here, the bile is “sold fresh in liquid form”.

“Many tourists come to Ha long Bay expecting a visit to bear farms and to buy bear bile,” said Tuan Bendixsen, Animals Asia’s Vietnam Director. “As part of the attraction and to prove that the bile is genuine, the bile is extracted in front of the tourists. These tour groups are highly organised from Korea. As soon as they land in Vietnam, a Korean tour guide meets them at the airport and stays with them throughout the whole tour. That’s why it’s very difficult to infiltrate these groups. Because of the huge profit – tour guide gets a big kick back from the farm – other tour guides also take tourist groups that are not originally booked on a “bear farm tour” to bear farms after the tourists have visited Ha Long Bay.”

Prince enjoying life in the sanctuary © Animals Asia

Though the bear bile business in Vietnam is prohibited, the country lacks proper tools to prevent or stop the practice. China on the other hand may experience from a more immediate effect.

“If the government ever rules to make it illegal then it is more likely that the bear farms will close as opposed to Vietnam where it is illegal already but still continues due to poor enforcement,” Nicky Vyvyan-Robinson, Education Manager for Animals Asia, explained.

“However, we do have to consider the possibilities of what would happen to the circa 12,000 bears if the farms were shut down. We would propose to work with authorities to turn many of the farms into bear parks, allowing the animals to live out their lives in peace and security like those in our sanctuaries.”

Read our Interview with Animals Asia’s founder, Jill Robinson.

Animals Asia founder, Jill Robinson, who embarked on this mission ever since her first visit to a bear bile farm in 1993, gives us an update on the development in stopping this practice.

Q: Your quest started back in 1993 with the founding of Animals Asia Foundation in 1998, after almost two decades of dedication and a seemingly goliath-like battle to get the Chinese government, pharmaceutical industry as well as global communities mobilised, how would you describe your journey and achievements in rescuing the ‘moon bears’ so far?

The images of those bears in 1993 have haunted me ever since and have been the driving force in a campaign which has never lost sight of the final goal.

I knew from the start that no friends would be gained in China by pointing an accusatory finger, or laying blame. With good advice from people in many areas – including one memorable government official, this was the time to gain friends, forge allies, and “start the debate in China”.

Throughout the years I would see the development of animal welfare in general (not just helping the moon bears) – technical expertise, the training of Chinese vets, the conferences for responsible animal management, the growth of animal therapy, and the empowerment of passionate, intelligent welfarists. And throughout these years I waited with quiet optimism, always believing that this time would finally arrive.

Today, this is the China I love. These are the people championing animals. These are the groups that rallied when the organisers of the American rodeo tried to import this ghastly form of entertainment and screamed “not in our back yard” – eventually preventing a multi million dollar spectacle of cruelty from being played out in Beijing. These are the groups that are lobbying against the import of Canadian seal products – disgusted that such cruel abuse of clubbing seals could see their bloodied parts now entering China.

Because what the farmers never anticipated in their wildest dreams, was the new movement of people power in China. After 19 years of being at war with the bear farming industry, we see the unprecedented outrage from the media, celebrities, Chinese medicine doctors, students, academics, and the general public.

And with nearly two decades of research under our belts, after rescuing over 350 previously tortured bears in China and Vietnam, we at Animals Asia have been central in providing damning evidence that simply exposes the truth of a species cruelly exploited for its bile.

People championing for animals. Jane Goodall during health check on bear Mandela © Animals Asia

Q: Can you give us an update? What is the current situation? Would you say that the practice of bear bile farming is losing its standing?

It seems the tide is, at last, turning. The public in China are rising up like never before and are absolutely outraged against this torture of one of their endangered and protected species. Remember, that one Chinese officials said to me many years ago “start the debate in China” and it is this focus that we have adopted ever since.

Yao Ming visits Animal Asia's sanctuary © Animals Asia

Today we are seeing support at all levels of media, government, celebrities, lawyers, doctors…  Even students – thousands and thousands of them engaging in public exhibitions – and even squeezing themselves into cages in public places, emulating the suffering of the bears.

The harrowing 45-minute undercover documentary shot by an independent film crew that has been viewed over 1.3 million times, is shocking people to the core. Now being described as the Chinese Cove, it shows bears suffering and dying in tragic circumstances, in both legal and illegal farms – and seeing unprecedented support from the public against bear farming.

The explosion of newspaper, TV, radio and Internet stories has seen citizens pouring online and demanding justice for the bears. Advertising campaigns are rolling out across the country, and people everywhere are signing pledges never to buy or consume bear bile.

There are Chinese medicine shops promising never to sell or prescribe bear bile – and ridding their shelves of all products containing it – which are over 40 so far. Press conferences with doctors stating that the alternatives are just as effective – perhaps more so and themselves calling on the industry to end.

Not surprisingly, with the spotlight on their livelihoods, the farmers are fighting back. Over the last few weeks we have seen a dirty tricks campaign, threats, relentless hacking of our website, smears on our character and more.

But there is no going back. And with new friends such as Yao Ming, the famous retired NBA basketball superstar, who recently toured our sanctuary, met the bears, and pledged to help us with public service announcements, we are all fighting on. Other Chinese celebrities such as Sun Li, and of course Karen Mok who has been our ambassador for many years – the Madonna of Asia – with her own bear Bao Be, keeping the issue in the spotlight and inspiring the younger generation especially how important it is to protect bears for their own sake, rather than how they can benefit humankind.

Karen Mok © Animals Asia

Q: Who are you working with now, and how is their cooperation/collaboration/partnership significant?

We are working in partnership with the Sichuan Forestry Administration and the China Wildlife Conservation Association in Beijing towards ending bear farming and closing bear farms countrywide. Our agreement stipulates this very clearly and is ratified by Beijing. Sadly the process is slow and we stand ready to rescue more bears – any time, any where.

In addition we are working to influence national government to pass and enforce laws to end bear farming through lobbying and continued development of relationships at central and provincial level. This includes the development of relationships with national legislators (NPCs) and government officials within State and provincial forestry departments, the CWCA, Health & Drug administrations, TCM administrations, Industry and Commercial Administrations.

Our work with eminent professors of pathology is showing the potentially harmful effects on human health that bear bile may have.

Dr Wang Sheng Xiang, a Chinese Pathologist who has examined the livers of 49 bears that have lost their lives also leaves no doubt as to his concerns regarding the consequences of the bear farming industry: “The more I learn about the extraction of bile from bears, the more I would never recommend this kind of drug to my family and friends. I personally think we are better to use alternative drugs and never extract bile from bears. This kind of drug could be harmful to people. “

We are supporting the ground-breaking work of Professor Feng Yibin and his colleagues at the University of Hong Kong School of Chinese Medicine. Professor Feng is researching the effectiveness of various Chinese herbal alternatives for ailments commonly treated using bear bile products and describes studies comparing extracts from two species of the herb “coptis”, against raw bear bile and purified active ingredients from bear bile. The tests showed coptis to be far more effective than bear bile at killing cancer cell lines. This research is ongoing and will help to refute claims that no effective alternatives to bear bile exist.

Q: China is not the only country that practices bear bile farming. This ‘tradition’ also exists and is very much on-going in Vietnam, Laos and Korea. Can you tell us what the biggest operational differences are in stopping bear bile harvesting in Vietnam in comparison with China?

Very simply, bear farming is illegal in Vietnam though people are allowed to keep bears as pets. While they claim bears are not milked, it is widely known that bear farming is a thriving industry in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, the bears are anaesthetised with the illegal drug, ketamine, removed from their small cages, restrained with ropes and jabbed in the abdomen with unsterile four-inch needles until the gall bladder is found. The bile is extracted with a catheter and medicinal pump. The process is excruciating for the bears.

We have rescued 108 bears in Vietnam and have room for many more, but the farms known to be illegal are not being closed down – again we work hard to prove that these farmers are extracting bile against regulations and stand ready to receive such bears at a moments notice.  Like China, we have public education programmes, work intensively with the media and the Traditional Medicine community and continue expanding our sanctuary in Tam Dao National Park – near Hanoi – as a both a rescue and educational centre – with the prime focus of closing the industry down.

Benjamin Zephaniah with Animals Asia vet team © Animals Asia

Q: It is said that the medicinal properties of bear bile can be easily replaced with herbs and modern medicine, why is there a delay in transitioning from one to the other? 

Working with doctors in China who promote both the herbal and synthetic alternatives to bear bile, we too are confused and astonished as to why these substitutes do not immediately see the bear farming industry close. As the doctors themselves say: “The bears themselves have cancer, so how can they possibly cure it? The synthetic substitute is ready and available, but has still not been authorised. Why?”

Q: What are the major obstacles you are facing now?

Convincing those in high power of the reality of this industry and encouraging them to close it down once and for all. Again we are astonished that this final decision has not been made when overwhelming evidence points to the disease and mortality in farmed bears – and the consequences to those who consume the diseased and contaminated bile.

The main cause of bear deaths at the China sanctuary is liver tumours. Over 30 per cent of the bears we rescue from farms in China are suffering from liver tumours, which in some cases weigh over 7 kilograms in weight. We believe that this is too high a mortality to be coincidence and continue working with Pathologists in China and Vietnam in relation to a potential link between the contaminated bile, the methods of bile extraction and the liver cancers killing the bears. The bile removed from farmed bears is thick and infected, containing bacteria and cancer cells, blood, pus, urine and faeces and is described by our vets as ‘black sludge’, and “thick, bloody and infected”.

Doctors in Vietnam advise that some of the symptoms of bear bile poisoning are severe liver and kidney damage, jaundice, loss of appetite, fatigue, red eyes, aches and pains in the body, blood in the urine and severe dehydration and perspiration. Four people are known to have died from bear bile poisoning. Doctors in Vietnam also say that bear bile has resulted in impotence in people who took bear bile as an aphrodisiac.

Q: How does an Animals Asia rescue mission work? Can you give us a step by step overview?

We have rescued 277 bears in China.

When Animals Asia receives the bears, they are sometimes still wearing gruesome metal jackets, often suffering from wounds to their noses and muzzles from bar rubbing, their teeth are worn away or are shattered from biting at the cage bars, and their feet are cracked and rotting. Many have teeth and pawtips deliberately cut back by the farmers (to make them less dangerous to milk) and have paws or whole limbs missing, having been trapped in the wild using heavy spring-loaded steel traps that crush and shatter their bones. Many are suffering from an array of ailments including liver cancer, gall bladder cancer, heart disease, arthritis, peritonitis, ulcers and blindness. Many are psychologically scarred as a result of decades of cage confinement and perpetual pain.

Rescued Tinsley (left) and Dilly (right) © Animals Asia

Once the bears are brought to Animals Asia’s sanctuaries they are documented, prioritised, and a preliminary check is carried out by the vet team to establish any severe medical condition while the bears are in their cages.

They are then settled into a quarantine area where they are given fruit, water and browse.

The next day the vet team perform health checks documenting injuries and ailments. At this stage they are prescribed medications and scheduled for surgery.

In China, the vet team perform cholecystectomies on the bears removing the gall bladders, which are horribly damaged from the bile extraction process. In Vietnam, where the bile extraction process is different, the gall bladder is not removed as a matter of course, but instead checked and monitored carefully and removed if necessary.

The vets also repair or remove teeth that are broken and shattered from years of bar-biting or deliberate cutting-back by the farmers. Their eyes are checked, claws are clipped, their ears are tagged for identification, blood taken for analysis, and bodies checked again for signs of further wounds and scarring. After this surgery, the vet team will monitor the bears again in their recovery cages as their surgical wounds dry and heal.

The time spent in recovery cages varies according to the scale of the injuries and complications and availability of new dens.

When they are ready, the bears are moved into a bear house with an enclosure. They are moved to whichever house is deemed suitable according to age group, temperament and space available. Some go to the rehab house initially, where they are gradually and carefully integrated with other bears, and learn to use their natural instincts through our enrichment programmes and be bears again. Even then, moving them into a rehab area does not always go smoothly. In their natural state, moon bears are solitary animals, so they don’t always take kindly to the presence of other bears.

It’s a process of cautious trial and error, but eventually the bears are moved into a single or double bear house with a semi-natural enclosure where they can spend their days swimming, enjoying their swings, play-wrestling and climbing. Throughout the day they have the choice of whether to snooze in their dens or rest and play outside in grassy enclosures.

Q: Is there a recent success story you can share with us?

With physical and psychological wounds so severe, the bears are extremely frightening when they arrive from the farms. They are generally thrashing out with strong limbs and long claws and roaring in rage.

Jasper living conditions at a bear bile farm © Photos courtesy of Animals Asia

This is when we are very very cautious and wary of their presence.  However,  they slowly come to realise that we are not there to cause them pain and you can see the “light”come on in their eyes as they begin trust us at last.

They make us laugh too. When we have a bad day, there they are, lifting us, and helping us to smile at their antics out on the grass.

One bear, Jasper, has an extraordinary character.  He welcomes new arrivals with the glee of a child, and still finds time to rough and tumble with the young bears in what we affectionately term a “bear bundle”.

For a bear crushed flat to the bottom of his cage for 15 years I find his charisma and kindness breathtaking.

Oliver during the time he served at one of China's bear farms © Animals Asia

Almost every time I walk past where he sleeps out in the enclosure I call his name and see his big “Mickey Mouse” ears prick up before he lifts his head and glances my way. As I open the door of his bear den, it’s not long before he wanders over for some treats, and gently licks peanut butter from my fingers.

Then there is Oliver, who is a very special bear rescued along with 9 other bears in April 2010 in Shangdong Province, China. They were all in a dreadful condition – many, including Oliver, were caged and had been wearing full metal jackets around their bodies which had kept dirty and painful latex catheters in place in the gall bladder and abdomen.  Just before we arrived the farmer had ripped off the metal jackets and pulled out the catheters knowing that they were against regulations and that he would be in trouble with the authorities if this method of farming was discovered.   However, it was obvious by the scars around the bears’ bodies – and by their moaning in pain – that the farmer had done this, and we were all disgusted.

On the way home, Oliver began panting, he was hot and refused to eat, and our vets Monica and Heather decided that he needed life saving surgery right there in the back of the truck. We found a local human hospital willing to help supply us with a tank of oxygen etc and the surgery commenced. After 4 hours a hideous metal coil was removed – along with his gall bladder and Oliver’s life was saved.

However, he still had many problems as a result of his past – including stunted limbs and a body grossly deformed from his time in the cage, suffering on two farms during the course of no less than 30 years.

To see him when we finally released him in his den, literally swaggering out into the enclosure – stretching his stiff old body high into the air to retrieve juicy tomatoes and ripe apples and pears from the tops of the hanging logs, was a sight not to be missed.  He swam in the pool, lay in the grass enjoying the freedom of nature and every so often he glanced over as if to say “it’s pretty good here”, before wandering off again to retrieve another tasty treat. There are simply no words in the English dictionary that can adequately describe how my heart lurched with love and affection for a bear in his twilight years who was so much enjoying his freedom at last. The sun shone, the pool glistened and Oliver, our “broken bear”, smiled for China as his feet got wet.

Jasper in hammock, life at the sanctuary © Animals Asia

Q: What is it that Animals Asia needs to continue its important work?

You can help us by please going on to the website and spreading the word about the bears and encouraging everyone to join Animals Asia.  Much is there advising people to “stand up behind the people of China” who are now increasingly speaking out against bear farming – we become closer and closer to that day and need everyone’s help more than we can say.

Please write to your local Chinese Embassies – again we can provide polite sample letters showing that this is a request not just from people in the international community but from those in China now too.

Read article “Asian Black Bears continue to suffer their bile“.

We think that old clothes shouldn’t just be thrown out, they should have a future…

Marks and Spencer, Oxfam and Joanna Lumley of Absolutely Fabulous (i’m pretty sure “Patsy” wouldn’t approve of this scheme) have joined forces and launched a revolutionary new scheme titled “Shwopping”.

To be a Shwopper you need to bring your old item(s) of clothing (they don’t need to be from M&S) to one of the M&S Shwop Drops. All clothing will then go to Oxfam who will either resell it, recycle it to make new material or send it to those in need in a Third World country. The main aim is for M&S to collect as many clothes as are sold and change the way we all shop to reduce the amount of clothing sent to landfill.

Approximately 500,000 tonnes, equivalent to 1 billion items of clothing are sent to landfill each year. The capacity of the planet’s landfill sites are limited, so throwing unwanted clothing items away when they could be recycled or re-used is hardly sustainable. Marks and Spencer and Oxfam hope this project will help see a move away from ‘disposable’ fashion into a society that instead adopts a ‘buy one, give one’ culture, where reusing, recycling and reselling old clothing becomes the norm.

You can Shwop at all M&S stores, except the Simply Food outlets. You aren’t required to buy from M&S when making a Shwop deposit, you can just donate your unwanted items as you would in a Charity shop.

Which poses the question: How is this different to taking your clothing to an Oxfam store yourself?

M&S are trying to raise awareness of the landfill issue whilst encouraging donations to Charity shops and increasing the recycling of textiles. As further incentive to Shwop, all customers who donate through an M&S store are entered into a weekly prize draw to win a £100 gift card. Those who donate directly to an Oxfam store will be offered an M&S voucher, but only if their item is from M&S.

I guess I’ve always been a Shwopper of sorts. At least once a year I wake at dawn, fill my boot till it barely closes and head to the nearest boot sale. I find it very satisfying to re-home my previously loved items whilst making enough money to buy new items to love. Win-win situation! Or am I being selfish, when really I should be donating to Charity shops and helping to support those in need?

The issue for me is this, I feel that Charity shops sell their goods far too expensively. I understand they have costs to cover and are selling the goods in order to cover these as well as to fund/support research/educate into their chosen cause.

But they seem to have stepped away from the original purpose of Charity and second-hand shops, which to my knowledge is to cater to those who are less fortunate and therefore cannot afford to buy from the likes of Marks and Spencer. If these items are in fact for those in poverty how do they afford them? I understand that the money raised through Charity shops goes to help support those less fortunate, but I can’t see how the less fortunate living here in the UK, can afford to buy from them.

Charity shops tend to sell their stock of mostly second-hand items at almost original prices. I can’t see how this encourages either those who can’t afford to buy outright, those buying just to support the Charity or even those buying in order to re-use goods.

Browsing the Oxfam website, I came across a pair of boots listed for £800, ok so they were worn by Beverley Knight when she won 2 MOBO awards in 1998 and this is obviously not an everyday sales item, but would something like this not be more suited to a fundraising auction rather then a Charity website?

Personal feelings aside this is a great campaign. Awareness of depleting landfill sites and the need to move away from being a ‘disposable’ society are issues that need to be brought to the mainstream and with Marks and Spencer working alongside Joanna Lumley and Oxfam, mainstream is definitely where it’s at.

What are your views on Charity shops? Will you be joining the Shwopping Revolution?

Safe sex is a message that each new generation needs to hear, which is why H&M is launching its fifth Fashion Against AIDS (FAA) collection, to raise funds and create awareness about HIV/AIDS among the young.

The 26th of April saw H&M launch its fifth worldwide Fashion Against Aids campaign, which aims to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS among young people. 25 Percent of all proceeds from the collection are divided between four organisations that aid in the prevention of the disease through education and information.

Since the launch of the campaign in 2008, H&M has raised over $6.5 million for its chosen organisations:

H&M Campaign Collection Summer/Spring 2012 – Photo courtesy of H&M

Designers Against Aids (DAA) is an organisation, which trains and educates the younger generation in HIV/AIDS awareness, so they can spread the message within their own communities.

MTV Staying Alive Foundation is MTV’s global campaign to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. Their Staying Alive Award offers grants to young people focused on preventing the spread of HIV.

The task of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is to support each individual’s right to good health and equal rights.

YouthAIDS is an HIV/AIDS prevention initiative of Population Services International (PSI), which reaches more than 600 million young people in more than 60 countries.

H&M Accessories for Fashion Against Aids 2012 – Photo courtesy of H&M

Past collaborators on the FAA campaign have included Rihanna, Timbaland and Katherine Hamnett. This year’s collection brings together ethnic influences from artists and illustrators on different continents. From Tribal African trim on blouses, to Maori prints from New Zealand on leggings, and Inuit designs on t-shirts all the way from Greenland, the collection brings tribal artwork into the 21st century.

Accessories such as hats, iPhone cases and jewellery are also adorned with the fabulous traditional prints.

The collection is bold, wearable and very on trend for the upcoming festival season. With items starting from just £2.99 there is no reason not to support this cause. Look good, feel great!

Another aspect of this great campaign is the KIss for a Cause. Take a photo of yourself puckering up and post it to the H&M campaign page. For every photo uploaded H&M will donate $1 to Aids prevention.

As well as supporting the worldwide HIV/Aids campaign, H&M is also the number one user of organic cotton in the retail industry. They save 300 million litres of water in denim production, donate 2.3 million garments to various charities and complete 500,000 quality tests each year to ensure their company remains economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.

The listing will give Australia’s much-loved koalas protection under national environmental law.

It is said koala numbers have dropped by as much as 40 percent in Queensland in the last 20 years. The causes are largely due to urban expansion and climate change.

“My decision to list the koala under national environment law follows a rigorous scientific assessment by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee which gathered information from a variety of experts over the past three years,” Burke said.

“Koala populations are under serious threat from habitat loss and urban expansion, as well as vehicle strikes, dog attacks and disease.”

The decline however is not evenly perceived across the whole of Australia. Vulnerable populations are observed specifically in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), as opposed to koala communities in Victoria and South Australia where they “are eating themselves out of suitable foraging habitat” and needs proper management.

Burke explains that rather than listing the koala as a nationally threatened species across its full range, only the koala populations of Queensland, New South Wales and ACT will be recorded.

However, the Australian Greens have expressed their concerns to the Guardian, saying that “it would have made more sense to give the koala a national listing, instead of waiting for koala populations in South Australia and Victoria to fall into decline without protection, like those in Queensland and New South Wales.”

The Australian Koala Foundation shares the same opinion in as far as they do not believe that full protection and complete realization of the danger these animals are facing are in place, while criticizing the government of working with inaccurate information, such as the number of koalas in the wild to be at 200,000.

“At the moment we’re still of the opinion that there’s not that many koalas, less than 100,000. Victoria still needs to be protected,” said AKF CEO Deborah Tabart in ABC Science. “I’m delighted with this because it is going to slow things down, but it’s not going to save our koalas.”

On the other hand, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman is skeptical about the listing, saying that it would only add more ‘green tape’ to the situation.

Others see the sensibility in the course of the operation.

“The problems facing koalas are very different across its geographic range,” Professor Chris Johnson at the University of Tasmania told ABC Science. ”In the south, some populations are overabundant and are damaging their habitat. In the north, koala populations are in decline for a multitude of reasons.”

“We will need to think about the differing needs of northern and southern koalas almost as if they are two different species. Therefore it makes sense that they be given separate listings, and it is a reasonable assessment of the evidence to class the northern population as ‘vulnerable’.”

I thought: “Why the hell would it be one or the other? Surely there is a third option: None of the above.”

But in a bid to prevent unwanted pregnancies, a pilot scheme from the NHS could get the green light in supplying the contraceptive pill to girls as young as thirteen.

I admit, I would much rather my daughter – should I have one – be on the Pill if I was pressed to decide, but when it comes down to it, I wouldn’t want her having sex at all at such a tender age.

Instead of a solution, I’m afraid this scheme may actually encourage sexual activities at a young age and become a form of incentive even.

Though it may seem like a decision that allows young girls to be responsible for their actions, there is the question of whether it’s somewhat reckless, given the fact that the legal age of consent is 16 – but something tells me that people have somewhat forgotten this.

The pilot scheme hopes to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancies but in doing so it gives teenagers the opportunity to get the Pill without visiting their family GP and without prescriptions – which also means without their parents knowledge. Someone tell me how this is even okay? Call me crazy for flipping out, but I would be horrified if that level of discretion was available to my 13-year old daughter.

I know it’s been a good decade since my teenage years, but I never even thought about having sex at that age, let alone discreetly getting protection. Maybe it’s the fear instilled in me knowing that i would get the beating and shouting of the century from my parents should I wind up pregnant.

Suzanne Moore from the Daily Mail wrote: “There is no great mystery as to why a girl may feel her worth is purely sexual: It is the message pumped out everywhere.”

Moore has a point. The ways in which the media sexualizes females throw today’s teenagers into a world where sex sells and seems to be the only tool they have at hand to fit in with crowds and to prove how grown up they think they are.

But this shouldn’t be more powerful than a parents discipline and frankly speaking that is what is lacking in many cases.

The scheme itself isn’t a hugely smart idea given the fact that the Pill doesn’t do anything in the way of preventing STDs.

If anything, the Health Minister, Lord Darzi, should reiterate the importance of boys wearing condoms which goes a long way in helping to prevent both unwanted pregnancies and the spread of STDs to the parties involved.

Have parents thought about whether or not their child has the discipline to use the Pill properly, taking it every day for 28 days as instructed? Think about that for a second. This is why legal ages are in place.

The government will be working with chemists to ensure ‘robust standards’ and appropriate training, which is the least they should be doing for such a ludicrous scheme, but then there are so many flaws.

How are they going to ensure that the child they are supplying these pills to meet the minimum age requirement? How can they be certain that older teens won’t supply to children who fall just under the proposed age group? What’s not to say they will sell the pills, making a profit when they are available for free? As far as I know, contraceptive pills in neighbouring European countries are rather costly, and online purchases are just an eBay click away.

An identification process may be required but what form of ID would a 13-year old have? A driver’s license? A passport? What if they don’t have this at hand? How else are they going to make sure these pills are handed to girls of the appropriate age?

Even with this mountain of doubt,  the reduction of teen pregnancies could be approached in a completely different way.

Parents seem to be phased out of this scheme with one mother saying in an interview preferring her daughter going on the Pill rather than ending up having a baby or worst than that – having an abortion.

Where is her stamping down on this issue and saying, “Neither. I communicate with my child and I’ve made sure she is fully educated on this”?

Where is the encouragement for both young girls and parents to openly discuss sex and the risks involved. This may be daunting for most teens. I know it was probably the worst thing I could imagine being thirteen, but if you stop and think about it, approaching your parents wanting to know more about sex shows a level of maturity that goes far beyond actually doing the deed while being unaware of the physical and emotional risks.

Parents have an obligation to their children to advise them and do everything they can to make them aware of such things that go far beyond being popular amongst their peers or pleasing a boyfriend they’re hopelessly smitten for.

If young teens are more open to ‘talk’ about their sexual curiosity with their parents, and they being receptive to advising and educating on the subject and guide their children, it may just be that this measure is a better strategy to tackle teen pregnancies.

Sex eduction in schools need to be looked at thoroughly too. The only thing I took from mine was how to put on a condom and watching a video that had a loose message of not letting yourself being pressured into doing anything you didn’t want.

Parents who are fine with their 13-year olds taking the Pill should remember that having contraceptives so openly available to their children doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be kept in the loop about their decision. Teens may feel that the protection at hand means that it is fine to go ahead and have sex but even though when used right and pregnancy is averted, does it include the emotional support they’re bound to need?

And let’s not forget, this scheme attempts to reduce teen pregnancies, the Pill only has a 99 percent success rate in averting child in womb. There is a margin of chance, that despite sticking to the instructions religiously, the Pill will fail them.

Rather than manipulating their bodies, enrich their minds. Schooling them appropriately will instill in them the information they need to make informed decisions.

A crowd of prowling fans came to see the new Disney nature film, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, that follows the trials and tribulations of two big cat families, which is reflective of real drama s found in the wild.

As well as lions that protect their land, cheetahs coexist amongst them raising their cubs. As the world’s fastest land animal, they live in Kenya’s Masai Mara game reserve where this film was shot.

At the premiere, Prince William issued a passionate speech in his fight to raise awareness to stop poaching of Africa’s wildlife. Speaking for more protection and measures, the Prince emphasised the work of Tusk, a charity organisation that works to protect wildlife as well as educate and support the local community.

“Films like African Cats remind us of the dramatic beauty, and the harshness, of the natural world,” said Prince William.

Capturing the real-life love, humor and determination of the majestic kings of the savanna, the story is out in cinemas on April 27.

This is only one of Disney’s approaches to educating viewers about wildlife. Since being introduced in 1995, Worldwide Conservation Fund has awarded nearly $18 million towards conservation projects in 112 countries, ensuring the future of animals are well-protected in their habitat, and so they don’t teeter on the brink of extinction.

See the trailer below:

Proclaimed the ugliest car during the Geneva Motor Show this year, the Twizy took on harsh feedback from the critics. What was Renault’s true intentions for producing an electric vehicle with open bodywork? It may be that they are aiming at the younger generation with a fun, eclectic and futuristic concept.

Twizy © Renault UK Limited

The Twizy is injected with a 17-horsepower engine that travels at a speed of up to 50 miles per hour and recharges in less than four hours. Buyers can rent the car battery for £45 a month under a three year contract that will give you 4,500 miles a year of driving.

The seduction factor has not failed the younger generation in Ibiza.

The Twizy is made to stand out, this car has rabbit ear doors with no windows, which can be a deal breaker. Sunny Ibiza with its pleasant climate proves to be the ideal location in showcasing this quirky electric vehicle.

Soon available to the UK market, global ambassadors of the Twizy, DJ David Guetta and wife Cathy, unleashed the ‘Plug into the positive Energy’ advertisement with a party to celebrate its launch.

This unique little two-seater car can be taken out on the road from just £6,690. It is Renault’s third electric Z.E. vehicle that hopes to accommodate people’s travelling needs in and around London and suburban areas.

The kinetic energy generation shown in the Guetta-Twizy advert (video) is expected to be used at the 2012 Olympics and is currently being tested at Stratford’s Westfield shopping centre (London). The technology is provided by Pavegen.

View the video below: 

He wrote in his company’s magazine: “These cyclists are throwing themselves onto some of the most congested spaces in the world. They leap onto a vehicle which offers them no protection except a padded plastic hat. Should a motorist fail to observe a granny wobbling to avoid a pothole or rain drain, then he is guilty of failing to anticipate that this was somebody on her maiden voyage into the abyss.

“The fact is he just didn’t see her and however cautious, caring or alert he is, the influx of beginner cyclists is going to lead to an overall increase in accidents involving cyclists.”

You can imagine the fury that swept across the cyclist community, but when you lose all the fancy dressing attached to the message at hand, what you have is a man with a valid point.

Rather than engage in a sensible dialogue with Mr Griffin and challenge his point, cyclists instead called for his resignation and then staged a ‘die-in’ where they laid outside of the Addison Lee headquarters to send a message to the taxi firm boss.

Even mayor for London candidate Boris Johnson has united with cyclists while some businesses have terminated their accounts with the company.

Maybe I’m living in a warped existence but speaking from the perspective of a pedestrian, I think the reaction that I’ve received on Twitter from cyclists themselves has been borderline childish just because I think Griffin has a point. “So they should just be run over?” was one message that left me dumbfounded.

Of course they do not deserve to be run over but do they consider pedestrians when they cycle through red lights into oncoming people crossing the road who have patiently waited for traffic to stop?

From my experience, this has been a resounding no. I still remember at eight years old crossing a busy road at Oxford Street with my Mum and out of nowhere, this guy having disregarded the red light cycled straight into me. I was traumatised. And to add insult to injury I didn’t get an apology.

London roads can be dangerous but it isn’t just down to car and taxi drivers. Cyclists and bikers who weave in and out of traffic can startle motorists and put them at risk of causing accidents.

But are they penalised? Are there rules in place that make them punishable? To my knowledge there aren’t any, but there should be. Just as cars are made to have registration plates, bikes should have an authentic ID to be captured when they run red lights, knock pedestrians over and damage vehicles.

David Dansky of Cycle Training UK is apparently offering free cycle training to Addison Lee drivers and said that should someone step out off the pavement with a phone to their ear, he is “responsible [as a cyclist] for not hitting them. It is the responsibility of people who can cause the harm.”

This is the kind of attitude cyclists should have as well as taking basic precautions so they don’t put themselves at risk. Drivers would be able to see cyclists better if they wore appropriate clothing and ensured their lights were working, especially during the winter when it is darker.

Road rules should apply to everyone, so why don’t these starry-eyed Mayor candidates think about putting rules and regulations in place for those wanting to cycle among motor vehicles?

They are promoting cycling as being this great new, efficient and environmental way to travel but are putting no regulations in place to ensure the safety of all the new cyclists they are enticing to the roads.

A license is a tad too much but why not a theory test so cyclists will be aware of the same rules car and taxi drivers are made to drill into their heads before taking to the roads legally.

Rule number one would be a nice and easy one: Always stop at red lights. If mounted police themselves stop at traffic lights, and even at zebra crossings for pedestrians, then I’m sure it is not too much of an effort for London’s cyclists to do the same.

The helmet is basically a collar worn by cyclists. The collar contains a folded-up airbag, which inflates upon impact. This ingenious protective headgear is shaped like a hood, that surrounds and protects the cyclist’s head. The trigger mechanism is controlled by sensors, which pick up the abnormal movement of the cyclist in an accident.

“We are extremely excited about the nomination,” said founder Terese Alstin of Hövding. “The inspiration for making the bicycle helmet into a fashion item came from early market research and discussions with cyclists about why they wouldn’t want to wear the traditional helmets. It was clear that people really do want to protect themselves in traffic, ut without sacrificing their personal style (or hairdo) in the process. They wanted something discrete with possibility to change the look from one day to the next, that would match their different outfits – just like a fashion accessory.”

Model wearing the Hövding Creator's Cut.

The Design Museum’ Design of the Year Awards is “the Oscars” of the design world. Hosted in the UK, the awards showcase the most innovative and progressive designs from around the world, spanning seven categories. Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Product and Transport. With their keen eye to detail and their commitment to go against the critics, they have created a product with an innovative design interest from around the world.

Talking about their ambition, Terese explains more about the concept: “Our aim was to design a bicycle helmet so attractive that people would voluntarily want to start protecting their heads on the roads. We knew that, in order to change the negative attitude and associations that people have towards helmets, we needed to turn the whole idea of a tradition bicycle helmet upside-down and give it a radical makeover.”

It may look daunting with fears like risking your head from getting injured, but the cushioning helmet has proven to save people in collisions. The airbag solution offers a far better shock absorbance capacity, covering a large area of the head and is able to handle multiple impacts. Terese continues saying that it can also prevent potential whiplash injuries, which she knows about, previously being in a couple of accidents herself.

The Hövding helmet will be released in the UK next spring, while in Europe it is already being sold online where there is already a selection to choose from to suit your fashion needs.

I read about two horses being put down over the weekend and as an animal lover, the news not only saddened me, but also ignited fury towards the event itself. It made me think whether it would be so bad if the Grand National was phased out.

Time after time horses get injured to such a degree they need to be put down and yet no one seems to care as long as the show goes on and keeps flowing, as Coleen Rooney and her girl friends demonstrated clinging on to what looked like betting slips in some photos.

It’s all good that the RSPCA is urging further review into ‘drop’ fences, but as Animal Aid said: “There is nothing sporting about an event that routinely kills so many horses.” And I completely agree.

Any ‘sport’ that runs the risk of animals being hurt or killed is, in my opinion, no sport at all. How do people reason with themselves to support – let alone attend – something like the Grand National? Is it the thought that horse racing in particular still gives off the air of being the ‘Sport of Kings’ as dubbed by past aristocrats, which superficially gives people this subconscious feeling of superiority and importance? Because if it does, then they’ll be disheartened to know that attitudes have changed.

Of course there are going to be the die-hard fans of these kind of sports that are waiting to pounce and give some obscure reason defending the likes of Aintree and Ascot. Chris McGrath of the Belfast Telegraph wrote about the Grand National set for some changes after the tragic event but also took a somewhat defensive approach to the fact that horses cannot be exempt from suffering injuries. But injuries are one thing – death is another.

He wrote: “On Saturday Italy’s entire football programme was abruptly called off after the death of Piermario Morosini, a man in his prime: there is a spectrum of risk in most sporting exertion.” What McGrath fails to mention though is the fact that Morosini made the decision to pursue a football career himself. But did those horses agree to racing? Did they want to take to the racetrack and entertain people? What confuses me time and time again is the way that people feel that they have the right to decide these kind of things for animals that would otherwise be happy in their natural environment.

I don’t believe for a second that these animals are abused or treated badly. They can’t be if they’re being used to compete in front of a large audience, especially where bets are being placed. I’m sure they’re pampered and well taken care of. My concern however goes towards the way people are engaged and are getting excited by sport involving animals exerting themselves to the brink of their capabilities. And it isn’t just limited to horse racing, it also includes bull fighting in Spain, dog racing, fox hunting and even camel wrestling, which takes place in Turkey.

Calling it a part of a country’s heritage may well be enough for some people to decide against scrapping such sports altogether but really, what are you losing out if you retire them? Are you losing such a large amount of culture through racing horses and placing bets that nothing can really represent what you stand for quite like Aintree?

I’m sure that if a sport resulted in people dying repetitively it wouldn’t be a matter of “how can we make this sport safer so the same thing doesn’t happen again?” but more like “we can’t afford to put people at risk”. So why don’t we take the some approach to animals?

I’m disappointed that in this day and age people are more concerned with ‘glamming up’, getting snapped at such events and winning money rather than thinking about bigger issues like making a change and demanding that animals are not subjected to such pressurised situations. We all relish the thought of having a calm, easy-going life – what makes you think these creatures are any different?

Icebergs are natural chunks of ice, formed on land from the glaciers. Drifting away with the tide of the oceans, icebergs are commonly found in the Antarctic and in the North Atlantic Ocean sea, quite near Greenland. Working towards eliminating the risk of iceberg collisions, the International Ice Patrol (IIP) was established in 1914. The inquiry of the Titanic, revealed the urgency to look out for dangers formed by colossal icy floaters. Nations such as Great Britain, USA and Germany backed the idea, giving birth to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).

The length of the iceberg that collided with the Titanic was approximately 50 to 100 feet high, and around 200 to 400 feet long. The ship sank within three hours of its collision.

The organisation patrols icebergs from entering ships’ views. Speaking with Donald Murphy, the oceanographer of the IIP, we asked about the imposing threats of icebergs on our naval routes and more about the organisation.

Since the sinking of Titanic and the set-up of the International Ice Patrol, how many icebergs are floating across the Northern Atlantic now?

We use an iceberg map for ships and boats to visually see the danger spots. This map is on our website under “Products”. It is updated daily. Since the International Ice Patrol was formed in 1914, we have tracked many thousands of icebergs in the North Atlantic. So far this year, only a few icebergs have passed into the shipping lanes south of the island of Newfoundland.

How big is the team and how do you go about keeping ships safe from similar tragedies Titanic suffered?

Iceberg map for ships – The International Ice Patrol

There are 16 women and men working at the International Ice Patrol. Twice a month during the iceberg season (February through to July) we send a reconnaissance airplane to St. John’s Newfoundland to search the North Atlantic for icebergs. We provide the product map (pictured) to the ships so they can avoid the icebergs.

Is climate developing more icebergs since 1912?

Our yearly iceberg counts show enormous year-to-year changes. Over our history we’ve had some years with well over a thousand icebergs entering the shipping lanes. In other years, only a few icebergs enter the shipping lanes. In two years, 1966 and 2006, we had no icebergs. As a result, we can’t say for certain whether climate change is causing any change in the iceberg population in the North Atlantic.

What methods do you take when you discover an unknown iceberg? Are there ways to destroy them before they become a threat?

When we receive a report of an iceberg, we enter it into our database and we track it using a numerical model. We use the model to create the product map and we advise the ships to avoid the iceberg danger area. We have experimented with methods of destroying icebergs, but found that it was very difficult to do, even with bombs. Also, in the process of trying to destroy an iceberg we actually created more icebergs. The icebergs we created were small, which are hard for the ships to see. This is something we tried in the late 1950′s and early 1960′s. There is much information on those tests on our website.

Has the number of iceberg collisions dropped since the founding of the organisation? Has modern navigation technology proven to be advantageous when facing dangers at sea?

Mr. Brian Hill has extensive information on the subject via his website, and a thorough account of every collision which are fully reported.

Modern navigational systems and radars make the North Atlantic Ocean a safer place for ships, but modern ships still strike icebergs. Mariners still need our iceberg warnings. We are proud of the fact that, since the International Ice Patrol was founded in 1914, no ship that has heeded our warnings has struck on iceberg. Ships have struck icebergs, but they were inside the danger area that Ice Patrol defined.

As much as the technology is growing and the track of some icebergs are quite hard to find, the need for the International Ice Patrol is still essential. Always with a mission as it reaches a 100 years of Titanic’s tragedy, the organisation is a structured registered solution with procedures when at action.

For more information on the International Ice Patrol visit here.

Back in January VV and Lola re-launched VV’s vintage website VV Vintage as a platform for upcycling, reinvention and the celebration of emerging designers within the fashion industry. Working closely with Oxfam and with 10% of the profits from all the upcycled and vintage clothing going to charity, you’re getting an amazing one-off piece, whilst giving to charity and supporting the issue of ethics and sustainability within the fashion industry.

Founders of VV Vintage: Lola Peach (left) and VV Brown (right)

I had a quick Q&A with the delightful Miss Brown and talked fashion, books and Spitalfields.

The website re-launched with its new identity in January. How have the past 3 months been? Is it as you’d expected?

It has been amazing watching the business grow. We are excited about the opportunities that organically come our way and the passion and hard work is paying of. We really believe in the idea of the grass roots approach. Being involved in music and taking on this new project has liberated my thirst for entrepreneurial activities even more and it’s a great way to express myself.

We have met so many talented designers and the idea of sustainability and charity within business is appealing. This is just all coming from a small office and us emailing with the hope that people will believe in the vision and enjoy the clothes. We are learning so much and education in any form is liberating.

After watching an episode of Global Cool where their task was to find an outfit to keep warm in the house so you’d turn your heating down and save energy. How environmental are you?

I try and be environmental. I recycle and I only buy sustainable clothes, especially after reading “To Die For” by Lucy Siegle. I try my best to contribute in whatever way I can. There’s always room to improve and learn and be better in regards to the environment.

You were at Spitalfields this Easter weekend trading at the Affordable Vintage Fair, how did you find that?

It was cool. We are an online store firstly so we have never done a market like that before, but it was new and refreshing and a nice way to meet our customers. We also got interviewed for the national news, which was exciting!

You’ve previously been a model at London Fashion Week, what was it like being on the other side of it all and representing VV Vintage at London Fashion Weekend?

It’s absolutely wonderful to be on the other side of fashion where you can concentrate on the clothes rather than wearing them or being in the public eye. It’s nice to be hiding behind the business plans and meetings without worrying about cameras etc. I love the fact that this new fresh approach to the industry gives you a sense of privacy through expression.

Would you be interested in creating your own ethically sustainable brand? Whether it be using ethically sourced materials or up-cycling would it be something you’d consider?

I would love to continue to build our program where we support designers who are interested in up-cycling and perhaps do a high end collection that is conceptual and abstract that can be seen at Somerset House Fashion week, one day. What a day that would be for us.

The idea is to use fashion to support and contribute towards the community and somehow make people happy through expression. There is so much talent out there.

"Bringing to life the old, making it new and exciting" – VV Brown

VV was also kind enough to give us a review of  “To Die For” by Lucy Siegle, which partly inspired her decision and is an expose on the fashion industry written by the Observer’s ‘Ethical Living’ columnist.

“This is a fresh inspiring take on the sustainable world and an education on the truth of the mass market. As I was reading it, it became a fun journey and an effortless read, diving into the truths and statistics of ethics in fashion. Not only is it wrapped in great metaphors and glorious shocking details about waste, it opens your eyes to believe in the ethics of fashion so much so that you feel you have to change your ways.

“It’s a book I would recommend to anyone and it does the opposite of alienating a community into a subculture that defines itself as “special” or on a pretentious high horse, which some socio-economical books can have. Instead it makes you want to be in a club that is about the goodness, fair trade and the treatment of the human being whilst evaluating the perception of greed and the quick fix mentality through the influence of the monopolisation of capitalistic endeavours that we somehow get caught up in.

“Whilst being so detailed, it’s wrapped in a language that reminds you of a great Sex and the City episode.”

It’s brilliant basically and it was the fundamental catalyst that made me passionate about my business www.vvvintage.com even more.

If you haven’t already you should definitely check out VV Vintage an exciting new business that is ethically conscious as well as fashionable and fun.

It runs 100 percent on battery alone and can easily be stored underneath your bed. How? By folding it back into its suitcase form.

The Boxx Corp motorised cycle has two exciting models each outputting incredible speeds  that will be available and seen on the roads with their ten inch wheels. Stylish, modern and highly eye-catching, the one meter long suitcase-like scooter is loud and comes in a variety of bright colours, making it hard to miss.

At a price of $3,995, interest has been building from companies and consumers towards this particular design. Its debut at the Portland International Auto Show earlier this year has been keeping the company busy with overflowing email enquiries, more than PaulD’Souza, International Director for Boxx Corp, can handle. But the people at Boxx are keeping its tech specs quiet until it is fully complete to be commercially sold for the UK’s scooter market.

The product is made to order. Find out more here.

You would think such an acquisition would be monumental in that Instagram-which had a staff of just 13 people and a revenue of zilch-was picked up by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg.

But like many users, I have my reservations.

The backlash on Twitter has been rife but not surprising. Some have declared the end of Instagram as we know it, while others have even posted links on instructions on how to delete your Instagram account. It sounds drastic just because Facebook has taken over, but for those who use the app religiously, it’s as though they’ve become encapsulated in this bubble that Facebook is creating.

Users have been more than vocal in their dismay about the news with one user, Jelle Prins tweeting: “The Instagram acquisition shows us that in these times small startups can pose a huge threat to large corporations.”

And that is exactly what I think it boils down to. Never mind that Facebook wants to join forces with a popular, free startup to further enhance the “experience”  of sharing photos, what Zuckerberg has essentially done, is eliminate a real threat to his company.

The heart of Facebook’s success is the element of sharing pictures, in fact it’s the largest photo-sharing website out there. Furthermore, the social network started out as a desktop-first company, designed with a computer-based user in mind. Of course they have a mobile site for those who want to access the website on their smartphones, but even with this there are features that are lacking, like my inability to tag friends in status updates when I’m on the move.

Instagram on the other hand, is a mobile-first company. Android users are now able to enjoy what Apple consumers have been relishing in for a while now, snapping and editing pictures that can be uploaded instantly to their account as well as their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Of course, Zuckerberg and his team have found a way to overcome one obstacle that they were seriously lacking in.

This will now place Facebook in a better position to deal with the likes of Pinterest, which is the world’s fastest growing social network that revolves around photo-sharing.

My concern as an Instagram user is the changes that are in store for this app of which I’m quite fond of. Zuckerberg has said he wants to retain most of the features but what he hasn’t announced are his plans to develop and expand the startup. Are they planning to take a leaf out of Google’s book who, after acquiring YouTube, more or less left the website as it is without any significant changes?  Or will we be bombarded with advertisements? Will our personal details and photos be saved even if we close our account? Will we even be able to permanently delete our account rather than “deactivate” it? And what about our online security and privacy?

I remember a time when Facebook was quite tough and flexible with their privacy settings. You could either be as open or closed as you like. I chose to be super private to the point where you couldn’t even see me listed if you typed in my name or email address.

Now with the addition of the Timeline feature, the settings seemed to have changed as well. I saw a comment on a picture from my Halloween party from someone who I have never seen before and is not on my friend’s list, but who turned out to be a mutual friend of the girl tagged together with me in the photo. My photo. In my photo album, that I thought was restricted to just friends only.

Zuckerberg and even Systrom and Krieger, the founders of Instagram are likely to be celebrating the news, but if they don’t tread carefully from here on end and stay true to the purpose, they may find themselves as an online figure of hate to a large percentage who rejoiced in the freedom of using this independent and unique app.

FOE turned a concrete area in front of the National Theatre, London, into a 150 square meter wildflower meadow to demonstrate the importance of bee-friendly habitats and how easy they are to recreate in an urban setting.

Studies said that 75 percent of the world’s honey bees have already disappeared. Britain in context has lost over half the honey bees kept in managed hives and wild honey bees are nearly extinct. Solitary bees are declining in more than half the areas they’ve been studied and some species of bumblebees have been lost altogether.

Further development along those lines would cost the UK £1.8 billion annually to hand-pollinate crops if bees are to completely vanish from the British landscape, a study by the FOE said.

The University of Reading likened the figure to the equivalent of the annual wages of 60,000 teachers.

One example of costly hand-pollination is demonstrated in the Chinese Hanyuan county where pear trees undergo the whole process through human hands rather than being pollinated by bees, as the native bee populations have been wiped out by a combination of loss of natural habitat and intensive farming.

The environmental charity is urging David Cameron to help these important pollinators that will see the nation save billions by committing to a British bee action plan, which outlines strategies on town planning and the way people farm and use pesticides – one of the biggest aggressors to the bee population decline, as the substance affects the bees’ immune system.

“Unless we halt the decline in British bees, our farmers will have to rely on hand-pollination, sending food prices rocketing,” said Friends of the Earth Nature Campaigner, Paul de Zylva.

“David Cameron must make the changes needed now to give our bees a fighting chance and save Britain billions of pounds.”

Designer Ehlen Johansson, who is well-known for her mystical designs for IKEA has designed a lamp that reduces energy usage by 85 percent compared to a traditional light bulb.

“I worked with a technique of stretching holes in sheet material,” Johansson explained. “I hope people will like the lamp for the character it adds to their homes, as well as for the waste-efficient production and energy-saving LED.”

The lamp ressembles a frilly Victorian hooped underskirt that delivers an element of ‘chic’-ness to the interior, while the wavy pattern brings out texture in your wallpaper.

LED lights are real energy savers that last 25 times longer than regular light bulbs. According to SmartPlanet, if Japan were to replace all its 1.6 billion light bulbs with LED alternatives, the country would save the annual electricity output of 13 nuclear reactors.

Not only will the Solkullen eleviate our environmental impact and save you quite a bit of money, it will also make your house look great while doing so.

The Hollywood heartthrob and his foundation are launching the “Let’s Get Dirty” campaign this month, mobilizing tens of thousands to the cleanup of California.

Let's Get Dirty on 21 April 2012 – The Ian Somerhalder Foundation

On 21 April 2012, 80,000 people and more than 2,000 schools are expected to be participating in the campaign. Somerhalder took inspiration from the “Let’s Do it” campaign in Estonia back in 2007, that saw the cleanup of 10,000 tons of trash in a single day by the community. It was estimated that the one-day event would have otherwise cost the government €22mln (US$28.8mln) and 3 years to finish.

But the upcoming initiative does not stop with just cleaning up the streets, “an intimate evening event aimed at connecting like-minded and passionate leaders to network and brainstorm” is also on the cards.

We caught up with Ian Somerhalder to find out more about the Let’s Get Dirty campaign and what we can do to help the environment.

Q: What is the Ian Somerhalder Foundation and how did it start?

Ian: I started the Ian Somerhalder Foundation after the oil spill in the Gulf. I saw the outpouring support by liked-minded passionate people and their desire to get involved. I knew I wanted to create a place for people to be able to do that. The foundation is a way for people young and old, from all across the globe, to unite together on projects that positively impact our planet and its creatures.

Q: Have you always been passionate about the environment?

Ian: I have! Growing up in Louisiana along the Gulf Coast, I saw how delicate the world’s ecosystems can be. The planet, humans and animals are all connected. So if we pollute the ecosystem in one area, it can affect people and animals across the globe. Education and passion are key to creating a positive change and even the smallest amounts of effort can make a real change.

Q: You were inspired by the 2007 “Let’s Do It” initiative in Estonia, what was the driving force for you to do a similar project, “Let’s Get Dirty”, in California?

Ian: If you look at the basic facts of “Let’s Do It” in Estonia, you can’t help but get inspired. Having volunteers come in for one day and clean up the amount of trash it would take the government years to clean up, at a small fraction of the cost is just amazing.  When you look at California, a place where I spend a good portion of time, it is hard to ignore that which is right in front of you. Countless articles tell the tale of a state who has increasing pollution, especially air and water. If we can do it in California, there is no reason other states won’t be able to follow suit.

Q: It is expected that your “Let’s Get Dirty” campaign will attract 80,000 volunteers and 2,100 schools to participate. Have you ever imagined it would receive such a great number of participants? And what do these numbers tell you?

Ian: The response for this clean up campaign, and the foundation in general, is just mind blowing. Sometimes I just have to sit back and take it all in because it is just the most inspiring thing. These numbers are proof that there are people out there who care and want to get involved. It means that we are taking a step, a leap in the right direction for creating positive change in our world.

Q: Can you run us through how the cleanup is organised? And will you be there in person?

Ian: Of course I will be there “getting dirty” right alongside everyone else. Every helping hand matters! The clean up allows children as young as five, with parental permission, to participate. Essentially, people, groups, schools and businesses can and have been registering on the website. They can choose their own location or we can place them as part of another group. They are given tools such as gloves and garbage bags and will spend a couple hours picking up trash in their designated areas. It is a really great initiative that we have been working on for several months to make it as simple as possible for those who want to participate. Volunteers will have everything they need at their fingertips.

Q: What else can we look forward to in the future from the ISF? Any other projects in the making?

Ian: ISF always has amazing things up its sleeves. We are continuously looking at new partnerships and engaging new volunteers who either contribute to new articles every month or designs for our shop on Café Press. We recently launched our hug-o-matic app through Apple and are working on a round of updates for that as well.

Q: Any message you want to share with your fans?

Ian: Wow! I think the thing I always want to say is a huge thank you, because it can’t be said enough. The outpouring of love and support that I and the foundation have seen is just unbelievable. I also want to remind people of how the little things like turning off lights and faucets make a huge difference and to keep those in mind when going about your lives day to day. It all adds up and there are things that everyone, no matter whom they are, can do.

Want to know how you can help? Visit the ISF website to find out more.

Solar Impulse plane on the ground – Photo courtesy of Solar Impulse

The plane with a wingspan of an Airbus A340, and the weight of an average family car, will travel across Europe into Africa with the help of 12,000 installed solar cells. Its destination is to land at the main hub of the MASEN Moroccan Solar Plant project in the region of Ouarzazate.

Getting ready to see the one-man plane journey, the reincarnation of the Wright brothers first invention will become a scene that sets another mark in green achievements.

Creators Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg enjoyed their first success in 2011 when the journey was made from Paris to Brussels, and ascribed their inspiration from Jules Verne’s famous words: “All that is impossible remains to be achieved.”

Sun-powered aircraft in full flight – Photo courtesy of Solar Impulse

Their mission was to see whether it was possible to travel around the world without a drop of petrol. Solar Impulse partnered with Solvay, Omega, Deutsche Bank and Schindler to journey from the mountains of Switzerland to Morocco which will take up to 48 hours.

The only energy this plane will run is solar power.

At the moment, the craft can only hold one person, but imagine a future of commercial air vessels powered by nothing but the sun.

The Solar Impulse voyage may be long but it shows potentials for a round-the-world trip in 2014.

Flying to the largest solar panel plant in Morocco, the Solar Impulse will demonstrate the potentials of photovoltaic harvested power in front of a string of industry leaders.

“This destination corresponds fully with the goals we had set ourselves,” explained co-founder and CEO Andre Borschberg. “Flying as far as this, powered only by the solar energy will be excellent training for the round-the-world trip.”

The panda-loving Chinese entrepreneur will place profits into an environmental fund and lower prices later on depending on the success of its iconic ingredient. Built on the lands of mainland China in the mountains of Ya’an in the Sichuan province, Panda Tea – as it is called – is set to be the next big thing.

This week Mr. An appeared in a panda suit selling his tea batches for £43,800 ($70,250) per kg. Explaining his reasoning for the extravagant price tag, An said: “Pandas absorb less than 30 percent of the nutrition from their food, and that means more than 70 percent of the nutrients are passed out in their faeces.”

Guinness World Records have declared his tea the most expensive in the world. One tea bag purchase is equivalent to 5,280 PG Tip tea bags in the UK.

Mr. An hopes his idea will help push more people in China to be more creative in their business ventures and ignite a trend to help their own country by taking responsibility and tackling individual environment issues.

“I just want to convey to the people of the world the message of turning waste into something useful, and the culture of recycling and using organic fertilisers,” An told the Telegraph.

The tea is described to be ‘fragrant’ and ‘smooth’, but many of those invited to try out the first batch of Panda Tea question whether the high price isn’t just a temporary hype.

Panda Tea is now available for purchase.

The original Concorde carried a lot of fuel and with Nitrogen Oxide emissions damaging the stratospheric ozone layer, Wang – who is assistant of aeronautics and astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – had a challenge on his hands to produce a concept idea that would take the planet into consideration and bring about the future of plane designing.

Wang’s concept will provide future critics with a solution that in principle is rather simple: Instead of flying with one wing to a side, why not two?

With the help from his colleagues including an engineering professor from Stanford University, the design was tested through computer models and it has proved to be a success.

The test showed that the prototype also had less drag, meaning it uses less fuel, and produces a quieter sonic boom.

“The sonic boom is really the shock waves created by the supersonic airplanes, propagated to the ground,” Wang said. “It’s like hearing gunfire. It’s so annoying that supersonic jets were not allowed to fly over land.”

Designers around the world are testing ways to bring back commercial supersonic planes, as Qiqi Wang explained: “People are having more ideas on how to improve [Busemann's] design.

“This may lead to a dramatic improvement, and there may be a boom in the field in the coming years.”

The team are now developing a 3D prototype, hopefully bringing luxury travelling closer into the future and back to airports once again.

Pitt gave Degeneres a tour in the Lower 9th Ward of Louisiana where he and his team committed themselves to help build sustainable housing.

75 homes have so far been reconstructed and with their acquired expertise they now can finish a home in three months time.

During the tour he told Ellen: “I’m getting far too much credit for this. This took a lot of very smart people coming in and attacking the situation. It took the families determination to come back and their resilience, and they are defining what this thing was going to be. I get far too much credit for bringing some really smart people together.”

The homes are designed to withstand another natural disaster with the same destructive force like Hurricane Katrina. The houses have been elevated several feet above ground in case of future flooding.

Eco-friendly materials are used for all the reconstructed homes.

MidAmerican plans to build 176 wind turbines in Iowa by the end of 2012, which is a combination of the recent acquisitions of RPM Access’s 103.5 megawatt wind project, the 200.1-megawatt Eclipse Wind Farm and 101.2-megawatt Morning Light project from Clipper Windpower Development Group.

Earlier in December 2011, MidAmerican agreed to buy Topaz Solar Farm, a solar power farm situated between Los Angeles and California, worth $2 billion and the second largest solar plant under construction in the world.

Then by late January 2012, Buffett – the world’s third richest man – announced the formation of a new branch focused on the development of modern renewable energy. Its four units involve solar, wind, hydro and geothermal energy.

MidAmerican’s wind generation will total at 2,284.8 megawatts with the Iowa wind projects up and running. The Topaz Solar Farm on the other hand is expected to run from 2015, and will produce enough energy to power 160,000 homes.

Once the newest projects are completed, Buffett would have invested $9 billion in solar and wind utilities, with $4 billion in wind power investment in Iowa alone.

It took about two and a half hours to descend and seven miles down to reach the Trench’s deepest spot, the Challenger Deep.

“The whole sub actually squeezes down almost three inches in length when it gets to the bottom of the ocean just because of the pressure. The sphere that I’m in actually shrank. The window that I looked out at pushed in towards me under 16,000 pounds per square inch of pressure,” James Cameron told The Telegraph.

Cameron spent a total of three three hours exploring the Challenger Deep. “I didn’t see anything bigger than about an inch long,” he said. “I didn’t see fish. The only free swimmers I saw were these amphipods, which are shrimp-like.”

His ascent, you could say, was somewhat different. The green submersible, the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER, took only 70 minute to break the surface. The filmmaker described the dive and ascent as a “heckuva ride”.

His description of the ocean’s abyss could be likened to an alien world, a lunar landscape that has not been visited since 1960.

“It was very lunar, a very desolate place, very isolated,” the filmmaker said. “My feeling was one of complete isolation from all of humanity.

“It was absolutely the most remote, isolated place on the planet. I really feel like in one day I’ve been to another planet and come back.”

Larger than the Grand Canyon, the Mariana Trench is as deep as Mount Everest is high.

“When I came down and landed, it was a very, very soft – almost gelatinous – flat plane, an almost featureless plane that went out of sight as far as I could see,” Cameron recounted during a press meeting on board of the Octopus. “Once I got my bearings and started moving around, I drove across it for quite a distance and I finally started to come to the slope that went up to the [Mariana Trench] wall and I started working up that wall.”

But his trip was cut short because of a hydraulic failure, meaning he couldn’t operate the manipulator arm to collect samples, while leaked hydraulic fluid coated the sub’s window rendering his view to a minimum.

“It’s a prototype vehicle, so it’s gonna take time to iron out the bugs,” Cameron said. “The important thing is that we have a vehicle that’s a robust platform – it gets us there safely, the lights work, the cameras work, and hopefully next time the hydraulics will work.”

Though he did not get the chance to collect samples, it was hardly the one and only opportunity for Cameron and his team. Together with co-designer Ron Allum, who is the managing director of the Acheron Project and design firm in Australia, they have already planned a few more dives in the coming weeks.

But movies are still at the forefront of Cameron’s attention. “I’m going to be turning my attention to Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 as soon as I finish up with this expedition,” he told the BBC.

Based in Yerevan and Massachusetts, the NGO has successfully seen to the reforestation of the Caucasian region through tree planting, environmental education and sustainable development.

Founded in 1994, the ATP saw light after a visiting trip to Armenia back in 1992 by Armenian-American philanthropist Carolyn Mugar.

“Ms. Mugar saw that thousands of trees were being cut for fuel where families are desperate to heat their homes, who even resorted to burning their own furniture,” ATP’s Managing Director, Tom Garabedian, said. “This was a time when the Armenian economy was transitioning from Soviet control, which was still struggling to overcome the devastating effects of an earthquake in 1988, and was blockaded by several neighbouring countries.

“Ms. Mugar decided to commit towards preventing further deforestation and facilitating poverty reduction.”

“One of the primary objectives of our partnership with the Norwegian goverment is to mitigate the impacts of climate change,” explained Vardan Melikyan, ATP’s SEEDS Program Manager. “We plan to do this through raising awareness about conservation issues, planting trees to promote sustainable development in Armenia, and fostering a sense of personal commitment about the importance of environmental stewardship.”

Launched in 2011, SEEDS stands for “Social, Economic, and Environmental Development for Sustainability”, a programme that puts the emphasis on community development while investing in social capital in areas where the ATP are replanting trees.

Last year alone, SEEDS has planted over 185,000 tree seedlings in Fioletovo, Jrashen, Katnajur, Spitak and Tsakhbar.

“Over the past 17 years, ATP has been quite successful at getting things done on the ground in Armenia, and this was made possible through the support of the Diaspora,” Melikyan said in a press release. “We believe this grant from Norway demonstrates an investment in our track record and commitment to excellence, and we hope it will inspire others to join in support of our mission.”

GSTV: How was ATP nominated for the grant?

Garabedian: ATP has a reputation as a solid, serious non-governmental environmental organization in Armenia and in the region. We’ve had our share of successes and challenges, and the global economic downturn began to have an impact on our development efforts. The Norwegian grant came at this time in order to help us meet this challenge and put ATP on a more sustainable footing, both in terms of programmes and funding.

Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has awarded this grant to a limited number of organizations in Armenia, and we are grateful to be selected. We plan to deliver high quality results and to keep Norway and the public well informed about our progress with these programmes.

GSTV: What exactly is this amount of money going to do for ATP?

Garabedian: This is a very large grant for our organization and we have a range of programmes planned for the implementation period through 2014. One of the key elements of the grant is to use trees to mitigate the impacts of climate change. In addition to planting hundreds of thousands of trees every year, the Norwegian funds will allow us to foster a sense of personal commitment about environmental stewardship among the general population and especially the youth.

The funds will also allow ATP to implement a sustainable forest management pilot programme in a model community which we will roll out in other regions in 2013 and 2014. Therefore, the Norwegian grant is allowing us to develop programmes that address the root causes of deforestation such as unsustainable tree cutting and livestock grazing. If we can satisfy the needs of the local and regional stakeholders, we will get ahead of the deforestation problem and introduce better forest management practices.

The ABF Soldiers’ Charity has been around since 1944, supporting servicemen and their families in the army during and after their service.

In the recent Boris Berezovsky vs. Roman Abramovich case, legal representatives have moved to exclude the use of paper during the trial, which can signal the end of the long process of filing documents.

The system behind this new type of technology is nothing new but with the approval of the High Court in London to adapt to the fast-changing environment of laptops, tablets and cloud computing, lawyers will be able to use these devices and save documents – reducing their use of paper which will ease their impact on the environment.

Becoming mobile will make life much more convenient for lawyers  who won’t be dragged down with folders filled with papers.

Magnum-Cloud, developed by London-based Opus 2 International, holds the archive of every court documents with research and case laws, which are transcripted and huperlinked for legal practitioners to quickly access.

Mrs. Justice Gloster, the judge present at the paperless court case, was said to be surprised on the fluency of the trial as reported in the London Evening Standard. “As the trial went on we realised it was a fantastic system which made life far easier and its cost was nothing compared with the cost of copying bundles,” she said.

“It’s a cost saving for the client and life saving for the world,” said Grahma Smith-Bernal, Founder of Opus 2.

Around 3,700 acres of forest land is said to be destroyed furthering the already critical status level of the Amur Leopards’ survival.

The fire at the reserve that started on Tuesday has been put out by local employees from the nearest fully protected reserve, Kedrovaya Pad. Suspicions were raised on why the fire did not die out on its own, Andrei Fereferov, a World Wildlife Fund official who is reponsible for the Far East Leopard preservation projects, said.

With the degradation of the protected forest, fears for the safety of the leopards’ survival is growing. The number of Amur Leopards has shrunk by 40 times over the last 100 years, leaving only an estimated 35 individuals in the wild, reports from Amur Leopard Tiger Alliance (ALTA) and Amur Leopard Conservation showed.

Continuous poaching and habitat loss are the prime reasons for the dramatic fall in numbers of the famous blue-eyed leopards.

“What is bad is the continual degradation of their habitat,” said Yury Darman, Director at the Amur branch of WWF.

The disaster came after the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent recently announced plans to bring two Amur Leopards back into the Russian wilderness. With the devastating damage to their only habitat now, it leaves the question whether it is still suitable for the animals to move to.

Foot Locker's Shoe Swap campaign – Photo courtesy of Foot Locker

Foot Locker are aiming to recycle 20,000 pair of old trainers into new products.

If you still have your old trainers reserved for the odd garden run, the cash-back scheme will be available throughout 67 stores across the UK until 8 April 2012.

Roughly 330 million pairs of trainers and shoes are purchased in the UK every year. The Salvation Army has reported that over 100 million pairs of footwear are thrown into UK landfills. This is equivalent to around 1.5 billion gallons of oil.

This is the second time the shoe recycling scheme is running with the help of I:Collect. Last year they helped transform up to 10,000 shoes into new products.

Paul Doertenbach from I:Collect said that the initiative is designed to raise awareness about the billions of tonnes of apparels and shoes that are thrown into UK landfills. “Rather than throw away old shoes and clothes, we are trying to highlight that these discarded objects can be reused,” he explained.

Customers can get a maximum of two vouchers per day per person to be spent on the day itself. Foot Locker will recycle every old shoe into a new product.

A journalist takes a sample of polluted red water from the Jianhe River in Luoyang, Henan province, China, on December 13, 2011 (Photo: Reuters/China Daily via The Atlantic).

World Water Day goes back to 1993 when it was established by the United Nations, with a new theme each year focusing on a different aspect of water.

This year’s theme is “Food and Water Security”, which is something we have had a hard look at the past few years.

Food production has soared with the growing populations across all continents. It begs the question how much we comprehend the importance of our consumption and the role it plays in water security.

Do we fully realise that not only does water sustain our bodies, with experts telling us to fill ourselves with at least 8 glasses of water a day; but that people should also be aware how much of that goes into our food production, like farming?

As Rome plays host to the headquarters of the UN World Water Day Event, their programme is packed with seminars and activities. They have also published a report that illustrates how much water is needed to produce our every day consumptions.

“Water is part of any production process,” the Water For Food illustrative report reads. “We need it to grow apples, as well as produce a packet of crisps.

“The amount of water needed in this process depends where we are because climate and agricultural practices will be the most important players.”

To make one cup of tea, 35 litres of water are needed. For coffee, 140 litres. A piece of steak will set us back 7,000 litres.

With 7 billion people to feed and millions to supply fresh water to, the food production industry is already churning out products at high speed. With 2 billion extra mouths to feed by 2050 – if current statistics are anything to go by, and increasing fresh water pool poisonings, the world needs to be ready for the extra weight it puts on its resources.

To create a bigger awareness the public can support the cause via Twitter #WorldWaterDay to donate or find organised local events to contribute to and participate with.

Over 50 different species were found including kangaroos, red pandas, pumas, orangutans and white lions.

The authorities have detained three male suspects who were unable to produce any permit for keeping the animals, and will be charged at a later date.

“This is the largest illegal wildlife supplier we’ve discovered,” said Royal Thai Police Major General Norasak Hemnithi, Commander of the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division (NRECSD). “We know it’s part of an international criminal network importing protected animals from Africa, Canada and other countries, then breeding them for illegal sale,” he added.

The raid came after the discovery of an illegal wildlife slaughterhouse in Bangkok earlier last month where eight suspects were found amongst the remains of tigers, elephants and zebras intended for export to trophy collectors.

“The target today was running a virtual Noah’s Ark,” said Steven Galster of Freeland Foundation, which works closely with Thailand’s Task Force.

“Wildlife crime King Pins like this are starting to fall because good information is crossing from the private sector into the hands of skilled and passionate officers. Now let’s hope the courts back them up.”

Anote Tong, President of Kiribati, is in talks to buy approximately 6,000 acres of land in Fiji. The submerging archipelago nation is looking at both Fiji’s main island Viti Levu and the northern Vanua Levu island, 2,000km (1,300 miles) away from Kiribati.

He told the Associated Press on Friday that Vanua Levu island will be able to house the entire population of 103,000, but hopes it wouldn’t come to that.

“We would hope not to put everyone on one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it,” the President said. “It wouldn’t be for me, personally, but would apply more to a younger generation. For them, moving won’t be a matter of choice. It’s basically going to be a matter of survival.”

The plan is to move people gradually, with the more skilled going first to establish roots. “They need to find employment, not as refugees but as immigrant people with skills to offer,” Tong told TV Channel Fiji One.

Last year, a state of emergency was declared when rising sea levels contaminated Kiribati’s underground fresh water that sustains the population and plant life.

A few of the 32 atolls, strewn over the equator, have already lost land mass, displacing residents and destroying their crops.

The fertile plains of Vanua Levu island are perfect for farming, which will allow the Kiribati people to cultivate and send produces back home.

Fiji is just one of many countries considered for relocation.

The submersible DEEPSEA CHALLENGER will be solo handled by Cameron while filming the ocean’s trench in 3D. The film director will spend six hours alone in the green submarine.

Entering an alien world, Cameron will see some extreme natural habitats with up to 4,000 species living under the pressure of 50 jumbo jets piled right on top.

In the six hours timespan, the sub will be travelling down 6.8 miles (11 km) deep. The dive is part of Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge project, co-sponsored by National Geographic, which will take him and a crew of engineers, scientists and filmmakers to explore the ocean trenches. Along with recording them in 3D, the submarine is designed to collect soil samples as well as pick up tiny species that live in the darkness of the ocean.

The vessel is vertically designed to carry one passenger and has an 8-foot (2.4 meter) tall LED spotlight feature. He hopes to inspire people in exploration and scientific study for future deep sea discoveries.

His diving experience saw him completing 72 dives to date. “I’ve always dreamed of diving to the deepest place in the oceans,” said Cameron. “For me it went from a boyhood fantasy to a real quest, like climbing Everest.”

Higher temperatures are causing abnormalities in the animal’s sperm. NMK mammology chief, Risky Agwanda, told the Guardian: “Climate change has contributed to defects of the cheetah sperm. Many have abnormal coils, low sperm counts, as well as extremely low testosterone levels.”

Climate change has not only affected the cat population but also gazelles, which are the cheetahs main food source. The dwindling number of gazelles has forced cheetahs to look for other prey, which adds to the problem.

“Cheetahs love to prey on Thomson’s gazelles, they have a very high protein content compared to other herbivores and the population has been on a rapid decline due to poor climate conditions and human activities,” Agwanda said.

“We have studied a large number of the cheetahs. As a result, it preys on other herbivores such as the zebra which do not have a high nutritional content. We discovered that the gazelle diet can actually help maintain the good health of the cheetah sperm if the animal has not yet been negatively affected by poor climate.”

Cheetahs are more vulnerable to endangerment as their genes are weaker compared to other big cats who have seen no reproductive reduction due to warmer weathers.

According to the Kenya Wildlife Service, the population in Kenya now stands at 1,000 cheetahs as opposed to 5,000 roughly 30 years ago.

The chrome exterior with LED spotlight will definitely spark people’s interest, and the radical new design is one that will impress many two-seater fans at Geneva.

The Emerg-e design features a sculpted bonnet, giving you the luxury feel that has not been lost from previous designs such as the G37 model.

In keeping with the Infiniti sustainability approach, the look tells us of a futuristic driving experience for people to try out and explore when they hit the roads next year.

A glass roof lets you see inside the engine with the beautiful molded leather inviting you to take the Electronic super car for a spin. Inside, the dashboard with its blue LED lighting gives the occupiers the impression of a Tron era experience.

The Emerg-e is the first mid-engined car from Infiniti. It is expected to soon release an II-electric saloon-version in early April at the New York Motor Show.

The 82nd International Motor Show and Accessories opens on 8 March to 18 March 2012 at the Palexpo in Geneva.

Inspired by the High Line project, a green refuge installed on an unused, elevated rail line in New York’s lower west side of Manhattan, the Delancey Underground project is to convert an abandoned trolley terminal below Delancey Street into a green tech-powered subterranean park.

The terminal space is 60,000 square feet (1.5 acres or 5,575 square meters) in size with steel columns supporting 20-feet high vaulted ceilings, and has been in disused since 1948.

Contrastingly nicknamed the “LowLine”, the project is a collaborative venture by architect James Ramsey, PopTech executive Dan Barash and money manager R. Boykin Curry IV. The park will incorporate fibre optics to catch sunlight and transmit it underground, generating enough sunlight to support photosynthesis. The use of solar technology will save on electricity and keep carbon emissions to a minimum.

In order to convince the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) of the idea, the Delancey Underground team needs to build a “mini-LowLine” to prove the project’s feasibility.

If this project gets the go-ahead, and reaps similar successes as the High Line, it will set in motion a whole new thinking for urban spaces. Delancey Underground said in a statement: “The ‘LowLine’ is essentially part of the next phase in urban design, in which human scale and increasing resource scarcity force us to imagine smarter, more creative use of public spaces.”

A report from the London Assembly shows that the Mayor has only reached two percent of his target with 2,313 electric vehicles (EV) operational in London. However, of that number only 50 electric cars are used in the Greater London area, while the rest is found in Central London.

This does not indicate a great deal of progress. On top of his car pledge Mayor Boris also promised 1,300 EV charging points by 2012. To date, only 400 charging points have been installed.

Is Boris’s idea of an electric car city not working for London?

“If the Mayor wants to encourage more Londoners to drive electric vehicles, he must demonstrate that the charging network is adequate and fits with the way people will actually charge their vehicles,” said Murad Qureshi AM, Environment Committee Chair.

Whilst the Mayor Office fervently put their campaign into action, the public can look forward to the launch of the EV Renault this year and the EV Ford Focus releasing in 2013. It is hoped that the demand of these vehicles will establish confidence in people to adapt to an EV future.

Victim Fashion Street is founded by Taiwanese designer Mei Hui Liu whose designs are an amalgamation of antique fabrics and vintage lace.

At 125 feet tall, The Senator – a bald cypress in the Seminole County, Florida – was the 5th oldest tree in the world.

The cypress tree went up in flames and collapsed on 16 January as firefighters were unable to salvage the damage.

Its loss was first thought to be the work of an arsonist or lightning, but soon investigators discovered evidence that would incriminate 26-year old Sarah Barnes.

Barnes is said to have climbed the tree with a friend to accommodate their meth use. “Since it was dark, Barnes allegedly lit a fire so she could see,” the AJC reported.

Pictures were taken during the fire and were spread by Barnes. ”I can’t believe I burned down a tree older than Jesus,” people recounted her saying.

Residents are mourning the loss of a great tree that had survived meteorological events for the past three and a half millennia.

Talking to WFTV one resident said: “That’s sad. A tree that is so historic is gone because someone is being careless.”

As the Founding Chair of R20 - Regions for Climate Action, a non-profit environmental group based in the Swiss canton, Arnold will be welcomed by Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, to talk about and promote future environmental projects.

“R20 is not just another NGO or network of regions, it is much more than that,” Arnold told The Global Journal, a Geneva-based publication, last year. “It is a real coalition of forces which believe that climate change and green economic development can be tackled at the sub-national level.”

It seems that “Schwarzie” is not quitting his green pledge after his governorship. Even though his power as California’s governor had been described by Time magazine as an “illustrative failure” as he was too “flexible [while] nothing worked”.

His most memorable action as political figure was his commitment towards green policies, one of those was converting the gas-guzzling Hummer into a greener vehicle and has since increased interest of low-emission vehicles at the Geneva Motor Show year by year.

The climate and economic conference is set on March 7th, commencing at 6:30pm, at the Uni Dufour building, 24 Rue du General-Dufour.

The actress is a long-time favourite amongst Hollywood stars, having worked together with acclaimed film directors such as Rob Marshall, Pedro Almodovar and Woody Allen.

The film industry however is not her only success. Together with sister Monica, the Cruz’s have designed collections for Spanish retailer Mango. The element of fur though has never made it into their designs.

Penelope Cruz for PETA

“Penelope Cruz has appeared on every Best Dressed list in the world, and the one thing you’ll never see her wearing is fur,” said Yvonne Taylor, PETA Senior Programme Manager. “One couldn’t ask for a more fitting emblem of the modern, glamorous woman who knows that there’s nothing more beautiful than a woman who has a look that kills without anyone having to die for it.”

Cruz has the habit of rescuing cats and dogs, especially in the early days of her being in LA to keep the actress company. Her affection for animals compels her to never agree with furry fashion.

“Penelope will always take a pass on fur because of the extreme cruelty that fur production causes millions of animals around the world,” PETA said.

Penelope Cruz is the latest to join PETA anti-fur celebrities of the likes of Charlize Theron, Eva Mendes and Elisabetta Canalis.

Al Gore was confronted last week about his own global warming policies, which they believe he advocated, to benefit his own businesses.

Labelled as “Proposal No.4″, a group email to shareholders said: “We are concerned that Apple’s policy on greenhouse gas regulations was developed to personally benefit a board member in violation of the Company’s Business Conduct Policy.”

The allegation failed to hold any weight when it was outvoted by shareholders. Tom Borelli, Director at the National Center for Public Policy Research, responded and stood his ground: “We got 1.6 percent of the vote, which is a very low number,” Borelli admitted. “But it doesn’t mean we aren’t right. We are. When a company makes money, no one cares about conflicts of interest.”

Reports from 2011 revealed a $26 billion profit in annual figures compared to $8 billion in 2009 when Apple resigned from the Chambers.

However, in an email addressed to shareholders, Apple said: “The decision to quit the Chamber was not driven by any conflict of interest or undue influence by any member of the Board. The Company resigned its membership because the Chamber’s position on climate change differed so sharply with the company’s.”

Pushing for greener initiatives, Al Gore was hired for the purpose of dealing with the economic climate change and green issues.

“Al brings an incredible wealth of knowledge and wisdom to Apple from having helped run the largest organization in the world – the United States Government – as a Congressman, Senator and our 45th Vice President,” said the late Steve Jobs in 2003.

Greenstream TV’s Leah Samuel is at the Estethica show talking to Pachacuti founder Carry Somers on her newest collection of felt hats during London Fashion Week 2012.

They will be joined by Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; NGOs, policy makers and Askwith Forum student members of Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The BTWF was founded in 2011 by Lady Gaga together with her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, and will address issues such as self-confidence, anti-bullying, self-acceptance and career development.

You can follow the launch streamed live on the BTWF website on February 29th from 4:00pm till 5:30pm EST.

Last month at the 2012 Low Carbon Racing Conference, the electric-powered Le Mans prototype racing car Lola-Drayson B12/69EV was unveiled.

A joint venture of Drayson Racing Technologies and Lola Cars, this piece of technological innovation is set to become the fastest electric car in the world with the ability of reaching a 200mph speed on the tracks.

The prototype that is the Lola-Drayson includes unique design features, is lighter and faster, enabling it to pull up to 100mph in 5.1 seconds.

On top of that, the electric vehicle has some nifty features that will scare potential rivals at the launch of the FIA Formula E in 2013. Inductive charging, movable aerodynamics and electrical regenerative damping included, the race for success is something Lola and Drayson have their eyes firmly fixed on.

Comparatively lightweight, a carbon fibre body and with a 850 horse power, the Lola-Drayson team sees it as a winning formula in a race that is all about endurance and speed.

Drayson and Lola have developed the electric race car with a smart “structural battery”, courtesy of British defense firm BAE Systems. A structural battery is basically a combination of battery chemistry and composite materials that once put together is capable of taking 3D forms, turning the car’s bodywork into an energy source, and therefore reducing weight.

“Structural batteries can be used in virtually anything that requires electricity from small gadgets to entire vehicles,” said Alex Parfitt, BAE capability technology leader for materials. “It can not only support our soldiers on the frontline, but also revolutionize technology in the consumer market by allowing more efficient, elegant and lighter designs.”

It is not the first time that BAE has incorporated this technology, but it is a first on a commercial level. Used in their drones, flashlights and electrical devices, soldiers are saving weight when carrying their traditional 176 pound backpack.

The electric motors are powered by the usual lithium ion batteries, but onboard electronics and headlights will rely on the structural battery. That is not all though, the car’s shock absorbers are designed to collect power from the suspension movements.

The development could break new records on international race tracks. A major breakthrough for green technology, this dynamic body is one to look out for on next year’s racing tracks.

The idea came after a failed attempt in visiting Legoland at Windsor, when the family of eight had to cut their visit short due to security concerns and overcrowding issues.

“Brad and Ange felt really bad having to drag the kids home early when they were at Legoland last year. But if their bodyguards said there were too many people then they had no choice,” a source said in The Sun.

“Their eldest son Maddox asked if they could build something similar at the house in France. They were already getting a new pool so they decided it was a great idea.”

There has been talk about incorporating a pirate island with a castle, a go-kart track and even a carousel. The pool that was in the making will take a more sizable proportion, and let’s not forget about slides, tunnels and boat rides that will complete the whole look.

Brad Pitt has had an active role in building sustainable, eco-friendly housing in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina devastated the whole region, and has now put his design skills to the test – again – by including a mini train on the compound travelling around the grounds.

The good part is – if the pirate island hasn’t done it for you yet – the construction will be powered by solar energy that is going to be harvested by using rooftop solar panels, and water will be constantly recycled.

Who said that being eco-conscious isn’t be fun?

Developed by the Parker Brothers, they initially developed the first prototype and batch running on fuel, which has since been modified to an all electronic model.

The vehicle is powered by a 96-volt electric motor and lithium ion batteries. It can speed up to 100mph and it has a range of around 100 miles with a mere 35-minute recharge.

With further modification surely the Parker Brothers will make changes that share the same type of technology now used on London buses and including Honda cars’ rechargeable brake system that generates the battery during deceleration and braking to recharge the vehicle’s batteries.

The bike, however, isn’t made for heavy duty crossing. The Hammacher Schlemmer website describes it as “designed for casual cruising and slow ride-bys at shows”.

But it doesn’t take away the fact that the Light Cycle demands attention and will have heads turning faster than you can say “Tron”. Great way to make an entrance, it will be hard not to be impressed. So, if you have a spare $55,000 in your account feel free to experience a radical 21st Century ride you will never forget.

Fans will be happy to hear that the bike is now available online and made to order on the Hammacher Schlemmer website.

Source: Megzus

Colin and Livia Firth – Mrs Firth wearing Valentino eco gown for the Green Carpet Challenge at the Oscars 2012 – Photo: Vogue.co.uk

Every year crowds of people, media and celebrities descend on the Oscars to join in with the glitz andglamour Hollywood has to offer. This year, the red carpet is once again filled with the world’s most recognizable celebrities, and all eyes are fixed on the newest fashion statements making home on the infamous carpet.

Style and fashion are scrutinized on the carpet as intensely as the desire of seeing superstars in the flesh.

But this year’s Oscars come with a small – eco-conscious – twist.

Livia Firth – wife of Oscar winner Colin Firth has launched the Green Carpet Challenge with co-founder British journalist Lucy Siegle, to challenge world-leading designers to don their celebrities with pieces that are a winning combination of glamour and environmentalism.

Missi Pyle has gotten plenty of attention with her ethically produced Peace Silk Chiffon gown, which won its designer, Venezuelan-born Valentina Delfino, the “Red Carpet Green Dress” contest that was set up by James Cameron’s wife, Suzy Amis Cameron.

Firth has long been a champion for sustainable fashion, all the way back to 2009. This year she has the support of top designers Chanel, Valentino, Tom Ford, Paul Smith, Yves Saint Laurent, Tom Ford, and Armani – whose sustainable tuxedo designs were worn by her husband Colin Firth.

Missi Pyle in light turquoise wearing Valentina Delfino – Photo: Dailymail.co.uk

Her long dress has gone through the most eco-conscious process to come to be. Using only recycled zippers, natural mineral dye and recycled polyester, the gown was completely pleated by hand, all hundred of the pleats – and according to the actress, it is a venture that took over 12 hours to complete.

Another Hollywood heavy-weight who joined the Green Carpet Challenge was Meryl Streep who wore a golden ensemble custom-made by Lanvin and is the label’s ever first eco gown.

Ermenegildo Zegna has also made a statement with actors Kenneth Branagh (Supporting Actor nominee for My Week with Marilyn) and Demian Bichir (Academy Awards Leading Actor nominee for A Better Life) both wearing Made-to-Measure tuxedos.

And Mrs. Firth herself? Justice was done with her clad in an elegant red, corseted Valentino creation made from recycled PET fabric and the designer’s signature silk.

“The GCC team and Valentino met in Paris to talk fabric and worked hard to find the right balance of materials that would deliver the full Valentino effect and conform to the GCC criteria,” Mrs. Firth wrote on her blog. “The result is a real hybrid dress, the combination of an amazing recycled PET fabric along with the Valentino’s house silk for the beautiful sheer sleeves of the gown.”

“The gown is the picture of elegance that I’ve always dreamed of since I was about ten.  It’s the biggest I’ve worn to date, the ultimate Cinderella dress and I think a triumph of ethics and Valentino’sshowstopping aesthetics - I hope you love it too!”

For many – if not for all – this could be a frustrating moment. But with the new AIRE mask, users can recharge their iPhone with the power of their breath. The device converts ‘wind’ energy into renewable energy.

Solving all the problems of renewable energy inside, the unit includes small wind turbines that powers your energy into electricity and can be used both indoors or outdoors.

The mask, which bears a canny resemblance to the one of a Star Wars stormtrooper, is the work of Brazilian designer João Paulo Lammoglia.

“It can be used while you sleep, walk, run, or read,” said Lammoglia, who was awarded the Red Dot Award. “Its energy is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”

It makes Greenpeace wonder.

Year after year they commissioned a report into the greenest electronic suppliers.

Surprising enough, despite their decline in sales and change of marketing strategies, as well as the failure of their tablets conquering the market, HP took the lead in the Greenpeace Green Electronics Guide with a 5.9/10, making them no.1 in the charts. HP scored points across three main areas: Energy and Climate, Greenest Products and most Sustainable Operations – including the management of their supply chain.

HP has the best programme for measuring and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from its suppliers, disclosing emissions from its manufacturing at 3,500,000 tonnes CO2-e, with 91 percent of its first-tier suppliers reporting estimated emissions in 2009.

Dell topped into no.2 with their pledge and striving efforts to reduce emission by 40 percent by 2015, but their lack of a comprehensive range of green products made them lose out on some points.

HP and Dell are the only companies in the Guide that  effectively excluded the sourcing of paper from suppliers linked to illegal logging or deforestation.

Together with Apple (who only made it to fourth place), HP top-scored for its policies and practices on the sourcing of conflict minerals, for publishing its suppliers, and engaging effectively in the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition’s (EICC) conflict-free shelterprogramme.

The EICC creates great awareness regarding materials of chips and metal supplies. Industry interests are prompting leading companies in the electronics sector to investigate their own existing supply chains. This is to determine steps to promote responsible sourcing of specific minerals. Metals for chips and for our electronic appliances can come from many sources around the world, including mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which are estimated to provide approximately 18 percent of global tantalum production, 4 percent of tin, 3 percent of tungsten, and 2 percent of gold. Some of these mines in the DRC are controlled by militias responsible for atrocities that have been committed in the Congolese civil war.

Apple is now investigating a new concern, the issue of the employee environment. It is currently speculated by sources that conditions are similar to what Nike were experiencing in the ’90s. Apple so far are still dealing with the situation.

As for the rest, Samsung is placed at 7th, Panasonic 9th and Sony is featured at no.10 on the list.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN, has developed their first joint effort with Nokia to develop the app called “Fantastic World of Frogs”. Users will be able to explore the world of frogs, which will help them understand the value of these amphibians with over 41 percent of the vertebrates edging closer to extinction, according to the IUCN red list of threatened species.

The goal of the app is to not only bring awareness to them but to also introduce people to thecolourful diversity of the Colombian frog species. Users can learn more about the conservation breakthroughs that the Save Our Species (SOS) are supporting, which are “protecting and restoring key sites for globally threatened amphibians”.

“We were the first company to join the SOS initiative. We believe that mobile applications offer a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness on environmental issues. This new app is a great way to teach people about the importance that frogs have in the ecosystem,” said Outi Mikkonen, Director and Stakeholder Engagement at Nokia.

Ready to download and available for use, find the app “Fantastic World of Frogs” in the Nokia store online.

Google unveiled on Thursday a new research project that will bring the world of marine haven to the homes of millions. The Catlin Seaview Survey, sponsored by the Catline Group Ltd, will have the project document and study the composition and health sections of the well-known reef. The collaboration with Google means that the pictures from the survey will be widely available online for anyone who wants to delve deeper into the deep blue sea.

Charting the seabed © 2012 CatlinSeaviewSurvey.com

“As an insurer, Catlin offers our clients protection against many types of risks, so it is natural that we should play a leading role in sponsoring research to learn more about the risks of tomorrow,” said Stephen Catlin, Chief Executive of Catlin Group Ltd.

The project will commence this September, but the Google street view service will soon be available allowing unprecedented underwater tours of the Great Barrier Reef.

Millions of people will be able to experience the life and science of marine biodiversity, raising public awareness of potential changes to our planet’s oceans and the underwater ecosystems.

Professor Hoegh-Guldberg from the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland is all too excited about the project. “The Catlin Seaview Survey comprises a series of studies which will reveal to the public one of the last frontiers on Earth – the oceans. For the first time in history, we have the technology available to broadcast the findings of the expedition through Google.”

Watch the video here.

A trail of yellow-clad cyclists stretched for well over half a mile down the Mall and in front of Parliament, before heading along both banks of the Thames creating their own river of blinking lights and ringing bells.

The issue of safety is of great concerns to cyclists. More than 27,000 people have been killed or seriously injured in the past ten years and the public is demanding government to take action by investing in cyclists’ safety on the roads.

Businesses are convincing employers to cycle to work with a tax-free option within the “Cycle to Work” scheme, allowing them to purchase bikes with discounts of up to 50 percent.

But the question on people’s mind is if the government is campaigning for people to cycle to work under their Green Transport Initiative, why are there no measures in place to make the roads more cyclists friendly?

David Cameron told Parliament Wednesday about the need for further funding in order to protect cyclists; he also spoke to supporters about the campaign and the successes that have been achieved so far.

“I think that if we want to encourage the growth in cycling we have seen in recent years, we need to get behind campaigns like this,” Cameron said.

The campaign has drawn more than 30,000 pledges of support and 21,000 tweets by using the #cyclesafe hashtag. More than 2,000 readers have written to MPs urging an overhaul of the urban landscape for bicycles and 67 MPs have signed an early day motion supporting the campaign.

Also supporting the campaign is Sustrans, the London Cycling Campaign, Roadpeace, the CTC, the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain, Russel Jones & Walkers Solicitors and the blogs “Cyclists in the city” and “iBikeLondon”.

A gorgeous Victim Fashion Street creation – LFW A/W 2012

Greenstream TV has met up again with Vintage eco-queen, Mei Hui Liu from Victim Fashion Street, at the London Fashion Week. How is she faring in her first ever exhibition at Estethica?

GSTV: Did you have any particular inspiration for the garments you have on display?

MHL: I don’t because I don’t work with changing seasons and new colours of fabrics. It mainly depends on what fabric I find next month or next year and then I make my garments. So there is no particular inspiration. I don’t do trends, maybe different shapes but I always use different fabrics.

GSTV: As you don’t do collections everything is pretty much a one-off piece. 

MHL: Yes, that’s why I think my clients still come back to me even after 10 years because they always feel like they can wear something different to other people and it also lasts longer and doesn’t go out of fashion.

GSTV: Do you think people like that feeling of having an exclusive garment?

MHL: Yes, definitely especially right now in fashion people go to the high street or spend thousands of pounds to buy something from a designer. You still have the same thing as other people and you wear them for one season then you don’t wear them anymore because of new seasonal trends emerging and I think for what I do the big advantage is these clothes are never out of season, never out of fashion. They are very collectable pieces and you value them for longer. It’s almost like a nice investment.

GSTV: What is the price range for your clothes?

MHL: It depends on the materials used, so prices average between £55 to £800 pounds which are for more special pieces. Also my clients range from really little girls, to teenagers and even older ladies, there’s something for everyone.

Freya from Victim Fashion Street

GSTV: Why do you prefer sustainable fashion rather than mainstream fashion?

MHL: In the very beginning when I made clothes for myself to wear, I wanted to look different and not the same as others. I never really thought I would become a designer but when I started making clothes I thought that I wanted to make something different from others or else there would be no point in becoming a fashion designer. Individual and originality is what I believe in rather than making clothes that were the same for everyone.

MHL: Absolutely and you get to give old fabrics and old materials a new life. They’re actually more original with their methods for cotton and silk, the tweed, everything is more beautiful and nowadays you cannot create the same thing again so that’s why I like the old stuff and making them look new.

GSTV: Where do you see eco-fashion going in the next five years?

MHL: Well I know that the high street are targeting a big market but at the same time I hope that people don’t buy clothes that they’re only going to throw away. Try and reuse and find a new life for them. In terms of clothes I hope that more sustainable practices will be used within the industry.

GSTV: Can you talk us through your collection?

AZ: The collection for Ada Zanditon autumn/winter 12 is called Simia Mineralis which means ‘Ape of the mineral’. It’s an analogy for the human race, our kind of bloodthirsty desire for technology, the way we mine the metals we use in technology, and how that has a really negative impact on the habitat of many species. But I’m particularly looking at the situation of mountain gorillas in the Congo and Rwanda.

There are many big issues around that and I kind of want to be the voice for the things that don’t have a voice of their own, especially for the mountain gorillas. I also think they are interesting because their DNA is 95 to 99 percent similar to ours, so they are like our cousins and I feel like we need to have more recognition of the fact that we’re related to nature, and nature is where we came from and we need to have more respect for it.

So that was my inspiration behind the collection and what I wanted to bring to people, but in a practical sense that’s been through choosing a really diverse, abundant range of sustainable textiles so the people we were working with use fair trade organic cotton, and also fair trade velvet. We’ve been working with silk and upcycled Chanel tweed and eel skin, which is a new one for us. It’s a by-product from the food industry. It’s a really strong skin and has the most incredible finish and I think it’s a really high end, beautiful fabric.

In terms of the shape and silhouette, and the collection, we’ve got a lot of really strong tailored jackets with geometric shoulders and there is also a much more romantic feel to the collection. We have dresses with ruffles as well as really structured evening wear. In separates this season, we have our first ever pair of jeans which is kind of cool. I always wear skinny black jeans so I thought there needs to be an eco skinny black version. We’ve used the velvet in the detailing as well as leather panelling in the leg.

GSTV: Do you think more designers are trying to adapt to eco-fashion?

AZ: I think there is a huge amount of interest in it and I was in Kiev just last year doing a fashion show and someone from St Martin’s was also there speaking about fashion and they were asked the question: “What are you most asked about by your students?” She actually said it was eco-fashion, and that all of her students were constantly asking about that and how it could be more part of the course. So I think that a lot of the new generation of designers coming up have an increasing interest in it. Not in a way that they’re pursuing a particular aesthetic, they’re pursuing their own aesthetic designing whatever they want to design. But the sustainable factor is coming into people’s work in the material sense, and the innovative ways they manufacture them.

GSTV: You say your collection is inspired by the mountain gorilla. Has that had any effect on causes related to them?

AZ: That’s something that takes a while to do so with my last collection we were particularly looking at seahorses and at the moment, I think it’s in April, I’ll be swimming for seahorses along with some other people.

GSTV: So do you base your collections around different animals?

AZ: Yes. My inspiration comes very much from conservation, which I’ve always been passionate about as well as fashion. For me, the key is to try and make high end luxury fashion, which gives a voice to different issues and conservation work. My first collection was looking at bees and colony collapse, my second collection was about bats because one kind of pollinator led me to another, and then I was really interested in the ocean. So I’ve done collections where I’ve looked more into the ocean and at the issue around seahorses, ocean acidification and coral reefs, and then I’ve kind of gone back on to land. So that’s where my inspiration comes from.

GSTV: It’s definitely different given that some designers focus on particular eras for their collections.

AZ: I’m really “science-y” and I love drawing inspiration for fashion from a wide source – I look at silhouettes from different eras but I take my main source of inspiration from evolution and biometry, and seeing how different species have evolved. I think that the future should be about being one global community and understanding how the diversity of life on earth has made us successful.

GSTV: How has the reaction been to the collection?

AZ: It was amazing. Colin McDowell came to the presentation on Friday, which was wonderful, and he very kindly said that he thought it was very unique and effective. He really liked the film and the collection, and he could tell that every single part was “thought through, very much stemming from the concept, and it has the right type of velocity” – which was what we were trying to do. We had a great response from press and buyers so it’s been really exciting and a lot of fun.

GSTV: Where do you see eco-fashion going in the next five years?

AZ: What I would really love to see is the boundary between fashion and eco-fashion to start melt away and for people to think that sourcing sustainably and manufacturing responsibly is just part of the process. Maybe eventually we’ll stop using this term, because that is what fashion should be about – it should be done responsibly. I don’t know if that could happen in five years. It’s a big amount of change. I think in higher fashion it can happen quicker because it has smaller amounts of production. I think when it’s smaller it’s not just easier to manage but I think rather than demonize people we need to help them and be positive and encouraging. A lot of people want to change things but we have got to a point where we are working with complex systems. If everyone has a really positive attitude and everyone is thinking about more transparency and be more communal in their way of thinking then we’d have a real chance of changing things.

The announcement appeared in Apple’s 2012 facilities report as part of the tech giants green commitments.

The firm hopes that the prospective 20-megawatt facility will deliver 42 million kWh of clean, renewable energy every year. It will benefit the Maiden centre with enough power to sustain Apple’s online operations, such as iTunes.

Apple commented: “Our goal is to run the Maiden facility with high percentage renewable energy mix, and we have major projects under way to achieve this – including building the nation’s largest end user-owned solar array and building the largest non-utility fuel cell installation in the United States.”

The company has implemented other sustainable facilities over time, including the LED lighting in all Apple Stores worldwide, and a solar thermal water heater in their Cork branch’s cafeteria.

The first of its kind, located in Linköping, the Greenhouse will be the primary food source for growing city populations with the development of offices and businesses around the iconic design and monument of architecture.

“I am immensely proud that Linköping is the chosen site for the first vertical greenhouse. We will be the first city in the world to test the new technology and the systems involved to develop sustainable agricultural solutions for future cities,” said Paul Lindvall, Mayor of Linköping.

The vertical garden will only take around 12-16 months to complete, faster when compared to the Eden Project, which took over two years. It is expected that this will be a continuing vision for vertical farming and the future of urban cities. The Plantagon Greenhouse will be developed together with Sweco and will continue to expand their knowledge when it comes to solutions for energy, excess, heat, waste, CO2 and water.

The Plantagon Greenhouse will develop vegetables and as a result eliminate transportation costs for delivery, which will be a more convenient resource for inner cities. This makes Plantagon Greenhouse the first ever company to take social responsibility and transparency in to their line of work as well as a food solution for future urban cities. InLinköping itself the people working in the greenhouse will be employed by Plantagon, but this model will of course vary depending on the city and the structure of the greenhouse itself. Plantagon’s long-term goal is to establish a Center of Excellence for Urban Agriculture in Linköping and start a new revolution.

The United Nation Development Program (UNDP) estimates that urban agriculture can deliver up to one fifth of the food produced today. By developing a new way to deliver that food, the Plantagon Greenhouse will act as that solution as well as a source of nutrients, water, CO2 and energy. Plantagon spoke with Greenstream TV and it understood that they are already in discussion with other cities to action similar projects, such as Singapore and Shanghai. European cities that have expressed an interest in building a greenhouse are still in talks with Stuttgart, Germany, and also Barcelona as potential cities willing to adopt this innovative approach to farming. Of course, this concept is still relatively new and developments are expected, but if all goes well then this will be a significant break-through in urban regeneration.

“With this greenhouse we’re developing and fine-tuning the technical systems required for vertical farming in urban areas, together with several well-known Swedish partner companies. We want to gather expertise in the field, and our long-term objective is to create an international Center of Excellence for Urban Agriculture here in Linköping,” said Hans Hassle, CEO of Plantagon.

Determined to find how many snow leopards there are, the survey concluded that resident snow leopards are healthy and increasing in Bhutan’s conservation park.

Commonly known as blue sheep (Psedois nayaur), they are neither blue nor a sheep. They are more close to goats. Snow leopard prey on this species, which was photographed at 4,600 m at Thorchen, Wangchuck Centennial Park, Bhutan © Royal Government of Bhutan (DoFPS) and WWF

Due to climate change, the habitat range has reduced for snow leopards. Their typical range of living is near where tree lines stop and where snow lines begin. As rising temperatures warms the earth, snow lines are receding, which forces snow leopards to go on higher grounds and adapt to harsher conditions to hunt for food. Other aspects of threats include poaching and expanding farm lands.

The first ever wildlife survey has been hailed a success with over 10,000 images captured with motion cameras at hot spots where these endangered majestic creatures roam.

“The findings are phenomenal as these are the first snow leopard images recorded in Wangchuck Centennial Park,” said WWF’s Dr. Rinjan Shrestha, who led the survey team. “It suggests that the network of protected areas and corridors is helping to link local snow leopard populations, which will be invaluable to ensure long-term persistence of snow leopards in the region.”

Since the opening of the Wangchuck Centennial Park in 2008, the government of Bhutan and WWF have been working closely together, surveying and finding solutions to tackle conservation challenges. Bhutan is the only country on Earth where the habitat of snow leopards and even tigers are safe from the threat of extinction. More than half of Bhutan is now under protection.

As wildlife and biodiversity loss increases, this amazing example can be used as a case study to understand how to open up more parks and protect animals on the brink of extinction. Expanding the network and opening more gates for collaboration with local governments, this is tremendous news for the protection of endangered animals.

Raika and Lumpur cosying up over the scented sack – Sourced from ZSL London Zoo

There is romance at the London Zoo on Valentine’s day. If you are taking your loved ones this week find out

who has been sending these Sumatran tigers Raika and Lumpur perfumed heart presents. Don’t be shy, these tigers won’t bite, but this morning they seemed quite obsessed with their heart-shaped CK Obsession-scented sack in their enclosure.

The tigers natural behaviour are encouraged, and audiences will be lucky enough to see their interactions.

So if you are struggling to find a last-minute plan of where you want to take your Valentine this afternoon, or the children for half-term, be sure to take advantage at seeing this special romance with also an exclusive offer for two tickets at £30 this Valentine’s day. See ZSL’s London Zoo website here to take advantage of the offer.

Who says animals can’t enjoy Valentine’s…

Bamboo is the fastest growing woody perennial on the planet, it can be used extensively in the modern world. This design brings innovative technology and mother earth together and has created an alternative steel and plastic variety.

The ADzero includes the latest Android Ice-Cream Sandwich operating system and will become the most sustainable phone in the industry. Made from 4-year organically-grown bamboo, the phone is larger and weighs half that of an iPhone 4S.

His inspiration came from the lack of variety of materials and designs on the mobile phone market. So be ready for the bamboo revolution in the smartphone world.

Slaughtered and internally cleaned to be illegally sold, the Thai police force also found other rare animals from zebras, another 400kg of tiger meat, crocodiles, wild buffalos and elephant carcasses.

Remains of tigers uncovered

“We found one tiger in an ice box, where it was being preserved with formaldehyde, and a lot of bones. On the floor, there were fresh cuts of white tiger, elephant and lion skins,” said the Thai nature crime police commander, Colonel NorasakHemnithi.

This type of crime is common when selling trophy items and exotic meat. Critics stopped short of praising the police believing that if the man was never spotted with bloody hands, the police would never have found these criminals or even solved the high driven trade in southeast Asia.

“A lot of catches are lucky catches,” said Edwin Wiek of the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand. “In Saturday’s case, the criminal was only caught because he went to 7-Eleven and had blood on his hands. These criminals are making a lot of money and have nothing to fear – the penalties are very low and hardly any jail sentences are given to these people.”

Police have arrested 8 other people behind the illegal business. They believe it may be a smuggling operation fronted by Bangkok zoos. Freeland, an international organisation dedicated to the prevention of wildlife trafficking and human slavery, are working with the police to identify the point of origin where the tiger could have been sold from or captured. This is worrying status to Thailand’s heritage as many plants and animals are coming near to extinction.

“We vow to pursue the case to the fullest and punish all wrong-doers,” Colonel Norasak Hemnithi told Freeland.

All is not finished now as Thai police are still on hot pursuit of finding the head of the operation that appeared to have fled out of Bangkok or even the country. Thai Nature Crime Police Investigators are now working with the Thai Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation to identify the tiger owner and verify the origin of the animals. The two agencies are part of the Thai Wildlife Enforcement Network (Thai-WEN), which is linked to other task forces in the region through the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN). China has recently formed a similar task force and stated its intention to link up with ASEAN-WEN.

The RSPCA have launched an official investigation with North Yorkshire Police to determine if the hamster was dead before it was actually fried. The 20-year old student was jailed the same night and bailed until further investigations, which will resolve what actually happened.

A spokesman said: “A 20-year old man was arrested on suspicion of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.”

This sort of animal cruelty is a key reminder of the importance of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which came into force in England and Wales in 2007. The rise of animal cruelty recorded 160,000 complaints being investigated in 2011. A rise of more than 10 percent compared to 141,280 in 2009.

RSPCA’s David Bowles said: “The RSPCA is and has always been proactive in preventing cruelty and suffering to animals.”

The animal welfare law act is to ensure there are tough laws and legal obligations imposed on owners and people . This is to ensure protection for animals and with consequences ranging from fines up to 20,000, sentences banning people owning a pet, and even jail sentences.

The rising temperatures pose an increased threat to sea levels volume and the long-term risks to the coral reef can result in them becoming more acidic due to the algae that grow on the reef that can gradually kill them. After researching the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, AIMS have discovered the 2,900 individual reefs have somehow adapted to the challenging warmer waters leaving scientists questioning what other secrets the corals roots hold.

Coral reef samples have been collected over a 110-year period from 1900 to 2010 to study the extensive change of coral behaviour.

Focusing on the most recent 110 years, scientists measuring the samples with a collective data of the sea temperatures found no evidence of a recent widespread decline in coral calcification rates on Australia’s western coral reefs. Instead they have discovered that the corals at the northernmost sites, where sea temperatures are already high, have shown no change in calcification. In contrast, calcification rates of corals have increased at the most southerly reef sites, where sea temperatures are cooler and warming has been greater. The study shows how adaptive the coral has become to re-adjust to the growing changes in order to survive. This suggests that the ocean acidification has more influence on the behaviour of corals, which has only started to expand in their colonies in the south compared to the north where growth has come to a standstill.

“This is an important finding, as it helps us better understand the effects of warming waters and rising CO2 levels on coral reefs around Australia and globally,” said Dr Tim Cooper, former AIMS Research Scientist. “Rapid warming of parts of the tropical oceans, observed to date, appears to be driving coral calcification responses. Some corals in some locations are able to keep up with these changes, whilst others are already showing that the temperature changes have exceeded optimal conditions for coral growth.”

“We are now in an era of rapid environmental change for the world’s coral reefs and this study provides another line of evidence that coral reefs are sensitive to these changes. Coral calcification rates are clearly responding in the short term to temperatures, but in the longer term these responses will be compounded by the progressive impacts of ocean acidification” Dr Janice Lough, Senior Principal Research Scientist at AIMS explained. “Limiting the magnitude of these rapid environmental changes is fundamental to providing coral reefs, as we know them, with a future.”

Questions such as why this mysterious growth is occurring and what awaits the future of Australia’s coral reefs will need to be explored further. And what can be learnt from their survival? This will soon be solved using the new $35 million National Sea Simulator. Currently being built at AIMS in Townsville, the simulator will give scientists the ability to regulate temperature, acidity, salinity, sedimentation and contaminants in large volumes of water. Carrying out more tests year by year will help continue the detailed analysis until the sea simulator is completed.

The gamba grass – a fast-growing weed – was introduced in the 1930s as food for livestock and can grow up to 4m tall. It has been spreading through the Australian landscape and are fueling the many wildfires that occur on a yearly basis.

Many imported plant and animal species have wreaked havoc and threatened the balance of the ecosystem. Now one Australian professor believes that introducing another set of non-native animals will control this problem.

Prof David Bowman at the University of Tasmania, who is an environmental change biologist, suggested to fight fire with fire by bringing in exotic megaherbivores that can handle the vast amount of these tall plants.

“It is too big for marsupial grazers (kangaroos) and for cattle and buffalo, the largest feral mammals. But gamba grass is a great meal for elephants or rhinoceros,” Prof Bowman told AFP.

“The idea of introducing elephants may seem absurd,” he wrote in his research. “But the only other methods likely to control gamba grass involve using chemicals or physically clearing the land, which would destroy the habitat.”

He emphasised his stance to the Guardian: “I’m talking about using elephants as a machine or ecological tool to manage this grass.”

But not everyone shares his enthusiasm and are convinced that conventional methods should be exhausted before taking this ‘extreme’ step, as the presence of non-native species have already proven to backfire.

Introduced animals like camels, goats and foxes have had a negative impact on the native wildlife while going ‘rampant’ without their natural predator to keep them in check.

The problem with elephants is that not only will they go after the abundant gamba grass. These mammals have a notorious appetite for trees.

“Are we in Australia (to) hope that the elephants don’t find our native Australian trees tasty?” Prof Patricia Warner at the Australian National University questioned in news.com.au. “Can we somehow command them to eat only introduced African grasses?”

But Prof Bowman is very much aware of the risks involved. “It would be essential to proceed cautiously, with well-designed studies to monitor the effects.”

Sightings of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other species have decreased by more than 99 percent with rabbits nowhere to be seen.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) journal on Monday showed that areas, where the pythons have made their home, have seen a drop in mammal biodiversity observations since 2000. The report is produced through nocturnal field surveys that documents sightings of mammals in the park.

They found that observations of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other species have decreased by more than 99 percent. Linked to the fact that pythons are not too picky with their prey – their menu ranges from birds to alligators – the connection between the presence of these reptiles and the dwindling of mammals is immediately made.

There is uncertainty as to the origin of these reptiles but it is believed that they were imported into the region through the pet trade. Scientists assume that a few specimens were released into the wild by a collector some 15 to 30 years ago.

Nowadays, their numbers are still unknown but records of their removal in 2009 totaled at nearly 400, which has been increasing year after year.

Python females can produce up to a 100 eggs every other year and this species have a lifespan of 35 years and can grow up to 16 feet long.

The impact of the snakes is still unclear but federal officials have recently declared non-native snakes to be a threat to the environment and its biodiversity and are looking to ban these imported species.

“We don’t really know how the food web might respond,”  Skip Snow, Everglades National Park’s wildlife biologist, told ABC News. “If rabbits are in short supply, how will the bobcat, for instance, compensate? Will they eat something else? Will they move? What will happen to the animals that we can’t see? The real question is while we struggle to understand the impacts, what we really need to do is learn from this event and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Even if the ban comes into effect and the animals are removed, scientists are unsure whether the native population will rebound.

The report assessed: “The magnitude of these declines underscores the apparent incredible density of pythons in Everglades National Park and justifies intensive investigation into how the addition of novel apex predators affects overall ecosystemprocesses.”

Sustainable fishing is on the rise as more registered and certified fishery products are being approved by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). This drastic move has risen to 41 percent in the UK over the last year. British supermarkets have taken the campaign that was pressured by groups and NGOs to be more considerable when selecting the type of fishes to buy on the shop shelves for our plates at home. Influenced by the elaborate campaigns of environmental groups and NGOs, British supermarkets are now selecting products caught using sustainable fishing practices.

The past campaign “The Big Fish Fight”, led by Hugh Fearnelt-Whittingstall, has exposed the issue of overfishing on a global level, which has reached 85 percent of our oceans. The Prince of Wales has pushed the issue to the forefront and has pledged to support the halting of overfishing in an international campaign. Fisheries around the world could hugely benefit by tackling sustainable fishing techniques and by finding alternative methods.

Half of the fishes caught on the North Sea are unnecessarily thrown back overboard and discharged due to their miss-match of fisherman’s targets. As discards are not monitored it seems hard to know the exact number of fishes that are mistakenly caught, killed and thrown back into the sea. The Big Fish Fight estimates that 40 to 60 percent are discarded of the total catch. That means that only eight out of 47 fishes are actually caught in a healthy state. The big five favourite fishes that make up 75 percent of the UK consumption are cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns. A reform is awaiting for approval in Brussels for 2013, which aims to bring fish stocks to a sustainable level by 2015.

The MSC are helping to create a global sustainable seafood market. A blue stamp shows consumers that the product is approved and verified by the MSC, which guarantees its sustainable origin.

“Consumers are increasingly considering the environment in their seafood purchases,” said James Thornton, the Chief Executive Officer of ClientEarth, which has set up the Sustainable Seafood Coalition.

Sainsbury’s continues to be the number one choice of MSC products as it recently launched its 100th MSC-certified good.

“We are proud to be the largest UK retailer of MSC-certified sustainable fish and seafood products,” they say, “With over 80 products carrying the MSC logo”. All of the stores’ tuna are responsibly sourced, cold water prawns come from MSC Canadian, Norwegian and Greenlandic waters as well as salmon that are reared on RSPCA freedom food approved farms on the west coast and Islands of Scotland. The ‘Switch the Fish’ campaign has boosted the variety of alternative fishes for consumers to buy, consequently improving sales.

Tesco sells 14 MSC-approved fish lines with their pledge to have canned fish caught by the pole and line method by the end of 2012. ASDA pledges the same method for tuna but has set their deadline on 2014. It sells only one type of MSC Atlantic Cod but stresses its plan to collaborate with Ocean Fish to work on a seasonal plan when the fishes are in season. This lowers the cut of the fish population and incorporates a trend for the consumers to buy another type of fish than the UK’s usual five favourites. Fishes offered over the counter that are not MSC approved, will be assessed by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership.

As for the other four supermarkets, even though they are not MSC labelled, M&S, Waitrose, Co-op and Morrison’s each have their own commitments to be sustainable. Sales from Co-op has seen a growth in sustainable fish products from £178mln to £207mln. This is an increase of 8.2 percent in the same period.

MSC’s Country Manager for the UK, Toby Middleton, said: “The growth in interest in certified sustainable seafood over the past few years has been remarkable and that change is mirrored by the changes on the seas where certified fisheries have brought a myriad environmental benefits including reduced by catch and better scientific understanding of fisheries.”

Campaigners now hope that the improved rate of consumers’ consideration and international influence will persuade governments, the UN, regulating bodies, fishermen and seafood processors to adapt more to a sustainable fishing practice solution for a thriving fishing population.

But now the “Black Squirrel Project” is adamant to chart the population. So, look out for the elusive squirrel in the UK green scenery.

Cambridge University, Chelmsford University and Anglia Ruskin University are conducting the campaign to find these rare exclusive squeakers. Members of the public have been advised to inform the research group of its whereabouts if they do see a squirrel finding a home for their nut.

It is thought they were spread by a private collection in Bedfordshire and as time has gone on, the species have manifested around the area and according to recent discoveries have moved high up north. All of this remains speculation but the squirrels have even outnumbered the growth rate of the native red squirrels. The number of red squirrels stands at less than 30,000, but growth of grey squirrels are around two million due to a large feeding area and the squirrelpox virus they carry.

“As it stands we know that black squirrels have travelled approximately 50 miles in the last 100 years,” said Helen McRobi of the Life Sciences department at Anglia Ruskin University.

“The aim of the black squirrel project is to gather data on the geographical range of the grey and black squirrel in the British Islese and the data may help explain why the grey squirrel has proved to be such a successful invader in the UK.”

The history of both kinds originated from North America, with more than 100 greys released at various sites across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland between 1876 and 1929. It is reported that black squirrels are more aggressive and attractive to females, but this will not change the status for the Red Squirrel Survival Trust as their strategy is to trap and kill greys to improve the management of forestry in Cornwall and in the north of England. Little is known about the full health specs of the black squirrel as Dr Shuttleworth pointed out that “whether it is a grey squirrel that is white or black, they are all invasive species and should not be encouraged”.

Reports that show the exact population will al depend on this ongoing spotting activity submitted in the UK. Any readers who do see the black squirrel are encouraged to submit a posting with a picture – if you’re quick enough – on www.blacksquirrelproject.org to help map out these species.

Business Secretary Vince Cable announced the establishment of the very first GIB back in December 2011, which is designed “to accelerate private sector investment in the UK’s transition to a green economy”.

The location will be dependent on three criteria. Firstly the location must be one in which sufficient specialist staff are based for recruitment, secondly the organisation must be in a position where it can work closely with investment bodies, project developers, green technology providers as well as other parties, and thirdly the location must be cost effective with a “good value for money” attribute.

“The Green Investment Bank (GIB) will be a key component of the progression towards a green economy, complementing other green policies to help accelerate additional capital into green infrastructure,” the Department for Business disclosed in a press release.

“Its mission will be to provide financial solutions to accelerate private sector investment in the green economy. Capitalised with £3 billion, the GIB will play a vital role in addressing market failures affecting green infrastructure projects in order to stimulate a step up in private investment.”

It is said that Edinburgh in this instance has the backing from several Scottish investment funds, and is further promoted by an amalgamation of Scotland’s finance industry, its universities and energy companies. They claim that Edinburgh has the expertise to organise the GIB, which “would lack impact and openness if it were located in London” (BBC News).

With a private sector start-up capital of about £15bn aimed to last 4 years, it is hoped that by 2016 the GIB will have enough sway to deepen its relation with the private financial markets.

Owen Kelly, Chief Executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise told BBC News that the group has put together a strong argument for the UK government to consider Edinburgh, as the city is the most “complete financial services centre outside of London”.

A consensus will be reached at the end of February.

NASA’s Godard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) monitors the global surface temperatures regularly and updates the analysis throughout the year. It has found that Earth is continuing to experience warmer temperatures than what previously experienced in the 20th century. This is why we have been feeling the odd patterns in our weather recently. Winter seems like spring, and spring seems like summer. Animals such as the polar bears in the Antarctic depend on icy platforms to hunt, but due to the changing climate animals will need to adapt to different approaches to survive.

The average temperature of our planet in 2011 was 0.92 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the mid-20th century baseline. “We know the planet is absorbing more energy than it is emitting,” GISS director James E. Hansen said in a press release. “So we are continuing to see a trend toward higher temperatures.”

The GISS global temperature record began in 1880, a time when the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was about 285 parts per million. By 1960, the average concentration had risen to about 315 parts per million. The number today exceeds 390 parts per million.

The temperature analysis produced by GISS is compiled from weather data of over 1,000 meteorological stations around the world, satellite observations of sea surface temperature and Antarctic research station measurements. This analysis is very close to the collective data produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

However warm the world is getting, the answer to this may only be the introduction of a tax to fight global warming, remembering that each and every one of us can contribute to cut down our own action. It is impossible for any one individual to prevent global warming as we each have a direct impact on the conditions that allow warming to occur. We can pledge to do our part to conserve energy and pollute less. Whether at home, on our commute to work or school, in the office, or at the store, there are things we can do to lessen our contribution to climate change and keep the world’s rising temperature in check.

Conservation International has documented around 1,300 animals in 2010 of which 46 are new discoveries. The study was published in the RAP Bulletin of Biological Assessment series.

As part of their environmental programme, the Surinamese government founded the Central Suriname Nature Reserve in 1998, that takes up 10 percent of the country, an area the size of New Jersey. UNESCO declared the reserve a World Heritage Site two years later.

This unspoiled tropical forest has remained pristine because of effective land management by the owners, while enjoying a low population/area ratio.

“That’s not unlike the rest of Suriname, which is thickly forested but thinly populated,” said Conservation International in a statement. “The ‘big game’ ofAmazonia - like the Giant River Otter, Lowland Tapir, Giant Armadillo and the American Manatee – threatened elsewhere, are still abundant, because large parts of their habitat is still intact and undisturbed.”

The potentially new species included the “armored catfish”, a large tree-frog, the “Great Horned Beetle”, the “Pac-Man Frog”, and several insects and freshwater fish.

WWF reported on Tuesday that the species could be extinct in the wild in less than 30 years unless immediate action is taken to ensure their survival.

Having lost 70 percent of its habitat, and with 2,400 to 2,800 of the animals left in the wild, there is imminent concern for the subspecies’ existence as figures suggest that only half of the population remains since 1985.

“Although as a species Sumatran elephants are protected under Indonesia law, 85 percent of their habitats which are located outside of protected areas, are outside of the protection system and likely to be converted to agricultural and other purposes,” according to the IUCN Red List.

The loss is said to come from deforestation, when elephant habitat makes way for agricultural purposes.

WWF has called for the government to cease all forest conversions until a conservation strategy is in place.

“In the mid-1980s, Sumatra had 44 elephant populations spread across all of its eight provinces, and the island still had half of its natural forests,” said Dr. A. Christy Williams, Head of WWF’s Asian Elephant Programme.

“Due to conversions of those forests for human settlement and agricultural production, many elephant populations have come into serious conflicts with humans. As a result, a large number of elephants have been captured from the wild or killed.”

Indonesia and its stakeholders, including the Indonesian government, oil palm companies, and the pulp and paper industry, are urged to work together and put in place proper protection mechanisms to preserve Sumatra’s natural forests before the country’s natural heritage is lost.

Scientists have set up camera traps in the Wehea forest in Borneo, to capture images of wildlife including orangutans and clouded leopards, but what they found baffled them at first.

A group of monkeys they initial were unable to identify, has been captured by the cameras. Though the species was documented, illustrations of the monkeys were only available as museum sketches.

It took a while before their suspicions were confirmed. The grizzled langurs were known to exist on Sumatra, Java, Malaysia and north-eastern Borneo, but scientists believed them to be extinct since 2004. Their discovery in Wehea, far east in Borneo, came as a surprise.

“For me the discovery of this monkey is representative of so many species in Indonesia,” said Brent Loken, one of the lead researchers and PhD student at Simon Fraser University in Canada.

“There are so many animals we know so little about and their home ranges are disappearing so quickly,” Loken told The Guardian. “It feels like a lot of these animals are going to quickly enter extinction.”

The team is set to return to the forest to document the grizzly langurs populations whose members have appeared in over 4,000 of the 10,000 images taken over a two-month period.

If approved, the Thames estuary airport or ‘Boris Island’, named after its fervent champion Mayor Boris Johnson, will affect five separate Special Protection Areas and a Special Area of Conservation.

The area is an important site to rare and vulnerable migrating birds. It is said that the construction of a new airport would “cause tidal shifts and various kinds of pollution”.

It is hard to assess the full environmental impact on the estuary and river by this potential aviation hub, but an initial draft by architect Norman Foster included four 4km (nearly 2.5 miles) runways to accommodate up to 150 million passengers a year on the Isle of Grain – double the number of visitors who pass through Heathrow.

“For London to retain its position as the heartbeat of global business we need aviation links that will allow us to compete with our rivals,” said Mayor Boris in a statement. “No other city even approaches the volume of passengers handled at London’s airports but we need to start planning for a brand new airport that can help meet the ever increasing demand for aviation and act as a hub, particularly to the rest of the UK.”

But there is increased worry that the building of the facility will make the government’s efforts in curbing greenhouse gases by 2050 an impracticable one.

The Guardian reported: “[…] the UK’s independent Committee on Climate Change report on aviation emissions in 2009 estimated that, […] ministers needed to limit demand increases to 60% – or 138 million more passengers. By itself, then, without any growth at other (…) UK airports, a new Thames Hub would increase capacity beyond what is recommended.”

Costa Concordia overturned off the Tuscan coast on 13 January near the island of Giglio, which is part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park. The ship also contained 198 drums of hazardous fluids that are now missing.

“The environmental risk for the island of Giglio is very high. The goal is to prevent the fuel from the ship coming out: we’re working on that,” said Clini, quoted on ENS. “The action is urgent, we hurry.”

The Ministry of Environment has placed absorbent containment booms around the ship to minimise the damage.

Smit, a salvage company, has been contracted to remove fuel from the ship once search and recovery of missing passengers have been completed. It is estimated that more than two weeks are needed to remove roughly 2,400 tons of fuel liquid. However, there is growing concern that heavy fuel may leak from the wreck before they could be removed.

“The area affected by the possible environmental risk depends on the currents,” Clini explained. “Surely the island of Giglio, probably the whole archipelago, perhaps the coast. It depends on how the sea moves.”

Black rhinos have already been declared extinct in West Africa since last November by the International Union for conservation of Nature (IUCN). To make matters worse, the same could happen in South Africa. 19 endangered black rhinos were poached out of the 5,000 remaining. The total number of killings is rising, with 333 poached in 2010 and three times the number killed in 2009.

“More rhinos were poached in 2011 than has been recorded in any single year before,” said Andrew McVey, Species Programme Manager at WWF-UK. “If left unchecked, poaching gangs could put the survival of these iconic species in jeopardy.”

The rise of rhino deaths in South Africa is the result of global rhino horn demands. The increase of these demands commonly come from Asian countries, in particularly Vietnam where the horns are valued for alleged medicinal purposes. Rhino horns are put through trade by loopholes that weaken the excuse to stop people from smuggling.

“Killing endangered rhinos to mitigate a hangover is a criminal way to see in the New Year,” said Tom Milliken, rhino trade expert at TRAFFIC, which is an organisation that monitors wildlife trade.

In certain Asian culture, such as Vietnam, it is suggested that rhino horn can cure cancer, but Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) experts have discovered that there is no proven cancer treating properties in the horn as it contains only keratin which is commonly found in hair and nails. Vietnam needs to show progress in curtailing legal trade in rhino parts and derivatives to tackle poaching.

Wildlife Trade Policy Expert for WWF International, Dr Colman O Criodain insists that the next steps for action are to convince Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to push for stronger initiatives to stop future trade. CITES signatory needs to urge tough action and stop pharmaceutical companies continuing to manufacture medicines derived from rhino horn. China has started to demonstrate the willingness to fight and punish the horn crimes with lengthy prison terms. This is a serious issue to the animal existence as Vietnam has already wiped out black rhinos in their own country. South Africa is the home of most of the world’s rhinoceros population and runs the risk of becoming a ‘farm’ with easy targets for poachers.

In Africa and Asia, WWF and TRAFFIC are working hard to advance field rangers’ investigations. Only five percent of rhino poachers are convicted. The majority, more often than not, get away with the killings. The fight to stop this act is already under way with the recent start-up of the “International Rhino Foundation”.

The foundation will support rangers and increase security convictions and improve anti-poaching operations in the hope that it will conserve and protect one of Africa’s big five.

In the end, four of the big six are cutting their charges. EDF would cut their gas bills from 7 February by up to 5%. Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) will follow with a 4.5% cut by 26 March effectively, while N Power promises a 5% cut from 1 February.

The nation’s favourite supplier, British Gas, stated they won’t reduce their gas price because they have already bought the gas in advance to supply half of the homes in Britain, but has reduced its domestic electricity by an average 5% on Thursday. Comparing utility prices online, ahead of this year’s winter, Ian Peters reassured the public that “this price reduction means British Gas is once again offering the cheapest standard electricity, on average, of any major supplier.”

They claim that with the instant change 5.3 million British Gas single rate electricity customers, on a variable tariff, will benefit from the price reduction, each saving an average of £24 on their annual electricity bill. Overall, this saves British customers more than £100 million a year.

Qi Qi

Xing Rong

Workers at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Release Research Center have released six pandas into an artificial “wild” environment, aptly named the “Panda Valley”.

The Panda Valley, that is still under construction, is an enclosed forest located in China’s Sichuan province on Wednesday, and is found in Majiagou in Yutang town of Dujiangyan city.

Deputy director of the Chengdu panda base, Fei Lisong said that the release is only the first step of a project to acclimatise pandas in a semi-wild environment so that they can fend for themselves when released into the Chinese wilderness.

Gong Zai

Ying Ying

The six pandas were chosen based on a year-long observation into their health, age, gender, character and genetic background, and were carefully selected from amongst 108 pandas who live in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

They will become the first group of ‘pioneers’ to be reintroduced into the wild. Twins Xing Rong and Xing Ya are the 4-year olds to go into the new facility, alongside 3-year olds Gong Zai and Ying Ying, and 2-year olds Zhi Zhi and Qi Qi.

The opening ceremony was attended by NBA star, Yao Ming, who said to the press: “I think it is most important to keep a balance between modern living and nature.

Zhi Zhi

Xing Ya

“We have been talking about it for many years but it is never an easy thing to do.”

Over the course of 30 years, the Chengdu panda base have released 10 pandas into the wild who were born in captivity, but only two have thus far survived.

Researchers now believe that releasing a group of pandas in one go will ensure a higher survival rate as opposed to individually.

The semi-wild enclosure will train pandas in their adaptation skills through the removal of human contact and the availability of manmade wild feeding areas.

The blame goes to the amount of concentration of main gases that entered the atmosphere which has reached record levels in 2010.

Scientists established that the earth has already undergone 5 ice ages. At the moment it is said that our planet is in an interglacial, a warmer period that reduces the amount of ice sheets. And it has been occurring for the past 10,000 to 15,000 years.

Serbian scientist, Milutin Milankovic explained that ice ages occur in cycles through a wobble on the Earth’s axis, which are dubbed “Milankovitch cycles”, very much like the wobble of the four seasons. But in comparison to the four seasons, the Milankovitch cycles happen over tens of thousands of years.

“At current levels of CO2, even if emissions stopped now we’d probably have a long interglacial duration determined by whatever long-term processes could kick in and bring [atmospheric] CO2 down,” Luke Skinner told BBC News.

Skinner is the lead author and professor at Cambridge University, who also collaborated with researchers from the University College London, Norway’s Bergen University and the University of Florida.

Current studies cannot fully explain as to how ice ages are caused, but it is believed that an amalgamation of changes in the earth’s orbit, the shifting of tectonic plates, and atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide concentrations contributed to the process.

And for an ice age to successfully form, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have to stay below 240 parts per million by volume (ppmv), the study showed.

But current concentrations have already exceeded the threshold and is standing at 390 ppmv. Experts question the feasibility of bringing the figure down. As McGill University professor Lawrence Mysak explained to BBC News: “Absorption by the oceans takes thousands of thousands of years – so I don’t think it’s realistic to think that we’ll see the next glaciation on the [natural] timescale.”

Papua New Guinea’s tropical islands lie just northwest of Australia and are well-known for their rich biodiversity.

The frogs were discovered in 2010 but the discovery was only announced on Wednesday as the study was published on January 11, 2012 in the PLoS ONE journal.

Scientists had a great deal of trouble locating the tiny creatures through listening for their calls. After four failed attempts in finding P.Amauensis in the traditional way, biologist and co-author Christopher Austin from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, together with graduate student Eric Rittmeyer, resorted to bagging a large pile of litter leaf and sifting through it.

“… eventually we saw this tiny thing hop off one of the leaves,” Austin told National Geographic News.

These new frogs are fully camouflaged by their earth-coloured skin and are expert jumpers that can leap 30 times the length of their body size.

The Galápagos Islands played a significance role that inspired Darwinism. These tropical islands in the Pacific Ocean, west of Ecuador, support a variety of endemic species made famous by the revolutionary theory of Charles Darwin and have since become a national park and marine reserve.

One of its reptile species indigenous to the island of Floreana, the Chelonoidis elephantopus was believed to be extinct for 150 years. But Yale University researchers have found hybrid tortoises as young as 15 years old on the nearby island, Isabela, with a genetic profile that suggests one of their parents to be the C. elephantopus, the giant tortoise.

Previous evidence was found three years ago when another Yale expedition team found tracks of hybrids around Volcano Wolf on Isabela amongst the Chelonoidis becki population, indicating that the likelihood of several pure giant tortoises are around to father them. Dr Gisella Caccone, a senior scientist during the expedition, told the BBC: “To justify the amount of genetic diversity in the hybrids, there should be something like 38.” And this includes an equal number of both males and females specimens.

The scientists theorised that careful cross-breeding could increase the number of pure-blood C. elephantopus. But finding these large tortoises is not as easy a feat as one may think.

“The landscape on Volcano Wolf is hard, the vegetation thick with lots of bushes and nooks, and the carapaces are translucent so you need a trained eye to see the shininess of the shell,” Dr Caccone told BBC news.

The Yale research team will attempt to open talks with the Galápagos authorities in establishing whether the next step should be the organisation of further expeditions or compiling a captive breeding planning.

Free wireless access will be granted to visitors and residents, and is set to be up and running in time for the Olympic games of 2012 this summer.

“Next summer’s Olympic Games mean that London will be putting on the biggest show on earth and as Westminster has a starring role, visitors to London will easily be able to share their pictures and updates of the Olympic events across social networking sites,” said Philippa Roe of Westminster City Council.

“This ground-breaking deal – the first of its kind in the UK – will see us deliver high quality connectivity across London in time for London 2012,” said O2 COO Derek McManus in a statement. “Our longer-term aim is to expand our footprint of O2 Wifi, which is open to everyone, and also intelligently enhance our services at street level, where people need the network the most.

“Our £500m annual network investment programme is focused on integrating new layers of technology into the existing network to enable a seamless and sustained customer experience. We are driven entirely by our customers’ needs and believe that services should be delivered in the best possible way, across multiple networks and supported by different technologies.”

O2 reports that the service will “run at no cost to the councils or the taxpayer”, and is offered in lieu of the 2012 Olympics and also the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

The installation of the Metro wireless network commences in January 2012 and will be available in selected areas. Eventually, the service will roll out and cover the entire boroughs.

It is estimated that this measure will reduce food waste by 40,000 punnets a week, totalling up to 800,000 strawberries, by prolonging their shelf life in the fridge with two additional days.

M&S promises to move forward with their sustainability policy to compete with all other supermarkets in becoming the most sustainable major retailer by 2014. Today, M&S revealed their revolutionary packaging that will avoid food waste in the hope of becoming a key example for other supermarket chains to follow.

A mixture of clay and minerals are patented in the strip, which absorb ethylene. Ethylene is a hormone that causes fruit to ripen and then turn mouldy. The addition of the strip during production will come at no additional cost to the consumer. This package is now firstly available to strawberries and will soon be produced for other food products.

“This technology is a win-win for our customers,” said Hugh Mowat, an agronomist at M&S. “Not only will their strawberries taste better for longer, but we really hope it will help them reduce their food waste as they no longer need to worry about eating as soon as they buy them.”

The British strawberry season starts from April and M&S gets around 1mln punnets per week during this period. This type of technology will help drop the levels of supermarket carbon footprint and will at the same time increase logistic benefits of strawberries that are imported from Egypt, Morocco, Spain and Israel.

Supermarkets such as ASDA had a similar idea last year to prolong freshness in the produces on their shelves, but abandoned it due to additional costs to their production. However, it is a topic that cannot be avoided as the government are urging companies to cut waste from their stores to a minimum.

It’s Fresh Director Simon Lee said: “Reducing food waste is a huge mandate for retailers. Improving shelf life and quality means people will be more satisfied with a product and ultimately consume more of it.”

The event was held at Oxford University where scholars agreed on the regional resilience amongst African forest trees as species endured a series of “climatic catastrophes over the past 4,000 years”, the BBC reported.

Yadvinder Malhi, Professor of Ecosystems at the university told BBC News: “In some senses, African forests have gone through a number of catastrophes in the past 4,000 to 2,000 years.” Because of these past catastrophes, the current biodiversity is already much lower with the elimination of weaker species. As such, scientists believe that the remaining ecosystem has a make-up that is more resilient towards changing climate pressure.

Another reason as to why African forests have greater survival ratio could be attributed to their greater biomass, Dr. Simon Lewis from Leeds University told BBC News. He also adds: “This is partly because the trees are longer lived so they are becoming bigger over time, and partly because the whole forests are more productive.

“But we are not entirely sure why the African forests are more productive than those in the Amazon.”

Another element to bear in mind is although the African rainforests have a smaller tree species diversity than the Amazon forest, the mammal biodiversity is just as rich.

“There are many species of monkeys, and you then have things like pigmy hippos and forest giraffes.

“In terms of its animal diversity, it really is a remarkable place. And the majestic stature of the trees, it is again remarkable.” Dr. Lewis said.

I found it puzzling why they would think this – surely last year wasn’t that bad. But when I recalled just how much happened, I had to admit yes it was quite an eventful year, but it also gave us the chance to address a few issues that have subtly been plaguing us.

The stand out event of the year had to be the summer riots that gripped London and other cities in the UK, which bordered on anarchy. While we may never really know the true reason for mobs of youths looting shops, it revealed the power that social media had on the riots. Twitter was ablaze with people reporting vandalism and theft in areas that news crews weren’t even aware of, while others used the popular network as a tool to flare up new riots in other areas.

Some blamed the shooting of Mark Duggan, others said that it was an outcry from a generation that had been failed by the government. Whichever you choose to believe, there is one thing that astounded people even more and that was the response to the carnage that took place in several areas around London. I witnessed for the first time how the police looked stumped at tackling the problem. As one area seemed to be contained, another would erupt in chaos.

Even David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson took their time to return from their summer holidays in order to address the situation. But when it came to tracking those involved, the punishments were harsh and even bordered on bizarre. Threats of families losing their council homes for the actions of one member surfaced and prison sentences of 16 months for a lick of ice cream left me wondering if this was really the way to deal with hundreds of youths who felt they had nothing left to lose.

I don’t support these youngsters looting businesses and causing widespread damage to shopping areas, but I do think that they are right to be deemed the “forgotten generation”. With the levels of unemployment rising and more and more graduates entering the working world, 2011 was definitely a year that didn’t appear to hold much promise.

We saw that when it came to the Middle East, as well as Europe, as we continue to teeter on the brink of a huge financial disaster. What was shocking about the Middle East in particular was the way leaders that had held power for so long fell like dominoes. Who knew that those protests in Egypt would result in Mubarak stepping down? For the first time in years, there seems to be a glimmer of hope for the people in the Middle East. Even Colonel Gaddafi was brought down in what I still think was a barbaric and inhumane way. The most prolific thing about the whole operation was seeing how vulnerable he became. This larger than life figure who many feared, was being dragged around while begging not to be killed, showed us all that no matter how much power you have, it doesn’t always last.

Everything comes to an end and this was no different for the News of the World newspaper who became embroiled in phone hacking allegations. Andy Coulson’s resignation as David Cameron’s official spokesperson began what would turn into a heated event that really put the quality of journalism into question. As a journalist myself, I felt disgusted at the lengths the NotW went to, even to hack Millie Dowler’s phone giving her family hope that wasn’t fractionally real. Seeing Rupert Murdoch and his son James questioned about their role within the phone hacking scandal brought them down from their pedestals – though the pie in Rupert’s face was highly uncalled for, and made a bit of a mockery out of the whole investigation.

With all this turbulence came a breath of fresh air with the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Although it was a one day event, it did lift people’s spirits who flocked to Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey to catch a glimpse of the now Duchess of Cambridge in her elegant Sarah Burton dress.

Plenty of changes took place in 2011 that will undoubtedly shape the way we all proceed into the new year. The vast amount of natural disasters that took place which included the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, drought in East Africa and the earthquakes that shook New Zealand and Turkey, was horrifying.

While we’re use to hearing about a round up of natural disasters that take place every year, it does seem the sheer amount from last year are worrying those who are heavily involved with fighting climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirmed that all of these disasters are amounting to the inevitable – that we’re losing the battle that seems to have been going on for years.

How is it that with all the technology we have at hand, we cannot find a way to help our environment? Whether we’re out of time to make a change is yet to be seen but with a new year among us, maybe we can reflect back on the last 365 days and be resolute in making a difference once and for all.

The new year does bring with it the much talked-about 2012 Olympic games to look forward to – if you’re into that kind of thing. There is another royal event this year too; the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Also following the removal of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt will hold presidential elections and the US will also take to the ballot box. There are tense times ahead but also ones to look forward to. With everything that 2011 brought, maybe it’s time to go all out and make the coming year a better, more fulfilling one.

Happy new year!

A report from the Mayor’s office says that the main culprit to airborne pollution rests on road traffic, which contributes to about 80 percent of CO2 emissions in Central London, with the black taxis making up 20 percent of the figure.

New taxi drivers are subjected to a mandatory eco-driving course that teaches them how to reduce costs and emissions through efficient driving. In addition, two full MOT tests are to replace the annual check on the cars, while licences on private hire automobiles are under a 10-year age restriction.

“Delivering cleaner air is key to my goal of creating a better quality of life for Londoners,” Mayor Boris Johnson said in a statement. “I want people to experience a cleaner, greener city before, during and after the Olympic Games.”

Changes are also applied to the Low Emission Zone (LEZ), which lead to new charges for old and polluting vehicles driving in and around London.

“The existing Low Emission Zone is delivering significant improvements in air quality to the benefit of Londoner’s health,” said TfL Interim Director of Congestion Charging and Traffic Enforcement, Nick Fairholme. “The vast majority of owners and organisations have taken steps to prepare. Transport for London has a team of people in place to provide practical advice to anyone who remains concerned about how these new standards will impact them.”

TfL and the Mayor’s office also announced a £1mln fund made available to encourage drivers to move over to low emission electric vehicles in a bid to further tackle the issue of air pollution.

Described as one of the biggest strikes of our generations, images of public sector workers protesting against changes to their pensions have somehow become overshadowed by one opinion.

Since the broadcast, there have been various tweets and reports suggesting that it was a pre-planned stunt in order to help promote his Christmas DVD, but when it boils down to it, there’s a bigger issue I’ve noticed that leaves me at a loss for words.

Of course, “I would have them all shot in front of their families”, which referred to the public sector strikers, was never going to go down well. But at the end of the day, isn’t it all words? Of course the statement was outlandish and should never have been made but are you telling me that we can’t stand up and cause a fuss with bigger things going on in the world?

It feels as though we have this barrier in place so when something catastrophic happens far, far away, we’re not affected emotionally. Even though we’re bombarded with news about our failing economy, we’ve forgotten that there is still famine present in Somalia, which only got downgraded by the UN in the last couple of weeks, then there is still the threat of radiation lurking in Japan and the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland leaving people homeless in the face of the upcoming winter season.

Maybe it’s because we’re not directly affected. Maybe it’s because our children aren’t the ones who run the risk of dying from starvation or from the side effects radiation.

But the moment a tactless comment is made about the strikes from someone who clearly isn’t going to have much of an issue financially speaking, it shows how one comment gets the public riled up.

I understand that changes to pensions are going to anger people and the least we can do is support public sector workers in their stand against yet another decision the government has taken that affects us and not them, but to react against outlandish comments is just what is expected.

How are we more or less desensitized from serious issues and walking on eggshells over something that when you think about it, isn’t a fraction as bad when you compare it to the plight that others face?

Of course, I’m thinking ahead and have put thought into pensions and savings for later on in life, but do I let comments like Jeremy Clarkson’s get me riled up and calling for him to be fired? Not really.

His opinions were extreme to say the least and maybe they were much better off in a setting away from national TV, amongst friends. But instead of fueling his fire, why don’t we just stop and think about other reasons why he would come out and say that? A new DVD to plug, wanting to drum up publicity, we see it often enough. It’s just a shame that we haven’t yet become immune to these tactics public figures take.

If there are any causes we should be shouting and tweeting about, it’s those that are further away from us.
It’s admirable that people were quick to react and stand their ground against his remarks, but our lack of empathy for people who really are struggling, and our reluctance to do something in order to make a difference, is sure to come back to haunt us at some point. Maybe it’s time that we took that same energy and applied it to other urgent social, moral and ethical matters.

At the time, I didn’t really think about what my serene state was doing to the environment – the air pollution being caused, ocean acidification, acceleration of global warming, aircraft noise and the type of fuel being used.

This is a problem we all come up against. Our likes are usually at the expense of the world around us and no matter what, we always opt for the more convenient option and that needs to change. For me, I’m glad to know there is work being done to make air travel more environmentally friendly.

Envrio.aero was established by the aviation industry body, Air Transport Action Group (ATAG). Their members include various airports, airlines, manufacturers, airline pilots and air traffic controllers.

The work they do stretches across innovation, economic measures and technology. New technology allows airlines to work with air traffic controllers when they descend to the runway ensuring a smoother landing while cutting out the traditional procedures and essentially using less fuel and redirecting the amount of noise at the same time.

This greener approach is estimated to save 150kg of jet fuel every time. These kinds of steps being taken, as well as changes to winglets, shortening routes and recycling aircrafts are all a step forward in reducing harmful emissions, as well as considering just how many flights takes off everyday, mean a greener solution is imperative.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Alaska airlines and its regional carrier Horizon Air were attempting to fly regularly scheduled flights using a mixture of aviation biofuel.

The mixture consists of 20 percent of refined biofuel from used cooking oil while the rest is made up of petroleum-based jet fuel.

Another thought that came to my mind were the modes of air travel. A few months ago Airbus unveiled stunning concept images of a futuristic design that takes a refreshing approach to the traditional planes we are used to. The new design would allow passengers to have panoramic views in various zones, which consist of relaxation in the front, work in the back and a fully-stocked bar for socializing. This would replace first, business and economy cabins.

For Tiago Barros, his take on travelling is unlike most of ours. Passing Cloud, which is a concept project he entered into a competition, is structured in the shape of clouds and moves according to the direction of the wind. The point of the experience is all about throwing structure out of the window and rediscovering the freedom traveling gives us.

How good would it be to have this kind of mindset, making the most of travelling and not harm the environment in the process?

I recently came across the existence of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which was established in 1982, after concerns were raised about the number of krill being caught in the Southern Ocean and the effects it could have on other marine life.

Protecting this area that surrounds Antarctica isn’t as easy as it seems as it requires collecting a lot of information as well as the development of appropriate scientific and analytical techniques.

It may not look like it, but life under the ocean is under grave threat. The Antarctic Ocean Alliance explains that the seas around areas like Yemen, Oman, the UK, Europe, the USA and the Caribbean had reached their maximum potential back in 1965. In 1995, the majority of the Pacific Ocean as well as the Atlantic have been exercised to their maximum levels.

Our need for an array of seafood is essentially killing life under the sea. Fishes and other marine life rely on a very complex ecosystem that most people aren’t even aware of.

Eventually something within that chain will crack and we will begin to see major changes such as species of animals critically endangered because of a lack of food available to them.

Scientists at the International Programme on the State of the Ocean have spoken out about the plight these creatures are facing. Earlier this year they explained that the world’s oceans are in for a “shocking” decline and that we are “at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.”

This was the reason the CCAMLR was created – because birds, seals and fish relied on krill for food. A severe shortage meant that these creatures would have reduced significantly in numbers and could probably have bordered on extinction.

I don’t know about you, but I feel this is something we should be more worried about. The fact that we’re not that concerned about plastic particles finding their way into the food chain, that sea ice is melting and methane gas is being released from the sea bed is disgusting. What may not affect us today could affect our children, or our grandchildren. Would you really want that?

But what we need now is something in place to protect and monitor fishermen in wider areas like the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. Overfishing is a huge problem and in some cases, fishes thrown back into the sea are already dead. How is that okay?

The technology we have at our hands now is so advanced that there should be a way to somehow monitor how much fish is taken from the ocean, or at least make sure that fishing levels don’t rise.

It’s not only overfishing that’s a problem. The protection of other marine life such as dolphins and whales needs to be implemented. If you’re not aware of the horrendous uses people have for them, then I’m sure Youtube will provide a good insight into these unethical practices.

No matter how you look at mankind, a lot of things revolve around “convenience” to us. We want things at our disposal and nowadays, the thought of taking time to do something for someone other than ourselves seems ridiculous. How about we take a step back from the fast-paced lives we’ve thrown ourselves into and think how we’ll be affected if we continue to poison natural resources we should be preserving. Because at the end of the day, these wider issues are much more important and severe if they affect us, right?

Most of their cotton is certified organic and fair trade, all their clothes are dyed using safe and natural dyes, their products are sourced locally and they choose natural and recycled products over toxic, synthetic and non-biodegradable materials.

It started in Tokyo 20 years ago by Safia Minney, when she realised there was a market in Japan for eco-friendly goods. Her company ethos, vision and bullish determination have kept them up and running where other ethical fashion brands have crashed and burned. Granted, the worldwide financial downturn and natural disasters have consistently conspired against them and company profits for the past years have been below standard for a fashion brand, but they refuse to throw in the towel.

“…in a world where quick production turnarounds, constant innovation and thin margins are key elements of the business model, handmade clothes from rural Africa or India, which typically cost 30 percent more to make than high street clothing, are a tough sell…” - Safia Minney

In 2009 the UK branch of People Tree made a record loss of £375,000, 2011 is the first year that they expect to make a profit. This is after being in the UK for 10 years. People Tree Japan first broke even and made profit in 2001, which was also its 10th year. So maybe year 10 will be profitable for the UK division too.

People Tree are not quitters and in their quest to remain as the ethically minded company they set out to be, to conquer the market and become a household brand, they have worked tirelessly through floods, earthquakes and financial crises to keep their brand going. They stick to their ethos of promoting natural and organic farming, avoiding polluting substances, protecting water supplies, using biodegradable  substances where possible and to recycle where possible. Easier said than done in our current economy, but thanks to Minney’s hardwork it is paying off and recent years have seen the company’s profile grow. They have formed partnerships with top designers such as Richard Nicholl, Bora Aksu and Thakoon, which have resulted in them subsequently being sold through Topshop, ASOS, Selfridges and John Lewis.

For SS11, they had elfin star of Harry Potter, Emma Watson, cast a spell and help produce a youth inspired collection. Emma took a very hands on approach with the whole design process and even took time out to visit the slums of Bangladesh where the fair trade community that are benefitting from her collection are building sustainable livelihoods. These people who buy few consumer goods, eat locally produced food and use hand production methods to earn their living, have some of the smallest carbon footprints in the world.

Watson’s aim when agreeing to participate and collaborate with People Tree was to show that you can be ethical as well as fashionable, which some people still do not realise. Gone are the days of scratchy hessian kaftans being the only option.  Watson is one of many celebrities lending her status to the ever growing ethical fashion movement and helping to bring it to the mainstream.

The most recent People Tree collaboration has been with fashion designer Orla Kiely. The SS12 collection, which Orla brings her signature prints and style to, is the second collaboration between the two. The collection has a distinct 1950’s retro style to it, with stylish knits, prom dresses, trench coats and bags all reminiscent of the era. Fairly produced, in India and Nepal it features everything you would expect from Orla Kiely with no negotiation on style, feel or design. The only difference between this collection and any of Orla’s other collections is the environmental aspect of it, the feeling of doing a good deed you’ll get from buying and wearing it. Pieces from the collection are currently on the website, the full collection will be launched in February 2012.

“Within the fashion industry it is important to know our products come from a sustainable and socially responsible source. What People Tree are doing has clearly highlighted this issue and are leading the way for all designers to be responsible for where and how their products are made.” - Orla Kiely

Described as a luxury ‘upcycled’ collection Elisalex De Castro Peake launched her shoe collection in 2008 after graduating from Cordwainers.

The shoes were designed with line and form in mind to create daring, architectural pieces, using perfect lines formed by nature.

With the amount of waste in the fashion industry becoming more of a concern, one would have thought that Nina Dolcetti shoes would have been accepted whole-heartedly, unfortunately not.

The shoes were designed with the offcuts and unwanted pre-consumer waste from fashion labels and manufacturers. Ethically sourced vegetable tanned leathers were used in place of the environmentally unfriendly chrome tanning usually in production.  Heels were formed from sustainably sourced cork and wood and recycled leather completed the sole.

At the time of this article being written the Nina Dolcetti press office stated: “…there’s no point in writing about us… we’re currently under the radar…”

Translated as “we are no longer producing collections…”

This is a shame, especially at a time where it seems the fashion industry is noticeably increasing its creation and development of ethical, sustainable products.

Nina Dolcetti shoes were a great representation of the growing market for conscious design and the designers that are striving forward to make it attainable, without negotiating on style, comfort or pleasure. So why didn’t it work?

Was the sourcing of materials for a collection predominantly made of offcuts too difficult, in terms of creating a whole collection and making it consistent?

Did the price point – £252 for a pair of ballet pumps, £298 for a pair of wedges – prove to be too high?

Were consumers not willing to spend a little extra to help the environment?

These are the issues that have been brought to the forefront based on the information received whilst researching this.

Would you be willing to go a bit further for ethical fashion?

Global Green enjoys the support of many Hollywood A-listers such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Edward Norton on their Board of Directors. With headquarters operating in L.A., it is almost unsurprising that they have a few (okay, maybe a bit more than a few) committed celebrity figures to join the fight against climate change, deforestation or species extinction.

Truthfully, I am a bit sceptical about these famous, busy, glamourised people of the stage and music. I keep thinking they are only doing it to increase their popularity. Aren’t they getting paid for voicing these clever environmental statements conveniently scheduled and scripted by their cleverer agents? Can you say, “Hidden agenda”?

But one needs to look beyond the obvious. People, especially those who rely on popularity as their livelihood take immense risks when supporting a cause, simply because their interest may not align with that of their entire fan base or with the companies that hire them to endorse their products. But then again, what die-hard fan would stop supporting their idol because the artist decided to speak green?

Though sceptical, I am aware that there are many who go above and beyond the standard special guest appearance of smile-and-wave, who tell you with their polished acting skills to “respect nature”. And because of that, my scepticism is reigned in by the benefit of the doubt.

In the end, it may very well be a publicity stunt, but it does not come without risk for the celebrities themselves.

Being ‘green’ does not carry the same associations as it did three or four decades ago. Back then being green meant you were either a hippy,  a radical conservationist, or just inexperienced in the ways of the world. Nowadays, it simply means you care and put in that extra effort. You are aware of what’s happening to your surroundings and empathise with those that suffer in whatever their circumstances are, be it the people next door or strangers thousands of miles away.

Undertaking conservation - serious conservation – is exhausting. It is an incessant activity where you need to be focused and passionate about the very things you try to preserve or save. And even though I quirk a proverbial eyebrow when watching some big-shot tell me how their campaign will make a world of difference at some red carpet event, my faith is restored by seeing the likes of Kristen Bell making her way to Northern Ethiopia to touch base with the people she is crusading for.

While trying to get my head around the whole celebrity-turned-activist thing, I realise that celebrities have vast networks and resources and are mighty players in the realm of environmentalism - roll eyes to the obvious. They are perceived as role models to the impressionable youngsters of today. And if Hollywood heavyweight Leo proudly drives around in a Prius, then it is cool enough for the rest of us to drive one too. Logic would suggest this much.

However, Leo seems to fit in an entirely new league when it comes to campaigning for the environment. His own foundation has committed to raising millions of dollars to preserve wildlife. His Save Tigers Now campaign that kicked off in May 2010 is one of particularly high interest. And with the Ohio incident freshly imprinted in our minds, it has once again shown that current regulations are inadequate to offer protection to these exotic - endangered - animals.

It’s not rocket science as to why celebrities are such big successes in speaking for the environment. They have a huge number of fans and with Facebook and Twitter in the mix it just opens up a whole new realm of interactivity. There are nearly 1,645,000 direct DiCaprio followers on Twitter. His messages reach out to more than one and a half million people in just one Tweet.

And that is the power of a celebrity, I suppose. People care about things they say. And ultimately, this is exactly what the environment needs, for people to care enough to act.

Celebrities are tools in the battle to preserve our natural heritages. Willing and eager tools, fortunately. It

doesn’t take away from the fact that I will regard the majority to use environmentalism as a tool in return. However, some part of me does acknowledge that regardless of their intentions, ethical movements are put into action and we are a step closer to a sustainable world. Perhaps some gratitude is in order after all.

How sceptical are you about celebrity environmentalists?

“I would honestly rather donate something to the RSPCA or the WWF.”

His reaction was one of disbelief. Right on cue he began reciting the benefits children would gain from my donation.

The fact that he refused to accept my decision didn’t make me feel bad, it made me more assured in my beliefs and needless to say, I continued my day, having stood my ground successfully.

So when I first caught a glimpse of the new Frozen Planet series, the enchanting footage and soothing narration from David Attenborough immediately reeled me in. I was amazed at the way a group of killer whales synchronized and worked together to catch their prey. The way polar bears treaded carefully above ice to find seals using their sense of smell and the power they possessed to break through thick layers of ice astounded me.

Life in these harsh conditions isn’t about a failing economy, nor is it about the greed of people who abuse the power they have been trusted to use for good – it’s about raw survival.

But even in the most remote places, industries are appearing exploiting natural resources, unfazed that the poison we produce is directly affecting life there.

According to a video by Ted Danson and Oceana, the largest international ocean conservation and advocacy organization, human emissions of carbon dioxide are warming these oceans twice as fast as the rest of the planet.

I was unaware that oceans absorbed carbon dioxide – some people may think that’s fine and with the combination of forests and oceans absorbing CO2, climate change is under control. But this has a dramatic effect deep beneath the surface. Oceans become acidic, which has adverse effects on marine life, more so on those that produce shells.

A domino effect ensues that affects the rest of the world. With the planet warming up, the loss of ice for people who live in these areas have consequences on their way of living.

Frozen ice on shores acts as an extension of land that allows them to go out to fish and travel. With this disappearing, coasts are vulnerable to waves crashing right near coastal communities because of a lack of ice protecting them.

Though the Arctic is somehow handling these changes to the weather, the addition of industries is more than pushing it to its limits.

If you haven’t watched the Frozen Planet series yet, I strongly suggest you do. The stunning imagery will not only leave you in awe but David Attenborough’s narration will transport you away from your reality into another that is harsher and even more dangerous, yet harmoniously in sync.

Personally, I’d rather put my money into protecting and ensuring the continuation of that.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates their population to be fewer than 2,500, so when the news emerged of more than 50 wild exotic animals roaming the streets in Muskingum County, Ohio after being set free, the operation that led to containing the situation was truly shocking.

Police on Wednesday were reported to have killed 48 wild animals, after owner Terry Thompson set them free before killing himself reportedly due to being in debt. Among the dead were 18 bengal tigers, 17 lions, a baboon and a wolf. Granted that protecting the locals was a priority, you have to wonder, was killing all of those wild animals necessary?

Jack Hanna who was the former director of Columbus Zoo where six of the animals were taken, said: “I can understand people’s concern. They are calling me from England, all over Canada, all over the world asking me why we had to kill the animals.”

“Look at these homes right here, within a mile of this place. Do you want loss of human life? We can’t have that. It is a terrible thing, like I told somebody it is like Noah’s Ark wrecking out here,” he stated.

I’m all for ensuring locals are safe, but I’m even more conscious of the fact that some of these animals may not be here in 20 years time because of the very same conflicts they face with humans.

The fact that they captured six animals doesn’t justify killing 48 others. Three leopards were captured, which just makes you wonder how much did they really try to exercise this approach to all the other wild cats?

We strongly believe that the human race are the most intelligent creatures on our planet, being able to produce, design and manufacture pretty much anything they want. We tend to use logic rather than instinct, which leads me to wonder why our logic didn’t prompt police in Ohio to use tranquilisers.

The Guardian reported that police has said they ‘had to shoot to kill because they did not want animals shot by tranquilisers regaining consciousness and escaping in the dark.’

In another Guardian article, the county sheriff Matt Lutz defended the shootings saying that police had just an hour or so before it got dark on Tuesday, and that they were not carrying tranquiliser darts, which confuses other reports I fail to believe that the police department were unaware of this exotic animal farm in their county. Surely they would be prepared with tranquilisers if something like this was to happen?

This horrendous event should leave Ohio state with some food for thought. Keeping wildlife in captivity strips them of any natural instincts they have to roam freely and behave like any other of their kind. Being confined to a limited amount of space can have serious psychological effects that can drive them insane – much like humans. We wouldn’t be okay with this happening to one of our own so it really concerns me that people don’t extend this empathy to the other species we share our world with.

People venture into the wild, thinking that it’s open and free to roam, when in actual fact they’re stepping on land that these animals inhabit. They destroy natural habitats, displace and even poach the wildlife there for reasons that aren’t even comprehendible.

We keep them in captivity with insufficient space that affects them mentally and at the same time we feel we have the right to step on to their territories and throw our weight around – How do these animals benefit at all?

Given that the police in Ohio had to react quickly is understandable, but maybe there should have been stronger precautions in place like laws making it illegal to keep exotic wildlife so close to civilians.

One can hope that the massacre of these animals – some highly endangered – will prompt America to rethink their laws. They’ve been lucky that there was no loss of human life, but unless changes are made, they may not be able to guarantee that next time. Will it be only then that they make the obvious changes that are needed?

I’ve always been intrigued by their way of life; the language, their day to day routine, what they do for leisure? But their treatment lately has left me thinking What have they done to deserve this? In August one of the lastuncontacted tribes went missing after drug traffickers stormed through their land and with recent news about Raizen’s ethanol production harming their health, it makes you wonder what is really being done to protect these people?

Though indigenous people still have a somewhat illusive image to the outside world, it does not diminish their humanity and we should make an effort in understanding the native people and put conservation measures in place before the last vestiges of untouched cultural history are completely lost. One of the best ways to achieve this, as many great anthropologists has done in the likes of Jane Goodall, is immersing themselves into the tribes and observe their traditions.

The only problem with that is because of their lack of contact with modern civilisation it’s a risk as to how they will respond to one of us wandering into their homeland. Dr. Stacy Hope is one of the lucky few who has had the chance to step into one of these communities and experience first hand their way of life.

The Wapichannao community, based in Guyana, welcomed her into their world as part of research for her PhD. “Perhaps it might have been a subconscious referral to being captain of the Wapishana House in High School, or whether it was a combination of that and the sheer serendipity of reading about the village I was to live in on the flight to Guyana. However, I would like to think that they chose me, as they literally did. They had to decide whether they wanted me in their village or not”.

She went into the experience with no preconceived notions hoping to get to know the people, herself and figure out how she wanted to approach an anthropological account of her reality of them. While there, she noticed many benefits to their way of life – some of which we might be able to take into consideration.

“Life is healthier and more fulfilling. I quite miss going to bed (or hammock, in my case) amidst the sounds of nature that I can’t seem to find elsewhere. The freshness, the sense of community, and the fearless abandonment that was contradicting the institutional control that appeared and ended at the surface of it all,” Hope explains. Despite the positive aspects of her experience, there are a number of plights the Wapichannao community face, which includes land titles, free, prior and informed consent, flooding of farms and political division.

Hope also spoke about FUNAI, the Brazilian agency whose job is to protect them and of their methods that proved to be unsuccessful. “FUNAI, at one point, has tried to incorporate Amerindians into mainstream Brazilian society, exposing them to disease and poverty, and disregarding their own realities. Only recently has FUNAI restructured the way they approach “protecting” the Indigenous People. This is not only a FUNAI problem, but can be seen in varying degrees across different agencies in Brazil, South America, and the developing world as a whole,” she explained.

Many of us may never come face to face with a tribesman, but we should be aware of their existence and be mindful of their way of life. Of course, these are obvious things, but Hope reckons we can learn so much more having spent time there herself. Not taking “concepts, terms, or individuals as ‘definites’, but as ambiguating entities. Once we understand that everything can take on another meaning, moment or space in time, then can we truly tackle issues of personhood, nationalism and otherness”.

In the end all we need are for people to be a little bit like Hope, who may very well – to the indigenous population – personify the very thing her name suggests.

“Raw stitching, haphazard hems, and a cut and paste philosophy, her reconstructed pieces are an ode to romance and a nod to the street,” she explained on her website.

Her shop, Victim, opened in September 2001 in the highly desired Fashion Street, Brick Lane, and has become a hub for eccentric artists, DJs and a string of Fashion-enthusiast onlookers.

Leading up to London Fashion Week A/W 2012,Greenstream TV spoke with Mei Hui on her growth and her visions.

GSTV: Having lived in East London since 1998, how has fashion developed from then to now?

MHL: I think the fashion at that time was quite boring because it was the beginning of what is now known as “East London” and everyone would wear grey, but now there’s a new vibe amongst young people who have started to dress up and wear and mix vintage, and then started remaking vintage dresses and recycle so I think it was a very interesting area ever since I moved here and now I think it’s become the place if you want to see fashionable people you come to East London but back in the day you would to places like Portobello.

GSTV: Do you think people are more daring with their choices now?

MHL: Yes, if you want to dress up differently or look unique then you come to East London, you don’t see that in West London or even South London.

An example of Mei Hiu Liu's creation

GSTV: On you collaboration with Min Tzu Chao, how did you hear about her and what did she offer that was different from other illustrators?

MHL: We didn’t know each other’s work at all and I normally collaborate with make-up artists, hairdressers, photographers but not someone who was a fashion illustrator. A mutual friend introduced us and it was a big challenge for me because I usually like to work with people whose work I already know of. I didn’t know anything about her and she didn’t know any of my work either. Somehow we found a way to work together because I had the idea and needed the structure to find three powerful women and to make a dress that has ‘life’. We called it ‘interlaced’ because the collaboration was like a relationship between us. She came into my world from the outside and discovered three strong people in my life and researched them. I gave her information on all of them. For an outsider to find all these interesting people and their stories and then illustrate them on fabrics and on prints, and then mixed them with my signature vintage and victoria fabric has been stimulating to say the least.

GSTV: What was the inspiration behind using all these different fabrics in your designs?

MHL: I think the inspiration came from me always being addicted to and inspired by vintage and antique fabrics, which I’ve been collecting for many, many years and I think it’s a sort of an addition, I just love it. For me, I don’t care about which period it’s from, I just mix things from different periods together for my collection. I think you can see from my designs, you can’t tell what era and it looks like everything is mixed from different eras and all come together and creates something modern.

GSTV: Do you always reuse fabrics in all of your designs?

MHL: Yes. I started using reuse fabrics because I loved the old Victorian lace, I found them unique and beautiful. I didn’t think about the environmental or recyclable factor at first – I just made clothes to wear. But then I started thinking about it more and more, the whole eco-fashion thing didn’t exist at that time. Afterwards, I began making clothes with what’s left from my studio. I prefer not to throw them away so I recycle instead and use every little piece and put them together.

GSTV: Who is your favourite designer?

MHL: I love people who have a really strong and original identity and style like Vivienne Westwood. Issey Miyake, I think he kept his own style and didn’t follow trends and fashion but create your own identity. For me, fashion in that way is more important.

GSTV: How influenced will your art work be from your work in fashion?

MHL: I think it’s a really big influence because I’ve always been doing things like this but I never thought I could turn it into a piece of art. In the past, people have always said “your work is like a piece of art”. When they wear my dresses they feel unique. It’s almost like one side reflects to the other side, and I think the connection made is just the beginning of the project but it certainly hasn’t reached its end yet, because I think the project will keep on growing and travelling to different cities.

GSTV: Do you have a favourite artist?

MHL: Work-wise, I like Steve McQueen. I like his work, I think it’s very strong and powerful and original. I appreciate many different artists and some elements of their work.

Liu will be showcasing her collection at the London Fashion Week A/W 2012′s Esthetica Show. 

For months the Chinese landscape has been defined by large cracked earth lands and murky depleted river streams. The New York Times described the event as “the driest winter in perhaps 200 years”. Chinese military were mobilized to deliver water reserves to the most drought-inflicted areas.

The March rain and snowfall in Henan andShangdong were a great relief for farmers as planted wheat were coming out of their hibernation after losing devastatingly large portions of crops earlier in the year.  
Whereas drought still persists in certain northern areas, central and southern provinces are hit by a series of torrential rain this month causing the worst flooding in 55 years.

The National Meteorological Center warned for a new storm to hit Guangdong last Wednesday night, according to Xinhua News. The tropical storm Haima is reported to bring further downpour to Fujian, Hainan and parts of Taiwan. A typhoon alarm has been issued by the Center.

The Guardian confirmed torrents to have displaced 860,000 people, 132 were killed in the process, with the BBC estimating 5 million people to be affected by current floodwater. Reporting from Hong Kong, BERNAMA, the Malaysian National News Service, raises the numbers to 175 dead and 86 missing.

Extreme weather conditions are already affecting food prices. BERNAMA notes that 20% decrease in vegetable output and greater food costs contributed to the 5.5% consumer price rise, while continuous CPI growth reaches 11.7% and plays 65% into overall inflation.

Quoted by the Associated Press, the flood control agency said that “recent flooding has destroyed 600,000 acres of farmland and caused 1,846 companies to stop production in Zhejiang, incurring 7.69 billion yuan ($1.19 billion) in direct economic losses”.

Austria and Belgium amongst others have banned Spanish vegetable imports, with Russia taking further precaution of implementing a full ban of produces from Germany and Spain, and extending it to the rest of the European Union. Spanish authorities maintain that there is no evidence that the bacteria came from Spanish soil. It came to light that Frunet Bio was notified that a portion of the cucumber cargo had been spilled on the ground at a market in Hamburg.

So far, investigations suggest that the E. coli bacteria could have been contracted on route to or in Germany, as independent investigations have revealed no contamination on Spanish production sites, and no cases of outbreak have been reported in Spain. Germany’s allegations have resulted in huge revenue losses for Spain, somewhere between €7 to €8 million per day, and the tarnishing of the country’s reputation. Rosa Aguilar, the Agriculture Minister, announced that Spain will be seeking compensation from the European Union to make up for the loss. The same batch of cucumbers exported to Germany has also been distributed to France, Denmark and The Netherlands. None of these countries have found the deadly bacteria in the imported products within their borders at time of writing.

Cases that have been reported in the UK, Denmark, Sweden, France and The Netherlands have been linked to recent travels to Germany. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that “German officials admitted [...] that the latest tests showed the cucumbers did not carry the dangerous bacteria strain connected to the outbreak.”

The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s national health agency, has announced almost 200 new cases in the beginning of June, but reports that the outbreak has ceased to spread and is decreasing.

Further research into the nature of the E. coli strain is hoped to provide better treatments and preventions. Studies led in Chinese and German laboratories have revealed the presence of “an entirely new, super-toxic” strain with greater resistance to antibiotics, a treatment that can potentially worsen the disease.

This code ordinarily ensured landowners to retain 80% of their holdings as forest. But amidst the political row over Brazil’s forest conservation rules, landowners went ahead and commenced a massive illegal logging movement as changes in the Forest Code include reducing the percentage of standing forest and the granting of amnesty for past deforestation.

Environmentalists and activists condemn the passing of the bill by Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies. The alleged contract killing of the anti-deforestation husband and wife activists, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo, just hours before the ruling resulted in an even louder outrage from deforestation campaigners.

Proponents of the bill argue that the easing of the rules will stimulate the country’s economic growth. It will allow an increase of agricultural lands to meet demands of Brazilian food exportation, which is a major provider on global scale. Legislators also suggest that the changes made in the Forest Code will provide a tangible platform to enforce legal compliance towards forest preservation as landowners are required to obtain legal titles to their lands, which they affirm will slow down illegal logging activities.

Opponents point out that these alterations will lead to depletion of rivers, cause flooding and erosion, and contribute to deforestation.

The bill is now subject to approval and changes from the Brazilian Senate and President Dilma Roussef, who has stated to cast veto on parts of the bill. One of which is the provision of amnesty for infringement of forest clearing quota prior to 2008.