Tag Archives: environment

Hand Dryers Help Out Environment

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We all know that climate change is becoming a bigger problem than most of us ever imagined. Deforestation is destroying the environment and making entire species extinct. It is a much better idea for businesses to invest in airblade hand dryers. They cut down on paper towel usage, and all of the hand dryers you could possibly want are at that site, and you can search for energy efficient hand dryers, automatic or push button hand dryers. It also has a 30 day no hassle refund policy.

You want to make sure you buy a good hand dryer, my favourite are dyson hand dryers, especially the dyson air blade hand dryer it really gets your hands dry quickly and effectively. Something not every hand dryer does. A brilliant investment. It is good to invest in a dyson hand dryer.

Hand dryers are tidier than paper towels as well. No scrunched up paper towel balls lying around. I reckon hand dryers are a great investment for businesses and the eco conscious.

A Window To The Past – Vintage Google Earth

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Google Earth has come in for some stick over time.

Its Street Map was launched amid a healthy bout of controversy over privacy. After one man was identified leaving a brothel, resulting, unsurprisingly, in the end of his marriage, Germany wisely opted to make sure coverage of properties was somewhat blurred. Meanwhile, enterprising bloggers have posted pictures of prostitutes plying their trade, drunks and nudity.

But while that may be one window to the world, Google Earth also offers another. For a guy who once spent a week on an archaeological dig getting sunburnt while recovering the remains of someone’s mediaeval camp fire, Google Earth’s option to slide back into vintage photos of the same aerial view is a guaranteed way for me to fritter away hours.

You’ll need to have Google Earth 5 downloaded to do it, but it’s free and well worth a nose.

London’s war damage is evident, but you should definitely check out how quickly the Americans turned Las Vegas from a desert into a neon wasteland. Answer: 35 years. Or you may just want to see what your parents or grandparents meant when they say: “In my day, this was all fields, rivers, Roman ruins, dinosaur territory, etc.etc.” My (copyrighted) saying is: “Everyone’s house is someone else’s field.” And here’s the proof.

Just to get you in the swing of it, here’s my parent’s neck of the woods. Their house was built in 1931, and here’s the area pictured in 1945 and 2010.

My place, meanwhile, was still an orchard. Mind you, that still doesn’t explain the 1920’s fragment of cup I found in the garden last week.

Chainsaw Barbie Gives New Greenpeace Campaign The Buzz

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After Dream Houses, Corvettes and a rather limp boyfriend, Barbie’s latest accessory is a genre-busting chainsaw.

Hundreds of Barbies have been hidden throughout the UK by Greenpeace as they launch their new campaign to stop manufacturers Mattel using material from the Indonesian rainforest in the doll’s packaging.

Greenpeace’s James Woolley says Mattel are putting the survival of orang-utans and Sumatran tigers at risk, while more than 150,000 Greenpeace supporters have already emailed Mattel demanding they stop.

And to help highlight the cause, Greenpeace volunteers have been hiding Barbie dolls – complete with pink chainsaw – around the UK.

Members of the public are invited to visit a map on Greenpeace’s website to locate a Barbie near them, find the doll and then register their find to get involved.

To get your own eco-terrorist Barbie and join the campaign, go to

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Roz Savage, Explorer and Environmentalist, On Rowing & Being Green.

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1) What inspired you to become an explorer and environmentalist?

In 2004 I had an environmental epiphany. I was reading a book about the Hopi tribe, and their belief that we have to look after the Earth if we want it to look after us. That hit me with all the force of a fundamental truth. I was horrified that I hadn’t realized this very obvious fact sooner, and appalled at my past carelessness in over-consumption and careless disposal. I resolved that I would do what I could to wake other people up to the fact that we can’t carry on treating the Earth this way and expect to have a healthy future.

But I needed a platform for my message, and I found it in rowing solo across oceans.

2) What kind of training did you do to prepare for rowing the pacific?

Training is really the least part of my preparations. I have a pretty relaxed attitude to training, spending between 30 and 90 minutes a day in the gym (depending on my other commitments) – pretty much a “fitness for life” philosophy, i.e. the kind of training that any person would do to maintain strength, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness, and to keep their body relatively fit and lean.
The much bigger parts of my preparation are fundraising, refurbishing the boat, arranging logistics and media coverage.

3) What are your strongest memories from rowing the pacific?

The sad memories would include seeing pieces of plastic suspended throughout the water column, even thousands of miles from land. The great ocean wilderness is far from pristine now.

Good memories would include the wildlife I saw – whales, dolphins, turtles, pelagic birds, and even a whale shark. And the stars – I love to look up at the stars as I brush my teeth at the end of a long day’s rowing and feel connected to everything.

4) Do you think climate change is a real and immediate threat?

I think it is absolutely real, yes. How can we think that we can keep pumping CO2 into the atmosphere and for it not to have consequences? For a long time humans could get away with more, because there were fewer of us. But now we are nearly 7 billion, and although the world is large, you can take it from someone who has rowed around most of it that it is not large enough to continue to take this abuse.

5) You launched an anti-plastic bag campaign with Greener Upon Thames and Zac Goldsmith. What do you think are the effects of plastic on the environment?

Plastic is just about everywhere now, throughout our ecosystem and getting into our food and our bodies. The real tragedy is that most of the plastic that we generate has a useful life of about 20 minutes (think plastic bags, bottles, and drinking straws) and yet has an afterlife of many decades. It simply makes no sense to make “disposable” items out of an indestructible substance.

6) Who inspires you as a person?

I get inspired by the people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get on with tackling a problem. There is nothing special about these people, other than that they go from complaining to acting. Talk is easy, but we need action. Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, is a particular hero of mine. He is intelligent, well-informed, passionate, and relevant. Anita Roddick was also a real role model for me. I love the way she used her shop windows to wage campaigns on everything from rainforest destruction to human rights.

7) What can people do to be more green?

The first step is to take responsibility, and to recognize that every action counts. If we wait around for governments and corporations to do the right thing, we will be waiting a very long time indeed, and the ecosystem will be damaged beyond repair by then. We all need to recognize that every time we buy something, or throw something away, or choose how to get from A to B, we are casting a vote for the kind of future that we want. We have to cast those votes wisely.

I’d also like to point out that we are not talking about saving the planet. The planet will be fine, given a few billennia. We are talking about saving the human race. We are not as resilient as the planet is, and if we don’t wise up really soon, we will have altered our world so much that it can no longer support human life.

8) Any advice for those wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Or oarstrokes!

There is nothing special about me. I just found a cause that concerned me so deeply that I couldn’t stand by and watch the world go to hell in a handcart. That motivated me to overcome all kinds of fears and limitations. Even now, I occasionally suffer a wobble, and wonder if I can continue – either with the rowing, or with the campaigning. And I just have to remind myself to take it one oarstroke at a time, and I can accomplish almost anything.

9) What’s next?

Indian Ocean this year, North Atlantic next year, and then I hang up my oars and find a less physically strenuous way of cam

16 YEAR-OLD ONE YOUNG WORLD EXPLORER SKIS TO NORTH POLE IN JUST 4 DAYS

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PARKER LIAUTAUD – TEENAGE ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNER AND ONE YOUNG WORLD’S FIRST EXPLORER RECORDS ONE OF THE FASTEST EVER TIMES

April 13, 2011 – LONDON – Sixteen-year old arctic explorer, Parker Liautaud has succeeded in his mission to ski to the North Pole in just four days, as one of the youngest people to ever complete the mission.

Today, Parker and his teammate Doug Stoup completed the journey one week ahead of schedule and were the first team to return triumphantly from the North Pole – despite being delayed by three days due to adverse weather conditions.

This is his latest expedition as an ambassador for One Young World, the premier global forum for young people of leadership calibre.

Anticipated to last up to two weeks, Parker Liautaud completed the 112km expedition in 4 days, 2 hours and 47 minutes which puts his mission as one of the fastest Last Degree expeditions to the North Pole in history.

Parker completed his mission as the first One Young World Explorer, a role which supports the One Young World resolution on the environment that calls for international legislative action to ensure carbon emissions reduction targets are both agreed and met by 2020.

Throughout his journey, Parker undertook scientific research for the European Space Agency and the University of Alberta. He made 200 snow thickness measurements every day in accordance with the Pole Track 2005 updated protocol which will now be used in long and short term climate change research.

In 2010, Parker set his goal to become the youngest person to ski to the North Pole when he launched his organisation, The Last Degree, dedicated to inspiring, informing and engaging young people in a dialogue on environmental issues facing the polar regions.

Parker became close to his goal to be the youngest explorer in history to reach the North Pole and made it closer than any other team on the ice at the time. Unfortunately, due to atrocious weather conditions including zero visibility, heavy drifts and strong winds – described by NASA as ‘the worst since records began’- Parker had to be evacuated only 15 miles from the pole.

The extraordinarily high temperatures and open water that prevented Parker completing his first mission highlight the damaging effects of climate change and this remains the focus of his second attempt in 2011.

Throughout his new mission, Parker has been keen to communicate his message about climate change and sent regular updates of his journey from the arctic via Facebook > , Twitter > and YouTube > in addition to the expedition’s website http://oywnorthpole.parkerliautaud.com .

David Jones, co-founder of One Young World and global CEO of Havas, said: ““Parker is a fantastic example of the commitment, drive and leadership of the One Young World ambassadors. His is an inspirational mission to help communicate the environmental challenges facing the polar-regions and build international support for action against climate change. We are really proud to have Parker as the first One Young World Explorer and congratulate his success at reaching the North Pole.”

Parker Liautaud became a One Young World ambassador after attending the inaugural summit in London in February 2010, where 1,000 of the world’s young leaders gathered in London alongside global leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bob Geldof and Kofi Annan to impact global decision making.

Kate Robertson, co-founder of One Young World and UK Group Chairman of Euro RSCG said: “We are proud that Parker has achieved his mission to be one of the youngest people to ever reach the North Pole and has done so in astonishing time. His story is one that will inspire the next-generation of One Young World ambassadors.”

Parker said: “One Young World provides a unique opportunity for young leaders to share their visions, ideas and to have their voice heard on global issues that matter. I am thrilled to be the first One Young World Explorer and will draw attention to the need for government action to address climate change.”

Commenting on Parker’s expedition, Bear Grylls, adventurer and the UK’s Chief Scout, said: “A huge challenge and a huge ambition but such endeavours bring out the best in us. I so admire Parker’s dedication and drive and I know what can be achieved when a project has one’s whole heart and soul in it. I fully support Parker’s determination to bring this important message of climate change to world leaders.”

Heathrow's Third Runway: The Battle for Sipson.

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When the Labour government finally dragged its heels from 10 Downing Street in May, one of the most contentious environmental issues of its time appeared to go with it.

Prime Minister David Cameron had barely crossed the threshold in place of the departing Brown, before the coalition government promised it would scrap plans for Heathrow’s third runway – an environmental battlefield in a war that had raged for almost a decade.

The defeated British Airports Authority (BAA) announced it was withdrawing its application soon after.

For the residents of Sipson and Harmondsworth – two villages in west London that lay directly in the path of the proposed project – it was a victory long in the making.

Six months on, it would be expected that any visitor to Sipson would encounter a community bubbling with renewed enthusiasm and vibrancy after losing the dark shadow hanging over their everyday lives.

Instead, it comes as a shock to find the polar opposite. From the jaws of defeat, BAA may yet win an unlikely victory.

A potted history of the conflict reveals the Labour Government first considered building a third runway in 2002. A flawed consultation document eventually followed in 2007, which became the catalyst for heavy-hitters Greenpeace to get directly involved in the campaign to stop Heathrow expansion.

Greenpeace’s Anna Jones reflected on the mood at the time: “The public consultation didn’t allow people to say ‘no, we don’t want it’, but instead said, ‘if we‘re going to build it, how should we build it?’ she recalls.

“The public opposition then really began to develop and it was around that time that we had the idea of Airplot.”

Pulling in a cross-section of political figures, celebrities and environmentalists, Greenpeace trumped the Government’s highly controversial green-lighting of the project in January 2009, by revealing their own purchase of a field directly in the runway’s proposed path.

Christened Airplot, the site soon became a focus for resistance to the runway, both directly and indirectly, with Greenpeace offering the opportunity for people to become beneficial owners of the site.

“In the first week, it was crazy and amazing,” says Jones. “A thousand people an hour were signing up to become owners at one point. And I think it really gave people hope and something concrete to do to stand in the way of the plans.”

Residents too, welcomed Airplot with open arms.

“We wrote to every single person in the village letting them know we were there,” she adds. ”Everyone was very supportive.

“There were some people who were feeling trapped by the blight situation and some who felt they just wanted to give up. But all the work the action groups and Airplot did, really boosted the morale of the local community and made them feel even stronger.”

Also joining the fray were activists Transition Heathrow.

The group swooped on a local derelict market garden site in March 2010 during the height of the fight against the runway and were determined to stay.

After removing 30 tonnes of rubbish and surviving an early court battle by the landowner to remove them, they have transformed the area into Grow Heathrow, which has become a community hub in a short space of time, visited by a number of Sipson’s home owners every day.

Transition Heathrow’s spokesman, Paddy Reynolds, explains: “We wanted to start something in the village that would capture some of the radical energy roused by the third runway campaign.

“They wanted tarmac and planes, and we wanted a sustainable, grass roots level, democratic community, that can look after itself in the face of local and global challenges.

“However, we didn’t want to just storm in,” he explains. “We knew a lot of people in the area through the campaign and spoke to everyone we knew about this site.”

“It had been used by an outfit that got evicted by the council. It was very unpopular, because there were noise abatement orders, illegal scrapping of cars and a lot of rubbish dumped, with people going in and out all the time.

“So we thought, ‘this is a very anti-social site, let’s make it very social. We’ll occupy it, clean it up and turn it into a community market garden’.

“It’s one of the last standing of these old market garden greenhouses, so it’s symbolic.”

Since March, the site has altered beyond recognition, becoming a genuine window into Heathrow’s past as prime arable land.

Airplot too, continues to grow – with a thriving orchard and returning wildlife – and with Greenpeace’s presence in the area now much reduced, Anna Jones believes the village is enjoying some quiet time.

“I think everyone’s very happy now just to be able to live their lives and breathe – which they haven’t been able to do for so many years,” she suggests.

“That’s fair enough when you’ve been at the centre of controversy for so long.”

But the truth appears to be much less rosy.

The centrepiece of the village, the listed, 400-year-old King William IV pub became an unofficial meeting place during the fight for survival, but a Friday lunchtime visit gives the impression that all is not well.

Close to 1pm, the pub is empty. A passer-by drops in for a quick pint and eventually three or four residents drift in. The mood is not optimistic.

Landlord Shaun Walters, after leaving Sipson in 1996, returned to the uncertainty in 2006.

“All that time, it’s been ‘is it or is it not coming’, but certainly in the last four years, it’s been more in the public eye.

“For me, it’s been a nightmare, business-wise. I’ve sold my house today, but when the guy came round to sign off everything, he said there are 32 houses unoccupied, all bought through BAA’s Bond Scheme. Some have been empty for four months, so I’ve lost revenue.

“For the businesses left in the village, it’s just devastation,” he adds. “I can see me being out of business after Christmas.”

And the government-approved Property Market Support Bond Scheme has proved to be BAA’s ace in the pack.

With buyers shunning a potentially doomed village, BAA offered residents a way out with the scheme, buying their properties at 2002 prices.

The coalition’s stance has since led BAA to limit residents to a deadline of June 22 to opt in, but a caveat in their letter advisees residents to continue to register their interest, in case of a future planning application.

And the inescapable irony is that, since the election, many residents have taken up the offer.

The legacy is rows of empty houses, while others are rented on short-term lets to migrant workers who have no stake in the long-term future of the community.

“I think a lot of people had had enough over the last couple of years and just wanted to go,” offers Walters.

“They wanted to go and live the dream somewhere else, and never have the heartache and grief of waking up in the morning, and thinking is it or isn’t it going to happen?

“But the big change is that it’s no longer a community. I don’t know a third of the people in this village now.”

One resident, speaking anonymously, agreed. “It’s dying from the inside,” she said. “I’ve sold my house to BAA. My neighbours have gone. Nobody wants to be here anymore.”

Transition Heathrow’s Reynolds is also well aware of the malaise that is creeping across Sipson.

“The Bond Scheme is self-perpetuating and causes more blight,” he says. “People who have been stuck in their houses for ten years have suddenly been given a small window of opportunity where they can sell at a good market rate at a time when the market’s crashing.

“It’s ‘take it or leave it’ and if you leave it, you might not get a better offer ever again.

“It’s meant that a lot of people have left en masse and that’s not good for any village. It’s especially unhealthy for the power dynamics, because BAA now own a lot of property here.

“The loss of long term residents is not helpful for the general well-being of Sipson. Families who know the history of this village is what binds this place together. That’s been lost.”

And most telling is that a number of people directly involved in the campaign have taken the opportunity to go.

Linda McCutcheon, the former chair of the Harmondsworth and Sipson Residents Association, is perhaps the biggest loss to the area.

“I knew Linda really well,” says Reynolds. “She was tireless in her support of us and anyone opposing the campaign.

“She was also on the committee for the No Third Runway Action Group (NoTRAG) which closed recently, but she’s moved out to enjoy her retirement.

“The previous chair of the residents association had family losses directly related to worsening health and stress caused by campaigning.

“Some of them sacrificed their retirement years, while some of them literally sacrificed their health – and ultimately their lives.

“Fair play to Linda. She deserves it, but the combination of circumstances means that it feels like a big change at the moment and we don’t know how that’ll develop.”

Despite coalition assurances that the third runway is dead in the water, leading Labour figures and business figures are still in favour.

Anna Jones agrees that political circumstances can change, but remains quietly cautious.

“I hope that’s it,” she says. “We will fight tooth and nail if it comes back onto the table because we know it’s a completely bonkers plan.

“If you were to let this go ahead, BAA wouldn’t rule out a sixth and seventh terminal and that’s just ridiculous.

“You can’t just continue to grow and grow and pollute, and take people’s homes away.

“But what we’ve seen with this most recent plan is that now society is mobilised. It knows how to come together and fight together in a united way. That’s why we won and that’s why we’ll continue to win.

“I think we’ve actually turned a corner now and I really don’t believe it’ll go ahead.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the people who live on the airport’s doorstep are more pessimistic.

“I think they’ll get it in the end,” says Shaun Walters. “The third runway will come and this’ll be flattened. No doubt about it.

“There’s been too much money invested. When they were doing Terminal Five, the workmen who came in here said they’d seen plans for Terminal Six and Terminal Seven.

“They’ve had investment offers to build it in the Thames Estuary, but they don’t want to know. They want it here.

“If they’re willing to go through cemeteries, with people still being buried, they want it at all costs.

“At the end of the day, they’ll get all the houses and it’ll be a dead-end village.

Harmondsworth resident, John Power agrees. “They need it. It will happen.

“It’s just a matter of time. It’s all money, jobs, jobs, jobs and people lose their homes because of jobs.”

In the meantime, Transition Heathrow face a microcosm of the bigger picture, as they look to their own future in Sipson.

“We want to secure the site long term, ideally by coming to some agreement. We’ve put in an offer to buy the land, or potentially we may rent it.

“Failing that, we will resist all efforts to get rid of us without any kind of reasonable negotiations.

“We’re confident, and even if we lose, we want to make so much publicity in losing that we set an example not only for this area, but lots of other land-based projects in the communities around Britain.

“It’s a time to hold on tight really, because the shit’s going to hit the fan.”

And that may be a crude, but apt, metaphor for the future of Sipson.

“The Third Runway won’t happen,” says Reynolds emphatically. “The aviation industry is not strong.

“If they had built it, it would have been a complete white elephant.”

“But I think there’ll be renewed applications in a couple of years or less, or with a new government and then it’ll start off again.

“It led to an unprecedented campaign that was like an Iraq-type situation for Gordon Brown. It became a national and international issue.

“It’ll be like a civil war.”

Unfortunately, despite Reynolds’ and Jones’ willingness and readiness to resume the fight, the low morale and BAA’s expanding property portfolio suggests it could be too late for Sipson.

Their enemy are already within the walls.

Catch 21 Productions political interview: Zac Goldsmith

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Here at Frost we think that great minds think alike. Which is why we were excited to come across Catch 21 productions. Catch 21 is a charitable production company which produces videos, events and programmes to help engage young people with politics www.catch21.co.uk Something Frost is also trying to do.

They recently interviewed a number of MPs that were elected this year. One of those was Zac Goldsmith MP. Frost loves what they are doing and thinks that you should watch the video below.

http://www.catch21.co.uk/2010/11/new-mpinions-zac-goldsmith-mp

Catherine Balavage

Roz Savage and Zac Goldsmith launch anti-plastic campaign.

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When: 4th of November, 2010. 7pm

Where: American University, Richmond.

I was already anti-plastic before I went to hear this talk by Roz Savage and Zac Goldsmith. The event is by Greener Upon Thame’s, and Michael Glazebrook was on brilliant form. The videos I saw and the talks that I heard my anti plastic stance  tenfold. It is not a small issue. As well as bringing news of the launch of an anti-plastic campaign by Greener Upon Thames, with the help of  Zac Goldsmith and Roz Savage, Frost will be doing a series of articles of how you can be more environmentally conscious.

MP and  Pacific rower launch campaign to make Olympics plastic bag-free
Zac Goldsmith, MP, and ocean rower/ environmental campaigner Roz Savage have launched a campaign to make the Olympics 2012 plastic bag-free.
 
The duo are backing Greener Upon Thames and will unveil banners and bags, soon to be seen across London, declaring “London – shouldn’t we be plastic bag free?” The group fear that the Olympics could prompt the production of hundreds of thousands of promotional bags, which would be carried around the world, creating a global problem, and shaming the British capital.

The campaign, backed by politicians,  schools, more than 500 shops and thousands of London  residents, will call on the Government to rid the Olympic Park and the capital of  the polluting bags for the duration of the games to break the habits of millions of Londoners, and as a symbol  to the world.  
 
The move follows Roz’s latest – 8,000 mile – Pacific row, where she skirted the North Pacific Garbage Patch. This is an area of marine plastic pollution roughly twice the size of Texas, containing around 3.5 million tons of rubbish, including millions of plastic bags that kill animals and contaminate our food supply. 

Roz Savage has now rowed solo across much of the planet: she is the first woman to have rowed across  the  Pacific, adding to her 2005 solo crossing of the Atlantic. In 2011 she will be setting off to row the Indian Ocean before rowing the North Atlantic to return to the UK.

Roz   combines her epic adventures (she is one of the Top 20 Great British Adventurers) with raising  awareness of  the top environmental challenges facing the world today:  marine plastic  pollution, climate change, and habitat destruction. She is a United Nations  Climate Hero, a trained presenter for the Climate  Project, and an Athlete  Ambassador for 350.org.

Her Pacific row was a project of the Blue Frontier Campaign and she is an Ambassador for the BLUE Project. Her inspirational book, Rowing the Atlantic: Lessons Learned on the Open Ocean, came out in   2009.

Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith is a former editor  of  The Ecologist  magazine and author of The Constant  Economy  (2009), which looks at some key environmental problems and  provides a  programme for action.
 
In 2005 he was invited  to oversee the Conservative Party’s Quality of Life Policy Group,  which helped develop the  party’s policies on issues ranging from  transport, housing and energy to food,  farming and the countryside. 
 
Zac supports Greener Upon Thames, the Richmond and Kingston anti-plastic-bag campaign which is organising these  two  events, with help from the American International University and Kingston University’s Sustainability Hub.

Zac and Roz will also address an audience at Kingston University at 7.00pm on Thursday 11th November.