Rainforest Deforestation

Deforestation has become a growing concern amongst environmentalist. Forests are measured in hectares. Each hectare is 10,000 sq. meters or approximately 2.47 acres. As of 2005 there were approximately 1,442,819,000 hectares of forest on earth. The average deforestation rate from 2000 to 2005 was 6,855,997 hectares a year. At this rate of deforestation we could eliminate all natural Forest within 200 years. Eight thousand years ago 40% of the world’s land area was covered in forest or 6,000 million hectares. This was more four times the amount of remaining forest on earth today. The process of deforestation accelerated to alarming proportions in the last half of the 20th century.

In addition to deforestation reducing the earths ability to cool itself by converting CO2 to oxygen and their canopy effect, it is estimated that deforestation generates between 25 and 30% of the greenhouse gases on earth. This is greater than carbon emissions caused by planes and automobiles. Along with threatening the earths ability to heal and cleans itself, Deforestation also threatens our access to medicines.

According to some reports 70 to 80% of Brazil’s and Indonesia’s carbon emissions are caused by deforestation. From 2000-2005, almost half of the worlds deforestation happened in these two countries. What most people ignore is that the most notorious agents of deforestation were the ranchers taking advantage of government subsidies to expand the cattle industry. It makes one wonder what the effects of billions of people being introduced to fast food hamburgers will have on changing our world’s climate and ability to sustain the biodiversity of life as we know it today.

Some statistics show the US gaining 159,000 hectares of forest per year. These numbers are a bit deceiving since this includes plantations added to the picture. These are not natural forest. They are managed for growth and have environmental ramifications such as use of fertilizers, pesticides and destruction of balanced ecosystems.

Twenty five percent of prescription drugs are derived from plants. For example, Aspirin originally came from willow bark. One of the concerns of pharmaceutical drugs formulated in a laboratory is that they are mostly based on a single compound. Naturally occurring herbs and plants work in a different way and tend to have a low risk of side effects. As we unconsciously continue to exploit our natural environments we destroy cultures and with them hidden knowledge and wisdom which could be offer solutions to much of the suffering experienced by mankind.

A growing concern is that we no longer have wild forest but managed eco systems. Assuming that this is so, the question becomes how to manage our ecosystems in a sustainable way. There are many creative and hopeful approaches being taken by responsible conscious individuals. Below are three videos which address some of these methods.

Harvesting dead trees after forest fires:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSf5pwu-yEM

Full vigor forestry – growing trees intelligently – select timbering – sustainable forest management:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAwta5O2EAQ

Proper forest management for sustainability:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8o9ON9iSgQ

If the forests are the lungs of our planet, which I sincerely believe they are, then it is the source for maintaining a healthy heart because without the breath the heart fails. Maybe if we shift our perception just a little to be more holistic and see that just maybe there could be a message hidden in all of what nature does.

In the ancient Hindu culture Green was the color of the Heart energy. When the forest is healthy and flourishing it is very green and able to give to humanity naturally. When we are in our heart, we care and love. When we love and care we take care of that which we love. We can nourish and preserve forests. In other words the hidden message I see is to love the forest – it will love us back ten fold.

Compact Efficient Eco Houses

Here’s a great company doing inspiring work www.tumbleweedhouses.com

The company creator, Jay Shafer started off making a super small mobile home for himself measuring  just 89 square feet!

Their video is a testament to less being more – they’re now selling ready made mobile cabins and the plans for regular small and eco friendly houses through their website.

Most importantly, they’re showing that bigger is not better – most certainly not for the environment – and by getting creative with space, and creative our own ideas of what we want from life, we can reduce our impact on the planet, and increase our contentment – an experience with real value.

Her story is at certainly inspiring, although sometimes uncomfortable to read about… who said revolutionizing our wasteful lifestyles was meant to be comfortable?!

Her English blog is here, read about her efforts at reducing, re-using and recycling…

Some examples of how she is Reducing

• Solar Oven
• Efficient Heating
• Condensing Gas Boiler for heating water

Some examples of how she is Re-using

• Lamps made of old cans
• Second Hand furniture
• Numerous used household items throughout her home

Some examples of how she is Recycling

• Harvesting worm compost
• Recycled car tire plant pots
• Recycled bathroom tiles

Not all of the options would perhaps be adopted by every house throughout the land, but in her inspiring example, and in all the detail she has gone into in her sincere pursuit, we should all be able to find ways we can reduce our carbon footprint…?

Read the full story of the carbon neutral life here…

Solar Powered Cardboard Oven

In their own words, the aims of the competition were:

• to raise the profile of green innovation and demonstrate that there are solutions and money can be made from them
• to find the best low-carbon innovations from around the world and help them find funding by showcasing them to a global business audience
• to help the winner immediately with a $75,000 prize to develop its project and bring it to scale.

With more than 300 entries, the final 5 products were the following:

• A feed additive reducing the methane produced by cows and sheep
• Hollow ceiling tiles with water circulating through them which cools rooms through evaporation rather than air conditioning
• Fabric covers for truck tires that can reduce fuel costs by 2% by reducing aerodynamic drag
• A giant portable industrial microwave which can transform biomass into burnable charcoal
• A solar powered cardboard oven, capable of cooking food and boiling water in, easily produced at a cost of 5€, about US$7

The competition was won by the cardboard oven, named the Kyoto Box by it’s inventors.

This extraordinary development enables families in the tropics where the sun is high in the sky, to boil water making it safe to drink, and to cook food. Crucially, this can be done without burning wood or other natural resources to make fires, or having to buy fuel.

It is this kind of very simple but revolutionary technology that is the key to positively transforming countless lives worldwide, while at the same time contributing significantly to reducing environmental destruction and damage to the atmosphere.

Read more about the solar powered oven at the competition website here.

Environmental Impact IT Industry

Although the technology involved in the survey is quite extensive – all computers, office IT equipment, servers, mobile and fixed telephony etc, the report suggests that the combined contribution is 2% of global CO2 emissions – about the same as the airline industry.

The airline industry is an obvious object of blame, with travellers being encouraged to find alternative means of transport, or if travelling by air, to offset the emissions of their journey, but there are far fewer concerned voices being heard discussing this issue.

Some practical measures detailed within the article to help reduce this include:

• Become aware of and start measuring power consumption of your IT devices
• To use fewer servers and printers by increasing utilization – virtualizing servers (More info on virtualizing servers here…)
• To stop over-privsioning – plan capacity requirements more efficiently
• Improve the efficiency of cooling – wasting energy with servers overheating, then wasting this energy by cooling with expensive and high energy air conditioning
• To use the power managemement features on devices, and to turn power off when devices are not in use
• Extend the life of hardware assetts by re-using within the business, or to pass on to be used outside of the business after use
• Ensure and validate the correct disposition of all electrical equipment ensuring no energy is being wasted un-necessarily
• Become aware of and analyze all waste

A connected article was published in The Times of London, detailing the estimated environmental cost of Google searches. Estimated, because no one is quite sure of the size of Google operations for commercial reasons.

It’s important to be aware that all of our actions have an impact int his world, whether it be good, bad or indifferent – even just cruising around on the web…

Concrete accounts for 5% human CO2 emissions

What amazes me about this is the numbers involved – 5% of human caused emissions of CO2 are coming from concrete production! Who knows this? -We talk about switching light bulbs off, taking the train instead of flying if possible, but who thinks twice when laying foundations for a new home…?

Really great also to see science attempting to rise to the challenge, and even better to see companies like Carbon Sense Solutions in Canada working on not only reducing, but sequestering – locking away CO2 in wet cement – these sorts of revolutionary but simple solutions have to be the most constructive and positive ways forward. Not increasing the problem, not being ‘neutral’ in the problem, but actually countering the problem.

There’s a lot of information on Ikea’s website about their environmental policies here many of which are laudable.

However, here’s the original report citing Ikea’s reluctance to adhere to the new conditions for timber importers in the USA to be able to certify the exact origin and species of the wood used for their products.

This issue is an example of a global corporation – with Global revenues in excess of $28bn in 2008 – who could be leading from the front in terms of Green policies,  rather than doing the minimum required to retain a green veneer for commercial reasons.