Zero Carbon is to some people a consummation devoutly to be wished and for others such stuff which dreams are made on. For me, it is a foolish fallacy that stands in the way of real climate change action.

In the UK the Centre for Alternative Technology has provided a blue print to enable the United Kingdom to become “zero carbon” by 2030. I have not studied the report but its substance has been reported and I can comment on the Zero Carbon route that the Centre points out for us. (more…)

Doomsday predictions are nothing new. From Mayan profits to cult leaders to Keanu Reeves, plenty of people have predicted humanity’s end, but most visions of the apocalypse tend to fall flat. Now a relatively prominent scientist says the end is nigh—as in maybe just 100 years away.

The award-winning Australian scientist Frank Fenner, who helped eradicate small pox in 1980, is professor emeritus at Australian National University. He claims the human race’s “unbridled consumption” and population expansion makes our existence unsustainable. (more…)

A Japanese lingerie maker has created a bra that grows rice.

The bizarre underwear features pots instead of cups, and a plastic water hose with seedlings acting as a belt.

It even comes with a pair of detachable farming gloves.

Triumph Japan has a reputation for making “gimmick” undies that convey political messages. (more…)

Ever get a pang of the green eyed monster when you then of the services and variety that is on offer in the States?  Normally not buy into the convenient, disposable lifetyle that seems to dominate US life, but I have to admit that sometimes get it very right.

A perfect example of that is the genius, innovative  company namely, thredUP.  threUp is a new online kids clothing exchange which allows America’s busiest and greenest families to conveniently exchange kids clothing online. (more…)

Get them to grow them!

A successful new school gardening programme may hold the key to one of modern life’s great dilemma for parents: how to get children to eat vegetables.

A programme to encourage schoolchildren to grow their own fruit and vegetables can change the dietary habits of the next generation. Speaking at the the recent Agri-Aware’s Incredible Edible’s growing challenge in the RDS, Minister Trevor Sargent said early learning on food would last a lifetime.

Minister Sargent said: “Most of today’s schoolchildren have not had the opportunity to experience growing food at home or on an allotment. Previous generations would have grown up with vegetable patches in the back garden, but much of that has been lost.

“By introducing a new food growing challenge into schools, we’ve taught children how to grow food and to consider wider issues such as nutrition and healthy eating, food security, air miles, the agriculture industry and food costs Experience shows that kids are more likely to eat food that they’ve been involved with growing, particularly in the home. This programme has encouraged children to involve their parents and continue the food growing experience at home.”

Two thirds of all primary schools in Ireland took part in the Incredible Edibles programme, which was introduced last Autumn by Minster Sargent and Agri-Aware following the success of the Grow your Spuds campaign. It is estimated that 100,000 schoolchildren grew potatoes, lettuces, cabbages, scallions and strawberries in their classroom this year.

“As obesity levels continue to soar, I hope that the experience of growing fresh healthy food, will stay with these children and encourage them to eat healthily and choose home-grown nutritious foods over processed convenience foods,” said Minister Sargent.

The Green Party’s www.getgrowing.ie campaign, launched last March also aims to get people growing food at home, on an allotment or in a community garden. “This is not about gardening,” said Minister Sargent. “This is about getting to a place where we are capable and have the resources to supply our island-nation with our own food.”

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It’s an exceptionally inconvenient truth. Only one American in three believes that human beings are responsible for climate change: a polling result 10% down on where opinion rested the year before.  Worse, the number of Americans who believe that climate change is a hoax or a scientific conspiracy – not doubting,   just damned blank certain – has doubled since 2008.  Add in those who assert that the changes, if any, are of “no significant concern”, and you’ve got 30% of the US denying, scoffing and just walking on by.  Are the issues clearer, the people more committed, here on this side of the Atlantic?  Call for the latest evidence from Ipsos Mori – and find that the proportion of  UK adults who believe that global warming is “definitely” a reality has plummeted from 44% to 31% in the last 12 months.  And although no study of this nature has been completed in Ireland (to my knowlege), figures like these, on both sides of the Atlantic, are getting more sceptical week by week.   (more…)

One of the stories that crept under my personal radar a couple of week ago related to aircraft engines. Aircrafts account of 2% of the greenhouse gas emissions. The impact of this figure is thought to be higher because the emissions are expelled at height, where they can do the most absorption of light energy. Further aircraft expel vapour trials which are thought to have an effect on the amount of light reaching the surface of the planet by dimming it. (more…)

This is what the failure of the climate talks means.

The last time global negotiations collapsed like this was in Doha in 2001.  After the trade talks fell apart, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) assured the delegates that there was nothing to fear: they would move to Mexico, where a deal would be done. The negotiations ran into the sand of the Mexican resort of Cancun, never to re-emerge. After eight years of dithering, nothing has been agreed.

When the climate talks in Copenhagen ended in failure just last December, Yvo de Boer, the man in charge of the process, urged us not to worry: everything will be sorted out “in Mexico one year from now.”(1) Is Mexico the diplomatic equivalent of the Pacific garbage patch: the place where failed negotiations go to die? (more…)

WHEN it comes to adopting green parenting practices, being environmentally aware is not the same thing as being environmentally friendly, says green parent and ‘ mumpreneur’ Claire Lancaster, founder of Dandelion Lounge, a personalised stationery service with a focus on families.

” If you asked my mum raising a family in the Seventies if she was ‘environmentally friendly’ she wouldn’t have been able to answer the question, simply because the term would have meant nothing to her,” says Lancaster.

But in the Seventies, her mother opted for reusable terry-towelling nappies, walked everywhere, purchased from a local farm and greengrocers and didn’t go abroad for holidays. (more…)

If they have any sense, the leaders of the world will do well to play down expectations for next winter’s climate change conference in México. The conference in Copenhagen left a great many people disappointed. I predicted that the conference would not be successful, as it seemed to me that the nations of the world needed more time. They might not be in climate change denial, but they are certainly in denial that they are doing anything worthwhile to protect us from climate change. (more…)