Japan has ideas out the gazoo when it comes to recycling.  At an upmarket residential area in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward one man is making colorful accent rugs from old clothes, 1960’s-style lamp shades from corrugated plastic board, and  candleholders from old bicycle chains. It’s called the ecoprinka brand with the aim of  “Co-existence with the Earth means enjoying doing ecologically conscious things.”

Another store offers furniture and household goods with a 1960s design with products that have been used for multiple generations of customers. You can buy a motorcycle seat with pipe legs for Y50,000 ($475).

A Finnish ec0-oriented design by Secco attracts young Japanese consumers to bags and cell phone straps made from discarded tire tubes and keyboards. Retailers throughout Japan carry the products. But…the truth of the matter is people often buy discarded or recycled products = junk, only to realize they don’t like the design and they become waste again.

So, are these products really being reused, recycled, or are some people just making money off of other’s guilt at not being ‘green’ enough? It seems to me to be the latter.

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GP is hoping that Japanese whalers did NOT read the Top 12 Hotspots for Whale Watching. Japan is notorious for hunting humpback whales in the Antarctic region among other places by using a loophole in a 1986 International Whaling Commission moratorium that allows countries to kill 1,000 whales each year for ‘lethal research.’ Japan is not the only culprit. Norway and Iceland defy it outright.

Japan has agreed to not hunt again this year after strong protests led by Australia. The Japanese were prepared to resume the hunt after some 40 years of not doing so. Discussions have been ongoing between the anti-whaling nations and pro whaling nations for several years. Whale watching is a major tourist attraction for Australia. Japanese like to whale watch meat on their plates.  Japan did hunt other whales but eventually gave it up after it was harassed by environmentalists.

Isn’t there a way to come to some conclusion without harassment and Japanese whalers stubbornly going about their business? What’s your idea?

Kansai Electric Power C0 will work in cahoots with three other companies to develop a ‘trigeneration system’ that can produce electric power and also utilize waste heat and CO2 emissions, all to improve farming productivity.

Toyota Turbine and Systems Inc. (yeah, they are related to that Toyota) will design a small gas turbine that can burn liquified natural gas to generate electricity. (And you thought Toyota only made economical cars, didn’t you?). Kurabo will come up with the technology to denitrate exhaust gas, and Globally-Tech co will provide the control technologies.

Kanasai Electric has a giant flower field in Rokkasho, Aomori, northern Japan, where it is experimenting with flower cultivation. Within two years the company hopes to also use the heat and CO2 extracted from the exhaust gas to create an optimal environment for photosynthesis. How cool is that?

How often do people thing they can do things better, improve on the way our planet and all its intricacies have been designed? We reroute rivers, relocate forests, try to make it rain, try to make it stop. One Japanese group has taken the initiative and has successfully reshaped the watermelon. Yup, to be sure. A group in Kagawa Prefecture Japan put growing watermelons into translucent plastic cubes while they were still on the vine, then let them grow.

The reason? To keep them from rolling off the table at supermarkets. Nope. So, it would be easier for them to fit into refrigerators. Remember, it was the Japanese who used to tape women’s feet so they wouldn’t grow also, presumably so it would be easier to get their feet in and out of their mouths when they said something stupid.

For more than 20 years one of 93 million people named Wang in China has been planting trees for the purpose of preventing the desert from encroaching on Yinchuan. The Great Wall of Trees is 42-km and 10-km wide. For his efforts, Wang was rewarded with some time off to participate as a torch bearer for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It reminds me of a story of three union guys, Wang, Wang and Wang. Their job was to plant trees. One dug a hole, another put the tree into the hole and the third filled the hole. One day only two showed up. Wang dug a hole and Wang filled it up. Wang dug a hole and Wang filled it up. Another Wang standing by asked, “How come all you do is dig a hole and fill it up?”

The hole-digging Wang replied, “just because Wang is sick, it doesn’t mean the two of us get the day off.”

42 kilometers long. Ring a bell. That’s the length of the modern day marathon. Sounds to me like this place might be a good location for the Olympic Marathon, no?

One of the world’s most polluted cities, Beijing, will have a “green lung” opening in it after the Olympics finish. The Olympic Forest Park will be a bit to the north of the Bird’s Nest, home to the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The park cost $1.12 billion!

1. Add 10 years to your life.

2. Listen to Chopin through hidden speakers.

3. Walk below the water surface.

4. Observe wetlands through glass corridors

5. Stand right next to lotus flowers.

6. See hedgehogs and squirrels.

7. 500,000 plants and 180 species

8. Pieces of Mt. Taishan (something about if you can’t go to the mountain, bring the mountain or something like that.)

9. Man-made lakes with purified water

10. Spend $1 million a year to maintain it.

Is it worth it having a ‘green lung’ in a big city like Beijing?

What’s in your city?

There’s at least one state in the union that is happy about the overuse of fossil fuels and the subsequent rise in oil/gas prices - North Dakota. Yeah, North Dakota. It is a state and the 20-30 people who live there add to the 304 million+ population of the U. S.

Turns out there is oil under them grasslands, two miles under. “Landowners in western North Dakota have a much better chance of striking it rich from oil than they do playing the lottery, says one local. Some of their neighbors in the town of about 120, from bar tenders to Tupperware salespeople, have become “overnight millionaires” from oil royalty payments.

Can anything good come our of North Dakota? Wait! That’s Nazareth. Apparently there is, at least for dozens of people who are millionaires through no fault of their own other than being born in the right place. Kind of reminds us of the middle east, eh? North Dakota is expected to produce a record amount of oil this year.

In 2005 there were 266 millionaires in the state. In 2006, there were 388, an increase of about 50%. 2007 figures aren’t out yet. One University of ND director is predicting that half of the county’s population of 4,000 will be millionaires in the next 3-5 years. In 1997, ND ranked 42nd in per capita income. Last year, it ranked 30th.

And all because of the rest of the world gluttonously consuming oil. As for me, I still don’t want to live in ND. But, I’d think about it.

Dubai has a Wind-Powered Rotating Skyscraper.  Tokyo is building a Sky Tree. The two are tall. The similarities stop there though Tokyo definitely sounds like it is doing something earth friendly. The Tokyo Sky Tree is expected to be a major tourist draw at 610 meters when it is completed in 2012. Tokyo hopes 5.4 million people will take a look in the first year and 2.7 million/year for the subsequent 30 years.

The Tokyo Sky Tree is designed for terrestrial digital broadcasting and to take the place of the current analog broadcasting format by 2011. It will also aid in anti-disaster measurements. There will be observation decks at 350 and 450 meters.  The surrounding area - commercial facilities, offices and colleges. The cost Y65B ($600 million).

Read about the debate surrounding the construction here. (subscription may be required.)  Suffice it to say that in the debate, nobody is talking about how friendly or not the new tower will be to the Tokyo environment.

We do love it when a plan comes together, when the world gets along. Here’s a guy who has people all over the world dancing together. On a different level, 31 provinces in China have received $4 million from Norway, the European Union and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to draft programs to fight climate change over the next two years.

The project is called  Provincial Programs for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in China (PPCCMAC). Try and say that three times real fast. At first, 14 pilot provinces will take a shot. Qinghai will address its retreating glaciers, for example.

Norway says, “The finalization of such plans for all provinces of China will be a remarkable achievement, which I think will meet broad international recognition and be an inspiration and model for many other countries.”

Sichuan is one of the pilot provinces. The area experienced an 8-magnitude quake in May. Good luck stopping those. Shanxi is a coal-rich province looking for alternatives. For good or for bad, IMHO, it’s always a good thing seeing the world work together to solve problems.  What do you think?