If trees in Tokyo could speak, at least one would say, “This is my space. Get out, or I’ll eat you up.” The problem, of course, is in the digestion. What’s the tree going to do with the waste product? Okay, that might be a little bit too graphic to think about. Still…

The Japanese says in the box at the top right “The tree ate the guardrail? The city is famous for this? What’s up with that? A kind of wrapped sushi?”

The text - “Complete, eh? The tree is all the way around the guard rail.”

Yeah, what if the living things on our planets all fought back against our invasion like this?

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So what if the plastic bags decomposed in just 3 months. An editor at the Asahi Shimbun opined that plastic shopping bags are NOT the biggest problem. Some 30 billion shopping bags that weigh several hundreds of thousands of tons are NOT the problem.

A survey by this editor revealed -

1. 83% of those who get plastic bags reuse (recycle?) them as liners for their kitchen garbage cans.

2. 80% also used the plastic bags to line their waste baskets.

3. 43% find yet other ways to reuse the little buggers.

5. A mere 0.8% just threw them away.

In the absence of plastic bags for this purpose, most said they would buy garbage bags for the same purpose or reuse newspaper.

Not a few people reused the plastic bags when they went shopping. Many are opting to buy a lot of the cheap plastic bags instead of the more costly heavy plastic bags. In other words…collecting money for plastic bags at the supermarket is just another way to, well, make money. The bags are already being reused, recycled. What’s the big deal?

The Junior Eight Summit group handed the senior group a proposal -

1.  ”put forth a treaty that includes all nations and has strict but reasonable guidelines for meeting greenhouse gas emission targets.”

2.  “have progressive short- and long-term goals and a revised framework which ensures that promises are kept.”

3.  “promote the rights of children, especially girls”

4. “boost investment in Africa”

5. “tackle education and health problems”

6. “further gain a young person’s perspective on global issues.”

7. ”Let’s turn young people’s ideas into actions, and not just words.”

The J-8 Summit started in Britain in 2005 and has met annually since. The declaration was adopted by 39 young people aged 14-17 who are representing the G-8 and other countries - Japan, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United States, Iraq, Mongolia, Nepal and South Africa.

The Bible says “a little child shall lead them” (Is. 11:6). When will we old goats begin to follow?

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.

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?

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?

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?

Casio Computer has found a way to substitute fluorine gas for sulfur hexafluoride.  Sulfur hexafluoride is used in the processing of silicon thin films for LCD panels. As greenhouse gases go, sulfur hexafluoride is also 20,000 times worse than CO2. Casio thinks that if it eliminates this chemical the company will reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions by about 205.

Casio Computer says  -

“Fluorine gas is difficult to handle because it is highly reactive and potentially explosive. The company solved this issue through careful management of hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid levels. For the processing of silicon thin films, the company determined it could achieve the same quality as with sulfur hexafluoride by optimizing the volume of fluorine gas used and adjusting the voltage and other parameters.”

Evaluation of the use of fluorine gas will continue until the end of the year at such time a decision will be made. Does that line “highly reactive and potentially explosive” concern anybody else besides me? Casio also makes dandy wrist watches that can do all sorts of things, elevations, barometers, hail taxi cabs and such.

“Hey, Taro! Where’s you arm?”

“Ah, just another failed fluorine test for Casio. No big deal.”

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