Armies can do other things besides fight wars. A military might might be used for other things that causing harm. How about we use them to clean up the environment? Seriously. That’s what’s going on in China.

Chinese frontier soldiers are picking up garbage on the Red Sea Beach. The frontier soldiers pick up plastic bags and other garbage to keep the environment clean for visitors. The Chinese Red Sea is located in Panjin City, northeast China’s Liaoning Province. The mouth of the Liaohe River is covered with a read sea-blite plant.

Yeah! I like this. Using soldiers to do a different kind of cleaning up. It gives cause to wonder. What if all the money in the world that is spent on military might for countries was used to clean up and protect our environment.

The US spends some $300-400 billion each year. China spends … Russia spends. Why can’t we do away with military spending and divert it to caring for our planet? Why can’t we all just get along?

The very modern Monte Rosa Alpine hut, outside Zermatt, is an exotic creation set atop the snow-clad Swiss Alps at 2,810m above sea level, overlooking the Matterhorn. This new 90% energy efficient solar powered hut is a creation of the Department of Architecture, at the Swiss Federal Technical University in Zurich, for the Swiss Alpine Club as a mountaineer’s retreat.

The hut which is an original wooden structure is digitally optimized to give it its grandeur crystalline look.

Studio Monte Rosa is the perfect haunt for the adventurous mountaineer, with its fascinating views and an equally comfortable hotel facility. This state of the art base camp has a 125 room guest facility which is sufficiently equipped. As the hut is out of range of electric power, most of its energy is drawn from the photo-voltaic panels and thermal systems, while the rest comes from a co-generative heat and power back up source. Plans are being worked out to use human waste to produce bio-gas so as to make the hut fully dependent on alternate energy.

This self-sufficient hutment which adopts the norms of biosphere conservation has already won itself a Holcim Bronze Award for Sustainable Construction soon after its completion in September. -via Inhabitat

When the US Army takes a small break from those unnecessary and probably unnecessary wars, or don’t plan new ones, they manage to amaze us. I’m talking about the latest initiative to build a 500MW solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert near Fort Irwin, CA, that will help them cut down $21 million a year from their $3 billion energy bill.

Set to be ready in 2014, the new solar plant is not only going to reduce the risk of power interruptions but will also reduce the carbon footprint by 4,015,000 tons. No word on how much money it will cost to build this military installation but it sounds like a better way to spend money.

Keith Eastin, the Army’s assistant secretary for Installations & Environment said that the new solar thermal plant will be built in the name of energy security and not necessarily the environment. However the US Army plans to buy 4,000 electric vehicles for maintenance and operations and also a joint geothermal initiative with the Navy that should be ready by 2012 and would provide 30 megawatts of power at Hawthorne Army Depot, Nevada.

Is the US Army turning eco-friendly?

Image courtesy of Schwarzerkater

Washington officials are already discussing a possible ban on washing cars at home on the driveway, for environmental reasons. Apparently they’re really concerned that the shampoo or whatever cleaning products people use, are going into the storm drains and then off into the rivers, seas, oceans where it poisons aquatic life and wreaks other ecosystem havoc.

Though it sounds like a good initiative, state residents have complained against it, and I think it’s mainly because they don’t know much about ocean’s water pollution. Would they do it anymore if they would’ve been told that the fish they’re going to eat the next day is full of soap? Probably not.

If the ban will be voted for (which I don’t think will happen) most people will be allowed to was their cars at home, as long as it’s not on the driveway. Do it on the grass and it’s okay, state officials said. How come? It’s better to kill the lawn and the soil under, instead of the shrimp and tuna?

Maybe instead of banning what people have been doing for the last tens or hundreds of years, maybe we should develop greener solutions that no matter where they drain, will not harm the environment. How’s that? Better, I know!

Image courtesy of Micah Taylor

Though I’d wish every little thing on Earth to be greener, a pedal-powered Japanese Roller Coaster part of a green amusement park (The Skycycle at Washuzan Highland Park in Okayam), is not exactly what I was thinking of. See who cares about the environment? Japan does!

I’d would love to see how many ecogeeks or environmentalists would hop on for a ride on the side-by-side tandem pedal-powered carts. They do have seat belts but still look unsafe for my taste. Can I only promote it, rather than taking a ride? Plus, what’s with the pink basket? Who’d use it? Check out a full gallery after the break. (more…)

What are the key elements that would make your city life even better and best of all even greener? Well the guys at SustainLane judge 16 areas of urban sustainability ranging from the (new this year) water quality, to public transportation and environmental policies. The group ranked 50 of the United States’ most populated cities according to their sustainability.

SO what are the most sustainable cities in the US, this year? And the winners are Portland (OR), San Francisco (CA), and Seattle (WA).

I can’t say much about their report but knowing these guys, I suppose their analysis is thorough and they did take into consideration many of the factors that we may forget when thinking about our own city.

Among the winners, we can find the most expensive cities in the US including New York, Boston, San Jose and San Francisco and I suppose it’s for a good reason. But, wait up, because we, Bill Belew (the other guy behind GreenPacks), is living somewhere close to SF so I guess he’d be entitled to comment on the report. And yes, the picture is with San Francisco…

Where do you live and what do you think about your city’s sustainability?

Image courtesy of (nz)Dave

“A Touch of Pink” fashion show is happening in Toronto. Eight Canuck designers revealed their designs as part of “The White Cashmere Collection” and “Fashion with Compassion for a Future without Breast Cancer.”

GP picked up on this idea because we think making good use of recycled paper makes good sense. BUT!!! We don’t want this kind of paper recycled, do we? Recycled toilet paper would give new meaning to the “Hey, there’s a stain on your dress.” Okay, I agree, that’s nasty.

So, what happens to these girls when they get caught in the rain? Seriously, isn’t there a limit to what to do, what can be done with paper?

Would you wear something made out of toilet paper?

Can you imagine the conversation – “If you are not careful, I am going to TP you.”

“Oh, would you, please?”

In the name of conservation, of course.

Beer maker, Sapporo Breweries, has decided to put the carbon footprint of making its beers on the labels of their suds. The company estimates grain output, fertilizers, transporatation and the production and recycling of the aluminum can itself.

One 350 milliliter can of Black Label beer represents 161 grams of carbon emission says Sapporo Breweries.

Now a person can get drunk and not care about how much they are harming the environment at the same time. “Well, I may be skunk as a drunk, but I’m not planeting the destroy.”

What do you think? A marketing ploy or environmentally friendly policy? My take – marketing.

Sapporo Breweries needs all the attention it can get in Japan’s drunken beer market. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry wants to push a carbon footprinting system on all products.

What next? A surgeon general warning -

“Warning. Drinking beer may cause global warming.”

Yeah, I am a creationist and not ashamed to admit it. That is why I love our planet, our home (Earth) and advocate that we be the best stewards of the resources with which we have been entrusted.

I live in the ‘neighborhood’ of the knuckleheaded tree sitters of Berkeley. They are north of the Bay and I am located to the south of the Bay (SF Bay.) That is neither here nor there. Recently, the treesitters voluntarily gave up their perch…to the disappointment? chagrin? of some of their followers, dare we say, worshipers?

Good grief! So, who are these guys lifting up their innermost thoughts to? Who are they hoping will listen? What kind of response are they expecting? No, I can’t read their minds, but I do know this, if the environment is their god, and environmentalism their religion/faith, nothing, and I mean nothing should be able to remove them from it. Nothing will take my faith in the Creator away.

What do you believe in?

If somebody is going to commute by taxi, a solar-powered taxi, you might want that somebody to be someone with influence, someone who can reach the world. Louis Palmer of Switzerland created a solar-powered taxi for use in New Delhi. Good for him, the UN Chief, Ban Ki-moon of South Korea commuted to work aboard the solar-powered vehicle to promote alternative energy sources.

GP wants to know why only one day? Why not every day? Why does promoting alternative energy sources have to be a once in a while thing and not an all the time thing?

Okay. I admit, it’s better to do it sometimes than never. And, if the UN Chief can do his part to get the word out, the world will be better for it, no?

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