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Gas mowers put out as much smog as 40 new cars this is why mowing the lawn is some kind of a problem if you care about the environment. Since the scythes may not be the best idea (injuries) for many of us, here is what you can do, the old fashioned way.

via GroovyGreen

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The Danube Delta is the second biggest delta in Europe and the best preserved on the continent with an approximate surface of 5,165 km². This includes both the Romanian and the Ukrainian part of the delta, as well as the UNESCO world heritage site where 23 natural ecosystems measuring 2,733 km² are strictly protected.

It’s a unique exotic land in Europe, with over 1,200 species of trees and plants and the largest fauna (over 300 species of birds) of the continent. It’s also heaven for for fishermen with more than 45 freshwater fish species; you can catch the Danube herring, or sturgeons which are renowned for their expensive caviar.

Enough talking, because we have 23 great images that will speak for themselves.

Common pelican in the delta

Lotus on the water

Very old oak at Letea

Sontea Channel in the Danube Delta

Small lake

Airborne pelican

Kids having fun in the Danube Delta

The upper Danube Delta

Flowers on the water

Flooded village

Flooded pasture

Hyla Arborea in the Danube Delta

Boat on channels

Fishing boat

A fishery

Bulrush harvesting

Main transportation : boats

Lots of green

Reed

Dalmatian pelican family

Sunset over the Danube Delta, near Mahmudia

The Danube enters the Black Sea, journey almost over

The end

Photos copyright : Jarosaw Pocztarski, FOREVER CARDON, mugh, onnufry, tonica, marius, S-Yun, marius_zh, la Tanti Tina and the Danube’s Biosphere Region website.

A new non-crowned “mpg king” is set to stir the market a little bit. Started as an experimental vehicle, the Microjoule was built by a team of students from the French Technical School, St. Joseph La Joliverie and managed to get the first prize at the Eco-Marathon, last year. This happened because the alien-like race-looking single-seater car (phew) that runs on gasoline is able to do 7,148 miles per gallon. No kidding.

The Eco-Marathon, which Shell hosts each year, is “an educational project that integrates the sustainable development values with driving as far as possible using the least amount of energy”. Gasoline, diesel, liquid petroleum gas, ethanol, compressed natural gas, hydrogen or solar powered cars are going to compete once again in 2008 at Nogaro from 22 to 24 of May.

From 1992 since when the Eco-Marathon first came to Europe, the Microjoule managed to steal the first prize each and every year and managed to break the world record 6 times. Wish I could see this kind of efficiency on other series cars, too.

This year’s G8 Summit will be hosted on the island of Hokkaido in Japan. One of the most interesting gatherings will be the climate change summit on July 9, where 16 leading countries – the Group of Eight plus Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, South Africa and Mexico – are invited to attend.

The countries mentioned above are responsible for more than 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions. Talks will include carbon dioxide emission targets by 2020,  and rumors say this year’s summit is going to be the largest in history.

Source

by aslaugsvava
If last month Virgin Atlantic tested a Boeing 747 running with 80 percent normal fuel mixed with 20 percent biofuel, but Continental Airlines wants their own piece of the pie.The company  partnered with Boeing and GE Aviation to demonstrate in the first half of the next year (2009)  an aircraft running on bio-fuels. From what I understand it’s going to be bio-fuel only and if the test will be successful Continental Airlines will be the first major US carrier to use biofuels on flights.

“Exploring sustainable biofuels is a logical and exciting new step in our environmental commitment” said Mark Moran, vice president of operations at Continental Airlines.

I/we all hope these are not just test meant to increase their popularity among people that care about the environment. – via – BusinessGreen

Japanese yachtsman Kenichi Horie, decided to go from Hawaii (Honolulu Harbor) to Japan in a 7,000 km (4,400 miles) journey on the deck of his wave-powered boat Suntory Mermaid II, Reuters reported. His catamaran-like boat has two wings in front that will convert energy using the vertical motion of the waves in a movement similar to a dolphin’s kick.

This is how the 69 years old Japanese got the idea of building his boat.

“Twenty years ago while sailing, an accident broke my main mast which actually fell in the sea. The boat kept rocking and I thought how great it would be to actually harness the power of those waves to push the boat forward.”

Horie mentioned that the idea of taking this journey is to make people aware of his invention and the fact that we can enjoy a really “green” travel solution. The boat, which was built by a team of Japan’s Tokai University, is going its reach destination port of Hino, after two and a half months. It is as fast as the human walking pace, he said.

We can only wish him luck and no whales incidents or something similar.

The results of the latest World Glacier Monitoring Service report, showed that 30 glaciers around the world lost a record amount of ice in 2006. These are the obvious repercussions of global warming and Professor Wilfried Haeberli, director of the monitoring service, told The Observer that “glaciers melt at fastest rate in past 5,000 years“.

Glacier melting into the sea near the southern tip of Greenland by Silversprite

Biggest concerns about melting glaciers are risen sea levels, floods, avalanches and drought that not only put people’s lives in jeopardy but are threatening eco-systems, too.

“We’re talking about something that happens in your and my lifespan. We’re not talking about something hypothetical, we’re talking about something dramatic in its consequences” said Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The problems are real and the melting glaciers are highly relevant to what we are about to face. Tony Blair an ambassador for action on climate change in the ‘Breaking the Climate Deadlock’ initiative, began a series of high-level environmental meetings in Japan, China and India.

“We have reached the critical moment of decision on climate change. Failure to act now would be deeply and unforgivably irresponsible. The scale of what is needed is so great that the purpose of any global action is not to ameliorate or to make better our carbon dependence, it is to transform the nature of economies and societies in terms of carbon consumption and emissions.

If the average person in the US is, say, to emit per capita, one-tenth of what they do today and those in the UK or Japan one-fifth, we’re not talking of adjustment, we’re talking about a revolution”, Tony Blair said yesterday in Chiba, Japan.

Will we do anything about it? Sure hope so.

photo by juanpg

The newest museum in Madrid, CaixaForum, got a vertical garden on one of the exterior walls. Designed by Swiss architects Herzog & Meuron, there are 15,000 plants from more than 250 different species that are now covering a 1899 converted former power station.

They managed to get a “very unusual encounter between the rough and the natural” with a high contrast between the restored building that has a rusted iron top and the beautiful green plants.

photo by Funksturm

CaixaForum is a sociocultural center was inaugurated in the very heart of Madrid on February 2008 and serves as museum, auditorium, art gallery and bookshop.

The creator of the vertical garden is Patrick Blanc, already known for its work in France (the Quai Branley Office Wing) is expected to install the next one in China or probably in the UK. Actually he said that such gardens could be created anywhere, even in “those difficult spaces where you don’t expect to see greenery”. His experience comes from studying rainforests and you can see the results. – via – TreeHugger

“Hello”. Tony Blair has become an ambassador for action on climate change in the ‘Breaking the Climate Deadlock’ initiative. Climate change is a serious problem and a new deal is going to be signed when the Kyoto protocol expires. The former prime minister is working with the independent not-for-profit organization The Climate Group. Blair is arriving in Tokyo today and will meet influential business and political people in its “tour” that includes visiting Japan, China and India.

Does it mean that Tony Blair is now in the same group of ecologists that include Al Gore? Even so, I think this is a positive thing, don’t you?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOPr7NA3OvQ[/youtube]

via Celsias

“Tactical Biorefineries” is what they call these new portable generators roughly the size a small moving van that weighs about 4 tons and turn trash into electricity. They’ve been mainly designed for the U.S. military and could be used outside the military shortly after, when the technology evolves (translated: “when they want to”) in the future.

The biorefineries are designed to use multiple types of garbage at once; first it has to separate organic foods from residual trash (paper, plastics, etc). Food waste is sent to a bioreactor and ferments into ethanol while the residual materials are used in a gasifier and turned into low-grade propane gas and methane. But wait, that’s not all because the propane and methane are also being used in a modified diesel engine that powers the generator which produces electricity.

“At any place with a fair amount of food and scrap waste the biorefinery could help reduce electricity costs, and you might even be able to produce some surplus energy to put back on the electrical grid,” said Michael Ladisch, the professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University who leads the project.

The first unit (it costs $1 million)  has been tested in November and the results have been great. Though it works on diesel fuel for a few hours until the gasifier and the bioreactor begin to produce fuel it produced 90 percent more than it consumed.

I’ll have to agree it’s a great piece of technology and lots of places could use one.