Brazilians have planted some 46,000 trees to neutralize all of the carbon emitted during Rio de Janeiro’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In fact, concern for the environment is one of the pillars of the Rio 2016 bid, and the saplings are part of the state government’s “Rio 2016 Zero Carbon” project. In all, Rio 2016 will offset 716 tons of carbon relative to the period September 2007 to October 2009.

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As the Kyoto agreement runs out in 2012, the world is getting together to make sure that they have another international treaty in place by then, to address the deteriorating environmental issues and to ensure that each nation has a certain emission cut targets set for it.

Image by lingaraj

However, developing heavyweights like India, China and Brazil, seem to have taken a hard stand when it comes to agreeing to the emission cuts they will abide to. And India’s chief climate negotiator, Shyam Saran, said that the developed world should guard itself against green protectionism and must offer greater help to developing nations to deal with their eco-problems.

Not only did he warn against a growing discord between the developing and the developed world when it comes to dealing with green issues, but also stated that nations like India could only sign on treaties with realistic goals in regards to emission control.

While Energy Secretary Steven Chu suggested slapping a tariff on imports from nations that do not require emissions cuts to “level the playing field”, Saran responded saying that the negotiations were already starting on an uneven playing field.

The sour grapes between, seems to suggest that a realistic figure when it comes to curbing carbon emissions is still a long way away from materializing and while India’s pledge of never letting its per capita emissions exceed those of rich nations, it seems a pretty fair deal in itself.

More has to be done at this point rather than worry about political brownie points …

Meanwhile, Tata Motors launched the Nano— world’s cheapest car, in India!

Via: Yahoo! Green

Designed by Mareines + Patalano, this great beach home outside of Rio de Janeiro stands as a beautiful compliment to nature and adds to the planet’s beauty and tranquility.

Except for a stunning architectural show, the Brazilian Leaf House packs many green features, a perfect combination of form with function. Designed as a giant tropical banana leaf and looking like a blossoming delight, the roof helps harvest rainwater for house use, and the whole design helps providing natural ventilation and cooling, thus reducing the need to rely on the grid. The interior is “just” as green, using locally harvested wood crafted in a sustainable fashion, stone and natural fabrics.

Most often constructions that crop up on the beaches, are costly real estate properties with lavish designs that does nothing beyond destroying the natural beaches and further degrade the ecosystem. This one really looks like a dream house, isn’t it? – via World Architecture News

One of the things I love the most about writing on GP is that I learn while I do it. Do you know what’s the largest freshwater fish in South America? It’s called pirarucu or arapaima and can reach up to 4.5 meters and 200 kg, as an adult. Large pirarucus of more than 2 m are seldom found in the wild today because the meat is said to be delicious and they get harpooned or caught in large nets, even though it’s illegal.

But why am I telling you all these?

A catch of 66 pirarucus has been confiscated from poachers who were transporting them to a market in Manaus, capital of the Brazilian Amazon region, and as you can obviously see, those fish are extremely big. I do agree with the Police to hunt down those who don’t care about laws and prevent making money from harpooning the pirarucus to death (even put them in jail for that), but where is all that fish meat going?

The other day Bill joked that the police officers and the judges went out to a delicious fish dinner. I hope that’s not true, but I also hope they don’t waste it all, leaving it to rot. How about feeding the hungry? They do delicacies, too, if given for free. Right?

Images copyright : REUTERS/Antonio Menezes-A Critica (BRAZIL)

Well, the G-8 has a vision, but do they have a plan?

Japan’s PM Fukuda was able to save face – “The G8 nations came to a mutual recognition that this target — cutting global emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050 — should be a global target.”

The United States got heard. Emerging economies, India, China, Brazil are included – “It has always been the case that a long-term goal is one that must be shared. So the G-8 has offered today is a G-8 view of what that goal could be and should be but that can only occur with the agreement of all the other parties.”

Environmentalists criticized the statement – “So little progress after a whole year of Minister meetings and negotiations is not only a wasted opportunity, it falls dangerously short of what is needed to protect people and nature from climate change.”

The EU thinks – “new, shared vision by the major economies” that would support the UN-led effort on a new global warming accord. This is a strong signal to citizens around the world.”

In the end, it will be up to individual countries, says Fukuda, “The G8 will implement aggressive midterm total emission reduction targets on a country by country basis.”

My bet, a lot of money was wasted at the G-8 Summit if anybody thought the purpose was to come away with a workable and enforceable plan to get the world to be better stewards of our home.

This kind of initiatives really get us rolling on the floor and wagging our tails.

The Brazilian Câmara dos Deputados is preparing a bill that will actually ask people to plant trees when they have fees to pay. The law is trying to recover the rainforest and offset the country’s carbon emissions.

We’re talking about fees concerning marriage, divorce, buying a new car or real estate transactions.

• getting married is 10 trees (additional 25 trees if you are divorcing later)
• buying a new car is 20 trees (light-duty van goes for 40 trees while a heavy duty is 60 trees)
• selling a house is 10 trees
• selling a business is 20 trees

The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics estimated that about 65 million trees would be planted per year under the proposed rules.

Apparently everything we do, harms the environment and though I do not agree with this concept, planting trees – no matter the reason – is a great solution to living a healthier life with a cleaner environment. Don’t you think?

[Source: Globo] (Image by Craig Jewell)