Laneo is the largest and currently the only, worldwide foundation dedicated to the needs of outdoor enthusiasts and the environment they play in. If you love to play outdoors but feel powerless to make a significant impact in environmental protection and restoration, Laneo is the community you have been waiting for. With just small personal contributions of time and finances, outdoor enthusiasts and athletes across the world are joining Laneo and uniting their voice to effect positive, significant change in eco sustainability. And the best part is, they’re having a blast doing it.
Phil send us this link about the Grease not Gas tour. A bunch of snowboarders touring around the US in their vegetable oil converted van to promote and show people that it’s easy – and important – to drive for free and without polluting the mountains! It will surely appeal to Vince from oliomobile!
Check out Anousheh Ansari’s space blog. She’s on the way back to earth.
Maybe you are a diver, or a surfer. Or maybe you just like to swim in the sea in the summer. In that case you will be interested by “Altered Oceans“, a 5 part series from the LAtimes on the various ways that we’re damaging the ocean.
The future of automobile might just well pop straight out of the Silicon Valley.
Backed up by investors like big shots from Pay Pal or Apple, Tesla motor (cool name too! reminds you of anyone?) founded by an ex-electrical engineer from Apple, expert in rechargeable battery, has launched the first 100% green dream car!
Built in England by Lotus, the Tesla Roadster will be powered by 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries – the same cells that run a laptop computer. Range: 250 miles. Fuel efficiency: 1 to 2 cents per mile. Top speed: more than 130 mph.
If this can create some kind of rupture in the automotive market, it could accelerate the generalisation of true eco-friendly cars!
Read the full story in last month Wired magasine!
Filed under: environment
"An Inconvenient Truth" was released a few days ago. This documentary is a must see! In a very dramatic american style though, it relates with shocking images and messages what we are all aware off but sometimes to not want to consider enough : our destructive action on planet earth. The documentary which will be accompanied by the release of a book sporting the same title is the work and new "mission" of Al Gore, former US vice-president. You can read an interesting interview in last month's Wired magazine here and also check a previous post on the same subject here.
"Discovering the preserved helps preserving the discovered". This quote comes from an ad for Slovenia in the last National Geographic magazine. I like the way the slovene tourism board is axing its promotion right now, focusing on media and targets attracted by the outdoors, the untouched, natural adventures and discoveries. It's funny also because this ad shows a brown slovene bear standing tall…
Funny because right now in France there is a huge polemic about slovene bears. Slovenia and France agreed in 2005 to send five brown bears to France's Pyrenees region this year to help boost the bear population. Slovenia transported two female bears to France in late April. The remaining bears were due to be transferred by the end of August but farmers in the Pyrenees protested against the move which they say would threaten local people and livestock. Slovenia said on Friday it had temporarily stopped sending wild bears to France following the discovery of 12 containers in which bear food was mixed with pieces of glass in the area where one of the bears was moved to. To be continued…
On May 5 and 6 it’s the Solar days, a good opportunity to go visit the houses and installations of some foreseeing people in Switzerland who use the sun’s energy for their homes energy needs. Presented in the picture above is the chalet of M. Dulex from Leysin who is the guy behind meteoleysin. His chalet uses a self made state of the art solar installation which covers for the entire needs in energy and heating.
You can find here the list of all houses/installation to visit around Switzerland and read this or this to take some consciouness about the stakes.
Filed under: environment
Last week, I assisted to a conference from Canadian astrophysicist and well-known science popularizer, Hubert Reeves, on the futur of life on Earth. This conference was organised by the communication department of my company, a leading european car manufacturer. Working for an industry (in)directly responsible for a third of the atmosphere's pollution, I am quiet sensible to this kind of issues.
First thing, I think it's good that this conference was organised by my company. It shows they are opened minded, aware of these issues and also looking for new ways and technologies to build engines which will use less energy and pollute less. If progress during the industrial area mainly had a negative impact on the environment, from progress will also come new 'green' solutions. Moreover, the media, the corporations and the public in Europe are now more and more sensible to these issues too, therefor Hubert Reeves although delivering strong messages on the dramatic state of our planet, has hope, because he feels the people are ready to change their habits and demand for sustainable lifestyles.
Here are the main points that hit me :
- we will be remembered as the specie which consumed more than half of the available oil ressources in a century (the end of the "oil period" is estimated around 2030)
- we are responsible for the elimination of 1000 of animal species
- our industries are responsible for the climate change and it's impacts for populations around the world
- we have destroyed more than half of the world's forest
The futur of life on our planet depends mainly from the decisions we will make today…and we all have our part of responsability.
Filed under: environment
Alenka is Daka's friend from Slovenija, who works at the slovene Ministry of Environment. She visited us as she was in Paris for an international meeting with UNESCO and UNEP on a very interesting and important subject : the youthXchange guide, a training kit on responsible consumption and sustainable lifestyles. I advice everybody to check out this website and take time to read the different chapters. It's our future and our kids future we are talking about….
It has been estimated that if the rest of the world were to consume like the developed world, we would need the equivalent of 4 extra earth.
Young people today constitute an important group within our consumer societies, and the habit they develop now will play a decisive role in future consumption patterns.Therefore, they deserve special attention in efforts to change our wasteful consumption patterns into ones that are more attuned to sustainable development.
Filed under: environment
Since a few months, I'm sending my pro mails with this signature :
Please respect the environment and be green by example.
Only print out this email if you have to. Thank you.
I'm happy to see that both some of my friends and colleagues are using it too now.
It's not much but if it can save a couple of trees from the Amazon it's allready something.
Use it, spread it!
Filed under: environment
I'm in a 'support your friends' mood, so I want to tell you about oliomobile.
Oliomobile.org is entirely build and managed by Vince from his flat in Geneva.
Vince is convinced that every individual has the power – and the duty – to make the choice to reduce his contribution to the oil based economy by using vegetable oil as fuel.
On his site, you can find all the info on how to convert your diesel car into a 'drive vegetarian' car! Check it out, learn more about these issues, and support oliomobile!
Oliomobile's purpose is to promote the use of pure and regenerated vegetable oil to fuel diesel engine powered vehicules. Vegetable oil as fuel is a cleaner, more reliable and more cost effective alternative as a fuel than fossil fuels. It can be produced localy or recovered from restaurants and snacks.
