The Great Green Wall of China

The Green Wall of China is a barrier composed of trees, shrubs, and grass that was built in inner Mongolia to block off the Gobi desert and to diffuse sandstorms that were blowing over northeast Asia and into the United States.

The Green Wall was initiated in 1978 and is proposed to stretch 4,480 kilometers to protect cities and cropland from floods and desert. The desert was heading South East at a rate of 3 kilometers a year, straight towards Beijing in 2008 (the year of the Olympics). Millions of trees were planted in 2007 in preparation for the event which seemed to temporarily diffuse the situation, however the roots of the problem is the overpopulation and unsustainable development in Asia.

If the plan is completed accordingly, by 2050 trees will cover 42% of China's landmass.  This will create the largest 'man-made carbon sponge' on the planet, a mitigation approach to decreasing carbon emissions.

The Chinese government are tightening logging restrictions to ensure that they meet this target and is increasing reforestation efforts through aerial seeding of remote areas. The deforestation and logging of forests in China is what led to the sandstorms in the first place, which is why it is important that the government enforce policies to adapt to the problem rather than mitigate, which should in turn stop deforestation.

This video explains the deforestation and potential adverse economic effects:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/mar/11/green-wall-forest-logging

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/living_green_wall.php
http://www.planetizen.com/node/25141

Sustaina-babble

Do you ever question how 'green' or 'sustainable' products or buildings really are?

Greenwashing is a word used to describe the deceptive use of green marketing in order to promote businesses or products as environmentally friendly. It is argued that some companies spend more time on advertising how 'green' they are, rather than spending money on green practices. This is more common than you may think.

Greenwashing examples:

• In 2009, European McDonald's changed their logo colours from yellow and red to yellow and green.
• Grocery chains charging money for plastic bags to 'save the environment'.
• Environmentally friendly images (lakes, rolling hills, beaches) on food and drinks that have made no attempt to lessen their environmental impact.
• Solar panels on buildings that they either don't use or have not attempted to lessen their energy consumption in any way.

This last point brings about the idea of 'Eco-bling'. This term can be described as the ineffective use of green technology - equipment that has been added onto an existing poorly-designed building that does little to reduce the building's use of natural resources.  

A new Sainsbury supermarket concept that is 'sustainable and eco-friendly' is a primary example of eco-bling.  The supermarket claims that its new kinetic energy system captures energy from cars as they enter the carpark and uses this energy to generate power. Scientists have tested the concept of these 'kinetic road plates' and concluded that the energy extracted from the car comes to 0.002 kilowatt-hours. However, the energy used by the car on its trip to the supermarket would be at least 8 kilowatt-hours. The savings from parking at the 'green carpark' amount to one four-thousandth of the energy used by the trip to the supermarket (less than 1% of an energy saving). 

Policies need to be put in place to ensure that green or sustainable practices are making a decent enough energy saving to be able to promote their practices as 'green' as it cannot be determined by the general public through the excessive amount of products and businesses that are greenwashing or eco-bling-ing. 

In parts of the UK, the Merton Rule has been established.  This requires any residential development of more than 10 units, or any commercial building over 1000 square meters to reduce its carbon emissions by a certain percentage through the use of on-site renewables. If rules like this one were established by the Auckland Council, a low carbon future would be achieved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/lets-use-1-percent-rule-to-judge-new-products-projects.php

http://www.wordspy.com/words/eco-bling.asp

Koala numbers drop 80%

The koala population has dropped 80% in the last 10 to 15 years and scientists are looking at declaring the species as endangered.

The koala population is rapidly declining as a result of climate change and will continue to irreversibly effect the population, particularly from droughts. Droughts in Australia are drying out the koala's number one food source - eucalyptus leaves which they eat to obtain moisture.  They are also incapable of dealing with the increasingly hotter, drier temperatures in Australia which results in the animals experiencing heat stress and dehydration, exhausting them so much that they virtually drop out of their trees.

One of the reasons for this decline is also the lack of habitat for koalas after land is being cleared for urban development, depriving them of their traditional habitat. This is another reason to build up rather than out and reduce human-related emissions as much as possible. We need to be more selfless and realise that humans arent the only species on the earth! In Brisbane houses are even being built in 'koala corridors', areas of land that have been created to foster the species as a result of urbanisation.

What would happen to our national symbol, the kiwi, if temperatures were to increase a couple of degrees in New Zealand? The kiwi's body temperature is around 37 to 38 degrees which is almost the same as the koala (36.6 degrees). The kiwi's traditional habitiat is in damp, dark forest land which we must do everything in our power to protect, as kiwi's are already endangered and at further risk as a result of climate change and urban sprawl.

What can we do? DO EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE AND URBAN SPRAWL
It may be as simple as being energy efficient, use public transport, walk, cycle, think about carbon miles (be concious of where your food and your clothes are coming from)...

The fate of the koala and the kiwi may be in your hands.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/environment/news/article.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10728038
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/kiwi-bird-facts.html