wish our planet a green christmas

Something you could do in this upcoming christmas to give your gift to our planet -

1. Stop gift-wrapping with gift-wrap papers. You could wrap it by a few beautiful fashion/christmas ad-prints from magazines/newspaper instead which could present an equally festive mood to those receiving your gifts.

2. Turn out any christmas lighting at home when you are going out - it really consumes valuable energy & does not cheer up anybody when no one is at home!

3. Reuse & recycle your christmas trees & decorations - the metallic colours of these stuff consumes a lot of energy to be produced and trasnported to your hands, and some of these are very difficult to decompose organically or simply won't.

4. If you don't really know what your friends/family want for christmas, give them cash or gift cards. Buying something they may not feel of any use is truly something you don't want to happen, is it? Alternatively, consider events instead of physcial gifts - isn't it great that all of you could have a great time together?

5. Send christmas cards made of recycling paper if you really want to.

6. Prepare your own party food instead of buying delivery/hamper food. It is much more fun to prepare the food & share together, and always worth the little extra time.

7. Take public transport when going out as much as you could.

start from today -

Stop buying bottled water when going out - bring a small bottle of water on your own is not something difficult to do. Order tap water when dining out instead of bottled water, it would save you money as well as reduce energy & material consumption for producing the glass/plastic bottles and fancy packaging. Think how crazy that the water you drink needs to travel from some springs in france across the continent & ocean to reach you where actually it is so readily available at your local tap!

members of parliament to act as role models for green energy

The UK Parliament in Westminster on the north bank of Thames (right)
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The londonpaper today reports that the UK parliament are studying how to run the parliament building by more sustainable energy and reduce its carbon footprint. The following is an extract of the article by Widiane Moussa -

£20m Plan to Cut Emissions
Winds of Change for Westminster

Parliament could be powered by wind turbines & tides in a bid to cut its carbon footprint by almost a third. The Palace of Westminster uses enough electricity to power 6500 households & it would take a forest of more than 2500 trees to soak up the C02 output. Its environmental impact including 2252 tonnes of rubbish has angered MPs who want to improve freen creditials.

A study into the greening of the parliamentary estate commissioned by MPs shows how the buildings could be partly powered by a 35m-high wind turbine on the neighbouring Victoria Gardens & a field of tidal turbines in the Thames, next to the members' terraces. Double glazing could be fitted to draughty windows & officials are even toying with the idea of installing miniature power stations in the cellars, which will take the palace partly "off-grids".

According to the plans, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the project will cost at least £20 million. "We can't afford to do nothing and tha is exactly what Parliament has done for too long" said Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, who has calculated that electricity consumption in the Commons has risen 86% since 1997.

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What has our honourable Legislative Councillors in Hongkong done on their new home in Tamar? Have they really carried out studies on the energy consumption of the existing monumental LegCo building or ask the government to set reduction target for the new LegCo building? If the Thames could have tidal turbines to generate electricity, Tamar could have tubrines in Victoria Harbour to do the same.

It is time we demand these councillors to really work their bit to get their salary review justified.

today's fresh lime -

A video showing the technology of tidal turbines for next generation energy source -
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=a16561a2d9322a0e5953813fd7c930aa6fd8e41e

an apple a day

today's fresh lime -

A prototype house which aims at being self-sustainable as far as possible -
http://www.zerohouse.net/

start from today -

Use an online bank instead of high street banks. With an online bank which has no physical branch, there are significantly much less energy used to make nice shopfronts and print fancy brochures. And you could potentially get more dedicated service because some of the money in these expenses would be put to serve you directly.