United Nations Climate Change Conference

The conference starts today.

Climate Greeting

Say no to gift wrappers

If you think that just because it’s called paper, you can still be green by recycling it, think again. But, not to worry, we’ve found some great eco gift wrapping ideas for you.  

 via Martha Stewart 

 

Wrap bottles in newspaper 

 Simple gift wrapping 

 Try using kraft paper 

 Pretty newspaper ribbons 

 Recycle old music sheets 

I think that if you put a real effort in your wrapping and make it very pretty, nobody would dare tell you you’re cheap for not using store-bought wrapping paper.  

But if you have to, please make sure you buy FSC-certified or recycled paper.

Infinite Uses of Vinegar

Just thought I share this great site with you

Angela Palmer’s Ghost Forest Art Project in Trafalgar Square

I wish I’d had a chance to see this myself.

The Ghost Forest is an art installation on the Trafalgar Square aimed to highlight deforestation and climate change.

Learn more about the artist Angela Palmer and why she had embarked on this project. In case you’re wondering, the tree stumps fell naturally from adverse weather from a reserve in Western Ghana. The stumps will travel, but the project is carbon neutral.

More beautiful pictures from Flickr from Where the Art Is’ photostream.

 

 

Bet You Didn’t Know: Corked Wine is Better for the Environment

We love a good wine (don’t we all?). And we do have a bias for corked wine instead of the screwed-on ones. We just think the corked wines are better in quality. That and we’re just traditionalists at heart. Uncorking the bottle adds to the drama and rituals of wine drinking.  (So, yes, we steer clear of New Zealand wines.) 

Source : The WWF on “Cork and wine industries play a key role in the sustainability of forests“

Cork is natural, renewable, recyclable and biodegradable. No trees are cut to harvest cork. The bark of the trees are harvested every 9-12 years.The point is if more wine manufacturers stop using cork (through use of plastic stoppers or screw caps), it reduces the value of lands where cork oak trees are grown. And this could lead to their conversion for other uses. 

The WWF is campaigning for the conservation of the cork oak trees. And the wine industry plays a major role in that conservation accounting for some 70% of the cork market. 

Source: The Treevolution site on “Wine industry can help conserve cork forests“  

“cork forests are home and a source of income to thousands of people and support one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the planet. Decreasing demand from the wine industry for cork stoppers would force entire communities to leave, resulting in more forest fires, desertification and the permanent loss of 2.7 million hectares of forest,”

So what are the arguments for or against cork, environmental issues aside?  

• Screw caps are easier to open. Great for bringing to picnics.
• But wine needs to breathe to age properly, plastic corks can fail and let too much air in. Screw caps do not allow any oxygen in. Cork lets in minute amounts of air as it’s a natural product.
• Cork taint affect every 1 in 10 bottles. This tends to impart a ‘corky’ taste, they said, similar to damp mouldy cardboard. So someone is always left out of pocket – the consumer, the restaurant or the manufacturer

Screw caps are easy to recognise. But I have no clue how to know if underneath the foil is a synthetic stopper or real cork!