Eco-Christmas

Yes, it's Christmas. Everybody has got their christmas tree, their house decorated, many gifts to give and receive... In this time of the year we care about everything, except the environment. But there are many tricks and tips to have an eco-Christmas, and we all are able to at least try them. So eat the chocolates you want, laugh, be in the company of those you love and try to be eco-friendly, so you can enjoy the same or better Christmas next year!

Rita

Surfers' marks

Surfers are permanent travellers. What defines us is the search for the perfect wave. In my case, I’m still looking for the correct position in the surfboard and the suitable timing to stand up… I’ve only surfed in two beaches yet, but millions of surfers in the world have already visited Australia, Hawaii, Indonesia, Maldives, Morocco, among other places also desirable. But at what price do they go to these spots?
Today, unfortunately, surfers tend to leave behind an incalculable amount of garbage, like empty water bottles, packages of cookies, broken ropes, etc. Will the man be someday able to preserve what he so admires? Maldives, for example, is hugely polluted because some surfers don’t care about what is done with their trash.
How to avoid it, how to prevent it, is something to which I have no answer. I think that our environmental and collective consciousness should work. We never ask ourselves about the impact that many surfers may have in certain areas of the planet. We have to rethink what we want from surf in the future. Sometimes, the problem may not be the increasing of surfers, but the impact that each surfer has in the places they travel.

Rita

The Great Global Warming Swindle

A few days ago, we saw in our Biology class a documentary called “The Great Global Warming Swindle”. It’s about the true cause of our planet’s heating and it presents ideas opposed to those on which global warming is based on. Scientists, politicians, economists and writers give evidences and agree that it’s not the human carbon dioxide emissions that are causing Global warming. They say that considering the temperature and the levels of carbon dioxide since the beginning of the Earth’s History, CO2 couldn’t ever be the cause. And it is a greenhouse gas with a low percentage in our atmosphere.
Besides that, the Earth’s climate is always changing. Little Ice Age, Medieval Warm Period and Holocene Period are periods where the Earth’s temperature was higher or lower than normal.

The film shows us lots of graphs when we can clearly see that when the carbon dioxide is increasing rapidly, the temperature is decreasing (Post war economic Boom for example).
“An Inconvenient Truth” omits some very relevant information. Al Gore says that the relation between temperature and carbon dioxide is complicated. But he failed to mention what those complications were. “The temperature rises or falls, and then 800 years ago, CO2 follows.”

So, what is changing the climate?
The Sun, is the answer the film gives to this question. They say that there is a correlation between the sun activities (sun spots) and the Earth’s temperature.

When the film was over and we were leaving the room, my head was more confused than ever. Global warming is a fact. But what is causing it? Are all the campaigns and commercials about Global warming a lie? I don’t know in who or what to believe. I thought the solutions were in our hands, but if we’re not the ones who started the problem… How can we solve it?

Rita

You can see "The Great Global Warming Swindle" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDzuXPM1W3k

Is Biodiversity important?

Who cares if there aren't so many species?

Well, I think we all should care about it. No matter how small species are, they all have an important "role to play" in our life.

So change your way of thinking because while we dominate this planet, we still need to preserve the diversity in wildlife.








And if you do, in the future you may have the lucky to find a strange specie like those in the pictures.
If you don't, in the future you will find nothing but a depopulate planet.

Think it over!

Marta

Water Pollution

Our planet is the only one in the Solar System that has water on its surface. It covers 71% of the Earth. Pictures?

Words are unnecessary. Water is the most precious thing we have. And we're polluting and wasting all the reserves.

Rita

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is a non-governmental organisation, with headquarters in Amsterdam and Netherlands. Its presence is now worldwide because it has offices in 46 countries and interventions all over the planet. It was founded in 1971 with the mission of changing attitudes and behaviours, protecting and conserving the environment and promoting peace.
Greenpeace’s fights are:
- Preserving and protecting our Oceans;
- Stop global warming and the climate changes;
- Stop deforestation;
- Demand peace and disarmament;
- Stop genetic engineering;
- End the nuclear age;
- Support sustainable trade.

Despite not always being successful, Greenpeace has won its battles. The years passed, but the members of this organisation never gave up. They often risked their safety for our planet's future.

Rita

This fragile Earth deserves a voice. It needs solutions. It needs changes. It needs action.

People Are Only Animals With Fancy Shoes

The horizon has been defeated
By the pirates of the new age
Alien casinos
Well maybe it's just time to say
Things can go bad
And make you want to run away
But as we grow older
The trouble just seems to stay

Future complications
In the strings between the cans
But no prints can come from fingers
If machines become our hands
And then our feet become the wheels
And then the wheels become the cars
And then the rigs begin to drill
Until the drilling goes too far

Things can go bad
And make you want to run away
But as we grow older
The horizon begins to fade, fade, fade
Fade away

Thingamajigsaw puzzled
Anger don't you step too close
Because people are lonely and only
Animals with fancy shoes
Hallelujahs zig zag nothing
Misery it's on the loose
Because people are lonely and only
Animals with too many tools
That can build all the junk that we sell
Aw sometimes man makes you want to yell

"The Horizon Has Been Defeated", by Jack Johnson

All At Once

Two years ago me, Rita and some of our friends went to a Jack Johnson’s concert in Lisbon. It was really AWESOME. I can describe it like one of my best nights ever for sure.
Besides Jack being such a good person and a very cute man, he has also got a green mind and he uses the fame to help our world. On their 2008 tour, Johnson and his crew collaborated with local and national non-profits around the world in the realms of climate change, water quality, community and school gardens, land preservation, environmental education, and more.
He has also got a foundation: “All at Once” that helps local schools build gardening programs. This involves students in hands-on living laboratories to deepen their understanding of science and nutrition. Another important goal is to increase the production and consumption of local and healthy food by students and entire school communities.

Ok, the truth is that I love this man and his music. I must admit that I have all their CDs. And the most recent one was recorded with 100% solar energy.
What a pride of my idol!

“An individual action, multiplied by millions, creates global change"

Marta

A baby issue

On today’s English class we read a text about a young couple who didn’t want to have children, ever. They decided that the most environmental thing to do was never having a child, because babies are not “eco-friendly”: they couldn’t ride their bikes anymore, they would have to spend more money, to waste more time, to buy food that’s not organic for the baby and they wouldn’t do enough to preserve the planet. I have to admit that this sounded a bit strange to me. I mean… babies are like gifts! Tiny, cutie little people that can always make us smile, that fill our days with happiness. I know that overpopulation is a serious problem which contributes to the loss of natural resources, hunger, pollution, etc. But this doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t have children! They shouldn’t have many children. We have to keep a balance.
That couple is, for sure, very helpful to the environment. Yes, they are really green. And it’s their choice to have or not a baby. But, it my opinion, they're depriving themselves from the best thing in the world: family.

(oh my God, who doesn't like this?)

Rita

The Green Song

"How green you are not how much you give
How loved you are is how you live
So know your greens and think a bit
Because you don’t have to be green to be green"



To see the video click here

Marta

Another cold season...

This week the weather got worse. This always makes me feel a little bit down, because I just hate being cold. I start singing that part from Green Day's song ("Here comes the rain again, falling from the skies"), my hands get completely frozen, my hair is always a mess and, worse of all, I turn on the electric heating and I spend hours in front of it! But this winter I'm going to be GREEN. I won't turn on the heating like I did last year. I'm going to buy pullovers, so many fluffy coats, hairy slippers and I'm going to wrap myself in blankets. It will be raining outside, the weather will be freezing. But I will be warm in my house, smiling and saving energy.


Rita

Thinking Of Green

(Just to start...)

Nowadays, the number of people who really have “green-thoughts” is very low. We watch everyday people throwing trash onto the ground and not recycling, driving their cars over short distances, spending lots of money on unnecessary things, not saving the water and living their lives like there was no tomorrow. But there IS tomorrow, and it’s ours. We are the ones who’re going to take care of the world… And what a beautiful world that comes into our hands: a world with garbage everywhere, endangered species, polluted seas and full of gases that contribute to global warming. How are we supposed to live on this planet?
Our generation is well informed and has a great contact with environmental concerns. But are we really acting and protecting the planet? The truth is that there isn’t much we can do. But we can do something, and that something is fundamental. If every single person recycled, saved water and energy, used the public transports and other small environmental concerns, the difference would be relevant.
In my opinion, it’s all about getting together and acting. The world needs us and we need the world more than ever.

Rita