Visions of Green and Blue

Fish 2 Fork

If you live in the US or the UK eating sustainably caught seafood in restaurants just for a lot easier. Charles Clover the author of The End of the Line has created a new rating system based on the effects the restauarants are having on the ocean: " The fish2fork rating system is designed to inform customers whether a restaurant is doing all it can to serve sustainable seafood and reduce its impact on our oceans at a time when overfishing is perhaps the greatest threat to marine life on 70 per cent of the planet’s surface."

Restaurants are rated based on the amount of information they provide to the customers regarding seafood, as well as wether any of the fish they serve is on the IUCN Red List.

The most sustainable restaurants are awarded with 5 Blue Fish, while the worst restaurants are given 5 Red Fish. The website also allows readers to write reviews and share their experiences.
Fish2Fork also provides up to date information regarding the lastest headlines concerning fisheries and the ocean.

I hope that Fish2Fork starts rating restaurants in Canada, especially in Vancouver where there are so many seafood restaurants that offer so little information.

When it comes to books: Borrow don't Buy...

Labels: paper, recycling

When I was a child my mother managed a bookstore, needless to say our house was (and continues to be) full of books. As I grew up I felt the need to build my own personal library with books that I love; however, now when I look at the piles of books that I have purchased over the years I can't help but feel guilty. All of my books (which cost a fortune to move everytime I relocate myself) now represent the millions of trees that are cut down to make books, magazines, and newspapers.

Most books are made from virgin (non-recycled) paper and most magazines are made from coated virgin magazine paper. When you think about the numbers things begin to seem a little bit clearer:
- 1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees
- 1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees
- 1 ton of coated, higher-end virgin magazine paper (used for magazines like National Geographic and many others) uses a little more than 15 trees (15.36)
- 1 tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper or 8,333.3 sheets. (info from conserveatree)

With these numbers I began thinking about the school that I currently work at and how on average we go through about 2 reams of paper per day. Two reams of paper per day means 10 reams of paper per week, which means 520 reams of paper per year. 520 reams of paper is roughly 31 trees per year! 31 trees and that is only for copy paper, the number would continue to climb if I added in tissue, paper towel, toilet paper, and all of the arts and craft supplies. 31 trees, and this only a small school of around 70 children, I can only imagine what a large school would go through!

So with all of this in mind I have decided to limit my purchases of new books and try to borrow as many as possible from friends and my local library (which is a little difficuly as I live in Korea and the English section is quite small). If I cannot borrow a specific book that I am looking for I then make my way to a used bookstore, where I don't feel quite as guilty making a purchase. And I have been thinking more and more about buying an e-reader something like the 'nook' which can store up to 1,500 books. There are also options that you can look at to help reduce your impact on the earth when it comes to purchasing books. Companies like Eco-Libris are trying to balance out books by planting trees and supporting green books. All you have to do is visit the website buy some stickers to put on your books and for each sticker you purchase they will plant a tree.

All in all I just thought that I should share my new mantra when it comes to books: Borrow don't Buy.

Korean Investment in Ontario's Green Energy.

I read a really interesting article today on 'Futurism Now' . It's particularly interesting to me because it involves a Green Energy deal between the country that I have been living in for the past year and a half and the Canadian province that I grew up in.

Taken from 'Futurism Now':

25 January 2010 – The Ontario government has just signed an agreement that will (reportedly) bring more green energy and new jobs to Ontario, Canada.

A consortium led by Samsung C&T Corporation and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) will invest CAD$7 billion (£4.12 Billion) to generate 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar power. These projects will triple Ontario’s output from renewable wind and solar sources and provide clean electricity to more than 580,000 households. The investment will also lead to more than 16,000 new green energy jobs to build, install and operate the renewable generation projects.

QUICK FACTS

More than 1,200 megawatts of new renewable projects, representing CAD$2.8 billion (£1.65 billion) of investment, have started up in Ontario since 2003.
$7-Billion (£4.12 Billion) Investment Means Green Energy and 16,000 New Jobs For Ontario, Canada
Ontario is Canada’s leading province in wind and solar power.
The Green Energy Act will create 50,000 new jobs in the green energy sector.
CO2 emissions from coal-fired power generation are 73 per cent lower than 2003 levels, with four more units coming offline in fall, 2010.

Why aren’t more deals like this being made in the U.S.?

The Korean consortium will also work with major partners to attract four manufacturing plants. This will lead to the creation of 1,440 manufacturing and related jobs building wind and solar technology for use in Ontario and export across North America.

The consortium fully intends to use Ontario-made steel in its renewable energy projects, such as constructing its wind turbine towers.

This is the single-largest investment in renewable energy in provincial history. The consortium chose Ontario because the province’s Green Energy Act guarantees stable rates for renewable energy.

“Thanks to today’s announcement, we will be delivering more green energy for Ontarians to use — and more green energy products for North America to buy. With this step, Ontario is becoming the place to be for green energy manufacturing in North America,” said Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario.

“We commend Ontario for creating a welcoming climate for green energy investment. Samsung takes pride in its global efforts to support a more sustainable future and looks forward to working with Ontario residents and businesses to create clean, green power,” said Sung-Ha Chi, President and CEO, Samsung C&T Corporation.

“This is an exciting opportunity to help create new manufacturing facilities and be on the cutting edge of an emerging renewable energy supply sector in Ontario,” said Chan-Ki Jung, Executive Vice-President, Korea Electric Power Corporation.

Recycling~ war into love

Labels: recycling

Lovetta Conto is a sixteen year old who fled her home country of Liberia to Ghana to escape civil war. While growing up in a refugee camp Lovetta met Cori Stern, the founder of Strongheart Fellowship, which is a "social-entrepreneurship program designed to help bright, resilient young people from extremely challenging circumstances around the globe develop into compassionate, innovative problem-solvers and leaders that can affect significant social change".

Photo: strongheartfellowship

With the help of Strongheart Lovetta was able to follow her dream of escaping the refugee camp and become a jewelry designer for Akawelle. Using shell casings from the thousands of bullets that were fired in Liberia, Lovetta creates necklaces. She melts the bullet shells down and pours them into a mold shaped like a leaf pendant with the word 'life' inscribe on it to remind that 'that new life can begin after hardship'. The bottom of the bullet shell is also used as a pendent and is left in its original state 'to remember what is was like before'.

Photo: strongheartfellowship

100% of the profits go to the Strongheart House which is located in Liberia and is 'a home and center of healing, learning, and excellence for gifted and talented young people from the developing world either displaced or orphaned by war or other circumstance'. It will open in 2010.

Photo: Carolyn Cole, LA Times, 2003

Happy New Year!

Hi!

Just wanted to write a quick note and apologize for being so slack with my postings! Things were a little hectic over the past few weeks with finishing up and sending in a grad application (!), getting ready for Christmas, and packing up for a week on the beach in Boracay...

Now I am back to my sort of reality in snowy Seoul and I have so many things that I need to get blogging about!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Years!!!

~kait

Have a Green Holiday!

Labels: paper, recycling

It's that time of year again... Excessive shopping and excessive waste, these are two Christmas traditions that I could never understand. Using rolls upon rolls of wrapping paper, plastic bows and tissue paper which end up in the recycling minutes after they are torn from their packages. There has to be a better system than this. This year try something different... use recycled newspaper or decorate recycled paper to wrap your gifts. There are so many different ways to wrap presents in a green way, click here for some more ideas!

This year instead of using gas to drive to the mall and fight your way through the masses of Christmas shoppers try looking for green gifts online. On my quest for presents for my family I stumbled upon the Grass Roots website. They have some wonderful ideas and the best part is, is that you don't have to feel guilty about the packaging or emissions emitted from shipping. The company has made the effort to offset carbon for all of their deliveries and use reused packing materials from its suppliers or recycled materials.
They offer a wide range of products, from vegan lip balm to biodegradable golf tees. You are bound to find something for someone on your list, or if you are like me you might end up making a new list of stuff you want!

Grassroots website: www.grassrootsstore.com

Ocean Acidification - The effects of global warming.

Labels: climate change, ocean

'Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification' is an interesting video from the Natural Resource Defense Council. The documentary was made to help raise awareness about ocean acidification and its effects on all living organisms within the ocean and the dangers that it poses for the future.
The video serves as a good starting off point for anyone who is interested in the effects that the increasing amount of carbon dioxide has on our oceans.