China is one of many countries worldwide affected by worsening desertification. Formerly a apos;silent crisisapos; localized in regions home to 75 per cent of the worldapos;s poor, the spread of deserts is caused largely by bad land use practice. But, according to one senior UN environmental official, it has recently been pegged as a global problem because of its connection to climate change.

Speaking ahead of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) conference held 3 to 14 November in Istanbul, where experts met to thrash out details of a ten-year strategy to address the issue, UNCCD Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja said quot;The nexus between land degradation and climate change is clearquot;.

quot;If we want to tackle climate change challenges, we must look to the untapped potential of the soil to sequester carbon,quot; added Gnacadja. For now, signs suggest that lands are losing that potential: a UN report released in July found that between 1981 and 2003 an additional 24 per cent of the worldapos;s land became degraded and less productive, while just 16 per cent of land became more fertile.

To stop its spreading sands, which cover 18 per cent of the country, the Chinese government recently set aside a fifth of its grasslands for restoration, and herding communities have been relocated en masse. The harsh measures may succeed in recovering land and carbon stores mdash; if they are not overwhelmed by droughts yet to come.

http://www.nature.com/climate/2008/0812/full/climate.2008.126.html

Prix Pictet - The Worldapos;s Premier Photographic Award in Sustainability
http://www.prixpictet.com/artists/view/193

Whatapos;s interesting about this particular warning is that comes from an agency that, in the past, has been accused of paying only lip service to renewables as part of its broader energy mandate, which has traditionally been dominated by fossil fuels.

Indeed, the organization was founded during the early 1970s directly in response to the 1973 Arab oil embargo.

Here in Canada, Tanakapos;s quot;do morequot; message likely fell on deaf ears. The federal Conservative government is more focused on ways to clean up the image of the western oil sands so that development there can continue unabated. Provinces such as Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia have taken leadership, but at a federal level thereapos;s no green vision for Canada mdash; just a laundry list of half-measures aimed at creating a perception of action.

Given the Conservative lead in the polls, Canadians must be buying it. The only other explanation is that four in 10 voters donapos;t care about the environment, climate change or how we leave the world for future generations. Not enough, anyway, to sway them toward the Liberals, NDP or Green Party.

It gets worse.

The collapse of Wall Street has severely tightened lending markets. Thereapos;s a global credit crunch, and those looking to spend big bucks on wind, hydroelectric, solar and biomass projects will find it much more difficult mdash; and expensive mdash; to obtain debt financing.

The bottom line: the knee-jerk reaction to the financial crisis will lead to less, or slower action on the climate crisis.

quot;These are capital-intensive projects,quot; says Tom Rand, director of Toronto-based VCi Green Funds Inc., a private-equity fund that invests in technologies that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. quot;And we need renewable-energy production to step up tomorrow.quot;

Rand has spent the past year promoting the creation of a government quot;green bondquot; that, during the current credit crunch, makes more sense than ever.

The idea is that Canadians could purchase tax-free green bonds in the same way they can purchase Canada Savings Bonds, earning about 4 per cent a year. But the money, potentially billions of dollars, raised from the bond issue would be devoted to infrastructure projects that promote deployment of renewable energy.

quot;Renewables have to get built, thatapos;s a priority, and our plan steps in to provide that liquidity, that cheap debt capital,quot; explains Rand, adding that the bond money could also be used to backstop low-interest bank loans so homeowners have an affordable way to pay for energy retrofits.

quot;Canadians get a safe investment vehicle, and companies get guaranteed access to low-cost capital over a long period of time. They donapos;t have to worry about that credit crunch biting them in the ass. Itapos;s the best of both worlds.quot;

Jobs get created. Clean energy capacity gets built. And Canadians who purchased the bonds get a safe return on their investment and a chance to boost mdash; for themselves, and for their children mdash; development of a green economy.

Europe introduced green bonds last year and within three months about $1.5 billion was raised.

Why wait? Ontario should be looking into the green bond approach today. If Energy and Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman is serious about increasing the provinceapos;s targets for renewables, then reaching those targets in an environment of tight credit will require some creative financing.

A green bond could fit that bill.

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/512199


Related Article:

The Value of Green Bonds
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=886440

Buy a Bond, Save the Planet
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/07/16/f-savory-tomrand.html
nbsp;

The Drake Landing Solar Community collects solar energy in a heat storage fluid through an array of solar panels on the roof of each home and covering all of the garages at the back of each home. The heated fluid is transferred to a neighborhood energy center, and then into the ground beneath an insulated layer, where the heat is stored in the earth.

Combined together, the 52 home community is able to collect and store enough energy from the sun during the summer that the ground storage temperatures reach 80 degrees C (176 F). This heat is sufficiently insulated beneath the ground that it can be drawn from throughout the winter to provide heat and hot water.

The homes in the community are moderately sized, ranging from 1,492 to 1,664 square feet, and are insulated to a level 30% higher than the average home in Canada in order to keep the energy needs low enough to work with the system. The homes are also closely located to one another. This provides a more walkable neighborhood, as well as reducing the lengths that the fluid for the solar heating system needs to travel.

Entire Neighborhood Has Shared Solar Heating

The system works in part due to the scale of the project utilizing the combined capacity of the entire community. A similar system scaled down to a single family home version would not work as efficiently simply because too much heat would be lost. But the scale of a system for 52 households makes this a feasible project.

While the technology is similar to a ground source heat pump, which relies on a relatively stable, constant temperature of the ground, the Drake Landing Community is actually storing heat throughout the summer and then relying on that banked heat during the winter.

Solar heating is a more exciting prospect than solar generation of electricity because heating is a much larger percentage of a homersquo;s total energy use (60% for space heating, 20% for water heating, and 20% for appliances, lights, and other electrical loads).

The Drake Landing Solar Community
http://www.dlsc.ca/index.htm
http://downtownwest.ourpower.ca/Portal.aspx?portalid=16#53


Related Articles:

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration approved treating spinach and lettuce with ionizing radiation that can kill potentially deadly bacteria like E.coli and salmonella. It had previously been approved for beef.

The process ofnbsp;foodnbsp;irradiationnbsp;is intended to kill bacteria by altering DNA.nbsp;However, nuke food doesnapos;t only kill bacteria. Studies have shown that it depletes vitamins, A, E and K — and can deposit carcinogens in their place. Thatapos;s led many to have a beef with the technology.
nbsp;
Dietitian Karen Graham wrote a book on irradiation and says it wonapos;t benefit Canadian shoppers. Sheapos;s concerned the food-processing industry will irradiate at the expense of safe-food handling measures.

"I think the bigger concern is what happens when we feed large amounts of irradiated food to large populations over extended periods of time. We really donapos;t know what those effects are."

-----

The Indian study lasted three weeks. The National Institute of Nutrition initiated studies in 1973, using a variety of experimental animals — mice, rats and monkeys — and also some undernourished children. They were fed diets which contained freshly irradiated wheat, the wheat being incorporated into the diet within 21 days of being subjected to irradiation. The instituteapos;s findings:

1. Rats and mice fed diets containing freshly irradiated wheat showed increased levels of polyploid cells [cells with chromosome abnormalities] in their bone marrow. This was repeatedly observed in several separate experiments.
2. Normal monkeys and undernourished children fed diets containing freshly irradiated wheat showed elevated levels of polyploid [abnormal] cells in circulating lymphocytes [white blood cells]. Several months after the irradiated wheat was withdrawn, levels of polyploidy returned to normal.
3. Mice fed freshly irradiated wheat-based diets showed evidence of dominant lethal mutation as indicated by increased numbers of intrauterine [prenatal] deaths.
4. When wheat was stored for 12 weeks after irradiation, and then included in the diet, there was neither an increase in the number of polyploid cells nor was there evidence of dominant lethal mutation. (Bhaskaram, C. and Sadasivan, G. 1975. Effects of feeding irradiated wheat to malnourished children. America Journal of Clinical Nutrition 28:130.)

----

In 1987, The Standing Committee on Consumer and Corporate Affairs on the Question of Food Irradiation and the Labelling of Irradiated Foods (Mary Collins, M.P., Chairperson ), recommended, among other things, that:

"..Irradiation of food by any form of ionizing energy { should ] continue to be regulated as a food additive, and be restricted to those foods and doses presently approved by the existing regulations until an in-depth scientific assessment of health implications and further toxicological studies indicate that no significant adverse health effects would be expected to be found by the ingestion of irradiated foods. it is recommended that the irradiation of wheat no longer be permitted until the specific safety questions addressed in other recommendations in this report are resolved."

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/food/irradiation/studies.html


Related Articles:

You Are What You Eat: Label Irradiated Food
http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/1124710,CST-EDT-edit25a.article

Consumer Backlash Over Irradiated Food
http://www.foodqualitynews.com/Food-Alerts/Consumer-backlash-over-irradiated-food

More and more people are looking for natural ways of cleaning as their concerns grow over chemicals in cleaners that can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches and dizziness.

Many common household cleaners contain alcohol, ammonia, bleach, formaldehyde and lye, substances that can cause nausea, vomiting, inflammation and burning of the eyes and throat.

Environmentalists have linked these ingredients with neurological, liver and kidney damage, asthma and cancer.

There are hundreds of homegrown recipes for green cleaning, here are some of the basic ingredients and combinations you can try:

Five Basic Ingredients:

Any of these ingredients can be safely mixed together. Experiment and find out what works best for you. Store mixtures in spray bottles and label them.

1. White Vinegar: Mix with water and you can clean windows, any glass, countertops and tile.
2. Baking Soda: Mixed with water this becomes an all purpose cleaner. Scour sinks, tubs and even sprinkle over carpets as a deodorizer.
3. Salt: great as an abrasive for cleaning pots and pans.
4. Lemon Juice: use as bleach in laundry and on kitchen surfaces. Combine with vinegar and water and you have a nice de-clogger.
5. Olive oil: Mix with vinegar and use as furniture polish.

Cook up some green cleaners:

Drain cleaner: Pour 125 ml of baking soda down the sink and add at least a cup of vinegar. Put the cover on the drain and wait a few minutes. Finish by rinsing through with a mixture of boiling water and salt.

Oven cleaner: Make a paste of baking soda and water. First, scratch off burnt spots with a scouring brush and then apply the paste and scrub.

Kitchen cleanser : Use baking soda on non-scratch surfaces and vinegar and water mixture on all others.

Window cleaner: Put 75 ml of vinegar for every litre of water in a spray bottle.

Glass cleaner: Blend 75 ml of vinegar, a spoonful of cornstarch and a litre of warm water. Apply with a sponge and wipe dry. No streaks!

Toilet bowl cleaner: Sprinkle baking soda around the inside of the toilet bowl and clean with toilet brush. Also drop some white vinegar into the bowl and let sit a few minutes before cleaning with the brush.

Tub and tile cleaner: Mix 400 ml baking soda, 125 ml liquid soap, 125 ml water and a few spoonfuls of vinegar. Apply, scrub and wipe.

Mildew remover: Vinegar and salt.

Silver polish: Put a sheet of aluminum foil into a plastic or glass bowl. Sprinkle the foil with salt and baking soda and fill bowl with warm water. Soak your silver in the bowl and tarnish migrates to the foil. Dry and buff.

Crystal: Try a mixture of vinegar, water and a small amount of baking soda. Pour on a soft cloth and rub.

Brass cleaner: Cut a lemon in half, sprinkle it with salt and rub the lemon on the metal. Buff with a cloth.

Copper cleaning: Make a paste with equal parts white vinegar, flour and salt, leave on for an hour and then buff with a cloth.

Rust removal: Vinegar can help remove rust on nuts and bolts and other mineral deposits such as calcium deposits

Toothpaste: Diminishes glass scratches, lifts crayon marks off the floor.nbsp;


To learn more, please visit:
http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/tips/cleaners.html
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/120/diy
http://www.handyman.net.au/content/cleaning-without-chemicals-/

----------------------------------------------------------
Non-toxic, Solvent-free Linseed Oil Paint
----------------------------------------------------------

Made by the small Swedish company Allback, the paint is made from an age-old traditional recipe thatapos;s as simple as it is intriguing.nbsp; The paint is very pleasant to use. There are no solvents and this stuff doesnapos;t even make your hands sticky. nbsp;There are only three ingredients: organic, cold-pressed boiled linseed oil, a simple drier and natural pigments – a fact thatapos;s got to make you wonder.nbsp; If all it takes to produce great paint are these three items, why is almost every other paint company on the planet formulating and reformulating complicated, secret recipes, while scrambling to meet ever tightening restrictions on solvent use?

http://www.thestar.com/article/482596

The home, conceived by Michelle Kaufmann Designs and built by All American Homes, forms the exhibit Smart Home: Green + Wired, Powered by ComEd and Warmed by Peoples Gas, which is open through January 4, 2009.

Celebrating exciting new directions in sustainable living and spectacular, environmentally-friendly technology, Smart Home offers guests guided tours of the 2,500 square-foot home and grounds, located in a park on the east side of the Museum. Bring your family to discover the latest innovations in reusable resources; smart energy consumption; sustainable gardens and green roofs; and clean, healthy-living environments in a contemporary setting.

The ninth annual Smog Summit will take place on June 4th, national Clean Air Day. At the 2008 Smog Summit Federal, Provincial and Municipal government leaders will have the opportunity to announce new initiatives they will undertake in the coming year to reduce smog, air pollution and greenhouse gases.

The Toronto and Region 2008 Inter-governmental Declaration on Clean Air will also be highlighted at the 2008 Smog Summit and will present the joint actions of the Greater Toronto Area Clean Air Council for the upcoming year.nbsp;

A Green Development Best Practices Exchange will follow the 2008 Smog Summit. The Clean Air Partnership will bring together experts, governments, municipalities, and developers to highlight green development standards, incentives and practices from the GTA and beyond. The Best Practices Exchange will review where we are now on green development opportunities and practices and where we are likely to go in the future.nbsp;

To register, please visit:
http://www.cleanairpartnership.org/smogsummit/

For more information on Canadian Environment Week, please visit:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?Lang=Enamp;n=D58BD83C-1

------------------------------------------
Planet in Focus Mixed Greens
Theme: Nuclear (June amp; July)
Location: Gardiner Museum
Time: 6:45pm
-----------------------------------------
Battle of Chernobyl (Jun 27)

On April 6, 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the city of Pripyat, Ukraine exploded, melting down to emit more radiation than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, top secret documents have finally surfaced on the systematic cover-up by the Soviet government; they admit the true severity of the Chernobyl disaster. Archived footage and personal interviews by former government officials reveal how the disaster was concealed from the world, and how thousands of men were sacrificed in order to prevent the possibility of a secondary radioactive explosion that would have poisoned Europe, rendering it uninhabitable.
nbsp;
http://www.planetinfocus.org/mixedgreens/27jun08

Broken Arrow (Jul 31)

In 1966 two American airplanes collided over Palomares, Spain and as a consequence, four H-bombs fell to earth. Two of them explode their conventional charge and due to the strong wind radioactive material is scattered over the region. An intensive search is stared to find the fourth bomb. At the same time, decontamination process of the zone is starting and the residual contamination of persons and environment begins to be checked and also the Proyector Indalo, still running 41 years later.

http://www.planetinfocus.org/mixedgreens/31jul08


----------------------------------------------
NFB Green Screen (June to July)
----------------------------------------------
**The World According to Monsanto (June 1/June 4/June 16/June 18/June 19)

Directed by Marie Monique Robinnbsp;
Monsanto is the world leader in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as one of the most controversial corporations in industrial history. This century-old empire has created some of the most toxic products ever sold, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the herbicide Agent Orange. Based on a painstaking investigation, The World According to Monsanto puts together the pieces of the company’s history, calling on hitherto unpublished documents and numerous first-hand accounts.nbsp;

http://www.nfb.ca/mediatheque/dethoraire.php?actif=0amp;idT=amp;idSM=1amp;id=1059

**Up the Yangtze (July 24/July 26/July 29)

Directed by Kevin Longdale
The Three Gorges Dam - contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle - provides the epic backdrop for Up the Yangtze, a dramatic feature documentary on life inside the 21st century Chinese dream. Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang crafts a moving depiction of peasant life, a powerful narrative of contemporary China, and a disquieting glimpse into a future that awaits us all.

Selected as one of Canada’s Top 10 Films ofnbsp; 2007

“Outstanding…gorgeously shot and as gripping as an epic novel”
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

Preceded by the NFB short film Engine 371

http://www.nfb.ca/mediatheque/dethoraire.php?actif=0amp;idT=amp;idSM=1amp;id=1105

Canadaapos;s nuclear safety watchdog warned last month that it was concerned about an "erosion of safety margins" at the Pickering B nuclear station near Toronto.

A letter from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission surfaced Tuesday on the eve of a hearing in which Ontario Power Generation will make the case for renewing the stationapos;s operating licence until 2014.

The commissionapos;s assessment of the station was sent to Patrick McNeil, a senior executive at the provincially owned Crown corporation, on April 7.

"CNSC staff remain concerned with the trend in erosion of safety margins ... and expect that OPG will address the identified outstanding issues, and, in particular, will develop and implement engineered solutions to re-establish robust safety margins," says the letter.

Greenpeace obtained a copy of the document and cited it as proof the nuclear station poses an unnecessary risk to the Greater Toronto Area.

"Nuclear technology is an unforgiving technology," said Shawn Patrick Stensil, a Greenpeace researcher on energy issues.

"When your safety margins are declining, youapos;re increasing your risk of accidents, and accidents from nuclear stations can cause irreversible harm."

Safety margins set the boundaries of acceptable risks at a nuclear facility. That risk level determines what safety systems must be in place in case of accidents.

The Pickering nuclear facility is located roughly 40 kilometres northeast of downtown Toronto. Statistics Canadaapos;s 2006 census data shows about five million people live in the Toronto census metropolitan area.

Full Article:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/05/14/pickering-nuclear.html



Related Articles:

The 30km Zone:nbsp;Disaster scenario of nuclear meltdown in Toronto
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2008/12/c7341.html

30Km - Are You in the 30km Zone?
http://30km.ca

Uranium Producer Warns of Lake Ontario Pollution
http://www.porthopehealthconcerns.com/

Plan to Opposenbsp;Creating an Underground Nuclear Dump in Lake Huron
http://www.michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1290

The Chinese government is banning production and distribution of the thinnest plastic bags in a bid to curb the white pollution that is taking over the countryside. The bags are also banned from all forms of public transportation and "scenic locations." The move may save as much as 37 million barrels of oil currently used to produce the plastic totes, according to China Trade News. Already, the nationapos;s largest producer of such thin plastic bags, Huaqiang, has shut down its operations.

The effort comes amid growing environmental awareness among the Chinese people and mimics similar efforts in countries like Bangladesh and Ireland as well as the city of San Francisco, though efforts to replicate that ban in other U.S. municipalities have foundered in the face of opposition from plastic manufacturers.

More than one million reusable cloth bags have already been sold on various Chinese merchandising Web sites, according to Taobao.com, and local environmental groups, such as Shanghai Roots amp; Shoots, are promoting and giving away cloth bags in schools.

"Too many plastic bags is a great waste of natural resources," retired Communist Party cadre Liu Zhidong says through a translator. "When burnt, they produce poisoning smoke, and if buried underneath the ground they need more than 300 years to be degraded."

But it remains to be seen how strong enforcement will be. Specific penalties have not been set but will include fines. Other environmental efforts—such as a similar ban on disposable wooden chopsticks (a waster of trees) and so-called "green GDP," or gross domestic product, an effort to account for environmental costs when calculating overall economic development— fell by the wayside because they proved too difficult to implement and created significant opposition at the local level. It also remains to be seen whether some of the possible replacements—thicker or biodegradable plastic bags—will be any better.

"This is a very good measure to protect the environment. However, whether it can last long is still very doubting," chemistry graduate student Oliver says. "And another problem is [that] the so-called biodegradable plastic bags, it seems, cannot be totally degraded. Whether or not they are really good for environment protection in the long run remains unknown."

Yet, the ban enjoys enthusiastic support from many residents here, particularly students, who may not even recall the more traditional practice of cloth bags or baskets. "I will just carry the things by my hands," one young man told me on the campus of Shanghai International Studies University. "I will never use the plastic bags supplied in supermarkets and Iapos;ll ask my friends not to use them, too."

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=china-sacks-plastic-bags



Related Articles:

Modbury, Devon UK: The 1st European Town to go Plastic bag Free

http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2007/05/01/modbury_plastic_bags_feature.shtml

"Plastic Soup" of the World:nbsp;A Garbage Tip that Stretches from Hawaii to Japan
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html

BERLIN — Some of the worldapos;s biggest aviation companies are turning to alternative fuels — made from sources as diverse as hydrogen cells or algae — as soaring oil prices drive the search to build and fly more fuel-efficient planes.

Boeing and its European rival Airbus showed off their latest alternative-fuel projects Tuesday at the Berlin Air Show, held against the backdrop of oil prices that hit $135 a barrel last week.

Boeing displayed a one-seater demonstration airplane that can fly on batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. While the plane is still in the early stages, the company said that test flights have shown "a manned airplane can maintain a straight-level flight with fuel cells as the only power source."

Boeing said the technology could potentially power small manned and unmanned aircraft. But it said it "does not envision fuel cells will provide primary power for large passenger airplanes," although it will continue investigating their potential.

Airbus brought along a demonstrator version of its A320 passenger jet that uses fuel cells to power some of the aircraftapos;s steering systems. The company said it sees great potential in fuel-cell applications.

Dutch airline KLM, meanwhile, said at the show that it had signed a contract with AlgaeLink for fuel made from algae for a pilot project whose first test flight is scheduled for this fall.

AlgaeLink plans to set up a pair of plants this year — in the Netherlands and Spain — and said its algae-based kerosene will be mixed with conventional fuel. But KLMapos;s goal is to fuel its entire fleet with kerosene from algae and other plant-based oils.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004442245_berlinairshow28.html