Green Concerns

Power out of waves

2009-03-02T18:58:00.001Z

Portugal is the first country to produce power out of waves

http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/features/durham-portugal081020.wmv

Green Conferencing

2009-02-19T19:26:00.002Z

Rather than travel to a meeting, why not participate electronically, or audio or video? Lots of such products are being developed, and next week we will be running our ECOOP PC meeting with the support of http://www.greenconferencing.com/GreenMission.html.

2009-01-11T16:24:00.002Z

Christmas trees replanted

Beginning of January the streets are full of the sad sight of discarded Christmas trees, which took a couple of years to grow, only to end up decorating a house for two weeks, and then to be thrown out.

As an oprimistic contrast, I just found out that it is possible for those who HAVE to have a tree, that they can rent a tree and have it re-planted:

http://www.recyclenow.com/news/couple_launch.html

Grateful to the firefighters

2008-09-01T10:07:00.002+01:00

This summer, again, there were many fires in Greece.

But the firefighters (both Greek and from other countries) extinguished most of them early enough for the damage not to become a catastrophe. Eternally grateful for their hard and dangerous work.

Greek forest fires in 2007

2008-05-26T10:39:00.004+01:00

In 2007, about 10% of the Greek Woods were burnt, and 87 people died. The three beautiful woods around Athens were destroyed. Even though arson and negligence were involved, the role of environmental factors is undisputed.

The satelite images say it all.

Efficient characters

2008-05-05T18:41:00.006+01:00

I am comparing the two books on the right: the red Penguin book was printed in 1946 in the US, while the white Hutchinson book was printed in 2006 in the UK. What interests me is not their contents, but their relative efficiency.

The former looks so much smaller than the latter: fewer resources required to produce it, to transport it, to store it. Is that so?

I estimated that the former contains around 361760 characters, while the latter contains around 661850 characters. The former weighs 100 gr., while the latter weighs 548 gr. Therefore, the red book is three times more character efficient in terms of weight.

The red book's dimensions are 11 cm x 18 cm x 0,8 cm, while the white book's are 15 cm x 25 cm x 3 cm. Therefore, the red book is 4 times more character efficient in terms of volume.

I think it is time publishers started producing again books like the red one.

Reappraising who we are and what progress means

2008-05-05T12:00:00.005+01:00

The real issues ... are not technical or economic. The crisis we face demands a profound philosophical discussion, a reappraisal of who we are and what progress means.

The above is a quote taken from an article written by Monbiot. I think it encapsulates exactly the big challenge we are currently facing. We cannot hope to solve our problems through technology. We cannot hope to have our cake and eat it: no matter what clever tricks we come up with, trips destroy our environment, manufacturing destroys our environment, exotic foods destroy our environment, temperature control destroys our environment.

We can only hope to survive, if we can find less pleasure in consumption.

By no means am I anywhere near having reached that stage; on the contrary, through my work and my personal circumstances, I travel a lot. One more reason why I am desperately hoping for an urgent reappraisal.

Pelicans in Kerkini (Greek lake)

2008-05-04T19:52:00.002+01:00

Shop doors - prospective London mayors agree, but powerless

2008-05-04T18:41:00.001+01:00

I wrote my concern about the unnecessary damage of open shop doors to the three main candidates for London Mayor. Brian Paddick answered first (by email) saying that he agreed, but such legislation was not in the Mayor's power. Then answered Ken Livingstone's office, saying also that such legislation was not in the Mayor's power. Finally, I received a letter from Boris Johnson's office, with a vague agreement that London should become greener.

We now have a new London Mayor; let us see.

Daffodils in Virginia Waters

2008-03-25T22:01:00.001Z

This Sunday we went for a walk to Virginia Waters, a Royal Park very near Heathrow.

It was full of daffodils, and it was very, very pretty.

unnecessary gas torches at restaurants

2008-03-25T21:41:00.001Z

Several restaurants in London have their entrances "decorated" with gas torches which burn all night, even though the street is well-lit, and the decorative effect is questionable.

Unfortunately, the ensuing energy consumption and the unnecessary warming up to the air is unquestionable.

My husband and I have written letters to the restaurants, and to the council, but to no avail. I hope that many people would stop visiting these restaurants.

Dining al fresco -- is our pleasure worth the damage?

2008-03-20T18:08:00.001Z

Many restaurants give their customers the possibility to have a meal outdoors even while the weather is still cold. Outdoor heaters create a cosy warm bubble in which to sit pleasurably: less noisy than the cramped indoors; more variety in watching the people passing; so much more space around you; the beautiful natural light of the sun during the day, or even a sight of the moon at night.

But I cannot help but think of all the energy unnecessarily produced, all the energy unnecessarily released into the atmosphere, all the Arctic ice unnecessarily melting.

I keep hoping of a time when we, the customers, will just not take up such opportunities, and the restaurants will not offer them. I keep hoping of a time when we, the humans, will think that in order to enjoy the outdoors we need to adapt to it, rather than adapt it to ourselves.

Greek Matters -- πρυτανεία

2008-03-02T17:36:00.001Z

A reader's letter published in the Kathimerini.

Να φύγει η πρυτανεία από το ιστορικό κτίριο του πανεπιστημίου

Κύριε διευθυντά

Οταν έχεις το προνόμιο να εργάζεσαι μέσα σε ένα κτίριο ιστορικό και μεγάλης καλλιτεχνικής αξίας, έχεις και υποχρεώσεις.

Ο κ. πρύτανης του πανεπιστημίου και οι συνάδελφοί του είχαν την υποχρέωση να έχουν μελετήσει εγκαίρως και να έχουν προετοιμάσει την προστασία του κτιρίου, όπου έχουν την τιμή να στεγάζονται.

Τα κλάματα εκ των υστέρων για τις καταστροφές που άφησαν να γίνουν, γελοιοποιούν τους ίδιους και εξοργίζουν εμάς.

Αν είχε η πρυτανεία κότσια, θα είχε σταθεί σύσσωμη στην πόρτα και θα είχε πει στους κουκουλοφόρους: εδώ θα μπείτε αν θέλετε, αλλά χωρίς τα στυλιάρια, τις βενζίνες και τις κουκούλες σας!

Αλλοι θα περάσετε μόνον πάνω από τα πτώματά μας.

Φοβήθηκαν. Δικαίωμά τους. Εξάλλου και οι κουκουλοφόροι δειλοί είναι, για να φορούν κουκούλα.

Δεν τους ζητάμε να γίνουν ήρωες. Τους ζητάμε όμως να απαλλάξουν το ιστορικό κτίριο από την παρουσία τους. Να μαζέψουν τις καρέκλες τους και να μετακομίσουν.

Ετσι το κτίριο, ελευθερωμένο, θα κηρυχθεί μνημείο και θα διασώζεται περιμένοντας άλλες γενεές και άλλους καιρούς για να στεγάσει άτομα που θα ξέρουν πως να αίρονται στο ύψος των περιστάσεων.

Αθηνα Κακουρη / Αθήνα

Shut the Shop Doors against Global Warming

2008-03-02T13:52:00.001Z

Seeing shop doors kept wide open during shopping hours in the midsts of the coldest weather, and thinking of the utterly unnecessary heating up of the streets and the increase of our carbon footprint, saddens me.

What is the purpose of sending delegates to Bali to negotiate better environment protection agreements, if we are not prepared to push a door to get into a shop?

I have complained in several such shops. In most of them, the employees listened with polite unconcern, but in some the employees asked me to write to the management, as they themselves hated working in the breeze coming from the street - this I did, but to no avail.

But there was a little success: In one shop, one day after a discussion about whether open doors where necessary for wheelchair users' access, and whether shop assistants could do that themsleves, the shop started keeping its doors shut.