Saturday, July 25, 2009

News From Friends Abroad

Green Drinks NYC founder visiting Iceland

by Paul McGinniss


Photo of Margaret Lydecker in Iceland
Photographer Guðrún Tryggvadóttir

Green Drinks NYC founder Margaret Lydecker visited Iceland a few days this week giving Iceland's Nature.is founders an opportunity to meet her. Nature.is manager Guðrún Arndís Tryggvadóttir said: "In short it was like meeting a good old friend which proves once again how common goals can unite people across the globe. "

Nature.is describes itself as "an eco-conscious network of information, news channel, agency and sales representative for items and services that are all related to nature or the environment in some way."

Last winter, the first Green Drinks gathering took place in Iceland, organized by Charlotte Ólöf Jónsdóttir Ferrier and GAIA (The student association for the students of Environmental and Natural Resource at he University of Iceland)

There are currently over 500 Green Drinks Chapters around the world. Margaret is on her way to Europe where she will meet with other Green Drinks chapters. We'll keep you posted on her trip.

Read More Here....

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Is It The End of the Line for Our Love Affair With Sushi?

by Paul McGinniss



Fishavores beware. Your love obsession with sushi and seafood might very well be causing the fish you love to eat to go extinct.

The huge increase in demand and prices for seafood and sushi in particular is paralleled by growth of large scale industrial fishing operations that are literally driving entire species or marine life to extinction.

The powerful new film "The End of the Line" is based on the book of the same name by Charles Clover. It's a kind of "Omnivore's Dilemma" (Michale Pollan's book) for the sea - showing us that, like the damage to the earth caused by large scale industrial farming, industrial fishing has not been a friend of the ocean.

"The End of the Line" and the recent film "Food Inc" point out that how we harvest food from land and sea are both connected. And, how we have come to expect to feed ourselves from the sea, like on land, is essentially unsustainable.




Scientists predict that if current ruthlessly efficient, unsustainable fishing practices continue, we will see the end of most fish life in the ocean by 2048. This should be no surprise considering that in the 19th century whales almost became extinct do to over fishing in the mad rush for whale oil -- America's first oil industry.

Copyright Paul McGinniss 2009

Check out the film trailer below.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Scotland's Energy Challenge to the World

Scotland's $10 million pound Saltire Prize competition is the largest renewable energy competition in the world.

by Paul McGinniss





Picture Above: Claire Smith, Head of Saltire Prize External Communications, at the United Nations, New York City {Photo Paul McGinniss)

With enormous wave and tidal energy potential, Scotland has plans to tap into this renewable energy and is challenging the world to come up with the best way to do it.

The Scottish Government's Saltire Prize will award ten million pounds to the team that can demonstrate in Scottish waters a commercially viable wave or tidal energy technology that achieves a minimum electrical output of 100 GWh over a continuous 2 year period using only the power of the sea. The winner will be judged as the best overall technology after consideration of costs, environmental sustainability and safety.

Scotland is leading the way in Europe to generate carbon free energy and has enough renewable energy potential that its goal is to become an exporter of clean energy. Scotland is already well on its way to achieving its own targets (for electricity generation from renewables) of 31% by 2011 and 50% by 2020.