Hey London, where are the trans cans?

by Grant Martin on








On my way through St. Pancras international station in London this past weekend, I grabbed a smoothie at Marks and Spencer while I was waiting for my train. Tired and dehydrated from travel, I made pretty short business of the drink then proceeded to seek out a waste receptacle to drop my bottle in. Turns out though, there are none. I must have walked around in circles, in and out of the station for twenty minutes looking for a place to drop the bottle before I gave up, walked into a restaurant and dropped it off there. I was curious why a public place wouldn’t have any trash cans.

Apparently, this is for a reason. As I’m told, the British had issues with the Irish Republican Army putting bombs in the receptacles and the bins turning into shrapnel. So as a safety precaution, they were removed.

Preventative measures like this make me leery. On one hand I suppose it’s best to remove as many opportunities to place a bomb in a public place as possible, but is it really necessary to take out all the trash cans? Can’t the Brits just use thin, translucent bags like the French do?

How well can we prepare ourselves for another bombing? Will we next pad all of our buildings with foam, require everyone to wear helmets and walk in our socks? How far is too far?

At some point, we as Westerners are going to have to accept that there is some inherent risk in traveling. Be this a bee sting, malaria or a terrorist bombing we have to come to terms with the fact that going out into the world is not as safe as staying at home and in bed. Until we and our governments can accept that, we’re doomed to paranoia, inconvenience and countless tax dollars for overprotective measures.

From green Ireland to the Plastic States of America

by Iva Skoch on

Since I travel back and forth between the US and Europe very frequently, I no longer get a culture shock every time. There are some things that still get me though. One of them are plastic bags in grocery stores.

When I come back to the US, I get really annoyed because I literally get about 5 bags (paper or plastic) for about 10 items of groceries. The excess is staggering. It is a struggle to convince the baggers to NOT give me bags. It is “are you sure?” every time. Come on, is it really necessary to double bag that bottle of cheap beer?

According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags (that’s roughly the amount of oil the US consumes in a day). Plastic bags cause over 100,000 whale, turtle and other animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food.

A lot of European countries are now talking about forcing grocery stores to charge customers for their bags. I mean openly charge them. Of course, the customer pays for them either way, but when bags are “free”, they are actually covered in the cost of the food. The more bags you use, the more expensive your food. Ireland, for example was one of the first countries to pass the plastic bag tax in 2002: 33 cents if you want a bag with your purchase, which is hardly unreasonable. And guess what, within weeks, there was a 94 percent drop in plastic bag use. That is the funny thing about people – they like free stuff, even if free isn’t really free.

New “Tentative List” of sites in the U.S. being considered for World Heritage site distinction

by Jamie Rhein on

The new “Tentative List” of the 14 cultural, historic and natural landmarks in the United States deserving of UNESCO World Heritage site consideration was officially unveiled in January, but the push to get support is beginning this month. The list was to be submitted to UNESCO World Heritage Centre by February 1, according to the press release we received from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

In the effort to do our part to help Friends of World Heritage get the message out about this list, as posted earlier, we’re highlighting the 14 sites throughout February. The process of becoming an official UNESCO World Heritage Site is a lengthy one, much longer than the month of February, but the month of love seems to be a good time to send some love in the direction of these worthy places. Regardless of which ones make the official list, each deserve recognition.

Stay tuned throughout the month as we highlight these places that tell the story of the United States in a variety of ways. As cliche as it sounds, there’s something for everyone. Perhaps you’ve already been to some of them and you have your own impressions that you can add to ours. At the end of the month, there will be a contest, so keep track.

To warm up, guess which one of the fourteen sites this photograph highlights? Then continue to the next page for the new “Tentative List” for the United States. (We’ll be covering sites from other countries as well, like we’ve done in the past, but this month we’re concentrating on these 14.)

1. Civil Rights Movement Sites, Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama. This site links three locations of significance to the Civil Rights Movement. They are the three historically African-American churches: Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery and the Bethel Baptist and 16th Street Baptist Churches in Birmingham.

2. Dayton Aviation Sites. Four sites associated with the Wright Brothers’ and flight are included. All are in and around Dayton and were significant in the “pioneering efforts in human flight.”

3. Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, Ohio. Nine archeological sites containing more than 40 monumental ceremonial earthworks that date back to the Native American Ohio Hopewell culture during the Woodland Period (1,000-2,000 years ago).

4. Jefferson (Thomas) Buildings (Poplar Forest and Virginia State Capitol), Virginia. These two buildings will be added to the Jefferson buildings already part of the World Heritage listing. Monticello and the University of Virginia are on the list.

5. Mount Vernon, Virginia. George Washington’s home and its gardens.

6. Poverty Point National Monument and State Historic Site, Louisiana. Constructed 1700 – 1100 years ago, this may be the “remains of the largest hunter-­gatherer settlement that has ever existed.”

7. San Antonio Franciscan Missions, Texas. Five Spanish Roman Catholic missions that include 80 or more structures built from “1724 to 1782 on “open village” plans within walled compounds.” They highlight the influence of Spanish colonialism.

8. Serpent Mound, Ohio. This is already a state monument in Ohio and is “the largest documented surviving example of a prehistoric effigy mound in the world.”

9. Wright (Frank Lloyd) Buildings, Arizona, California, Illinois, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. This is another multiple places historic site. These are ten properties that best represent the range of Frank Lloyd Wright ‘s work. The architect created 400. Getting the list down to 10 must have been daunting.

10. Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, Hawaii. “1,200-mile-long string of islands and adjacent waters represents the longest, clearest, and oldest example of island formation and atoll evolution in the world.” The islands are also culturally important because 1,000 ago people lived here.

11. Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary, American Samoa. This is refuge houses a coral reef ecosystem in an eroded volcanic crater.

12. Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. Consists of the Okefenokee Swamp is “one of the world’s largest naturally driven freshwater ecosystems.” The diversity of habitats and flora and fauna is extensive.

13. Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona. Has large deposits of petrified wood that date back to the Late Triassic Epoch, 205-225 million years ago. There are also imprtant fossils including those of dinosaurs.

14. White Sands National Monument, New Mexico. Acres and acres (176,000 worth) of gypsum sand dunes, the “best protected surface deposit of gypsum sand” in the world.

** The photo is of the Hollyhock House, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s creations. This one is in Los Angeles, California.

Masdar, the world’s greenest city

by Iva Skoch on

If you had to take a guess where the greenest city in the world is going to be by 2009–and yes, I am talking green as in “zero carbon”, “zero waste”, “car free “city–where would you guess it would be?

I was completely off. I just didn’t think that a region rich in oil would be the first one to come out with a project of this scope.

The first city in the world based completely on renewable energy will be built in the United Arab Emirates. Electricity for the six-square-kilometer Masdar City will be generated by photovoltaic panels, while cooling will be provided with concentrated solar power. According to ENS newswire, design and operation of Masdar City must deal with the realities of Abu Dhabi’s sub-tropical, arid climate where temperatures range from a low of around 50° F to a high of around 118° F in the summer.

It is not the most beautiful skyline I have ever seen, but beauty might be an overrated concept in the 21st century.

World Heritage and the Gadling connection

by Jamie Rhein on

In November, Grant, Catherine and I had a grand time participating in a conference call with various folks interested in travel and preserving those things that make the world a wonderful place to be. Friends of World Heritage, an initiative in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, Expedia.com and World Heritage Center at UNESCO, orchestrated the call to promote a dialog among us and create a network that fosters public interest and involvement in the work of Friends of World Heritage. The aim of the organization is to ensure UNESCO’s World Heritage sites continue to gain public recognition and support as valuable places worthy of honor and preservation. TurtlefeetSurfersBeat, Intelligent Travel (blog for National Geographic Traveler) and National Parks Traveler joined in on the chat.

Catherine, Grant and I were happy to be included among the group of knowledgeable and engaged folks who are interested in the world and preserving its natural and cultural heritage. (All Gadling bloggers are included in those interested in the world. Catherine, Grant and I are the ones who were able to participate in the call.) Since World Heritage sites are among those places that ensure that our natural world and cultural history stay intact, this conversation was a perfect interaction of interests.

We’ve continued to stay engaged with Friends of World Heritage since then. Our hope is that we can further the cause of Friends of World Heritage by letting Gadling readers know about the latest happenings in the World Heritage arena and highlighting those must see places that are must see because of their distinctive characteristics.

One of the latest happenings in the World Heritage arena is that 14 places in the United States have been named as contenders for the distinction of becoming an official World Heritage site. These 14 are on the new “Tentative List.” We are using February as a month to highlight the bounty. In the month of love, these are places to love.

Naming the sites on this “Tentative List” is the end of the beginning of the process. These 14 sites, the first to be considered in the U.S. in 12 years, have been picked by the Department of the Interior (in conjunction with the National Park Service) for consideration. The places on the Tentative List won’t be able to be considered as official World Heritage Sites until 2009. The rules state that a place has to be on a list for a year. A site can be on a list for a long, long time as there is a lot of competition. This is my understanding from the press release we received from the U.S. Department of Interior via Friends of World Heritage.

Stay tuned for a post on the “Tentative List” this afternoon and Gadling’s coverage of the 14 sites throughout this month. You can help us decide who we think should win an official spot as a World Heritage Site. The photo is of the map of World Heritage sites. We’ll let you in on how to get one of those too.