New hotel in Rome made of garbage from Europe’s beaches

by Melanie Nayer on

That’s right – this hotel is, quite literally, garbage.

In an effort to raise awareness about the trashy state of Europe’s beaches, Rome erected a hotel covered with over 26,000 pounds of debris. The building, located on Capocotta Beach, is aptly named “Save the Beach Hotel” and is spear-headed by Corona. According to the website, the Save the Beach Hotel is a reminder to people about how filthy their beaches have become.

The website states:

“Our Corona Save the Beach campaign builds on the project by launching its own initiative to help preserve Europe’s beaches. Teaming up with environmental artist HA Schult, best known for his extraordinary ‘Trash Men’, we have created a pop-up hotel in the centre of Rome made almost entirely from rubbish collected from beaches across Europe. Our first visitor at the hotel was supermodel and eco-warrior Helena Christensen, as well as competition winners from Italy, Spain and the UK staying the night.”

It’s fascinating the amount of filth that can be discovered on a beach, and turned into a standing hotel. Corona plans to make this impression on other coastal cities around the world, and you can vote for the next endangered beach that the organization will clean up by clicking here.

Ok, Florida… how about it? While BP works to stop the oil spill, maybe we can build the world’s first crude oil hotel?

China has world’s most polluted city, thanks to coal mining

by Laurel Miller on



Cigarettes have gotten really pricey, but here’s a solution: take a trip to China. The city of Linfen, in Shanxi Province, has been named the “world’s most polluted city” by the World Bank, as the air quality is the equivalent of inhaling three packs of cigarettes a day. Coal is China’s main source of energy, and Shanxi Province is the leading coal producer. The same World Bank survey noted that 16 out of 20 of the world’s most polluted cities are in China.

The geniuses at VBS.TV sent a journalist to Linfen (which for some strange reason, has no tourism), to provide a first-person account of what it’s like to spend a day in Smog City. Unsurprisingly, residents have a high rate of lung disease and stomach and lung cancers, but most don’t wear face masks (in contrast to residents in many of Asia’s largest cities). Unfortunately, perma-smog is such a part of daily life, the dire environmental and human health consequences that are the result of coal mining lose their impact. Studies show that particulate from China’s factories and coal mines travels as far as the West Coast of North America.

Linfen serves as yet another heartbreaking reminder that globally, we need to work on reducing our energy consumption, and finding alternative resources. Don’t forget to turn the lights off when you leave.

[Via CNN]

Get a one year National Geographic subscription for just ten bucks

by Scott Carmichael on

As a traveler, no publication ever got me more interested in seeing the world than National Geographic. Already in its 122nd year, the yellow border of this magazine is recognized in as many countries as it has written about.

Despite all the advances in technology, and the decline in print, there is something fantastic about carrying reading materials the old fashioned way – and if you head over to Amazon.com, you’ll be able to order a one year subscription to National Geographic for just ten bucks.

The promotion takes $5 off the normal price of $15 – and you may not see the final discounted price until the final stage of the payment process.

Best of all – your subscription will help the society, and all the fantastic work they do helping people discover more of our planet.

Subscription page / promotion details

How Lindblad Expeditions takes care of recycling aboard the National Geographic Explorer

by Scott Carmichael on

You think sorting your recyclables and trash is a hassle? Try doing it when you are on a ship that travels to some of the most pristine places on earth – while dealing with extremely strict maritime regulations.

On board the National Geographic Explorer, all trash is hand-sorted, and split into different recycling streams – plastic, paper, cardboard, aluminum, cans, glass, food waste and hazardous waste.

Because of the risk of spreading things like mad cow and foot & mouth disease, none of the food waste can be composted, so it gets incinerated ashore.

The Lindblad Expeditions commitment to recycling is so serious, that the ship has a dedicated recycling/refuse manager. You can learn more about their recycling measures and the work involved in keeping their ship clean at the Lindblad Expeditions blog.

Traveling culinary competition makes for swine time

by Laurel Miller on

Two garish, heavily-tattooed girls approached me and my friend Adrienne, and pointed their weapons at us. “Pig liver mousse?” asked the blonde, aiming a whipped cream dispenser at me. Her brunette counterpart stood silently, wielding a squeeze bottle of barbecue sauce and a tray of meaty tidbits.

Welcome to the second annual Cochon 555, a lard-fueled, traveling circus of five chefs, five winemakers, and five pig carcasses. It’s actually a 10-city tour, with each destination’s chefs engaging in “friendly competition” for a great cause: “to promote and preserve heritage pigs, and breed diversity in local and national communities.”

Heritage livestock are domestic breeds that are threatened with extinction due to the demands of modern agriculture. In the words of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, “Modern food production now favors the use of a few highly specialized breeds selected for maximum output in a controlled environment.”While some may find it ironic and hypocritical to eat, glorify, and promote animals in the name of saving them, you’re entitled to your opinion. For the rest of you, not only do heritage breeds help to preserve genetic diversity, but they also taste better. Many heritage breeds possess a “true” flavor inherent to the animal, i.e., pork tastes…more porky. Heritage breeders in general also have an emphasis on animal welfare, sustainable farming and animal husbandry practices, and regionality, as they’re generally small, family outfits. It’s hard to argue with those ethics if bacon makes you salivate.

I attended Seattle’s Cochon 555 on May 23rd to support the cause, as well as watch local chefs like John Sundstrom (Lark), and Tamara Murphy (Brasa) duke it out. Each competitor is chosen based on their support of local food sourcing and commitment to sustainability; the pigs are sourced from ranches dedicated to preserving heritage breeds. While the chefs prepare tasting plates (they’re allowed free rein on preparation method) for the guests, local family winemakers keep the grape flowing. Guests help select the winning chef by voting for their favorite, along with a panel of 20 judges. The victor of each destination is crowned “Prince or Princess of Porc,” and moves on to compete in the Grand Cochon finale, to be held June 20 at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.

Cochon 555 also includes a VIP “Meat & Greet” with local foods and producers, a “Swine & Spirits” mixology showcase, and- my favorite- a demonstration breakdown of a whole pig carcass. San Francisco’s Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats (and producer of the best damn chicharrones on earth) made a guest appearance in Seattle, and proceeded to dismantle a 140-pound pig before an awestruck audience. The results were raffled off, leaving each lucky winner clutching a package of pork to their chest.

Adrienne and I wandered around, sampling everything from tortellini with pig brains in a pork dashi, to apple-bacon ice cream, and red velvet cupcakes with whipped (sweetened) lard frosting. Not everything was good, mind you, and I can live a full life without eating the lard-shortbread version of a Snickers bar ever again, but chef Chester Gerl’s (Matt’s in the Market) cochinita pibil, a Yucatecan-style preparation made from a Red Wattle pig from Lazy S Farm in Kansas , was outstanding. I also thorougly enjoyed the mini “ultimate BLT” of chef Adam Stevenson’s (Earth & Ocean) cocoa-cured bacon, bologna, and smoked coppa, with tomato jam.

While the $125 price tag ($175 for VIP pass) is too steep- at least, at the Seattle event, where the food and drink ran out before the sun even began to set, it’s for an important cause. Even if you don’t eat meat, there’s a dire need for more humane livestock management, and stricter regulation on livestock production, waste management, and processing. As we used to say at the meat shop I once worked at, “Praise the Lard!”