Earth Day Celebrations Around the World

by Jamie Rhein on

From Karachi, Pakistan to Koh Samui, Thailand to Chelewah, Washington people are celebrating the earth this weekend. Yep, Earth Day is April 22. You can plant trees, clean up a beach, go to a lecture, canoe, pet animals, hike, dance, sing, participate in a 5-K run and eat Earth Day fare at an Earth Day fair somewhere on the planet. The calendar page of the website Envirolink: The Online Environment Community lists scads of possibilities.

Each link goes to a link that links to each event’s website for more information. This is a place you can spend a lot of time just to see what people who are environmentally conscience are up to. Here’s one event that caught my attention. John Muir’s Birthday Hike is taking place near Madison, Wisconsin. Muir was the founder of the Sierra Club and his boyhood home is part of the John Muir Memorial County Park. This event includes talks about Muir and his writing. Plus, there is a hike and a tour of the house he grew up in.

To find an Earth Day event near you, check out the Earth Day website. It looks like you can type in where you live and events near you will pop up. If you’re wondering what started Earth Day, here is an overview.

Also, stay tuned for Gadling’s April 22 posts when Gadling writers’ pay homage to Earth Day with their special brand of posts and whatnot.

Hitchhiking Microorganisms and Increased Air Travel leads to Very Bad Things

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s a horrible feeling when doing something you love causes something bad to happen.

Although hardly news, researchers at Oxford University have just released a sobering report detailing how increased air travel leads to an increased spread of disease and an increased risk to biodiversity.

Air travel has risen 8% a year in the last three years, according to the report, and as a result, an alarming number of micro-organisms and insects are hitchhiking around the globe. This means that organisms from the other side of the world can suddenly sprout in a new environment where, unchecked by natural predators, they can spread disease or wipe out endemic species.

Oxford researchers pinpointed a number of international routes, various climactic conditions and certain times of the year that pose the greatest risk. Europe, for example, is most vulnerable in January from flights originating in China and Japan.

So be careful the next time you travel; that microorganism hitching a ride in your lower intestine may just bring about the next biblical plague or the downfall of western civilization.

Ha Long Bay: Where Tourism and Scenery Struggle

by Jamie Rhein on

Erik Olsen’s post on the World Heritage Sites ratings sent me on a browsing hunt to find out details about some of the places I’ve visited. Ha Long Bay in Vietnam caught my eye.

Ha Long Bay
Score: 50

Halong Bay received a 50 rating, partially because of tourism’s effect on the environment. Tourists do things like throw garbage into the water, for example. I went to Halong Bay a few years back by signing up at Kim Café in Hanoi for a group tour that included an overnight hotel stay, a boat tour, a cave tour, a guide and lunch-maybe two lunches. None of the people in our group (about 20) dumped garbage, but the trip did include a mishap that might explain why there are now cement walkways in the caves and lights, two of the things the World Heritage raters noted as problems.

Before the cave tour we were given information to bring closed-toe shoes that tie and a flashlight. Instead of, “If you don’t have them you don’t go,” we were allowed to treat this as a suggestion. My husband and I, and a woman we befriended, had closed-toe shoes and a small flashlight between the three of us. We opted not to rent other flashlights at the cave entrance. Several of the other people had sandals and a few flashlights between them. Off we went into a wet cave that was slick and dark. The three of us told the guide we weren’t prepared to go any further. Our tiny flashlight barely lit an inch of the cave’s floor in front of us. The other people forged ahead.

That was about the time we heard a loud thump and shouts of, “Are you okay?” One of the travelers didn’t see a big hole and took a tumble. Luckily, it was just a broken collar bone and his friends knew how to truss him up to keep his arm stable until they could get him to a hospital. That took the return trip by boat across the bay and hiring a taxi to go to another town.

A few days later in a restaurant, I noticed a westerner with a cast on her arm. Turns out, she had gone to Halong Bay. Given that the scenery is one of Vietnam’s tourist draws and tourist dollars is one way to boost the economy in rural areas, I can understand the walkways and added lights in this place that was more beautiful without them.

It sounds like the balance between environmentalism and protecting treasures is a battle that might be surging for awhile-like forever. The need for tourist dollars to survive is a force to be reckoned with. It will be a fine day, however, when garbage management is part of human nature.

Aspen Suffering Global Warming Bouts

by Neil Woodburn on

Well, the ski season has picked up a bit in the last few weeks as storms began pounding the east coast of America prompting Global Warming naysayers to cry out, “I told you so!”

Global Warming is far from over, however. MSNBC just did a short bit on the effect it is having on the world-famous ski slopes of Aspen, Colorado.

The theme of the article tackles a commonly heard argument normally tossed out by the less informed. “So what if the world’s temperature jumps up one degree. What’s the big deal about one degree?”

Well, in the world of ski resorts, one degree can be the difference between making snow and not making snow. As the temperature hovers just above freezing, snow makers sit and wait for it to drop. If it doesn’t, there is no snowmaking to be had. Places like Aspen usually rely on a base of manmade snow to help the natural stuff stick better and stick around for longer. Global Warming is making this more and more difficult.

The good news is that Aspen, now very cognizant of the effects of mankind upon our changing environment (as well as their bottom line profits), is doing their part to help. For example, the mountain’s slope-grooming snowcats are now powered with biodiesal fuel.

Sometimes it takes a hit in the pocket book and the fear of losing paying customers to jump on board the conservation bandwagon. Hats off to Aspen for making the effort.

Calculating the True Cost of Bottled Water

by Justin Glow on

A majority of travelers (myself included) can be found toting around a bottle of water no matter where they are. But in countries like India or Mexico, where the tap water is simply undrinkable to the non-local, hydrating from a sealed bottle of mineral water is a must if you have any intentions of remaining healthy. This has led to plenty of controversy, especially in places like India where the entire country is littered with excess garbage generated in part by plastic bottles of water. Because of this, many environmentally-conscious travelers have been coming up with better ways to drink clean, safe water without jeopardizing the local environment (a topic for another post, perhaps). Here’s another reason why finding an alternative to bottled water might be a good idea:

Pablo Päster is an “independent Sustainability Engineering Consultant,” who appears on TriplePundit.com’s Ask Pablo column answering a myriad of reader-submitted environmental questions. This one comes from Maryline: “I am interested to know the ‘true-cost’ of a bottle of Fiji water that currently sells for $1.50 in the United States.”

Pablo follows up with a thorough break-down of all the costs involved in creating, bottling, and shipping a bottle of water to market. I’ll save you the trouble of reading the details (but please, go ahead and read it if you’d like!) and give you the true cost of a $1.50 bottle of water: $0.22. That’s a mark-up of $1.28.

Stop and think about that the next time you grab for a bottle of water — whether you’re traveling or not.

[via grow-a-brain]