The Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior

The rainbow warier is a real ship, built by Greenpeace with the help of donations from different people, who buy "a part" of the ship where their name will be written. When you donate, you get a gift certificate for ownership.

The role of the Rainbow Warier will be to watch and protect from environmental crime such as: illegal ships carrying timber, oil spills in the ocean, illegal fishing operations, illegal ships caring generic modified food, toxic chemicals and many others. I think we all agree that such kind of "environmental police" is highly needed.

The ship should be finished by October 2011 and so far 29% of the construction has been built. So go ahead and donate for this beautiful cause by Greenpeace on: anewwarrior.greenpeace.org.

We Are What We Eat

If you are what you eat, and especially if you eat industrial food, as 99 percent of Americans do, what you are is "corn." This quote is taken from the website: www.ecoliteracy.org. The authors of this sentence argue, that after examining the food chain of popular foods in the USA (mainly fast food) it almost always lead to the corn field in Iowa. I was surprised and shocked to learn for example, that french fries in McDonalds are fried in corn oil!

This website made me think more deeply into this topic. How important is food in our lives? Very important, indeed, but do we really know what we eat? Although we are living longer now, most of the people are overweight and a very big percent do not really know from where their food comes from (Argentina, Africa, Chile?). When I pick up food from our grocery store, I basically look for the following features:
- Food is local. This is the MOST important matter I consider when buying fruits & vegs, fish, meat or cheeses. If we all choose the local food, millions of transport cost would be saved. When food is transported across the ocean, God knows what ingredients they add in order to preserve it for long time.
- I read the labels. It may take some longer time shopping, but it is worth it. Be sure to read the small letters and signs. Reading the labels is important, because after all, the governments are trying to protect us somehow and there are some regulations about labeling the food properly. We are all literate humans, so we should READ more carefully, especially the expiry date.
- Disregard colourful packing. It may look good, but over-packed items are to be avoid. If the supermarket has a stand for fresh food, visit it more often.
- Food diversitication. Do not stick to one kind of food only, because if it turns bad, you will be way more affected if you eat it every day, than if you eat it once a week. This is also very important for your diet, of course.

And finally, I would like to share another very interesting link on the topic, which I found on facebook today - www.giyireland.com. It is a charity, which is there to inspire people to grow their own food. There are some really useful ideas and tips for food growing. An amazing website and an amazing idea! I wish them good luck!

World Meter

I've always been fascinated with figures, because they can be a life-changer and always bring some food for thought. That's why I was struck by a website I discovered just recently: www.worldometers.info - a site for world statistics updated in real time. At first I though it is a joke, but it turns out it is a project, which involves many institutions and many people. With the help of algorithms and data from the "most reputable organizations and statistical offices in the world", the website provides "just in time" statistics in 32 languages about current world population, number of births and deaths this year, health care, education and military expenditure for the year and many others.

The reason for posting this info on my green blog is the figures in the environmental, food and energy sections of the site. We all know that hundreds of hectares of forests are cut each year, but when you see the figure 1 555 952 hectares of cut forest for THIS YEAR ONLY until now 20.02.2011 it really hits you. I was also shocked by the fact that there are more overweight and obese people in the world than undernourished, or that there are exactly 15 628 days until the end of oil. Well, enough said. Check the website or the statistics copied below for yourselves and make your own daily changes and global conclusions.

Environment
1,556,239	Forest loss this year (hectares)
829,333	Arable land lost due to soil erosion this year (hectares)
3,085,490,576	Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions this year, in tons
14,553178439	Current average temperature (Celsius)
2,048,289	Desertification this year (hectares)
19,176	Species that have gone extinct this year
1,353,185	Toxic chemicals released by industries into our air, land, and water this year (tons)
129,805,777	Kilometers Earth has traveled in space within our Solar System this year

The Green Religion

The religion does not have such power over new generations that it had with old ones. Maybe it is the advance in technology or the globalization, but this is a fact. However, there is a new "religion" born - the green religion. If you search Google with words like "green", "eco", “organic”,"veg", etc. you will find thousands (if not millions) of blogs dedicated to it, movies, publications, campaigns, and what not. People are passionate in the green idea - they truly believe that any one of them can make a difference. The God of the green people is our planet - the Earth.

As it is common with religion, people turn it into business. So is with the green idea – there are now organic cheese, milk, chocolate, muesli, clothes, vehicles, fuel even wine. They all usually have the distinctive green packing and sign and are little more expensive. There is also green energy, which is actually the true deal breaker. The first movers turned millionaires from this business.

The green religion also has its sacred signs and rituals. These are, for example, doing the recycling, saving paper, changing all bulbs at home with energy saving ones, shopping in organic shops, and others.

Green is even into politics, winning more and more votes every year in almost all developed countries (The Green party). In some countries green people are able to affect the ruling. Every child knows about environment and green practices today. Green is everywhere we look. It is the colour of our generation. It is the colour of the 21^st century.

Out of all these, the green religion has been born. Its followers are young, educated people, who would like to live in a greener planet and to breath clean air. They are global people from all over the world, who share the same believe, no matter where they were born. Let’s just hope that this new religion will not bring along new conflicts and wars. Like the old religions did.