Competition: Win Tickets to Radical Nature At The Barbican

Life Goggles has teamed up with the London’s Barbican Art Gallery’s latest exhibition to give away two tickets.

Radical Nature – Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009 exhibition, celebrates the
innovative and environmentally friendly developments that have occurred in the design and architecture fields and the people behind them.

Tickets usually cost £8 but we have two to give away by answering the simple question below. The closing date is 5pm (GMT) on Monday 5 October and the winners will be notified by email. You can find out more about he exhibition on its website.

Question: In which city is the Barbican Gallery?

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Discover the Forest Campaign

Personally, I like the forest and don’t go often enough. The US Forest Service and the Ad Council have a Public Service Announcement campaign about rediscovering the forest. The amount of time U.S. children spend outdoors has declined 50% in the past 20 years, according to the Ad Council. The Forest Service is hoping to change this startling statistic through a PSA project entitled “Where the Other You Lives” that encourages tweens and their parents to re-connect with the great outdoors.

The Forest Service and the Ad Council created a pretty cool microsite for the campaign where you can find local parks and pick up ideas on what to do on an outdoor adventure (leaf rubs, tracking animals, learning to use a compass). Take a look at Discover The Forest here.

Quick Green Video

A quick green video of actor/conservationist Harrison Ford talking about how nature informs his acting. Via The Big Think.

Is Dove Destroying Rainforests?

No, not doves as in the birds, but Dove, the palm oil derived soap and personal care products from Unilever.

Greenpeace have launched (another) campaign is to stop Dove (and its maker, Unilever) from apparently destroying Indonesian rainforests and tropical peatlands for palm oil. They have launched a video asking people to talk to Dove while there’s still time (in response to Dove’s famous Onslaught video):

According to Greenpeace Indonesia is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, in large part due to the destruction of its forests at the hands of the palm oil industry. As well as accelerating climate change, the destruction of Indonesia’s forests and tropical peatlands for palm oil also puts the many endangered species there (including Sumatran tigers, Javan rhinoceroses and orang-utans) at even greater risk of extinction.

Unilever is buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesia’s rainforests and are the biggest user of palm oil in the world. To make up your own mind on the issue go here for Greenpeace’s information, and an indepth report here.

Unilever has said “We are looking to determine what actions need to be taken, if any, and will look at the supply chain”, and on their website say “We are the leaders in the search for solutions to achieving sustainable palm oil.’

It Takes 90 Years To Grow A Box Of Kleenex

Greenpeace USA sent us an email to let us know about their new spoof Kleenex site, called Kleercut they have set up. I didn’t realise but the largest stretch of ancient forest in North America is being clearcut for disposable paper products.

For those outside of the USA who might not know how big Kleenex is in the USA, it’s used instead of the word tissue by people I know, as in “Pass me a Kleenex”.

Their website states that “Did you know that it takes 90 years to grow a box of Kleenex? That’s right, every time you use a Kleenex tissue, you are blowing away ancient forests. And every time you use Scott or Cottonelle toilet paper, you’re flushing old growth trees down the toilet. That’s because Kimberly Clark, maker of these products, all but refuses to use recycled paper in its products.”

In 2004 Kimberly-Clark used 3.3 million tons of virgin (tree) fiber. If you want to get involved, check out their website and their Forest-Friendly Schools Toolkit.

[Update: Please check the comments below for some interesting discussion and what virgin tree fiber is]

Do You Have Indoor Landscaping?

A few companies now offer a service known as “indoor landscaping”, that is the art of creating living green walls indoors. Germany’s indoorlandscaping create the Grüne Wand, a green wall that adds a welcome green element to sterile office environments and improves air quality while taking up less floor space than potted vegetation does.

Sweden’s Green Fortune, launched by two Swedish entrepreneurs, has already amassed an impressive list of international clients, placing their Plantwalls in offices, stores, restaurants and even car dealerships.

Likewise, French artist Patrick Blank’s meticulously sculpted Vertical Gardens have transformed ordinary walls in Paris and elsewhere into works of foliage art.

[Via: Springwise]

Marbled Iceberg

A beautiful picture of a striped iceberg. Apparently the stripes are marine ice that were originally crevasses in the iceberg that filled with seawater and was then frozen.

A closer picture and interesting discussion is posted on at A Fish Blog.

[Picture via and Copyright of A Fish Blog]

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