Don’t Bin It, Recycle It

A recent animated video from Recycle Now has been released, highlighting the need to recycle small electronic devices. The aim of the film is to remind people not just to bin their waste electrical goods and tell them about where and how they can dispose of it responsibly http://dontbinitbringit.org (UK based).

The campaign is also being supported by the interactive ‘Regeneration Game‘ (based on the Generation Game) in which users put in their UK postcode before playing and then the game cleverly features details of their nearest recycling facilities.

Our Little World – The Climate Movie

This short film was created at the University of Applied Sciences Augsburg during a student’s project that focused on ecology and climatic change.

It is an animated short of about four minutes duration about the complexity of our little world.

“One day, an adorable elderly couple, sitting in their cosy allotment, starts to wonder: ‘Where does all our stuff originally come from?’ While taking a closer look at their electrically powered chicken grill, they backtrack the causal relationships that lead to our material prosperity.”

You can watch it on their website, and learn more there, or play the video below:

Greenpeace Does James Bond: Coalfinger

We’ve often featured Greenpeace videos on Life Goggles as they tend to be well mad and informative. You can now add fun to that list with this animated James Bond parody, Coalfinger. You can see it below or on Greenpeace’s dedicated website which has more information and ways to take action. Also Brian “Gordon’s alive!” Blessed is in it.

Coalfinger

Planet In Peril Returns Thursday Night!

Tomorrow night (Thursday December 11th), on CNN, Planet in Peril returns. You can read about the first Planet in Peril here, this 2008 special, “Planet in Peril: Battle Lines,” is hosted by Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” correspondent and National Geographic host Lisa Ling.

This time the team investigates serious environmental conflicts, including mass hunger in Cameroon and Congo, melting ice on the North Pole and shark-finning operations in Taiwan and Costa Rica.

Further information about the show and what they will cover was sent to me, and pretty interesting reading it is too. Watch the show at 9pm ET/PT on CNN if you can.

TAIWAN/COSTA RICA (SHARK FINNING)

• Humans kill at least 100 million sharks every year (WildAid)
• The vast majority of caught shark fins will end up in soup.
• Shark finning only utilizes 1-5% of the shark’s body-weight.
• All recorded shark species, with one exception, have declined by more than 50% in the past 8 to 15 years.
• Shark fins can sell for around 500 dollars a pound.
• Sharks have existed for over 400 million years, 100 million years before the first dinosaurs appeared on land.
• Sharks can take 20+ years to reach maturity and can live to 70 years and beyond.

RWANDA/ (GORILLA TOURISM)

• The mountain gorilla is one of the world’s most critically endangered species. (WWF)
• There are no mountain gorillas held in captivity in any legal zoo, private collection or captive breeding center anywhere in the world. (WWF)
• The mountain gorillas’ habitat is one of the world’s worst conflict zones, straddling Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• A full grown mountain gorilla’s diet can include up to 60 lbs of vegetation a day.
• Mountain gorillas spend a lot of their time traveling in search of food, as plants and trees change with the seasons.
• An adult male gorilla can weight about 400 lbs and eats up to 60 lbs of vegetation a day.
• When a silverback gorilla is standing upright (say, during a chest beating display) they can be as tall as 5 and a half feet tall. (Gorilla Fund)

PERU (LEAD POISONING)

• 97% of children in La Oroya, Peru have elevated blood lead levels. Children’s young body tissue and bones are the most vulnerable to the ill health effects of lead. (Fernando Serrano, St. Louis University researcher)
• 70% of adults in La Oroya, Peru have elevated blood lead levels. (Fernando Serrano, St. Louis University researcher)
• La Oroya, Peru named one of the top 10 “World’s Worst Polluted Places” (Blacksmith Institute lists 2006, 2007)

And much more including the illegal Ivory trade in Chad, oil corruption in Nigeria and Zoonotic diseases in Cameroon.

Trying To Make Travelling More Eco-Friendly – With A Cartoon

I’m not sure about this one. Online holiday firm Travelocity has a Travel for Good programme and has released a series of cartoons for kids and adults alike called Eco-Bunnies.

The series of animations teaches about carbon offsets and being earth-friendly, and the latest as I write this is called “Hare Dos and Don’ts” also features a naming contest for fans. It seems quite fun but I’m still left with a niggling feeling that something isn’t quite right about a travel firm teaching us about being environmentally friendly.

Sign A Petition Against Excess Packaging

In doing reviews for Life Goggles I receive a lot of things through the post and it even if the product is brilliant it will sometimes be wrapped in a stupid amount of packaging, some of which can’t be recycled. Greenvoicecom is asking you to sign a petition against excess packaging and force companies to be responsible.

As well as the fun little video below, they also provided us with a couple of fun packaging facts:
- The UK produces enough packaging waste in one year to fill Wembley Stadium almost nine times over.
- Each person in the UK spends about £125 on packaging a year.
- Even though the general public are encouraged to recycle, businesses, who contribute about 90% of all waste, are asked to do nothing.

A spokesperson for Greenvoice.com says: “Despite all of our efforts, domestic waste generated has still gone up 20% over the last ten years, so it is time for the business sector to act as well.” You can sign the petition by clicking here.

$25k For Your Green Video!

Fancy earning/winning $25,000 for making a video? The X Prize Foundation have announced a new initiative that you may be interested in. They currently offer prizes of $10 million or more for major breakthroughs that have the potential to benefit humanity, such as the Progressive Auto X Prize that is offering $10 million for cars that are super-efficient (100mpg+ or the energy equivalent), clean and attractive.

They are going to pay $25,000 for the best green breakthrough that “would be worthy of a $10 million prize”. All you have to do is make a video a video explaining your prize idea and submit it to the X Prize Foundation channel on www.youtube.com/xprize.

You have to answer three questions: What is the worldwide problem that you are trying to solve? What is the specific prize idea, with rules and judging criteria? How will it benefit humanity?

More details can be found on the video on the X-Prize Youtube page (I couldn’t embed it here, the scoundrels). Ideas have to be in by October 31st and the winner announced on November 15th. Good luck!

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