Green Thing Blog

Mmmmmmm. Yummy. Squirrels.

From people being fined for killing them, to a company making the world's strongest beer in taxidermied one, Squirrels are a hot topic these days. Today, squirrels are in the news because of their meat.

Budgens, a North London supermarket is now selling squirrel meat. Apparently, it tastes like rabbit.

Andrew Thorton, owner of the Budgen's that's selling the meat claims that "squirrel meat is more sustainable than beef" and "Squirrels will be culled anyway. You have two choices. Either you dispose of them or you eat them."

It's really popular, despite animal welfare groups disapproval.

There you have it. Another reason to go easy on the meat.

(Spotted in the Guardian)

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Sainsbury's announced this month their pledge to plant 2 million trees over the next 5 years with the Woodland Trust. To mark the momentous occasion, they built the tiniest shop ever, in a tree.

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Today the United Nations is holding a historic summit on the Human Right to Water. In 1948, when the Declaration of Human Rights was written, few, if any, predicted that we'd be having a global water crisis and wars over water resources 60 years later.

Now, world leaders are voting on a resolution to decide if 'Access to clean water and sanitation' should be a human right.

The vote that's taking place today, as set forward by Bolivia, is not about infrastructure, or sorting out how water and sanitation should be provided. It's about recognising water as a human right, the same way that dignity and the right to life, liberty and security of person are.

This is the part that makes my blood boil. There are countries that are opposed to this. It's astounding.

One of which is Canada, my home and native land. Why Canada, why? The Canadian government has very openly expressed opposition to the resolution. I feel ashamed. Could it be because now the government would have to act in native Canadian communities where water sources are of a developing world standard? Or is it because this would be potenially having to share our abundance of fresh clean water with others?

David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the UK is also opposed to the resolution. Apparently he's cool with the access to water part, but not the whole sanitation bit.

Not surprising, the US also rejects the resolution, as do Turkey and Egypt who fear boundary disputes once the resolution is passed. These are the problems that arise when a human right also happens to be a diminishing commodity, essential to industry, agriculture and life.

Getting countries to vote on water becoming a human right is not just incredibly important, but water is a fundemental, indisputable, basic human need.

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NASA's got some pretty cool and informative images in their locker (having loads of satellites and technology helps). Their prespective on climate change is one from above. Like the things that can be seen from space, such as aquatic dead zones and forest canopy heights.

Aside from knowing where the tallest trees are in the world, NASA explains,

'Scientific interest in the new map goes far beyond curiosities about tree height. The map has implications for an ongoing effort to estimate the amount of carbon tied up in Earth’s forests and for explaining what sops up 2 billion tons of “missing” carbon each year'.

Another interesting NASA image is of aquatic dead zones. Without pointing out the obvious, one can see the dead zones happen to exist where the highest density of people live.

While all can maps have distortions, NASA's use of satelitte imaging and laser technology produce widely accepted and very real data- most of which is collected over several years.

NASA's Eye's on the Earth contains images of change which demonstrate how areas have evolved over time.

The same way you'd compare baby photos of a person to their present self, images of change show an ever changing and evolving planet.

You can see more images and things from NASA's observatory here.

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Haiti was devasted in early 2010 by an epic earthquake. Throw in 52 aftershocks and the Hurricane season and you've got a country in desperate need.

There have been several ideas to emerge to help with the rebuild and aid in Haiti, but this one is one of my favourites. Earthship Biotecture builds dwellings from old tyres, styrofoam, bottles and other waste materials.

The brains behind the operation, Architect, Michael Reynolds says he intentionally doesn't use the word 'house' because people have preconceived notions about what a house looks like. Instead he calls them Earthships which are structures built from waste materials in local environments. They are durable and sustainable. Solar and wind energy are used to to generate power and heat and the homes are designed to collect usable water from rain.

Homes made from recycled materials is an excellent all-consuming use of what's around, especially in places that have lost all infrastructure, and have lots of waste around. This idea ticks all the boxes.

(Spotted in the Wall Street Journal)

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