Green Thing Blog

Apparently Dubai's newest hotel, Palazzo Versace, due to open in a couple of years, is working on an air-conditioning their beach to attract grotesquely rich, hyper-lazy and insanely foolish tourists.

Perhaps someone should introduce them to the engineering miracle of planting trees for natural shade?

This feels so spectacularly out of tune with the economic and environmental times it reminds me of an interesting piece John Grant posted about luxury brands and sustainability. For instance, he quotes US trend oracle Faith Popcorn on ostentatious spending in times of recession:

• “if you go up Madison Avenue [in New York], past Fendi and Prada, those stores are empty. Women are shopping in their own closets. You feel shame in buying even if you can buy.”

According to Grant, "even if you can still afford it swilling champagne while others lose their jobs is suddenly a very antisocial and unpopular choice."

Sadly not for people who holiday on air-conditioned beaches or in Sunny Mountain Ski Domes in Dubai ;-(

PS. Thanks to @Green_Luvin and @dubaifeed on Twitter for pointing us to the USA Today article.

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There's been so much going on here I haven't really had time to blog my thoughts properly. Perhaps I'll do a retrospective Green-eye view of TED after it all ends. Meanwhile, I'm off to bed so here's a selection of green-related tweets so far during the conference.

1. #ted TED Prize winner Sylvia Earle: "for every lb of fish you eat as much as 10 or even 100lbs have been caught and discarded as by-catch." about 6 hours ago


2. #ted Shai Agassi - phenomenally impressive vision of how to run a country without oil - electric cars @ 2c/mile for 99% of pop. Wow. about 9 hours ago


3. #ted Shai Agassi quotes Nissan CEO-"hybrids r like mermaids: when you want a fish you get a woman and when you need a woman you get a fish" about 9 hours ago


4. #ted Kevin Surace founder of EcoWall gives an inspiring 3min invention story about re-inventing drywall material to reduce co2 by 80% about 9 hours ago


5. #ted Google energy vp checks his HH energy use on laptop and calls his 13yr old to say she left the light on in her bedroom:"She hates that" about 10 hours ago


6. #ted Louise Fresco quotes Ghandi: "to those who have to go without 2 meals a day, God can only appear as bread." most basic food for 10k yrs about 12 hours ago
   


7. #ted Louise Fresco - v. thought-provoking on tension between idealised views of local food production vs. reality of global food demands. about 12 hours ago


8. #ted YouTube star Matt 'where in the hell is matt' Harding choreographes a TED dance. He must have a co2 footprint the size of ayers rock! 3:00 AM yesterday


9. #ted Ray Anderson: "someday people like me will go to jail because theft is a crime & theft of our children's future will 1 day be a crime." 1:47 AM yesterday 


10. #ted "recovering plunderer" Interface Inc CEO Ray Anderson: "design by sustainability is an unexpected wellspring of innovation" 1:39 AM yesterday


11. #ted Captain Charles Moore: "the throwaway society has gone global...only we humans make waste that nature can't digest." 7:52 PM Feb 4th


12. #ted Captain Moore: "all the kings horses & all the kings men will never gather up all the plastic and put our oceans back together again." 7:49 PM Feb 4th

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1. #ted Willie Smits' impressive mix of head (sugar palms as fire buffers) and heart (orangutan sanctuary) to protect and re-grow forrests about 8 hours ago
      
   
   


2. Wow, Dickenson Despommier's vision #ted of closed loop, zero waste farm systems using 70% less water, no f-fuels, pesticides or herbicides about 8 hours ago 
      
   
   


3. #ted Dickenson Despommier proposes ingenuios concept of vertical, soiless farming to solve global food crisis and protect the environment. about 8 hours ago
      
   
   


4. #ted couple of powerful, actionable ideas at TED lunch for Sylvia Earle's wish to ignite support for ocean conservation, some less so about 10 hours ago
      
   
   


5. #ted virus hunter Nathan Wolfe reminds us global air travel spreads viruses: "what happens in central Africa doesn't stay in central Africa" about 11 hours ago

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Looks like London is spreading the Stay Grounded word.
(Not sure we can take credit for this one either - but what the hell ;-)


[Thanks to @kaigani and @utku for spotting this]

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Another good reason to Stay Grounded - it might cost a pound every time you want to spend a penny. There's a storm raging on Twitter right now about Ryanair since they told the BBC they were considering charging one pound to use the toilet on flights.

The Ryanair pee fee story is one of Twitters top trending topics as we speak. Less kind Twitterers have made the ironic observation that Ryanair is already a bit like a fleet of large flying toilets. But everyone agrees that they are seriously taking the piss.

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