US oil spill

The situation in the Gulf of Mexico and on the south coast of the USA continues to worsen following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

11 workers were killed when the oil rig exploded on 22nd April, and it is thought that upto 5000 barrels of oil a day are continuing to pour into the Gulf of Mexico. The map below (from the New York Times) shows the extent of the oil spill which has been described as a "true catastrophe", and which has caused a state of emergency to be declared in Louisiana. Click on the map to link to the interactive version on the NY Times site, and here to link to the coverage of the disaster from the Guardian.

Eco Towns

You might well have heard in the news that the go-ahead has been given for four new "eco-towns" in England. The idea is that the four new towns will provide an extra 10,000 homes by 2016, and will "showcase environmentally-friendly living" - with charging points for electric cars, zero-carbon buildings, new public transport links, and solar and wind energy.

Full story from the Guardian here, with a nice interactive to show the locations of the four new eco-towns (and the other proposed sites that were rejected).

Breathing Earth and Plug into Now...

Two fab new discoveries via Twitter (thanks @HelenNurton and @mbarrow)...

Breathing Earth

Plug into Now (also a Plug into Now widget at the bottom of the page...)

Christmas Trees?

Was amused by this cartoon from Natural News the other day...

The real or artificial Christmas tree debate is not a new one but still one that divides opinions... Vote in the poll on the right-hand side and let us know what you think!

A month without plastic... update...

Just catching up with Chris Jeavans' "Month without plastic" challenge... She's about halfway though now, and has come across a fair few difficulties - bin liners, toothbrushes and beer-can 'widgets' amongst them - but she is doing far better than I imagine I could do!

Have a read here... How do you think you'd do?

Eco-tourism in Benidorm?

Benidorm might not be the obvious choice if you are looking for an environmentally-friendly holiday...

But according to this rather interesting article from the BBC, it might be better than you think! Particularly useful reading for Yr11!

Witches' knickers?!

You will no doubt already know my feelings about plastic bags... I've written about them a number of times - and Yr8 did some fantastic work on plastic bags last year... But I've never, until this evening, heard them referred to as "witches' knickers"!! According to an excellent new article from the BBC though, that is what they are called in Ireland (where, by the way, they'll cost you 9p each in a supermarket).

Councillors in Brighton and Hove recently voted on a bag ban, asking shops to stop handing them out to customers, and the village of Modbury in Devon have been pleased with their bag ban trial and have just made the ban permanent.

Check out the BBC article to find out more - including 10 arguments FOR the plastic bag... And a great video of A Day in the Life of a Plastic Bag...

Here's a picture of the superb plastic bag collage that 8HCh (now 9NSq) produced last year...

Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day - the aim is to get bloggers all around the world posting about the same issue - THE ENVIRONMENT.



We hear stories about the environment every day in the news... melting sea ice, carbon footprints, renewable energy, extreme weather events, resources running out, deforestation, animals becoming extinct, food miles, packaging, the list goes on... Many of the posts on Geogtastic have been about environmental issues and we're increasingly being told that we should be recycling, composting, walking to work/school, buying British food, switching off lights, etc.

So... over to you... Leave a comment about the environmental issues YOU'RE concerned about... ARE you concerned about the environment? Which issue worries you most? What do you to to help the environment? What else could you do??

Is it a bird.........?

Nope - it's an artist's impression of the Wave Hub - the world's first large-scale wave farm!

The government have given the go-ahead today for this controversial project, and it is expected that the wave farm off the coast of Cornwall, which will cost £28 million and generate enough electricity for 7500 homes, will be operational by 2009.

You can read more about the project here or listen to Chris Evans' "Business Boffin" talking to one of the people behind the project. You need go here and then click on Listen Again Monday - it's about 25 minutes in.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? Or a bit mad?

DUMPED!

And while we are on the subject of rubbish and waste... On my trip to London at the weekend, I saw a billboard advertised a new Channel 4 series called DUMPED!

According to the Channel 4 website, 11 volunteers (who have agreed to take part in an "eco-challenge" but have no idea what it is) are left marooned on one of Britain's biggest landfill sites, and have to survive for three weeks on the rubbish that the rest of us throw away!

Doesn't sound like my idea of fun, but promises to be interesting (and eye-opening) viewing!

DUMPED! starts at 9pm on Sunday, on Channel 4.

Waste Watchers on The One Show

I've written before about the problem of excess packaging, and if recent reports on The One Show are anything to go by, there are plenty of other people who share my frustration...

The picture, sent in to the BBC by a viewer, shows the packaging that one supermarket think is necessary for a single banana! Other pictures, and some interesting comments, as well as video clips from the show here.

But what's the solution?? What can we do about all this packaging??

Blog Action Day

Thanks to Tony Cassidy for pointing out Blog Action Day...



Visit www.blogactionday.org to register your blog and find out more.

Green Film Competition!

Just spotted the Friends of the Earth Green Film Competition on Alan Parkinson's blog. They want people to create 60 second films exploring how we look after our planet, and use it like there is a tomorrow... Some good prizes to be had... And best of all, they've enlisted the help of my old favourite Morph to advertise it!



You've not got long til the closing date on the 20th August though, so check out the details here and get creating!

Your Climate Your Life

I've just started to explore the excellent new website from the RGS - Your Climate Your Life... The site looks at climate change, but focuses on how it is affecting our lives - what we buy, what we eat, where we live, where we go on holiday, etc.

Your Climate Your Life

World without people??

What would happen to the world if all the people disappeared? Have a look at this excellent video (thanks David and Val!)...

Turn to 30!

Val Vannet has found this excellent image... Click on the picture to find out what it's advertising, and find out why you should "turn to 30"!!

Supermarkets and their "green revolution"

Walk into any supermarket these days, and you will be bombarded with messages about buying British, and re-using your carrier bags... Part of Marks & Spencer's environmental campaign ("Plan A, Because there is no Plan B") is to encourage its customers to do their washing at 30o instead of 40o.

But why are they doing all this? I've wondered for a while now whether they actually care about the environment or whether it's all just a marketing ploy, and a conversation with one of my Yr9s today, and this really interesting article I've just found on the BBC website reveal that I am not on my own!

What do you think?

Lights out for London

Lights were switched off across London for an hour last night to encourage people to conserve energy... According to this report from the BBC, if all Londoners had switched off their lights, 380 tonnes of carbon dioxide would have been saved - enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall twice! It was the first time that the lights at Piccadilly Circus had been turned off since World War II.

Tourism threatens Antarctica

An interesting article in an excellent environmental supplement in the Times last week - well worth a read before GGA4 tomorrow!

I thought this was an interesting choice of image under the headline "Tourism threatens Antarctica" as well!!

Some other articles of interest that I found while I was looking for this:

Carbon map of Britain's most toxic cities

Big increase in hurricanes is not caused by global heating

Farming is blamed as birds take flight

Seven Days - baby boom, housing and biofuel

Build on the Green Belt and build now

(And loads more besides - www.timesonline.co.uk - all these came up when I typed "environment" into the search...)

Carbon Neutral Houses

A prototype for the UK's first zero-emissions eco-home has been unveiled today, setting the standard for all new homes in the UK...

Find out more, and take a tour on the BBC website here!

What do you think? Will all homes of the future be like this??