It was with surprise that I looked out of my central London window a few weeks ago to see a pair of blackbirds making a nest on my balcony.  Whether it was years of London blindness to nature or a sudden jolt from a distant memory of a childhood in the countryside, this was not something to be surprised about was it?  The truth of the matter is that with the exception of the odd walk on Hampstead Heath or Regents Park you see nothing but pigeons in London and here was a pair of blackbirds nesting on my balcony.

I have read the papers over the past year mourning the decline of the garden bird which has been put at a 20% decline in just 4 years so are things now on the up?  It seems that changes are afoot and while birds such as the Sparrow have declined sharply others such as some tits are on the rise.  The sharp decline of the Sparrow however is cause for concern as the Sparrow is happy living in close proximity to humans and until recently was common across our large city centres.

A number of factors affect the numbers of birds; which will always fluctuate slightly as different birds prefer different conditions.  It seems that the Sparrow has suffered particularly as gardens disappear and lack of suitable nesting sites dwindles.  Climate change also plays a part with the warmer winters “tricking” some birds into breeding too early and playing around with availability of different food sources for birds.

So what about my Blackbirds?  It seems that the wet winter might have helped them out as dry weather pushes their main food, earth worms, deep down out of reach so the wet weather has provided them worms!

What can you do to help?

With suitable nesting sites on the decline an easy way to help is the siting of a nestbox.  Nestboxes are a great substitute for holes in trees.  Also especially through these cold snaps we have been having putting out food can make all the difference.  If you are a flat dweller like me then you can now buy window feeders so even if you are gardenless you can feed the birds.  With Nesting season starting now is the perfect time to put up a nest box.  Over 60 species of birds have been known to use them.

By Ben Wigley at Biggreensmile.com

We often hear about protestors who complain about wind farms looking ‘unsightly’, spoiling the landscape, killing birds and being noisy.

Living near to a wind farm set in a nature park, we often walk past the windmills. In the seven years that we have been walking this route, we have never seen a dead bird. The noise is a low swirling and humming, which is barely audible.

There is an aesthetic beauty about them too. Not only in appearance but also conceptually in the way they convert a free resource into useful energy, without producing pollution or causing global warming.

How can this be unsightly when compared to chimneys belching out smoke, traffic jams and smogs? And what about the oil that is imported from corrupt regimes, Middle East wars and climate wreaking emissions from what is ultimately a limited and increasingly scarce resource?

We don’t understand this at all.

Eco fashion is hot. It is cool that green lifestyle is in the trend but let’s make it more than that. I hear some people say that organic cotton is already a bit over. Now it’s eco silk! Bamboo! Whatever as long as it is eco chic!

Well, there are more reasons to wear organic cotton than because of its coolness or quality. And these reasons last for longer than a fashion season. Conventional cotton kills. Worldwide thousands of people die yearly because of pesticide related illnesses. Not to speak of the children getting blind or the environmental impact of all those chemicals. There is a clear alternative: organic cotton is free of pesticides and pays off better for the farmers. And that cotton carries wonderful, positive stories.

Last year I visited organic cotton farms and production places in Turkey and Uganda. In Northern Uganda, in the region around Lira, there is as much as 27 thousand farmers growing organic cotton.

It was quite a trip from Kampala, it takes about six hours on extremely bad roads. This area has been under control of the cruel guerilla Lord’s Resistance Army until very recently. Now the area is calmer and the farmers, who lived in refugee camps, are living on their lands again. Until one, two years ago they had to go to their lands with fear and go back to the camps before the evening fell.

The farming life now looked all quite romantic to me: traditional huts, some chickens running around, people chatting or working on their fields. But of course there is a lot of extreme poorness and insecurity about life’s basics as well.

The farmers have small fields with different crops. They do not make use of irrigation, so depend on the rain seasons that occur a few times per year. Next to cotton they grow sesame, red peppers and vegetables for local consumption. The income from cotton and sesame, which is exported, gives income which the farmers can use to send their children to school or buy medicines from. From the extra income they gain with growing organic, the farmers can afford building small houses which give more security and protection.

The farmers are united in a cooperative with chosen representatives. What makes a difference here, is that the organic farmers are trained in methods to prevent their crops in a natural way. For example by planting red peppers around the cotton. Animals don’t like peppers and as a side effect you also produce peppers. Another part of growing organic is using crop rotation. The different crops use the ground differently, which keeps the soil fertile, so one does not need artificial fertilizers to pumped into the ground. The crop rotation also results in a more efficient use of the landfill and a higher production. In this way it is also more economic. And of course the non-organic farmers are very interested to see what their neighbors are doing…

In the end, the social effect of this organic cotton project might be even bigger than the ecological impact. The farmers get a guaranteed price and buy for their cotton, they get training and a organic bonus of twenty percent. This can really mean the difference for sending their children to school or having a proper housing.

Frans Prins is managing director of the Grass Routes Foundation, a young international NGO working in the field of sustainability and design. He is also one of the founders of the new, green fashion label Pamoyo. For the first collection, Pamoyo used organic cotton from Turkey and Uganda and recycled vintage elements.
www.grass-routes.org
www.pamoyo.com

It is evidently striking that there are many, many companies and services that offer a ‘green edge’. I personally am very sceptical about such arrangements…but should we be?

If a normally non-green service can donate money to a worthy cause or initiative then should we be backing them over ‘conventional’ services. The question I think we have to wrestle with is this….”WE KNOW that its (normally) just cynical PR to get us to buy their product/service over that of a rival company…rather than a real desire to help make the world a greener place”. So do we allow ourselves to get suckered in?

Well. I think the best advice is always read the small print. Try and check out who they are affiliated with (if you are not sure, you could always talk with the Ethical Research Association). You probably wouldn’t be too happy if you were buying green car insurance from a company backed by Exxon! However, in general I think it is a good idea to use their affiliation as a rule of thumb. If they are affiliated with say WWF, Rainforest Alliance, RSPB etc (or an organisation that is a real bona fide environmental organisation) then you should use that service over a similar no green affiliated service. Well known green charities do not lend their names to ’shady partners’! However, if the so called green service is offering glib claims, like British GS did, of how their service is carbon neutral or helping to save greenhouse gases etc…then beware!

Are you tired of the boiler plate, run of the mill action emails steadily filling your inbox? Sure you want to help out—you want to change the world, end the war, save the environment, and so on—but does it have to be so boring? Skim the petition, enter your information and details, maybe email some friends; rinse, repeat.

What if instead of the standard request to sign a petition or donate to the cause, you were asked to play a game? Does an interactive and entertaining way to make a difference online sound too good to be true? It isn’t. Environmental action games of various shapes and sizes for all sorts of causes have been popping up all over the web and are beginning to make appearances in many online activists’ inboxes. You can help save whales, learn to reduce waste, calculate your carbon footprint, and my personal favorite–learn about and help bring an end to overfishing.

These games range in complexity and scope and can vary widely in the levels of entertainment and education that they provide. Many of the more entertaining games function in a simple arcade style, there are several games in this mode based on fishing practices in which you control a fish attempting to avoid various hazards and fishing gear. Other environmental action games work on more of a simulation model where the player makes a series of choices and is presented with the consequences of their decisions. While informative, this style doesn’t lend itself to repeated play or function as an interesting break from the daily grind, the way some of the action games do–with features like high score tracking and an increasing level of difficulty as you progress.

The best environmental action games are entertaining, re-playable, and informative. Whats the point to a game that isn’t any fun? Perhaps more importantly how can you create change without educating your audience? When these two qualities are combined to create an effective environmental action game the drudgery of filling out petitions and sending emails can be alleviated. You can have fun while making a difference online!

Three environmental action games to try:

• Whales Revenge is currently the leader of the pack, having generated over 1 million comments to date largely because it’s so fun to play. Its a bit like Missile Defense except with harpoons instead of bombs and bubble blasts instead of missiles. While Whales Revenge has done a remarkable job of collecting signatures and will help you wile away some time, you won’t learn anything by playing it.
• The Garbage Game has you make personal choices regarding a variety of common disposables, then you get to play garbage commissioner for New York City and decide where all that waste and recycling will go. This game is both interesting and informative, but it won’t have you coming back for more.
• Ocean Survivor lets you take control of a bluefin tuna cruising the seas and trying to avoid ending up in a net or on a hook. This game is fun to play, tracks high scores (you get to leave your name just like on Ms Pacman back in the day), and will also teach you about the fishing practice that eventually snags you.

What green games have you played recently?

- Henry Coppola

After a successful weekend at the south bank, the WWF giant boat & plane with thousands of names on them have been delivered to the House of Parliament. Let’s hope that MPs will get the message and support a truly effective Climate Change Bill.

Hello.

I’m Asi and I’m really happy to be part of the Green Guys Global team. I’m a strategist at Poke and I will mostly write about green marketing stuff and tell you about really nice environmental campaigns.

In my first post here I’d like to tell you about something I’m personally involved with – the WWF Get on Board campaign to strengthen the UK Climate Change Bill.

The UK is leading the field by introducing legislation committing us to reduce our CO2 emissions by 2050, but the WWF along with many others are pressing for deeper cuts and clear targets. Poke have focused on one seemingly crazy omission from the calculation of CO2 emissions – namely that the emissions from international aviation and shipping are currently excluded from the calculations.

As aviation is the fastest growing source of UK emissions, it’s got to be bonkers to leave it out. We’re going to be making a rather large paper plane and boat to highlight this issue, and are hoping to take them from Gabriel’s Wharf where it will be exhibited for the whole weekend – 15th-18th November – to The Houses of Parliament – which should get some attention!

The people who sign the petition will have their names printed on the giant boat or plane so please go and sign up and tell your mama and sista and friends to support us as well.

We’ve been working with some lovely people who support the WWF and for celebrating my first post here, I’ll show you an exclusive outtakes/blooper video footage that will make you laugh…you can watch it here