Kids for Earth

Hey guys.
I’m Miho, I’m a friend of Gabriel and yes, Gabby has chained me to my laptop and threatened to kill my family if I don’t write for him recruited me to start contributing posts about the environment. The only experience I really have of writing all over the internet is a small blog I haven’t looked at for years, so bear with me if I’m too informal, too sloppy, type “LOL” or “FAIL” or basically offend you in any way. Just complain to Gabby and he’ll throw energy efficent lightbulbs at my face.

Now enough about me, more about the environment.

Recycling! Now unless you live in a hole at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that has been closed off with copious amounts of cement I’m guessing most of you guys have recycled at some point of your life. But for those of you who do live in a hole at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean etc, recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials. What? Taking something like that can I just chucked into the bin and making something useful out of it?  And since aluminium, the material used to make cans, isn’t biodegradable and burying it does nothing for anyone, wouldn’t that solve all our problems with getting rid of waste?

Mind blown.

Recycling has so many benifits it is insane that so few of us do it! We create something new and useful out of something that we would have normally chucked aside and forgotten about. Stuff doesn’t just go out of existence because we put it in the bin. It goes to a rubbish dump. And those dumps WILL get bigger and bigger if we don’t recycle. We will be stepping out our front doors and walking straight into columns of trash. Think Wall-E guys, think Wall-E. Do you want to live in a world like that? I can promise you that there won’t be any cute little robots to help us clean it up.  We have to clean up our acts, literally.

Is recycling hard? Does it require an immense amount of skill and bravery? Do you have to be mega intelligent like Gabby to do it?

That would be a no.

If you live in a condominium block like me, chances are there are recyling bins in your building as well as your average refuse bins. You can even just seperate trash and leave it in plastic bags for maintainence to recycle where I live. I can appreciate that not everyone has an efficent recyling plan where they live but if  you do, make use of it! Recycling bins are here for a reason people.

And if you’re still doubtful then think of it as a game. 5 points for every wad of paper you shoot in succesfully. 10 points for a can. You’ll probably be better off not attempting glass (But if you throw it in successfully, 50 points!) You see? Saving the world is fun!

Water is precious, yet it is being wasted or poorly managed. You can help promote water conservation by sending on this meme. If you do, simply follow these rules:

1. Create a blog entry entitled “Water Conservation Initiative”.
2. Post the Water Initiative Network’s Water Facts in your post.
3. List 3 things YOU will do to save water.
4. Add in the photo above, or any photo you have taken of a waterfall, river or lake.
5. End with the line: “Find out more about water conservation and good governance by joining the Water Initiative Network on Facebook! Visit us here at: Water Initiative Network!

~ WATER FACTS ~

1. Of every 100 drops of water on earth, 97 are too salty to drink, 2 are locked in ice and snow, and 1 is fresh water.

2. The daily requirement for sanitation, bathing, and cooking needs, as well as for assuring survival, is about 50 litres per person.

3. Reducing shower time from 20 mins to 8 mins saves up to 360 litres of water per shower.

4. A small drip from a faucet can waste as much as 75 litres of water a day.

5. Two thirds of the water used in a home is used in the bathroom. To flush a toilet, we use up to 9 litres of water.

6. Water-efficient toilets and washing machines are good ways to save water.

7. A low-tech way to save water is to form the habit of turning on the tap to low flow and turning it off when the water is not needed.

8. Non-revenue water (i.e. stolen or wasted water) constitutes 36% of water ‘used’ in Selangor, Malaysia, and this raises the cost of water for everyone.

9. Water supply infrastructure cost billions of ringgit. This money could be spent in more useful ways.

10. Large areas of forests are cleared to make way for water supply dams to accommodate our soaring demand for water. These forests and their wildlife represent our natural heritage.

~ 3 THINGS I WILL DO TO SAVE WATER~

1. I will make sure no taps or faucets drip in our house.

2. I will reduce the time I spend showering.

3. I will install dual-flush toilets when I need to replace my existing ones.

Find out more about water conservation and good governance by joining the Water Initiative Network on Facebook! Visit us here at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=282587736385&ref=nf

All right; here’s something cool.

In Malaysia, from KL to the airport, you see a lot of green. But it’s not rainforest. Palm oil plantations have reduced the thousands of ecosystems in the environment to one: the rat eats the palm oil fruit, and is eaten by the snake. When you think of the thousands of species in our rainforest, this seems pretty desolate.
And not only that, plantations do a lot of harm to the environment; the amount of fertilizers and pesticides needed to keep plants healthy does a lot of damage to the environment.

But now, we can change!

The Rainforest Alliance certified farms are farms that are checked by auditors to make sure they meet the environmental and social specifications, which include fair trade farming and minimum damage to the soil, and protection of wildlife.

If you want more information, you can visit:

http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/56785

http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/

Think you’re to young to make much of an influence? Well maybe this will make you change your mind! A 12 yr old girl called Jennifer entered a competition to design an eco friendly house. Her plans contained solar panels and floor switches. It was such a fantastic design that Jennifer not only won the competition but Redditch Low Carbon Co-operative have decided to build 2 houses using her designs! They should be finished  around 2011 Summer.