Earth Day 2011 (22nd of April)

Earth Day 2011: A Billion Acts of Green®

Description

In recognition of the power of millions of individual actions, Earth Day 2011 will be organized around A Billion Acts of Green®: Personal, organizational and corporate pledges to live and act sustainably.  At over 45 million actions to date, A Billion Acts of Green® campaign – the largest environmental service campaign in the world – is steadily building commitments by individuals, corporations, and governments in honor of Earth Day.  A Billion Acts of Green® inspires and rewards both simple individual acts and larger organizational initiatives that further the goal of measurably reducing carbon emissions and supporting sustainability.  The goal is to register one billion actions in advance of the Earth Summit in Rio in 2012.  A Billion Acts of Green® website quantifies acts of green through an easy-to-use online registration tool.  A Billion Acts of Green® demonstrates the kind of environmental impact that can be made when millions of people, corporations and organizations make commitments, both small and large, to better their environment.

Elements of the 2011 Earth Day campaign include:

• Athletes for the Earth: Bringing the voices of Olympic and professional athletes to the environmental movement
• The Canopy Project: Supporting global reforestation
• Green Schools: Greening America’s Schools within a Generation
• Women and Green Economy (WAGE)™: Engaging women leaders in the creation and development of a global green economy
• Creating Climate Wealth: Convening 200 of the world’s entrepreneurs to solve climate change and create a new green economy
• Arts for the Earth: Celebrating the work of environmental artists in all media, and partnering with the American Association of Museums to bring sustainability to museums nationwide

Athletes for the Earth™: Bringing the voices of Olympic and professional athletes to the environmental movement, Athletes for the Earth™ has a proven track record in illustrating the interaction of athletes with their environment and connecting popular athletic activities with environmental stewardship.  Participating athlete/celebs include Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Demong, Olympic Bronze Medalist Andrew Weibrecht, World Champion Freeskier and founder of the Save Our Snow Foundation Alison Gannett, Boston Bruins Defenseman Andrew Ference, Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Aaron Peirsol, and NFL linebacker Dhani Jones.

The Canopy Project: In 2010, Earth Day Network planted over 1 million trees in 16 countries under the Avatar Home Tree Initiative. In 2011, EDN will continue that effort with another 1 million trees in large-scale, sponsor‐supported tree-planting projects in partnership with non‐profit organizations throughout the world. Locations where reforestation is most urgently needed include Haiti, Brazil, Mexico and urban areas of the US.  Help us green our future, one million trees at a time.

Women and the Green Economy (WAGE)™: To accelerate and provide the new thinking and creative power for a global post-carbon economy, Earth Day Network is engaging women business, government and NGO leaders in its “Women and the Green Economy” (WAGE™) campaign. Our goal is to create a policy agenda for Rio+20 and relevant generate national initiatives that will promote the green economy, secure educational and job training opportunities for women and channel green investment to benefit women.

Arts for the Earth™: Arts for the Earth is an innovative education program developed to teach sustainability and environmental education through museum and arts community networks.

Head on over to the official website of this event to learn more. :)

World Water Day 2011

International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.

An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day. Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. The theme of this year's celebration is Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge.

This is the first time in human history that most of the world's population live in cities: 3.3 billion people ...and the urban landscape continues to grow.

38% of the growth is represented by expanding slums, while the city populations are increasing faster than city infrastructure can adapt.

The objective of World Water Day 2011 is to focus international attention on the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems.

This year theme, Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge, aims to spotlight and encourage governments, organizations, communities, and individuals to actively engage in addressing the defy of urban water management.

To learn more about World Water Day in general, do head on over to the main website of this annual celebration. To learn more about this year's celebration, do pay a visit to the official page of this year's celebration. All the information found in this blog post were sourced from the aforementioned webpages.

SNAPSHOT-Developments after major Japan earthquake

TOKYO | Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:34am EDT

(Reuters) - Following are main developments after a massive earthquake struck northeast Japan on Friday and set off a tsunami.

- Death toll expected to exceed 10,000 from the quake and tsunami, public broadcaster NHK says. About 2,000 bodies found on two shores of Miyagi prefecture, Kyodo news agency reports.

- Japan battles to prevent nuclear catastrophe. A hydrogen explosion jolts the No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. Operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) (9501.T) says 11 people were injured.

- Before the blast, officials said 22 people had suffered radiation contamination. Up to 190 may have been exposed.

- Nuclear fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor are fully exposed, news agency Jiji says, meaning a meltdown cannot be ruled out. This would raise the risk of a radioactive leak. TEPCO begins reinjecting water into the reactor in the hope of cooling it.

- Nuclear safety agency rates the incident a 4 on the 1 to 7 International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, less serious than Three Mile Island, a 5, and Chernobyl at 7.

* Switzerland's energy minister says suspends approvals process for three nuclear power stations so safety standards can be revisited. German Chancellor Angela Merkel intends to announce the suspension of her previous decision last year to extend the life of nuclear power plants, a German news website reports.

- U.S. warships and planes helping relief efforts have moved away from Japan's Pacific coast temporarily because of low-level radiation.

- Authorities have set up a 20-km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant and a 10-km (6 mile) zone around Fukushima Daini.

- Strong aftershocks persist in the stricken area.

- About 450,000 people evacuated nationwide in addition to 80,000 from the exclusion zone around the nuclear power plants. Almost 2 million households are without power in the freezing north and about 1.4 million households have no running water.

- Reactor operator says rolling blackout to affect 3 million customers, including large factories, buildings and households.

- Japan's Nikkei share index falls more than 6 percent, dragging European stocks to their lowest in three months.

- The Bank of Japan (BoJ) offers to pump a record $85 billion into the banking system.

- Credit Suisse estimates the loss at between 14 trillion yen and 15 trillion yen just to the quake region.

(Tokyo bureau; World Desk Asia, Singapore)

Earthquake devastates Japan

Country hit by worst earthquake in its recorded history, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and many missing

• Justin McCurry in Osaka and Tania Branigan in Beijing
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 March 2011 19.38 GMT

Yokohama residents panic as earthquake shakes Japan Link to this video

More than 1,000 people were believed dead and many more missing after the worst earthquake in Japan's records struck its north-east coast, unleashing a 10m-high tsunami, setting towns ablaze and sparking a nuclear emergency. The 8.9-magnitude shock triggered tsunami alerts and evacuations across the Pacific region, with Russia, the Philippines and Hawaii all moving vulnerable citizens to higher ground.

As dawn broke this morning, the full scale of the damage began to emerge. In one of the worst-hit residential areas, people buried under rubble could be heard calling out "Help" and "When are we going to be rescued?", Kyodo news agency reported. TV footage showed staff at one hospital waving banners with the words "Food" and "Help" from a rooftop.

The earthquake rocked buildings 235 miles away in Tokyo and experts said it was around 8,000 times more powerful than the recent New Zealand quake. Footage on Japan's state broadcaster NHK showed apocalyptic images of the ensuing tsunami sweeping homes, ships and trucks across the land and of buildings burning in the night.

There were unconfirmed reports of 88,000 people missing. Police said they had found 200-300 bodies in a coastal area of devastated Sendai city. Another 137 died elsewhere, with 539 injured and 351 missing. In other developments:

• Officials evacuated 3,000 people when a nuclear plant's cooling system failed, and Japan's trade minister warned of a possible of a radiation leak. Levels inside the plant have surged to 1,000 times normal. A state of emergency was issued at a second nuclear plant early this morning.

• The coastal town of Kesennuma was hit by widespread fires and one-third of the city was under water.

• Emergency response teams were searching for four missing commuter trains and a ship with 80 workers on board.

Japan's prime minister, Naoto Kan, urged people to help their neighbours and to try to minimise damage, as his the country attempted to come to terms with the destruction. "We ask the people of Japan to exercise the spirit of fraternity, help each other and act fast," he said.

Barack Obama said the earthquake was "a potentially catastrophic disaster". He warned citizens on the west coast of America to heed warnings to evacuate coastal areas. "Do as you are told," he said.

The quake happened at 2.46pm local time (5.46am GMT), about six miles below sea level and 78 miles off the east coast of Japan. The shock was felt as far away as Beijing.

Aftershocks continued for hours after the first tremor, many of more than magnitude 6.0. Joseph Tame, a Briton living in Tokyo, said concrete buildings shook as if they were made of jelly and high-rises swayed back and forth as the quake hit.

Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate prefectures further north bore the brunt of the damage from the shock and the ensuing tsunami. Muddy torrents swept across embankments, tearing buildings from their foundations. Houses blazed as they were carried along by waves, and vehicles smashed into walls and roads, only to be dragged back out to sea as the water reversed its course. Ships crashed into harbours and footage showed a vessel struggling to escape a giant whirlpool.

In Sendai the wave carried everything in its path across miles of farmland. Thick mud, choked with cars, buses and even light planes, inundated the airport.

In Onahama, the Tokyo Electric Power Co said pressure inside the no 1 reactor at its Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant was rising, heightening the risk of a radiation leak, Japanese media reported early Saturday local time. The company was taking measures to release the pressure, the report added. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, revealed that the American air force had flown in emergency supplies of coolant. Officials earlier evacuated 3,000 residents after the cooling system stopped working. Shaun Burnie, a consultant to the nuclear industry and former head of nuclear campaigns at Greenpeace International, said there was a very real risk of a leak if nuclear fuel inside the reactor core was left to heat up to unsafe levels. "This is a serious situation which could get very much worse. The last thing the people of Japan need after the tragedy of this earthquake and tsunami is a nuclear catastrophe."

Much of Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people in Miyagi prefecture, was ablaze, NHK said. Japan's coastguard said it was searching for 80 dock workers on a vessel swept away from a shipyard in Miyagi. Across the north-east roads buckled, pylons toppled and buildings collapsed. Airports closed and rail services came to a standstill across much of the country. "Our initial assessment indicates that there has already been enormous damage," the chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, said.

Phone voice services were out of order in much of the north-east, but data services allowed some people to contact friends and relatives. London-based Naoya Tatsuzawa said his 74-year-old father had sent an email saying he was trapped on the roof of a building north of Sendai city.

"As far as I know he was in good spirits and they were supporting each other, but it has been snowing and is very cold. It must be awful," he said. David Halton in Sendai said via Twitter: "Broken buildings. People without electricity. It's freezing."

In Tokyo millions were stranded as train services closed. Many spent the night at shelters in schools and other public buildings. Four million were without power.

Across the Pacific, scores of countries were on tsunami alert, with experts expressing particular concern about low-lying islands. Warnings were later lifted for many locations including Australia and New Zealand but experts warned that successive waves could grow larger through the day.

The US geological survey said the shock was the biggest earthquake to hit Japan since records began in the late 1800s. Japan is one of the most seismically active countries and this shock was one of several to have struck the north-east this week, including one of magnitude 7.3 on Wednesday. In 1933 a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people.The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki moon, has pledged it will do "all it can to mobilise humanitarian assistance". David Cameron told a press conference in Brussels: "We stand ready to help in any way that we can."

Will My Plastic Bag Still Be Here in 2507?

How scientists figure out how long it takes your trash to decompose.

By Juliet LapidosPosted Wednesday, June 27, 2007, at 6:20 PM ET

How long will those bags last?Starting July 1, most large grocery stores in the state of California will be legally required to recycle plastic shopping bags. In Europe, even stricter anti-plastic measures are gaining traction. Retailers in Modbury, England, for example, recently committed to an outright plastic-bag ban. News reports have cited a statistic that the ubiquitous receptacles take 500 years to break down in landfills. How do we know?Actually, we don't. Plastic bags have only been around for about 50 years, so there's no firsthand evidence of their decomposition rate. To make long-term estimates of this sort, scientists often use respirometry tests. The experimenters place a solid waste sample—like a newspaper, banana peel, or plastic bag—in a vessel containing microbe-rich compost, then aerate the mixture. Over the course of several days, microorganisms assimilate the sample bit by bit and produce carbon dioxide; the resultant CO₂ level serves as an indicator of degradation.

So, where does the 500-year statistic come from? Although standard polyethylene bags don't biodegrade, they do photodegrade. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, polyethylene's polymer chains become brittle and start to crack. This suggests that plastic bags will eventually fragment into microscopic granules. As of yet, however, scientists aren't sure how many centuries it takes for the sun to work its magic. That's why certain news sources cite a 500-year estimate while others prefer a more conservative 1,000-year lifespan. According to some plastics experts, all these figures are just another way of saying "a really, really long time."

Sometimes, even banana peels don't decompose once they reach the landfill. For sanitary reasons, modern landfills are lined on the bottom with clay and plastic to keep waste from escaping into the soil and are covered daily with a layer of earth to reduce odor. The landfill, then, acts like a trash tomb—the garbage within receives little air, water, or sunlight. This means that even readily degradable waste objects, including paper and food scraps, are more likely to mummify than decompose.

Man's Best Friend... Abused?

Toy poodle abusers still not found

LIVE THE MOMENT
By DAWN JEREMIAH

IT amazes me how law enforcement authorities deal with criminal offenses sometimes. Really, what does it take for them to start moving and get something done? How difficult is it to investigate or even catch the culprits whose names, addresses and even car number plates have been tipped off to them?

Most of you would have already read or heard about this, but for those not in the know, I am talking about the havoc surrounding the toy poodle abuse video that has gone viral from Facebook, to YouTube and around the world.

The video was first uploaded on Facebook on Jan 21 by an individual who has requested to remain unnamed. The video was downloaded and went viral soon after. I first read about it in Singapore Straits Times’STOMP website on Jan 24; thumbs up to them for being quick on their feet, highlighting such an appalling case of animal cruelty.

Although animal abuse is something that I absolutely cannot tolerate, I just had to watch it. And watched it, I did. I will spare you the heartbreaking details but let’s just say there was a lot of slapping, punching, pushing, shoving, slamming, throwing and kicking.

All this just to “train” the poor puppy to stand on its hind legs. The toy poodle was called by the name “Sushi” in the video and measures only about one and a half feet tall.

Cruel: The YouTube footage showing a man abusing the poodle by trying to get it to stand on its hind feet.

Which makes me question the mentality of the dog owners. Who, in their right mind, would insist that a dog uses two legs instead of four? Don’t they know that dogs can’t do that, even more so, for a long period of time? Who are they to defy nature?

To avoid cases like this from happening again, how do we ensure that dog owners take proper care of their pets? There is no real way of assuring that, as even children get physically and emotionally abused by their own parents.

Remember back in October 2010, a photo of two teenage boys hanging a dog on a string surfaced? That photo caused an uproar after a popular local actress posted the photo on her Twitter account. Sure, that gesture got everyone talking about it. But alas, that was an outdated photo from many years ago and the two boys were found out to be Mexican, not even Malaysian.

But this time, it is definitely apparent that the abusers of the toy poodle are Malaysian, from their localised Mandarin and Cantonese accents that could be heard throughout the duration of the 15-minute video.

To date, over a thousand concerned Malaysians have signed an online petition to catch the culprits. They also launched an elaborate investigation on Facebook, scanning walls, friends lists, photos and putting two and two together, of who the abusers may be. All that was done within a day and there were many leads to the names and identities of the abusive couple.

The alleged dog owner even had many photos in her Facebook profile showing the toy poodle named “Sushi” standing up.

There was also another unnamed dog who appeared in several photos, standing up. Who knows the amount of abuse that went behind each photo. There were also photos of her in an outfit, which was identical to an outfit seen in the video, strewn on the floor.

The Facebook investigators also identified the alleged abuser in some of her photos, pointing out the similarities in hair style, hair colour and the fact that both the abuser in the video and the man in the photo wore identical gold rings on their right index fingers.

Authentic or not, this is as far as laymen can go. What else is there to do, take matters into our own hands?

It pains me to ponder on whether the authorities are being selective in their cases. Are we that shorthanded in manpower? Animal abuse using brute force happens all the time, and this was just one of the cases that just happened to be caught on video.

Perhaps the video wasn’t moving enough for them? Perhaps they didn’t even bother to watch the video?

I think it is great that the SPCA Selangor, Malaysian Animal Rights Society, Malacca Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Veterinary Services Department are taking some form of action to track down the abusers.

As much as we want the guilty parties to face the law, it would be helpful if the call for the maximum fine of RM50,000 for animal abusers gets approved, instead of the miserable RM200 from 1953. Just watch the video and look into Sushi’s big brown eyes begging you to help him.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=central&file=/2011/1/29/central/7895968

Australia floods: Brisbane braces for surge

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A huge search-and-rescue operation was mounted, with helicopters winching people to safety. Many residents clung for their lives to trees or railings, or were trapped in cars or on the roofs of buildings.

At least two of the dead were children, and Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned that the death toll is likely to rise.

Ms Bligh called the flash floods Queensland's "darkest hour" since the floods began at the end of November.

"This has been a night of extraordinary events," Ms Bligh told a news conference on Tuesday.

"We've seen acts of extreme bravery and courage from our emergency workers. We know they're out on the front line desperately trying to begin their search-and-rescue efforts, and we know we have people stranded and people lost," she said.

She called the event "a complete freak of nature", saying the flooding had come "out of nowhere".

Toowoomba mayor Peter Taylor told BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday: "We're working 24 hours a day responding on a emergency number for people who need any assistance in terms of evacuation."

Toowoomba resident Charlie Green told the BBC he was stranded by the floods.

"It would be ironic if it wasn't so tragic," he said. "Toowoomba sits in the cradle of an extinct volcano about 2,000ft (610m) above sea level, and we have just endured 10 years of drought, unable even to wash our cars with town water for the last several years."

The flooding has been so widespread that while some communities are still bracing themselves for the worst, in others the clean-up is well under way.

The forecast is for more rain to come, and there are reports of flooding in neighbouring New South Wales.

Are you in Toowoomba or Brisbane? Have you been affected by the flooding in Queensland? You can send us your stories and experiences using the form below.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to61124 (UK) or +44 7725 100 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here

World: Americas Floods devastate Central America

A child crosses a flooded street in Tegucigalpa

By Mike Lanchin in San Salvador
Torrential rain, flooding and mudslides across central America have left at least 14 dead over the past few days and thousands of farmers' crops and properties ravaged.
The bad weather has been blamed on a low pressure belt left by Hurricane Floyd. It comes almost a year after Hurricane Mitch wreaked chaos on the region leaving more than 20,000 dead, mostly notably in Honduras and Nicaragua.

Crossing a flooded road in El Salvador

The emergency services have been on alert in both Honduras and El Salvador since late Thursday, when driving rain began threatening a repeat of Hurricane Mitch.
Four people have been reported killed so far in Honduras as the country's air force has been mobilised to evacuate stranded communities.
Honduran President Carlos Flores has called on people to remain calm.
There has not been a repeat of the dramatic scenes of flooding in much of the Honduran capital which we saw during Mitch.
But one of the city's main roads was under water at one stage on Friday due to blocked drains as rain water poured down from the neighbouring hillsides.
A luxury hotel's first floor was also flooded.
Evacuation
In neighbouring El Salvador many of the 2,000 people evacuated last weekend from coastal areas in eastern Usulatan when flash floods left four people dead have decided to stay put in their temporary refuges.

Cleaning up in Tegucigalpa

Two people died on Friday when their car was washed away by a river that broke its banks in the southern Salvador import town of La Libertad.
In Guatemala and Nicaragua there are also reports of casualties and damage from the storms.
In Nicaragua traffic along the main Pan American highway was interrupted by flooding.
So far the situation in Central America has not been as serious as further north in Mexico where the emergency services have reported 25,000 people having been evacuated due to storm flooding.
But with more rain forecast for the whole region in the next few hours the authorities are warning that the worse may not yet be over.

6 Steps to a Greener Kitchen

It has been said many times: "The kitchen is the heart of the home"; however, the kitchens of this planet will become the heart of the planet, so might as well make it a healthy heart, and start keeping a green kitchen.

In fact, a greater number of families are becoming more conscientious about the need to care for the planet and its resources, and perhaps the best place to start is in the kitchen. Start with the basics -- the cleaning products. Start replacing conventional products with environmentally friendly and biodegradable cleaning supplies.
These days, as more companies put out environmentally safe products, the prices are going down. Some oldies that our mothers and grandmothers used have been green products for a long time. Other families might want to take the approach of using everyday staples to clean their home, such as vinegar, baking soda, orange peel as an atomizer and room freshener, or lavender.
Another way to keep a green kitchen is by paying attention to the four R's: reduce, reuse, re-purpose, and recycle -- in that order. Before something goes into the recycling bin, it is important to ask ourselves if it can be reused first. An old pot and a piece of rubber mat can become a planter. And since a brand new pot is going to replace it, it is better to buy one that is made out of recycled materials. Every kitchen tool can be replaced like that, eventually.
Large appliances should be disposed of according to your town's regulations, after they have served out their life in the kitchen. Replacements should be energy-efficient models.
Often, one of the hardest areas for families to go green is the shopping. This is because most people have favorite brands, and sometimes those are not made by green companies. Paper towels are a good example -- some are not made from sustainable sources and waste trees. A solution to that is to change to a green brand, which now is easily available, or to use cloth rags instead, which can be washed many times and reused, and they are readily available at home. Old clothes can be cut for that purpose (if not, they can be donated to charity).
Some food items do not come in environmentally friendly packaging. Buying products that do is a better choice for starting a green kitchen. Buying fruits and vegetables directly from farmers means food tends to be fresher and healthier, and this helps the local economy as well. Planting and growing your own vegetables is another way of going green.
Meat has been a contentious issue, since many farms and big corporations have been exposed by PETA and other activists for cruelty to animals. If you cannot go vegan or vegetarian, buying your meats from local, organic sources is better. Free-range farms can offer a good choice to supermarket meats and eggs that contain hormones and chemicals. Some organic items and free-range items can be found at supermarkets.
Last, installing a water filtration system instead of buying bottled water is one of the most important things people can do to help the planet. Even a Brita pitcher will do.
These are some ideas to get you started toward keeping a green kitchen.

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/going-green/community-tips/greener-kitchens#ixzz1B68468xg

A Week's Worth of New Year's Resolutions for a Lifetime of Change

The key to making New Year's resolutions stick is to form new habits. We have seven ideas – one for each day of the week – to help you eat better, exercise more and otherwise live better in 2011.

By Dan Shapley

The New Year's resolutions you keep are those that become new habits. How do you create new habits? One of the best ways is to break down your larger goals – whether that's bettering your health, as it so often is after holiday binging, bettering yourself or bettering the world at large – into bite-sized mantras and rules.

The larger goal has to be meaningful – you have to really want it – and the stepwise goals have to be specific and achievable. (I will lose weight by eating a healthier diet … by swapping my afternoon cookie habit for the habit of an afternoon carrot.)

It can be hard to tackle many goals at once, but here's one strategy: Identify one thing to focus on each day of the week, and before long the devotion to each day's goal will infuse the whole week's activities. Here are some of our favorite ideas:

Meatless Mondays
You're convinced that a vegetarian diet – or at least a diet with more vegetables than the one you eat today – is healthier for you and the planet, but despite the evidence, you can't get on board with such a big change in your diet. So just go meatless on Mondays. It's a growing nationwide trend with its own organization and Website. Eating vegetarian one day a week will give you the space you need to get comfortable with new vegetarian recipes, and before you know it, you'll be eating more vegetarian meals throughout the week.

Need some help? Try one of these, our picks for the best sustainable cookbooks and food books of 2010.

Trashy Tuesdays
Take a cue from New York City schools, which started Trayless Tuesdays as a way to experiment with reducing the number of polystyrene (Styrofoam) trays thrown out in its cafeterias. Focus your attention on Tuesdays on your personal waste stream – at mealtime, at home, at work, at the grocery store, at play. Just like time, waste is money: You can learn a lot about how you're wasting money, as well as energy and natural resources, if you examine what you're throwing out each day. (Try The Green Cheapskate's trashcan autopsy if you don't believe it.)

Why not start at home, with a DIY energy audit, which will help you identify how you're wasting energy so you can spend a future Tuesday weatherizing your home.

Wacky Wednesdays
If you're like us at The Daily Green, you love the idea of DIY creativity and self-sufficiency, but you struggle to find the time to start and complete new projects. The solution? Set aside a couple hours every week to give yourself the time to create. Whether you're making gifts, turning trash into crafts or hacking your home to boost its value and efficiency, the key ingredient of success is time.

Draw inspiration from these cool green DIY projects from Instructables.com.

Thankful Thursdays
So much of life's anxieties – especially when it comes to goal-setting – is focused on what we're not doing well, and what we're not doing right. Take the time once a week to relax and appreciate what you have. Spend time with family or friends, write a letter – or reflect on all the progress you're making on those other resolutions.

Fruitful Fridays
Did you know that three-quarters of Americans don't eat enough fruits and vegetables? At a minimum, U.S. health agencies recommend eating three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit every day. Even if you are in the minority of Americans that achieves this goal, it can't hurt to diversify with new fruits and vegetables that have different phytonutrients. So make Fridays a day to try a new fruit or vegetable – and make it a fresh seasonal fruit or veggie whenever possible for the best flavor and nutritional profile.

Start now by trying these recipes from the winter farmers' market.

Get Outside Saturdays
Most of us start the New Year with some sort of exercise goal – whether it's hitting the floor for some pushups, or the gym for a daily workout. But for those of us who have tried and failed to make exercise a part of our routines, a big problem is fatigue – not physical fatigue, but mental. The treadmill isn't any more exciting on Saturday than it was on Friday. So start an exercise regimen, or spice up your existing routine, with a regular workout outdoors. Whether it's biking on a new rail trail, hiking at a forest preserve or ice skating on a local pond, adding an element of exploration to your week will deepen your connection with the outdoors while improving your health – naturally.

Check these 6 sites to find a new local hike or other outdoors activity close to your home.

Good Samaritan Sundays
Generosity takes practice, just like anything else. Make good works a habit by doing one new good deed once a week. Maybe it's volunteering (or planning a volunteer vacation), donating money (or even cell phones, clothes or other items) or just lending a hand to a neighbor. Whatever it is, you can make doing good a habit in 2011 by doing one good deed once a week.

Join the discussion about New Year's resolutions on Facebook.

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/2011-new-years-resolutions#ixzz1AWKoGmXA

What is Bio Enzyme

Garbage enzyme is the solution to recover our ozone layer and lower the global temperature. Discover the endless benefits of this Earth-saving enzyme you can make in your kitchen. It is rewarding to heal the Earth.

Save Money:

Turn kitchen waster to DIY natural household cleaners.

Multiple Usage:

Natural household cleaner; air purifier; deodoriser; insecticide; detergent; body care; car care; organic fertiliser, etc

Reduce Pollution:

methane gas released from disposed garbage can trap 21 times more heat than CO2, worsen the global warming condition.

Purify Air:

Remove odour. Dissolve toxic air released from smoking, car exhaust, chemical residues from household products, etc.

Purify Underground Water:

Enzyme that flow underground will eventually purify the river and the sea.

Natural Pesticides:

Reduce mosquitoes, flies, rats or cockroaches, etc

Anti-bacterial and Virus:

Natural antiseptic for your home

Prevent Drainpipe Blockage:

Release residues accumulated in the pipe of basins or toilet bowls. 

Garbage Enzyme...

is a complex solution produced by fermentation of fresh kitchen waster (fruits and vegetables dregs), sugar (brown sugar, jiggery or molasses sugar) and water. It is dark brown and has a strong sweet sour fermented scent. Garbage enzyme is a multipurpose liquid and its applications covers household, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. Garbage enzyme is developed by Dr. Rosukon from Thailand. She has been actively involved enzyme research for more than 30 years and encourages people to make garbage enzyme at home to ease global warming.

Change Climate

From day one you start making garbage enzyme, its catalyses process will release ozone gas (O3). O3 can reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and heavy metal that traps heat in the cloud. Hence heat can be released from the Earth, reducing greenhouse and global warming effects.
Enzyme converts ammonia to nitrate (NO3), a natural hormone and nutrient for plants. Meanwhile it converts carbon dioxide to carbonate (CO3) which is beneficial to sea plant and marine life.