Author: Adam Clare

Iron Current Turning Green

Here’s a really cool transition from a symbol of oppression to a symbol of growth and freedom: the old Soviet Iron Curtain has turned into a nature sanctuary. How cool is that?

But when its creators mark its 20th birthday this year, they will also be celebrating the fact that 23 European countries are currently engaged in a project to make it nearly five times as long. “The aim is to turn the Iron Curtain’s entire 4,250-mile length – extending from the Arctic to the Black Sea – into what is already being called the ‘Central European Green Belt’,” says Dr Kai Frobel, a German ornithologist and conservationist.

He was the man who started it all back in 1970s. In those days, it seemed impossible that the Berlin Wall might one day fall or that the Soviet empire could crumble. But that was almost irrelevant to Frobel, now a leading member of the German nature protection group, Bund, but then a teenager from the West German village of Hassenberg, which stood nearly in the Iron Curtain’s shadow. At 13, he was an enthusiastic birdwatcher. Equipped with a pair of pre-war Zeiss binoculars, a green army surplus parka, and heavy gumboots, he used to spend most of his free time in the hilly wooded countryside of his native northern Bavaria looking for new bird sightings, which he would record in his notebook.
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An invisible trace is left by the last of the 1.3 million mines that used to litter the area. The vast majority were removed but the German authorities say they still cannot guarantee that all the Green Belt is completely mine-free. “This has its positive sides,” says Matthias Fanck, who is showing an exhibition on the Green Belt project in the former border town of Probstzella: “It means that tourists tend to stick to the paths and leave the nature reserve untouched.”

Twenty years on, the Green Belt has become an important part of Germany’s tourist industry. At strategic points along its route, visitors can call a free mobile phone number and listen to witnesses’ accounts of what the border once was. “It gives today’s generation of young Europeans an idea of what the Iron Curtain meant,” says Frobel.

9% Return on Solar Investments

In the UK it is apparently possible to get a 9% return on investing in solar panels for your house thanks to the economy and government programs. Score one for the environment and for your pocketbook.

How we achieved a 9% return on investment:
The cost of our solar power system was £17,000 but the government paid for 50% which meant it only cost us £8,500 ($13,000). A return of £590 ($903) for that amount of investment equals around 9% return if you take into account that it’s untaxed.
In this economic climate you would be hard pressed to get such a return on investment.
The future
With the cost of photovoltaic panels reducing every year, choosing to purchase solar panels is becoming even more of a sound investment choice.

I’m a Daydream Believer

Those silly monkees might have been right after all, it is good to believe in daydreamers as they might solve problems faster.

“People assume that when the mind wanders away it just gets turned off – but we show the opposite, that when it wanders, it turns on,” said Christoff, co-author of the study, and head of a neuroscience laboratory at the University of British Columbia in Western Canada.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest daydreaming might be a better way to solve problems than intense focusing.

“People who let themselves daydream might not think in the same focused way as when performing a goal-oriented task, but they bring in more mental and brain resources,” said Christoff.

She argued that now people might change their attitudes towards daydreamers.

Greenpeace’s Tissue Guide on Your Phone

The USA branch of Greenpeace have turned their Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide and turned it into an iPhone app. I hope that other Greenpeace regions do the same thing as I find myself carrying my iPhone around but carrying around an extra booklet all the time can get really annoying. If you’re in Canada, you can download the guide as PDF here.

The Guide makes it quick and easy to find out which brands of facial tissues, toilet paper, paper towels, and napkins are truly green and which should be avoided. Our experts have carefully evaluated over 100 brands and recommended those that: contain 100% overall recycled content; contain at least 50% post-consumer recycled content; and are bleached without toxic chlorine compounds.
When you’re doing your grocery shopping or just stopping by the corner store to grab a roll of toilet paper, make an informed decision as both a consumer and someone concerned about the world’s ancient forests.