Azi am participat la prima zi a concursului de fotografie organizat de My Green City . Concursul a inceput cu 4 zile intarziere din cauza conditiilor meteo nefavorabile si a terenului inaccesibil dupa cateva minute de ploaie . Am avut parte de o prima zi interesanta in compania “ghizilor ” de ocazie care au fost “torturati” ore in sir de inspiratiile concurentilor.Primele poze le voi posta incepand cu data de 12 Noiembrie, dupa finalul concursului .

Der erste Münchner CarrotMob fand am 17.10.2009 bei idealem Einkaufswetter statt: Saukalt war’s und geregnet hat’s in Strömen. Das hielt jedoch die CarrotMobber nicht davon ab, im “Löwenzahn” in der Lindwurmstraße 135 fleißig einzukaufen.

300 Leute folgten dem Aufruf und kauften zwischen 12.00 und 15.00 Uhr für 3.400 Euro ein, so dass mehr als 1.000 Euro für Energieeffizienzmaßnahmen zusammenkommen, die ausreichen werden, um den Laden sehr klimafreundlich zu machen: Der Inhaber des “Löwenzahn” hatte ausgelobt, 30% des Umsatzes, der an diesem Nachmittag erzielt wird, in Maßnahmen zur Energieeffizienz und in Ökostrom zu stecken. Details sieht man in dem netten Video zum CarrotMob München auf YouTube.

CarrotMob München am 17.10.2009 im "Löwenzahn"

Das schöne Sortiment im “Löwenzahn” macht es einem leicht, dort viel einzukaufen. Und so brachte ich dann auch Mengen an Obst, Gemüse, Wein, Käse und andere Bio-Spezereien vom “Löwenzahn” mit nach Hause.

Lustig war es überdies. Dafür sorgten GreenCity, Naomi Lawrence von StadtGorilla, RTL, die Band leckerTrio und all die CarrotMobber, die trotz des schlechten Wetters viel Freude hatten beim Einkaufs-Happening der besonderen Art.

Ein großes Kompliment an GreenCity für die gelungene Aktion! Und ein dickes “Dankeschön”. Es hat Spaß gemacht, dabei zu sein.

In urmatoarele saptamani voi participa la un concurs organizat de Green City . Datorita minunatelor conditii atmosferice imi voi petrece foarte multe ore precum un porc intr-o cocina in cautarea ” mustei ” perfecte . Va voi tine la curent pe parcursul evenimentului.

This week brought the release of Episode 2 of Gorilla in the Greenhouse, an animated educational series from SustainLane.  Like the Earth Day debut episode, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Turn It Up Day is a great piece of work, managing to be both genuinely entertaining and informative.  Green gorilla KJ is an enigmatic environmental savant, telling the future through riddles that the kids who share his greenhouse must solve in order to ward off threats to the planet.  (And in their spare time, they have a rock band.  Of course.)

Gorilla in the Greenhouse fires on all cylinders: It teaches complex issues in a digestible way; it shows the characters taking practical action; and it even goes a little deeper, teaching kids to not buy into the hype about something just because it calls itself green, but to really learn about what’s going on behind the scenes.   More episodes are due for 2009, but there’s plenty on the site for kids to run with in the way of extra info and projects in the meantime.

Green themes for kids are cropping up all over online.  National Geographic Kids has created a web home for the Canadian series Iggy Arbuckle, about a pig forest ranger protecting the ecosystem of his park with the help of his beaver friend, Jiggers.  There’s also Meet the Greens, a series about an eco-conscious family made by WGBH, the people behind PBS favorites like Masterpiece Theatre and ZOOM.  Each, like the best of kid’s television, provides fun for children while bringing wisdom and wit that adults can enjoy, too.

There are also tons of sites with adorable eco-educational animated games.  Waterbusters! actually taught me several things about how to stem the tap at home; GreenCity lets teachers hook into what remains of the Sim craze while actually, you  know, teaching stuff; and Charlie and Lola: Look After Your Planet features the cutest, most polite, most precious recycling animated British children you’ve ever seen.  (And their dog Sizzles, too.)

Even the most cynical Al Gore pooh-pooh-er wouldn’t argue in favor of a giant swirling eddy of plastic bags in the Pacific Ocean.  Yet these sites and series aren’t political.  Rather they’re a fun way to get kids thinking about the part they play in the environment.  And adults may learn a thing or two along the way, too. 

Hey, we could all stand to be greener gorillas, couldn’t we?

One of the top nominees in the “Community” category for this year’s INDEX design awards, PowerPLANTs and PowerSEEDs as beautiful solar powered lights for public spaces. Developed by UeBERSEE, the elegant and stunning display was a response to the challenge set by the city of Pasadena to beautify the area around an active electronic power plant.

The city of Pasadena is profoundly committed to leading the way in environmental awareness and the use of renewable energy and sustainable technologies, as is well detailed on their GreenCity website. They wanted to improve the appearance of the power plant in a way that emphasized a harmonious relationship between natural resources and technology.

The PowerSEED lights are embedded in pavements to act as waymarkers and for pedestrian security. The stars of the show though have to be the PowerPLANTs – incredible, 24 metre (78.7 feet) high flexible stilts, each carrying a single solar light. The 30 thin poles are flexible, so that the lights sway in the breeze and look like some beautiful, gigantic, bioluminescent flowers. Here’s a video : click to see it!

They really are amazing. It seems to be a wonderful way of solving a practical problem in a unique and creative way, and at the same time marking the important commitments to green living and working that Pasadena as a city is making.

Amanda