My apologies for the major delay since my last posting , ramifications of the global recession manifesting themselves in the termination of my internet connection.
Creative juices to follow , watch this space.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
School built from recycled newspaper!
Couple builds school with paper
2010-01-06 14:10
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Taipei - An eco-conscious couple in Taiwan has opened a small schoolhouse built with donated newspapers fed through a homemade blender, the chief architect said on Wednesday.Canadian-born John Lamorie and his Taiwanese wife, Shelly Wu, used more than 1 000 kg of newspapers, many collected from students who would turn them over for points in class, to build the 75 square metre schoolhouse."I'm very much into the way I feel about the environment, especially reusing things," said Lamorie, 59, a former building inspector. "It's something that's always been in me, a hangover from my hippie days."The project took about a year, with school now set to open ahead of schedule as news of the unusual construction method spreads in the rural area of Pingtung county in southern Taiwan where Lamorie and Wu live.After getting the idea from visiting friends, Lamorie said he built a blender using a truck bed and a lawnmower blade. Into it he fed newspapers, water and cement to form what he calls "Papercrete", the backbone of his six-inch thick school walls."Basically it's like a giant blender," he said.Students contributed about half the used newspapers for the project in exchange for "reward cards", Lamorie said.Papercrete, though patented in 1928, remains far outside the mainstream of construction materials. It can be labour-intensive and tough to use despite its environmental friendliness.The schoolhouse's walls are coated with a silicone coating to guard against rain damage. The school can accommodate about 16 students.Lamorie and Wu are now building a paper-based restaurant where they plan to cook pizzas.
2010-01-06 14:10
Print article
Email article
Taipei - An eco-conscious couple in Taiwan has opened a small schoolhouse built with donated newspapers fed through a homemade blender, the chief architect said on Wednesday.Canadian-born John Lamorie and his Taiwanese wife, Shelly Wu, used more than 1 000 kg of newspapers, many collected from students who would turn them over for points in class, to build the 75 square metre schoolhouse."I'm very much into the way I feel about the environment, especially reusing things," said Lamorie, 59, a former building inspector. "It's something that's always been in me, a hangover from my hippie days."The project took about a year, with school now set to open ahead of schedule as news of the unusual construction method spreads in the rural area of Pingtung county in southern Taiwan where Lamorie and Wu live.After getting the idea from visiting friends, Lamorie said he built a blender using a truck bed and a lawnmower blade. Into it he fed newspapers, water and cement to form what he calls "Papercrete", the backbone of his six-inch thick school walls."Basically it's like a giant blender," he said.Students contributed about half the used newspapers for the project in exchange for "reward cards", Lamorie said.Papercrete, though patented in 1928, remains far outside the mainstream of construction materials. It can be labour-intensive and tough to use despite its environmental friendliness.The schoolhouse's walls are coated with a silicone coating to guard against rain damage. The school can accommodate about 16 students.Lamorie and Wu are now building a paper-based restaurant where they plan to cook pizzas.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
When is enough... enough !
Losing the planet's biological treasures at a rate of knots , the planet's surface of which 14% was once covered by rainforest and has now diminished to a mere 6 percent and estimated to be virtually depleted in the next 50 years.
Losing an acre and a half per SECOND , (roughly a football pitch) for the purpose of logging and in the process losing over 100 species of plants, animals and insects per DAY , how many vaccines do we insist on wasting?
Since the early 1900's European colonialist's have manged to eradicate in the range of 90 indigenous tribes in and around the Amazon basin , and with them medicine men and Shaman , thousands of years of accumulated knowledge of traditional healing purely for the sake of the green back dollar.
A pseudo sense of wealth we so vehemently rely on , a system based not on truth or integrity , brotherhood or a sense of community, but rather on greed , consumerism and waste. Is the current global economic meltdown not a big enough warning sign? Is it not a clear description of how this current monetry system is flawed?
I fear the day when the average man in the emerging economies of China and India trade in their bicycles for cars, their horse and cart for motorbikes , their factories and urban sprawl eating up the countryside to sustain this illusion of wealth and social status whilst regurgitating carbon by by the truck load , fuck it who needs glaciers anyway..
If we as a society are so hell bent on accumulating wealth ( cash ) is it not possible to create a low carbon economy based on the idea of sustaining the planet , reconfiguiring business as we know it to be pro green , still to turn your anual profit ( if you so must ) but under the umbrella of a global economy that is as driven enviromentally as it is financially.
Which brings us to sustainable development which I feel is a term very loosely thrown around but until the day that our socio-economic policies have a COMPLETELY SYMBIOTIC relationship with our environmental resources we do NOT have sustainable development.
Well on that note , I thinks it's time for some Fair Trade coffee... ciao for now.
,
Losing an acre and a half per SECOND , (roughly a football pitch) for the purpose of logging and in the process losing over 100 species of plants, animals and insects per DAY , how many vaccines do we insist on wasting?
Since the early 1900's European colonialist's have manged to eradicate in the range of 90 indigenous tribes in and around the Amazon basin , and with them medicine men and Shaman , thousands of years of accumulated knowledge of traditional healing purely for the sake of the green back dollar.
A pseudo sense of wealth we so vehemently rely on , a system based not on truth or integrity , brotherhood or a sense of community, but rather on greed , consumerism and waste. Is the current global economic meltdown not a big enough warning sign? Is it not a clear description of how this current monetry system is flawed?
I fear the day when the average man in the emerging economies of China and India trade in their bicycles for cars, their horse and cart for motorbikes , their factories and urban sprawl eating up the countryside to sustain this illusion of wealth and social status whilst regurgitating carbon by by the truck load , fuck it who needs glaciers anyway..
If we as a society are so hell bent on accumulating wealth ( cash ) is it not possible to create a low carbon economy based on the idea of sustaining the planet , reconfiguiring business as we know it to be pro green , still to turn your anual profit ( if you so must ) but under the umbrella of a global economy that is as driven enviromentally as it is financially.
Which brings us to sustainable development which I feel is a term very loosely thrown around but until the day that our socio-economic policies have a COMPLETELY SYMBIOTIC relationship with our environmental resources we do NOT have sustainable development.
Well on that note , I thinks it's time for some Fair Trade coffee... ciao for now.
,
Monday, December 21, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
US, China, India and South Africa reach deal - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
US, China, India and South Africa reach deal - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009: "NEWS
US, China, India and South Africa reach dealAccording to a senior Obama administration official the United States, China, India and South Africa have reached a 'meaningful agreement' on climate change Friday evening.
Associated Press
18/12/2009 22:25
A senior Obama administration official says the US, China, India and South Africa have reached a 'meaningful agreement' on climate change.
The official characterized the deal as a first step, but said it was not enough to combat the threat of a warming planet.
Details of the deal with these emerging economies were not immediately clear.
The agreement was reached Friday at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen after a meeting among President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been officially announced. (Photo: Scanpix/New York Times)Read more"
US, China, India and South Africa reach dealAccording to a senior Obama administration official the United States, China, India and South Africa have reached a 'meaningful agreement' on climate change Friday evening.
Associated Press
18/12/2009 22:25
A senior Obama administration official says the US, China, India and South Africa have reached a 'meaningful agreement' on climate change.
The official characterized the deal as a first step, but said it was not enough to combat the threat of a warming planet.
Details of the deal with these emerging economies were not immediately clear.
The agreement was reached Friday at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen after a meeting among President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been officially announced. (Photo: Scanpix/New York Times)Read more"
Saturday's quote..
"He is richest who is content with the least , for content is the wealth of nature."
Socrates.
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