Very cool news from Mexico! According this Reuters article Mexico City is planing to improve the environment by turning 9,300 square meters of publicly owned roof space each year with grass and bushes to help prevent global warming by absorbing CO2. The city will also offer tax reductions for companies or individuals who want to do the same with their buildings. Mexico City is known for all the pollution so I hope this will help the problem as nature really is the best at cleaning up our mess.
This is a really great initiative from the Major of Mexico City (he is also building bicycle paths and provide some car-free roads on weekends).
While reducing CO2 levels is important this could be taken to next level by using the same method to create urban gardening/farming. Think about all the food that could be produced on the top of buildings. With the rising prices of food this might happen without the help of the government since people will have to do it out necessity. Locally produced food also helps reducing CO2 since you don’t have to ship the food across the planet. Read more about urban gardening on this site.
For a long time I have been thinking about learning one more language to supplement my knowledge of the English and Norwegian languages. I find languages fascinating and it can be very helpful to learn a new language if I were to seek a job in another country. Learning languages is also a lot of fun and you get a good insight in other cultures and traditions.
One website that helps you to learn foreign languages is Transparent Language (transparent.com) where they offer courses in many different languages including Japanese, Arabic, Italian, Swedish and so on. They have individual web pages for each language, including a Learn Spanish page. On these pages from Transparent Language you can buy language courses, get information about the languages, take quizzes / tests, you can listen to the Word of the Day and other helpful features.
Transparent Language got a wide variety of Learning Software both as downloadable software and software that they can physically ship to you. With these software packages you will get help to learn new languages at a pace that is suitable for you.
They are supporting over 100 languages and even got learning software that are fitting kids.
If you are having problems with the software Transparent Language have technical support that is open Monday to Friday during business hours (9:00AM – 5:00PM Eastern time). There is also an extensive FAQ (frequently asked questions) where you get answers to the most common questions about the different services that Transparent Language has to offer.
French is a language I want to learn because I love the way it sounds and I’m planing to travel to France soon. It would be nice to communicate with local people using their own language.
Transparent Language got an entire section on their site called Learn to Speak French where you can choose between different language courses depending on your skill level.
This could be some really bad news for the environment in Australia. According an article on cairns.com.au Roger Bradbury, a professor at Australian National University, predicts that if the over fishing at the Great Barrier Reef continues it will turn into a dead zone filled with slimy creatures. He says that the large marine species are keeping in check jellyfish and algae. If the large species were to disappear or the populations are heavily reduced “you get an ocean that’s like swarms of jellyfish, blooms of algae,” Roger Bradbury said.
The professor want to immediately phase out the commercial fishing at the Great Barrier Reef to save the remaining stocks, but of course those who decide are a bit skeptical to stop the fishing. Fishing = big money.
When I read this article I kept thinking about if this could happen here in Northern Norway too. Last year no big shoals of coalfish came into our fjord and that is the first year I have ever experienced that. Some fishermen claimed that this was because there was a big bloom of algae. Could it be that the bloom of algae was caused by over fishing? This spring I have also observed massive quantities of jellyfish swimming around which I find a bit worrying.
I hope this is not a sign of over fishing in my area.
Do you want to get married or want to buy a piece of jewelery? At jamesallen.com you can buy, among other jewelery, engagement rings for your special one. You can also buy diamond rings and even loose diamonds.
The website got a very clean and simple web design that is a pleasure to the eye. The clean design make it very easy to browse the large inventory.
This is some very depressing news about the rainforests in Papua New Guinea. According to an article on bbc.co.uk satellite images have revealed how the rainforests in Papua New Guinea have been rapidly cut down over the last 30 years. If the deforestation continues at the same speed more than half of the country’s forests will be lost by 2021!
The rainforests in Papua New Guinea is actually the world’s third largest rainforest and contains an estimated 6-7% of the planet’s species so this region is very important.
Although there has been some conservation measurements to protect the area it seems to have failed because there are being cut down as many trees within the protected zones as there are outside them.
I hope the Papua new Guinea government takes this serious and really protect the important rainforests. The Western world should also help poorer countries since they often have their main income from natural resources like timber.
The big logging companies should be punished for their criminal behavior and be put out of business! One thing we as consumers can do is boycotting wood coming from endangered rainforests. Check out rainforestweb.org for more information on how you can help the rainforests.
As I have mentioned before I really want to travel to France again because it such a beautiful country with great cuisine and nice people. When staying in France I will of course visit Paris and maybe stay at Hotel Paris.
Why Travel to France is a blog that I find interesting because it writes about issues related to traveling in France.
Seems like my country, Norway, is doing something positive for the nature. According to this article on bbc.co.uk Norway will capture 3 or 4 beaver families this autumn. In the spring of 2009 these beaver families will be released into the wild in Scotland and hopefully establish a big population of beavers.
Over 400 years ago beavers went extinct in Scotland due to too much hunting so this reintroduction will bring back a natural part of the Scottish wildlife.
There will be a trial period of 5 years so the Scottish Natural Heritage can monitor how the reintroduction will impact the local environment (beavers can cause some problems with their big dams). If the 3-4 beaver families turn into a success story more beavers will be reintroduced to other parts of Scotland.
In other parts of Europe reintroduction of beavers has been very successful. Lets keep our fingers crossed that this will be the case in Scotland too, giving the Scots a richer wildlife.
Today obesity is a big problem in the Western world and there are many ways to fight it. One option for those who are severely obese is to get a lap band surgery where an adjustable band is implanted around the upper parts of the stomach. This makes the obese person eat less and he or she feels filled for a longer period of time thus making it an effective way of losing weight. Not all overweight people are qualified for this surgery, but if they have an BMI (body mass index) over 40 and no other weight-loss methods work this kind of surgery might be a solution.
NewHope Bariatrics is a weight-loss center that offer this surgery and you can read more about the lap band surgery procedure on their website. You can also read success stories from previous patients who has lost quite a bit of weight.
They have facilities in 3 locations in the US that all offer lap band surgery for obese persons. The NewHope Bariatrics weight-loss centers are located in Los Angeles, in Kansas City and in Charlotte (NC).
