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).

This is some really great news! According to an article on the therecord.com Daniel Burd, a 16 year old student from Canada, has isolated some microbes that are able to decompose plastic bags in a matter of 3 months. He added yeast to water to make a good growth medium for microbes. Then he tried to isolate the microbes using agar dishes and he found out that a combination of two different microbes worked best for degrading plastic bags.

Plastic bags is a big problem for the environment so kudos to Daniel Burd for caring. My only worry is if the dissolved plastics bags contains harmful toxins making that a waste problem too.
Of course we could always stop using plastic bags and instead use bags made out of organic cotton or hemp.

I take a lot of photos since I always carry my DSLR camera with me. When I have been at a family gathering or something similar people always ask me if I can email them the pictures I have captured.
Just sending the pictures as they are is fine, but it can be fun to make the pictures into something else.

The Smilebox tool can help you making the photos a bit different. It can help you turn your photos into a scrapbook, a slide show, a greeting card and many more interesting designs to choose from.

You can also use videos, text and music when designing something special for your family and friends. When you are done designing Smilebox helps you email, blog and print the results. Next Christmas I might have to make an unique greeting card for the whole family using this neat tool.

The Smilebox tool is free to use, but you can also buy premium designs that does not contain any ads.

Found this news on the thestar.com about 200 cyclists blocking the traffic on a big expressway in Toronto, Canada. The cyclists was able to shut down the road for almost half an hour as they cycled about 7 km before the police arrived. 4 people were arrested due to refusing to leave the road. Solidarity to them!

Seems like the great organization Critical Mass was behind this action. Critical Mass is a leaderless event where cyclists gather to protest for example the traffic that is killing our planet.
I have been a part of similar actions where we blocked a street. It was a lot of fun, but also a bit scary when the rich people with expensive cars wanted to run us over.

Here is some pictures (source is Toronto Traffic Cameras) of the protest in Toronto.