Fight Climate Change

Marks and Spencer have taken up the challenge from The Daily Mail who are campaigning to Banish the Bags! The Daily Mail want to see a reduction in plastic bag waste and are asking high street stores to take a lead in this area.

Marks And Spencer are the first big name to climb aboard and from May customers to their 600 food outlets will be charged 5p a bag.

M&S has already run highly successful trials of its 5p scheme in Northern Ireland and the south-west of England, so this decision perhaps isn’t entirely due to The Daily Mail’s campaign, although one might wonder if there’s been a bit of collusion. Still, it is a good initiative and an excellent response from M&S who will be offering free bags for life up until the 5p charge arrives in April.

To support their campaign The Daily Mail have a petition and are also offering their readers a free eco shopping bag. It will cost you 70p in stamps if you send them a SAE or £1.50 if you pay for postage and packing.

It will be interesting to see how the major supermarkets respond to this campaign. Tesco have introduced free biodegradable bags and do encourage recycling of their bags, but no doubt all the big names will face pressure to start charging.

This is an incredible piece of film footage showing the destruction of a Nordtank wind turbine during a storm in Denmark. Fortunately no one was hurt but according to reports debris was scattered up to 500 metres away. With more and more wind farms springing up this kind of event will no doubt raise concerns about wind farm safety. However, there’s good news from Wind4Energy as according to their FAQ “there is currently no record of a member of the public being injured at a wind farm”!

Perhaps, that’s because no one visits them in a storm?

Arctic Tale reached UK cinemas this month and offered movie goers a chance to experience the lives of Polar Bears as they try to survive the ever changing North Pole climate. Co-written by Al Gore’s daughter Kristin you’ll not be surprised that there’s a “fight climate change” message at the heart of the film. The narration is provided by Queen Latifah and if you saw March of the Penguins then this is pretty much in the same vein.

The movie may well appeal to kids (the trailer above will provide you with more than enough evidence), and with the sound turned down it’s actually a beautifully shot wildlife documentary, but like it’s predecessor is not a patch on The BBC’s Life on Earth series.

The movie has also spawned Nintendo DS and Wii games, you may well find that these prove to educate your child about Polar Bears and Environmental Changes than the movie ever could!

According to reports we’re experiencing an unusually warm spell in February, which is all well and good but it’s flipping freezing in Wales come the evenings. Cold evenings mean we tend to up the old central heating, but the guys and girls over at Dothegreenthing.com have come up with a suggestion for all of you thinking about reaching for that thermometer! It’s a cute little video (perfect for Valentine’s) and suggests that we opt for a bit of hugging over extra heating. You can watch the video below.

Of course there’s an underlying message to all this, and that’s we can keep those energy costs down simply by turning the thermostat down by just one degree and finding alternative ways to stay warm. If you’re single or not getting on with your partner, put on a jumper – if you’re in a relationship, then take it off and get snuggling!

After the wind up torch and radio, it was inevitable that focus turns to media players. Trevor Baylis, the inventor of the original wind up radio, has launched the Wind Up Eco Media Player. You can listed to music, an FM radio, watch movie clips and show off your photo albums – charged either by wind up or through your computer’s USB port.

One minute of winding gives 40 minutes of play!

The main problem for the Eco Media Player, despite a glowing appraisal from Stephen Fry, is cost! £170 for an eco media player versus say a more “trendy gadget” like the Ipod Touch at £199 may well prove a deal breaker.

There’s also the question of whether a Eco Media Player is more environmentally friendly vs it’s non eco tagged competitors!

The write ups for the Eco Media Player are generally good though – but where’s the cheapest place to buy one?

Gizoo – £169.95 (but with discount code TGSVCH1000 you can save £10 on order over £50)
Nigel’s Eco Store – £149.99
Natural Collection – £169.95
Ethical Superstore – £129.95

So it pays to shop around. At time of writing Ethical Superstore were running a special offer and prices correct at time of publication.

It’s early days for the wind up media player, and no doubt they will improve price and technology – but can they break the Ipod obsession or is a Wind Up Apple Ipod on the horizon?