Saturday, February 27, 2010

Saturday Special: Holi, Hull Hydro, Plastic, Trees, Toilets, and More!

First, I have to say my favorite part of this post is the colour-spattered sign over there on the right. What would I do without my resident 9 year old artist-extraordinaire?  I think he was so eager to take on this project this morning, because the alternative was to study how to write applications for leave and letters to the editor.  (I'll suggest he try to imagine he's a low ranking journalist; then maybe he could use the same form for both purposes--Dear Editor, I regret to inform you that due to a severe case of stomach pain....)

Holi is close at hand, so let me just say this: beware of toxic colours, and please no eggs on my head, people! Navdanya has more on how you can celebrate Holi without the poison.  And before you curse too loudly at the cheap plastic pichkaari that breaks in your child's (or your own) hands after one or two uses, remember it was probably inexpensive because India recycles 60-80% of it's post-consumer plastic. And recycled plastic is cheap, more environmentally friendly than new plastic--and more likely to break!  See, life requires sacrifice.  I say, just throw a bucket of water on them when they least expect it!

On a more serious note, if you didn't  get a chance to read our update last week on recent attacks on Himachal environmentalists, then please do now! And then go sign this petition against that violence and the Hull Hydroelectric Project.  There are not nearly enough signatures on that petition yet, so I'm going to keep hammering away for awhile.  We have to support rural environmentalists, especially when they are literally being attacked!

Sorry but the contest deadline is past for those wanting to get a used copy of Kaveri Gill's Of Poverty and Plastic.  We'll be announcing the winner of our first ever used-book give-away contest soon.  Now for our usual Saturday links:

pRiYA is back with The Plum Tree II.  Here's a great post on how we love trees!

Three via Space Bar:
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The Asian Age's NYT supplement has a full page of articles designed to make us feel like green issues are being taken seriously in the world.  I'm not convinced, but here are three of the more interesting articles they ran today:
Many relationships are feeling a green strain. (Need green advice about your relationship?  Write to the Green Light Dhaba's Agony Uncle!)
Slower ships are more efficient ships.  But shouldn't we just ship less stuff?
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Back from the Brink: Frontline story on biotech.

Have a happy and safe Holi.  The weather is warming--good time to think about a water cooler if you don't already have one! Read more in the second half of this post.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for this article. Here is our little effort to reduce waste specially the disposable waste..

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  2. Thanks for this article. I'm glad that clipped.in was able to take your message far accross and could do our bit for a good cause.

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  3. @disposable, Hey thanks for stopping by. I looked at your site and it's interesting. The less stuff we throw in the dump, the better!

    @clipped.in Glad you found us! It's great to travel the world without having to leave home!

    ReplyDelete

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