Electric Shock

The idea of the Live Green series is to bring more awareness on why we should live environmental friendly as much as possible. All the little things that we do help the world and no small amount is too little if each indivudual gives his share.

Please feel free to join in by entering your blog on the mclinky below!

Last Saturday was Earth Hour, the amount of people, businesses etc taking part in this initiative has been growing ever since its first appearance in Sydney Australia back in 2007. Earth Hour shows our stand to climate change and that we are waiting on our respective governments to finally do something concrete about it by turning off all unneccsary lights for 1 hour every 27th March @ 2030 hrs local time.


Generating electricty is the number one source of CO2 emmissions. We are now releasing this CO2 at an ever-increasing rate (around 28 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere just last year) and the layer of greenhouse gas gets thicker. This in turn makes the Earth warmer and it means that the conditions under which humanity has thrived are rapidly changing.



Burning coal produces far more CO2 than oil or natural gas. Reducing reliance upon coal combustion has to be the cornerstone of any credible global climate change prevention plan. If forests are used for fuel generation and not replaced, global climate change will be accelerated.

There are a multitude of technologies already available which can help us achieve this. However, technologies form just one part of the jigsaw. We need a revolution in the supply of energy to achieve this. We need to make a drastic switch from the current reliance on fossil fuel energy to a super-efficient system with new low- and zero-carbon technologies .

Us as consumers can do a lot to reduce the offset of the carbon footprint. Here are some food for thought which you can use:

1. Buy energy efficient appliances
2. Replace all bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) or even cutting-edge light emitting diodes (LEDs).
3. Turn off any unused lights (don't let Tv's, computers etc on stand by they use a lot of electricty)
4. If possible install alternative energy solutions like solar panels to your house
5. Save water as saving water, saves electricity!

Now its your turn--- will you help to save electricity which not only saves our planet but at the end of the day saves you money as well!

Live Green Series

I realised that I have lacked in my commitment to bring forward green thinking ideas and food ofr thought on my blog so I am working on a Live Green Series which will be held every Monday starting 22 March.

Why that day? It World Water Day for one thing and would love to bring awareness on the lacking of water resources especially on our island and well I am working on a nice logo to go with the series :)

I hope you will like my idea and enjoy it just as much as I am enjoying getting all the info together.

Bengal tiger in Mosta warehouse...OUTRAGEOUS

A Bengal tiger, one of the world's endangered species, was yesterday discovered cavorting in an air-conditioned room on the roof of a warehouse in Mosta, sources said.
The three-month-old cub, a golden tabby, which is said to have cost its owner some €23,000, was being well cared for, fed chickens so it gets its daily requirement of lean protein and had a sizeable pen to roam in.
The discovery was made after a raid by members of the Animal Welfare Department, the police's Administrative Law Enforcement and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority's Environment Protection Department.

Please go on the following link Bengal tiger in Mosta warehouse for the full story!

This is the most outrageous story I heard this year in Malta!! I hope the authorities will be VERY professional and within a week the tiger is sent back to Bengal where it can be reinstated in the wild hopefully. They say they will check how it came in and if it has the necesary paperwork...maybe I am being stupid or something, BUT if this guy has the paperwork showing that it came legally (i.e. home or zoo bred) couldn't he show it to them straight away this paperwork? and if such is the case was there the need for the tiger to be brought in not by the usual means and through the animal immigration?

The Bengal Tiger is a VERY rare species protected by CITES as an extremely endangered species and if the authorities do let this guy keep that tiger, I can say that the Maltese authorities will have gone completely and disgustingly low and should simply resign from their post! However, now I vented my feelings, I hope that they actually do the right thing so for now no more mud slinging till the verdict is out....

Judgment & eco cleaning

No they have nothing to do together, however saw these 2 articles which I was sure would be of interest to all. So the first site is care2.com and it has this article of 5 basic nontoxic cleaning products which you might want to visit!


The 2nd site is yoga journal and has this article on judgement of which you can see a segment below.

Sometimes that judgmental state feels like a sword driven right into
the delicate fabric of your consciousness. Any feelings of love or relaxation or
peace that you might have been nurturing are chopped to bits. Whether you're
judging others or yourself, it's impossible to aim negative judgments in any
direction without experiencing the sharp edges of judgment within yourself.
Doubly so, in fact, since the faults we judge most harshly in other people
usually turn out to be our own negativities projected outward

Turtles and swimming

So my maternity leave is officially over and tomorrow I am off to work in my office by the sea which however I can't enjoy at all-sigh- However, I spent a wonderful end of maternity today if one can say such a thing!

There was going to be the release of about 10 sea turtles back to the ocean after they had been treated for being caught up in fishing hooks etc. It was a great experience being there to watch such a beautiful event.

However this experience was tainted due to the lack of organisation of the governmental organisation who held this activity as they let the people get too near the turtles and didn't let them proceed as peacefully as they should have.

After this great event we remained at the beach me and Greg with my cousins and enjoyed the rest of the morning. Gregory really loves the sea and you can see huge smiles on him even in the coldish water :) I have some pics of him which my cousin will be sending me and will then post.

The above pictures were meant to be taken by myself but Gregory chose that time to feed so I had him in my sling drinking and my cousin Priscilla took the pics for me. Thanks Pris and great shots :)

Earth song

Today I was going to write a post on the chakras (which according to the East they are energy channels in our bodies). However with the death of Michael Jackson, I remembered one of his best songs ever that speaks loudly and clearly of our destruction of the earth. Earth song was released in 2006 and its video invoked emotions of sadness, anger and hope. I always cry when I see the video because the ache of the earth is palpable. You can feel every shot, every felled tree...the pain of our planet who's been trying to tell us in so many ways but we ignored and still do a lot really because although we want to help it, we don't want to give up our comfortable living. Our easy ways can't be compromised.....yet, the destruction gets worse every year and WE are the sole perpetrators. Don't you feel any guilt? when you go in a forest, by a lake, mountain or river don't you feel the calmness and happiness. Have you seen lions in the wild and felt that rush of excitement seeing them there in their habitat FREE! Don't you go to the zoo and see the sadness in the animals' eyes?

I got to know this song wasn't released as a single in the US and the video hardly shown on the music channels. That is a great shame for one of the best songs in favour of our earth. I hope that whoever visits my blog gets to see this video and pass it on to everyone else and I sincerely hope that more will take act of their actions.....

Earth....

So much to tell you after this weekend just passed.....a weekend dedicated to our beautiful earth in more than one way.....

This weekend in Malta we had the Earth Garden & Echo Fest for the third year running. Though been wanting to go, this was my first time and had some real great fun. It was well organised and very interesting. There were stalls with Maltese organic products, an ethnic market with nice stuff imported from third world countries, art exhibition and various music posts. The one I loved most was an area under the trees which was lit with Chinese lanterns...incredibly relaxing. Gregory slept peacefully most of that time snuggled in his sling and poking me with his small hand when he wanted food. My cousin Priscilla & her husband Joe joined us there for this night with a difference. It was also interesting seeing so many Maltese clearly enjoying it and dressed in hippy earthen wear.

After this warm,balmy night, we woke up to a hot shimmering day. Thank God there was a breeze so the heat wasn't suffocating. We spent most of the day with my parents on their field, checking the crops and relaxing in the shade with some wine and good old Maltese food. Gregory was so hot I undressed him completely and having a small basin at hand we dipped him in nice cold fresh water. He simply loved it and once he had cooled off, I just did a makeshift cloth nappy and he slept peacefully in the shade for 2 hours or so. We finished this grand day with a nice long walk in Mellieha with Priscilla, Joe & Chris-David's brother. It was a nice walk starting by the long Mellieha beach up through Foresta 2000 (a government initiative to re plant trees for a better environment) and passed the Red Tower. By the time we got back to where we had started, it was 1030 pm and Greg was still awake. He was carried in the carrier by his dad and uncle and loved seeing all the new places. He did sleep soundly in the car and continued so till 4 am (after which he wanted to play!!). It was great reconnecting with our earth appreciating its beauty and tranquility. I will soon post some pics on flickr so keep yourselves posted.

On a not so pleasant note however, I ask you to look at this sad video and tell everyone about it. Not only do we need to appreciate were we live but also contribute to give the same opportunities to so much more people.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a-la-Carte

I also invite you to donate on this website which is doing its best to help so many children. The website is a creation of my cousin. After travelling to various places around the world and seeing this video, they felt they should do something and the result was EarthClick. Your help is much appreciated by many people around the world.

green bbqs

This morning, I was searching how to do your own weaning recipes and came across baby-led weaning which captivated my interest and was going to post some info on it. Then this afternoon while scrolling through the green websites I saw BBQs......since it's the barbeque season I changed minds and decided to post on green bbqs instead and leave baby weaning for another time.

Now 2 things I wasn't aware of is that:

1. charcoal bbqs contain more carbon monoxide than anything else and gas bbqs are better for the environmental footprint.
2. It takes 1,916 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef , and cattle produce enormous amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas that’s almost 20 times more harmful than carbon dioxide. So adding more veg and reducing meat in bbqs goes a long way to being green.

(the above info was found on www.planetgreen.discovery.com)

Other ways to have a green bbq is also common sense; like not using throwaway cutlery & tableware, use the recycling system to throw rubbish and of course buy organic as much as possible.

Also keeping the bbq lid closed produces more efficient cooking as heating is distributed more evenly.

So people enjoy barbequeing but please go green!

Planet Green

As my green commitment continues and I try to convince as many people as possible to do their bit, here are 2 links of great importance which I hope you will find the time to go into!

The first is ways to spring clean the house without using all those detergents and how to choose the stuff you don't want and spread it around as to be reused, recycled and reinvented. The second link is a kind of extension to the first with some recipes to clean the house using natural products you can easily find and not spend a lot of money.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/go-green/spring-cleaning/spring-cleaning-basics.html

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/assemble-a-green-cleaning-kit.html

Earth day should be every day and not one day a year or just that one hour during earth hour. Every little helps to protect the land we live in. IF we don't we will soon end up with no place to live in....think about it!

Eco friendly shops

As promised earlier this week, here is a list of eco friendly-fair trade eshops which you can use to buy products from.

http://www.rainforestrescue.com/ - you can click daily to help save the rainforest & you can buy some nice stuff at reasonable prices and cheap shipping rates (they deliver all over the world).
http://www.welovefrugi.com/ - this is a great shop for us with young children as they have organic cotton clothes for our little ones fairly traded. The rates are normal not expensive and the shipping really good. Just bought some stuff from there for Gregory!
http://www.novica.com/ - part of the national geographic magazine, it has some beautiful items on sales all fairly traded. Not so cheap but looks very high quality (never bought from there).
http://store.gxonlinestore.org/ - some nice things and priced good but shipping a bit expensive in my opinion.
http://www.biomelifestyle.com/ - has really nice products for the home. Prices are good & so is shipping. Bought from there!

Well there are much more shops then I had thought that sell fair trade & eco friendly and still have to go through them hehe but at least you already have a few from where to choose :)

Happy Shopping!

alternative energy bill in Malta

Found this article which is very interesting and with which I agree.....although a lot of talk's been going on re alternative energy nothing concrete happened so far. We need a plan and fast as global warming is not waiting for our prime minister to decide before more damage is done!

http://gozonews.com/item/ad-asks-for-energy-plan-to-be-made-clear/

Polar bears and climate

I found this article on dot earth which is very interesting on how climate change is effecting Polar bears and that they are projected to decrease significantly in the very near future due to loss of habitat. Here is part of the article and if you'd like to read it all you can click here:

In summary, polar bear
numbers probably increased in some areas during the 1970s and 1980s, and perhaps
even into the 1990s, because of greater protection from direct human
mortalities. They now are declining, or soon will be declining because of loss
of habitat. Polar bears, like other species of wildlife, cannot survive without
suitable habitat. To suggest that increases in polar bear numbers because of
harvest controls has some relationship to projected decreases in response to
losses of habitat only serves to distract the reader from the issue at
hand.

basic steps to reduce climate change

Every little helps and so here are 8 tips to help reduce climate change.I hope you try them all to give the max but some or even one is better then nothing!

Light: replacing normal light bulbs with energy savers, saves 150 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

Drive Less: walking, biking, sharing transport or plain public service help reduce gas consumption and a pound of carbon dioxide for eacg mile you don't drive!

Recycle: now we have recycle Tuesdays you have no real excuse except laziness! Recycling your household goods saves 2400 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

Checking our tyres: when our tyres are properly inflated, we save gas and for each gallon of gas saved, 20 pounds of carbon dioxide do not happen.

Hot water: to heat up water takes a lot of energy, using cold water for our washes saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Avoiding a lot of package: when buying stuff, prevent waste from being created and choose consciously. When buying products with few packaging, you are saving on money, reducing your garbage by 10% and carbon dioxide by 1200 pounds.

Plant a tree: we were meant to do this on the birth of Gregory but so far we haven't done it. To redeem ourselves, I will have to tell Dave to plant 3 one for each missed month! A single tree absorbs approx a ton of carbon dioxide in its lifetime...so it is essential to plant trees especially when there is a lot of treeloggers around. If you got nowhere to plant them, please remeber the 34u campaign going on in our country which is a good enough wat to help the environment and our island!

Electronic Devices: Simply turn off any eletronic device not in use and save thousands of pounds in carbon dioxide!

You can also stay informed on more thing by going to this site earth911.com but no fear I will update regularly on these issues! As Earth 911 say, together we can and do make every day Eath Day!!!