Dear readers,

The copy below from a fellow blogger makes for cold reading. I thought it best to copy and past with his blog address and take the time to thank him, and you, for taking time to read my ramblings…still no pictures but I am working on that! You know me…steam, pen and paper whilst getting into the computer age.

Great to see a plug for the remarkable charity CoolEarth.org, but the rate of removal of the rainforest is enormously faster than you say. . .

It’s going at the rate of a football pitch a second.

In the five seconds it takes you to read this sentence, an area of rainforest the size of five football pitches has been burned or cut down – that’s 5000 square metres every second. Put another way, an area of tropical rainforest the size of Greater London (1500 km2) is lost from South America, Africa and Asia every three days. That’s equivalent to one small country – say Wales (20,000 km2) – every six weeks.

Even more reason to support CoolEarth.org.

Keep up the admirable blog, Green Ghost
Richard, http:theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com

As our thoughts turn to a holiday break, be it at home or abroad, travelling by car, bus, train or aeroplane you may worry about your carbon footprint, well look no further. Visit www.travelcare.co.uk where you, the traveller, can make a contribution to the renewable energy and reforestation projects around the world. Go to the picture on the left hand side of the screen with caption carbon offset to see how much to donate to the co-operative banks charity that invests in overseas projects such as reforestation of areas in Uganda. There is another way of help and that is by using the Co-operative Bank Think credit card and the bank with contribute to the purchase of a piece of Brazilian rainforest under the watchful eye of Cool Earth. What is frightening is that every 24hours 100 acres of rainforest is cleared for Soya or palm oil plantations as these are quick profit cash crops. The soil is so thin that the plantations are only productive for five years after which the area is abandoned as scrubland. By donating an extra £35GBP half an acre can be saved from deforestation. Put another way, for every 100 acres of rain forest cut down there is enough CO2 released equal to eight million people travelling from London to New York. So get those cheque books out and visit www.coolearth.org

Reading the news I noticed that the makers of Wallace and Gromit, Oscar winning Aardman Animations, have been making a series of short films with the voice over by comedian Dawn French. They will air on Discovery’s Animal Planet channel.
Clay models of an electric eel, penguin and a leopard are among the creatures featured in the short films to promote green living to both young and old. Amongst the stories that took four weeks to write and as manydays to film each one includes a penguin who peddles a bicycle to provide light in his igloo, a kangaroo who carries shopping in her pouch and a cow who learns about the effects of methane on the environment!

A new idea for house paint is a powder that is chemical-free, non-toxic mixed with water to produce paint. Said by the manufacturers to not need an undercoat, it is easy to apply and comes in a wide range of colours. Not a cheap option @ £10.66 for a 400gm bag to make one litre of paint and eco-friendly. Besides, what fun to make your own paint like school days as thick or as thin as you want. They also have a Naturepaint box to paint the average room with paint, recycled applicators and packaging. www.naturepaint.com

The latest craze to catch on is buying, or swapping, vintage clothing to save the planet. Many of the dresses in circulation now have been sitting in people’s wardrobes and now have a new lease of life through resale or swapping. Much of the clothing is affordable, looks timeless and saves valuable resources from being squandered. Gone are the days when it was frowned upon to go into second hand cloth shops, more so to wear another persons clothing. No longer, agencies are springing up all over the world offering either purchase or hire from the well know designers, all at a fraction of the original price. There is even a network on Yahoo, The Compact, on the group section that promotes this and many other ways of reusing and recycling on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis. The end of our throw away society is getting closer but the sooner we all learn to mend and make do the sooner we will help all our fellow beings on this fragile planet.

Coffee is making a come back after sinking to second place against tea by the increase in suppliers signing up to the Fairtrade brands available. Clipper, Traidcraft and Rombouts are all pushing the new and existing brands to promote fair pay for a great product. Gone are the days when fair-trade coffee tasted like dish water, with investment and stable income leading to sustainable, quality beans being produced. www.fairtrade.org.uk And look out for Fairtrade promotions in the next two weeks.