Bee Condo

Do you love having a great garden or flowerbed in your backyard?  Some people have massive, beautiful gardens that include brightly colored flowers and gorgeous plants.  However, to really get the most out of your flowerbed, you need your flowers to get pollinated.  Bees are a great method for this, but how can you attract bees to your backyard?  Easy—set up a bee condo.

The bee condo is a very inviting place to the orchard mason bees.  These bees can be found just about anywhere in the United States, and they will help pollinate just about all types of flowers and other plants.  Now, if you’re scared of being stung by bees, you may be thinking that a bee condo is the last thing you want around your home.  However, the good news is that the orchard mason bees are non-stinging.  In fact, they are very gentle insects and won’t cause you any harm at all.

The bee condo is made from recycled wood, specifically reclaimed fir, so it’s very ecologically friendly.  On the off chance you don’t have any orchard mason bees in your area, the bee condo also comes with information on ordering bees (yes, you can actually order them).  It also tells you how to attract bees to the condo and gives you information about various companies that can help you order your bees.

Having a great garden is possible without bees, of course, but having a number of orchard mason bees in your garden to help pollinate flowers is an easy way of boosting your garden’s appearance.  It makes it easier for your flowers to grow and reproduce, and that means less work for you as a gardener.

Organic Flannel Pajamas

Nothing seems as horrible as waking up one cold morning, getting out of bed, and finding that the chilliness cuts right through your pajamas.  It’s enough to make you dive back under the covers and stay in bed all day.  Of course, that’s not always an option.  Sometimes, you have to brave the cold.  One way of doing that, though, is to purchase a pair of organic flannel pajamas at Gaiam.com.

Flannel, as everyone knows, is one of the warmest materials out there.  It’s warm without really being heavy or scratchy like wool, and organic cotton flannel is also very soft.  This is especially true if the pajamas have been brushed so that they’re nice and downy.  These pajamas actually get softer with each and every wash, and they’re sure to keep you warm throughout the years.

Organic pajamas won’t have any chemical dyes or artificial materials used in them.  This means you won’t have any allergic reactions to anything in them.  You will also be helping the environment by using only all-natural products.  But just because they’re organic doesn’t mean that they’re hard to take care of.  Quite the opposite—organic flannel pajamas are completely machine washable.

These great pajamas feature a button down top that is long and comfortable.  The drawstring pants are quite roomy, and they feature pockets on each hip.  Some of these organic pajamas are available in natural colors only, while some use organic dyes to give you a selection.  Either way, there are no chemicals used in coloring the pajamas.

If you’re looking for some really soft and really warm pajamas, you won’t go wrong with organic flannel.  They’ve perfect for those chilly evenings or cold mornings.

Five Incredibly Green Cities

Many cities around the world are going green these days, but there are five that have simply outdone the rest. These five cities have very small carbon footprints, have great recycling programs, and use reusable energy in unique and creative ways.

Freiburg, a city in Germany, has been a leader in green community living for quite some time. The city’s central area was actually rebuilt to be green after it was destroyed during World War II. Yes, the city has been green-focused since WWII! Freiburg has a car-free area, a solar village, and more.

Portland, Oregon, in the United States is the first city to be named a platinum-level bicycle community. The city also makes great use of renewable energy, recycling, and mass transportation systems. Portland is a great city for those looking to integrate being green with their lifestyle.

Another city in the US, Austin, Texas, is working very hard to reduce the amount of fossil fuel used. They’ve mandated home energy audits to help people increase the efficiency of their homes, and they focus on locally grown foods and farmer’s markets. Austin also holds several green festivals designed to teach people how to be more eco-friendly.

Zermatt, a town in Switzerland, has become a huge tourist destination. However, you won’t find cars in the town. Streets are for pedestrians and bikes only, and large loads are actually hauled through town on hand carts and small electric carts. If you want anything larger than that, you must have a special permit.

Finally, Montreal, in Quebec, Canada, regulates carbon emissions, has implemented the Bixi bike sharing project, and more. The city is one of the leaders in being green, and many other cities look to Montreal as their guide in reducing waste and recycling.

Solar Power from the Sahara

Many countries have been looking at using the Sahara Desert as a source of solar power for years, especially countries in Europe. However, no one has yet to be able to solve the issue of how to build a huge solar array in the Sahara and then get the power from there to Europe. The major issue is the Mediterranean Sea which sits between the desert and the countries that want the solar power. However, recent work in the area of solar power by a number of German companies may change that.

Around 20 different companies from Germany have formed a consortium with the purpose of making use of solar power in the Sahara. They’re working to raise 400 billion euros to create the Desertec project. This project will place solar arrays in the most politically stable areas of the Sahara Desert. The total amount of power produced by these huge arrays could actually equal around 15 percent of all the electricity used in Europe. However, the Desertec project wouldn’t actually start providing this energy until 2019 or so.

The Desertec project is anything but a sure bet, unfortunately. The risk of building huge arrays in North Africa is fairly large, making it difficult to persuade some investors that the project is viable. Regulations in the area are another issue, especially since the various countries that control the Sahara want to have some control of the project. The red tape involved can be quite complicated.

Another major issue is the fact that while the array can provide a large amount of power to all European countries, there may be some compatibility issues. There is no single European power distribution network. Instead, each country has a different system, and until these systems are more integrated and unified, distributing the energy collected in the desert may be difficult.

A Green Olympics for Canada?

The Olympics are often criticized for building many large buildings and then not using them once the games are over. Many host cities, especially recent ones, have promised to use their buildings once the games are done, and Vancouver is no exception. The host of the 2010 Winter Games, Vancouver is set to host one of the greenest games ever. In fact, they game’s directors have even set up a committee, the Advisory Committee on Sustainability Performance, to advise them on how to be as green as possible.

The Vancouver organizing committee has already made their extensive environmental plans public. They plan on putting systems in place to reuse wasted heat, capture rainwater for irrigation use, and compost waste. They’re also working with the David Suzuki Foundation to reduce the carbon footprint of the 2010 Olympics and to minimize its consumption of just about everything—water, material, and energy. They play on using as much energy-efficient products as possible and to make use of renewable energy sources. The committee also realizes that it will be impossible to eliminate all environmental impact and so will make use of carbon offsets to neutralize as much of the carbon dioxide as possible.

Here are some of the plans the Vancouver games’ organizing committee has for 2010:
• Biodegradable cleaning products and soaps will be used to minimize harm to local fish and wildlife.
• Nontoxic ice melter will be used.
• The Hillcrest National Bailey Stadium Park, where the curling events will be held, will capture heat from the refrigeration plant to heat the aquatics center pool.
• The roof of the Richmond Olympic Oval is made from salvaged pine.
• The athlete’s village will be transformed into modular living units for the homeless following the games.

Prince Charles Champions Saving the Rainforest

While Prince Charles isn’t joining the blogging community just yet, he is adding videos and other information to his own website, RainforestSOS.org.  This website is a part of the prince’s campaign to raise awareness about the rainforest and to help put an end to tropical deforestation, a cause dear to his heart.

Prince Charles and his two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, appear in a short 90 second clip in which they speak out about deforestation.  The campaign video also includes appearances by a number of other famous environmentalists, including Harrison Ford, Robin Williams, and the Dalai Lama.  Each celebrity and non-celebrity (there are students, children, and others in the film, too) appears with a frog, the symbol of the rainforest.  At the end, the most famous frog of all, Kermit the Frog, appears to make his own appeal on behalf of the amphibians and other animals who live in the rainforests.

One of the unique aspects to Prince Charles’s campaign is that it’s interactive.  Users will find profiles for RainforestSOS on all the top social networking sites, and they’ll be able to create their own versions of the short film and more.  All of this may look like another celebrity using a cause to further their own popularity, but it’s much more than that.  Prince Charles has made this program his top priority.  In addition to the website, he has created a partnership called the Emergency Package for Tropical Forests that will provide money to develop alternatives to destroying the rainforest and help developing countries implement these new methods.

More information about the campaign can be found at RainforestSOS.org or, if you live in the UK, you can text SOS to 60777.