With just one month to go until the United Nations Climate Conference, Copenhagen, much of the world is still not ready to deal with the issues of global warming and climate change. As the situation gets decidedly worse, many would agree that the Copenhagen conference is the emergency conference that we need to try to save our planet. As COP15 draws near, the fact is that many nations have not done nearly enough. For the most part, much of the world is still dependant on fossil fuels and research into environmentally friendly alternatives has been minimal. It would seem that targets to cut emissions have simply been ignored.

Climate change is perhaps the most serious issue that we’ll ever have to deal with. Today we’re living in a world that’s changing quickly and world governments simply can’t react quickly enough to pre-empt the potential disastrous effects of global warming, pollution and that we are rapidly using up the world’s natural resources.

In the past twenty years, we’ve rapidly awoken to the facts that in the past hundred years, humanity has done more damage to the world than ever before. Ice sheets are disappearing, waters are rising and it’s all happening tremendously quickly. As a result, man of the world’s leaders have been forced to stand up and take notice because quite simply this is a man-made disaster and if we don’t do something now, within the next hundred years there will be global catastrophe.

The United Nations has been the global voice in climate change, and the annually held UN Climate Change conference has happened for 15 years. Their global campaign on climate change is focused towards educating people, governments and bringing people together to try and find the answers for the future.

However, even though global leaders were foretold and forewarned about the risks of global warming, yet it’s only in the past few years that we have finally started to make a concerted effort to try to stop the effects of global warming. It would seem that it’s taken ice melts, flooding and climate changes to stir world leaders into action, but the question many people are asking is will it be enough?

Today, many western nations have stood up about the effects of global warming and climate change however, there is yet to be a global commitment towards dealing with the issue. In past years, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) has served as a tool to educate world leaders, but it’s only recently that this forum of environmental experts have finally started to be noticed. Perhaps the most famous ‘child’ of the UNCCC is the Kyoto protocol which was revolutionary in the way it set out ways to deal with emissions, and towards setting targets that the world needed to achieve.

However while this agreement managed to get 37 countries plus the EU to agree to reduce their emissions, the two biggest culprits, namely the United States and China both refused to sign this agreement. Even though they were responsible for most of the worlds global warming, they were most resistant towards change. It’s only recently that they have started to make progress when it comes to dealing with the issue of global warming.

Perhaps it’s their recent moves towards environmental friendliness that should be startling. It’s proof that the situation the planet is a great deal worse than we all think. China is now rapidly changing its stance and aims to reduce emissions by as much as 25%. As the world’s largest nation continues to grow, they may finally be starting to realize about the importance they play in securing the future of the planet.

However, while now most of the world may be contributing to researching the solutions and while there is more focus on renewable energy sources, there is still a great deal to be done when it comes to limiting the damage that has already been done.

It’s been projected that even if the world reduces emissions to those agreeable levels, that temperatures will still rise 6 degrees by the end of 2099. It would seem that the planet is in for a great deal many changes, which may in fact be disastrous. Are government sanctions and global emissions cuts just another example of too little too late?

Ultimately, perhaps the news is all bad. We’ve been aware of climate change for long enough to make a difference, and let’s face it – alternative sources of energy do exist. One thing many are hoping as COP15 draws near is that the world will finally reach a strong agreement about what needs to be done to not just protect our future, but to save our planet.

Spam emails use up an estimated 33 terawatt hours of power each year, according to a report on the spam industry by security vendor McAfee. The average business email user is responsible for 131Kg of CO2 per year in email-related emissions, and 22 per cent of that is spam related.  

The Carbon Footprint of Email Spam Report (PDF) states that 62 trillion spam emails were sent in 2008, and that the energy used to send and delete them could power 2.4 million American homes. Each spam email generates 0.3 grams of carbon, the report said. Spam filters can cut the carbon footprint of spam by an estimated 75 percent, but it is a better idea to shut down spam at the source. The closure of the McColo spam operation last year caused a dramatic drop in spam levels, which had an unexpected environmental benefit.

"The planet experienced an environmental benefit. For every spam email not sent, there was a reduction in electricity and carbon emissions, as well as an immediate junk mail reduction for any email user,” the report said.  

Overall, the McColo shutdown saved the equivalent energy of taking 2.1 million cars off the road. Use spam blockers and be part of a conscious earth-saving effort.

Even if you drive a petrol-fueled car rather than a hybrid vehicle, you can still do your part to help the environment by using less fuel, a practice that will save you cash and save our earth at the same time. You just need to pay more attention to the details. 

Have a look at your tires

Did you know that a single tire under-inflated by two pounds of pressure can increase your car’s fuel consumption by 1 percent? Since you do have four tires, the wheels alone can increase your spending on fuel by 4 percent. So be sure to check your tires’ air pressure at regular intervals; most garages have an air pressure gauge and pump you can use for free. 

Make your car lose some weight-

This doesn’t mean you have to rid your car of panels, seats and spare tire, but you’re bound to be carrying around some unnecessary weight in your vehicle. Take a quick look in your trunk and remove anything that isn’t strictly necessary. For example, if you won’t get a chance to drop off those empty bottles at the recycling centre until the weekend, store them in your garage until then. And what about that roof box or bicycle rack you haven’t used in a while? All these objects add more weight to your car and make it burn more fuel. For every 5kg of weight you get rid of, you can reduce the engine’s fuel consumption by an average of 0.1 percent, so give your car a spring clean-out today! 

Keep an eye on your speed

Maintaining your speed on motorways is the best way to lower your car’s thirst for fuel. When you drive fast, more fuel is needed to combat the increasing air resistance. A good solution is to keep a steady pace of 65mph (105km/h). If you decide to drive at the maximum speed of 75mph (120km/h), be aware that your fuel consumption will increase by a horrifying 20 percent. Another point to consider is city driving. Speeding toward stop signs and traffic lights needlessly and then braking rapidly wastes fuel as well. By pressing the accelerator and brakes more frequently than necessary, you are using more petrol than you would if you drove at a steady pace. 

Let your engine rest

Turn your engine off when you are not on the move. Research shows that if you are stationary for more than 10 seconds, the car will actually burn less if you stop the engine and then restart it. So, if you are going to be sitting at a traffic light for a minute or two or you are going to wait for your passenger to arrive, you can save some fuel by turning your engine off, as an idling car can burn as much as 4 liters of fuel per hour. 

Listen to traffic reports

Pay closer attention to traffic reports on the radio before leaving your home or office, as these tips may enable you to choose a less congested route that will not only be more eco-friendly, but will also save you time and reduce stress. 

Clean your car’s air filter

The air filter prevents dirt from entering the engine of your car. Driving your vehicle with a dirty filter can reduce its fuel economy by 10 percent! Luckily, this problem can be easily avoided. The air filter is easy to clean, so you can do it yourself regularly, and it should also be cleaned each time you service the car. In time, the air filter will suffer wear and tear and need to be replaced, but this is a relatively small outlay. 

Get fit

Keep in mind that you could walk or cycle instead of using your car, particularly if your destination is nearby. As the weather improves with warming temperatures, get some fresh air while keeping fit, save money and reduce your carbon footprint by avoiding unnecessary car journeys.

Sunscreens have been touted over the past few decades as an essential component for healthy skin routines and cancer prevention. Most people realize that prolonged exposure to those powerful UV rays is a common cause of many strains of skin cancer. There are other benefits gained from regular use of sunscreen, such as its role in maintaining skin’s moisture and its prevention of premature aging. But scientists are now looking at the ingredients in some sunscreens as potential threats to the environment.  

Zinc oxide is a common and popular ingredient used in sunscreens to absorb or deflect damaging ultra violet (UV) rays. The complaint by users in the past has been the ghostly white appearance it leaves behind. The certified solution was to make zinc oxide clear by shrinking it into tiny particles between one and 100 nanometers (a nanometer is roughly half the size of a strand of DNA). Users were rid of the chalky white skin effect, but scientific America has recently reported that the use of these nanoparticles in zinc oxide may pose risks to the environment by damaging beneficial skin microbes.

In a current study, University of Toledo researchers find that nano-titanium dioxide used in personal care products reduces the biological roles of bacteria after less than an hour of exposure. The research findings suggest that these bacterial particles, which end up at municipal sewage treatment plants after being washed off in showers, could eliminate microbes that play vital roles in ecosystems and actually help treat wastewater. These tiny microbes have big jobs; they remove ammonia from wastewater, they clean up toxic waste, and they reduce harmful phosphorus levels in lakes.  

Other groups have conducted similar research on sunscreen’s role in nature. The European Union has consistently been researching nanoparticles and the role they play in the disruption of the environment. In March 2009, a majority of the EU Parliament voted for new EU rules regarding creation, sale, and use of nano-cosmetics that will take effect in 2012; more information will be available in coming months. Clear nanoparticle product labeling and specified safety testings are just two of the pre-release regulations that are part of the EU’s newest guidelines.  

Nanotechnology is an exciting study point. It has been noted as being potentially beneficial in creating drugs that could cure cancer and radiation poisoning as well as making everyday use of sunscreens and personal products a safer vantage point. As is the case with most scientific studies, nanotechnology needs more research. At this time, rather than completely discouraging the use of nanoparticles, scientists will develop research methods to recognize the potential of these said products.

Did you know that, as a race, we humans used up all of our resources for the year on September 23, 2008? This means that all of the products and resources that our planet can produce in a year have been used up-- with several months left to go until 2009.  That means, essentially, that we're "borrowing" the rest of the years resources from future years.  From our children.

Click here to read the rest of the article + some stats!

Where do you fall on the consumption scale? Maybe somewhere near the top? With numbers this frightening, how will we possible surmount these seemingly insurmountable consumption rates?  What can and others do to push back Earth Overshoot Day... or end it entirely?

Here's something that most people don't consider when they think of telework or telecommuting: the "greenest", safest, and most efficient way to travel to work every day is... not to.  Working from your home saves money, requires less community resources in terms of roads and transportation, and eliminates the pollution of traveling to and from your job.  And these are benefits valuable both to employees and employers.

The Benefits of Telework for Employees

Going green: When you get in your car to drive to work, it's difficult to understand how this seemingly simple action can do such harm to the environment.  But Facet/Teletrips has reported that a one or two day per-week telecommute per worker would save 100 to 200 gallons of gasoline per year.  That brings a single person's carbon emissions (the ones reported to cause global warming) down 1.5 to 5 tons a year, depending on the vehicle.  To put it simply: teleworking only one or two days a week will eliminate from 7.5 to 25% of your carbon footprint. 

Saving money: With gas prices skyrocketing, more and more employees are talking to their companies about teleworking to cut down on spending.

The Benefits of Telework for Employers

Employee morale and retention:  Allowing your employees to telework is like giving them both a raise in pay and a cut in hours-- without requiring your company to spend an extra cent.  On average, teleworking employees save anywhere from $2000 to $10,000 per year on travel, and cut a whole 160 hours of road-time from their lives annually.  This helps keep employees happy, and saves money for companies in the long run as employee retention increases.  This is especially visible with lower-paid employees, who find themselves leaving longer-distance jobs due to the costs of getting to work each day.

Disaster response: This is a benefit of telework that is experienced both by employers and employees.  Employers who allow their workers to telework make their company less vulnerable to attack or any catastrophic event, as there are fewer employees present at any one time. In addition, any teleworking employees can easily communicate among themselves, with their loved ones, and to their company.

A good example of this took place during 9-11, when the value of telework was truly tested. At the time, the telephone system throughout New York was knocked out-- and the rest of the country's system was flooded.  People didn't know if loved ones close to Ground Zero were dead or alive. But those with access to the Internet were able to get online and let their loved ones know their condition right away-- especially if they were teleworking from home.

The more I read online and see in the news about global warming, the more nervous I become. This is something that is happening in our lifetimes, and it's going to harshly affect the way we live.  I subscribe to a nice handful of green blogs, where they talk about anything from sustainable design to the effects of global warming and deforestation.  And one of the major effects of deforestation that I saw mentioned recently was something called desertification. 

Desertification is the process of transforming an ecosystem into an unnatural desert. There are plenty of natural deserts all over the world --places where, due to low rainfall or an aggressive climate, the land doesn't support much life or vegetation. But there are also whole swaths of land which, though they theoretically receive enough rainfall and have sufficiently mild climates, can't seem to support any more life than a natural desert. 

As time goes on, we can see that whole areas are becoming victim to the process of desertification. But what causes it? 

It's caused by us, of course!  In general, desertification is caused by acid rain from human pollution, overgrazing, the setting of fires, and (most of all), the deforestation that results from the production of paper and wood products.  Much of the time, one or all of these factors combine to wreak havoc on an ecosystem. 

When desertification takes place, a once-rich piece of land becomes nearly uninhabitable.  Animal species die, whole species of plant life vanish, and the earth as a whole loses many valuable resources-- including the oxygen produced by much-needed vegetation.  This not only has an effect on the environment around it, but speeds the effects of global warming, as well. 

If that's not enough, desertification also affects human civilization directly.  Because fewer trees exist to anchor the soil with their roots, flooding is becoming more and more common in "desertified" areas.  These floods both take human lives, and do more damage to already suffering ecosystems. 

Desertification was a new word when I came across it, and it may very well be a new word to you, too.  It's amazing to me that such an important subject can go unknown to so many for so long.  Fortunately, there are a variety of ideas on how to solve this problem.  Some of them would require a personal effort, such as reducing the use of office paper by creating a paperless office, as described in my previous blog entry. Others talk about passing laws to regulate the number of trees that can be cut down and the amount of domestic animals that can graze a certain piece of land after a fire. Even more speak of the need to develop more efficient schemes for fire prevention and reforestation. 

What do you think is the best solution to desertification? While wide, sweeping laws might be effective, some think they're limiting to consumers. And humanity as a whole has shown itself to be resistant to many "personal efforts." But something must be done. I'd love to hear your ideas about desertification's possible causes and solutions as I research this topic even more.

Even though there has been an exponential increase in the use of computers in business over the past two decades, a lot of companies still have a habit of printing every single document and email or fax received.

The volume of paper used in an average-sized office can easily be reduced by following a few tips and tricks. Some are really obvious but you would be amazed how easily people automatically hit the print button.

Email and the ability to send messages to remote locations across the world within seconds without printing a single page, has contributed to a massive reduction of paper usage. You can also send document as attachments without printing them and this is a fantastic saver if there numerous revisions to be made. Companies that are aiming to go ‘green’, and reduce the use of paper in the office, should start by using e-mail more effectively, and more importantly, printing only those e-mails that are very important.

For a near-paperless solution, you can store important emails in the mailbox itself, and these can be organized in folders, making it easier to manage and retrieve emails. Digital documents are also easier to store and you therefore reduce office space requirements to file the printed documents. This approach allows you to save a lot on paper, consumables, time, and money; however do make sure you have a backup system in place to avoid losing any e-mails and other important data. In certain countries, companies are bound by law to keep a record of all company emails and correspondence for a number of years. Companies that do not have a backup or an email archiving system in place could face severe fines in the events that a document or email is required for audit or forensic purposes.

Other small tips:

• Email signatures can be used to encourage a ‘green’ approach. At the bottom of your email signature you can include a small note to the recipients of your email telling them to consider the environment before printing the email. This would make the person think twice before printing the document.
  
  
• When you cannot do otherwise, and you have to print an email, try using a small er font to save on ink and the number of pages. You should even consider printing a section of, rather than the whole email.
  
  
• Use the back side of the printed emails to print other emails/documents or re-use them as rough paper.

A paperless office cannot be achieved overnight! You need to plan those changes with the help of people who are knowledgeable on the subject, whilst making use of the best software available to help you perform these tasks.

Feel free do drop me a message if you have any other tips on how to reduce the usage of paper related to e-mail.