Archive pour la catégorie ‘Climate Change’
28 novembre 2011 | 
Auteur: Désolé, cet article est seulement disponible en English.
Publié dans 
So on Wednesday I went to climb Ecuadors highest mountain Chimborazo again. The last time I climbed the 6,268.2 m (20,565 ft) was three years ago with a good friend from North Carolina who was also living in Ecuador. We had been training at altitude for six months in preparation and also climbed Cotopaxi and Cayambe in the lead up (we reached the summit of Cotopaxi but the probability of an avalanche on Cayambe was too high to even consider climbing it) and finally the day came to climb Chimborazo…
Make no mistake, mountain climbing is not a fun sport, mountain climbing is a masochistic form of meditation, it hurts. For most of the time climbing my fingers and feet were painfully numb, my head felt like it was about to explode, and this ever pervasive feeling of nausea followed my every step. So why then do people climb mountains? Two of the biggest reasons are: 1 « because its there » and 2 because « you do not conquer the mountain, you only conquer yourself »
I just finished watching an amazing talk on one of my favorite websites TED.com. TED stands for Technology, Education, and Design and shows talks from leading thinkers, scientists, and activists from around the world who have « ideas worth sharing »
This particular talk was about the reforestation of rainforests on the island of Borneo where 1.3 million hectares (an area about one third of the size of Switzerland) is destroyed every year due to illegal logging and making way for Palm Oil. Something i found rather ironic is that the multinational corporation Nestle, which happens to come from Switzerland, has been one of the biggest users of the incredibly destructive palm oil in their famous chocolates like KitKat and are responsible (along with us consumers) for reaping so much destruction on the island.
Fortunately activists from organizations like Greenpeace increased the awareness of Nestles complicity in pillaging Borneo and destroying the rainforest to replace it with cheap palm oil plantations and consumers like you and me took notice and voted against their actions by avoiding their products. This forced Nestle to make an announcement that in the coming years they will completely stop using illegal Palm Oil in their products and switch to sustainable palm oil only and The Forest Trust (http://www.tft-forests.org/) will be monitoring them to keep them honest.
This is great news for the world and its forests and I applaud Nestle for coming to the decision. Unfortunately the millions upon millions of hectares of primary rainforest many times the size of Switzerland have already been destroyed and are now barren wastelands.
In the following TED talk i have embedded below the Indonesian biologist Willie Smitz gives an inspiring talk about how his NGO (Masarang.org) has quickly and effectively reforested parts of Borneo. If Nestle were genuine about their concern of the environment they would not only switch to sustainable Palm Oil but also invest in Willie Smitz organization and help repair the rainforest they have so grievously damaged.
I’m an huge fans of documentaries, i’d much rather spend my free time on topdocumentaryfilms.com than in front of the TV. Yesterday I watched a documentary called « Home » which blew me away. The documentary includes aerial shots of landscapes and cities from all around the world and its message is that we need to act right now to save the planet.
here is the blurb on the Home site:
We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate. The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being. For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film. HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.
You can watch the documentary for free here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/homeproject