NEWS: The CityHippy Week

Ladies & Gentleman, it's Friday night! Welcome to...

The CityHippy Week!

STORY OF THE WEEK: Lessons for our time from the lost Mayan civilisation
Dee Smith (chief executive of Strategic Insight Group (SIG), a global, US-based private intelligence agency serving the investment, legal, and corporate communities) gives an analysis of the lessons we can learn of how the famed Mayan society seemingly took no account of their finite resources i.e. wood only to suffer the most dire of societal consequences due to the exploitation and disregard for the resource. Clearly if we ignore the lessons of history we are doomed to repeat them.

Meanwhile, the United States, Europe, and Japan continue to use 80% of the world’s energy resources for a collective 18% of its population. This is what is required to live the lifestyle. The question of whether there are actually enough resources on the planet to expand by more than 400% the number of people enjoying anything like a Western standard of living, must be asked. In fact, it is hardly a question: under the present circumstances, clearly there are not.

And that is from a fairly conservative business newspaper folks.

What else caught my little green eye?

The Art of Climate Change is on at the National History Museum in London. Looks very interesting and profound.

London's fuel cell buses are on extended trial until January 2007. Plus London's Transport Museum has announced plans to go solar. And it does not stop there as London Mayor Ken Livingstone has announced the launch of the Sunshine Garden which you can visit between the 4th and 9th of July at the Royal Horticultural Society's Hampton Court Flower Show. The goal of the garden was to create an urban garden with low water needs i.e. drought-tolerant trees, slow-release water systems and so on.

The dry garden shows ways of saving every drop of water in your garden and using it only when you need it!

How useful in these parched times.

Staying with the London Mayor it turns out that whilst Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square is being worked on the wood used to protect the monument has come from protected Papua New Guinea rainforest sources. Needless to say heads are going to roll but I sincerely hope that good comes of this in that the company using the wood realise why this wood should not be used, instead of them just having their knuckles wrapped. Better to engage with them as opposed to just condemning them.

Del.icio.us/cityhippy pick of the week: Environmental chiefs join forces to fight growth in air travel
All about the new AirportWatch campaign to start making the airline industry and its customers responsible for its contribution to climate change emissions.

…and that's the way it is folks!

Namaste

Al

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