Tag Archives: Rothschild giraffe
New Zealand wine set to display carbon footprint
Scrutinizing bouquet, viscosity and finish on the palate is no longer enough for the accomplished wine connoisseur but carbon footprint as well. Now they can consider a vintage’s environmental credentials — for one brand at least.
A New Zealand wine has become the first in the world to display the carbon footprint of each individual glass serving on its label — laying bare to the shopper or drinker the full environmental impact of making and transporting it. Each bottle of Mobius Marlborough sauvignon blanc — which takes its name from the highest peak of the range of hills above the town — will display its carbon footprint emissions for a typical 125 ml glass.
On the new label the relevant emissions, which are calculated to reflect the environmental impact of factors such as transportation and refrigeration, will be measured separately for every export market. So, bottles sold in New Zealand, for example, will carry a figure of 140g CO2, whereas bottles shipped to Australia will display 190g.
Significantly, the wine is the world’s first to be certified by the UK’s Carbon Trust which is leading a drive to influence consumer choice by encouraging universal carbon footprint labeling — using its own Carbon Reduction label — across all products.
This certification is a milestone for the New Zealand Wine Company (NZWC), which is based in Marlborough in the country’s South Island and which has been pursuing sustainable management within the New Zealand wine industry.
Craig Fowles, NZWC’s sustainability manager, said, “It’s a very important certification as it is a full-life cycle carbon approach. In a very recent development, the Carbon Trust in the UK announced that sales of products carrying its carbon footprint reduction label will shortly top GBP 2bn per annum.”
Definitely a great move to display carbon footprint on their products.
Solar powered Blood Pressure meter
Blood Pressure meter
There are places on Earth that are so far fetched and distant from any urban civilization, that electricity isn’t all too common as it is to many. These off-grid places do have a hard time catching up with a lot of facilities enjoyed by many today, including medical aid. A few researchers with some really great intentions in their hearts have designed a Blood Pressure meter device, powered by solar energy. This one needs no electrical outlets to plug in and is juiced up solely by the sun. With a device like solar Blood Pressure meter, doctors in areas far away can now keep tabs on cardio-vascular diseases amongst people.
Currently being tested in Uganda and Zambia in Africa, this Blood Pressure meter is not too expensive either — $32. An innovative way to keep health issues in check using green energy, this Blood Pressure meter will for sure make the work of doctors in off-grid areas a lot easier.
Do some green deeds while sleeping
Ecotypic Bed
Sleeping till late hasn’t really been too productive for any of us before but here is Ecotypic Bed. Well, sleeping and lazing around on the Ecotypic Bed could do a lot more!
Designed by Arthur Xin is a marvel of technology. Packing a battery below, this Ecotypic Bed generates electricity from the activities carried out on the bed. Basically, everything you do in bed and around the bed is turned into energy. This electricity generated is then use to power up the LED reading lamps, the speakers that play some soothing music to wake you up, and also LED lights that help the plants on this one grow.
The Ecotypic Bed has hooked on a bunch of straps and pulleys for you to exercise with, that helps generate electricity too.
“This is a green bed.” It has everything you need! A LED reading lights, speakers and a flower box.
There’s a battery below the bed which turns the activities you do on the bed and around the bed into energy.
Do everything all day long on the Ecotypic bed!
Tiger numbers increase in India
The number of tigers in India has risen for the first time in a decade, according to a new official census published in Delhi. Campaigners and officials have hailed the news as proving that the big cat which has suffered a 97 per cent population decline in the past century can still be saved.
In India, many tigers continue to be killed by poachers or die as a result of pressure on their natural habitats from the rapidly growing human population or environmental damaging caused by a lack of governance and the booming economy.
There are around 3,000 wild tigers in the world, of which around half live in India. The census is believed to put the total number of wild tigers in India at around 1,550 – 10 per cent more than in 2008.
However, this may prove controversial because it has included the vast jungle and swamp areas of the Sunderbans, an estuary zone on the Bay of Bengal that had previously proved too difficult to properly survey.
Conservationists are also uncertain about the accuracy of the latest figures, claiming the methods used allowed the same tiger to be counted several times. “A 10 per cent increase is good news and very significant — but you can always fudge the figures if you want to, whatever counting method you use,” MK Ranjitsinh, the chairman of the Wildlife Trust of India and one of India’s best-known tiger campaigners, said.
In the 1970s, the Indian tiger population dropped to near 1,000. A major effort to establish reserves and increase protection of the animals resulted in numbers trebling by the end of the 1990s. Indian tigers are a major draw for tourists, and attempts are currently being made to re populate national parks that have seen all their tigers die, many through poaching to supply the growing demand for traditional medicines in China. But problems remain. Many villages are still either within reserves or close to them, and local people are frequently at- tacked while collecting wood or walking to their fields.
“The human population continues to grow and that means reduction of prey, threats to the isolation of the tiger habitat and increasing danger of direct human- tiger conflict. We may have won a battle, but you have to win the war,” Ranjitsinhsaid.
Battery using sunlight to power itself
Here’s a battery that will never run dry and you will never need to toss in the bin so long as the sun shines up there in the sky. Designed by Yung-Hsaing Chang, Ming-Shien Lin and Chang-Ting Lu, the Light Catcher battery, (a catchy name for a battery) powers using energy from the sun.
With AA and AAA variants, the body of this battery is transparent and coated with an anti reflective layer. Inside lie the solar cells that soak in the sun’s energy.
The Light Catcher entry for the 2011 IF concept designs competition. Running out of juice will not be so much of a concern anymore, especially if you’re out there in the outdoors.
Rothschild giraffe on endangered list
Driven from its wild ranging West African habitats, the Rothschild giraffe is clearly in peril. Now, its plight has been officially recognized. The world’s largest environment network, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has added it to its red list of endangered species.
Named after the banker and zoologist Walter Rothschild who first described it, the species joins the West African giraffe on the list, making it the second most threatened of the nine giraffe sub species. Fewer than 670 Rothschild giraffes now live in the wild, in isolated populations. Some 40 per cent live in National Parks and private land in Kenya and the remaining 60 percent in Uganda. 
While giraffes overall are ranked of “least concern” by the IUCN, partly due to a lack of data, there are far fewer Rothschild giraffes remaining than there are endangered African elephants. Conservationists say farming developments are largely to blame for the animal’s decline.
Dr. Julian Fennessy, co-founder of the giraffe Conservation Foundation and one of the researchers whose analysis led to the species being added to the list, said “I am delighted and of course saddened at the same time that the Rothschild giraffes has finally made the IUCN red list status. We have been striving for this for a while now and hope this will highlight to the world the critical state its tallest creature is in.”
Isolation of the species’ remaining populations and a lack of understanding about how it lives and feeds are hampering efforts to restore its numbers.
The Rothschild giraffe’s project, launched in the spring and supported by the Giraffes Conservation Foundation hopes to gather more information about the giraffe’s habitats and habits in order to put conservation plans in place.