She created the United Nations Environmental Programme  in 1972 and founding the Kenyan Green Belt Movement in 1977, Wangari inspired a nation to plant 45 million trees in Kenya. The GBM movement continues to plant trees and campaign for education, nutrition and other issues that are important to women. She wrote a number of books, which are available on the GBM website.

She was elected as an MP in Kenya in 2002, and became deputy environment minister in 2003.  In 2004, she was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her commitment to sustainability, democracy and peace.

EcoStreet praises Wangari Maathai for her lifelong dedication to our beautiful planet. You are our hero… goodbye, you will be missed!

Why not join the Green Belt Movement tree planters and plant a tree in your neighbourhood because, in Wangari’s words “When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope”.

Photo copyright © The Nobel Foundation

We currently recover only 5% of the plastics we produce. What happens to the rest of it? Roughly 50% is buried in landfills, some is remade into durable goods, and much of it remains “unaccounted for”, lost in the environment where it ultimately washes out to sea.

Plastic, or food? from 5 Gyres on Vimeo.

Find out about the 5 Gyres, their research results and learn how you can get involved in saving our seas.

But they need to push new laws through Parliament before these plans can go ahead. That means we have time to stop them.

Sign the petition at 38 Degrees now to tell the government to “save our forests”.

http://www.38degrees.co.uk

THE PETITION TEXT:

“Save our forests – don’t sell them off to the highest bidder”

Don’t let private companies chop down our woodland.

Protect trees for the conservation of wildlife and the enjoyment of the public.

Here’s  a head’s up on a new, exciting opportunity from the Sierra Club that could just be The Best Internship on Earth. One lucky young person will get to spend this summer travelling around the US to Sierra Club’s outdoor youth programs, including Inner City Outings, Volunteer Vacations, and Building Bridges to the Outdoors.  The intern will video-blog about all of the outdoor adventures that he or she will have (backpacking, rafting, hiking, etc).   As the cherry on top, the selected intern will receive a $2,500 stipend and be outfitted with $2,000 worth of gear from The North Face and Planet Explore!

No previous outdoor or video experience is required. Applicants just have to be between the ages of 18 and 25 and have a real passion for exploring, enjoying, and protecting the outdoors.  The internship is open to U.S. Citizens, permanent residents, legal residents with a valid work permit, or holders of a valid work visa.

More application info here.

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Radical Nature draws on ideas that have emerged out of Land Art, environmental activism, experimental architecture and utopianism. The exhibition is designed as one fantastical landscape, with each piece introducing into the gallery space a dramatic portion of nature. Work by pioneering figures such as the architectural collective Ant Farm and visionary architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, artists Joseph Beuys, Agnes Denes, Hans Haacke and Robert Smithson are shown alongside pieces by a younger generation of practitioners including Heather and Ivan Morison, R&Sie(n), Philippe Rahm architects and Simon Starling. Radical Nature also features specially commissioned and restaged historical installations, some of which are located in the outdoor spaces around the Barbican while a satellite project by the architectural collective EXYZT is situated off site.

The exhibition is on until the 18th of October and if you’d like to stand a chance of winning a ticket, simply add a comment telling us about something you do in your daily life that reduces your footprint on our planet.

This competition ends on Friday 9th of October. Two winners will be drawn out of a hat and notified by email.

CAPE TOWN – Here’s something really worthwhile to do on Tuesday’s public holiday. I’m going because I like to make a contribution to keeping places that I enjoy in good nick, and because I want to teach my children that being a member of a community is a give and take process.

Photo credit: Millstone Cafe website

We enjoy spending time at the Millstone Cafe and Farmstall at Oude Molen where you can get the best breads, quiches and pizza in town, as well as such delicacies as chocolate beetroot cake. And while you enjoy your cake and sip on a creamy cappucino, the kids get to play in this terrific tree-house .

Photo credit: Millstone Cafe website

Or in this little playhouse.

The place has a very homely feel to it, the staff are warm and friendly and it’s a great place for families or for kids parties. There are even pony rides next door. Millstone Cafe and Farmstall is open from 9-5, Tuesday to Sunday.

Pia of Mother City Living paid Oude Molen Eco Village a visit a few months ago, read about it and see her photographs here.

Reggie of Grains of Sand reports that Oude Molen Eco Village is under threat by developers, which is another good reason to support Tuesday’s clean up and the Oude Molen businesses.

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There’s something particularly special about the Cape Town Green Map launch that I wanted to share with you. It’s probably the lowest carbon launch of all the Green Maps, and I’m quoting from the launch invitation to illustrate why/how:

The venue is “your laptop, PC or iPhone so there are no travel costs or [additional] carbon footprint. The dres code is “optional – but locally designed garb from hemp/bamboo/organic cotton is encouraged”. There are no speakers – “an untold saving on hot air and CO2 emissions”.

In addition there are “no printed invitations (save on ink/chemicals, paper/trees), no printed media packs (save on ink/chemicals, paper/trees and packaging), no travel to the venue (save on CO2 emissions, time and roadwork frustration), no food or beverages (save on packaging, waste, energy and food miles) and no speakers, official openings, ‘live’ performers (save on CO2 emissions, uncomfortable silences and the effort to look impressed)”.

Isn’t that cool? And in this very wet weather I’m extra-specially glad not to be going anywhere!

Here’s a bit more about Cape Town Green Map for Capetonians who are interested in giving it a test-drive:

Cape Town Green Map is updated by interested green Capetonians, making it a direct, democratic communication of local knowledge and action. You can find community gardens, craft centres, recycling drop-offs, areas of natural beauty, shops and markets that sell green and organic products, restaurants and bars who serve organic food and drinks and more. If you know about somewhere green that’s not on the map, you can suggest it to the mapmakers, or become a mapmaker yourself.

More great green news for Cape Town is that in October A&C Maps, who print “Not the official guide to Cape Town”, the “Pink Map” and the “Food Map” will be bringing out a printed version of the Cape Town Green Map. Look out for it!

A big thanks to Open Green Map, the City of Cape Town, urban sprout and A&C Maps for this great tool.

*Read Treehugger’s great article about why maps are such a good tool for helping us go green.

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Working to halve the number of people around the world without safe drinking water.

Clean Water = A Path out of Poverty. How the UK is helping people to build better lives.

March 22 is World Water Day, a reminder that clean, safe water enables life. It promotes good health, enables people to work, attend school and lift themselves out of a cycle of poverty. It is a cornerstone of development.

Currently, 900 million people around the world lack access to this basic and essential resource. Thousands of children die every day from preventable illnesses caused by dirty drinking water. Many more people are affected by painful and disfiguring diseases caused by waterborne parasites and bacteria.

The UK government works with other governments and organisations around the world to increase access to clean and safe water for millions of people. We live in a more interconnected and interdependent world than at any other time in history. That means that increased poverty anywhere affects us all. Clean water is the first step on a path out of poverty, enabling people all around the world to build better lives.

To find out more visit www.dfid.gov.uk

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There’s no accounting for some people’s tastes, but if you like a bit of kitsch, this waterbutt will make a great conversation starter at your summer barbecue. The butt butt is the deal of the week over at Evengreener where it’s been marked down from £100 (that’s what you pay for designer dahling), to an affordable £29.95, including a free rain diverter kit. This is a limited edition piece of kit, so get it while you can.

The front of the butt butt is flat so that it will stand against a wall, and it takes 215 litres of rainwater, which is another thing to get while you can.

Update! It seems that Evengreener have now sold out/removed the product from their site and so the link provided above doesn’t point to the butt butt anymore. Sorry!