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.

And that brings me to the inspiration for this blog post.

Firstly, Julie Cohen of Better Than Fiction Productions emailed me the link to a video that she produced for PBS about a lady called Dee Williams who lives in a tiny house.

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

And secondly, I read this morning at Bindu Wiles blog that she is starting a community project called the Shed Project, which has nothing whatsoever to do with sheds (or tiny houses), but fits perfectly alongside the story of tiny houses because it’s all about shedding the bumf that we don’t really need (including excess body weight).

I’m going to be taking part in the Shed Project to see what I can shed. If you’re interested in getting rid of some of your excess, Bindu Wiles will be launching the project in about a month’s time, so add her to your feed reader if you don’t want to miss out.

This Tuesday, 13th July, I’m going to be joining artist Janet Botes to launch ecojunki at the Atlantic Seaboard Greendrinks Meet-up. We’ll be showing some of our own recycled art and crafts, and inviting Greendrink-ers to bring along their own recyclables for a demonstration/have-a-go.

If you’re in Cape Town and want to come along, here are the details:

Atlantic Seaboard Greendrinks
Cape Creative Exhibition Centre, 37, Main Road, Greenpoint
Tuesday 13th July 2010
6 pm for 6.30 pm – till 9 pm
The theme for the evening is greening visual arts and wine making
Time changes for this month : 6 pm for 6.30 pm – till 9 pm.

Eco artist and activist Janet Botes will present the Ecojunki movement and projects in Waste Art.
Bring recycled packaging (paper, plastic) which can be used for a demonstration !

All Capetonian artists are invited to participate in an open discussion about how to green Visual Arts.

Heron Ridge Wine Farm from Helderberg will be presenting their experience of farming the wine biodynamically and offer some wine tasting, which you will be able to compliment for a small contribution with some cheese platters from African Cheese and Wine Tours.

I have another great green giveaway for you. Dennis Publishing and Magbook are giving away 5 copies of their new Green Living Guide by Hugh Bowring to EcoStreet readers.

Did you know that…
Turning down the thermostat by 1C can save you around £40 a year on heating bills?
Switching to energy efficient light bulbs can save the average UK household £128.42 per year?
The average UK household throws away £424 of food a year?
The average Briton throws away 7 times their body weight in rubbish each year?

Inside the Green Living Guide you’ll find:
194-pages of invaluable expert advice, tips and guidance.
Inspirational case studies ranging across Low Carbon Building Programmes to Green travel schemes.
Tips to battling against climate change at home and work through making small but significant changes.
Clear sections dedicated to help you live a greener life – including work, travel and raising a family.
100s of money saving tips ideal for achieving sustainable living on a budget.

Author Hugh Bowring is the director of Footprints Environmental Solutions Ltd, an independent company that provides ecological advice and Green products to companies and the general public. Prior to his current profession Hugh was a environmental journalist, and won the East of England’s Environmental Journalist of the Year Award for his contribution to generating awareness for Green issues across the British media.

There are THREE ways to enter yourself in the giveaway:

1. Comment below.
2. Post the giveaway to Facebook.
3. Post the giveaway to Twitter.

Each one will earn you a separate entry, so please leave individual comments for each.

Please note that this giveaway is only open to readers with a UK postal address.

The winner will be chosen at random on Mon. 19 July.

This giveaway is now closed.

And the winners are: Adrian Crook, Tracy, Thelma, Kim Holgate and Kulwinder Lombardelli.

The Green Living Guide is available now from magbooks.com and amazon.co.uk for only £7.99

It’s Earth Day today, and I’m delighted to be giving away five Energy Seals, worth $16 each, from the very generous Powered Green to 5 of our US readers.

An Energy Seal is a sticker made from recycled aluminium that represents a carbon offset for a computer. Each Energy Seal symbolizes that renewable energy sources have produced an equal amount of energy used by a single computer over the course of its lifetime. The Energy Seal is then placed on the outside of a computer to show support for clean energy.

Powered Green is an environmental start-up based in Madison, WI, founded by two recent UW – Madison graduates. Their efforts support the development of new wind projects across the country through the sale of Powered Green gear. Each product stands as a way to generate awareness and support for renewable energy on an individual basis. Their efforts in less than a year have already stopped over 1,000 tons of CO2 from reaching the atmosphere.

To stand a chance to win one of these Energy Seal stickers for your computer, please leave a comment here about your Earth Day plans. Five comments will be chosen at random to each receive a free Powered Green Energy Seal, and the winners will be announced here on Sunday 2nd May 2010. Please note that this giveaway is only open to readers with a US mailing address.

And the winners are…

Kristi, Tiffany Pettey, Miranda johnson, Nick and Chrystal. Congratulations, you’ll soon be working/playing on a computer with a carbon offset!  Winners, please reply to my email requesting your mailing address.

UK readers: keep a lookout for a new sponsor giveaway tomorrow, just for you!

During the recent UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen our world leaders failed to agree on a climate deal. But we all know it’s not only up to them and there are plenty of things that we mere mortals can do to make an impact on climate change. As consumers, we need to take responsibilility for our own actions. Here’s one way to do something – do 30!

The ‘I do 30′ campaign encourages people across the world to turn down the temperature on their laundry to reduce co2.

Visit their website to find out more about the campaign and become a member of their Facebook group to join the other 12,000 supporters of the ‘I do 30′ campaign to see what positive impact you can have on our planet.

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.

In central London on the evening of Tuesday 27th October, 8 green leaders will present their view on the future of their industry. To those in the know, it’s quite a star-studded occasion. Green Tomato Cars will give their view on the future of sustainable transport, Ed Gillespie from Futerra will speak about ethical communication and consumer attitudes, and Terra Plana will comment on how its ethical footwear will evolve. Sam Kimmins, Sustainability Adviser at Forum for the Future, will give his take on the future of sustainable construction. Other presentations will be from Germination (a cutting-edge event company furthering social progress), innovative web community Project Dirt, The Hub (a shared workspace concept for social entrepreneurs) and sustainable lifestyle magazine Sublime.

Each of the 8 presentations will last no more than 8 minutes, and to keep things highly visual, no more than 5 words per slide are allowed. It means that 80% of the ideas in a normal presentation can be communicated in 20% of the time. The evening will be held at St Giles Cripplegate Church in Barbican, EC2. Further adding to the creative spirit, guests are invited to help reduce waste and bring their own reusable vessels for wine.

Inspiration and insight won’t just come from the presenting businesses either. Up to 250 keen, green thinkers and doers are expected to attend, so there’ll be food for thought in the conversations and networking, too.

Want to know more and book your ticket? Here are the details you need to know:

When: Tuesday 27th October
Start time: 6.30pm for a 7pm start (drinks will be available – you’re encouraged to bring your own cup for extra green points!)
Where: St Giles Cripplegate Church, Barbican, London, EC2Y 8DA (for map click here)

Tickets are limited, costing £9.50 in advance or £15 on the door.

You can buy your ticket here: http://futureofgreen.eventbrite.com

To find out more, click on http://www.insider-worldwide.com/trend-evening-green-futures/

The most distinctive quality of the urban environment lies in its landscape. Each individual city has its own sense of character, unique infrastructure, and physical presence. As the urban setting becomes increasingly advanced, we are leaving behind our roots – the tree canopy coverage in the developed city is declining. At present, many of world’s greatest cities lack substantial plant life. This observation isn’t just aesthetic, it is harmful on many levels. An increase in tree canopy coverage may require some painstaking effort to succeed, but could have enormous benefit if it does. Incorporating trees into the urban environment would serve to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we burn and ease the damage of deforestation – the two main roots of climate change. Right now, homes and other buildings account for 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the North America. Design and sustainability, both significant community objectives, can’t be sacrificed for one another. They must work together.

The city doesn’t “breathe” as well as a forest, contributing large quantities of carbon to the atmosphere with few sources of absorption. The earth, in order to give warmth to support life, needs a reasonable amount of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide appears naturally in the atmosphere, exhaled by humans and involved in the photosynthesis of plants. Carbon is kept in check by a natural carbon cycle, a system which creates a balance between the carbon emitters (humans), and the carbon absorbers (plants). Oceans, land and air are all involved in the process.

After the industrial revolution, when humans began messing with the carbon levels in the atmosphere, the earth began to see increasing quantities of carbon being pumped into the system. And it’s been rising steadily since, resulting in a 1.4 degree increase in global average temperature. This might not seem like a lot, but consider the fact that the global average temperature during the last ice age was only 4 – 7 degrees colder than it is today, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The increase refers to the average temperature, not explicitly presenting the extremes on either side.

The city has taken a lot less time to grow than the forests. And we can’t undo what has been built. But by adding trees into the urban landscape, we can contribute to the solution of the unbalanced carbon cycle. Placed around a house or on a rooftop, trees can cool a building by 40%. Cutting back on air conditioner reliance means a decrease in the human- made greenhouse gas hydrofluorocarbons. An appropriate mix of trees can filter 88% of air pollution in a park, or 70% in a street setting. The benefit isn’t just limited to homes and buildings. On the streets, trees slow rain fall and absorb water, reducing rain flow into our sewers. More trees on the street means less overflow from sewers into the lake.

More trees would attract wildlife, make the city more aesthetically pleasing, and create more jobs. The benefits are numerous. Trees and urban design are a winning team, combining to reconcile urban culture and nature, a gap that must be bridged in order to achieve a truly sustainable city. Restoring an eco system is slow and demanding process. And unlike simply building a condo, it is unpredictable. But adding these lasting structures to the city’s infrastructure would have a greatly advantageous impact on our environment, our resources, and our money.

The potential difficulties of this goal lie in the nature of plant life. Will the slow growth of trees be frustrating enough for us to scrap the plan and come up with yet another quick and easy solution? Most of the trees that make up the canopy in major established cities have been rooted in place for a century or so, meaning that the skinny ones planted in addition will take equally as long to reach full growth. Cultivation in the urban environment won’t be easy, either. City trees die quickly in the drought of the hot summer months, as they bake against the concrete buildings and roads. If trees are to survive in the city, they would need to be planted in large groups and carefully tended.

Cities are built primarily with humans needs in mind. They create the illusion of a world solely for us. Doubling the tree canopy in the city is within our reach, and the cultivation of these entities will force us to recognize the true value of trees. The greater the esteem we assign them, the greater the benefit they will provide. Urban design and sustainability can no longer afford to clash. A green infrastructure starts with a return to the architecture of the natural world.

Photo credit: jeltovski