Rain Bird Corporation is a company dedicated to the intelligent use of water so much that they've created a film competition with that title.

The global demand for water is growing. Of all the earth's water, only 1% is fresh water suitable for human consumption. The United Nations anticipates that more than 2.7 billion people will face severe water shortages by 2025. The Intelligent Use of Water film competition is intended to use film and video as a tool for inspiring action and awareness around water conservation. The competition asks: "Is a global water crisis inevitable?" and calls for short films that feature intelligent ways of using water more efficiently.

Submissions of any genre, from one to twenty minutes in length are accepted (including excerpts of longer films.) The finalists will be judged by a yet to be named celeb panel and will be screened in October in LA. The winner of the juried competition will receive $6000, and the audience pick will get $3000.

Sometimes the best way to cut down on your consumption is just to use less stuff. Green Options writer Maria Surma Manka gave me a tip suggestion recently that will help you do just that: "Wash your hair every other day. I started doing this about 1 1/2 years ago and besides spending less time in the shower using up water, I buy shampoo and conditioner much less (half as much, actually). Plus, I get compliments nearly every time I get my hair cut about how soft it is, so it's really gotten healthier from not running it through products every day."

This is one of those win-win-win tips. Many people have the kind of hair that just looks and feels better when it's not washed everyday. (Win #1) By skipping a day, you are saving water, product packaging, and energy. (Win #2) And, as usual, it will also save you money. (Win #3)

The U.S., Canada, and Mexico have formally agreed to make their energy systems more efficient. A regional strategy will be implemented to better coordinate and exchange energy research, science, and technology. As one U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) official put it, the three countries are shifting towards a “North American perspective” as they explore how more synergy among their systems will help move us towards a cleaner, more efficient energy system and fight global warming.

This announcement seemed to come out of thin air to me. But apparently these talks stem from the North American Energy Work Group (NAEWG) that was formed in 2001 to improve transparency and regulatory compatibility, promote the development of resources and infrastructure, increase cooperation on efficiency standards, and address challenges on the demand side. The NAEWG began as a place to generate ideas, but has since evolved into developing plans for concrete results and the exchange of information and technology.

Posted by Dave (at the last day of the International Whaling Commission, in Anchorage, Alaska)

A round of applause just echoed around the chamber – a majority vote of 37-4 in favour of the CITES resolution has effectively overturned the St. Kitts Declaration from last year’s IWC. The St. Kitt’s resolution, which effectively declared that a ban on commercial whaling was no longer need, has now been overturned!ed

The St. Kitts, co-sponsor of last year’s pro-whaling declaration actually admitted it before the vote – saying that the adoption of the CITES resolution would effectively repeal the St. Kitts Declaration.

This reconfirms that the 1986 moratorium (i.e. ban) on commercial whaling is as valid today as it was two decades years ago. Nice to see the IWC working as it should work! Time for some celebration…

Draft resolution on CITES
CITES: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
Wikipedia: CITES

From the AP story: “President Bush on Thursday urged 15 major nations to agree by the end of next year on a global emissions goal for reducing greenhouse gases.”

Sounds very proactive of him. But wait a sec. There are already globally agreed emission reduction targets. They were set in Kyoto, Japan… 10 years ago. Hmm. Maybe no one told President Bush about the Kyoto Protocol, or perhaps it has just slipped his mind.

If you run into him, please point out that the Kyoto Protocol entered into force (became legally binding) on 16 February 2005. It commits industrialised countries (like the USA) to cut their combined emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008 – 2012.

Continue reading Bush’s sham of a climate plan…

Academy-award nominated Japanese animator Koji Yamamura has created this tiny, beautiful story about a Japanese headmaster who saves a whale, returning a debt for having been saved from starvation after the second world war. The 2-minute film took him 5 months to make and comprises 1700 drawings.

You can read more about Yamamura here.

AIGA Center for Sustainable Design web site

Sustainability has become a buzz word in the design industry. Graphic design industry magazines such as HOW and Communication Arts are publishing articles (and even entire issues) devoted to green design regularly. Designers are starting to pay attention and change the way they work.

Sustainable and eco-conscious design has been a long time in the making, but the proliferation of web sites and resources on the subject in recent years and months shows that momentum is building. One growing resource, AIGA Center for Sustainable Design, represents, to me, a benchmark in the green design movement.

Sustainability is a work in progress, so it’s impossible to have all the information to know whether a company’s activities are green enough. However, you can learn whom to trust simply by testing whether a company will genuinely respond to you.

Last Friday, I wrote a piece on The Eightfold on the opportunity for theme parks to green the customer experience. In it I mentioned Bearfire Resort, a year round outdoor ski resort to be built in Dallas, Texas in 2009. Since Texas summers are resource intense, I questioned the value of building a 650,000 square foot ski resort.

The Earth has warmed by approximately 0.75 °C since pre-industrial times. Eleven of the warmest years in the past 125 years occurred since 1990, with 2005 the warmest on record. There is overwhelming consensus that this is due to emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), from burning fossil fuels. Examination of ice cores shows that there is more CO2 in the atmosphere than at any time in the past 600,000 years. Between 1960 and 2002, annual anthropogenic global missions of CO2 approximately tripled. They rose by about 33 per cent since 1987 alone. Continue reading MELTING ICE: A HOT TOPIC?

Logging has restarted in the disputed Saami reindeer forests in Inari. Finnish state has decided to continue the destruction of old-growth wilderness forests in Kessi. Photos from current logging operations can be viewed in the Finnish weblog. Read what Saami Council has to say.

Continue reading Logging restarted in the disputed forests…