Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in the world! Since we’re celebrating mothers today, we thought we’d share a cool initiative in Australia called “1 Million Women”. The campaign strives to inspire 1 million women to fight climate change by slashing 1 million tons of CO2. So that means each women who joins the cause would reduce her own CO2 emissions by 1 ton.

All the women who join the campaign get tips on how to cut their carbon footprints and help tracking their progress along the way. The more than 50 daily tips include things like staying away from plastic bags or bottles, cutting down on food waste and reducing your meat intake. You can check out some of the women’s stories who have joined on the campaign’s Youtube page.

So we told you about how you can reduce your carbon footprint for air travel, right? Well, you can definitely reduce your carbon footprint on land, too–by doing things like recycling, cutting down on electricity, etc. And a new study by researchers at the University of California Berkeley gives you the chance to directly assess your impact on the environment.

 

According to the researchers, factors like who you are and where you live actually play the biggest role in how big or little your footprint is. The study analyzes a whole series of households, so it gives you the chance to calculate your carbon footprint AND compare it to other households–even your neighbors!

 

You can find the calculator on the Cool Climate Network website. After it helps you figure out the size of your footprint, the calculator helps you find ways to slash CO2 emissions, too. So take the challenge–what's your carbon footprint? How does where you live and who you are affect it?

 

 

 

Atmosfair have published the first airline climate index ranking international air carriers according to CO2 emissions per flight kilometer and passenger. Taking into account factors like seating capacity per plane (the higher, the better for CO2 efficiency), load factor and aircraft types in use, the ranking offers surprising insights: No airline qualifies for the top two efficiency classes. And even then the highest ranks are occupied by any but the major carriers. Two charter airlines from the UK and Germany lead the pack, with the first major airline (carrying more than 20 million passengers a year), Korean Air, coming in at 20th place.

Here's the link to the full airline index, plus another link to the document outlining atmosfair's methodology.

When you turn on your radio most likely you will hear music. A lot of the songs you hear surely are insignificant. Most of them are about the usual issues like love & hate and who is the biggest pimp or has the lowest lowrider… But sometimes you will stumble upon a song that contains more than just blah blah. We are talking about popular music refering to climate change and how humans have an impact on the environment. Here's a short list that definitely needs to be extended. So if you know a song that matches this list, add a comment and let everyone know!

The first song we would like to present is from some time in the 80s by a band called Tower of Power. The idea is pretty easy to get: Stop driving that much, oil won't be available forever: "There's only so much oil in the ground / Sooner or later there won't be much around / Tell that to your kids while you're driving downtown / That there's only so much oil in the ground"

Punkrock of course is the class A music for controversial issues and Bad Religion is the band if we are talking about fairness, human rights and, obviously, climate change.

Cake on the other hand are more plain and simple:

"Car after bus after car after truck / After this my lungs will be so f*** up…"

Depeche Mode, the synthi-gods of ancient music times have written a song that is quite catchy as well. It says: "The landscape is changing, the landscape is crying / Thousand of acres of forest are dying…" Sounds pathetic in a way but who cares if the message is delivered right, right?

And last but not least the old but still heavy Heavy Metal band Megadeth has a heart for biodiversity. The song "Countdown to extinction" is a call to save the animals of our planet (because they can't take revenge for themselves). We don't know if the WWF would like this kind of music very much. Anyway, here's a quote from the lyrics: "Endangered species, caged in fright / Shot in cold blood, no chance to fight…" The song goes on with a martial (and metal-like) description of mankind: "You pull the hammer without a care / Squeeze the trigger that makes you Man…" Hell, yeah!

Do you know more songs like these? Do let us know! 🙂 You can add a comment right here with YouTube links to your favorite climate song or video.

It's no secret that coral reefs around the world are under threat because of climate change. Coral reefs represent some of our most important natural resources, providing livelihood, food and protection for marine biodiversity. And now environmentalists say 75% of our existing coral reefs are in the danger zone.

 

According to a report called "Reefs at Risk Revisited," overfishing, warmer waters and pollution are among the biggest culprits endangering reefs today. Also, pwards of 500 million depend on reefs for sustenance and income. And it's only going to get worse in the next 20 to 50 years.

 

So what can we do? Cutting down on water consumption and pollution will in turn slash our CO2 emissions, which is a big plus. But also support reef-friendly businesses whether you're fishing, boating or snorkeling! And raising awareness is also key. Here's one way to spread the word: send coral reef e-cards from The Nature Conservancy!