URBAN BEE KEEPING TALK AND HONEY HARVESTING - SHAHEED PARK

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years to live" - Albert Einstein, read the flyer placed on every seat for the guests. I didn't know these amazing little hard working miracle insects were so vital for our existence!

The urban bee keeping talk at the beautifully landscaped open air Circle of Peace in Shaheed park yesterday was something quite intriguing, inspiring and educational. The talk was held as a part of green week program  to create awareness among people on the importance of bee keeping to promote and sustain the honey bee communities from declining or perishing. There is no insect in the world that provides us honey and related consumer foods that has a huge variety of health and healing benefits known to man since ancient civilizations. In alternative and natural medicine honey is given great importance.

Honey bees can be raised in our gardens and balconies or on our property. 'Just Bee' is a local bee products company that will install bee hive for you and explain everything you need to know. When it's time, they would have the honey harvested for you.  According to 'Just Bee', you can contribute to urban bee keeping as the bees being pollinators strongly influence floral diversity, plant eco system and stability. Do you know the honey bees make more honey than they consume!

The local Sidr honey is mostly from cedar trees. Its important to plant flowers and cedar trees to help the bee communities flourish. Pesticides and insecticides on plants can disorient bees and it's harmful for them as they can't fly back to their hives. So its important to grow plants without the use of pesticides and insecticides. A bee can travel up to 5 kilometers to get nectar from flowers or trees. Apparently there are 500 bee keepers in Kuwait and 10,000 bee hives. Honey harvested from different places in the same country tastes different and the color is different too. Kuwait won gold medal in Korea for 'best honey competition' last year, where over a 100 countries participated .

During the talk, we were shown  a transparent box with lots of female bees, some male bees and honeycomb.  After the talk, we were shown live honey harvesting, followed by a tasting session. The honey was rich and dark in color and tasted amazing.

You can contact 'Just Bee' for pure natural honey. They will deliver it to your home. As mentioned earlier, if you are interested, they can install beehives for you and harvest honey as well.  Their contact is at the bottom of my post. Here are some photos from the event.

KIDZANIA ENVIRONMENT AND RECYCLING EXHIBITION

Today is the last day of KIDZANIA's Environment and Recycling Exhibition. Check out the art work made by students from recycled materials. Will be fun for the children and the family plus it gives an opportunity to build awareness among children to care for our environment and encourage recycling of everyday objects we throw away. 

Kidzania's exhibition is in partnership with Ministry of Education. 

Venue : Opposite Dean & Deluca restaurant, 2nd Avenues, Avenues Mall

When : Today Tuesday 22nd April is the last day of the exhibition. Don't let your kids miss it!

When : 10 am to 10 pm

LEVI'S JEANS MADE OF RECYCLED PLASTIC BOTTLES

The Levi’s brand announced their introduction to a totally new collection of jeans that would incorporate recycled plastic bottles and food trays! Each of Levi’s Waste Less jeans will include a minimum of 20 percent post-consumer recycled content, or, eight 12 to 20-ounce bottles per jean. This innovative denim collection made from recycled bottles is to instill in people a mindset to encourage recycling by adding value to waste. Levi’s Waste<Less collection will be available in the market globally, during Spring 2013. Over 3.5 million recycled bottles will be utilized to create their new line of sustainable design.

Now for some information on how these jeans will be created incorporating recyled bottles. The recycled bottles will consist of brown beer bottles, green soda bottles, clear water bottles and black food trays which are collected through municipal recycling programs across the United States. The bottles and food trays will be sorted by color, crushed into flakes, and made into a polyester fiber. Next, the polyester fiber is blended with cotton fiber, which is finally woven with traditional cotton yarn by Cone Denim to create the denim used in the Levi’s Waste<Less jeans and trucker jackets. Levi's revealed the color of the bottles used adds a beautiful undertone to the denim fabric creating a unique finish in the final product.

via www.levistrauss.com press release

WOODEN CAR POWERED BY BATTERY FOR $ 23,175

A young man from Uyghur along with his father, have developed a wooden car that's powered by battery. It looks like a life size toy wooden car, quite neatly built. The Car was exhibited last year at the International Tourism Festival in Kashgar,  in Northwest China’s Xinjiang region. The father and son spent around 15,000 Yuan to design and build the car. It took a year to complete the car.  The car cost 150,000 Yuan ($23,175).

LANTERN POWERED BY SALT WATER

Green House Co. Ltd, in Japan has developed an LED emergency lantern called GH-LED10WBW that runs on salt water!. The lantern weighs 680gram (23.98-oz). The lamp does not require any batteries rechargeable or otherwise to function. Just fill the lamp’s reservoir with salty water and voila!

All it requires is 16 grams (0.56 oz) of salt dissolved with 350 cc (11.83 oz) of water in a measuring bag and then poured into the lantern. The salt acts like an electrolyte in a simple wet battery, that uses a magnesium rod as an anode and a carbon rod as a cathode. During electrolysis, the magnesium ions travel to the carbon rod to generate electricity. The magnesium rod will have to be replaced with a new one, after 120 hours of usage, as it slowly gets destroyed by electrolysis.

The lantern produces 1.5 volts of DC power that can run its ten-LED white light, giving out 55 lumens of light. The lantern has a USB port to charge your devices at 4.5 volts. The LED lantern runs for eight hours before the saltwater needs replacing.

The LED lamp is intended for emergencies and recreation and will go on sale in Japan in mid-September 2012.

SOLAR POWERED OLED TRANSPARENT CAR ROOF

Chemical manufacturer BASF & Technology innovators Philips have come up with a concept design, where they have developed a form of OLED technology for car roofs that can function as both lighting and as a sunroof, capable of integrating solar cells to generate power. This means all required energy including additional electricity for the vehicle can be obtained by including transparent solar cells into the modules. The combination of OLED lights and solar cells gives the driver a unique open-space feeling, while it generates electricity during the day and pleasantly suffuses the interior with the warm light of the transparent, highly efficient OLEDs at night," said Felix Gorth, head of organic light-emitting diodes and organic photovoltaics at BASF Future Business GmbH.

When switched off, the OLEDs are transparent, so the roof behaves like transparent glass, allowing rays of sunshine to fill your car and during rain, you can enjoy the rain falling on the transparent OLED as you drive. All the while, the solar cells would collect energy and at night, when activated, the roof turns opaque and the stored energy can be used to provide light to the interior of your vehicle.

PINE SHOES BY HADAS ILANI

These  strange, yet unique and innovative looking Pine Shoes are designed by Hadas Ilani. He used  varying sewing techniques to put together pine needle strands, creating a textile which is then formed into shoes. Hadas Ilani's Pine Shoes were exhibited at Ventura Lambrate 2012, at Milan under the theme Design Bonanza.

ELECTRIC CAR WITH NO STEERING WHEEL - HONDA EV-STER

Honda is actively exploring eco friendly electric vehicles and has come up with the Honda EV-Ster, an electric concept car, without a steering wheel, featured in both Geneva Motor Show 2012 as well as the Tokyo Motor Show held in December 2011. Ev-Ster is a two-seater vehicle with a carbon fiber body to reduce weight. It has a small electric motor running on lithium-ion batteries. This motor powers the rear wheels, in sports car fashion, and with its 78 horsepower. Honda claims a range for the EV-STER of 100 miles (on a single charge of its lithium ion battery), with acceleration timed at 5 seconds to 60 km/h (37 mph). 

In place of the traditional steering wheel, the driver uses a yoke - a twin lever steering system, to steer, giving the motorist similar experience as riding a motor bike where handlebars are used to turn. Instead of turning the wheel, the driver would push and pull the the levers according to the direction he travels. The car would go into production sometime this year.

DUTCH AIRLINES KLM TO USE COOKING OIL TO FUEL FLIGHT

As airlines are under EU pressure to cut carbon emission by 3% by 2012, Dutch airlines KLM plans to use recycled cooking oil, biokerosene derived from used frying oil, to fuel 200 flights between Paris and Amsterdam. KLM gets it's 'used frying oil' supply from hotels, restaurants and factories which is sent to the US for refining and currently only enough for 200 flights. Future flights will use biokerosene and expected to start in September 2011.

For detailed article visit  BBC

TRASH BOAT SET SAIL IN TAIWAN MADE FROM RECYCLED MATERIALS

Environment friendly green boat 'Forever' was built entirely from 100% trash including plastic bottles and old advertising banners, propelled by wind and solar powered system, to raise awareness about the marine environment. "The concept of the Polli-Boat is using 100 percent trash," said Arthur Huang, the founder and managing director of Miniwiz Sustainable Energy Development Ltd, which made the boat.

The 7 metre (23 feet) boat set sail on June 8, World Ocean Day, in a ceremony along with other creative boats made of recycled materials, in  an eco-friendly creative boat competition held at the dock. National Geography Channel in Taiwan selected 10 designs from nearly 200 enteries to compete for the most innovative boat built from recycled materials.

To know more and read a detailed report visit Link

IT IS NOT ECOFRIENDLY TO CUT TREES

Trees are living beings, that breathe and are full of life and beauty.  They contribute immensely to the environment and form an integral part of nature.  When new buildings and roads are constructed , if there are trees that exist in the way, they become obstruction, and  are cut down. 

I saw this date palm tree, in Salmiah near a covered football court. The top portion of the tree has been chopped off and the DISFIGURED  tree is  being used as a post  with flood lights fixed  on top (to aid the players when football games take place I suppose).  If it's branches were not chopped,  the tree would have added some natural beauty to the bare land devoid of any greenery in that area. 

If this tree had a voice and could speak (like in those animated movies) what would it have said before being chopped?

a) Please don't chop me, I don't do any harm...

b) I am useful. I recycle the carbon di oxide you breathe out and covert into oxygen. I give  shade and dates. Birds make their homes and rest in my branches. And you want to chop me?

c) Me, an obstruction? Can't you fix a pole nearby and fix the flood lights on them.

d) How would you like if someone tried to destroy you or your home.

e) I belong here, I am a part of this land as much as you are, you have no right to chop me.

f) You need us...we maintain the ecological balance. Don't destroy that. 

ECO FRIENDLY EARTH LOVERS SHOWER GEL FROM BODY SHOP

A Range of various fruit and herb Earth Lovers Shower Gel at Body Shop

Apricot and Basil Earth Lovers Shower gel

The sales lady testing Apricot & Basil Earth Lover shower gel on my hand. 

BODY SHOP believes in reducing environmental impact by introducing eco-friendly products. Earth Lovers Shower gel is 100% biodegradable in two ways:

* The packing (shower gel bottle) is 100% biodegradable

* The shower gel content itself is a non-soap base, eco-friendly product, as it washes down the plug hole, causing no harm to the environment.

They do not contain sulphates, parabens or colourants and come in 100% recycled bottles. Earth Lovers Shower gel is available in exotic fruit and herb scents and also a fragrance free one.

- Watermelon & Eucalyptus

- Pear & Lemongrass

- Apricot & Basil 

- Cucumber & Mint

- Lemon & Thyme

- Fig & Rosemary

- Unfragranced 

When I was at the Body Shop, I was introduced to their Earth Lovers Range of Shower gels and they all have a beautiful fragrance. After the saleslady tested the shower gel on my hand, it left my skin feeling soft with a pleasant fragrance. Earth Lovers shower gels are available in all Body Shop outlets.

65% of Body Shop outlets in UK use renewable energy as a part of their drive towards being eco concious and eco-friendly. 

END PLASTIC POLLUTION, TURN TO ECO FRIENDLY REUSABLE BAGS

Have you wondered what happens to plastic bags once we dipose them? Plastic bags are not biodegradable. Most plastic bags go into landfill, or rubbish tips. Each year, more and more plastic bags end up littering the environment,  finding their way into our waterways, parks, beaches, and streets. And, if they are burned, they infuse the air with toxic fumes. When they are dumped into the sea, water animals who ingest them, mistaking it for food, die. If everyone begins to use reusable Eco Bags, it can do a lot to save and protect our environment and society.

At KTAA Bazar last Saturday, I was looking at these beautiful, light weight, durable, reusable Eco Bags for various occasions and purposes, at a stall by a wonderful lady Haya Al Mughni of GREEN SAC, by Basic Green Est. Haya was explaining about the value and importance of using Eco Bags instead of Plastic. GREEN SAC encourages life without plastic. Their bags are comfortable and convenient since they are made of quality fabric. The bags have enough space to accommodate all your groceries or other shopping. They also have other types of eco-bags for fashion or everyday use. You can reuse these Eco bags as much as you want and they are washable.

Divert to all  those things which are not harmful to the society and environment!

For beautiful, environment friendly Eco Bags, visit GREEN SAC at Galleria 2000, Shop no. 12, Mezainine, Salmiah.

Website: www.legreensac.com

email: basictrade@yahoo.com