Greener Press

Let’s walk with Commute Greener

September 2nd, 2011

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In movie, we always see couples chasing each other on a green pasture, giggling together and slowly appreciating the cool and clean breeze of air. Is that possible in our times? I mean could you walk around the metro without getting dust? Could you savour your romantic date if you all you can hear are the honks of the running cars? Could you enjoy a little stargazing if all you could see are smogs in the sky? Obviously the answer in all of those questions are no, but its not too late to change for the better. An iPhone app could help us little by little.

Introducing Commute Green. It is an application that helps you keep track of your carbon footprints making you more aware on how much of it are you contributing on the Earth’s destruction. Well, it is not meant to scare you nor make you paranoid but its more on making you think all your actions carefully.

The app helps you set goals and look in how much CO2 are reduced by doing these goals. Think that in every day you travel you use this app to know how big the difference between your daily journey without Commute Green. Read more »

Disney Friends for Change Game: Helping Kids Help the Planet

August 2nd, 2011

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Children are very susceptible to the power of advertising which makes Disney’s campaign for the next generation to help make small changes to save the planet is moving forward impressively. Children’s favourite stars and role models greatly influence them to lead greener lifestyles to their families. The idea is getting children to understand and learn practical ways to preserve the planet.

Disney announced the premier of the new “Disney Friends for Change” at Disney Channel last June 24, 2011 with Tiffany Thornton and Jason Earles as co-hosts of the show. “Disney Friends for Change Games” features over 30 Disney Channel and Disney XD stars from around the globe for a massive good cause. The stars were split up into teams to compete in fun and challenges that teaches good actions for the environment. Each team will play on behalf of a global charity– UNICEF, Fauna and Flora International, Ocean Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund. This TV show is presented in interstitials during its Friday, Saturday and Sunday primetime originalseries programming. Disney XD presents a special episode from the games every Monday nights(9:30 p.m., ET/PT) which started last June 27, 2011. For five weeks, which began last June 24th,four teams of young stars will compete for the benefit of the said charities and for the Friendof Change community project on a global basis. And on July 31, 2011, the games will culminate with a special half-hour episode on Disney Channel.

The teams of Disney Channel Stars include The Yellow Team (playing for UNICEF) – BridgitMendler as the Team Captain and joining her team are China Anne McClain, Adam Irigoyen,Sierra McCormick, Gregg Sulkin, Logan Miller, Jorge Blanco from Disney Channel Mexico, and Valentina Colombo from Disney Channel Italy; The Green Team (playing for Fauna and FloraInternational – lead by captain Brandon Mychal Smith with Adam Hicks, Sterling Knight, DavidHenrie, Ryan Ochoa, Eve Ottino, Bella Throne from Disney Channel France, Valeria Baroni fromDisney Channel Argentina, and Paula Dalli of Disney Channel Spain; The Blue Team (playingfor Ocean Conservancy ) – Debby Ryan as team captain, , Hutch Dano, Allisyn Ar, OlavoCavalheiro, and Roshon Fegan from Disney Channel Brazil; and The Red Team (playing forThe World Wildlife Fund) – Mtichel Musso leading his team with Jake T. Austin, Kelsey Chow ,Doug Brochu, Carlon Jeffrey , Davis Cleveland, and Zendaya from Disney Channel Holland and Belgium Dean Delannoit.

The four areas of the environmental conservation that comprises the Disney Friends for Change Games are preventing waste, saving water, saving energy, and protecting habitats. The games emphasize the ability of joining along with your family and friends to create a distinction in your community and your world. The games include: High energy dance is when teams dance on a freestyle routine on a dance floor that is generating energy; The Recycler is when players ride on stationary bicycles to power a high-speed conveyor belt that is loaded with recycled items; The Wash Out is when players are timed on a relay race with different stages – from taking the laundry, series of sorting to washing and hang drying them; and The Ultimate Course for Change is when players are challenged to a multi –part course and all of the Friends for Change green themes are incorporated.

Friends for Change is all about sharing the power of our voices, cultivating kids a habit that shows they care about the future. This will inspire families to go outside and connect with their communities and for kids to involve in changing the world for the better. The competitive sport event of Disney Friends for Change Games has an eco-friendly twist that focuses on making environmentally changes and engage youths in service projects. It teaches on how to find a way to be friends with our planet by planting, restoring, recycling and volunteer right there in your community. They encourage and teach the significance of teaming up together to make change happen and make the green dream turn into reality.

Less Clutter, Less Stress

August 2nd, 2011

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Do you have a work area that is next to impossible to find anything at all? Anyone who has worked with a deadline knows the feeling of being more focused and drawn on your task at hand. Your attention is too preoccupied to even notice that slowly your desk is cluttered with files, post-it notes, papers and folders piled and assorted work-related devices and even personal items. The easier it is to accumulate clutter is how harder it is to sweep it off. Follow these simple tips to have a comfortable and productive time whether you’re at a desk at home or at an office.

Clear the walk-way in your work area to create a spacious office. Take out unnecessary office equipment and boxes stored to acquire extra space.
Plan your storage and group things you need to store into categories. Before a sheer volume of paper and printouts drown you, choose what type of storage is appropriate for the space you have available. Local supply stores have a wide array of movable filing solutions like durable plastic file containers with different shapes and sizes. Resist on housing your desk with project files. Label your shelves and file folders so that when you’re trying to look for something, you won’t be greeted with a mountain of documents without names on it.
Do not go overboard and clutter up your desk with photos, personalized mugs, and mementos. If personalizing your space makes you feel more at home and productive, display a few that really mean something to you. Keep your new gadgets because it tends to distract from your work.
Take a few days to devote on dealing with your clutter to get things organized. Remove the bulk of mess in your workspace. Then take a few minutes at the end of each day to organize your things and remove the clutter that has accumulated on your desk. You may also try cleaning upon a weekly basis so that you don’t need to repeat the whole cleanup process from time to time. Learn to throw out, give things away, or discard things you don’t need to use. If you’re doubtful about discarding something, put a date on it and if you haven’t used it by that date, remove it from your workplace.
Throw away the things you don’t need. Instead of just moving the mess on your desk into a drawer or at some place where you won’t see it. You should have a clear idea on what actually has to be there and keep only what you need .Don’t save anything if you don’t need to because the best way to keep your work space clean is to put all papers away by the end of the day. Keep magazines, media materials and even books unless you’re using them for your work to avoid distraction. Keep them out of sight especially if you need to focus for your work.
Place an inbox and outbox rack on your desk. Outbox rack is specifically for envelopes, letters,or any paper work that need to be sent or distributed to other people. While the inbox rack is for files or papers that you receive from other people that you need to read, sign, process, study or take at look at or anything that is addressed to you. This incoming and outgoing shelf can be a rack wherein you will assign and indicate the bottom layer as your inbox and the top layer as your outbox. In this way, other people would know where to place papers that goes for you and they would also know where to pick up the papers that they are expecting from you. This will also help you not to be confused and to get rid of excess material efficiently.

New wildlife species amaze US, Philippine scientists

June 26th, 2011

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There is no question now that the Philippines is a biodiversity hotspot. That is, it is one of the world’s biologically richest countries with a significant share of endemic species that are under threat from humans, making it a top priority for global conservation.

A recent expedition of international and local scientists yielded previously undocumented wildlife species, both in land and water, and even along the shorelines.

After more than a month documenting wildlife in Luzon’s mountains and waters, 31 scientists from the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) and 12 local counterparts from the University of the Philippines, among others, presented the expedition’s initial findings in a symposium at UP Diliman recently.

The 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition is the first expedition to study simultaneously marine and terrestrial habitats in the Philippines. It covered, beginning on April 26, Lake Taal, Anilao and the Verde Island Passage in Batangas, and the mountains of Makiling in Laguna, Banahaw in Quezon, Malarayat in Batangas and Isarog in Bicol.

While they were hesitant to declare new species pending further testing of the recovered specimens, the scientists said they were optimistic that a number of the wildlife they documented are new to the scientific world. Read more »

Solar Street Lights

June 25th, 2011

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Not all places in the world have electricity available for them. Many places were still plunged into the darkness. Government and authorities think of solutions on how to solve or at least reduce that problem. One solution they thought of using is solar energy. Many technology may use solar energy. One is solar street light.

A solar street light is a good help to help people feel safe. During this time where people have increasing environmental awareness, this street lights deliver that much-desired outcome and offer an exceptional lighting program whilst, at the same time, producing considerable economic and environmental savings. Choosing what kind of solar street light should be careful. We should consider the batteries, circuitry, kind of solar panel and the lamp or LED- Light Emitting Diode. Most of the studies conducted were about the LED. Since it uses less energy than some conventional lamps plus it lasts for a long time it is one of the elements that researchers study further. They would want the materials that utilize less energy to maximize the energy collected.

Indeed solar powered street light will be a great help for people and for the conservation of the Earth. Solar street lighting can be used not only on streets, boulevards and highways but can also provide cost-effective, environmentally friendly lighting for both military and civilian security installations; park areas or parking spaces; airports, docks and similar areas or, indeed, for whole communities.

Facebook photo: Man dries puppy on clothesline

June 14th, 2011

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MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) plans to sue a young man who hung a puppy on a clothesline to dry and posted a photo of it on Facebook.

May Felix, PAWS humane and education specialist, said the man violated the Animal Welfare Act.

Felix said any person who will be convicted of violating the Animal Welfare Act will be punished by imprisonment of not less than 6 months nor more than 2 years or a fine of not less than 1,000 pesos or more than 5,000 pesos or both at the discretion of the court.

The group plans to thoroughly investigate the case.

The man who hung the puppy received a barrage of hate messages online. Read more »

Saving Palawan for the Future Generation

June 10th, 2011

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Palawan, home of 2 of UNESCO world heritage site, now faces a threat. People of Palawan are battling against mining in their place. We knew that Palawan is home of many floras and faunas which some can be only seen there. Once mining interfere with that large biodiversity, countless species and organisms might be and will be lost. One of the leading people who fought for this is Dr. Gerry Ortega. He is a journalist and an environmentalist. But just this year he was shot dead. Some believe that the reason of assassination is because of his radio show which exposes corruption and his opposition in mining.

Inspired with the cause of Doc Gerry, Save Palawan Movement was created. It aims in getting 10 million signs for their petition. This movement composed of people from all ways, natives of Palawan, concern peoples, religous groups and other civic groups. All of them are people who are both concern in Palawan and fulfiller of the dreams of Doc Gerry.

Present at the launch were ABS-CBN Foundation Managing Director Gina Lopez, Palawan Mayor Edward Hagedorn, “running priest” Fr. Robert Reyes, environment leaders Clemente Bautista (Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment) and Atty. Jose Andres Canivel (Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation), and Rhodora Angela Ferrer of the Catholica Educational Association of the Philippines. Read more »

The journey of the penguins in the air starts with Festo’s Air Penguins

June 10th, 2011

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Penguins, known to be a flightless bird, are one of the elegant animals known to roam the Antarctica. Now this creatures what inspired the team of Festo.

Let me introduce to you the Air Penguin. It is comprises a helium-ballonett which has a capacity of approximately 1 cubic meter and making 1kg buoyant force. A group of three autonomously flying penguins hovers freely through a defined air space that is monitored by ultrasound transmission stations. The penguins are at liberty to move within this space; a microcontroller gives them free will in order to explore it. These penguins have built in 3d sonar that help them avoid colliding with other penguins and is also enabling them to communicate with their environment. Read more »

School starts and so as the rainy season

June 8th, 2011

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June 6 brings students and their teacher back to school again. This will mean a whole new year of fun and learning. But during those times, problems may get in. One problem is flooding. During these rainy season floods occur in many places especially places here in Manila like Caloocan, Valenzuela, and Malabon. Most of the times, these floods interfere with the schooling of kids. Sometimes they cancel classes or worst if the weather station announced it late, students will have to walk their way into flooded streets just to go to school.

These flood pose a possible health threat to these kids, water-borne diseases are one of these. People that are exposed in floods for a long time may acquire many diseases of that kind such as skin irritation, conjunctivitis, dermatitis, ear, nose and eyes infection and lastly leptospirosis. Leptospirosis came from the urine of rodents. Symptoms of these disease are headache, fever, dry cough, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting , diarrhea and shaking chills.

Another possible threat are vector-borne diseases. Since mosquitoes may be more active during the rainy days, the threat of dengue and malaria is high. Both diseases have almost the same symptoms and both are life threatening. People here in Manila especially ones in the slum areas often have containers which may be the breeding station for mosquitoes carrying bacteria. Read more »

Biggest Loser Pinoy Edition Premiers this Monday

May 30th, 2011

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The hit tv show all around the world is finally here in the Philippines and premiering today. Sharon Cuneta as the host will be part in this life changing battle of the 12 contestants. They will battle not just for the 1 million pesos, a new condominium unit from DMCI homes, and the title “Very First Pinoy Biggest Loser” but also to have a fresh start in life.