Europe

...now browsing by tag

 
AHRI Bad Beetle Bear Arms build green building CFL Chris Keale Colorado Convention Center Sept Colorado Energy Summit Colorado Garden Show Colorado Home Show COOL Credit Card Finder Dennis Duroff Denver Chalk Art Festival design construction DTC Eco Friendly energy Energy Efficient Energy Star Europe Georgia Great Flag green Green Building green building definition green building topics James Harper Jonny Barber Band kurowski development Kurowski Development Co Larimer Arts Organization LED New Equipment North Carolina Patriotic Writings Red Skelton RMMI Rocky Mountain Region SEER Seminar South Dakota UK United States
 

Mad Cows, Butterflies and Canadian Birds! What’s the Link?

Monday, March 21st, 2011

It has been apparent in recent years the increase of certain types of indigenous birds in North America and after years of study, the rock solid connections have been concluded upon as to why there has been such large increases since 1980’s. Species such as the grasshopper sparrow, Eastern meadowlark and other types of birds indigenous to North America have been thriving and Canadian scientists have connected the dots back to the BSE outbreak in the United Kingdom and across Europe.

This is one of the first traceable examples of the “butterfly effect”, where thousands of miles between one event and another seem to be unconnected at first but actually have a direct effect on each other. Although it’s not quite the same as a butterfly flapping its wings causing a hurricane half way round the world, but it is one example that shows the interconnecting relationship of globalisation, socioeconomics and the delicate ecological patterns.

A study carried out by researchers at the Trent University in Peterborough have recorded the step-by-step processes that have led to the population spikes of various types of birds in Canada and how a disaster for European agribusiness turned out to be a boom for species like the Grasshopper Sparrow.

It all started with the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the UK and Europe leading to a huge cull of cattle herds and a ban on beef exports from Europe. The fact we are connected the world over through globalisation meant the demand for beef could be met through exports from Canada and America.

This ultimately led to a decrease of herd sizes in the regions, so the demand for hay to feed cows was greatly reduced. Reduced hay harvesting meant the land that the birds thrive in was not needed for quite some time which gave birds such as the sage wren, Eastern meadowlark and grasshopper sparrow started to thrive from the greater nesting opportunities from the grasslands that were left uncut.

The study described how responsive the increase in the bird life around the northern America and Canada was to the BSE outbreak in Europe. The spike in population took around three years after the outbreak with the responsive species, but other species in the study have clear population increases that can be attributed to mad cows disease.

Trent wildlife biologist, Joe Nocera claimed the idea for the study came from an observation he made years ago when studying the bird population at Nova Scotia farm. He monitored the increase of a local bird community as the farmer sold more cows than usual and therefore harvested less hay. “I wanted to see if this is just a one off occurrence or if it would be detectable at a broad continental scale”.

This type of effect is just one example that has managed to be correlated to an event in a region far away from the source. Although making many attempts not to conclude a definite “causation” we can take from the study that our actions do have a relatively immediate effect on the socioeconomic systems that have taken millennia to develop.

Andy works enjoys his time travel blogging and recently found himself staring into the Canadian Sky bird watching on his Canadian Holiday, follow his other musings on twitter @andym23

Posted in Uncategorized | No Responses »
Tags: , , ,

How Small Businesses Can Go Green

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

As the world expands with larger populations and new businesses, the environment on planet earth is threatened. Efforts have to be made by individuals and businesses alike to minimize the damage and preserve the environment as it exists today. Small businesses for a major chunk of the growing business sector and in the United States, over 52% of the working population is working in small businesses.

Small businesses can therefore contribute substantially in cutting down the environmentally dangerous waste being generated by taking measures right now. Some of the ways in which the waste can be reduced include:

  1. Save paper, save trees- Trees have to be cut down to use their pulp for paper. This can be done in two ways. First, cut down on the amount of printing done by using emails instead of paper letters and newsletters, notepad applications on mobile phones or laptops, rather than paper notepads to jot down points etc, and second use only recycled paper for all printing, be it marketing flyers or other material.
  2. Videoconferencing rather than personal meets- This will be as effective but with less fuel burnt and lower expenses.
  3. Use local materials rather than importing them- Cutting down transportation costs will help the environment this will benefit the local suppliers and reduce business expenses.
  4. Promote the use of eco-friendly products – This can be done by buying only those goods which come with GreenSeal stamp.
  5. Use internet marketing tools to sell online- since this helps in cutting costs while reaching a larger customer base with lesser staff.
  6. Use reusable products- This helps to cut down on the waste that has to be disposed of the next day.
  7. Use fuel and energy efficient transportation- This will help the environment stay clean.
  8. Encourage customers to follow ‘Green rules’ by offering incentives- It is part of the corporate social responsibility to spread good words and actions, and a small expense incurred by offering discounts to customers for using green ways, will help the society and the environment.
  9. Join the list in green directories- This will help the business get noticed by environmentally conscious people and become more successful.

Small businesses can start small to make a big impact on the environment, and seeing their initiatives, bigger businesses will also follow their cue. This may help to preserve the environment for much longer than what present estimates point out.

This is a Guest Post by Neil Jones, head of marketing for eMobileScan. One of Europe’s leading providers of handheld computers including the Symbol MC55 and Datalogic Memor

Posted in Uncategorized | No Responses »
Tags: , , ,