Green Thing Blog

Still a good reason to car share

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:40:33 +0100

This WWII public service poster about sharing rides to save petrol for the war effort makes me laugh.

On a mission: 31 days without plastic

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:52:11 +0100

It’s so ubiquitous you’d be hard-pushed to go even one day without buying anything containing or wrapped in plastic. Yet that’s the challenge Chris Jeavans of the BBC has been rising to for the whole month of August; no mean feat when you have a toddler in tow who normally sports disposable nappies.

Chris’ excellent blog chronicles her journey as she wends her way through a plastic minefield of toothbrushes, toiletries, drinks (even fizzy drinks cans have a plastic lining - see pic above) and of course fruit and veg, and navigates carefully through the vagaries of plastic-free living. She has managed to discover some inspirational alternatives (and odd at times but apparently effective – bicarbonate of soda instead of deodorant anyone?) to plastic mainstays along the way, whilst provoking some lively discussion amongst impassioned readers.

And why? Well, immortalised in that iconic scene in The Graduate, plastics once held the promise of a great future. Now the future’s here and plastics are, well, everywhere. Literally. And the throw-away kind is creating an environmental catastrophe of oceanic proportions. Landfill space, at a premium as it is, is stuffed full of plastic rubbish that won’t be going anywhere fast for hundreds of years, eventually photo-degrading into toxic little bits that will end up leaching into the soil. And alarmingly there’s an estimated 3 million tonnes of our drinks bottles, bags, food trays, lego bits and other plastic rubbish swirling away in an area of the Pacific Ocean; stuff which ends up being ingested by marine life that mistake it for food and eventually die as their guts become clogged.

Dead birds have been found with toothbrushes inside them; an albatross has been observed even trying to regurgitate one to feed its young chick. To highlight the scale of the problem a Junk raft made out of 15000 plastic bottles, complete with film-maker and marine scientist on board has been on a journey to the area. You can read all about their exploits and discoveries here.

The answer: well no one’s suggesting banishing plastic from our lives, but limiting what we use and reducing our throwaway habits has surely got to be a start. Well done to Chris for highlighting the issue and for demonstrating the alternatives that exist.

Tap takes on the bottled water industry

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:19:54 +0100

Green Thing was delighted to learn of the latest brand to enter the fiercely competitive world of bottled water. Its name is Tap, and it’s on a mission to get us to re-think our drink.

Joshua Blackburn, Tap’s founder, said:
“The bottled water industry is the triumph of marketing over common sense, It has become a symbol of our disposable culture at its worst. In countries such as Britain, where high quality water is literally on tap, it’s time to bin the bottle. We’re going to make Tap the coolest, smartest and most stylish consumer accessory going, proving that doing good can feel good too.”

Take a look at some reasons to drink tap here. As Josh says, "It's short, sweet and fairly to the point - but i think it's quite cute." To find out more about Tap click here.

Nigel's Green Web Awards 2008

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 01:51:11 +0100

Green Thing were delighted to be one of the judges of the first ever Green Web Awards, organised by Nigel (of Nigel’s Eco Store, which sells lovely green things).

Along with fellow judges from illustrious sites such as Treehugger, Futerra and Smartplanet, we were asked to vote for the best green sites across 12 different categories. Amongst the winners were Responsible Travel for “Best Green Travel site”, Method for “Greenest Company”, the incomparable Treehugger for “Best Eco-blog/news site” and Good Energy for ‘Best Green Energy site’.

And we ourselves were really very proud to win the ‘Best Online Campaign’ category (no vote-rigging honest, we couldn’t vote for ourselves however much we wanted to!).

Wooden Spoon Award for Worst Greenwash went to Mattel’s Barbie’s BCause doll, closely followed by Shell’s Flowery Chimneys and Exxon Mobil.

A big thanks to all the other judges, and also particularly to Nigel for putting it all together. The awards are a fantastic celebration of all the good work happening out there on the green web.

There’s a full list of all the winners and runners-up, and more info on the categories, here.

100 months

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:12:50 +0100

A number of organisations - including Green Thing - support this new campaign from the New Economics Foundation, Enoughsenough and others focusing on a timeframe of just 100 months before the planet tips into runaway climate change.

Here's nef policy director Andrew Simms' Guardian piece "The Final Countdown".

Sobering and clarifying and a powerful call to action.

Do Without Those Sucking Machines

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:57:06 +0100

You’d be surprised at the things you can do with your laptop without turning it on.

Take it easy on Resurgence Slow Sunday, 27th July

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:35:14 +0100

We look forward to it all week and then it’s over before we know it; our weekends are all too often hijacked by frenetic to-do lists and the siren calls of shops and supermarkets. Resurgence, the wonderfully inspirational magazine dedicated to environmental and social well-being, is encouraging us to both reclaim our down-time and start a small environmental revolution in one stroke by launching Resurgence Slow Sundays, nominated days with an underlying ethos that small, simple actions taken by the many can together add up to transformational changes on a global scale.

The first Slow Sunday, on 27^th July, invites us to take time out and reduce our impact on the environment by baking our own bread. Resurgence editor and Green Thing advisor Satish Kumar talks enthusiastically about how baking bread can become the very symbol of environmentalism, an act of commercial defiance that replaces the mass-produced, nutritionally-suspect loaf we normally buy with something far more wholesome and nourishing that’s been crafted with our own hands.

Why not give it a go - bake bread as it was meant to be baked, minus the added flour improvers, enzymes and other what-nots so favoured by commercial bread companies to keep their shelves artificially squishy. As well as filling your home with a mouth-watering aroma, making bread can be rewarding, meditative and enriching; an act of celebration that everyone can get stuck into.

If you’re not entirely confident of your bread-making skills fear not, check out how to make a decent loaf using this easy recipe by Andrew Whitley from The Village Bakery, and take a look at his article on why bread matters.

A Free Cycle

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:24:57 +0100

What Freecycle is actually all about, it just grew into all sorts of other things by mistake.

Why you should Stick With What You Got

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:35:37 +0100

Here's a different take from FOE Intl on what we called the non-stop upgrade circle. Whatever we call it, it's gotta stop.

Why you should always Take The Stairs

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:02:10 +0100

Otherwise you might get trapped in a lift for 41 hours like this bloke. Painful to watch.

It's no big deal. Just the future of humanity.

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:40:49 +0100

Girls are the answer. Here here.

John Hegley's Killer Lines

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:08:12 +0100

Uber-talented poet, comedian and Green Thing supporter John Hegley lets rip for Friends of the Earth / Whitechapel anwering some key questions around sustainability.

Its not everyone who can get an audience to sing their questions or sing "get it on the compost heap".

Listen to it all - and listen out from Green Thing from 16 mins 45 secs. John has created a number of specific pieces for Green Thing, take a look here and here and here.

bored? stoned? inomniac? upl8.tv

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:56:57 +0100

Just in case you needed another way to watch Green Thing videos, try upl8.tv/dothegreenthing - Poke NY's YT hack. Just hit the spacebar everytime you want to go to the next clip. And add your own search term to create a new channel - e.g. http://upl8.tv/hendrix, you get the idea.

New Blog Post Seesmic_conversation

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:44:46 +0100

I met the rather charming and sussed Suw Charman the other day and had a very interesting chat about social media type things. She was kind enough not only to listen to me waffle on about Green Thing, but to suggest an online conversation about what Dothegreenthing.com could do next. We're in the process of re-thinking/re-designing V2 so it would be great to get thoughts on that very topic.

So she kicked off just such a conversation on Seesmic -the new video startup from French uberbloggerdude Loic Le Meur.

You can check out the Green Thing video thread here and feel free to join in (or comment below on what you'd like to see in Green Thing V2).

2gether08 conference

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:42:51 +0100

Blogging this from the 2gether08 conference. I'll be interviewed about Green Thing by the grotesquely clever John Grant in the afternoon, meanwhile enjoying all the talks. David Wilcox kindly did an interview preview which is on the 2gether blog here.

Green Things happening at the Lift Festival

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:43:02 +0100

Please do check out the excellent Lift Festival 2008 at Southbank Centre in London. Running until 6^th July, the festival mixes local and international events in a rich eclectic programme, igniting conversation about issues that affect all of us around the world: climate change, development and migration.

At the heart of it all is The Lift - a unique mobile arts venue designed for interactive cultural experiences - an extraordinary public space where people can see performances, watch screenings, participate in workshops, view exhibitions, relax, reflect, eat, drink, meet and talk.

And amongst the series of programmes is ‘A Parliament for Climate Change’, a collection of lively discussions, activities and diverse presentations featuring everything from the experiences of an Arctic youth expedition, the global social experiment of transition towns, to a hands-on night with the marvellous Tipping Point.

Many thanks to Lift for kindly giving our Green Thing videos the big screen treatment.

New directory helps you recycle with Passion

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:33:40 +0100

Green radio station Passion for the Planet has teamed up with Allthingseco to produce a handy comprehensive directory of all things recycling. The UK-wide directory can tell you where to recycle your stuff, buy recycled goods and also has listings for charity shops, scrapstores, swap and auction sites as well as council initiatives and business info. You can check it all out here.

Ashden celebrates those who have chosen to take action

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 21:30:32 +0100

My highlight last week was attending the 7th annual Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy – and I’m not just saying that because Ashden are generous donors and supporters to Green Thing.

Why? Because it left me inspired as to all of the positive things that are going on in the world and demonstrated that the Daily Mail really could find some better things to write about.

You can find out more about the Awards and the Winners and Finalists here.

Speakers included Sir David King, the former Government Chief Scientific Advisor, and Dr Wangari Maathai, the tireless campaigner for environmental conservation and social justice and Nobel Prize-winning tree-planter whose work with the Green Belt Movement her work has led to the planting of 40 million trees across Africa. Yes 40 million. We are also delighted that she is one of Green Thing’s Advisors.

Sir David King provided a brilliant synopsis of Climate Change. Spare just 11 minutes and you’ll be given both a history lesson and an up to date primer on Climate Change. A few things that stood out for me: that scientists have been aware of Global Warming since 1896; and, that the Greenhouse Effect really ought to be called the Duvet Effect if you want anyone to understand it. Sir David is not prone to over-exageration and he did not mince his words saying that “climate change is the biggest challenge that our civilisation has ever faced.” In conclusion he stated that, in addition to individual, corporate and government action, it was critical to embed a low carbon culture throughout society.

Next up was Waangari Maathai. She spoke so peacefully yet powerfully and had such an aura about her. Her simple observation was that “we can all take action”. She urged us all to act with commitment, patience, urgency persistence, determination, respect and gratitude. You can watch her speech here.

Two thanks. Firstly – to Sarah Butler-Sloss and the Ashden team – what a fabulous initiative so brilliantly executed. Secondly - to the finalists and award winners themselves. Their work and their stories are inspiring

As I cycled home with a big smile on my face and passed posters advertising Sex in the City, it did make me wonder what the world would be like if more people were introduced and exposed to the work of the winners and people like Wangari Maathai. Surely this would inspire us and help us move to a more sustainable future more quickly. Come on the Daily Mail.

Green Thing Manifesto Word Cloud

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:27:17 +0100

Thanks to the rather cool wordle this is what the Green Thing Manifesto looks like as a lovely word cloud.

The Meenies did The Green Thing, now help them get onstage with Bon Jovi

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:50:15 +0100

The Meenies, the far-from-mean band who did the explosive music to this svelte Green Thing video out of their kindness of their heart, need our help. They're one of the last twenty bands jostling for your vote to support Bon Jovi at Wembley in front of 60,000 screaming mums this weekend.

Currently they're living on a prayer but don't give love a bad name - just vote, and do it in the next 24 hours. If they win, they're gonna wear Green Thing T-shirts - what other reason do you need?

www.thelondonpaper.com/bonjovi

Overpackaging – can we make it stop?

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:01:33 +0100

This question was posed to us recently by a Green Thing member:

"Are there any specific campaigns out there to pressure for the reduction of packaging for ordinary folk? I know the Women’s Institute have a campaign but have been unable to find one outside of that...”

Actually, there aren’t perhaps quite as many as you’d think but they do exist. The WI’s campaign is probably the most famous one, and they also have a helpful Packaging Campaign Pack you can download from their website.

Here are some others:

Overpackaging.com

These chaps go for the 'naming and shaming' angle. People are encouraged to send in their photos of obscene overpackaging, and the website tackles the retailer over it and prints their response. Amongst the offenders are Amazon, Cadbury and an M&S shirt which had 12 separate items holding it together, as the site notes "this is not just any overpackaging, this is M&S overpackaging."

Dump the Dump / Take it back

The campaign itself seems to be inactive now, but there is a handy pre-written letter of complaint you can download and send off to your local supermarket.

Friends of the Earth has some advice about contacting your Trading Standards Officer, which is precisely what this MP did.

LighterFootstep.com has a piece about 5 ways to fight retailers on overpackaging.

Or you could always dump your packaging at the supermarket and tell them the government told you to, like these 3 Guardian writers did.

Canvass Your MP

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:00:17 +0100

Earlier this month Lib Dem MP for the Environment, Steve Webb, took the unprecedented but commendable step of inviting 10 green bloggers down to Parliament for a brainstorming session, on how social media can be harnessed to persuade MPs to take a tougher stand on the Climate Change Bill. In just a matter of weeks, MPs will be voting on whether to set a new target of an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050, rather than the outdated proposal of 60%, which scientists and environmental organisations say just simply won’t be enough to prevent the greater than 2C rise in global temperatures that would lead to catastrophic climate change.

So, as a testament to what can happen when passionate individuals come together with a shared purpose, just a week later Canvass Your MP was launched. The idea: to turn the tables on your MP and turn up on their doorstep (at their surgeries, not their homes) for a face-to-face, frank conversation as to why a stronger, more effective cut in carbon emissions is needed. In case you didn’t know it, absolutely anyone can go along and have a chat with their MP anytime.

The website has 3 simple steps for taking action:

1) Find out who your MP is if you don’t know already

2) Search for contact details and surgery times so you can set up an appointment

3) Once you’ve met with them, report on their response, as to whether they will or won’t support the 80% cut in carbon emissions.

Please go along and check it out. The issue is just too important to leave to chance in the hope that MPs will vote the right way. And there are good reasons why this approach is likely to work. Firstly, it puts the power back where it belongs – in the hands of the people. Secondly, if there’s anyone MPs will want to keep face with, it’ll be their constituents. Thirdly, personal dialogue between two individuals will always have more impact than a faceless email or impersonal petition.

You can read more about the science behind this and the report by the IPPR, WWF and RSPB here. And you can also join the Facebook group here.

What are you watching on the web?

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:11:36 +0100

If you're whiling away awhile (does that make sense?) - you may want to check out a couple of sites that are adjacent to Green Thing - and both of whom have been friends to Green Thing - so yes, this is our little way to say thank you to them.

First up is Viropop's Zaproot. Zaproot is an LA based green video network that aims to highlight the most exciting and entertaining things happening in the new eco-revolution. Its fun and irreverent - and I think shares a very similar Spirit to Green Thing.

Closer to home is UK based Green.TV. Green.tv is an online TV channel dedicated to films about the environment. It aims toaise awareness of environmental issues and encourage positive action. New films are added everyday from over 100 of the world's leading environmental organisations and you can even upload your own films. It's even got a channel dedicated to Green Thing.

Anyway take a look - and do let us know what you're watching by adding a comment below.

Just too sad

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:51:49 +0100

Green Thing was shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic death on Friday of Sarah Dodds. Rod Schwarz - our Chairman - gives Sarah a wonderful tribute here.

Sarah was, among many other things, a great friend and supporter to Green Thing.

Our thoughts are with her father, brother, sister and friends - she will be sorely missed.

Why bother? Because it matters.

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 01:53:11 +0100

A great Guardian article by author Michael Pollan neatly, if unintentionally, sums up what Green Thing's all about:

"If you do bother, you will set an example for other people. If enough other people bother, each one influencing yet another in a chain reaction of behavioural change, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand. (Just look at the market for hybrid cars.)

Consciousness will be raised, perhaps even changed: new moral imperatives and new taboos might take root in the culture. Driving an SUV or eating a 24oz steak or illuminating your house like an airport runway at night might come to be regarded as outrages to human conscience. Not having things might become cooler than having them.And those who did change the way they live would acquire the moral standing to demand changes in behaviour from others - from other people, other corporations, even other countries."

As a piece of evidence that we're helping to make a difference, one person at a time, we were rather chuffed when somone blogged this about last month's Green Thing:

“The video they've got is a spoof Apple advert trying to get you to buy one of their impossibly beautiful new laptops. It's genius… Suddenly Doing The Green Thing made keeping my old laptop appear as cool as buying a new one. I became part of an online community of people trying to do the right thing. It felt good.”

Feels good to us too.

plastic munching teen microbe

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:16:19 +0100

This is pretty damn cool. A 16 year old Candadian science student has grown plastic-eating bacteria out of "landfill dirt with yeast and tap water" that could eat plastic into oblivion in 12 weeks.

Reported in The Record and Wired.

Recycling Big Ben

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:49:19 +0100

It's Recycle Week this week (running from 2^nd-8^th June), and to mark the occasion four artists have melded their talented minds with metal to create some stunning sculptures fashioned entirely from coke cans. A 20 ft tall Big Ben by Robert Bradford sits in London’s South Bank, Birmingham's Bullring Bull has gained a twin designed by Pamina Stewart, Bristol is home to another slightly smaller Clifton Suspension Bridge by Stuart Murdoch, and a russet but no less iconic Angel of the North by Sam McGeever pays tribute to Antony Gormley’s original.

It’s hoped these impressive creations will inspire people to recycle more. Organised by WRAP, (and in the recycled words of the great Columbo) this year’s theme goes by the phrase ‘Just one more thing…’. If every household in the UK recycled one extra thing - just the one - it would save 850,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, the same as taking a quarter of a million cars off the road. An astonishingly good result for just sticking an extra tin can in the recycling bin.

For some other inspirational recycled works of art, check out Jeremy Mayer’s fabulous human typewriter sculptures (stuck together without any glue or solder), a snake made from old keyboards, and this quite beautiful canoe made out of thousands of used chopsticks.

Green Thing launches the Short Green Things film competition

Tue, 27 May 2008 11:56:55 +0100

The Short Green Things Film Competition has been launched with the aim of putting a spotlight on aspiring student filmmakers involved in environmental filmmaking. And not only can you enter, you decide on the winners too as Green Thing members will be able to vote for their favourite films in the competition and pick one to be developed into one of our featured monthly videos. You can find out more about the competition here.

Out and about with a Green Thing geek

Mon, 19 May 2008 11:46:17 +0100

It's been an interesting week for the technical geeks behind Green Thing. Firstly, we went to a networking evening organised by AMEE, to celebrate a year since the launch of their carbon calculation engine. The evening was full of interesting chats with people from all over the green tech world, from Dopplr to Yahoo, and via everyone else on the way. It was great to see that community coming together and starting to get to know one another.

Then, on Saturday, that same community got its first conference: geeKyoto 08, which I was lucky enough to present at. The range of speakers was amazing, from incredible artists to an arctic explorer who has actually watched the ice melt year after year at the top of the world. My own talk was probably less outbound than some of the others, but my discussion of Green Thing went down a treat, and the audience certainly seemed to enjoy our latest video.

The main point of my talk was that while software can't insulate your loft for you or generate clean power, we can help out in the fight against climate change, and we should all work together to do so. If you want to help build the tools that might just be able to make a difference, then join our green web community on Google Groups. Let's build something cool together.

Stick with what you love

Sun, 18 May 2008 20:05:15 +0100

Once upon a time, when man had just set foot on the moon and aliens advertised mashed potato (stick with me here, I’m going somewhere with this), the 21^st century was thought to be something of a distant technological utopia populated by robots doing our bidding, whilst we sat around with our feet up. Something clearly went a bit awry with this grand vision, and instead we’ve evolved into a society of workaholics and shopaholics. Britons work amongst the longest hours in Europe; last year we put in unpaid overtime worth almost £25 billion. And all this work and no play leaves us with just enough time to head online or traipse round the shops faster than you can say ‘retail therapy’, as we try and make ourselves feel better about it all. The thing is, shopping just artificially and momentarily fills a gap that can only ever truly be filled by doing more meaningful things. This recent study showed that, despite being wealthier than previous generations – we’re twice as better-off now than we were 20 years ago, and our incomes have rocketed by 60% – our happiness levels haven’t increased at all. In fact, all this stuff may actually be making us more depressed.

And as if that wasn’t evidence enough, the Happy Planet Index, which measures the progress of countries according to happiness and life expectancy compared with the amount of resources consumed, was topped by the people of Vanuatu, a group of islands in the Pacific. In comparison the rich G8 countries languished somewhere near the bottom, the UK coming in at 108, France at 128 and the US 150^th.

So where do we go from here? Well, the first thing we can do is step off the consumer rollercoaster and re-brand ourselves as ‘individuals’ again. Who we are as people and the things we love doing are what makes us unique. So re-ignite your individual inner spark by sticking with what you love instead, whatever that might mean for you. Passive activities have been shown to make no difference to happiness levels, so fuelling your TV soap addiction doesn’t count. Instead, re-discover a hobby or try exploring your creativity: pick up that guitar again, flex those green fingers, write a story or a song, join an art or pottery class, take time out for things that energise and enrich you. If you need a bit of help figuring out what those things might be, try this questionnaire, or explore brand new interests and hobbies.

Many people feel fulfilled by donating their skills and time and connecting with others. Check out volunteering opportunities like ones at Community Service Volunteers or Volunteer Match. Or match your skills with the right opportunity at Timebank. You can even volunteer online or overseas.

Or get your heart pumping. Exercise can make you feel better by releasing endorphins and raising serotonin levels in the brain, and is so beneficial it is even used to help with depression. So go for a run, try a dance class, perhaps take up a new sport or even join a green gym, which combines working out and getting fit with conservation. Another thing that’s been shown to keep us happy and engaged is challenging ourselves. Have a go at learning new skills and raising your game – what could you achieve? Or try this site and undergo a Mevolution.

Whatever it is for you, make some space and time in your life to stick with what you love, it’s so much more fun than being stuck in a retail park, and your future self will no doubt thank you for it.

The Life Cycle of the Carbon Weevil

Fri, 16 May 2008 15:16:34 +0100

Blimey. How great is this! A lovely piece of climate change storytelling from Tim Britton of Forkbeard Fantasy. Thanks to David at Futerra for pointing this out.

High Fives to the Top 10

Thu, 08 May 2008 23:31:08 +0100

It’s official, these beautiful people are the top ten Greenest Things (as of a few hours ago). Kudos and karma to all.

So far, the Green Thing community, which by the way now has visitors from 159 countries, has saved 2294.85 tonnes CO2.

paulalexander - 7613.58kg
ellie_gair - 5133.72kg
ccardone - 4769.63kg
Clare - 4219.84kg
loppy - 4088.24kg
Lisa - 3805.11kg
goingkermit - 3699.83kg
paperaeroplane - 3659.09kg
chuma - 3653.58kg
maggalus - 3649.54kg

Honourable mentions also go to the following 5 folk for the sheer number of Green Things they have done.

clarencethetoad - 172
maryannah - 169
Despairing - 106
Jairusdaughter42 - 105
Malinda - 79

CO2 on Twitter

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:34:36 +0100

I read this article last night, about using Twitter to make machines talk, specifically Tower Bridge. "What a fantastic idea", I thought to myself. "Maybe I can do the same thing for something around climate change". Also, being a complete geek, it would be "fun" to do some coding that wasn't exactly work-related.

So, a couple of hours of Ruby hacking later, and we now have atmospheric CO2 updates on Twitter. Each month, it posts the latest global average CO2 levels, as calculated by the NOAA.

As well as that, it's open source, so if you are interested in that sort of thing, you can get the code from Google Code.

May Day “mayday”

Thu, 01 May 2008 16:02:05 +0100

“Mayday” is the internationally recognised distress call.

In launching Business in the Communities 2nd Prince’s May Day Summit, HRH Prince of Wales challenged leaders – individual, corporate and political – to respond with “urgent collective action” to the global climate change “mayday”.

Leaders from over 1,600 UK companies attended today’s May Day Summit to pledge to take action into climate change.

The Prince of Wales “begged” the audience to take individual and collective action “now – there is no time to lose”, to avoid “headless chickens having to come home to roost in the only trees left standing”. He also urged against allowing the current global economic troubles to divert or delay the necessary action and instead encouraged leaders to make the right decisions now for the long term.

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown, as did all the speakers, praised Prince Charles for his visionary leadership in alerting the world relentlessly and tirelessly – and for initiating the May Day Network.

He went on to outline how he believed that the fourth technological revolution since the industrial revolution would be the transformation to a low carbon world – which would require new thinking, creativity, entrepreneurialism and technology. He revealed the Government’s new recommendations to:
1.   Create a long-term policy framework, including the Climate Change Bill
2.   Support innovation and reduce regulatory barriers to change
3.   Skill the labour force
4.   Encourage consumer behaviour change

He said it was time for people power – and people choosing to do the right thing [I think it was a typo and that what he really meant was that it was time for people to do the Green Thing].

Senator George Mitchell – having echoed the call for more committed leadership - said that in addition to all of the social, environmental and economic justifications for action we should also remember a fourth – “the threat to world peace and stability”. He went on to say that he expected that the next White House incumbent would drive the US to take real and committed action – and to show real leadership and that the US population would no longer tolerate the US being a laggard in this arena.

Jonathan Porritt, as ever so eloquent, felt that the tide had turned from one of indifference to one of emerging leadership and action. But he urged everyone, particularly Government, to mandate action – and to take more action urgently.

Stephen Howard, the CEO of BITC closed the event, by quoting Martin Luther King and calling us all to seize “the fierce urgency of now”.

Huge congratulations must go to Lucy, Katie and Jim at Business in the Community for creating such an event – quite simply brilliant.

I left believing that there is at least a chance the business community – and perhaps even the political community - will choose to do the right thing quickly enough …. But fervently believing that all of us who are part of the Green Thing community have a major role in creatively inspiring people to change their individual behaviour with respect to the environment – and have some fun in doing it.

Waterless Living

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:44:40 +0100

Here at Green Thing we've been saving water all month. According to Defra’s Future Water report, we’ll need to reduce our individual water consumption by around a fifth by 2030, if we’re to cope with pressures due to climate change, population growth and housing demands.

The nice thing about water-saving is that even simple, inexpensive actions can make the world of difference. Sticking a hippo in your loo, or fixing leaks, or just remembering to turn taps off costs hardly anything and can save thousands upon thousands of litres of water. And, necessity being the fabulous mother of invention that she is, there are products out there dedicated to helping you save even more. For example, rather than hauling buckets of water around the place, waterless cleaning is a lot easier on your arms as well as the environment. Microfibre cloths, for instance, use the power of tiny little fibres a hundred times smaller than the width of a human hair to trap dirt and bacteria, without any nasty chemicals and just the minimum of water.

And if you’re out in the garden, things like Wet ‘n Gro Soil Moistener can help your plants absorb up to 80% more water. In Australia, which has been in the grip of a drought for several years, the Watertube is being used to continuously drip-feed water to newly-planted trees and plants. In just one month it can save hundreds of litres compared to hoses and even watering cans.

So water-saving doesn’t have to mean going all out and re-plumbing your home to use rainwater, although of course you can if you want to. And perhaps one day we'll all have self-cleaning glass and waterless washing machines. But for now most of us can save gallons just by wasting a lot less and being a bit more efficient about how we use what’s left.

Earth Day and MySpace Impact

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:12:08 +0100

Tuesday 22nd April is this years Earth Day. Earth Day, which first began in 1970, promotes environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide. Earth Day claims to be the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities (can you name others?) – with more than a half billion people participating. For more information – and to find out how to get involved take a look here.

Now, with Earth Day in mind, the kind people at MySpace Impact (thanks Dani and Fran) – are kindly introducing Green Thing (and of course our creative creatures) throughout next week to the MySpace community. Take a look here. MySpace Impact is all about MySpace choosing to do the right thing and enable "civic good" by connecting individuals and communities.

So if you’re a MySpace user please join our group here and if you’re not, take a look at what all the fuss is about and join in here.

PS - watch out MySpace, the Green Thing hoardes are coming.

Green Thing, BITC and Groups

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:13:06 +0100

The wonderful people at Business in the Community are getting ready for their annual May Day Business Summit on Climate Change.

Led by HRH The Prince of Wales, The May Day Summit is the largest gathering of companies committed to taking positive action on climate change. If you're interested in joining in take a look here.

We're also excited and delighted to announce that Business in the Community will be the first community to create a Green Thing Group and will shortly be introducing Green Thing to its corporate members.

Green Thing Groups is an initiative that will allow any group of individuals, including companies, to create their own Green Thing sub-group so that they can galvanise their wider network to help in the fight against climate change. Green Thing Groups is free .... although you're free to donate ... and is quick and easy to deploy. We'll of course provide more information on Green Thing Groups over the next few weeks, but if you'd like to register your interest in finding out more then please drop me an email at: groups@dothegreenthing.com

Green Thing Groups is a core part of our intent "to help as many people as possible in as many countries as possible to do the Green Thing ... and then use that people power to get Governments and Businesses to do the Green Thing too ".

One of the things that has dawned on me over the last few months is that there are rapidly increasing numbers of individuals and businesses showing genuine leadership in taking action against climate change. I really hope that, as this movement continues to stengthen, we will start to see some genuine political leadership as well - to date IMHO it has been sadly missing.

We Can Solve It (just not particularly creatively)

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:05:59 +0100

Hmmm, not at all convinced by this, the first ad from Gore's new $300m 'We' campaign (WeCanSolveIt.org).

A couple of years ago I first heard about this massive fund being raised from the proceeds of An Inconvenient Truth plus donations from Steve Jobs and others, to create a mass awareness and action campaign in the US. Well $300 million definitely 'aint chopped liver and I was really hoping something quite special came out of it, but based on this ad and the website, the signs aren’t too promising.

As Alex Steffen says in an excellent WorldChanging post on the matter: “$100 million a year is real money. For half of that, they could create a networked activism campaign unlike anything ever seen. No ad campaign, no matter how good, is going to be unlike anything we've ever seen.”

I'm a big fan of Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection, but after first being distinctly underwhelmed by Live Earth (supposedly planned again for 2010) and now this, I can't help feeling they're trying so hard to appeal to everyone that they end up with something that doesn't speak powerfully to anyone.

Green Thing believes in the idea of “Creativity against climate change”. When the world has faced great turning points or moments of crisis in the past, great moments of creativity have been the catalysts of mass social and behavioural transformation. Photographs and images that galvanised mass consciousness. Music and symbols that gave a voice to new generations. Architecture and design that expressed and amplified the spirit and mood of the times.

In 1969 John Lennon’s “Give Peace A Chance” became an anthem of the anti-war movement. In 1958 Gerald Holtom’s peace logo for CND became one of the worlds most politically powerful symbols by turning complex ideas into a single, recognisable shape you could wear as a badge or carry as a banner. These things have the power to move populations to think differently and take action they would not otherwise have taken. They can change the course of history.

The thought behind this ad isn’t so different – it talks about great rather than creatively great moments in history – but the execution is sadly very different. Any great moment, creative or otherwise, needs originality and vitality, it needs to take risks and follow a singular vision. (Creatively, An Inconvenient Truth succeeded because it was exactly that).

Sometimes mass movements move everyone by reaching the people for whom they were not originally intended. Eventually everyone wants to be part of something with its own powerful energy and momentum.

One problem with Live Earth was that global pop concerts are a pretty tired idea by now. In 1985 when Bob Geldof got the world to feed the world, Live Aid was a startlingly original creative concept: the first and best example of a global creative community coming together to make a difference. Ever since then it’s like an analog compilation tape that loses quality every time it gets re-recorded.

My worry about this initial We ad is that it’s also using old creative formulas, playing it safe and aiming to please everyone. I’m all for recycling, but in a way that creates something new and different and inspirational. This problem won’t be solved by saying the same things in the same ways in a louder voice.

Green Shoots - the perfect storm

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:13:58 +0100

Green Shoots is a series of events hosted by Green Thing friend Judith Clegg's The Glasshouse in major cities around the world exploring "entrepreneurial trends, successes and opportunities in the sustainable economy".

This coming Tuesday 8th April, renewable energy entrepreneur and peak oil commentator Jeremy Leggett is being interviewed by Guardian economics correspondent Ashley Seager.

Full details are here: http://www.theglasshouse.net/content/glasshouselondon

Glasshouse events are always top class affairs. James A. is going from the Green Thing team and will blog about what happens.

The Virtual Water Project

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:17:19 +0100

This month's Green Thing is all about taking Short Sharp Showers. There are CO2 savings involved because of the energy used to heat up the H2O, but the overall principle is one of water conservation.

Over one billion people in the world can’t get clean water and twenty per cent of those are children. Disease from dirty water causes death or illness in four out of five infants in the developing world.

But if you think water shortages aren’t a problem in the West, think again. Apart from Belgium and Cyprus, the UK has less water available per person than any other EU country and our capital city is even drier than Istanbul. Meanwhile, the average American uses 80-100 gallons of water a day, 8 times what a family of four in Africa might use, and over 100% more than we needed 25 years ago

As we explain on the "Why?" page, there's really much less water around than we might think - at least the fresh, drinkable kind. And scientists predict we’ll need every drop with coming heatwaves, droughts and population growth. So we may as well start saving it now.

And saving water in terms of showers, taps and pipes is on thing, but we don't tend to think about the amount of water that goes into making the products in our daily lives. The image above is from a lovely piece of information design by Timm Kekeritz. His double-sided Virtual Water Project poster illustrates how much water countries use and also everyday products, including food.

He says it's designed "to show how much freshwater is used to produce selected products - hoping for people to rethink their consumption patterns." Well worth a look.

Thanks to the EdenBee blog for pointing it out.

And penguins might fly

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:45:34 +0100

Those who enjoyed Feb's Use Body Warmth penguin documentary "Huddle" might like this BBC iPlayer promo vid. (By the way, iPlayer - is it just me or is this the greatest electronic content invention since Tivo?).

Ev.eon - a cunning way to save the planet

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:02:26 +0100

If you never quite understood what "Carbon Capture & Storage" is all about, this handy site explains how it works. Ahh, now I get it.

Earth Hour - Tonight!

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:11:03 +0000

Earth Hour is tonight. In fact in about one hour. If we all turn our lights and appliances off for an hour in as many cities as possible we'll show the power of united action against climate change. Simple. Please do it.

Get off my green and pleasant land

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 06:57:37 +0000

I stayed at a charming and very environmentally conscious manor house B&B over the bank holiday weekend with my family called Milden Hall in Suffolk.

Juliet Hawkins, who runs it with her husband, is utterly uncompromising and quite happily tells potential customer they'd be better off somewhere else if they don't agree with the farm's environmental policies (e.g. take your wedding elsewhere if you're not happy serving tap water instead of bottled water, and so on).

It reminded me of how most great brands/business behave: they stick to their core beliefs and are exclusive - by not being for some they connect even more deeply with others. Naturally, many of the people Juliet has told to look elsewhere over the years have now become regulars. But perhaps that's as much to do with the natural impulse more what you can't have ;-)

Creativity against climate change?

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:13:59 +0000

The week before last, artist Chris Jordan gave a talk at the uber-inspirational 2008 TED conference. His work is based on a fear of what he calls “cultural anaesthesia” – a state of mental paralysis when our brains can’t make sense of the “enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming” society we live in.

For instance, “Plastic Cups” (pictured above) is actually made up of one million small photographs of plastic cups, which is, rather appallingly, the amount used by US airlines every day (that’s 27,000 in the time it’s taken you to read this sentence). (Incidentally, if you’d like to be even more appalled, read some hard-hitting truths about the environmental damage caused by plastic in one of this month’s Do More actions: “Easy on the plastic bags”).

Jordan is trying to use the raw material of data to create art we can feel so it matters to us more. He wants to help us get back our sense of outrage or grief so we can face the big question: “how do we change?”

The issue of Climate Change paralyses many of us with anxiety or overpowers us with statistics. The scale of potential devastation is too massive to contemplate (billions of climate refugees, wars, famines, deaths, economic collapse) and so the problem becomes abstract and meaningless. It’s hard to care about something we don’t connect with.

We know that big issues, events or truths are more digestible and understandable in smaller more personal packages. But creative work like Jordan’s is powerful because it simplifies and sharpens these issues, making them into something meaningful.

In it’s own way, Green Thing is trying to use creativity to inspire people to think and act differently and so change their own behaviour to live more sustainably.

Climate change is the biggest challenge facing the creative world because it’s the greatest challenge facing the planet. Creativity is an incredibly powerful thing because the biggest barrier to change is public engagement and action - governments and business will follow where voters and consumers lead them. So we all need to get more creative about climate change, and do it soon.

What’s on the Green Thing March playlist?

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:01:47 +0000

Here’s the music the Green Thing team has been listening to this Eazy on the Meaty month of March.

Quite a mix really: from mainstream popsters Grills Aloud and Steak That to cooler tunes from The Kaiser Chefs, Kate Nosh and Gamey Winehouse to old timers Fleetwood Big Mac and Bun Jovi.

Here’s the top 5:

• Bap Out Of Hell - Meatloaf
• Should I Steak or Should I Goat? - The Clash
• Chickentikka - Abba
• The Wheat Album + All You Knead Is Love - The Beatles
• Animals; Wish Ewe Were Here; Dark Side of the Spoon - Medium Pink Floyd

If you’ve got any other suggestions for what we could listen to, comment away, we’d love to hear them….

Green Thing needs you!

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:38:54 +0000

Green Thing is looking for a junior web developer to help look after our lovely website. The site is built in Ruby on Rails, using XHTML and CSS, so you'll need to know something about those sort of things, and if you know Flash that's even better. We're really looking for someone in the UK - telecommuting is ideal (nice and green), but you'll need to get to London every now and again for meetings. So, if this sounds like you, and you're after a permanent role which might just help out this planet we live on, drop your CV in to jobs@dothegreenthing.com. Ta.

Enter the Meatrix

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:32:43 +0000

We can't go Easy On The Meat without mentioning the marvellous Meatrix films made by Sustainable Table and Free Range Studios. Parodying a certain sci-fi trilogy of almost the same name, these vids point out the problems with livestock agriculture through Leo, the chosen one, and his guide Moofeus. You can see all their films here: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOfficialMeatrix

A work of true genius

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:15:42 +0000

This ad was produced and aired in 2006 - doesn't seem possible that anyone could get away with this today thankfully. It really does beggar belief this was actually produced with a straight face – I keep expecting the Saturday Night Live style punchline. For sheer chutzpah it surely has no equal as a piece of corporately-funded propaganda.

Who's fault is it anyway?

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 07:20:27 +0000

Stories about instabilities in Antarctic ice sheets deteriorating faster than expected and threatening rises in global sea levels are nothing new. In the most recent case, however, the cause could be the result of warm deep ocean currents or even volcanic geothermal heat... but not global warming.

With any luck, environmental sceptics won't take this as proof we don't have to do anything about climate change because it's all part of the natural cycles of the earth, etc, blah.

The more interesting question is why this should matter anyway.

There's more evidence than we could possibly need to prove that humans have contributed to the rise in CO2 in our atmosphere. But even if the causes of climate change weren't anthropogenic, the important thing would still be whether or not we can do anything about it.

It may be psychologically more palatable to think we can solve a problem if we created it in the first place, but logically it shouldn't make a blind bit of difference. If the level of CO2 is too high and destabilising the climate, then we should do what we can to try and reduce it. End of story.

Top 50 Eco Blog Thing

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:53:09 +0000

Apparently we're one of the “The Top 50 Eco Blogs" according to Times Online. Marvellous.

Green Thing Webby nomination

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 19:23:23 +0000

The very first Green Thing video has just been shortlisted for a rather prestigious Webby award.

Congrats to the grotesquely talented Steve Qua who directed and produced it and to Naresh who wrote it and Paul Berczeller who voiced it and Mark Folan who scored it. The story of Gusty and Ford is a tall tale of all the wonderful things that can happen to you when you walk...

Enjoy. Or if you've seen it before, enjoy again.

Warm and Fuzzy Green Thing Video

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:50:59 +0000

And as promised here's the video from the Valentines Flash Hugging event for Body Warmth. I'm still feeling pretty toasty.

Thanks again everyone

Water a Green Thing

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:42:05 +0000

Green Thing has been very lucky to have Kethi Copeland as an intern over the last few weeks, helping us to create new videos and images for future months. Kethi is studying at the London College of Communication and with her creative partner Hanna Reifgerst is a finalist in Anti-Apathy's / The Nag's film competition. Take a look at Kethi and Hanna's video here - and if you enjoy it send an e-mail to info@antiapathy.org to help them scoop the £500 prize.

In Kethi's words:

"Anti-apathy asked for short film submissions about the way we live our lives today and our environmental impact. I collaborated on this brief with another designer whilst we were studying in Barcelona, we were both surprised at the amount of water that was wasted going down the sink; in Barcelona it is not uncommon for bathroom and kitchen sinks not to have plugs. We chose to show
the amount of water that would normally be wasted running down the sink through stop frame animation replacing water with wool to show what might happen if it did not just disappear out of sight down the plug."

There are 8 million hugs in this city

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:54:41 +0000

Here they are then. Well some of them: http://www.dothegreenthing.com/photos/actions?action_id=27

Or here's a little slideshow instead: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dothegreenthing/sets/72157603919549716/show/

Video footage to follow.

I think I'd better go and lie down now, I'm all hugged out.

Happy Huggy Valentine's Day

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:27:11 +0000

The happening happened exactly according to the no-plan plan. We came, we shivered, we hugged.

All in all, a lot of hugging took place and a lot of good energy as well as body warmth radiated forth from Soho Square for a brief but glorious moment.

Green Thing Kethi said afterwards: "Doesn't hugging strangers just set you up for the day? London seemed a lot friendlier afterwards."

Quite. As the late great JL once put it, all you need is love (he probably meant to write 'hugs')

Photos will be up tomorrow, video next week.

Meanwhile: Happy Valentine's Day all.

Green Thing meets ... Green Tomato

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:27:00 +0000

One fun thing about helping Green Thing is all the people and organisations you get to meet - so I thought I'd start writing about some of them as we go along .....

Yesterday I met Hamish and Tom - the brains behind Green Tomato. Green Tomato's mission is to offer you ways of being kinder to the planet without sacrificing your standard of living and without it costing you more, either in terms of quality or price.

So far they've two services - a green taxi firm (hmmm, is that possible .... decide for yourself at Greentomatocars.com) - and a green kit, a sort of goody package to help get you started on a more green lifestyle while savng money at the same time.

I enjoyed hearing about their insights into environmental behaviour change - and their belief that appealing with both a financial reward and an environmental benefit was a truly powerful mix. What do you think?

PS For the avoidance of doubt - we have no commercial relationship or interest in Green Tomato - or anyone else for that matter. We're a not for profit and exist on the generous financial donations of individuals, trust and charities - and the generous time and creative contributions of many others.

Valentines Day Body Warmth Flash Hug

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:02:07 +0000

February's Green Thing is: Use Body Warmth (and turn your heating down a bit or off for a bit).

Come to Soho Square* at 1.30pm on Valentine's Day and be part of the world's first Body Warmth Flash Hug.

The plan: turn the heating down or off for a bit in your homes or offices, come to Soho Square at lunchtime, hug some beautiful people (or some of the Green Thing team) then go back to your unheated homes and offices with a huge body warmth boost.

If you're on Facebook then sign up to the event here.

See you there.

*walking to Soho Square good, flying to Soho Square bad

Calling all Alpha’s … and anyone who can do better than pooperami

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:17:24 +0000

No – we haven’t become a middle-class Christian wing and we’re not setting up a second-hand sausage shop - and while we only really care about individuals taking action for themselves – and the collective benefit that those actions can make – we keep getting asked “Well this is all very well Green Thing, but am I winning”. Winning? What’s that got to do with anything?

Well if you’re talking best user name relating to food, then I’d like to point you toward koconott, toffeefee and irequirepudding … or for suspicious sausage how about peperami or pooperami

Menawhile if you’re interested in who has done the most actions, take a look at our current top 5 (as at 30/1/08)

Despairing (79)
Malinda (42)
Maggalus (29)
Cassie (28)
Maryannah (27)

While no-one has yet done all 26 Green Thing actions – there are four people who are leading the pack with an impressive 13 different actions.

Maggalus
Devon
Genevieve
Solana

Next, to debatably the most important of all, who has saved the most CO2 since launch back in October 2007 ….. congratulations to GoingKermit, who’s clearly no muppet

GoingKermit 3,587 Kg
Grngrrrl 3,482
Loppy 3,480
Maggalus 3,479
PaperAeroplane 3,476

And finally, congratulations to Maggalus, you really shiny bright green thing you, the only member who is in all three leaderboard,

So go on compete - challenge your friends and colleagues - but never forget … it’s the taking part that really counts.

And now a Green Thing by Davis.

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:44:29 +0000

First monster guru Pete Fowler did a four-legged four-eyed walking thing. Then character supremo Andrew Rae did his swamp-monster-lights out candle thing. Then 3d swami Balwinder Bhatla did his shorted-sighted white-bearded old thing. Then, just before Christmas, psyche-scribbler Paul Davis threw his green pen into the ring and did his serrated-soled white-winged stair-climbing thing.

It’s the most evil, determined and vertically-inclined Green Thing yet and was brilliantly animated for the videos and profile shelves by the very talented Patrick Vale.

Thanks to all who’ve done the Green Things so far. If you own a green pen and you’re grossly talented and you’d like to join this illustrious list then please let us know.

Green Year's Resolution

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 12:07:13 +0000

In a survey of the top ten New Year's resolutions for 2008, 'recycling more and being greener' rounded off the top three, coming only behind those old New Year mainstays 'losing weight' and 'saving money'. And doing the green thing could help with those two as well. Ditching the car and walking or cycling instead will help shift Christmas as well as carbon calories, not to mention the petrol money saved in the process. And if enough of us do this often enough, maybe, just maybe, we can help stem a potential globesity catastrophe and avoid global ballooning along with global warming.

Valient Runners Up in the Yahoo! Awards

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:46:55 +0000

Green Thing is a runner-up in the Yahoo! People's Choice award for Find of the Year 2007. We can't say winning the whole damn thing wouldn't have been nice, but since we've barely been around for 3 months this 'aint a bad result. We were the only green/ethical site in the final 5 (winner + 4 runners up).

Thank you, thank you to all who voted - we're really very much obliged. I'm trying to make an astrologically pre-destined cosmic connection between being being "Runner Up" and running up stairs...but I can't quite make that work yet. Watch this space....

Molehill out of a mountain

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:14:53 +0000

At the beginning of this month we wondered whether the Green Thing community could take enough stairs to climb the equivalent of Kilimanjaro – 30, 944 stairs all in all. Well it seems we’ve all gone stair-crazy, so much so that by yesterday evening, a mere seven days into January, we’re already two-thirds of the way up and climbing . . .

The Stairway to Kilimanjaro.

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:25:25 +0000

No we’re not mixing our Led Zep with our Teardrop Explodes, more our Blue Peters with our Green Things. Every time you do Jan’s Green Thing and take the stairs for a day then click Done It, you get the Green Thing (brilliantly drawn by Paul Davis and cleverly animated by Patrick Vale) a little further up Kilimanjaro. Kilimanjaro stands 19,340 feet tall, which is roughly 30,944 stairs. Can the Green Thing community take enough stairs to get the Green Thing to the summit - or are we a base camp-bunch of lily-livered lift takers? Let's see.

Plse vote for Green Thing in the Yahoo! awards.

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:13:39 +0000

Here's the thing... Green Thing has been shortlisted for the 6th annual Yahoo! "Finds of the Year Awards" (and we've only been around for 3 months!). So please, please, vote, vote, vote for us as the People's Choice right here - we're 3^rd row, 3^rd from top. What a great start to Green Thing's New Year.

Tell them why you're taking the stairs

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:16:52 +0000

Green Thing is a well-mannered thing and doesn't believe in being lippy - unless other people are lippy first. So, if anyone's rude enough to ask why you're taking the stairs instead of following them into a small smelly box , or otherwise questioning why you're using less machine power and doing things under your own steam power, strike back like a freakishly witty viper with one of these sharp-tongued Tell You Whys. If you know a wittier or more venemous one please add a comment to this post.

Q. Why on earth are you taking the stairs?

This month's current top 5 Tell You Whys:

Because people break wind in lifts.
Because there's only one miniscule chance of surviving a lift fall and that's to lie flat on top of another person and I just don't feel comfortable asking.
On a scale of one to ten - sod off.
Because lifts are for losers.
Because I'm a Rocky and you're a rock ape.

Gore does it, Bush responds

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:01:13 +0000

We have it on good authority that, on the evening of Novermber the 27th, the very Nobel Al Gore was having a poke around the Green Thing site, making deep guttural sounds of approval at the Walking Fingers and Constellations videos in particular.

Never one to be out-thought or out-fought, George Dubya Bush has gone one better and made a video message of his own for Green Thing. We are indeed honoured.

An Independent Green Thing

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:07:43 +0000

Yay - thank you Meg Carter and the Independent for writing about Green Thing today.

Naresh and Andy deserve all the credit in the world for making Green Thing real in 2007 and I hope that we can all follow their example and inspire others to do the Green Thing in 2008.

Green Thing meteor shower

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:02:31 +0000

Well the gods have looked carefully at November's Green Thing and decided that playing dot to dot in the sky when you turn your lights out early is not sufficient. So over the next few nights they've organised this years biggest meteor shower to encourage you to do it more regularly.

In the UK, at least, no moon and clear skies mean that all you have to do is turn your lights off and look up.

For more details - and to learn about what a Geminid is - have a look here

Nearly official - Justin didn't do it as a single

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 09:25:57 +0000

Despite astonishing lines like “I wanna lay you out in Quark/I wanna do it in the dark”, despite the funniest guitar solo this side of Shreds, despite rumours aplenty on blogs like minneapolisf******rocks and despite the song containing the finest piece of cowbell playing so far this century, Justin David Hawkins is not releasing Do It In The Dark as a single.

Although we weren’t part of his plans, when Green Thing came-a-knocking he very sweetly answered the call and delivered a giant dose of cock-rockout-lycra-clad brilliance to help us out. We are not worthy but totally grateful.

Hawkins can still do it, oh yes very much so, and if and when he releases another single it may not have the same cowbell quality but it will be as hysterically rocktastic as only Hawkins can be.

In case you’re wondering, I played the cowbell.

Fay Ripley picks old comics on eBay

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:32:08 +0000

As a kid I longed for a hobby and a nickname.

I had neither.

Here is a collection of 50 American comics, a ready-made hobby in full swing. Something to be proud of, to show off about, something that could turn a loser, hobby-disabled, socially incomplete kid into a cool, hobby-tastic, leader of the pack who everyone wants to swap things with.

It seems too late for me to start now, let's face it the damage is done, but for some lazy kid out there with a dream of being in the hobby-club but without the drive to actually collect anything. BINGO. HAPPY XMAS.........Sadly they don't sell nicknames on eBay.

Happy bidding,

Fay Ripley

(Auction ends this Saturday at 23.50 GMT)