Eco-chic violations, exhaustion and writer's block

There have just been so many things going lately. There have been trips, social events and work-related events, and many eco-chic principes have been violated. This is very unfortunate indeed. I am terribly exhausted and this has now resulted in a bit of a writer's block as well, but let us look a bit at the eco-chic violations that have been committed these last few months.

I have been on a total of 8 flights. I found a site called Carbon Footprint, which is pretty handy because you can calculate your carbon footprints depending on what you do or even how you live your life. My total ended up on 1,27 tonnes for these 8 flights.

You can, after calculating how many tonnes of CO2 you have emitted, become "carbon neutral" buy carbon offsetting, which is basically paying a certain amount of money that is invested in a sustainability project or the like. One option is a Reforestation project in Kenya, another is a wind power project in Mongolia through Certified Emission Reduction (CER) Offset Credits.

Earth Day or International Mother Earth Day?

Today the 22nd of April is both Earth Day and International Mother Earth Day.

2010 will mark the 40th Earth Day celebration. Earth Day began in 1969, led by Senator Gaylord Nelson who wished to highlight the environmental issues of those days. Earth day started as a social grassroot movement and has throughout the past 40 years spread around the globe, expressing itself through campaigns, expositions, conferences and many other means of raising awarenes about the state of our planet.

The International Mother Earth Day is the result of a proposition presented by the Bolivian government in 2009. The United Nations General Assembly declared last year that the 22nd of April will now be the International Mother Earth Day. The International Mother Earth Day is not the same as the Earth day described above, nor is it a replacement. This shows how social activism can reach a status of global consensus all the way from grassroot levels to global political institutions. This acknowlegdement by the UN should therefore best be seen as a reinforcement of the orginal Earth Day.

There are events across the whole planet that mark this day. Earth Day activites are unfortunately not very widespread in Norway. Even if we are not participating in anu Earth Day events, we can still reflect upon the choices we make in our everyday lives and perhaps make our own action plan - not just for today, but for the next year, or an even longer time. This can be done by changing some or several of our current habits that have a detrimental effect on our planet's "health". There are many areas of which to focus on such as: climate change; conservation and biodiversity; deforestation; sustainable energy; pollution; recycling and waste management; sustainable development and so forth.

Today is the day to "Talk Green" and for "Green Ideas". What can we do to take care of planet Earth? Maya's bubble is not only a place where I can write down some of my ideas, but I would also like it to be a forum or a platform for others who want to either build further on what I write by sharing their ideas and knowledge, or engage in discussions and put forth some of their opinions. My knowledge is, for most of the areas, quite limited, and I would love to hear what others have to say.

The photographs shown here are from a trip I made to the Amazon a couple of years ago. I thought they might be suitable for this post.

*Both the pictures used in this post are from my private collection. Please do not distribute or publish these elsewhere. Contact me if you would like a copy.

Ikke mer reklame takk!

Da fikk jeg klistret klistremerkene fra Grønn Hverdag på postkassen. Phew det var deilig! Ikke flere bunker med avfall som som røskes ut av postkassen fordi den alltid blir stappet full med uadressert reklame. Vi mottar rundt 50 kg uadressert reklame i året.

Reklame er irriterende og samler seg opp i bunker før man får kastet det i papiravfallsdunken, men dette er ikke det mest negative. 

For det første så belaster produksjon, distribusjon og gjenvinning av papir reklame miljøet. Det er energikrevende og leder til enorme CO2 utslipp. Det er tidligere estimert at det blir produsert 60 000 tonn CO2 som et resultat av dette.

For det andre så ligger det en del makt i reklame. Mange velger å tro at de ikke blir påvirket av reklame, men reklamens makt skal man ikke undervurdere. Kjøpepress blant unge samt våre forbruksvaner er til en større eller mindre grad et resultat av reklame. Det er klart at man ikke kan unngå reklame, men vi kan hvertfall forsøke å få et mer bevisst forhold til hvordan vi lar reklame innvirke på oss og livene våre. For en tid tilbake var det en reklame for en gul sitron-zalo som så utrolig fristende ut. Zalo av alle ting! Jeg aner ikke hvorfor jeg fikk så forferdelig lyst til å kjøpe den, men den så nesten spiselig/drikkelig ut på reklameposteren, fristene og veldig gul - som godteri (jeg er ikke engang så glad i smågodt).

Selvom bloggen min er helt ny og jeg aldri før har rettet mine meninger mot resten av verden, så har jeg har i flere år rettet et kritisk blikk mot det såkalte forbrukersamfunnet. Da mener jeg ikke at det er galt å være en normal forbruker, at kapistalismen er ondskapen selv og at vi alle må slutte å kjøpe ting. Det jeg selv forsøker å gjøre er å ta fler bevisste valg og tenke meg om to ganger før jeg lar meg påvirke til å kjøpe alle de tingene man bare MÅ ha. Jeg forsøker rett og slett å stå i mot kjøpepresset. Det er et usynlig press, ikke bare fra de mer åpenbare kanaler som reklamebransjen, men også fra samfunnet, vennekretsen, jobbmiljøet osv. Det er selvfølgelig svært individuelt hvorvidt og til hvilken grad man lar seg påvirke, men man kan ikke benekte at det varierer fra person til person.

Earth Hour 2010 in Oslo

Switch of your lights for one hour on Saturday the 27th of March at 8:30 pm!

Join the world's largest climate change campaign here.

Some landmarks/buildings in Oslo that are: The Opera, Akershus festning, Oslo Plaza, Stortinget, Regjeringskvartalet, and Oslo Børs.

The lights will be switched off around the world at buildings and landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, Brandenburg Gate, Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Empire State Building, Table Mountain, Christ the Redeemer statue, Sydney Opera House and the Burj Khalifa.

Further information, videos, photos and audio clips from around the world can be found here.


This is a great occasion to get together with your friends, family and the rest of the world society in a shared event towards a more sustainable future.