Greenzone Online

The Oasis That Was Sahara

This article about the Sahara being green several thousand years ago gave me a fresh perspective on climate change. It turns out that climate change is, after all, a natural and cyclical process our planet undergoes every few thousand years or so. Deserts becomes forests and vice-versa. Rivers dry out and new ones appear in [...]

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Survival Is Adaptation

I’ve seen an interesting documentary recently, it’s called Earth: Biography. It’s a visually stunning tale of our planet — how it came to be, how the volcanoes operate, what are the tectonic plates, how ice affects our climate and so on. The documentary employs computer animation to visualize some of the hypotheses it presents, but [...]

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Pigs, Landmines and Truffles

Landmines are often considered the worst and most widespread of all soil pollutants. They prevent people from cultivating land and moving from place to place; they kill and maim, leaving thousands disabled. Clearing minefields is a national priority for many African and Eastern countries, which have been plagued by war at some stage — [...]

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Sharpshooters and Hawks in Wimbledon

Wimbledon authorities hired snipers to shoot stray pigeons that might interfere with the games, a method that infuriated Peta activists. The organizers used hawks as well, which didn’t seem to bother anyone. Apparently “natural” predators are not as immoral as human ones, although I still fail to see the logic in the protest. Does it [...]

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Old and New in Environmental Issues: Kites, Wind and Oil Tankers

People have been harnessing wind with kites for thousands of years. Depending on whether the stress is made on design or propelling power, kites can be categorized as either recreational or practical. In some parts of ancient China launching a kite meant making a distress signal that could lead to the saving of a person’s [...]

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Old and New in Environmental Issues: Gasoline and Electricity Powered Engines

In some ways, the issue of engines is not very different from the book dilemma. A long and respected tradition of aesthetic appreciation of big cars with big engines undoubtedly hinders the transition to greener motors. Once again, seemingly irrational arguments, such as the love of “the smell of gasoline” and of “the sound of [...]

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