The Green Village News for the ‘Green Leisure and Tourism’ Category
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
The National Self Build & Renovation Centre in Swindon will be hosting the Big Green Home Show this weekend, 23rd-25th October. The green event will be the second Big Green Home Show held at the venue and will feature a wide range of activities including seminars, live building demonstrations and a large number of experts on site throughout the weekend.
Whatever your green building needs, from finding an environmentally responsible trades person to help you carry out renovation work in your home, to attending one of the many seminars being delivered over the weekend, there’s plenty to keep you busy. Alternative Build Live will be held to provide on the day demonstrations of green building techniques such as straw bale building and offering visitors the opportunity to have a go at clay plastering. The Build Live! Demonstrations will provide information and guides to installing solar panels, insulation, heat pumps and solar water heating.
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Tags: big green home show, Eco Home, eco retrofit, green building, green building techniques, green event, green home, green renovation, insulation, low carbon, national self build and renovation centre, self build, straw bale building
Posted in Eco Home, Events and Courses, Green Family, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet, Sustainable Development | No Comments
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
Tuesday 22nd September 2009 is World Carfree Day, the day each year when people are urged to leave their cars at home and use alternative transport. Around the world, different events take place to spread the word about the importance of relinquishing our hold on oil powered transportation and the alternative methods of transportation and public transport services that are available.
As well as helping cut worldwide carbon emissions by reducing the amount of cars on the road, the day also aims to increase awareness of the importance of reducing the amount of single person car trips we make, by increasing the number of people travelling by bus, train, bike or on foot and encouraging more people to carshare where possible. Single occupant car journeys contribute significantly to pollution and the extra vehicles clogging up the roads create added congestion that can be the bane of many of our lives.
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Tags: alternative transport, bikes, buses, car share scheme, cars, cycling, fossil fuels, public transport, trains, world carfree day
Posted in Environmental Impact, Green Family, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet, Transport and Travel | No Comments
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
Climate change film ‘The Age of Stupid’ will see Pete Postlethwaite posing the question of why we didn’t do something to save ourselves to Australia and New Zealand at tomorrow’s premiere. The premiere will be the follow on from the low carbon example set by the UK premiere in March which set a Guiness world record for the largest simultaneous film premiere with people watching the live link-up with London from cinemas across the UK.
The premiere will see the return of the green carpet for celebrities to walk up, and will have a number of guest speakers including the head of Greenpeace in Australia, a Senator and there is even the chance that the Australian Prime Minister may join the event by telephone. In addition to this, there will be a satellite link to a boat in the Arctic where explorer Eric Phillips will be on board waiting to join in discussions, a video message from some children in Copenhagen will pass on their message to world leaders, and viewers will be able to send text messages to question the director and producer team, Franny Armstrong and Lizzie Gillett after the film.
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Tags: age of stupid, australia, climate change, film, film premiere, franny armstrong, lizzie gillett, new zealand, solar cinema
Posted in Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Events and Courses, Green Family, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet | 1 Comment
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Last week the shocking news that the threat of an injunction against the Big Green Gathering 2009 forced directors to cancel the event 3 days before it was due to begin shocked the green community. All is not lost however, as ticket holders have a number of options available following the cancellation.
A number of other festivals that will be taking place during the summer and early in 2010 have come to the rescue and have agreed to accept tickets for the Big Green Gathering to enable people to still enjoy some summer festivities. Although all the details have not yet been finalised, they should be available within the next week with ticket swap options including the Family Yoga Camp and The Big Chill which starts on Thursday for a £20 upgrade; an event that is usually sold out before the event begins.
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Tags: big green gathering, big green gathering 2009, festival, green festival, mendip district council, tickets
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Events and Courses, Green Family, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet | 1 Comment
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Charity Christian Aid is looking to put together a team of 50 cyclists of all levels of cycling ability to take part in a bike ride from London setting off on 9th December 2009. The group will arrive in Copenhagen in time for the start of the Climate Change Summit to join the thousands of climate protesters hoping to get their voices heard for decisive action to be taken in the fight against climate change.
The 140 mile journey will take place between 9th and 16th December with participants covering between 25 and 60 miles per day. The journey will take the cyclists through the English countryside to Harwich where the party will board a ferry. Following this, the route will continue through the Danish Islands until the riders reach Copenhagen itself. They will then get the opportunity to spend two days enjoying the city before returning to the UK.
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Tags: christian aid, climate change, copenhagen, cycling, cyclists, protest, rally
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet, Transport and Travel | 1 Comment
Sunday, July 26th, 2009
Flagship green event, The Big Green Gathering was threatened with High Court injunction proceedings if they were unable to satisfy a number of concerns that Mendip District Council had. In a statement released today, Directors of The Big Green Gathering have been forced to cancel the 2009 festival, surrendering their license for the event.
The much loved and well attended family friendly green festival, which attracts around 20,000 visitors, caters for most tastes and covers many aspects of sustainability and environmental concerns. Activities on site would have included arts and crafts fields, a healing area where people can try alternative therapies and treatments, a children’s area and campaigns fields, as well as providing a range of eating and entertainment experiences for those attending, including music presented in tents powered by renewable energy.
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Tags: council, green event, green festival, mendip district council, the big green gathering
Posted in Events and Courses, Green Family, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living | 11 Comments
Monday, July 20th, 2009
With the current economic climate putting restraints on the amount of money people have available to spend on a holiday, staycationing is becoming a popular solution to the family holiday on the cheap. Holidaying in the UK doesn’t only save cash. It can also help you reduce your carbon footprint and save the planet one holiday at a time.
One of the big environmental bonuses of staycationing is the reduced impact from the method of transport you can use to get to your destination. As many people have recently tended to holiday abroad, the form of transport of choice has been by air. Plane travel is one of the biggest contributors to an individual’s carbon footprint, so by reducing the amount of people flying to their holiday destinations, the country’s collective carbon emissions can be significantly reduced.
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Tags: air miles, air travel, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, staycation, staycationing, uk holiday
Posted in Green Family, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living | No Comments
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
At an event organised by nine organisations looking to make people’s feelings about the importance of acting against climate change known, more than 1000 people joined hands to make a ‘Mili-band’ around Kingsnorth power station.
Organisations responsible for making the event a success include Oxfam, RSPB, NUS, People and Plant and Greenpeace, and it is hoped that both Climate Secretary Ed Miliband and owners of the Kingsnorth power station, E-on, will heed the call from those making their protest against the proposal for a new coal fired power plant at the site, as Ed Miliband will shortly be making the decision about whether to allow the new development to go ahead.
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Tags: coal, coal fired power stations, coal power station, ed miliband, greenpeace, kingsnorth, mili-band, oxfam
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Environmental Politics, Events and Courses, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet | No Comments
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
The Lake district is known to many as a serene peaceful holiday retreat and a location good for walking, cycling and water sports. However in recent years, the Lakes of Cumbria are becoming strained due to higher populations around the lakes, tourist booms and changing weather patterns.
The vendace fish which inhabits Bassenthwaite’s cool waters is under particular pressure from rising water temperatures. Many species that thrive in and around the Lakes are sensitive to even minute temperature changes, but the Environment Agency are so worried about the vendace fish that a small selection of the healthier specimens have been moved to lakes in Scotland. If conditions in the lake worsen, the species may be able to be re-introduced at a later date.
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Tags: cumbria, lake district, lakes, water pollution
Posted in Conservation and Wildlife, Environmental Impact, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet | No Comments
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Industrial designer Neil Barron has been announced the winner of the ‘London on Tap‘ competition to design a stylish sustainable carafe for London’s bars, restaurants and businesses. His design, which from above looks like the top of a tap, hence the name, will be available in clear and frosted versions, and later this year in blue and green.
The winning design for the ‘London On Tap’ carafe, which will be mass produced from recycled glass by London based company Nazeing Glass, was announced by London’s Mayor Boris Johnson and came top out of 115 submitted designs, of which 10 were shortlisted. Thames Water launched the competition in May 2008 in conjunction with the Crafts Council with three main aims. They wanted to promote tap water use in the capital as a sustainable, green alternative to bottled water, remove the perceived stigma attached to asking for tap water when eating out, and encourage bars and restaurants to serve tap water as standard.
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Tags: bottled water, carafe, london, london on tap, tap top, tap water, thames water, wateraid
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Ethical shopping, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet | 1 Comment
