For example, the Amazon rainforest covers an area of two and a half million square miles. That’s a big number, but you can’t really visualise it can you? All you see is a lot of trees.

To put it slightly into perspective, Australia is around 2.8 million square miles, so the Amazon rainforest is only a little smaller than the entire Australasian continent.

Even more astonishing is the estimate that there are still around 50 Indian tribes living in the Amazon rainforest that have never been discovered and never had contact with the outside world. But it isn’t just the big numbers which are impressive – it’s the actual contribution of the Amazon rainforest to the survival of the planet that needs to be understood.

The Amazon rainforest has often been described as the lungs of the planet, and for good reason. Every single day the Amazonian forests generate 20% of all the oxygen in the atmosphere. Without them we’d quickly start to suffocate. 70% of all plants used in treating cancer are found in the rainforests, and if you lined up every plant, animal and insect in the entire world, every other one of them would live in the Amazon rainforest.

It’s easy to be impressed by these figures and images, but sadly it isn’t all good news. Imagine an acre and a half of rainforest. Not easy is it? So imagine a full size football pitch, which is an acre and a half in size anyway.

Now picture that football pitch full of trees, animals and wildlife. Listen to the exotic birds calling to each other, the gentle drip of the heavy raindrops pattering through the leaves onto the rich soil beneath. Imagine that huge area of stunning and valuable forest.

Now blink your eyes twice. It’s gone.

Quite literally an acre and a half of Amazon rainforest is destroyed forever every single second of the day. It’s hard to visualise isn’t it?

Even harder to visualise is the irreparable damage it is causing by destroying one of the most valuable and diverse natural resources on the planet. We need to do something today, because by this time tomorrow an area of Amazon rainforest more than one and a half times the size of the UK will have vanished forever.

The controversy is based on the fact that Nestle gets its palm oil from the Sinar Mas company in Indonesia who destroys the natural forests in order to have room to plant the tropical palm plant. Once Nestle was convinced that the activists at Greenpeace were correct in their allegations about the forest destruction, it has dropped their association with that company. The problem has not gone away for the big corporation however, as it still buys its palm oil from Cargill, which in turn, also gets its supply from Sinar Mas.

Nestle was successful in the removal of one of Greenpeace’s videos from the popular YouTube site relating to the issue, but the video spread over the Internet, while Facebook and Twitter were soon flooded with massive messages of protest. In the beginning, Nestle’s top personnel dismissed the activity which only made things worse, resulting in the Swiss food giant receiving nearly a quarter of a million emails regarding the issue.

On April 15th at the Nestle shareholder meeting, Greenpeace protesters showed up and dropped themselves down from the ceiling, releasing a shower of leaflets on the heads of the meeting participants – sparking the fire once again. At the meeting, the Chairman for Nestle, Mr Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, had stated that that the source of deforestation is not related to his company and that Nestle is working on procedures and the implementation of a plan, to lower the amount of palm oil it buys. He instead blamed the deforestation issue on politics within Europe regarding the requirements of bio-fuel. (Palm oil is used in food, bio-fuels, and cosmetics).

While Brabeck-Lematch said that his company plans to bring about a halt concerning rainforest destruction, he did not buckle to the demands coming from Greenpeace to stop buying palm oil from Cargill. Nestle has promised that by the year 2015, the Swiss company will purchase only sustainable palm oil. But critics say that it is too little and too late.

The rainforests in Indonesia are key habitats for orangutan and carbon storage. Destroying these areas is a major contributor to Indonesia’s sky-rocketing emissions. In the 1960s, Indonesia consisted of 82 percent cover in terms of forest, but today the rainforest covers less than fifty percent of the country.

Greenpeace says it will continue to bombard Nestle until they have cleaned up their act and have removed any association they have with Cargill. In the middle of March, 2010, there were Greenpeace activists in Europe who went to Nestle offices and factories in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands, urging the company to stop using palm oil that is the result of forest destruction. Greenpeace says, and will continue to remind the world, that we need those rainforests as they play a key roll in regulating the earth’s climate and absorbing carbon dioxide. Palm oil producing companies are literally choking the environment and are the reason that Indonesia is the third largest carbon emitter next to the USA and China. Cutting down valuable rainforests is actually responsible for more carbon emissions that all of the auto mobiles and air planes in the world.

By installing even just a few of these products, you can be assured that your carbon footprint will dramatically reduce and you won’t only feel better in yourself, you’ll notice the difference in cleaner air and less pollution. It’s not just about reusable bags (although that’s it, too). It’s about buying smartly so you get more for your money, and contribute less to the Earth living longer.

Wait; did we say ‘more for your money’? If helping the world in which you live is not incentive enough, then surely saving a penny is. By purchasing eco products, many times what you buy will not only last longer, but they can be reused (as in the case of reusable bags, such as canvas or string bags). Energy saving light bulbs will last longer, cost less to run, and won’t harm the environment as they operate. ‘Green ink’ will last longer as it is designed to use less as it prints, plus it is less damaging to the environment when the paper it’s on is thrown out (although hopefully you’d first think about printing an email, and perhaps putting it in the recycle bin when you are done with it, if you do print it).

So, now you’ve decided to get on board and do your bit. Good for you! But there is more you can do, without spending that much more. Ethical products ensure that whatever you’re buying is sourced or manufactured in areas free from slave labour, where the workers are paid a fair wage for a fair day’s work. Chocolate that has been made using cocoa beans from countries where children don’t work to gather them will taste better, and if you want to actively purchase products from countries where the people want to create the items, then there are stores that enable you to do so. Not only will you be buying something free from slave labour, you’ll be supporting the workers and supporting the communities they live in.

It’s easy to contribute to a better world, and it costs very little. The rewards, however, are great. What’s stopping you?

Accelerating deforestation is particularly alarming. This is because the destruction of the last few remaining great forests is the result of our own deliberate effort, as opposed to climate change or some other convenient alibi. Setting aside the more obvious consequences of ozone depletion and global warming, rainforest destruction is especially worrying because it irrevocably extinguishes unique sub-biospheres that are unlikely to be rebuilt within the time frame left, according to some more sober global warming predictions.

Every deliberate act of rainforest destruction is a bizarre rehearsal for the global warming that will follow if the custodians of the earth cannot mend their ways. Deforestation destroys not just a piece of forest canopy, but also a portion of our fragile world. This is because the smaller trees and plants that the canopy previously sheltered cannot survive the direct rays of the sun, and so wither and die. By an ironic quirk of nature, young forest giants, too, do not survive without the initial protection of that lesser canopy. As a result an entire ecosystem vanishes forever, as do the human families, the mammals, the birds and the insects that once lived in harmony within it, leaving our planet a shamefully poorer place.

While it has become popular to blame subsistence farmers for rainforest destruction, this is not the whole truth. Almost all the huge logs that were once forest giants, and much of the food that is grown on the new farmlands, end up in the homes and on the tables of the word’s developed nations, who therefore drive the process and must share the bulk of the blame.

While forests still cover about thirty percent of the earth’s surface, deforestation is proceeding at an alarming rate and it is estimated that the lungs that make the oxygen we breathe will vanish forever within a hundred years, unless something is done to reverse the rate of rainforest destruction. Every year a forest the size of Panama disappears. Every month as many trees as grow in Britain are taken down. Every day is a bad day for global warming, as an area of forest as large as one of our cities is destroyed.

When stripped naked of the rhetoric of human greed, responsibility for rainforest destruction lies with the developed nations who – after obliterating their own natural resources – now look elsewhere for stopgap solutions to their own selfish needs. Every act of deforestation accelerates global warming. Every year that passes is one year less before the last great forests begin to wither under a collapsing ozone layer.

Responsibility for change lies with individuals, for only they have the power to change the mood of great corporates, and the governments they feed.

As part of a new international project to save the rainforests, researchers belonging to the Leeds Earth and Biosphere Institute are studying the impact of global climate change and warming on these savannas and rainforests. They are of the opinion that the world may be witnessing the beginning of a cycle wherein global warming may be leading to the shrinkage of rainforests which in turn releases more amount of carbon into the environment. This automatically raises the temperature of the atmosphere and the cycle continues on its destructive path causing more and more virgin rainforests to disappear.

The other school of thought on this subject believes that since the primary vegetation systems within the tropics are the rainforests and savannas, any increase in the temperature leads to the invasion of the rainforests by the savannas. The fact that these savannas are almost bereft of trees makes them incapable of holding any carbon deep in the soil. Moreover, since the savannas do not follow water recycling as efficiently as the rainforests, the loss of carbon into the atmosphere is far greater and that means a drier atmosphere causing more rainforests to shrink.

The objective of the researchers is to ascertain the conditions under which these rainforests and savannas grow and survive. It appears that rainfall has nothing to do with their continued growth. While the Amazon receives annual rainfall of close to 1800mm, which is enough for the savannas to grow, the same amount of rainfall within the African plains is enough to produce the rainforests. If anything, it is the shrinkage that is occurring at a rapid rate that needs to be curtailed.
The researchers do concede that other factors such as the soil fertility and drainage may also be playing their part and will be taking actual measurements in the continents of Australia, Africa and South America. These three are the hot spots that encourage the growth of both rainforests and savannas and are therefore the focus of attention.

These measurements will be used as inputs to create sophisticated computer models that will throw up the extent of change happening in the tropical areas of the Earth. It will also give an idea of the carbon emissions, temperature changes and rainfall patterns. These findings will then be relayed back into the created models to come out with a trend and ascertain how it is going to ultimately impact any change in the global climate.

The researchers wish to allocate about five years to this study and depending on the increase in the atmospheric carbon emission levels projected; they will take a call on making a fundamental change in devising fresh targets for reduction of carbon emissions.

Choosing organic baby clothes

One of the great reasons to go organic with your infant’s clothing is down to the natural materials and fibres used in the manufacturing process. Many materials used in baby clothes contain dyes, pesticides and metals which are potentially harmful to a young child, particularly if they suffer with allergies. Not so with organic materials which can actually help to eliminate this risk. Child care experts also recommend organic clothing for children who suffer with skin conditions as the natural materials can significantly reduce irritation.

With that in mind, look for clothing that is made using organic cotton. This cotton is much softer and more durable than standard cotton and better for your baby’s skin than synthetic materials such as polyester. Organic cotton has also not been treated with any chemicals and the garments will be coloured and printed using environmentally-responsible plant-based or herbal-based dyes.

Where to buy organic clothing for babies

As the demand for organic children’s clothing increases, so the big companies are trying to cash in on consumers appetite for all things green. Unfortunately, many of the big retailers are putting profits ahead of ethical practices and what the customer buys isn’t always what it seems. Ethical gift websites are a great place to start in your search for ethically sourced and manufactured organic baby clothes.

When you find an online retailer, the next question to ask is how environmentally conscious is the company you’re buying from. Look for a retailer who deals with small suppliers and organic trade associations as they will check on the ethical sourcing of the products they stock. This guarantees that you are getting something that is Fairtrade, organic or eco-friendly. Try to use a reputable ethical products retailer who gives a percentage of their profits to charitable organisations or supports social causes with regular donations.

What organic baby clothes to buy

As any parent will testify, a baby requires a lot of clothing mainly due to the mess they make after feeding or when a nappy needs changing. Organic baby bodysuits and playsuits are essential babywear and there’s a beautiful range of classic and understated baby clothes available for boys and girls.

These recommended products are perfect for the fashion-conscious parent who wants quality baby clothes that will last for many years.

	A stylish white baby playsuit with navy dots and trim. Perfect for daywear or nightwear and machine washable.
	This funky pink playsuit made from natural cotton will be soft and comfortable against your baby’s skin.
	A beautiful kimono-style product that looks great when put together with a skirt or trousers. Easy to dress your child in and fully machine washable.

Geopathic stress is natural radiation from the Earth that comes to the surface, but is altered along the way by electromagnetic fields caused by underground water, collections of certain minerals or fault lines. This radiation can be responsible for conditions ranging from infertility, cancer, migraines, joint pain, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and insomnia. The World Health Organisation also recognises Sick Building Syndrome is a result of geopathic stress.

Practitioners are available that can rid buildings of this radiation, or alter the building or its contents in such a way that the radiation is longer an issue. One such method is ‘dowsing’. In dowsing, a dowser uses tools and intuition to seek something (for example a water source, in ‘water dowsing’) – in this instance, the unconscious mind seeks the radiation that is infiltrating a building or room. Once the streams of radiation are found, methods are used to rid the radiation or move it, or alter the room or building so that the geopathic stress is no longer an issue. For example, if someone is suffering from insomnia, a dowser locates any geopathic stress and may find that the bed is lying on a geopathic stress line. By simply moving the bed, the sufferer will find they not only sleep better, but they have increased energy levels and become headache free. Another method that can be used in healing sick buildings utilises channelled energy to eliminate the negative energy (this can also be used on a person). This is known as ‘vortex healing’.

Another healing method is the ‘Alexander Technique‘. This is used to treat people, usually suffering from physical pain and/or stress caused by poor posture. By gaining awareness of how we stand, walk, sit and move in general, we can prevent issues that may arise as a result of poor habits, such as slouching. With this technique, the patient is taught to ‘treat themselves’ by monitoring their posture with a view to curing and preventing problems caused by it. It has been said that after learning how to use this method, patients not only find their pains have decreased (or disappeared), their overall posture is improved and they find more energy and suppleness. This then extrapolates to all areas of their lives.

These healing properties – the Alexander Technique, dowsing and vortex healing – can all work together to help heal sick minds, bodies and buildings. In the fast-paced world we live in today, we need all the help we can get!

Hybrid Mail has launched in the UK with several providers able to offer both colour and mono mailing solutions. The service allows small and medium companies to reduce costs by up to 40 percent, and almost unbelievably it is also up to 80 percent greener.

How Does Hybrid Mail Work?

Hybrid Mail reduces the need for a printer, printer cartridges, and stationary, and you don’t even need to go to the post box (or have the mail collected). For less than the price of a stamp the hybrid mail company will provide paper, an envelope, print the letter, enclose it and stream the mail item into the postal delivery service.

Why is it greener mail?

Whichever Hybrid Mail company you select will combine letters to be printed into larger volumes, and therefore print on very efficient printers. They even sort the letters to enable postal discounts to be generated that only larger companies can usually achieve. As the mail is sorted it can be sent via a postal carrier directly to the nearest postal delivery point (in most cases), this reduces the transportation normally undertaken when mail is sent in smaller volumes. This reduction does reduce CO2 emissions considerably but in addition many of the hybrid Mail providers can also offer enhanced eco solutions.

How do I use a Hybrid Mail Service?

Usually all you need is internet access and an account. Some of the larger companies offering Hybrid Mail can also provide integrated solutions, such as API installations to allow a large number of users to collaborate with one account but most small to medium business have found the web based interface completely sufficient. With full colour solutions also available it’s really easy to brand your mail items as required, but its worth noting that the mono based solutions can also present graphics but at a much cheaper price.

Can I find out more about Hybrid Mail?

Several web sites in the UK are now providing more information about Hybrid Mail, other than searching for Hybrid Mail UK, you could visit Mail Savings or HybridMail.co.uk