Upside down Nature World

Amazing pictures of nature

Forests, lakes, mountains, oceans, sky - just photos, BUT - amazing photos, pictures of nature - Up side down viewing image. In my point of view it's very interesting... .

Photos from - www.desktopwallpapers.org

Amazing Up Side Down Nature

Greenpeace activists in the dock: Experts take ‘the stand’ on climate change
As expert witnesses go, they don’t come any better than Professor James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists and Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Yesterday, he was called to give evidence before a UK Court on the threat posed by Kingsnorth coal fired power station to the world’s climate. Six Greenpeace activists are being charged with criminal damage after they took action last October, to highlight the threat posed by Kingsnorth. Hansen’s evidence will be crucial in establishing their defence, since whilst the defendants accept the damage they caused, they say they did so to prevent much greater damage to other property and the planet. - 4 days ago
Rainforest timber stopped from leaving Paradise
Greenpeace has stopped a ship loading piles of logged timber from the Paradise Forests. - 6 days ago
Great Barrier Reef saved from shale oil exploitation
It's a victory for the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef, with a 20-year moratorium on all new shale oil projects in the region. Led by the Save Our Foreshore group, the success shows just how powerful local, grassroots campaigns can be. - 2 weeks ago
Indonesia's peat forest gains temporary protection
In a rare piece of good news for Indonesia's forest, a regional governor has announced an interim ban on deforestation in Riau, one of the areas currently worst affected by rapid deforestation. The ban, especially if made permanent, is also good news for the climate. - 3 weeks ago
Boulders against bottom trawling
The fishing industry seems determined to catch every last fish in the North Sea. The governments of the region and the EU have done little to stop them, but they may soon hit a few snags: a team from Greenpeace Germany and Greenpeace Netherlands has sailed into the German North Sea and begun placing 150 granite rocks on the seabed. They are hoping that the rocks, each weighing 2-3 tonnes and measuring one square cubic metre, will prevent fishing boats from bottom trawling on the Sylt Outer Reef. This highly destructive fishing method involves a net being dragged across the seabed indiscriminately catching everything in its path. - 4 weeks ago
Poisoning the poor – Electronic Waste in Ghana
The latest place where we have discovered high tech toxic trash causing horrendous pollution is in Ghana. Our analysis of samples taken from two electronic waste (e-waste) scrap yards in Ghana has revealed severe contamination with hazardous chemicals. - 5 weeks ago
Toxic toy legislation victory
Congress is about to send President Bush legislation that will make toys safer for little tots and infants. In an agreement announced on July 28th, Congress will ban the use of six toxic chemicals, called phthalates, that are added to vinyl plastic to make it flexible. Thank you to the 8,000 Greenpeace activists who took action and wrote their members of Congress on this very issue. Your support helped over come heavy lobbying by ExxonMobil who manufactures phthalates. - 5 weeks ago

Blue Blue Sky

Ski Mountains Turn Green For 2008

If ever there was an industry that needed global warming not to be true, it has to be the ski industry. No snow, no skiing, and the skiing industry would belong to a sporting museum.

So perhaps it comes as no surprise that one European country which relies on the ski industry trade more than most others has decided to ditch traditional print brochures for the internet only.

Andorra is a small country with borders that meet both France and Spain, set in the Pyrenees mountains. Andorra is best known for two things - her status as a tax haven, and for attracting ten million tourists a year, mostly for skiing in her mountains.

The Vallnord ski area which includes the well known resorts of Arinsal and Ordino decided to stop producing traditional holiday brochures as a sign of its commitment to the environment, with the hope that visitors would find sufficient information on the internet, and book their ski holidays on-line.

The decision to move from print media to new technology to benefit the environment comes at a risky time for Andorra's ski reports. The 2006/7 season was not a good one with a drop in tourists for the first time in recent years. This despite the fact that Andorra opened a new family friendly ski park in Arinsal, moving away from her old image of a cheap and cheerful ski holiday for 18-30 year olds to one that caters well for all. The snow park includes a conveyor belt and a game zone, designed to give children confidence before they ski and use the chair lifts.

While the snow would often start in early November before this ski season, disastrously no sustained snow periods arrived until March this year. No official figures have been released yet as to how many tourists visited this year, but some officials are reported to be guessing at a year on year fall of ten per cent, and some are blaming it on environmental changes and global warming. Private businesses suggest the figure could be closer to forty per cent. Given that private businesses see financial figures on a daily basis most people in the Andorra tourist industry are veering towards the higher forty per cent figure rather than what could be an optimistic official estimate.

Despite good snow in mid March and full occupancy at Easter, it was decided not to prolong the agony of Andorra's worst tourist season for a generation, and the slopes were closed at the end of the Easter holidays, some three weeks earlier than some previous ski seasons.

The good news for Andorra is that the scare of global warming might have been just that, as snow fell in Soldeu in late September, bringing hope that the 2008 season will be good for natural snow - and the ski resorts can claim to have done their bit to help the environment!

by Rogger Muns from http://www.yourandorra.com/