When do you really need to know the bus times? For us it was in the bar last night. Surely it should be easier to get the bus times on your iphone? Now it is, with our new bus timetable section.

www.chamonix-bus.com

Janvier 2012 Alerte Rouge Pollution au Pays du Mont-Blanc… Presque classée au patrimoine mondial de l’Unesco la capitale Mondiale de l’Alpinisme Chamonix Mont-Blanc croule sous la pollution de l’air… Merci à Gérard Decorps professeur guide de haute montagne à l’ENSA pour ces quelques mots…

Pollution Warning in the Mont-Blanc …

On the verge of becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the aapital of World Mountaineering Chamonix Mont-Blanc awash in air pollution.

Thank you to Professor Gerard Decorps mountain guide with ENSA for these words … (in french)

http://www.tvmountain.com

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The 2nd year of the Chamonix Eco-Expo took place towards the end of last week and saw a great turn-out, both indoors and outdoors. This year’s event was in conjunction with the Mont Blanc Versant Durable exposition and the combination of the two resulted in plenty to see and do, running from Thursday 2nd to Saturday 4th June.

Fortunately the weather was fantastic as much of the event was held outdoors. Kelly from Alpine Yoga gave a free class in the gardens of the Majestic and Mark from ChamShaw was pedalling people back and forth in his rickshaws, showing them the sights of Chamonix.

The square in front of the Tourist Office was host to the Tourne+Zit, a handbuilt wooden merry-go-round powered by your own energy. While the kids enjoy a ride on a wooden ladybird, parents get on the static bike and start pedalling! A great hit with the children and a workout for the mums and dads. Not only is the Tourne+Zit powered solely from human energy, it is also entirely hand-built out of wood from the nearby Aravis massif. There were also a number of stands featuring all types of bikes from electrically powered ones that are suitable for all terrains to mountain bikes made from recycled and biodegradable materials.

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There is a lot of concern about herbicides and what they are doing to our environment. Large amounts of chemicals leech into our groundwater polluting our water supply. Cancers and strange diseases with no apparent cause are being linked to chemicals and pollutants in our environment. So how do we control all those pesky weeds in our perfectly manicured landscapes? I will outline several different ways to eradicate weeds without polluting our environment.

The first and probably the simplest of all, is to roll up your sleeves, get down on your knees, and pull the weeds out! I know this seems counterintuitive in an age when we are accustomed to instantaneous and easy ways of doing things. When all we have to do is spray some highly-toxic chemical on a plant and it seemingly evaporates in less that a day! But back in the day, people used to buy tools like a hoe, or dandelion pullers to actually exert physical work to remove weeds. I prefer this method as it actually feels good to get back to our natural instincts and commune with our surroundings. Sweating in the hot sun and doing physical labor is good for the mind, body, and spirit, and with this technique, we can actually eliminate weeds!

A tip for pulling weeds is to give the weed bed a good watering the night before. With the ground thoroughly soaked, the soil will be softened and will yield the entire weed plant, root and all.

The second method is equally effective but it is more difficult to isolate a single weed in a bed of desirable plants. Simply pour hot, boiling water over the weed. The hot water will kill the weed. The next time you make a pot of tea and you have some water left over, pour it on the weeds. How about pasta water? Or corn on the cob? Plenty of boiling water left over there! While the corn is cooking or the pasta simmering, take a quick walk outside to see what weeds need to go. That way you can quickly locate them with your hot pot of water.

And lastly, you can use a string trimmer or lawn mower and just mow them down. Sure, they will grow back up but just keep whacking them down. They are green and produce lots of oxygen for your environment, and mowed down low, who would ever suspect that you have a lawn full of weeds. My lawn is full of clover and violets. Mowed down low, it looks like a beautiful lawn. However, I am the envy of the neighborhood every Spring when my lawn is covered with white and purple flowers during the month of April.

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Find more of Mr. Novosat’s writings on his own blog at http://www.novosat.us/wp

Starting at 1pm on Thursday 29th April at Les Aiglons Hotel, this brand new FREE event will be filled with interesting exhibitors and speakers offering creative solutions on lowering your carbon footprint.

Expect to see skis made from recycled wood and hemp; an Acro Yoga demonstration from Kelly Aikins; eco chalet design; glacier expert Luc Moreau AND the widely respected international organisation, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

This event is to offer Chamonix’s local businesses and community opportunities to find out how to live, work and play more sustainably. From getting involved in local projects to gaining advice from similar companies, individuals and businesses can learn, share ideas and enjoy the event with live acoustic music and free local food tasting.

This will be followed by an ingenious clothes swap after party at Hotel le Vert starting at 8pm, recycling favourite music from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s this isn’t your usual serious eco event. Come to the party in old clothes you no longer want and get swapping with people in the bar.

To celebrate the occasion Le Vert is offering an eco meal deal, serving yummy locally sourced food, eating has never been so guilt free.

For more details on the event visit www.eco-expo.org. If you have any questions please contact via the email link below or by phone on 0033 (0) 642 68 03 34.

Greenhouse Gasses (GHG): the atmospheric gasses responsible for global warming. Although CO2 is the most notorious GHG, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor and ozone also contribute to the greenhouse effect.

Greenhouse Effect: some infrared radiation is trapped in the earths’ lower atmosphere by greenhouse gasses in the outer atmosphere. This is a completely natural process contributing to the heating of the planet, but with recent human activities increasing the quantity of greenhouse gasses, the impact of the greenhouse effect is being enhanced, warming the earths’ surface above natural levels.

Carbon Footprint: a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.

Ecological Footprint: a measure of the land area required to supply the resources for specific human activities, providing a comprehensive measure of the environmental sustainability of anything from consumer products to services.

Sustainability: practices that ensure the continued viability of a product or service well into the future, without detriment to its current quality.

Sustainable Tourism Development: managing tourism so that the needs of the current tourists, all future tourists and the host regions are met. Resources must be taken care of so that the economic, social and aesthetic needs can be reached whilst also preserving the cultural integrity, biological and ecological diversity of the region.

Renewable Energy: energy from sources that can be replenished at an equal or greater rate than the rate of its depletion, i.e. wind, solar and water power, and geothermal energy and biofuels.

Green Energy: includes renewable and non-polluting energy, such as anaerobic digestion, geothermal, wind, solar, biomass, tidal, small-scale hydropower and incineration of waste. Controversially, nuclear energy often also claims to be green.

Alternative Energy: energy derived from non-fossil fuel sources.

Greenwash: the dissemination of information by organizations in order to give the false impression of being environmentally friendly. For example, focusing publicity on green packaging to divert attention from the unenvironmental practices used to manufacture the product itself.

Carbon Sequestration: the process by which carbon dioxide is captured and removed from the atmosphere, then stored in carbon dioxide sinks such as the oceans, plants and soils. This is a natural process, but is being enhanced and artificially developed to mitigate global warming.

Carbon Offsetting: becoming ever-more controversial, carbon offsets are a means to pay someone else to reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere when you are unable or unwilling to reduce your own. The most well-known schemes involve tree-planting, but the long time-lag between planting and growth to a size at which they are able capture significant carbon dioxide is so great that their short term benefits are minimal. As a result, many schemes have emerged which invest in renewable energies in developing countries or in energy conservation strategies. A newer type of offsetting scheme buys carbon credits from the emissions trading market, thus reducing the amount of emissions the industries involved in the market are permitted to produce.

skiclub.co.uk

Starting at 1pm on Thursday 29th April at Les Aiglons Hotel, this brand new FREE event will be filled with interesting exhibitors and speakers offering creative solutions on lowering your carbon footprint.

Expect to see skis made from recycled wood and hemp; an Acro Yoga demonstration from Kelly Aikins; eco chalet design; glacier expert Luc Moreau AND the widely respected international organisation, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

This event is to offer Chamonix’s local businesses and community opportunities to find out how to live, work and play more sustainably. From getting involved in local projects to gaining advice from similar companies, individuals and businesses can learn, share ideas and enjoy the event with live acoustic music and free local food tasting.

This will be followed by an ingenious clothes swap after party at Hotel le Vert starting at 8pm, recycling favourite music from the 70s, 80s and 90s this isn’t your usual serious eco event. Come to the party in old clothes you no longer want and get swapping with people in the bar.

To celebrate the occasion Le Vert is offering an eco meal deal, serving yummy locally sourced food, eating has never been so guilt free.

For more details on the event visit www.eco-expo.org. If you have any questions please contact via the email link below or by phone on 0033 (0) 642 68 03 34.

Mark Lynas’s Copenhagen Notebook

The Independent (The Independent)
Clipped on Monday, December 14, 2009, 07:19 PM

Very few people seem to realise this, but the Kyoto protocol divided the world. With its strict definitions of haves and have-nots, developed and developing, the divisions between rich and poor enshrined in the 1997 treaty are almost as rigid as those between the West and the Eastern bloc in the Cold War. Except that instead of an Iron Curtain, what lies between the two sets of countries is known rather cryptically as “the firewall”. Industrialised countries are not all rich; their ranks include the likes of Ukraine and Croatia.

Nor are all developing countries poor: Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, for example, hardly need to beg for aid. But the distinction matters because under Kyoto only “rich” countries had to make cuts in their carbon emissions. Poor nations, in recognition of their lower per-person emissions and their smaller historical responsibility for causing global warming, were expected to follow suit only when they attained industrialised status.

This all makes sense from an equity perspective – but is shaping up to be extremely bad news for the planet. For if we are to keep temperature rise within tolerable bounds (1.5C is the upper limit, according to front-line vulnerable states like Bangladesh and Tuvalu) then global emissions need to peak about now and start coming rapidly down again, eventually reaching zero by about mid-century. This in turn means that big developing countries like China, India and Brazil, who are expected to account for almost all emissions rises in future, must also take on targets here at Copenhagen – thereby breaching the Kyoto firewall.

In fairness, India and China have both come to this meeting offering targets – but only to cut their emissions intensity (carbon emitted per unit of GDP) not their absolute levels of carbon output. Using this metric, a Chinese CO2 “cut” of 45 per cent translates into a real-world rise of about 100 per cent. By any reasonable scientific measure, this is a recipe for climate chaos.

Greenhouse Gasses (GHG): the atmospheric gasses responsible for global warming. Although CO2 is the most notorious GHG, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor and ozone also contribute to the greenhouse effect.

Greenhouse Effect: some infrared radiation is trapped in the earths?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢ lower atmosphere by greenhouse gasses in the outer atmosphere. This is a completely natural process contributing to the heating of the planet, but with recent human activities increasing the quantity of greenhouse gasses, the impact of the greenhouse effect is being enhanced, warming the earths?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?¢‚Äû¬¢ surface above natural levels.

Carbon Footprint: a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.

Ecological Footprint: a measure of the land area required to supply the resources for specific human activities, providing a comprehensive measure of the environmental sustainability of anything from consumer products to services.

Sustainability: practices that ensure the continued viability of a product or service well into the future, without detriment to its current quality.

Sustainable Tourism Development: managing tourism so that the needs of the current tourists, all future tourists and the host regions are met. Resources must be taken care of so that the economic, social and aesthetic needs can be reached whilst also preserving the cultural integrity, biological and ecological diversity of the region.

Renewable Energy: energy from sources that can be replenished at an equal or greater rate than the rate of its depletion, i.e. wind, solar and water power, and geothermal energy and biofuels.

Green Energy: includes renewable and non-polluting energy, such as anaerobic digestion, geothermal, wind, solar, biomass, tidal, small-scale hydropower and incineration of waste. Controversially, nuclear energy often also claims to be green.

Alternative Energy: energy derived from non-fossil fuel sources.

Greenwash: the dissemination of information by organizations in order to give the false impression of being environmentally friendly. For example, focusing publicity on green packaging to divert attention from the unenvironmental practices used to manufacture the product itself.

Carbon Sequestration: the process by which carbon dioxide is captured and removed from the atmosphere, then stored in carbon dioxide sinks such as the oceans, plants and soils. This is a natural process, but is being enhanced and artificially developed to mitigate global warming.

Carbon Offsetting: becoming ever-more controversial, carbon offsets are a means to pay someone else to reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere when you are unable or unwilling to reduce your own. The most well-known schemes involve tree-planting, but the long time-lag between planting and growth to a size at which they are able capture significant carbon dioxide is so great that their short term benefits are minimal. As a result, many schemes have emerged which invest in renewable energies in developing countries or in energy conservation strategies. A newer type of offsetting scheme buys carbon credits from the emissions trading market, thus reducing the amount of emissions the industries involved in the market are permitted to produce.

skiclub.co.uk

https://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/eskishop/shop.aspx?intCategoryID=7&strCategory=Respect+The+Mountain

photo:

http://www.momondo.com/blogs/markopyhjrvi/archive/2008/12.aspx