Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow
as if it were a scene made-up by the mind,
that is not mine, but is a made place,that is mine, it is so near to the heart,
an eternal pasture folded in all thought
so that there is a hall therein Continue reading
Short electricity cuts punctuate the day here in Kerala. As if to remind us, for a few seconds in our daily life, that the electricity fairy can play hard to get. Generators always kick in in an instant though, and that is it. Elsewhere, in Guinea for instance, generators are not there to save the day.
Only about a fifth of Guinea’s people have access to electricity. With few families able to afford generators, school children have had to get creative to find a place to read, do their homework and study for exams. So every day during exam season, as the sun sets over Conakry, hundreds of children begin a nightly pilgrimage to the G’bessia International Airport, to petrol stations and parks in wealthier areas of the city, searching for light.
Photo credit: Srinivasa Addepalli
One of the things I love most about the Periyar Tiger Reserve is the knowledge that it’s a vibrant ecosystem whose 900+ square kilometers supports a small but healthy population of tigers. For many people actually seeing a tiger is their primary goal when trekking in PTR. I would be lying if I said that I wouldn’t care to see one, but it would be just as much a lie to say that’s all I care about. The forests and grasslands that form the habitat for the many animals that the tigers prey on astounds me each time I’m there, and tigers aren’t the only predators who make PTR their home. Leopards, sloth bear, wild cats and Indian dhole (wild dog) hunt sambar deer, Indian gaur, wild boar, porcupine, and even the majestic elephant — all part of the natural food chain and the drama of the hunt is played out daily in the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Continue reading
Camping Team from left to right: Kathy, Douglas, Fred and Salim
I’ve passed the half-way point of my managment training with RAXA Collective and since our focus is conservation tourism part of my training has been understanding what the Periyar Tiger Reserve has to offer. I recently had the opportunity to experience the overnight Tiger Trail, probably the very best that PTR has to offer. This was made even more interesting by joining a pair of experienced travelers who were here to enjoy Kerala’s biodiversity. Needless to say I had very high expectations! Continue reading
When he had a choice Treehugger.com founder Graham Hill chose to live in a small apartment. He believed it would allow him to live within his means financially, environmentally and beyond…
When introducing his documentary at the Paris International Documentary festival, Cinéma du Réel, director Kamar Ahmad Simon said to the audience: “Thank you for being here. I will be back at the end of the screening to discuss the film with you. I’d like to know your opinion and to answer any questions you may have, whether you liked the film or not, so I can go forward and progress.” If I had to sum up the response from the audience and jury it would be something like: “Please keep going. We’ll follow.”
Click here for the trailer of Shunte Ki Pao ! (Are you listening)
Rakhi and Soumen are a beautiful couple, they are young, in love and are the happy parents of little Rahul. You could say they have it all. That’s if their region of the coastal belts of Bangladesh had not been wiped out by the tidal in 2009. Rakhi and Soumen are climate refugees. A couple among almost a million homeless, stranded under the open sky on an ancient dyke. They now live in a small village named Sutarkhali. Rakhi and Soumen were from the middle-class, today three years after the tidal, they buy fruits by the unit, fish for their meal and line-up on neverending queues for food aid. And life goes on. Shunte Ki Pao ! (Are you listening) is not about disaster, it tells how people build a life afterwards. Continue reading
A jaguar – a symbol of Mayan royalty – is endangered but roams free in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala. Photograph: Larry Larsen/Alamy
We make frequent links and comment on topics meant to raise awareness about innovative, fun and sometimes loony efforts—from the humble to the grand– to avert environmental collapse. The dangers are real enough that we assume readers get enough of the doom and gloom elsewhere, so that we can focus our efforts on evidence of potential solutions, and encourage collective action.
The photo above accompanies a story in the Guardian worth a read, to put in perspective why it is that the Mayan calendar doomsdate hoopla, or at least some of the accompanying history, was worth a bit of attention:
…Today, much of the Mayans’ ancient homeland is a 7,700-square mile protected area in Guatemala called the Maya Biosphere Reserve. With an area greater than the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, the reserve protects the largest remaining forest in Central America. Beneath the canopy, monumental vestiges of temples and palaces attest to past splendour. Similar magnificence is found in the reserve’s wildlife. The jaguar, once a symbol of Mayan royalty, still roams free in one of Central America’s last wild places. Continue reading
Inviting film to the table seems like a powerful, creative idea:
The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, and the National Biodiversity Authority are hosting an International Biodiversity Film Festival and Forum in Hyderabad as part of COP-11 in association with CMS Environment. Continue reading
Organikos 