6.8 Richter Earthquake

On the 18th of September at 6.25 PM, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake occurred on the border between Taplejung (Nepal) & Sikkim (India) (National Seismological Centre Nepal). The total death toll in Nepal has reached eight, with 24 persons seriously injured and 77 with minor injuries, the Home Ministry says. Around 156 houses have been severely damaged all over the country, while 124 houses are partially damaged (My Republica).

Earth Hour

How long has it been since you last saw a starry sky? You just might have the chance to see one his Saturday, March 26th 2011, between 8.30 and 9.30 PM, local time: 

Holi, or the victory of the Demon King's Son over the Demon King's Sister

This Sunday (20-03-11) is the Hindu Spring Festival, Holi. 

The Battle of the Bulb

In 2007, George W. Bush signed a bill into law that is now under heavy discussion in the US. In a world recovering from a severe economic crisis, with North-Africa shivering under its shackles & East-Asia trying to shackle its shivers, the US is finally tackling ... lighting bulbs.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 states that all general-purpose light bulbs (the standard Edison ICLs) that produce between 310 and 2600 lumens (measure of luminosity) of light be made 30% more energy efficient by 2012-2014. The 100-watt bulbs will have to be dealt with by January 2012, followed by the 75-watt in 2013 and the 60- and 40-watt bulbs by 2014. Senators & common people alike are discussing the change, questioning the need to do so, the safety of the replacing bulbs and the right of the congress to force the American People.

We decided to take a closer look at the debate, and then shed our own (Compact Fluorescent) light on the situation.

Green Campaigns

After learning, a couple of weeks ago, that the concepts of Climate Change and Global Warming are less well-known, liked and accepted than a sound mind might assume, we looked into some of the campaigns aimed at reminding people about their reality and danger. They range from beautiful to horrible, over funny and sexy, touching upon the awe-inspiring and breath-taking.

The Bottle against Global Warming

This evening, on the 24th of February, 2011, the First Green Drinks meeting of the Mumbai chapter is happening in the Elbo Room in Bandra West, Mumbai.
For this very special occasion, we thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at other sustainable drinking habits. We found out about green breweries, green beer and green ways to reuse & recycle both bottle and content.

V Day

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

But not on Valentine's Day. On that day it's Chocolates & Flowers & a Fancy Dinner that are on the top of our favourites list. This is why we’ve assembled for you a list of Green, Sustainable things to do or think of on this 14th of February for your Valentine/Valentino, based on the traditional V-Day gift list.

UNFCCC : U Need Flowers, Chocolates and other Calories for your Chica/Chico

The Living Daylights

Sometimes you can’t see the things that are right in front of you.

Especially when you don’t have access to lighting.

Bringing light to the entire world, in a completely literal fashion, is the main mission of SunNightSolar. They do this through the production of Solar Flashlights they disseminate through the world through their BOGO project.

The Carbon Job

While Green Ventures, as an Indian based company, is focused upon the UNFCCC and the Clean Development Mechanism, the European Union has another type of system in place to reduce its emissions.
In the EU Emission Trading Scheme of the European Union all involved companies have an allotment of permits that allows them to emit a certain amount of GHGases; if this allotment is “used up”, companies can buy credits from companies that did not reach their limit.

The European scheme has produced a substantial market: more than 8 million tons of CO2 emissions were traded in Europe in 2010, worth US $ 130 billion (source: wired). But the system can hardly be called fail proof. In the last couple of months hackers have stolen several million US $ worth of credits, some of it even twice....

Green Village Ventures Video

A long while a go (before this blog was even thought of),...
Green Village Ventures created a little film to show to the general public what we were doing.

Green of the Week

What do ice cream powered factories, cows with pink backpacks and toothpaste experiments have in common? For starters, they all provoke a "what?" reaction (probably combined with a slight frown). We learned about all of them just this last week. And they are all - I admit, slightly weird - attempts to counter climate change.

We'll take a closer look at them in this week's Green of the Week.

Global What?

Climate Change. Just when you think the world has finally got it through its thick blue skull, something happens that just makes you question the IQ of some. Sometimes, however, several things happen to make you do that.

On the road again

To the environmentally minded “roads” do not bring many good things to mind. Roads scream “pollution” in the form of green-insensitive egomaniacs obsessed with driving their Humvees & other gasoline-guzzling remnants of an unsustainable past. They are the scourge of the planet, grey atrophied veins criss-crossing our green earth, determined to tear it apart. 

But no longer...

Green of the Week

Every week we keep track of the latest interesting, odd, special developments and ideas. This week we read about the Ecology of Conquering, about a World running on renewable energies alone, about Emission free gas (for only $1.50 per gallon) and about Sustainable Football.

Getting the Message Out

On Tuesday the 18^th of January, Green Village Ventures (GVV) and Jay Yash Bahuddeshiya Pratishthan (JYP) organised a stakeholders meeting and a press conference about the success of the Barshi Pilot Project and about the future expansion of the project.

Solar Lanterns and CFLs

In the afternoon of Monday the 17th of January, the Green Village Ventures team visited the Pilot Project in Barshi taluka. There, we witnessed the new Solar Lanterns and CFLs being used, and had a look at the new Communal Biogas Production Plant.

Community Cooperation

In the morning of Monday the 17^th of January, the Green Village Ventures team paid a visit to the Headquarters of the the NGO Jay Yash Bahuddeshiya Pratishthan (JYP). An MoU confirming our continuing cooperation was signed, we had a meeting with the team that conducted the Pilot Project survey and we visited a JYP project.