The New Zealand dolphins are in danger of extinction in the very near future. World Champion freediver Will Trubridge wants to change that.

Will Trubridge holds 15 world records in freediving, an extreme sport that requires divers to breath-hold into the abyss. He’s the first human to reach a depth of 100 meters without fins, rope, weight or any other assistance, and he’s won the World Absolute Freediver prize twice. His life is busy with competitions in Europe and his own elite freediving freediving school, Vertical Blue, in Long Island, the Bahamas. Yet he makes time to advocate internationally for New Zealand’s critically endangered Maui’s dolphin because he’s appalled at the circumstances that are causing its imminent yet avoidable extinction.

Trubridge grew up in New Zealand, where the powerful fishing industry’s gill net fishing and trawling threaten to kill off the nation’s only indigenous dolphin. With a population that has plummeted from 2,000 in 1970 to 55 today, New Zealand’s Maui’s dolphin is a poster child for what the fishing industry considers “bycatch.” The dolphins get caught in the fishing nets and drown, and New Zealand’s lax fishing regulations have allowed nearly the entire population to be killed off. But even in the face of local and global citizen outrage, New Zealand refuses to extend protective measures.

Maui’s dolphins are a sub-species of Hector’s dolphins, the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world. “They’re intelligent, friendly and beautiful, and they only live in New Zealand,” Trubridge says. “Under existing laws, the species will be extinct by 2030, and the New Zealand government is apathetic if not downright anti-ecological.”

Zoe Helene: You’re passionate about helping the Hector and Maui’s dolphins.

William Trubridge: I had only a vague idea about New Zealand dolphins until I was planning Project Hector, a one hectometer (100 meters) mission dive that was also intended to raise awareness about the species’ plight and compel the government to protect them. They’re classified as “critically endangered,” and they face a real and present danger of being driven extinct. We can’t afford to lose a single one.

ZH: When did they start keeping track?

WT: 1970—and since then the Hector’s dolphin populations have dropped from 30,000 to just over 7,000. That’s more than 75 percent. It’s even worse for Maui’s; in 1970 there were 2,000, and today there are only 55.

ZH: And this is mostly because of fishing practices?

WT: Yes. They’re “bycatch,” a euphemism for killed accidentally. They get caught in nets by fishermen who are after something else.

Dolphins breathe oxygen just like we do, so when they get caught in those nets they have about three minutes of terror before they drown. They’re very intelligent, so during that time any other dolphins around would be screaming for help. Sometimes other members of the pod try to help them, and then sometimes they get caught and drown, too.

ZH: Do you ever think about a dolphin trapped in a net and how it might experience drowning?

WT: I do, definitely. In spite of how comfortable and at home I am under water, the idea of being trapped in a net or a cave or something like that is still a huge nightmare for me. The panic would just be awful, and I don’t think there would be any difference for a dolphin. A dolphin would also experience those sorts of sensations and that sort of panic. It’s a terrible thought to imagine Maui’s and Hector’s dolphins—and other dolphins all over the world—being caught in gill nets and drowning.

ZH: And the government knows about this.

WT: The New Zealand government has known that the species is in rapid decline for at least 30 years, yet still they allow both commercial and recreational gill nets and trawlers to be used within the dolphin’s territory.

ZH: Is the New Zealand government doing anything to protect them?

WT: There’ve been small gains for their protection, but nothing really significant and nothing that solves the problem. The current biological projection is still extinction under existing laws. The current government is so apathetic about anything ecological. The types of comments they make about this issue or other environmental issues like fracking or drilling for oil in the ocean clearly show how little they care. They certainly are not motivated by the intrinsic good of protecting a species.

ZH: Shocking! What motivates the New Zealand government?

WT: Finances. Money. If we can prove that it is actually more profitable financially to protect the Maui’s dolphin than to allow it be rendered extinct for the sake of cheaper fish n’ chips, then maybe the species has a chance.

ZH: I recently visited New Zealand after many years. I felt betrayed that I had grown up there and hadn’t even heard of either the Maui’s or Hector’s dolphin. It’s almost like the government is repressing their existence because it doesn’t want to admit to the crisis or do the right thing to protect it.

WT: A lot of what we’re doing is calling them out about that. I watched an interview with Prime Minister John Key by a very prominent British reporter who pretty much called him out the entire interview about the “100 Percent Pure” New Zealand tourism advertising campaign.

ZH: You mean the “Come to New Zealand where we’re progressively environmental and everything is protected and pristine” green-washing campaign?

WT: Right. And the truth is, New Zealand’s rivers are contaminated, vast areas are deforested and topsoil is eroded, plus a lot of other environmentally devastating things are taking place.

ZH: As the poster child for “bycatch,” the Maui’s dolphin is caught up in an ethical as much as an environmental crisis, then?

WT: Very much so—and it’s a race against time. Unless the New Zealand government bans all use of gill nets and trawling, within the full territory of the species as defined by expert scientists, the Maui’s dolphin will be the first species of marine dolphin to be rendered extinct due to human causes. This would set a tragic and shameful precedent.

ZH: How do you feel, as a New Zealander and a professional freediver?

WT:  I feel a great sense of urgency. The Maui’s dolphin’s demise is not a complex problem, and there is scientific unanimity on the cause of the problem, which could be resolved by a simple change in policy—literally a swipe of the pen.

ZH: New Zealand already ranks high in the extinction conversation. The Moa and Hast Eagle are two of the most infamous examples of “co-extinction” by human cause. Extinction of the Maui’s dolphin would only strengthen New Zealand’s existing reputation, and it isn’t reversible infamy. You would think they’d take this more seriously.

WT: I hope they know the world is watching.

ZH: It is just never OK to kill dolphins, let alone wipe out an entire species—let alone your own indigenous dolphin.

WT: I completely agree.

ZH: So, what can we do?

WT: The greatest power we have as global consumers is to vote with our voices and our choices. If you were considering visiting New Zealand on holiday, I would encourage you to speak up for the Maui’s dolphin to anyone associated with your travel plans. I’d even encourage you to consider choosing some other country where the government is actively preserving the environment and wildlife rather than continuing to engage in activities that put them at serious risk. And if you decided not to visit New Zealand for these reasons, then make sure to tell the government and whatever relevant bodies that you’ve made this decision because of their poor practices. Let them know it cost them money, because that seems to be all they’re interested in.

ZH: It costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time to get to New Zealand. If they destroy what they have, why would anyone bother to go there? Who would you ask people to write?

WT: There are various options [see “Resources” below] for sending emails to the New Zealand government, and the more personalized those messages are, the better. That shows that there is diversity from overseas. It’s important to send the ministers strong messages to make sure that they know that you’re not visiting New Zealand or buying New Zealand goods because you want to see the dolphins fully protected.

ZH: People will come to New Zealand to see the smallest and most rare dolphin in the world!

WT: Right. People will either come to see them or they will not come to New Zealand because we haven’t protected our dolphin.

ZH: Should we boycott New Zealand seafood?

WT:  Maui’s dolphins live in a limited geographical region, but you can’t say to someone, “Don’t buy New Zealand taki that’s been fished off the West Coast between such and such and so and so,” which are places they’ve probably never heard of. That’s impossible. So you have to just say, “Do not buy New Zealand seafood.”

It’s not a kind of thing where you can keep everyone happy or avoid collateral damage, but the priority has to be saving a species, and scientifically appropriate measures need to be put into place immediately.

ZH: Which NGO would be your first NGO choice for readers who want to send monetary support?

WT: NABU International is easily the organization that has committed the most to this. Barbara Mass, head of International Species Conservation with NABU, has been to all the International Whaling Commission (www.iwc.int) meetings and single-handedly ensured that the text was decisive enough in recommendations to the New Zealand government. Dr. Elizabeth “Liz” Slooten, a premier Maui’s dolphin scientist, has done all the research in the past decades, and Barbara has spearheaded the campaign to protect them in the last one.

ZH: The New Zealand national election is coming up on September 20 (2014), and this is a critical moment for the dolphins and New Zealand’s environmental protection overall. Prime Minister John Key of the National Party consistently chooses money over wildlife and wilderness, and that focus has made him blind to the bigger picture of New Zealand’s future. The Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins can’t afford to have him in power again. Do you think the Green Party has a chance?

WT: The Greens won’t ever be the party with the biggest percentage, but New Zealand has a mixed-member proportional representative government system, meaning all the parties are represented to the degree that they were voted for, and a Labour-Green alliance could potentially beat National.

ZH: Barbara Mass was instrumental in helping me understand the core issues and key players when I first learned about the Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins. Like us, she will never give up!

WT: To support the New Zealand dolphins, the greatest bang for your buck would come from NABU. All money donated to NABU’s Mau’s Dolphin Go Fund Me campaign goes to support the dolphins.

RESOURCES

To learn more about the Hector’s and Maui’s Dolphin, check out Dolphins Down Under: Understanding the New Zealand Dolphin (Otago University Press, 2013), co-authored by Dr. Elisabeth “Liz” Slooten and Dr. Steve Dawson, scientific partners who have intensely studied New Zealand’s only endemic dolphins for more than 30 years.

Support the Maui’s dolphin by donating to NABU International or join the Facebook group Hector’s and Maui’s Dolphin SOS.

Vertical Blue

Hector’s and Maui’s Dolphins 

William Trubridge

PHOTO CREDITS

Photos of William freediving are by Daan Verhoeven (DaanverHoeven.com)

Photos of New Zealand Dolphins are by Steve Dawson (WhaleDolphinTrust.org.nz)

Zoe Helene is a media correspondent and advocate for women, wildlife and wilderness. She spent 10 influential years growing up in Aotearoa, the Maori word for New Zealand, which means The Land of the Long White Cloud. Zoe works with leading activists, scientists and environmental organizations across the globe to save species such as the critically endangered Maui’s Dolphin and endangered Hector’s dolphin from extinction. Hector’s and Maui’s are New Zealand’s only native dolphins. Zoe, like the native Maori, considers them taonga, a treasure to protect and cherish.

Related on EcoSalon

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Dolphins Have Names: Should We Reconsider Our Relationships with Animals?

California Assemblyman Moves to Ban SeaWorld’s Captive Orcas 

The post William Trubridge: New Zealand Dolphins Imminent Extinction ‘Shameful’ and ‘Shocking’ appeared first on EcoSalon.

I dare you to watch this heartwarming video and not cry. Sarah and Paige are both missing parts of their arms, and their moms brought them together via the International Child Amputee Network (just thinking that such an organization even exists breaks my heart). Over the last 8 years, the two girls have formed an intense bond, using Internet video chat service Skype (full disclosure: the video is actually an ad for Skype). Though separated by many miles (hometowns are in New Zealand and Indiana in the US), they are clearly best friends. Watch to see the terrific surprise and enjoy the beauty of friendship!  

Related on Ecosalon: 

This teenager will break your heart with her truth about being a woman (video) 

 Polar Bears Are Amazing Underwater Athletes: Who Knew? (video) 

Geena Davis is a Total Badass (Video)

The post Get Your Tissues Ready: Amputee Teenage Best Friends Are Pure Joy (Video) appeared first on EcoSalon.

New Zealand just announced the world’s next eco fashion week, joining Amsterdam, Vancouver and Berlin Fashion Weeks. Flying the flag for the Asia Pacific region (Australian designers have also been active in the ethical realm), New Zealand will be hosting an Eco Fashion Runway Event in September to support their exciting, emerging market. The show will include up to 14 designers and involve New Zealand’s sustainable style model, Hannah Pasene. Like most of the other big fashion weeks, it will be a combination of workshops, pop-up shops and spectacular runway events.

Co-founder and eco fashion designer Denise Anglesey says the idea for the event has been brewing since 2008, and indeed she is joined by plenty of other Kiwi creators. To celebrate this exciting new announcement, we look to three of New Zealand’s successful labels that keep sustainability in style.

Shikoba Clothing

Shikoba Clothing‘s creation is influenced by New Zealand’s unique natural environment (think Lord of the Rings) and cultural heritage. Aroha Wikotu founded the line in 2006, and she has a strong commitment to innovation and is constantly researching new processes, technical skills and the latest in fabric design. The entire line is 100% made in New Zealand, and their website hints that they will soon be announcing a new eco label, which uses only New Zealand-made fabrics, so this is one line to keep an eye on.

Untouched World

Untouched World prides itself on being the first fashion company in the world to be recognised by the United Nations for sustainability. A fashion and sportswear brand based on and inspired by the New Zealand lifestyle, Untouched World works on the principle that you don’t have to forgo luxury to support fashion that is both stylish and eco friendly. This ethos caught the attention of the United Nations, which in 2007 acknowledged their efforts by accrediting them to use the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainability emblem on its clothing. They regularly publish sustainability reports on their website and have won a plethora of awards for their efforts. Their logo represents a Maori kite, which is an emblem of the relationship between man and nature. This sentiment drives their business and is reflected in their effortlessly chic styles.

Kowtow

Kowtow Clothing only uses certified organic, fair trade materials and they regularly promotes the fact that their lines are ethically and sustainably made from seed to garment. They use only 100% fair trade certified cotton (which is also 100% organic!) and manufacture in an ethical factory in Kolkota, India. They are so committed to fair labor that the Kowtow team travelled to India, to document on film, their entire cotton chain from seed to garment. In addition to offering stylish, quirky pieces for both men and women, they also have a ‘building blocks’ collection of versatile, long-lasting pieces, which will blend across the seasons and team nicely with more of the up-to-the-minute looks.

Images: Shikoba, Untouched World, Kowtow, N.Rekhviashvili

The post New Zealand’s First Ethical Fashion Week Plus 3 Hot Kiwi Designers appeared first on EcoSalon.

High-end dining just got a lot higher.

Just when you think going out to eat is losing its magic, these 10 oddly themed restaurants push the envelope and really get you your money’s worth. For some of them, food is secondary to the ambiance, or not even part of the picture. For others, the tastes of the menu items are piqued by the complementary atmosphere. Whatever you’re into – cats, ninjas, or handcuffs – a few of these restaurants are sure to make it to your bucket list.

Yellow Treehouse Café, New Zealand

The Yellow Treehouse offers a unique setting that channels the excitement of your tree-climbing days. Patrons of the restaurant dine in an illuminated pod-shaped structure perched 10-meters high in a Redwood tree. The pod can hold 30 guests at one time. As for the food, it stays grounded – all dishes are fresh, seasonal, and adapt to clients’ needs.

Cabbages & Condoms, Bangkok

As its namesake suggests, the food at Cabbages & Condoms is “guaranteed not to cause pregnancy.” The restaurant was created to support the Population and Community Development Association, an organization that provides sex/AIDS education and awareness. The garden restaurant is an introduction to Thai food – in only the safest way possible – and instead of mint favors on your way out, you’re given a box of condoms.

Calico Cat Café, Tokyo

Imagine going to a café that only serves cat food, but there’s a chance that it’s too crowded to get a seat. The Calico Cat Café in Tokyo is just that popular. The café caters to your love for coddling and feeding cats sans the commitment. Patrons are asked to sanitize their hands and remove their shoes upon entering and to abide by set rules: do not hold or stroke a cat if it resists you, do not wake a napping cat, do not hold cats with scarves around their necks (they are too young), and do not bring cat nip or cat food to the café. For $9 per adorable hour, the café is a bargain. Only, you’ll leave hungry.

Ithaa Undersea Restaurant, Maldives

The magical Ithaa Undersea Restaurant is the first of its kind in the world. The restaurant is located 5 meters (16 feet) under water off the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island and serves contemporary Asian-inspired European cuisine. The restaurant is encased in R-Cast acrylic and can host 14 people at one time, offering a 270° panoramic underwater view.

Unsicht-Bar, Cologne and Berlin

Heighten your other senses by taking away one very important one: sight. The Unsicht-Bar, with locations in Cologne and Berlin in Germany, uses the dark to strip patrons of their vision and take them on a culinary adventure that requires they focus more on taste, temperature, texture and smell. All light is forbidden, including that coming from watches and cellphones. The restaurant’s waiters are also either blind or visually impaired. The food, which is described enigmatically to leave an element of surprise, is served in a context-appropriate manner, avoiding a confusion of flavors or a potential mess. The flavors are simple, but profound in that they are enjoyed in an entirely new way – without visual prejudgment.

Ninja New York, New York City

Japanese cuisine just got more interesting. At Ninja New York, diners are wowed, and often at the edge of their seats, with ninjas jumping around, pop rocks on sushi rolls, smoke machine action, magicians, and an overall festive and upbeat atmosphere. The restaurant’s décor aspires to mimic a ninja village from the feudal days, providing patrons with a sense of what it was like back when.

Chill Out, Dubai

As if Dubai has not enough marvels as is, the city offers a unique way to, well, chill out. Chill Out is an architecturally fascinating refrigerator lounge with special lighting and design works that highlight the innovativeness of the frozen structures. Before entering the bar, Patrons are offered thermal clothing – parka, shoes, and gloves – and are then led to the Eskimo oasis. A complimentary mocktail or hot chocolate welcomes you.

Devil Island Prison Restaurant, China

This restaurant was initially conceptualized to scare people from a life of crime. Upon entering this restaurant, patrons are allocated a number, photographed, fingerprinted, and optionally handcuffed. The interior of the restaurant is designed after a prison, with sliding jail doors, metal floors, and rusty iron bars. Patrons dine in a prison cell and are served by waiters dressed in black-and-white striped inmate uniforms. Food includes fried, coffin-shaped bread.

Dinner In The Sky, Worldwide

Suspended 50-meters high by a crane, diners at Dinner in the Sky can host an event practically anywhere. The table is equipped with 22 seats, one chef, one waiter, and one entertainer. Dinner in the Sky operates in more than 15 countries, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, and South Africa. The event can be hosted for up to 8 hours, with the time fragmented – people can come and go at whatever interval of time. As for a bathroom break, have no fear, the crane will lower for relief without interrupting the experience for more than a few minutes.

Marton Theme Restaurant, Taiwan

Originally serving chocolate ice cream in toilet-shaped containers, Marton Theme Restaurant has certainly gained quite the fanfare over the years. There are now Marton restaurants across Taiwan and the company has recently changed the name of its restaurants to “Modern Toilet Restaurant,” all of which offer a full menu that can be enjoyed whilst sitting atop a toilet.

Images: Jeremiah Ro, Meredith P., Carsten Lorenzten, Karendotcom127, Wonder Bus Tours Dubai, Smart Travelers

The post 10 of the Strangest Restaurants From Around The World appeared first on EcoSalon.

Camper-vanning: the best way to see New Zealand’s huge landscapes at your own pace.

Slow travel is a growing phenomenon/mindset, along with slow food and slow fashion, the idea being to take your time, enjoy the journey, spend more time visiting fewer places: the opposite of 20-cities-in-10-days.

In a country like New Zealand, you need time to absorb the mind-blowing landscapes around you: “dramatic” isn’t even the word. Go tramping (New Zealand speak for hiking) in these phenomenal outdoors to spot the cinematic locations used for the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Piano. And what better way to appreciate these wide open spaces, where you can easily avoid seeing other humans for days, than by hiring a camper van and  around at your own pace, stopping when you want, sleeping at campsites in the most beautiful spots imaginable?

Not to mention waking up to views like these – all are locations of campsites with motorhome access run by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation. You’ll forget what cities even look like.

Maitai Bay, Karikari Peninsula (North Island)

Tapotupotu, Kaitaia (North Island)

Lake Tarawara, Rotorua  (North Island)

Otamure Bay, Whananaki (North Island)

Waikaremoana Lake, Te Urewera National Park  (North Island)

Te Iringa, Kainmanewa Forest Park (North Island)

Nelson Lakes (South Island)

White Horse Hill, Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park (South Island)

Lake Gunn, Fiordland, (South Island)

Ahuriri Valley, Canterbury (South Island)

Photos: Darren W, fourcorners.co.nz, New Zealand Department of Conservation, Oliver Ross, rankers, honeheke, snailtrail

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

The post Places & Spaces: New Zealand At a Snail’s Pace appeared first on EcoSalon.

Sustainable adventure seeking in New Zealand.

As inspiring a retreat as Release is, perhaps more rousing is the story of how it came to be. Two friends, travelers both of them, were searching the globe for “a life less ordinary” when they came upon Wanaka in New Zealand, an ideal locale for creating a contemporary and sustainable luxury getaway. The friends were of the whale shark diving in Honduras, running with marauding orangutans in Sumatra and backcountry skiing in Colorado ilk. As such, and in true Kiwi fashion, Release caters especially to the adventure-seeking traveler.

Release was designed with privacy and seclusion in mind, although, here the stunning views trump all. The main building sits at the rear of the property playing second fiddle to the beautiful symphony that is Lake Wanaka and the mountains of the Mt. Aspiring National Park.

Every room has a view and the entire retreat also serves as an art gallery featuring interior and exterior work from some of New Zealand’s finest contemporary artists. The furniture and accoutrements are also exclusively from New Zealand companies.

“The vision was to create a sustainable retreat, to last a lifetime,” the founders explain. As such, the retreat features passive solar design reducing the need for heating, energy efficient appliances, storm water catchment, grey water irrigation systems, wool insulation and native gardens.

The owners of Release are also involved with a local tree regeneration program.

Amenities include 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, heated outside spa and home automation (meaning you set the lighting and music scene, be it for dining or ambience).

Ah yes, adventure. Wanaka is located near the Southern Alps and offers boundless opportunities for heli-skiing, motorcycle touring, fly-fishing, water skiing, and more. When you’re done, indulge in hiring the personal chef or wine maker for the night, just because.

Rates range from NZ$1250.00 to $1500.00 per night for up to 6 guests

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

The post Places & Spaces: The Release Retreat appeared first on EcoSalon.

The privacy watchdogs have been barking hard this season. In case you’ve been off-the-grid, here’s the controversy from the world of social media that preceded one perhaps even larger about DNA research…

This week, Facebook automatically gave its users’ personal information to sites like Yelp and Pandora. Now, you and your FB friends can see each others’ bitchiest restaurant reviews, and worst, one-hit-wonder indulgences whether or not you ever intended to reveal these to one another.

Last month, Google raised privacy concerns when it automatically revealed its email users’ closest contacts to the Gmail public, through the launch of its Google Buzz product. Google Buzz was supposed to have taken over Digg, Twitter, and everything else social media by now but hasn’t, quite partly due to public backlash.

Now, imagine it’s not your social map, preferred menu or your pop cultural sensibilities being scrutinized and seen by the public. This time, it’s your actual hereditary material! We’re talking public, deoxyribonucleic acid blues.

One Native American tribe, the Havasupai, sued and won their legal battle against researchers from the University of Arizona who were using their DNA to run tests for things the tribe never authorized.

According to several legal news sites, the Havasupai initially donated DNA samples agreeing to a project that was supposed to focus on their tribe’s high incidence of diabetes. But the samples kept getting tested. Other matters, besides diabetes vulnerability, became a question subject to the scientists’ inquiries including the tribe’s supposed geographical origins, and their collective mental health.

The environmental implications regarding how a specimen gets used are as staggering as the ethical and legal ones.

Fishing rigs in Japan, for example, may state and are authorized to fish for whales in order to study whale population changes and marine health, or to hunt whales within a quota. But they sometimes sell the whales they “accidentally” catch, or catch for “scientific study,” as whale meat on the black market.

Should they be allowed to re-sell the grand creatures they kill for food if the intent was scientific study? Isn’t it wasting them, not to eat them if they’ve already been hunted?

Or does a scientific and accidental allowance create a black market and culinary demand, as well as disrespect for endangered species?

Finally, if you gave your DNA up for one study, why not the other?

Use the links and resources below to get informed, and talk to us about how much intent matters when it comes to science and knowledge gains for the greater public. Comment below or holler on Twitter @ecosalon.

Basic Reading:

– “The geneticist responsible for the research has said that she had obtained permission for wider-ranging genetic studies. Acknowledging a desire to ‘remedy…wrong that was done,” the university’s Board of Regents agreed to pay $700,000 to 41 of the tribe’s members, return the blood samples and provide other forms of assistance to the [tribe]. Legal experts said [the settlement] was significant because it implied that the rights of research subjects can be violated when they are not fully informed about how their DNA might be used.” – Indian Tribe Wins Fight to Limit Research of Its DNA, a New York Times news feature

– A Discover magazine blog post asking what will happen to DNA samples that were gathered before the idea of consent was formalized in regards to DNA research, now that this case was won.

– “The vast majority of the world’s countries are against the killing of endangered animals in but Japan issues itself a “scientific whaling” permit using a loophole in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) bylaws to continue commercial whaling. Every year since the moratorium they escalate the “takes” or kills in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary to include more and more protected and endangered animals.” – A HuffingtonPost blog entry by Louie Psihoyos

Further Resources:

A privacy-focused blog that takes a strong side with the Havasupai tribe

Researchers’ perspectives on the matter of consent and DNA samples, via Swiss DNA Bank

Clashes between environmentalists and the whaling industry continue in New Zealand, a news feature at the New Zealand Herald

Image: micahb37

This is the latest installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and trends by EcoSalon writer and columnist Lora Kolodny.

The post EcoMeme: Is Your DNA a Public Concern? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Wine bottles littering the classroom floor: not an image most parents and teachers would want to hear about, but at a little school in New Zealand not only are they encouraging it, they are also supplying the wine bottles.

But not to worry. The wine bottles are empty and will be put to good use as part of the Hukanui Primary School eco-classroom The Living Room project. It’s the first student-designed and managed classroom project of its kind in New Zealand.

The empty wine bottles are going to be used as an insulating layer under part of the classroom’s concrete floor. But before they are placed between layers of sand and covered with concrete, the wine bottles are going to be turned into time capsules. Past and present students have been decorating and filing many of the 1,500 bottles with messages not only about what life is like at Hukanui School circa 2009 but also with environmental tips for people in the future.

This is just one of the many steps that the students of Hukanui Primary School have been working on since 2004. Find out more about their  eco-classroom project by checking out their website and watching this video they put together to highlight their achievements so far.

Image: Kris

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Got the winter blues?  Feeling a little cold?  Need some sunshine in your life?

Perhaps you need to take a virtual trip to New Zealand. Cause it’s summertime in New Zealand and the living is easy, especially when you have a copy of the latest edition of Organic Explorer New Zealand. Printed on sustainably sourced paper using vegetable inks, it’s the ultimate guidebook for anyone who wants to travel green in New Zealand. Full of information about eco-friendly places to eat, stay and explore, Organic Explorer New Zealand has opened up a whole new world of places for me to visit next time I’m traveling around. It’s even highlighted a few places I never knew about in my own backyard.

Written by Leonie Johnson (who used to be with NZ Organic magazine) and Tony Ward, this beautifully illustrated guidebook takes you on a journey from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island, detailing over 500 places to eat, sleep and play the organic way. New Zealand’s clean, green image has always been a drawing card for travelers. But now, thanks to Leonie and Tony, discovering what’s truly green about New Zealand has just become a whole lot easier.

Order a copy of the latest edition now and if you’re intrigued. I’d offer you mine, but it’s already a looking a little frayed from overuse.

(Or, just click onto their website instead. It’s a comprehensive searchable database providing all the information in the book and more. But be careful, you might just find yourself itching to hop on the next plane to New Zealand.)

The post Travel Green in NZ appeared first on EcoSalon.