The natural garden (also called ecological garden) is the result of a particular style of gardening based on the use of native flora, the recovery of natural vegetation, and compliance, where possible, to all components of the ecosystem well done.

The natural garden consists mainly of 3 types of vegetation: the forest, the hedge, the grass and a Solar Fountain

The natural garden is related to the garden low maintenance, which it shares with the efficient exploitation of natural dynamics, thus diminishing the cultural action, if it differs for the use of native flora and to improve compliance with forms of animal life .

The idea of the natural garden is based on the one hand the growing feeling that the natural environment is now a rare and seriously threatened, the other on a deeper awareness of the most negative of human actions - any action, including those which are the “cure” of the garden - on balances of great complexity, only partially known.

What is not natural in the garden

Garden in general

• The conversion of any natural garden area is analyzed and compliance with the existing vegetation as possible
• Do not remove the existing artefacts, whether covered by vegetation or useful as ecological niche of small animals
• Do not use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides of any kind
• Do not run any fight against the “parasites”, seen as important elements of natural food chains
• Do not place beds
• It is not intended to massive poaching (but there are routes to natural or semi-paved)

The Hedge

• Do not rake up the leaves and you do not remove dead branches fallen (create humus)
• There is no crop or the trees or bushes
• There is no sickles herbaceous vegetation
• Do not remove the trees are dying except when real danger
• It is not sticky fires under trees
• Do not you do any pruning
• Do not create a hedge with a single species, but several alternate species and evergreen evergreen
• When chipping, do not remove the cut branches, but in part it leaves a protective strains, in part, are crowded into a corner, because it slowly turns into humus, and in the meantime is a shelter for many small animals .

The Grass

• Do not compost the lawn with the greatest biodiversity requires a soil poor in nutrients
• Do not water the lawn with the greatest biodiversity requires alternating periods of wet and dry
• Do not seed a lawn of grass alone: it encourages the establishment of as many species of flowering
• Do not cut the grass frequently, and not using lawnmowers to cut the crushed on the ground (the grass should be cut removed as completely as possible to reduce the fertility of the soil)
• Do not implant trees around the place of the trees is the forest

A new hybrid inorganic/organic material could usher in solar cells that absorb all solar wavelengths.

The new polymer could also enable much more efficient charge separation since electrons dislodged by light in the material remain free much longer than in conventional solar cells used in solar powered battery chargers.

The inorganic/organic hybrid polymer material can be made into polymer blends that can “absorb essentially across the entire solar spectrum–they go from about 300 nanometers down to about 10,000 nanometers,” said professor Malcolm Chisholm of Ohio State University.

Solar materials work by using incident light to boost the energy of electrons, thereby separating then from the hull of atoms in the material. They can then be harvested to generate electricity.

However, separated electrons fall back into their host atoms if not collected quickly. Usually, solar materials either fluoresce (called singlet emisson) or phosphoresce (triplet emission). The new hybrid material does both, further increasing potential efficiency.

“The materials we have made show both singlet and triplet emissions,” said Chisholm. “The singlet state lasts a relatively long time, in the region of about 10 pico seconds; the triplet lasts a lot longer–up to a 100 or so microseconds, which should be good for separating the electrons and the hull.”

Enough with the attacks on the Mediterranean diet: return to healthy food ‘made in Italy “. It’s the appeal that Roberto Ferrari, the first Italian head of the European Society of Cardiology, launched by Monaco of Bavaria at the opening of Congress annually.

This diet, known worldwide for its positive effects on health and its preventive effect, is increasingly left alone right in our country: six out of ten families have changed over the years their habits. In declining consumption of bread, fruit, vegetables and olive oil while increasing the consumption of fat and calories.

Cause of price increases? Perhaps, but not alone. This shows a recent survey of FAO in the last 45 years the Mediterranean diet was gradually abandoned precisely in places where originates. “A great pity - comments the professor Ferrari - because healthy eating is the most effective way to stay healthy.”

It’s the winning weapon of prevention ‘

In Italy it is estimated about 15 million hypertensive, 3 million to 4 million diabetics. A citizen on 5 presents cholesterol values too high. Just to improve the level of awareness of citizens on this issue is born in Italy the first observatory to the enhancement of the Mediterranean diet. “A permanent structure, with a home made available by the Region of Sicily, a partner in the project which will involve the most relevant disciplines,” continues Professor. Ferrari, which is of the Scientific Committee chairman.
In addition to cardiology, are also involved oncology and diabetes, but also the metabolic diseases and paediatrics. “Why this diet - insists Ferrari - is really the weapon winning for the prevention of diseases daughters so-called welfare.

The Centre, which will have a dedicated site (www.dietamediterraneaesalute.org), will be operational from mid-September.

THESE FOODS TO MAKE THE TABLE IN
The Mediterranean diet type is formed to 15% from protein, 60% from carbohydrates and 25% from fat.
There is no iron diet, but experts recommend using:

DAILY: whole cereals and tubers: bread and whole wheat pasta, rice, corn, etc.; pulses and green beans, peas, chickpeas etc.., And all types of fruit, pulp and shell, all the vegetables and vegetables; condiments: extra virgin olive oil, fresh herbs: basil, thyme, garlic, oregano etc..; whole milk or cow’s and goat cheese; wine.

THREE TIMES A WEEK: meat: predominantly white, and then poultry like chicken and turkey. Or rabbit, pork and veal; fish: Predominantly blue as anchovies, sardines, herring, aguglie, mackerel, spatulas, etc..; Eggs.

WITH LESS FREQUENCY: sweet, red meat.

From dispel the idea that pasta is a high-calorie food: are the condiments fats, which often are added in excessive quantities, to raise the caloric intake of pasta dish. In itself, however, this product, suited to form the backbone of a meal, provides about 350 calories per 100 grams, a perfectly reasonable if one considers that 80 grams of a good ration is only 280 calories.

As condiment is good rather avoid using excessive quantities of fat (butter, lard, margarine, etc..), Bacon, cheese, cream, instead giving preference to sauce and tomato in olive oil. There are few fried, remembering that olive oil was considered safer fat for frying.

Pacific Gas and Electric in California announced last week it will buy 800 megawatts of solar-generated electricity from two companies, enough to light 239,000 homes. Within three years, PG&E will buy its solar energy from OptiSolar and SunPower, which plan to build the world’s two largest solar farms in California as part of the deal.

It would nearly double the USA’s entire solar-panel capacity. Driving the trend are solar’s falling costs and state alternative-energy mandates.

Solar power has grown but still makes up well under 1% of U.S. power generation. More than 90% of solar panels have been installed on rooftops by maverick consumers and businesses. Utilities’ embrace of solar energy will help push it to about 10% of power generation by 2025, predicts Ron Pernick, principal of research firm Clean Edge.

“Just a handful of utilities doing something big changes the scale of the entire market,” says Julia Hamm of the Solar Electric Power Association.

Solar energy refers to the utilization of the radiant energy from the Sun. Solar power is used interchangeably with solar energy, but refers more specifically to the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either by photovoltaics and concentrating solar thermal devices, or by one of several experimental technologies such as thermoelectric converters, solar chimneys or solar ponds.

Interesting article I’ve found on the Guardian

Fly less

Taking a flight will dwarf all other elements of your holiday in terms of carbon emissions. Use sites such as carbonresponsible.com to calculate the footprint of a particular journey and see how long it would take you to make the equivalent carbon saving by cutting down on car journeys or using low-energy lightbulbs. Sites such as seat61.com and sailanddrive.com help you plan breaks by rail and ferry as alternatives to short-haul flights.

Find green accommodation

There are more than 20 ‘green’ accreditation schemes in the UK and more than 100 worldwide. Look out when choosing a holiday for members of the Green Tourism Business Scheme (green-business.co.uk); Legambiente in Italy (legambienteturismo.it); the Certificate in Sustainable Tourism in central America; and Australia’s Ecotourism Certification programme (ecotourism.org.au). The greener hotels in package holiday brochures should now display the ‘Travelife’ logo.

Find a green tour operator

The Association of Independent Tour Operators (aito.co.uk) has a rating scheme for members. If you decide to book directly and bypass tour operators, charity Tourism Concern (tourismconcern.co.uk) has 300 vetted community-run trips on its website.

The article continues here

Green tourism is a more popular form of tourism. general travel is going more green. But more expert say that the global warming is also caused by travel.

Citing green hotels, coconut oil fuel for airlines and even recyclable golf tees, executives in one of the world’s largest industries say they are urgently trying to shrink tourism’s oversized environmental footprint.

But with global travel projected to keep soaring, and those very leaders still eager to expand their own ventures, some doubt such efforts can significantly lessen global warming and other ecological woes.

“There are no simple solutions,” Anna Pollack, head of a British tourism consultancy, told a two-day conference which ended Wednesday. “Tourism is both a victim of and a contributor to climate change.”

Online you can read the a lot guides about how to reduce global warming. As you can see travel is only a little part of the main causes of global warming.

Below, I list of useful guides. You can use to reduce global warming.

Global warming refers to the Earth’s air and oceans gradually heating up to a point that disrupts balance, a problem that is continually getting worse. It sounds like a problem too massive for any one individual to take on, but it really isn’t. Combining any few of these suggestions can make more of a dramatic effect than most people understand. The goal is to emit less carbon dioxide into the atmospher

The part of Global warming caused by travel, is especially the ecotourism, practiced in remote destination. It’s so because it requires the use of air travel to land is those countries.

Some times ago an airline company used to travel with biofuel.

IN February, on a chilly, clear Sunday morning, Sir Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, along with the co-sponsors Boeing and GE Aviation, lured more than 200 journalists to a hangar at Heathrow Airport near London to witness what they said was airline history. Over flutes of Champagne and plates of mini-bagels filled with salmon, everyone’s eyes were fixed on a 747 as it took off on the world’s first biofuel demonstration flight.

Never mind that only one of the plane’s engines used biofuel, and that was about 25 percent mixed with standard kerosene jet fuel. It was still significant, given that air travel is the fastest-growing source of global greenhouse gases, and the race to find an alternative to kerosene is now crucial. The biofuel used — a combination of coconut and babassu (a Brazilian tree) oil, which Mr. Branson pretended to drink that day like an island cocktail from a coconut shell — worked in this very small test. But even its developers, Imperium Renewables, are aware it could never become a substitute for what John Plaza, president and chief executive of Imperium, another sponsor, says is the 87 billion gallons of fuel needed each year to fly the world’s airline fleet.

“This is just a first-generation product,” Mr. Plaza said. “But the test was meaningful in that it showed that a biofuel was viable with the infrastructure in a commercial jet.” Imperium created the fuel from oils harvested from existing plantations, but Mr. Plaza said he believed that algae was the fuel of the future. “You would only need the landmass of West Virginia,” he said, “to make enough fuel to replace aviation’s demand for kerosene.”

So I’m not scared about the future, because change is happened. I think that most airlines will become more green so traveling in foreign countries will be less environmental damaging.