Mar 30
2009

Restaurants during Earth Hour

Restaurants during Earth Hour

On Saturday evening I made my way to Poelaert, by the Palais du Justice in Brussels. I waited until 8:30 pm and watched as the lights of Grand Place in the near distance and the Atomium on the horizon, were extinguished for Earth Hour. I was in a position to see many houses and blocks of flats switch off their lights and use candle power for an hour.

I then walked over to Grand Place. The area of Brussels I passed through has numerous Art Shops, bars and restaurants. All were open for business as usual and appeared to have made no effort to turn the lights off for Earth Hour. Upon arrival at Grand Place, the lack of lighting was instantly apparent. Once my eyes had become accustomed to the low light, the Hotel de Ville with its tall fine spire stood out against a dark navy blue sky across which dramatic clouds passed slowly. It looked more imposing than if it had been floodlit. Of course there were two or three bars and restaurants open in Grand Place, all using electric lights. It seems that when it comes to preventing catastrophic Climate Change businesses just don’t get it.

Last week, I had looked for bars and restaurants that were celebrating Earth Hour with a function, but to no avail. While Earth Hour was taking place, I walked in vain trying to find a candle lit bar or restaurant to have a drink, but instead passed establishments lit up like Christmas. What a shame, that a restaurant or bar couldn’t join in the vote for a safer future and provide a wonderful ambience for an hour at the same time.

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Mar 29
2009

Dogs, cats, perhaps even pet snakes , bring companionship and joy the their owner’s lives. Unfortunately, there have always been some who love their pets more than human beings. There are others who literally kill their pets with kindness by overfeeding them. Pets are ultimately a prisoner or slave to their owner. They are not free to roam, hunt or mate as they would choose.

It came as a surprise to learn on Twitter, that there is now a Pets only airline. Like many others I thought it was April 1st come early. I did some further research and found even bigger excesses. Hotels where dogs sleep in pyjamas in four poster beds. Where they have their own swimming pool and gym and where the hotel chef prepares meals for them. If you don’t believe me just put “dog luxury hotel” into a search engine.

Travel can open the mind and lets us see the world and its inhabitants in a fresh light and allows us to see the beauty of the planet we inhabit. Personally, I don’t see how pets can benefit from travel in this way. Of course they will enjoy playing on the beach and in the sea and  they are unlikely to miss their owners if they are together. I have no problem with pet friendly hotels, even the budget chains in France allow pets. What I can’t come to terms with is pets wearing pyjamas and sleeping in four poster beds in rooms equipped with TV’s.

One commentary I read on the reason for the Credit Crunch was that spending had gone out of control. They quoted the array of Christmas gifts, costumes and even Christmas stockings for pets on sale as a sign that we had become addicted to spending for the sake of spending, even if it meant borrowing to fuel the addiction. It was reinforced by a visit before Christmas to a store in Cardiff where I saw the goods pictured below. All unnecessary and most likely not appreciated by the pets.

Pet holiday

There is a big difference between pet friendly hotels and pet only airlines monogrammed pyjama wearing pets sleeping in four poster beds. A line must be drawn between ‘pet friendly’ and wasteful extravagance. Where would you draw it?

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Mar 28
2009

Saturday is the last day of World Water Week 2009. I have ran out of water saving tips for travellers for now, but look to the future for even more water saving schemes by accommodation providers.  Here in Belgium, we have a toilet that is even more efficient than dual flush. I’m not exactly sure how it works internally, but all you have to do to activate it is depress the flush button. If you don’t touch it again it will empty the cistern. However depress it again before the cistern has emptied the flushing action is  immediately stopped. The user can then judge how much water is required at each flush. The cistern also has a house brick in it to limit the amount of water used in a full flush. This system is backed up with grey water saved from showering or bathing. When having a shower the first few minutes of water tend to be cold. Instead of letting this water go down the drain, it is caught in a bucket and used for watering our plants. Soapy grew water is transferred to the bucket and used to flush the toilet. It would be good to have a plumbed in system to use this grey water, perhaps supplemented by water caught on the roof. Hotels, apartments, villas and chalets can easily adopt water saving measures such as these. I urge them to do so now, as even in areas with no water shortages, it still consumes significant amounts of energy to pump water around. Other steps could be a return to earth composting toilets and dry urinals. These are a little more of a cultural change but will gain acceptance.

Water is a big political issue as I among many others, feel that access to safe water is a basic human right. Privatised companies can only charge for purifying and transporting clean water as well as removing waste water and treating it. I am not against Private Water Companies, but they should only be a contracted out service of governments and councils and must be answerable to them and the electorate. There should always be an ample supply of free safe drinking water to those that cannot afford to pay, even if it is from standpipes.

As I wrote in my first post, safe drinking water and effective sanitation is something that is not  universally available. One in eight people do not have safe water to drink and over 40% of the world’s population live without adequate sanitation. Non Governmental Organisations such as WaterAid do a great deal to provide solutions to the crisis and get actively involved in affecting political change. I have supported WaterAid in the past and am doing so this week by giving a charitable donation at www.wateraid.org. Of course there are other water charities including Just a Drop and Charity:Water.

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Mar 26
2009

Its Thursday on World Water Week so here are tips seven and eight,

Tip 7
Be careful with what you purchase while on holiday/vacation. For example take your own reusable water bottle and order tap water in restaurants. You will save energy, resources and even water over buying bottled water. You can also make a donation to the Back2Tap Campaign to help the developing world build new water and sanitation infrastructures. Buying products such as out of season fruit and vegetables that have been grown in water stressed parts of the world will probably cause some suffering in another part of the world. Avoid excess packaging as its resource hungry in its manufacture and can pollute water courses after you dispose of it if it is not dealt with properly.

Tip 8
Swimming pools are popular attractions at tourist resorts, hotels and apartments. They can also consume large amounts of drinking quality water. If it is a warm climate then swimming in the sea is probably a better option. Its one of my favourites if the water is warm enough and the sea is not full of jelly fish. If you are going to use a swimming pool, then how about trying a salt water pool. Like the sea they are easier to swim in as salt water is denser and gives better flotation.

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Mar 25
2009

Wednesday of World Water Week so time for two more water saving tips for travellers.

Tip 5

Report any leaks to your accommodation provider immediately. It could be a leaking tap or a toilet cistern constantly dripping water, but the water wastage over time is significant.

Tip 6

Do not support golf courses, theme parks  or ski resorts that consume excessive amounts of water. You as a consumer have the final say as to whether or not a business thrives or fails. Golf courses are often an oasis in a desert. This is because they consume vast amounts of water keeping their greens and fairways irrigated. Often this is at the expense of local agriculture and inhabitants. Golf courses  regions with a water scarcity should be looking at using strains of grass that do not require much water. Sure they may not look as attractive or be as soft to walk on, but they can be sustainable, whereas some of the oasis type golf courses certainly are not sustainable. The same applies to landscaped gardens in attractions such as Theme Parks. Finally ski resorts now increasing use snow cannons to supplement natural snowfalls with artificially made snow. An additive is used to stop the snow from melting as easily. This all ends up in the mountain environment. The process also consumes vast amounts ‘of water potentially straining local water supplies. Mountain-riders.org produce a booklet that compares the eco performance of many of the world’s ski resorts.  Check whether your resort relies heavily on snow cannons.

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Mar 24
2009

Its Tuesday of World Water Week 2009. Here are two more water saving tips for travellers.

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Hallgerd - Fotolia.com

Tip 3

Do not leave the tap running while brushing your teeth. All you need is to wet the toothbrush.

Tip 4

In a similar vein. If you are staying in self catering accommodation, and are doing washing up, then use the dishwasher if it is provided. Dishwashers consume resources in the form of energy, raw materials, including water when manufactured.

If they are there use them.

They use less water than hand washing.

If washing up by hand then fill the sink. Do not use running water to wash your pans and dishes.

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Mar 23
2009

This week is World Water Week a cause very close to my heart as WaterAid is my favourite charity. It is a sad fact that 884 million people in developing countries have no access to clean water. Many walk miles for a container of dirty unsafe water each day. Every 17 seconds a child dies of a water borne disease. While about 70% of the Earth is covered by water only 3% is in the form of fresh water and the majority of this is in the polar ice caps. WaterAid works on projects to bring safe water and sanitation to communities. it along with other organisations is making slow headway as there was closer to 1 billion people without safe water 10 years ago.

<a href=There is a long way to but as populations increase there can be no corresponding increase in fresh water on this small planet.

Tourism can also put strains on water supplies. It is a fact for example that the average water consumption by a French person is 140 litres of water per person per day while at home. When travelling this rockets to 300 litres per person per day! A typical occupied hotel room in the USA consumes 825 litres of water per day! A modern toilet flush will only produce 4.6 litres of water, so that’s an awful lot of flushes.  These rates of consumption put tremendous strains on water supplies in some parts of the world. So how can we be more frugal with our use of water while travelling (or at home for that matter)?

Tip 1

Do some research before your travel. Will you be staying in accommodation that has considered sustainability. Do they have measures in place for conserving drinking water such as dual flush toilets, aerated shower heads and tap faucets, do they make use of rainwater or grey water? You might also want to consider energy reduction measures and waste minimisation measures adopted as well.

Tip 2

Obvious really but short showers consume less water than long deep baths.

Finally as it is World Water Week consider supporting a water charity such as WaterAid.

Information - WaterAid, Mountain Riders and Fairmont Hotels

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Mar 20
2009

World Water Day is on Sunday 22 March and World Water Week is the following six days. WaterAid, one of my favourite charities, has conducted a survey and found  that most visitors to restaurants would prefer tap water. Expensive ‘lifestyle’ water is often pushed by restaurants,  making diners uneasy about ordering tap water. WaterAid has just launched their ‘Tap into WaterAid’ campaign, where they have got a number of restaurants to donate some money when they order tap water. I think this is an excellent idea, as it not only reduces the strain on limited resources but saves the consumer and also funds WaterAid. Even in the 21st Century 884 million people in the developing world are without any clean water, something that WaterAid and similar NGO’s are trying to tackle.

Buying these ‘lifestyle’ bottled waters that have been heavily promoted by advertising and peer pressure over the years is very costly to the environment. The video in this post is by Back2Tap  and has a fun quiz about plastic bottle / bottled water. It shows exactly what drinking bottled water means in environmental terms and even the difference in financial cost.  It suggests that we purchase stainless steel water bottles for use when outside the home.

TNS surveyed 2,018 people aged 16-64 between 10 to 16 March 2009 using an online survey.

WaterAid’s survey revealed that:

  • 38% of respondents always ask for tap water in a restaurant
  • 25% of respondents prefer to ask for tap water, but sometimes feel pressure to order bottled water in a restaurant.
  • 37% of respondents always ask for bottled water in a restaurant

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Mar 19
2009

I went out this afternoon to make an instructional video on using the Brussels Metro system. Unfortunately I forgot my STIB ticket so had to go and film something else. I decided to look at the Cyclocity bicycle hire scheme that I covered in an earlier post. I was shocked to find that the bicycles, docking stations and pay stations had been removed. All that was left were the Maps of the scheme.

A search of the internet reveals that they are to be replaced by a bigger scheme called “Villo!” that will kick off in May this year. Cyclocity only covered the Brussels Pentagone ( the area within the inner ring road, named due to its shape). The new scheme will cover much more of the city.

When I remember my STIB ticket and the new scheme is in place, I will attempt to remake the film. That is of course if I remember the video camera!

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Mar 18
2009

Place Flagey, here in Brussels has had an extensive makeover. The square was repaved and a new covered tram stop erected. It was reopened in July 2008.

Now there is a good market held here every Saturday and Sunday morning. There is a choice of stalls offering locally produced organic produce, so it is a good option for me to source some in season organic vegetables, organic cheeses and some bread. I made a video of the shopping experience as an experiment. Hopefully future videos will be better produced.

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