Recycling recipes

Do you throw a lot of things away? Yes?
Then you are not using your imagination!
Change your way of seeing ordinary things around you and you'll become a planet-saver. Look again at food packaging, drinks cans or plastic bags, for example, and you'll soon see ways to recycle them in your own home.

* CANDLES IN CANS

Don't throw that can away!

Make a candle holder with it.

1. Cut the top off an aluminium drinks can.

BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO CUT

YOUR HAND!

2. With a knife, make 20 diagonal cuts round the side of the can, 1.2cm from the top and 1.2cm from the bottom.

AGAIN, BE CAREFUL!

3. Press down on the cap from the top, gently. The cuts in the side of the can will open.

4. Paint the can in bright colours. Put a candle in it.

And finally, enjoy it!

Animals save the planet

Tree Loss

Trees are as important to human beings as food and water are.
To keep city air cool and healthy, trees should cover at least 40% of city land. One tree can clean toxic emissions from the dirty air exhausted from an average car being driven 4,000 miles. Trees produce most of the oxygen on Earth. Trees keep our air breathable by removing carbon dioxide and pollutants. They add moisture through transpiration.
Trees reduce costs of using our resources. For example, shade trees save money and energy. The trees lining city streets can save up to 50% on air-conditioning bills during the summer. In cold places, trees provide windbreaks that can reduce heating bills by as much as 30% in the winter.Trees conserve other resources. Forests hold soil in place. They keep rainwater from running off the land so that it soaks through to the aquifer. Trees keep the water from running off the land too quickly and help control floods. Trees take care of our soil and water.Trees provide shelter, food, recreation, beauty, and homes for birds, insects, and other animals and, we must always remember, chocolate. (The cocoa tree, the source of chocolate, is now on the endangered species list!)As important as trees are, we are destroying them much faster than they can grow without our help. Imagine how many trees are used all over the world. People cut down trees to make room for new farms, housing developments, highways and cities. Trees are used to make newspapers, computer paper, furniture, houses and many other products.Whenever large parts of a forest are cut down, animals lose their homes and everything about the place where the trees grew changes.

DAILY NEWS

Frogs Combat Deadly Fever?
July 7, 2009—An Argentine official is suggesting people adopt mosquito-munching frogs—not chemicals—as a solution to an outbreak of the disease dengue fever, which is spread by the insects.In Argentina, the small city of San Luis is adopting the frog as its provincial hero. Frogs are being touted by some as the antidote to a dengue fever outbreak thats gripped Argentina. There have been over 20,000 cases recorded this year, including at least 5 deaths. Local Councillor Daniel Sosa says one frog can eat about 15,000 insects, including mosquitoes, in a single season. Mostquitoes are the carriers of the disease. He wants people to adopt a frog and forget the widely used chemical controls. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Daniel Sosa, Councillor, San Luis, Argentina "What we want is a biological control so the aero-toxins do not kill us. In the end we will not be killed by the dengue but we will actually be killed by the aero-toxins, we will be killed by the aerosols, by the pesticides. So we have to begin to look for biological mechanisms and the frog is one of them." Sosa is giving them away, encouraging locals to put them in their gardens. While not everyone has been jumping at the prospect of taking one home, local residents have been receiving them with amused curiosity.
Maria Ferro, Local Resident, San Luis, Argentina "The truth is that I do not want to take one to my house, I am impressed but well if it is a way to prevent it, well what else can I do?."Luciana Compte, Local Resident, San Luis, Argentina "Everything serves and its cost is zero. Because the repellents are really expensive and not everyone has the money to buy them."According to a local newspaper a farmer in a nearby village had the original idea. He was convinced the repopulation of the amphibians in the heavily forested area would provide a clean answer to the long legged mosquito. Miguel Angel says that in contrast to the toxic methods widely used to combat the mosquito, a frog is a friend to the health of people.Miguel Angel, Local Farmer, San Luis, Argentina "A frog is a form of defense, that's the first thing and secondly in my opinion if I may say... all this chemical stuff and all that is a waste of space, because you know why, because when the insect gets the scent it goes away from where is the defense and the mosquito is no more there. Only when he is a top or he is really caught with the spray, but other than that it doesn't provide anything...he is gone and keeps going...you get me. Another thing I believe, is all this chemical combination does nothing good for the health of the people as it contaminates the air."Despite the region having large numbers of frogs in the past, today there are very few as a consequence of changes in their natural habitat and years of fumigation. A newer strain of the disease appears resistant to the chemical controls, and the amphibian population continues to decline. Some say that increased air travel, as well as Argentinas recent agricultural expansions have played a role in the epidemic. Land clearing for food production has disrupted large parts of the country's ecological balance. Despite the enthusiasm for biological controls, there are some words of caution.Ana Brigada, Biologist, Universidad Nacional de San Luis "In accordance with the autonomous population here it must not be misunderstood that we do not try to introduce species that are not natural to our region, because we have to take care with a representative number in each region, and we have to study them previously because it just might be that they occupy the nests of the native species and with that we would produce a real ecological crisis." Whether frog heroes, or pawns in a misguided plan, the amphibian residents of San Luis have been truly thrown into the spotlight.

WHAT`S GOING ON WITH OUR AIR?

Air Pollution
Air pollution makes it hard for us to breathe. It is probably causing the earth to become warmer, which will change our climate. It even pollutes the water.
Global Warming
In November 1997, leaders in politics and science met in Kyoto, Japan, at the United Nations Conference on Global Warming. These world leaders met because they are concerned about the way polluted air is changing our climate.To pollute means to make unfit for living things, especially by adding waste matter such as car emissions to the air or chemicals to the water.The emissions being put into our air from cars and other sources like electrical and manufacturing plants can combine to create a layer of bad air. As more and more emissions enter the air, the layers close to the earth may get very thick so that we cannot see ahead of us or breath well. We call these thick layers smog.At the same time, the emissions rise into our atmosphere and move all around the world, creating layers of "dirt" high up in our atmosphere. These layers create what is called a thermal blanket. This blanket keeps our earth warm (just like blankets keep us warm in a cold winter). That might seem like a good thing, but our earth has a natural process for keeping warm. The thermal blanket created by emissions is not natural. This blanket may make the earth too warm. If the earth is too warm, plants and animals may die. It can also change the places and times that rain falls, the amount of rain that falls, and all of our other weather patterns. Over time, if the earth's temperature rises even one or two degrees, trees, plants and animals (including us) will have to change the way they live and grow. The temperature will be too high and the rain patterns change. The rise in temperature is called global warming.
Acid Rain
Air pollution also causes acid rain. Rainwater picks up particles and gases when it falls through the air. If the air is polluted, the rainwater becomes polluted, too. Polluted rain is called acid rain.Some acids are helpful. We have acid in our stomachs to break down and digest food. We use vinegar, an acid, to pickle cucumbers. Acids like these are help us. But, acids can also be harmful. If there is too much acid in garden soil, plants will not grow. Some acids will burn your skin.Acid rain is harmful rain. When it falls on living things--plants, animals and people--it can harm or kill them. Leaves burned by acid rain cannot make oxygen or collect carbon dioxide needed for photosynthesis.

Natural cycles

When things happen over and over again, we call it a cycle. For example, we need food, air and water to live. The ways we get food, air and water are part of our life cycle.All living things depend on each other. Animals need oxygen. They breathe in oxygen. They breathe out carbon dioxide as a waste product. Plants need carbon dioxide to perform photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the way plants make their food, which is called carbohydrates. Plants use sunlight for energy and make carbohydrates out of carbon dioxide and water. Oxygen, which animals need to live, is a waste product of photosynthesis, along with tiny drops of water. We call this transpiration. So, animals depend on plants for oxygen, and plants depend on animals for carbon dioxide. Animals and plants both have to have water. This exchange is a natural cycle.When natural cycles are changed, the plants and animals have to change, too. Making a change like this is called adapting.Sometimes a change in a natural cycle is so big that the animals and plants don't have the time to change. Or, they cannot make the changes they need to make. That's often what happens when our environment becomes polluted. The plants and animals are unable to make changes and either die or driven off before they can change.Our earth's five greatest environmental problems are causing changes that make it hard for animals and plants to adapt: air pollution, acid rain, water pollution, waste disposal and the loss of trees.Scientists and international leaders agree that the year 2012 is a very important year for the environment. We have to begin cleaning up the earth now. If we don't, by the year 2012 it may be too late. Our earth may never be clean and healthy again.