Air pollution is Hong Kong’s most serious public health crisis, killing over 1,100 people every year. After years of worsening levels of air pollution, the Hong Kong Government is consulting on whether and how to revise air quality standards for the first time in 20 years. Independent NGO, Clean Air Network aims to encourage the public to speak out about the health impacts of air pollution. It is currently collecting signatures to urge the Government to improve air quality until pollution is no longer a significant health threat, by:

It takes just a couple of minutes to sign CAN’s petition to urge the Government to improve air quality until pollution is no longer a significant threat to our health. Clean air is critical to our well being. Check out the video and be convinced.

With only 45 days left before the consultation period, your signature really counts. Sign yourself on, and tell all your friends to do the same. We cannot afford to let this opportunity slip by!

Once a Celtic celebration of the harvest and a new season, Halloween is now a little less spiritual and a lot more commercial… Total up candy sales, costume shopping, and decorations, and it’s an industry worth almost US$6 billion a year in the US alone. With that kind of consumption comes a hefty carbon footprint (and some potential health hazards!) that lasts long after you’ve seen the last of those fun-size Snickers bars. Greening Halloween is easy and simple! We’ve compiled a list of 10 ways you can enjoy a greener Halloween this year and every year to come. Click here to read the 10 Ways to Green Halloween in the Green Guides.

Under the Kyoto climate treaty, the big industrialized nations that put the vast majority of global-warming gases into the atmosphere were supposed to spearhead the transition to a low-carbon economy, partly by introducing more renewable sources of energy. Instead, some of the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change could be the ones to lead by example. President Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives recently announced that the small archipelago nation will be taxing tourists a daily charge of US$3 to help fund renewable energy projects. The plan is to make the Maldives the first carbon-neutral nation in the world.

These are some basic questions actress Cameron Diaz asks in her five minute low-budget documentary video as she travels across the US interviewing locals in her quest to find out “our relationship to the planet”.
Based on the belief that “if we knew where our natural resources came from then we could be better stewards of our future”, the documentary raises awareness to the fact that no matter where we are in the world, we should all be asking ourselves these and many more questions about the environment where we live.
In every city across the globe, people live an unsustainable lifestyle. Perhaps if we were more curious about our environment, if we asked more questions, we could see an opportunity arise from the predicament. Stand up for what YOU think. All it takes is one voice to start a movement. Click above to view Cameron Diaz’s awareness raising documentary and be inspired!

Of course, the most earth-friendly decision you can make is to stick with your old CRT until it bites the dust, but when it’s time for a new one, is there a truly greener flat-screen TV? Both plasma and LCD TVs use more energy than older CRTs and both are made with nitrogen trifluoride, a chemical that lingers in the air for up to 550 years and one some climate scientists say has a bigger impact on global warming than the world’s largest coal-fired power plants.

Health: All TVs have plastic shells treated with brominated flame retardants, which attach to dust and get inhaled or ingested, have been found to trigger learning problems in children and to interfere with certain hormones. The other toxic materials, such as heavy metals cadmium, chromium, antimony and beryllium that is found in the wiring are well enclosed and should pose little risk to users, but they could be released into the air or waterways during manufacture or disposal.

Disposal: Although in most major cities, electronic waste is now widely collected for recycling, little attention is paid to where all these recycled electronics are sent. Of those TVs that are recycled, many wind up in China, India or Africa to be taken apart by poor families, including children, who are exposed to all the hazardous substances in TVs. According to U.S. News & World Report, nearly 80 percent of children in some major e-waste hubs suffer from lead poisoning.

Winner: It all comes down to screen size. On a per-square-inch basis, plasma energy consumption is just barely higher than an LCD’s. But LCDs come in smaller sizes, and those small screens use less energy (both in production and in your home) and contain fewer hazardous chemicals than larger plasma screens.