Can we sponsor some charity work as a Forum
-
Hi Guys,
While driving yesterday evening I flicked to a radio
program about protection of the Rain Forrest. The guy
giving the interview was very level headed and a natural
speaker.He was promoting http://www.coolearth.org. The idea behind
GreenEarth is a simple one. We buy from a half acre
upwards and this land is pin pointed for us on Google
Earth ! The GreenEarth people use the money to buy up
tracks of land that would otherwise be used for tree
felling ! BTW £35 is the cost of a half acre but they
also take donations. I like the idea as it gets the sponsor
more involved via Google Earth, which brings a FUN
element to the project.During the interview, he was asked about how an owner
could visit their piece of land ! While he did not
total discourage this and advise that it would take on
average 30 hours travel he pointed out that this travel
would increase ones carbon footprint and probably badly
effect the actual forrest area also.I got to thinking about this ! While I agree with not
traveling there, there should be some way of personalising
the land as his is only human nature !Bingo ! A virtual Tree House, designed in SketchUp which
an owner could visit, furnish and have fun with also
show off to their friends AND get their friends in turn
to buy some land also ! People just have to 'Keep Up With
The Jones',
I have flown the idea (via email) to the GreenEarth people
and am awaiting their response ..... hope I get one !Anyway ! In the meantime I would like your thoughts on
this mad idea ..... it could be FUN !Mike
![Picture%2011[3].jpg](/uploads/imported_attachments/Qe19_Picture20113.jpg)
-
Like another of Second Life?! I think it is great! We should just exactly know which particular land ("screenshot" in SU) belongs to whom - just to avoid trespassing...
But seriously speaking; if we find the way, I'd take part!
-
@gaieus said:
Like another of Second Life?! I think it is great! We should just exactly know which particular land ("screenshot" in SU) belongs to whom - just to avoid trespassing...
But seriously speaking; if we find the way, I'd take part!
Yes Gai, it could be a like Second Life in a way but we would also
be doing something to combat Global Warming and at the same time having
a little fun !I'll see how the idea goes with the GreenEarth people and progress from
there.Thanks for your vote
-
Sure Mike, I got the idea - it is just also fun - thinking about it.
They (the Green Earth guys) could even "advertise" the whole thing with house models made in SU. -
since I don't believe in global warming... the whole thing irritates me somewhat... especially the guy saying don't travel to see something because it will elevate your carbon footprint... you should go and see as much as you can while you're here, life is short... if you want to help the planet... we should all go out and pick the trash up off a highway or our neighborhood... remember when someone says "man made" they're full of poo... man only reorganized things that were already here...
about a week after man kind has wiped itself from the planet... mothernature will start taking back every single spec of "man made" things... and after a time there will be no evidense we were ever even here...
I would suggest that people spend more time picking up after themselves and less time trying to pick up after mankind...
ok yeah I know I'm a wet blanket... sorry... it is a kool idea for the hippie in your heart...
-
Whilst I agree with Kris regards the global warming myth, I do accept climate change due to man skinning the earth alive by destroying the forests. The outcome is the changing weather patterns IMHO.
Where I live there was dense tropical rain forest where 70 men could hold hands around the buttress base of one cedar tree. They had to climb up the buttresses to get to the base of the truck. The seed of that tree probably germinated when Jesus was walking around.
They eventually destroyed the whole forest and turned it into dairy country. It would take centuries to replace should someone try.
Thailand, for example, used to be dense tropical forests yet it is now the world's largest rice exporter - check it out on Google, you can see where the forest used to exist.
There are now commercial carbon credit schemes where forests are planted and the credits sold to carbon emitting power companies. But the forests aren't forests - they are huge monocultures, they don't support any wildlife, are easily attacked by disease and eventually will be clear-felled for wood chips.
So I support any scheme that addresses the loss of wild forest full of wildlife.
cheers
john -
I fail to understand how anyone can doubt that Global Warming is being helped along by mankind's activities. There is very strong prove that this is the situation.
By all means we should tidy up after ourselves but at the same time I think we should also think globally especially in this age of instant communication.
The older I get the more I notice that we are becoming a wasteful species. A case in point, oil is being squandered on trivial packaging more and more. This is becoming one of my pet hates. Just try and purchase some small piece of computer hardware and you will probably find that the transaction involves spending 10 minutes with a knife trying to free the device from its plastic package. The same often applies to software CDs with boxes that are capable of holding 10 CDs !
I have got into the habit lately (when purchasing from local sales outlets) of taking the item being purchased out of its overdone package and leaving it at the
counter. I often get strange looks but the message gets across. If more and more customers did this the sales outlets would put pressure on the manufactures to dispense with the wasteful excessive packaging as they more and more have to cover the extra overhead involved in recycling the packaging !On the point of conserving the Rain Forests, I want to get involved in this as I believe there are as yet many undiscovered remedies / cures waiting for us in the canopy !
The old adage, 'Waste Not Want Not' still stands
Mike
-
@unknownuser said:
I fail to understand how anyone can doubt that Global Warming is being helped along by mankind's activities. There is very strong prove that this is the situation.
fair enough Mike - but if you look you will find there is just as much evidence to show that the warming is natural. We are coming out of a mini ice age when the Thames iced over and festivals were held on it. Dickens wrote about it. Prior to that period it was warmer than it is now and the Vikings established agriculture on Greenland and they grew grapes in London - hence all the Vine streets
Yes the glaciers are retreating in some areas, Switzerland for example, yet growing in other areas such as Sth America and New Zealand. The retreating glaciers in Switzerland are in fact revealing old silver mines which must have been created before the glacier covered them up.
BTW - since the global temperature peaked in 1998 it has remained either constant or dropped yet we haven't reduced our carbon output, in fact it's increased.
I'm not alone in my skepticism - there are many prominent scientists who are also skeptical.
-
well it's not that I doubt that we help it along, I have a body temp of 98.2 so I help it along, its whether or not mother nature is affected by it... I think not, the world has been much colder in the past, while humans lived and it has been much warmer... I think it's very egotistical to think we have that much input.... like I said years after we are gone mother nature will not even remember we were here...
if you have any clue about the rise of the industrial nation you will understand the need of countries especially poor ones to industrialize... and to start doing that they must break current convention on CFCs and the like... so why is it big corps are pushing global warming? mmmm I bet it's the same thing they are always interested in and that's the bottom dollar... no cheap labor competition... keep third world countries as third world countries... it's laughable to me that hippies think they are saving someone with global warming cries... they kill many more humans with lack of food and work that heat ever did....
anyway that's my rant for the night...
-
The discussion has gone slightly OT, please stick to the original topic or create a new thread.
-
@unknownuser said:
The discussion has gone slightly OT, please stick to the original topic or create a new thread.
Yes, you are right Juju
Well back to the topic ...... any ideas out there ?
-
@unknownuser said:
Interesting fun idea have u heard anything back from the GreenEarth people Mike?
No word back yet James. I imagine they must have got 1000s of
emails. I think I will phone them and get a person contact as
all I have is an info@......It looks like we could have a few willing SketchUpers to give it
a go .... maybe that should read SketchUcationer's -
Mike, as I said, I'd participate. Global warming or not - preserving those beautiful forests is important (we are letting forests "reoccupy" their old places here in Hungary)
And Kriss - we regularly go out and collect all the litter people leave everywhere - also to highlight this issue. The township provides the bags and trucks for transporting the collected things but the community does the job.
-
@unknownuser said:
(we are letting forests "reoccupy" their old places here in Hungary)
That's interesting Gai - just the other day I was following the Danube from the sea to it's source on google earth and I was amazed at the lack of forest in not only your country but the others as well.
cheers
john -
As I heard nothing back from CoolEarth I phoned the
London office this afternoon and had a chat with a
nice lady called Ann.I explained what I had in mind and she took my phone
number and email and advised that she would get
someone to contact me.BTW, I donated for an acre and got my Certificate
and link to Google Earth showing the actual piece
of forrest.I'll keep you posted on progress. Oh! I'm attaching
a pic of the Cert.Mike
![Picture%2012[1].jpg](/uploads/imported_attachments/qWPv_Picture20121.jpg)
-
Thats really cool Mike! I'll be hopping on that bandwagon for sure!
you can expect the partridge family to be jealous of my treehouse!
-
Yep, this seems a great idea to me and also an interesting SU project.
I shall also be joining in with this.Dylan
-
Thanks guys, I'll keep pushing the project along
and hope that something comes of it.We would also need some very low poly trees that
would suit the project ..... maybe Tom might help
in this area !We could be helping these little guys out
![animatedfrog[1].gif](/uploads/imported_attachments/0ICh_animatedfrog1.gif)
-
@john sayers said:
I was amazed at the lack of forest in not only your country but the others as well...
John, surely there was too much land agriculturally cultivated around here in the past. Even lands that are not really good for agriculture (most of Hungary's middle lands used to be wetlands unti the late 1800s but they drained the waters and built dams along the rivers).
Now these lands are "given back" to nature and even agriculture is practised in an old, traditional way (cattles, pigs, sheep etc. kept outside, forests "regaining" lands etc.). Fortunately I live near a woody area so I can regularly go hiking.
But again, clearing huge areas in the tropical regions willl not only destroy the forests themselves but also the soil and soon those land won't be used for anything - giving way to draughts (maybe at some other places).
-
Hi Guys,
I've just got some feedback from the CoolEarth people.
They are interested in the idea and want to hear more
details.I will be contacting a Matthew Owen to discuss how the
idea can be developed into some sort of a promotional
gimmick for CoolEarth.I will keep you posted on progress. So I think it might
be safe enough to start doodling a few ideas for suitable
3D trees and tree-houses in any spare time you may haveYou just never know .... we could be paying a visit to
see the Rain Forrest in the not too distant futureMike
PS: I'll try and locate some pics of tree-houses to germinate
some ideas and add them to this post
Advertisement