health Archives

CATHEDRAL PRAISES SUNG FOR HEREFORDSHIRE ORCHARDS

Posted on May 15, 2013 by paulComments are off

More than 400 guests gathered at Hereford Cathedral on Thursday (9^th May) in a dual celebration of the unique role of orchards and the contribution that people with learning disabilities make to the richness of life in Herefordshire.

A Service celebrating orchards was organised by the Bulmer Foundation and highlighted the work undertaken by the charity’s Orchard Art project. Into its 3^rd year, the project has enabled children and adults with learning disabilities to visit orchards and create artworks inspired by their surroundings.

The Cathedral Celebration featured a selection of orchard-centric paintings, sculptures, songs, poems and plays produced and performed by groups that participated in the Orchard Art project against the backdrop of an orchard of thirty apple trees in full blossom.

Juliet Stroucken, who leads one of the groups which took part, observed, “The confidence, joy and sheer delight shown by each and every performer was inspiring. Our students have absolutely loved being involved in this project, and they had a brilliant day.”

The Cathedral was filled by a congregation of families, friends, orchard owners and enthusiasts, senior managers from Bulmers and its parent company HEINEKEN, and members of both the Bulmer and Heineken families. The guest of honour was Mrs de Carvalho-Heineken.

Core funded by HEINEKEN, the Bulmer Foundation is a charity that supports sustainable development, primarily within Herefordshire. In addition to Orchard Art, the Bulmer Foundation works in partnership to deliver a range of other projects addressing health, food, education and land use issues in Herefordshire.

Stefan Orlowski, UK Managing Director for HEINEKEN, said, “This remarkable Orchard Service showed that our contributions are being put to considerably good use. It also demonstrated the significance of orchards to Herefordshire and the people who live there. Not only do they support the rural economy through long term contracts, they are also places of artistic inspiration and provide a natural haven for wildlife.”

Showtime @Chelsea Fringe

Posted on May 14, 2013 by paulComments are off

Flyer for Pop-Up-Foundation Planting ideas@Chelsea Fringe 18 May 2013

Timelapse images show speed of degradation of natural habitats worldwide

Posted on May 13, 2013 by paulComments are off

We find it tough to see the consequences of our actions over long time frames and particularly so when they are on a huge scale, such as those captured by satellite imagery – take a look by clicking the link here to the images from google.

Ancient Arctic was warm, wet, and green. What that says about the future.

Posted on May 11, 2013 by paulComments are off

A 1,000-foot core sample taken from a lake in Russia’s northeast Arctic documents a period when the region was 14 degrees warmer than today, but with similar atmospheric CO₂ levels.

By Pete Spotts / May 9, 2013

A NASA satellite shows the state of Arctic sea ice, seen here September 16, 2008. A 1,000-foot ice core from the Arctic’s Lake E suggests that the Arctic was heavily forested 3.5 million years ago, when carbon dioxide levels were similar to today.

Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio / NASA / Reuters / File

The period the team has analyzed covers the first 1.4 million years of the record, when the region’s climate shifted from warm and wet to conditions that signaled the start of ice ages.

This period is of interest in part because the warmth persisted despite periodic shifts in Earth’s orbit that reduced the intensity of sunlight reaching the region.

Temperatures were high enough – about 14 degrees warmer than today in the warmest month of the summer – to suggest that the climate system is more sensitive to small changes in greenhouse-gas concentrations than the sensitivity estimates included in some climate models.

If that’s the case, as other paleoclimate studies have indicated, the models may be underestimating the amount of warming likely to result from increasing atmospheric CO₂concentrations, the scientists say.

The period also is of interest because it holds clues about the factors that drove climate from prolonged warmth into a cycle of ice ages – factors that will help researchers understand the role natural variability plays in the region’s climate and where climatic “tipping points” may lie.

The work “identifies for the first time a long, continuous story of that history from the Arctic and what I call the Arctic borderlands,” says Julie Brigham-Grette, a geologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who focuses on the Arctic’s ancient climate, referring to adjacent regions. Dr. Brigham-Grette is the lead author of a formal report of the results, which are being published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.

The research was conducted by a team of 16 scientists from Russia, the US, Germany andSweden.

The evidence is captured in a 1,034-foot core sample the team drew from the bottom of Lake El’gygytgyn, known informally as Lake E. It formed 3.6 billion years ago after a meteor punched a crater in Russia’s northeastern Arctic. The crater filled to form a lake 7 miles across and some 560 feet deep. The area around the lake managed to remain ice free during the ebb and flow of continental ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, allowing sediment layers – and the pollen and other climate indicators they contain – to build up uninterrupted for the last 3.56 million years.

The team published initial results from the Lake E core last year, focusing on the Pleistocene. This latest effort focuses on the climate from the earlier, mid Pliocene through the onset of the glacial cycles.

for more go to http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0509/Ancient-Arctic-was-warm-wet-and-green.-What-that-says-about-the-future

DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE ANNOUNCES TWO EVENTS FOR NYCxDESIGN

Posted on May 8, 2013 by paulComments are off

DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE ANNOUNCES TWO EVENTS FOR NYCxDESIGN

WHAT: As part of the inaugural NYCxDesign Week, Design Trust for Public Space will host two events:

1.) Making NYC, a roundtable discussion on strategies of how to maintain, retain and create manufacturing in NYC

2.) Heartwalk Goes to the Rockaways, a Public Space Potluck and conversation about the role of design in disaster recovery at Situ Studio’s installation in the Rockaways.

WHO:

1.) Making NYC will feature panelists from the City and design fields. For full list of participants, please click to see event listing.

2.) Heartwalk Goes to the Rockaways participants: Situ Studio, MOMA PS1 and Art in the Parks. Please click to see event listing.

WHY: NYCxDesign offers unique opportunities for collaboration between designers and experts from all design disciplines.

The Design Trust for Public Space is a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing design innovation to New York City’s public spaces to make a more dynamic, livable and sustainable city. We create collaborations between city agencies, community groups and private sector experts to work on emerging design and policy projects that result in effective urban strategies.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Free and open to the public, though RSVP is required: rsvp@designtrust.org

WHEN:

1.) Making NYC: Tuesday May 14, 2013, 6:30 – 8:30 PM

2.) Heartwalk Goes to the Rockaways: Saturday May 18, 2013, 1:00 – 4:00 PM

WHERE:

1.) Making NYC: Parsons New School for Design, 560 Seventh Avenue, 2nd Floor Auditorium

2.) Heartwalk Goes to the Rockaways: Beach 95th Street, Rockaway Beach

CONTACT:

Caroline Bauer

cbauer@designtrust.org

212.695.2432 x5

. . . . . . . . . .
Design Trust for Public Space
40 Worth Street, Suite 603
New York, NY 10013
212.695.2432