Simon

Which one? It seems they are discovering a new coronavirus strain every other day. I just hope the vaccines will be effective against these new covid-19 virus strains. Andit just goes to show that we will have to learn to live with the coronavirus and it many different versions.

What economy, the world economy?

I think it's fairly good, given the circumstances. But it's obvious that people are getting tired of the recommendations and restrictions.

Hello and welcome to Green Blog and our community.

Hello and welcome to Green Blog!

Hello and welcome to Green Blog and our community!

Sure, there are less sunlight in colder regions. But solar panels work great in these places as well! Believe it or not, but the cold and snow in these regions actually help the solar panels in various ways, such as cleaning the panels when the snow melts, the increased reflection of light off white snow helps increase the output, and even the cold helps increase the efficiency of the actual panels, and so on. And yes, there might be long nights in the arctic regions during the winter, but solar power in the North is not only possible, but also profitable.

You can also check out our recipe forum for healthy, green, and delicious recipes!

Yes, it's a shame it wasn't built. I think it would have looked delightful.

That's so true! I use a PC that I've built myself so that I can repair it and swap out parts when needed.

I've never heard about that before. How does that work?

Here are three amazingly easy meals that you can make if you have a can of chickpeas (and a few other ingredients too, obviously). Herbed Chickpeas Check out the full recipe here: Herbed Chickpeas Recipe | Bon Appétit WWW.BONAPPETIT.COM Crispy, salty, creamy, and full of protein (really!), these chickpeas should be a staple in your kitchen. Deconstructed Falafel Salad Check out the full recipe here: Deconstructed Falafel Salad WWW.EPICURIOUS.COM Crispy cumin-roasted chickpeas meet kale, parsley, mint, and a lemony tahini dressing in this refreshing, filling vegan salad. Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce With Chickpeas and Feta Check out the full recipe here: Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce With Chickpeas and Feta WWW.EPICURIOUS.COM Popular in Israel, this shakshuka works for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. So tasty!

These garlic mushrooms look so delicious! This is what you need: Mushrooms Unsalted butter — use unsalted to control the amount of salt added. Olive oil — just a little oil added to the butter gets them nice and crispy on the outer edges and prevents the butter from burning. Garlic — please use fresh where you can. Herbs — we love parsley and thyme, but you can use oregano, rosemary, basil, etc. Salt and pepper. Optional: Onion — green, red, yellow or white! This is an optional ingredient BUT I find it enhances the garlic flavour. Dry white wine — also optional. If you’ve never added wine to your garlic mushrooms, you won’t regret trying it. INGREDIENTS 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 an onion chopped (optional) 1 pound (500 g) Cremini or button mushrooms 2 tablespoons dry white wine* (optional) 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves chopped 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 4 cloves garlic minced Salt and pepper to taste INSTRUCTIONS Heat the butter and oil in a large pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion until softened (about 3 minutes). Add the mushrooms and cook for about 4-5 minutes until golden and crispy on the edges. Pour in the wine and cook for 2 minutes, to reduce slightly. Stir through thyme, 1 tablespoon of parsley and garlic. Cook for a further 30 seconds, until fragrant. Season generously with salt and pepper (to your taste). Sprinkle with remaining parsley and serve warm. Check out the full recipe here: Garlic Mushrooms - Cafe Delites CAFEDELITES.COM Buttery Garlic Mushrooms with a mouth watering herb garlic butter sauce! You will love this 10-minute side dish that goes with anything! Have you tried making these garlic mushrooms - and did you add the wine? What did you think of it?

This macaroni chili looks like a simple and delicious dish that you can make in under 30 minutes. Macaroni Chili | Pick Up Limes | Nourish the Cells & the Soul WWW.PICKUPLIMES.COM Watch How to Make it hereRecipe starts at 01:03 The coziness of pasta and chili, all in one recipe. Protein-packed with both a soy veggie ground and kidne Ingredients 2 cups (285 g) dry whole wheat macaroni noodles (GF if desired) 1 Tbsp (15 mL) vegetable oil 1 onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 can (400 g) diced tomatoes 2 Tbsp (70 g) tomato paste 1 vegetable bouillon cube 1 tsp (4 g) hot chili powder 1 tsp (4 g) paprika powder 1 tsp (4 g) salt ½ tsp fresh ground black pepper 1½ cups (200 g) soy veggie ground 2 medium carrots, diced 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced 1 can (310 g) kidney beans, rinsed 3 cups (100 g) fresh spinach Optional Toppings Fresh chives Fresh jalapeño slices Directions Cook macaroni according to package directions, but decrease cooking time by 1 - 2 minutes. Once nearly al dente, drain. While noodles are boiling, heat the oil in a large pot on medium-high heat and sauté the onions and garlic until the onions are soft, about 3 - 5 minutes. Add splashes of water as needed to deglaze the pan. Add the diced tomatoes, and rinse out the can with water (about 400 mL) adding this to the pot as well, along with the tomato paste, bouillon cube, and spices. Bring to a boil. Once bubbling away, add the soy ground, carrot, bell pepper, and kidney beans. Cook until the carrots are soft, about 5 minutes. Lastly, add the drained noodles and spinach. Cook for another minute, or until the spinach wilts and the pasta is al dente. Serve with desired garnish, and enjoy! Check out the video: And you can do this dish in so many different variations. I will try it out with some black beans and add some more diced tomatoes to make the dish a bit wetter.

This vegan tofu sandwich looks so delicious and perfect for a spring picnic or a visit to the beach this summer. Tofu Vietnamese Sub (Bánh Mì) | Pick Up Limes | Nourish the Cells & the Soul WWW.PICKUPLIMES.COM Watch How to Make it HereThis recipe starts at 03:29Bánh mì sandwiches have become all the rage lately, and if you haven't tried it yet, you're in for a treat. Ingredients 1 block (450 g) firm tofu 3 cloves of garlic, crushed 2 Tbsp (30 mL) sodium-reduced soy sauce (sub to tamari if GF) 2 tsp (10 mL) Sriracha hot sauce (or other hot sauce) 2 tsp (8 g) sugar 1 tsp (5 mL) sesame oil 1/2 lime, juiced 2 medium carrots, julienned ½ cup (120 mL) white vinegar 1½ Tbsp (18 g) sugar 1 tsp (4 g) salt 1 tsp (5 mL) vegetable oil 2 medium whole grain baguettes (GF if desired) 2 Tbsp (30 mL) vegan mayo 2 tsp (10 mL) Sriracha hot sauce 1 English cucumber, sliced 1 fresh red chili pepper, thinly sliced ½ cup (15 g) fresh cilantro 2 Tbsp (32 g) hoisin sauce Directions Gently squeeze the block of tofu to remove as much liquid as possible, then thinly cut into ½ cm (¼ inch) thick slices. To a large shallow dish, add the garlic, soy sauce, Sriracha, sugar, sesame oil, lime juice, and whisk. Then add the tofu to the marinate and gently toss to coat. Set aside. To make the pickled carrots, to a jar, add the carrots, ½ cup (120 mL) boiling water, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Screw on the lid and give it a shake to dissolve the sugar, and let sit while preparing the rest of the recipe. To a large skillet on medium-high heat, add the vegetable oil and place the tofu slices in a single layer on the pan, cooking for 3 - 5 minutes, or until golden and crispy. Spoon the leftover marinade over the top of the tofu slices before giving it a flip to cook on the other side for another 3 - 5 minutes. Split the baguette down the centre and, if desired, bake in the oven until crispy on the outside. Spread on 1 Tbsp (10 mL) of mayo and 1 tsp (5 mL) Sriracha per baguette. Layer on the tofu slices, pickled carrots, cucumber, chili pepper, and cilantro. Serve with hoisin on the side. Enjoy fresh! Check out the video: I'm definitely going to try this out. But I will probably replace the carrots with something else while also adding more tomatoes.

From now on, all members are required to have published a minimum of 5 posts in our forums before they are able to create their own blog. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to become a green blogger, but this decision was deemed necessary to increase the overall quality of our member blogs and to stop spammers. Please also take a moment to read our recently updated community rules and guidelines.

Check out Terra Nil, which is a cute little strategy game that lets you transform a dead wasteland into a green and ecological paradise - in 8-bit (or 16?) graphics. It's free to download and you can play it on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Check out some gameplay videos: And some more gameplay: What do you think? Have you played it? The game seems pretty simplistic both in gameplay and its solutions to the environmental destruction (science and technology will just magically clean everything up and all the wildlife will just come back to life) - but hey, it's free so one shouldn't really complain.

To combat the coronavirus (Covid-19) many countries are spraying public spaces in cities with disinfection chemicals. After seeing this I was interested in knowing how effective this was against the coronavirus and if it had any negative effects on our health or environment. And according to experts, these mass disinfection programmes have no real benefit - and could potentially be a health hazard. Dr Jason Wang, the director of the Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention at Stanford University, says that the use of disinfectant sprays may be of some psychological comfort to people but will not be medically effective against the coronavirus. Wang says some chemicals in the sprays are a health hazard and could cause respiratory problems. And these mass disinfection programmes against Covid-19 are killing nature and wildlife as authorities mismanage and overuse them to the extreme. Just take this idiotic example from Spain. Local authorities in southern Spain sprayed a beach with diluted bleach in a (completely vain) attempt to tackle the coronavirus. The authorities wanted to “protect” their residents from Covid-19 by spraying bleach using big tractors on the beach right before the lockdown and curfew was going to be removed. The bleach was sprayed on the beach and dunes which is also a popular and protected nesting ground for several species of migratory birds. And while the bleach killed everything on the ground, both plants and insects, the tractors most likely also destroyed countless of bird eggs. "It’s totally absurd," said María Dolores Iglesias Benítez, who heads an environmental volunteer group in the region. "The beach is a living ecosystem. And when you spray it down with bleach, you’re killing everything you come across." She said the bleach "killed everything on the ground, nothing is seen, not even insects." I mean, what the actual fuck were they thinking?! The virus spreads between humans and while there is still a debate on how long the virus lingers on various surfaces after contact the beach had not even been used by anyone since everyone had been stuck inside during the lockdown. And even if the beach had been heavily used beforehand, spraying these disinfectants does nothing against the virus, it just kills insects, damages nature, and harm human health. It’s just madness!

Populations of all kinds of wildlife are declining at an alarming speed. If we don't stop this, scientist warns that humanity could soon be left with a planet bereft of actual wildlife and only inhabited by ourselves and a few domesticated animals. In an effort to stop such a grim future from happening, some conservationists are proposing a radical solution: make 50% of the planet a nature reserve. “That may seem a lot – if you think the world is a just a place for humans to exploit,” Harvey Locke from the organisation Nature Needs Half said. “But if you recognise the world as one that we share with wildlife, letting it have half of the Earth does not seem that much.” Should we give up half of the Earth to wildlife? | Environment | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM Populations of all kinds of wildlife are declining at alarming speed. One radical solution is to make 50% of the planet a nature reserve What do you think? Should we give up half of the Earth to wildlife?

Outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Ebola, Sars, bird flu and now the coronavirus (Covid-19) are on the rise. These infectious diseases are crossing from animals to humans and, as we can see from Covid-19, can spread quickly to new places around the world with extreme health and economic impacts in both rich and poor countries. "I am not at all surprised about the coronavirus outbreak," said disease ecologist Thomas Gillespie to the Guardian. "The majority of pathogens are still to be discovered. We are at the very tip of the iceberg." 'Tip of the iceberg': is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19? | Environment | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM As habitat and biodiversity loss increase globally, the coronavirus outbreak may be just the beginning of mass pandemics More and more researchers today think that it is humanity's disruption, development and destruction of pristine forests and biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and infectious diseases such as Covid-19 to arise. This new emerging scientific discipline is called ‘planetary health’ and it focuses on the increasingly visible and real connections between the wellbeing of humans and animals as well as entire ecosystems. Humanity's development and the destruction of forests driven by logging, mining, road building, rapid urbanisation and population growth is bringing more and more people into closer contact with animal species that we humans may never have been near before. Thus, these researchers are now saying that it is possible that it was human activity that has triggered epidemics such as Ebola and the latest new terrors. "We invade tropical forests and other wild landscapes, which harbour so many species of animals and plants – and within those creatures, so many unknown viruses," David Quammen, author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Pandemic, recently wrote in the New York Times. "We cut the trees; we kill the animals or cage them and send them to markets. We disrupt ecosystems, and we shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, they need a new host. Often, we are it." Opinion | We Made the Coronavirus Epidemic - The New York Times WWW.NYTIMES.COM It may have started with a bat in a cave, but human activity set it loose. What do you think, is our destruction of nature responsible for the coronavirus and other infectious diseases? UN’s environment chief, Inger Andersen, says that “nature is sending us a message” with the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. Coronavirus: 'Nature is sending us a message’, says UN environment chief | World news | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM Exclusive: Destruction of wildlife and the climate crisis is hurting humanity, with Covid-19 a ‘clear warning shot’, say experts The Guardian reports that Andersen said that the long-term response to the coronavirus pandemic “must tackle habitat and biodiversity loss” while noting that “never before have so many opportunities existed for pathogens to pass from wild and domestic animals to people.” “Our continued erosion of wild spaces has brought us uncomfortably close to animals and plants that harbour diseases that can jump to humans,” she said. And it’s not just the coronavirus outbreak that is a worrying sign. Andersen said that other environmental impacts – such as the recent Australian heatwave and bushfires, new heat records, as well as the huge locust invasion in Africa – are all related to each other. “At the end of the day, [with] all of these events, nature is sending us a message,” Anderson warned. "There are too many pressures at the same time on our natural systems and something has to give," she added. "We are intimately interconnected with nature, whether we like it or not. If we don’t take care of nature, we can’t take care of ourselves."

Several videos and images posted on social media has shown how wildlife is starting to come back to Venice as the city is on lockdown due to the global Coronavirus pandemic. The videos show how the absence of motorised transport which normally churns up the muddy canal floor has turned the waters of Venice into a calm and crystal-clear lagoon filled with fish and dolphins. "The water is blue and clear," said Gloria Beggiato who owns the celebrated Metropole Hotel a few steps from St Mark’s square to the Guardian. "It is calm like a pond, because there are no more waves caused by motorised boats transporting day-tripper tourists. And of course, the giant cruise ships have disappeared." All kinds of wildlife – from fish and dolphins to ducks and wild boars – have seen taking advantage of a tourist-free city under strict quarantine. "We Venetians have the feeling that nature has returned and is taking back possession of the city," said Beggiato. "I honestly believe we should take the opportunity of this lockdown to reflect and see how we can be more organised in the future to find a balance between the city and tourism." 'Nature is taking back Venice': wildlife returns to tourist-free city | Environment | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM With the cruise ships gone and the souvenir stalls closed, the coronavirus lockdown has transformed La Serenissima’s waterways Have you heard about other examples of wildlife and nature coming back to cities currently on strict quarantine due to the Coronavirus pandemic? Here is a herd of goats that has started to visit a village in Wales that is currently under lockdown. With most humans staying indoors the goats can freely run on the deserted streets in the middle of the town centre and graze on trees and bushes. Too funny!

This was a beautiful video posted by the Dodo which shows two wild horses being reunited after 6 months apart. This video was also a horrifying eye-opener as I did not know that the US government is systematically capturing wild horses and keeping them in small pens for several months before they are being sold off. Why are they doing something like that?!

I just stumbled upon this tweet and video which shows three turtles and even a bird stuck together in a discarded old fishing net. Luckily, they were all saved and set free when some people found them drifting around in the sea. But the tweet reminded me of how extremely deadly these “ghost gear” that are floating around and pollution our oceans actually are. Some call these dumped and discarded nets, lines, and traps for “ghost gear”, which is a rather fitting name for this deadly waste. A recent report by Greenpeace has shed some light on this deadly and growing problem. The report concluded that more than 640 000 tonnes of nets, lines, pots and traps used in commercial fishing are dumped and discarded in the sea every year. That is the same weight as 55 000 double-decker buses. Absolutely amazing and horrifying. There are countless of videos and photos like the one above that shows how deadly and dangerous these dumped fishing gears really are. And here is video that shows a giant manta ray being saved after getting stuck in fishing net. These “ghost gear” are a threat to all marine life. We need much tougher regulations, policies, ocean sanctuaries, and a global legal UN framework that can protect marine life.

Oh, so you're tired of isolation and lockdown? Yeah, your life must be really awful right now. Surely YOU must suffer tremendously.

Last month was the hottest September ever recorded globally since the 19th century, according to new figures from EU's observation program Copernicus. Previously, both January and May this year also saw record-breaking global temperatures. And despite La Niña cooling down large parts of the world, global temperatures in 2020 are currently in line with 2016 which was the warmest year ever measured in modern times. "There is currently little difference between 2020 and 2016 for the year-to-date," Copernicus senior scientist Freja Vambourg told AFP. Overall, 19 of the past 20 years have been the warmest since global measurements began in the late 19th century. The figures also show that for the past 12-month period our planet was nearly 1.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. That means that we are getting alarmingly closer to the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit in the Paris Climate Agreement and the dangerous threshold for severe climate change impacts such as deadly heatwaves, droughts, tropical storms, rising sea levels, and forest fires. And despite the Paris Climate Agreement - and more recently - a global pandemic, both global temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels have steadily increased in recent decades - and they are showing no signs of slowing down. “We have been saying this for decades – more and more greenhouse gases will lead to more and more warming,” Ed Hawkins, from Reading University, told BBC News. “One degree of heating is dangerous for some people, as we've seen,” he said. “Two degrees is more dangerous still, and three degrees even more dangerous. We really don’t want to find out what that’ll be like.” Here are some highlights from the Copernicus report: Globally and in Europe, September 2020 was the warmest September on record. Temperatures were well above average temperatures in many regions, with the notable exception of cool La Niña conditions in eastern tropical Pacific. Arctic sea ice saw its second lowest September average extent on record, more than 40% below the 1981-2020 average, while Antarctic sea ice extent was slightly above average. Drier-than-average conditions occurred in most of Europe. Nevertheless, some regions experienced wetter-than-average conditions, with heavy precipitation causing flooding, for instance in Greece due to medicane Ianos. Tropical storms affected many parts of the world, including hurricanes Sally and Beta in North America, and typhoons Noul and Maysak sweeping over south east Asia and the Korean peninsula and Japan, respectively. You can read the full Copernicus report here: https://climate.copernicus.eu/surface-air-temperature-september-2020