Environment

This section contains posts to do with ecological issues, global warming, climate change, sustainable living etc

DIY: How to Make Washing Soda

Making washing soda is a very simple process. You basically need to bake “baking soda”.

Tools: An oven, a pan, a heat-proof utensil and the baking soda.

STEP 1:

Pour out the baking soda onto the oven-safe pan and spread it out to a thin layer. If you need a lot, use two pans.

Making washing soda
Making washing soda

It is important that the layer is thin because that way the heat can penetrate all of it more quickly and you won’t have to keep your oven on for so long.

DIY: Making washing soda

STEP 2:

Heat your oven to 200 – 230° C (400-450° F). Place the pan(s) of baking soda into your heated oven for about 1 – 1.5 hours. I stirred the baking soda around while it was in there.

DIY: Making washing soda
DIY: Making washing soda

STEP 3:

The baking soda has turned to washing soda when it gets a slightly more grainy texture, less shiny, grey colour. Baking soda is fluffy, powdery, and slightly shiny.

STEP 4:

Remove your pan of washing soda from the oven and allow it to cool completely. Then use it to make your laundry detergent or just store it in a clearly labelled container. I usually make a lot and use part of it immediately to make liquid laundry soap and part of it I store (it takes much less space as powder than liquid laundry detergent).

Good luck

DIY: How to make pure castile soap?

Home-made olive oil castile soap
Home-made olive oil castile soap

This article will show you how to make your own castile soap bars. Buying natural or organic soap is very expensive today and unfortunately the healthy choice has become the expensive choice. And even if you are willing to pay the price for seemingly “natural products”, you will often find a long list of chemicals (non-natural additives) on the ingredient label on the back and think “what on earth is all this?”

I will advise you to never buy a product only judging from its name, because names these days are very deceptive (e.g. “herbal essence” which not only contains lots chemicals such as the carcinogen 1, 4-dioxane, which is known to cause cancer, but they also test on animals) and there is far between real natural products without chemicals inside.

This is what inspired me to make my own soap, deodorant, toothpaste, and cream. I simply couldn’t find products without chemicals – or rather I found very few (such as Miessence) but they are very expensive.

Making your own products is fairly simple, cheap and joyful….since you will be 100% sure that no additives have been added.

The recipe below uses proportions of oil and lye to create a PH balanced soap that will be very mild to the skin.

Here is the recipe for 7 bars of olive oil castile soap:

• 150g/ 164 ml coconut oil
• 538 g/ 580 ml olive oil
• 190-220 ml cold water
• 92 g lye /sodium hydroxide/ caustic soda
• 20 drops lemon oil (can use any kind of pure oils)

Alternatively you can make a double portion with half coconut oil and half olive oil. This will give you 14 bars of castile soap:

• 688 g coconut oil
• 688 g olive oil
• 509 ml cold water
• 198 g lye /sodium hydroxide/ caustic soda
• 1 tea spoon of lemon oil (you can use any kind of pure essential oil)

Here are the tools you need:

• A digital scale
• 2 thermometers that can measure up to 93° Celsius/ 200° Fahrenheit.
• A stick blender.
• 1 high temperature plastic jars (to mix the sodium hydroxide and water). I use a plastic bucket
• 1 plastic bucket to mix the sodium hydroxide mix with the oil mix)
• 1 glass bowl for lye
• 1 ceramic bowl for heating up the oil in the microwave
• A long-handled plastic mixing spoon.
• A ladle.
• Soap molds – alternative you can use a water bottle (1.5 liters) and cut it open when taking the soap out.

Caution: Whenever working with lye you should use rubber gloves, protective glasses and long sleeved skirts and pants to protect your skin from accidental splashes of the liquid.

How to make the soap:

1. Add lye to water in a high temperature plastic container somewhere with fresh air (outside your house). Do not breathe fumes. Always add Lye to water (not reverse). Caution: Temperature of mixture will rise to approximately 91ºC / 195ºF. Stir mixture with plastic spoon.
2. Allow lye to cool (place in bowl of cold water to speed up cooling).
3. Mix oils and microwave to 43º C/ 110ºF (that’s about 2 minutes in my microwave).
4. When both solutions are at 43º C/ 110ºF, add lye solution to the oil mixture. Blend with stick blender until the mixture reaches “trace” where you can see a film on top of the soap that traces the line of the stick blender. Ladle into molds.
5. Leave it in the mold for the next two days. PH will be high and can burn the skin for the first 48 hrs. The PH will settle to neutral after this.
6. Place molds in freezer for 1 hour to help separate the soap from the molds.
7. Use plastic gloves when handling the soaps the first month.
8. If you use a plastic bottle to pour inside the liquid soap mix, cut up the bottle and take out the hardened soap mass and cut it into pieces.
9. Place the soaps on paper.
10. Allow 6-8 weeks to air dry before use.

Distilled water can be used to guarantee that the PH of the soap will be neutral when complete, and that no impurities are in the water that could affect the saponification process. In Denmark I just use tap water since that’s perfectly thing (very fortunate).

Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) can be purchased in cleaning section of many supermarkets. Make sure you buy the one that says 100% lye/ caustic soda/ sodium hydroxide.

Pollution drives expats out of Beijing, China

As I work with research and business development for a Danish healthcare company, I travel quite a bit in the Asian countries – hereunder China. The article below from Financial Times describes to you how bad the pollution is in Beijing – and my advice to you – don’t go there if you can avoid it (not for living and not for holiday).

‘Airpocalypse’ drives expats out of Beijing

By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing

Air pollution is driving expatriates out of Beijing and making it harder for companies to recruit international talent, according to anecdotal accounts from diplomats, senior executives and businesses.

No official figures are available on how many people are planning to leave after three months of the worst air pollution on record in the Chinese capital. But companies that mainly serve foreign residents are bracing for an exodus around the middle of the year when the school term ends.

“We’re anticipating this summer will be a very big season [of moves out of Beijing] for us,” said Chad Forrest, North China general manager for Santa Fe Relocations, a global service. “It seems a lot of people, particularly families with small children who have been here a few years, are reconsidering the cost-benefit equation and deciding to leave for health reasons.”

Doctors at private hospitals that mostly treat expat patients tell a similar story.

“We don’t have good statistics yet but we are seeing many more patients telling us they are leaving because of air pollution,” said Dr Andy Wong, head of family medicine at Beijing United Family hospital, the biggest private healthcare provider for foreign residents in China. “Recruitment is getting harder for all companies – how do you convince people to come work in the most polluted city in the world?”

Pollution has long been a concern for residents in Beijing but air quality readings published by the city government and the US embassy indicated levels of toxic smog on some days in January that were nearly 40 times higher than considered healthy by the World Health Organisation.

Although pollution levels have not yet returned to those seen during January’s “airpocalypse”, daily readings often hit levels considered hazardous. Residents are advised to avoid going outdoors at all and to limit their activity even while inside.

The air pollution index in Beijing published by the US embassy gave a reading on Sunday afternoon between “very unhealthy” and “hazardous”.

Most environmental experts and Beijing residents assume that the problem will only worsen as the government continues to encourage enormous expansion in industry, coal-fired power generation and car sales across the country.

“Air pollution is becoming a bigger concern for our members and their families,” Adam Dunnett, secretary-general of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said. “While members leave for all sorts of reasons, we inevitably hear nearly every time that one of the contributing reasons is the air pollution.”

Lars Rasmussen, a Nokia marketing executive, and his wife Michelle Frazier, a kindergarten teacher, have decided to return with their two children to their native Denmark after three years in Beijing. The couple say one of the most important deciding factors was the air pollution.

“Our kids can’t play outside or they have to wear face masks when they go out. It’s like something out of a science fiction novel,” Ms Frazier said.

Of the roughly 600,000 registered foreign residents in all of China, about 200,000 live in Beijing, which has a total population of approximately 20m.

But the expat community is overwhelmingly concentrated in high-earning professional jobs and contributes enormously to the city’s economy and the development of advanced industries.

Christian Murck, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, told reporters on Friday that the unprecedented levels of pollution in January had been a “tipping point” for some families. He knew of “many people” who are planning to leave as a result.

Executives at major companies and diplomats say recruiting new people to move to Beijing is one of the biggest concerns for businesses with China operations and many prospective candidates are declining positions because of air pollution, especially if they have young children.

Michael Namatinia, the regional president of an Israeli software company, said filling a senior management role in Beijing has been extremely difficult.

“We tried to recruit someone to run our North Asia operations from Beijing but after finding a suitable candidate and negotiating for a month the person’s wife vetoed the move because of air pollution,” Mr Namatinia said.

http://www.ft.com/intl/

Odins pocket-park – Is this a park???

The municipality of Copenhagen decided to create a new park in Copenhagen. Now when I think about a ”park” I always have in mind a space with air, green grass and trees. A place where you can enjoy nature and get away from the city. What do you imagine?

When they ”built” Odins pocketpark (Odins Lommepark in Danish) I was so disappointed. As you can see on the picture, more than half of it is cement, and there is absolutely no grass what-so-ever.

I suppose the obvious ”symbolism” is a green crack in the cement. But honestly, they could have made the ”whole” thing a grassfield and that would have been more of a green crack in the cement. Nørrebro is all cement. Did we really need a cement park???

Holiday or honeymoon on the Maldives

The Maldives is one of the most famous honeymoon destinations in the world and for a good reason. In this article I will tell you a bit about the country and give you my guess as to why people like to come here for a honeymoon.

The Maldives is a country (yes, not a city or a region in another country as some people tend to believe) consisting of about 1200 islands in 26 atolls. An atoll is a ring of coral reefs or coral islands, or both, surrounding a lagoon. Despite being a total size of 90.000m2 the Maldives is 99% water, and has just 298 km2 of land. It is located west of Sri Lanka and south of India, deep in the Indian Ocean.

The Maldives has a population of about 300.000 people. A third of the population live on the tiny capital island of Male which is just a couple of kilometres across. The rest of the population are spread out on the atolls and there are basically no other towns in the entire country.

100% of the Maldivian population are Sunni Muslims and since the 2008 constitution it is not possible to be a Maldivian citizen and a non-Muslim. The annual population growth is about 3%.

Polygamy is legal and a man can have up to four wives, but it is not common practice to have more than one wife.

The Maldives has three industries of which the country live: Fishing, ships and tourist. Tourism accounts for 20% of GDP and about 90% of government tax revenue. Every traveller pays 8$ ”bed tax” per night they spend in the Maldives.

The Maldives has a ”one island – one resort” policy. This means every resort always has an island to itself. The guest house business (for cheaper accommodation) is also developing slowly, but it lacks public transportation and the places in which you can currently find cheaper accommodation (say 50 – 100$ per night for a basic room with/without breakfast) are ”public islands”. This means it is the home of Maldivians and wearing a bikini or shorts is strictly forbidden. A modest/Muslim dress code is required.

The Maldives receives about 600.000 visitors every year (most spend minimum one week). Most of them come on a fairly expensive package tour which includes full board (breakfast, lunch and dinner included).

So what makes this place a popular honeymoon place?

Well it’s very beautiful. If you dream about a small bounty island with coconut palms, very white sand and warm, turquoise water…this is it! You will have plenty of time to look your sweetheart in the eyes for endless amounts of time (as much as you can pay for). The activities here are very limited: sleep, eat, read, swim, sunbath, snorkel and dive, trips to other islands or Male, fishing, spa treatment, surfing, and other water sports. Obviously cultural activities and sightseeing is severely limited on a small island and so is shopping.

I believe the Maldives is attractive to people who are looking for complete relaxation with no decisions needed to be made (usually there are only one or two restaurants in the resort). Hence you see a lot of old couples here and honeymooners and I am sure most of them have a fantastic holiday.

****
A few recommendations for responsible travel in the Maldives:

1.Drink desalinated water at your resort rather than imported mineral water or bring your own bottles and boil the tap water (which is desalinated) and drink that.
2.Take your bottles, plastic and batteries home with you. The Maldives does not have facilities to dispose of them.
3.Minimise the use of air-conditioning in the room
4.Ask for your towels not to be rewashed every day.
5.Keep the use of running water in your room to a minimum – water is expensive to desalinate and uses fossil fuel to do so.
6.When diving and snorkelling, do not feed, touch or otherwise interfere with the corals and fish.
7.Don’t purchase turtle-shell products.

Bon voyage!!

Dyrehaven (Deer park) in Klampenborg outside Copenhagen

Dyrehaven (Deer Park) is a large, cultivated forest near Copenhagen, and very popular for nature lovers to walk, bike or horseback.

There are 13 different entrances to the park and the road goes through the famous red wooden doors. If you come from Copenhagen, there is a subway station and parking by Klampenborg station. True romantics take a horse-driven waggon to the picnic spot.

There are more than 1,000 hectares in Dyrehaven and here you can meet red deer, fallow deer and Sika Deer. In 1670 Frederick III appointed the area hunting ground for his son Christian V (not humanitarians obviously!).

In the 1760 the German forester Johann G. von Lange introduced new mixtures of trees. Many of the trees in Dyrehaven dates back to this time. Dyrehaven is known for the great plains, where you can see deers that grasses interspersed with small groups of trees of oak, beech and hawthorn.

In the garden’s southern end and within walking distance from Klampenborg Station you find Bakken. One of the world’s oldest amusement parks with both rroller-coasters carousels and a lot of other attractions as well as pubs and restaurants. Bakken is open from late March to late September.

On the above picture you see Dyrehaven on a beautiful day in September with deers in the background.