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.

If you are an animal lover (of just a person with a conscience) you should seriously consider not wearing leather shoes (and bags, jackets etc.).

Animal organisations worldwide such as Peta have documented horrible conditions for cows, pigs, goats, and sheep—and even dogs and cats—in the leather industry. Animals are condemned to deplorable living conditions, deprived of food and water, transported in small cages, and crammed onto trucks. At slaughterhouses, they watch as other animals are skinned—often while still alive—and await the same gruesome fate.

Most leather is produced in developing countries where there are no effective animal protection laws whatsoever. Six years after a Peta investigation into the Indian leather industry prompted the Indian government to promise to improve conditions for animals killed for their skin, many major retailers to turn away from Indian leather—yet so very much suffering still occurs. Animals are still grotesquely abused in ways that violate Indian law and all standards of dignity and humanity. You should not let this continue.

Peta’s investigators have seen cows have their throats cut with blunt instruments and be painfully castrated, dehorned, and branded—all without painkillers of any kind. At the end of their miserable lives, these gentle animals are hung upside-down, bled to death, skinned, and dismembered—for example, their hooves are cut off—often while they are still conscious.

But you can take important steps today to reduce this suffering. To start with, please stop buying or wearing leather products. Believe me, there are great alternatives available. Honestly, I think walking around in the skin of a dead animal is outrageous. Have a conscience – stop buying leather!

Please sign the petition at the top of this website: Save El Palmar Beach.

You can also join the Facebook group here: Save El Palmar on Facebook

In December 2009, the local council of Vejer de La Frontera announced a deal with property developers to build a giant 600-bedroom concrete monstrosity of a hotel right on El Palmar beach. The PELP group, who set up the initiatives to prevent this (and whose links I have included above for the petition and Facebook group) strongly believe in the following:

…that the Playa del Palmar, and by extension, the entire Sea around Cape Trafalgar could become an international example of ecological and rural tourism of exceptional quality. An example of real sustainable development, responsible tourism and awareness.

…that the few miles of unspoiled beaches left in our country should not succumb to the concrete development that has already decimated the Spanish coastline.

…that the preservation of natural resources and virgin wilderness areas is of paramount importance.

Sign the Petition and Show Your Support.

Rent a house in Vejer de la frontera.

Snowing in April in Copenhagen

Dear diary…While writing this to you, I hope I am still asleep and just having a nightmare. I look outside and it is freezing cold and snowing. This could not possibly be happening in April could it????

Unfortunately I am pretty sure that I am awake and not just having a nightmare. It is actually snowing outside. The picture was taken from my window (a few minutes ago)…huge snowflakes coming down.

Now I don’t know what happened with the global warming. From where I stand it feels like global freezing. I really need some sun and heat

In the meantime the news broadcasts hundreds of articles and TV programs about people being stuck who are going to- or leaving from cities in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

Obviously a lot of the stories focus on sensation – like four French business men who were stuck somewhere in Denmark and "had to" hire a taxi to get home to Paris for 15.000 crowns (2700 USD). But really my question is: What happened to people’s logic? Did it disappear with the availability of cheap flight tickets?

Before the days when we were all able to pollute the atmosphere with CO2 (from flights) on a regular basis, we used to travel on buses and trains: OVERLAND TRAVEL. Doesn’t anyone remember that?

There are still regular buses and trains connecting all the capital cities in Europe!!! I understand that you can be "stuck" if you are travelling to or from Asia and South America. But to say that people, who are "merely" travelling from Paris to Copenhagen, are "stuck" is ridiculous.

Google "bus Europe" or "train Europe" and you will get thousands of entries. I went to the following website: http://www.bahn.de/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml This website combines all train travel all over Europe – from the very South of Barcelona to the north of Norway.

I decided to figure out how long it takes to go from Copenhagen to Paris. Well I can leave tomorrow morning at 07.45 from Copenhagen and will get to Paris tomorrow evening at 20:53. The trip takes 13 hours and 8 minutes. That’s 10 hours more than flying. But honestly – we are NOT "stuck" in Europe. It’s such a small area that being stuck is for the most part more a question about comfort.

Thomas and I travelled for 9 months in South America. We did all our travel overland. This often meant 20 hour bus journeys and as you can imagine travelling from Guatemala to Bariloche in Argentina overland takes many hundreds of hours in buses. I never thought about flying.

I do sympathise with people who have engagements to attend to etc. But why not use this opportunity to reduce your carbon footprint and get back down to the ground – take the train or the bus in Europe

fruits, food

When it comes to vegetarianism, the number one question on most meat-eaters’ minds is, “What do you eat?” I have often met meat-eaters who says “so you just salad?”. No, I eat everything. There are vegetarian alternatives to almost any animal food, from soy sausages and “Fib Ribs” to Tofurky jerky and mock lobster (if you so desire).

There are also great alternatives to dairy products such as soy ice cream, soy chocolate milk, Tofutti cream cheese, and more.

Becoming a vegetarian today is certainly a lot easier than 17 years ago when I became a vegetarian. Seriously, in Denmark we had hardly any veggie products. We had one kind of (not delicious) canned sausages and some paté. That was it. I am glad I did it out of love for animals and not for health reasons because it would have made it harder to keep.

Today it is so easy to become and be a vegetarian and there is a lot of help and inspiration to find. The American animal organisation PETA is doing fantastic work to promote vegetarianism. They have a website called www.goveg.com which has all the information you need about becoming a vegetarian including: the issues at stake, meet the animals, recipes, literature, famous vegetarians and the most amazing part: A FREE vegetarian starter kit.

It’s a great vegetarian starter kit with information and recipes and they send it to your home address for no cost at all. I have already ordered it for my sisters and my mum and it is really nice.

You can order the free vegetarian starter kit on the following link: http://www.goveg.com/order.asp?c=pfvskvp09

Good luck!

The health benefits of a vegetarian diet are well-documented, as are the increased risks of heart disease and cancer that come with eating meat. But these are “merely” personal benefits, and personal risks. Most people will say that this is a personal “lifestyle” choice. Yes, I agree. What you do with your body – is certainly your choice.

However, the decision to eat meat or not to eat meat is actually broader than personal lifestyle. With the advent of factory farming, other factors have to be considered.Modern meat production is a completely automated, mechanised industry with billions of animals spending their entire lives – 24 hours a day, seven days a week – in tiny pens or cages, never seeing the sun, never feeling fresh air, never being allowed the freedom to walk even one step. By eating meat you not only decide on a lifestyle for yourself – you decide the cruel life of these animals.

How many of us can remain complacent in the face of such institutionalised cruelty?

Did you know, for example, that 70 % of the grain grown in the United States is used to feed animals destined for slaughter? Or that 80% of the water used in the States goes toward animal agriculture? Or that land growing potatoes, rice and other vegetables can support 20 times as many people as land producing grain-fed beef? Or that many leading scientists now rank the environmental damage caused by the meat producing industry as second only to that caused by fossil fuels?

By eating meat you not only decide on a lifestyle for yourself – your decision influences the environment, global hunger and the cruel life of these animals. Don’t be cruel – be a vegetarian!

Tina Noga worrying about the Climate change

Next week I start working as an attache to the Danish Foreign Ministry during the COP15 in Copenhagen. Although it is a short period of time (December 2 – December 19) the selection procedure and preparation for employees have been very long.

I applied for a position at the end of July this year together with 2000 other hopeful candidates (both Danes and foreigners). In August I received the first invitation to a job interview with Execute, a recruitment company, who had been chosen to find the candidates in cooperation with the Danish Foreign Ministry.

In September, I went to a group interview with seven other well qualified candidates. In this interview we were to prepare a one minute speech about ourselves in Danish, a three minute lecture in English (without papers) about Denmark and be prepared to answer a random question about the UN Climate Change Conference in English (we were expected to read the COP15 website in advance to prepare for the question).

On October 8 I was invited to the second part of the job interview which was a role-play session in the Danish Foreign Ministry. We were to prove that we could handle difficult guests at the conference with a smile .

On October 14 I received the final recognition that I was part of the team together with about 300 other candidates – but nothing about hours, start time or job function (and place).

I received my work schedule and job function on November 20 and since then I have been excitedly anticipating the start of the conference. Hours and place of work can still be changed any minute, but so far it looks as if I will be working 8 hours every day in the airport receiving the delegations who arrive, controlling passport and visa and supplying information to COP15 participants.

I am really looking forward to being part of this conference, which is the biggest ever held in Denmark, and I am hoping that the goals for the COP15 materialise.