Beautiful, but at the same time a very bad overview about the light pollution on our planet. Not good for nature and us humans – and an incredible waste of energy to illuminate the sky. Don’t we have better things to do with all that electricity? 🙂 ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nShmgRiAKFU

ISS Timelapse – From England To Egypt Moonlighted (12 Dicembre 2014)
© All images are courtesy of http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/

15th of December: My „Eco Adventskalender“ suggestion for today: Whenever you buy items made out of paper, try to buy only items made out of 100% recycling paper.
Picture taken at „Fünf Höfe“ in Munich. For all who are concernced about money: I guess, 59 Cents for a DIN A4 „Schulheft“ is quite affordable (please do not ask me why several shops sell those made out of new paper for less money – I will never understand that!).And they sell nice „Schulblöcke (liniert/kariert)“ for 1,29 EUR. Color is almost white and it’s also suitable for fountain pens, no problem with the ink.
Another example for good use of recycling-paper is toilet paper: no need to have new, super-white paper there.

14th of Dec: My „Eco Adventskalender“ suggestion for today: Separate your waste, in particular paper and make sure to fill the bin correctly! Only put clean paper into the paper bins (in Munich blue paper bin).
Tetrapak is not paper, but consists of layers of paper, plastics, aluminium and must not be put into the paper bin (needs to go into bins for plastic). And of course, waste (like on this picture) must never be put into the paper bin. Waste can make the paper unsuitable for recycling. Depending on the amount of trash in the paper bin, they may also charge the normal fee for regular waste and pick it up with the other truck. This would be a pity, because paper can be recycled – which means that less trees need to be cut and recycled paper means also less energy and water consumption to produce new items.
PS: In Munich, you can also download the so-called „Trennliste“ in German and several other languages and stick it on the bins.

7th of Dec: my „eco Adventskalender“ suggestion for today: Use your power as citizen and take part in political decisions. Look up where and how you can participate locally, in your town, in your state, in your country. For certain topics, it simply may not be enough or may take too long to wait for individuals to change their habits. Dangerous substances will affect all people and will affect society, e.g. environment, health, financial matters. For a lot of things we do ( or do not do) today our kids and future generations will have to pay the bill ….

6th of Dec: My „eco Adventskalender“ suggestion for today: Try to buy „Mehrwegflaschen“ whenever possible. Best made out of glass, second best option reusable plastic-deposit bottles. Single-use deposit plastic bottles aren’t as good, as they need to be recycled – and as you can see on the picture, those bottles are collected in ….single-use plastic bags! (BTW: Do we know where the recycling of single-use plastic takes places? In Germany? In the EU? Or in Asia?) While the real Mehrwegflaschen are collected in a metal container and then put back into the reusable boxes for bottles. They will be cleaned and refilled. Reusable bottles can be reused around 60 times!

Reuse is always better than recycling! Apart from that, usually the Mehrwegflaschen come from a more regional area around where you live which helps to save energy for the transport.

Auch an diesem Samstag , 7.12.2013, vor dem 2. Advent ist wieder eine Weihnachtswerkstatt bei uns: dieses Mal bieten wir eine Kreativwerkstatt mit Experimenten und Basteleien bei uns für alle Kinder bis 10 Jahren. Während die Eltern die Adventsvorbereitungen oder Weihnachtseinkäufe erledigen, haben die Kinder bei uns die Gelegenheit, zu basteln und zu experimentieren, z.B. mit Bienenwachs. Da nachgefragt wurde: Es können gern auch Kinder (und ggf. Eltern) mitmachen, die erst vor kurzem nach München gezogen sind. Die Kreativwerkstatt ist auch für Kinder geeignet, die Deutsch lernen bzw. ihre vorhandenen Kenntnisse nutzen wollen. Kleine Kinder (unter 4 Jahren) dürfen gern mit ihren Eltern teilnehmen. Anmeldungen noch möglich unter kontakt@little-shop-of-science.de

http://www.little-shop-of-science.de/event/weihnachtswerkstatt-experimente-und-basteln/

5th of Dec: My „eco Adventskalender“ suggestion for today: Have a look around you today (and maybe over the weekend). How many items do you find which you do not need (do not need any longer, never needed at all, …)? But you cannot throw out those items, because they are new, never used, in perfect shape? Search for three items for each category: 1. Something which you could give to a friend, because you think s/he would like to have it. Then, you send an email TODAY to that person and first ask her/him whether or not s/he’d like to have that item. 2. Something which you could bring to a charity shop (e.g. Oxfam) tomorrow, and 3. Something you can give away via Ebay, Parents in Munich Items for Sale, or some other platform. Let’s find a new home for some obsolete items!

PS: You can of course also find more than 3 x 3 items, but let’s start with a smaller number, just to make sure …

#gettingridof1000things

Wer morgen Vormittag noch nichts vorhat und/oder noch sich selbst oder anderen ein besonderes Geschenk zu Nikolaus machen mag: Diese und viele mehr Materialien und Werkzeuge, Nähmaschine usw. warten morgen darauf, dass möglichst viele selbst aktiv werden, um vorhandene Dinge wieder zu reparieren. Reduce, reuse, repair!

Und ganz nebenbei bringt es auch noch Spaß, die „geplante Obsoleszenz“ der Produkte vieler Firmen einfach auszutricksen.

http://www.fragpetra.de/2014/12/04/eco-adventskalender-2014-day-4-repair-something/

4th of Dec: My „eco Adventskalender“ suggestion for today: Repair something you own! I am sure that everybody has at least one broken item at home, some clothes with a missing button, a beloved, but broken toy, … Search for it TODAY and repair it TODAY! If you get stuck and cannot do this on your own, search for a repair event near you (search for „Repair Cafe, Reparaturcafe or similar words) or bring your clothes to a professional place near you („Änderungsschneiderei“). Fixing things helps to save ressources, avoids unnecessary waste, therefore it’s much better for our planet and nature – and apart from that it’s fun and can make you happier! Being able to fix items and to break the circle of buy-throwaway-buy new stuff can be a very nice feeling. Invite friends to do this together. Find people who are also interested to live a more sustainable lifestyle.
BTW: We’ll have a „Reparaturevent“ at my Little Shop of Science tomorrow morning from 10:00 to 12:00, Dec 5th 2014.

3rd of Dec: My „eco Adventskalender“ suggestion for today: Have your address removed from the database of all companies you are not interested in (anymore)!
It’s Christmas time! So, best time of the year for companies, they want your money! How many paper catalogues did your receive already? How many of them do you really want to receive on paper? How much paper was wasted for those catalogues and how much energy was wasted to produce them and to get them delivered to your house?
Have a look at all catalogues you got and check which one you do not want to receive any longer. Then, just send them an email and ask them to please remove your address from their list to help them save money and avoid wasting ressources. I will put a template (in German)  below.
PS: I’ve noticed that you may have to repeat this for some companies after a while. Some companies seem to put their customer’s address back into the mailing lists after each order.

Template:

Template – German: Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
um mein Altpapier und die Umwelt sowie Ihre Finanzen zu entlasten,
möchte ich Sie bitten, folgende Adresse aus Ihrem Adressverteiler
für Kataloge zu streichen:
[here comes your postal address with your name as it’s written by the company]
Kundennummer:[in case you have a number, also put it here]

Vielen Dank im voraus!

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
[your name]