Bees are flying insects belonging to the super family Apoidea.  They are easily distinguishable from other insects due to their large hind feet.  These feet have pollen baskets of stiff hairs which are used to collect pollen.  They feed on pollen and nectar and this nectar is made into honey inside the bee’s digestive system. There are approximately 20,000 species of bees; either being social, solitary or parasitic.  Parasitic bees go into the nests of other bees.  They are extensively valuable as agents of cross-pollination.  When considering the importance of bees then it is necessary to realise that many plants are ... Full Story

The term carbon neutral was coined by advocates against global warming and is part of their vernacular. Amazingly, there are about 25 different definitions of this term, which was the 2007 Oxford Dictionary ‘Word’ of the Year. It appears in dictionaries published since 2008. In attempts to raise awareness and fight global warming, proponents use a long list of acronyms such as carbon neutral; carbon footprint, carbon offset, carbon tax, carbon sequestration, carbon credits, green power and green tags to name just a few. Carbon Offsetting... The simplest definition of ... Full Story

The 2009 Isle of Man TT featured a new event this year.  TTXGP stands for Time Trial Xtreme Grand Prix.  This particular race consists of just a single lap but there is a slight twist.  All entrants to the race must ride motorcycles which are powered by fuels that are carbon free.  This means that the machines do not produce damaging greenhouse emissions. Notice anything different about the sound? The motorcycles are capable of about half the speed of the bikes ... Full Story

I remember my dad had a cactus. It was a relic from his student days. About the size of a banana, it sat in a tiny pot full of bone dry soil, all maudlin. I would study it occasionally, staring at the prickly thing, daring to touch one of the spines. One day I did. It was, surprisingly, incredibly pointy and incredibly sharp, moreso than it first appeared. It was the only time I touched the cactus. One day my mum, encouraged by a squabble the night before which had been entirely my dad’s fault, ordered him to ‘get rid ... Full Story

The alarm goes off. It's 6:30am. You know it's a Monday. What do you do? You can either go back to bed, phone in sick and surf Facebook, or you get up...helping you through this process of the morning news if your daily vice. Be it tea or coffee, I'm pretty sure you've got one of those lovely hot drinks by your side. But have you ever considered which is the more environmentally friendly? I bet you haven't! Coffee is the best thing in the world...or is it? Let's start ... Full Story

As we continue to become more environmentally conscious, many of us are looking for the greenest printers around to meet our needs. This is important as the printing industry contributes a great deal of pollution to our environment each year as energy is consumed and waste is produced.  Today there are new technologies that help to decrease the harmful effects of printing but not all companies choose to implement them. We all want to be green, don't we? It has become a trend in recent years to advertise a ... Full Story

Perhaps you’re concerned about the amounts of chemicals and pesticides that are showing up not only in our foods, but our bodies.  Of course you’d like to keep yourself and your family as healthy as possible.  Or maybe you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an illness, or the idea of simpler living appeals to you. You want your food to be free of this! You can cook a completely ‘green’ meal, even if you’re living in a small flat with no garden.  It takes a little ... Full Story

When we head off to work at our offices there is this burning question about how environmentally unfriendly we are and it is a label that a lot of us hate being tied to. When I worked in an office, I hated the idea of people thinking less of me and it can bring you down quite a bit unless you try to improve the situation for the better. A green office? I remember working in a council office a few years ago within their planning department and it ... Full Story

Something terrible is happening to bees. Hundreds of millions of them are either vanishing or dropping dead. Beekeepers are tearing their hives out in frustration. Look how cute these things are?! Fingers are pointing at a number of contributing factors. Relatively new pesticides designed to impregnate the seeds of crops before they have grown could be a potential problem. Climate change has been isolated as a likely cause (though to be fair climate change could plausibly be blamed for a raucous sex scandal in the tabloids these days). The nasty ... Full Story

This countdown contains no CFCs. 10. Reign of Fire Based on the premise that constructing a new London Underground line leads to waking dormant dragons, Reign of Fire gets progressively more ridiculous from that point onwards. With a legion of fire-breathing monsters laying waste to pretty much the entire world, it is left to the few remaining humans to slay the beasts. By the end of the film pretty much everything is dead, the environment ruined, and Christian Bale’s career is hanging one-handed off a cliff like a starving man with a ... Full Story