Greenhouse Malta Opposes Development in ODZ Areas

Greenhouse Malta would like to make it clear that it does not oppose the investment in education. Education is the backbone of any society, and it is essential for the functioning and the prosperity of society. Any investment in education is and will always be welcome.

However the current development at Zonqor point is going to annihilate a grand total of 90,000 square metres. Ecologically speaking, the site hosts different habitats including, garigue, coastal areas and agricultural areas. Furthermore it is home to many different species of flora and fauna, including several birds. Such a development would destroy the little habitat that these species live in.

Another point which has not been stressed enough is that the area of Zonqor point is mostly inaccessible. This means that such a development would also have to include various road networks which would link the University to other areas. This would of course increase the impact of such a project.

The above mentioned factors show that development in Zonqor Point in the form of a University is not sustainable. We expect that this project is held at an alternative site which poses a much smaller harm to the environment.

We are proud to announce that we will be supporting and taking part in a National Protest on the matter on the 20th of June, 10am in Valletta. We urge our members and followers to attend in full force. Mark your attendance and share here.

Why the bridge linking Malta to Gozo is a terrible idea - Opinion Article

I’d like to start this off by pointing out that Malta has a limited budget. We can spend a given amount of money and use this money for a given amount of projects. I'm saying this because a billion euros minimum is a hell of a lot of money for Malta, meaning that if it were to finance the bridge, for both option 1 and option 2 of the project, the Maltese government would have a lot less money to spend on other valid projects.

Now let me make it clear I’m not a Gozitan and I don’t have to catch the ferry frequently. I do understand the frustration coming from Gozitans though. Gozitans do deserve a better service but a bridge won’t solve the problem.

Imagine getting stuck in traffic every day during the rush hour while trying to get home. Now anyone who doesn’t walk to work or school experiences this. Now imagine getting stuck in traffic from the centre of Malta till Mellieha and add to that nearly 9km of road. Great isn’t it? 

There will probably be more cars in Malta since thousands of Gozitans will be commuting daily to the motherland. Now I don’t know how long it would take for a Gozitan to get home, but I’m sure it would be a very long ride.

1 billion euros for that! Problem solved. Now imagine a different system, a cheaper and less polluting system. A system where you can take a short commute to Valletta, and catch a fast and frequent catamaran to Gozo. I’d reckon it would be much faster than having to cross the congested island by car, whilst also costing much less. Also people who live on the North of the island can catch a fast and frequent catamaran too from Cirkewwa.

Apart from that the bridge itself would be an eyesore. A tunnel could be a solution for this problem if it wouldn’t end up costing so much more than an already very expensive bridge, however construction would definitely lead to a huge increase in water turbidity, which is very detrimental to the sea's natural biota. The bridge would also turn Gozo into a single ‘blokka tal-konrit’, since it would now be so easy to develop as a mere extension of Mellieha.

All in all I feel as though we can invest our money elsewhere. A fast and frequent catamaran to Valletta is just so much cheaper and probably more effective than a bridge. Sometimes simple solutions work best.  

More info here

Marc'Andrea

An Impressive Upcycling Art Exhibition - This weekend!!

In completion of the Care Creates Change project

Greenhouse will participating in the Recycling Artistic Gallery behind held this weekend at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta.

We STRONGLY suggest you visit this event. There is some crazy Upcycling exhibited in it! :)

To read more about the project go here.

The Closing Event is on:
Friday 18th November. From 09:00 till 18:00
Saturday 19th November. From 10:00 till 18:00
Sunday 20th November. From 10:00 till 13:00

We are participating by setting up an stand on Endemic Plant species (most of which are for same if your into it :) ), Composting/Vermiculture and Permaculture (provided by the Permaculture Research Foundation.

In addition we are holding two workshops:

Saturday 19^th November from 12:00 till 13:00. (Simone Cutajar)

Don't waste your resources - Workshop on how what we

consider daily waste could be used as a resource.

Sunday 20^th November from 11:15 – 12:15 (Peppi Gauci)

Building Resilience in our Communities - Workshop on the function of our communities to address global challenges

The full programme of activities can be downloaded from here.

4 Environmental NGOs launch the 'Fish4Tomorrow' Campaign

Over the past few months a number of local NGOs have come together to create the Fish4Tomorrow campaign. The main aim of this campaign is to raise awareness on sustainable fishing within the local context. It also plans to provide guidelines to fish consumers helping them determine which Maltese restaurants serve sustainably caught fish. This idea is similar to the international Fish2Fork campaign (3). Also, Coalitions such as Ocean 2012 (2) which includes high profile members such as Greenpeace, Birdlife International, WWF as well as local NGOs like Nature Trust, Greenhouse and Sharklab (Malta) are on the forefront of raising awareness by campaigning for entire reforms such as the 2012 CFP Reform (Common Fisheries Policy Reform) which aims for healthy oceans and putting an end to overfishing amongst other issues. All this is done in the hope of ensuring that our oceans are preserved for us and our future generations.

Despite its large size, the ocean is not inexhaustible or exempt from the effects of human activity. Over the past decade or so the ocean has suffered irreparable damage and one of the major components is the issue of overfishing. Due to factors such as Globalisation, high levels of demand for certain species of fish have come about. Such is this demand, that governing bodies like the EU have pumped large amounts of money into companies providing them with highly sophisticated equipment and fishing vessels. This in turn has left fish with not enough time to reproduce and therefore giving the species very little chance of survival. The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (Thunnus Thynnus) is possibly one of the most high profile cases of overfishing the world is currently facing. In fact ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna) have assessed that there has been a strong decline in its spawning stock biomass since 1993.

Catch limits of Bluefin Tuna are currently higher than scientific advice. In 2010 this was averaged to be at 34% higher. In attempt to counteract this, a quota is set by ICCAT which determines the amount of Tuna that is allowed to be caught per year. In 2008, this was set at 28,500 tonnes and has since been reduced to 13,500 tonnes for 2010. This, scientists believe, is still not low enough to give the Tuna a fighting chance of survival. Currenty, ICCAT is facing a lot of criticism from European countries like Malta, Italy and Spain for suggesting a significant drop in the quota down to 6,000 tonnes for 2011 and has had to reconsider this decision since.


Malta is one of the countries which is on the forefront of this issue since it plays one of the most important roles in the ranching of the Tuna which comes into the Mediterranean to breed. In 2006, the MCFS estimated the Bluefin tuna production in Malta to be at 3,000 tonnes, worth around €46,000,000 (1). One of the main reasons why Tuna stocks have been depleting so rapidly is because it is so far impossible to farm the fish, it being a migratory animal. This means the tuna is caught and ranched in large amounts, fattened for 6 months and finally exported, mainly to Japan.




Greenhouse
Nature Trust (Malta)
Shark Lab (Malta)
Get Up, Stand Up


1) http://www.fao.org/fishery/countrysector/naso_malta/en
2) http://www.ocean2012.eu/OCEAN2012
3) http://www.fish2fork.com/




Media Features: Di-ve Media

Anthony's Trail: Make your own Green-house!

In a previous blog post we promised that we'd share some hints and tips on how to lower your domestic energy consumption! In Europe, about 75% of the energy used in the home is used for space heating. Luckily, we have a very mild climate here in Malta, but in some other countries the temperature can be in the negative degress celsius for a large part of the year and can go as far down as -40'C. Many countries in Europe have issues such as frozen water pipes during the winter months. In Malta we have more of a space cooling issue in summer than a space heating issue in winter. That said, I've heard many people complain that they feel cold inside their homes in winter, despite having the AC, electric radiators or gas heaters on and I suspect that that has much to do with construction inadequacies. 

Anyway here are some tips on how to lower your energy consumption in the home: 

Change your light bulbs! Energy saving light bulbs can reduce your consumption while not affecting your quality of lighting. Older energy saving bulbs take long to heat up until they reach their full strength, but nowadays there are good bulbs that don't take anytime to heat up, they're just like regular bulbs (but better!). I use 11W energy saving bulbs that shine as much as 60W bulbs and don't take any time to "heat up". Also, it's a good idea to choose the wattage of your bulbs depending on the "activity" you use them for. Identify bulbs you use for reading and ones you need for dim lighting and select appropriate wattages. 

Reduce Vampire Power- this means switching off all equipment from standby. Many people think that this is just a myth, but really, a lot of your energy goes down the drain by leaving music systems, TVs, DVD players, mobile chargers etc etc on standby.

Buy appliances that are rated as energy efficient. Try to aim for A or A+ appliances, these are very common now and most new technology is A or A+. All domestic appliances sold in the EU should be marked with the certificate shown below. Check it - it will save you money. 

Use less energy for heating/cooling: Set the thermostats of your ACs/central heating systems to the lowest temperature which is comfortable, in winter, and the highest temperature which is comfortable, in summer. So in summer your ACs should be set at around 25'C and not 16'C. Setting the AC temperature at too low a temperature puts a lot of strain on the AC unit and is overkill. Also, wear appropriate clothing, indoors, according to the weather: wear several layers in winter and as little clothing as possible (while remaining decent!) in summer. 

That's just the beginning. Check out the presentations, prepared by our friends at 5elemento (a Portugese NGO) attached for a long list of hints and tips for reducing your energy cosumption. Most of these are very simple and don't take any time or money and can save you money on your energy bill.

Tips 1


Tips 2

Anthony's Trail: Renewable Energy in the EU

88.1% of the world's energy comes from fossil fuels (in the EU 82% comes from fossil fuels, while in Malta it's 100% of course). The average person uses 2584 kwh however 77% of the world's energy is consumed by just 28% of the population. The European Union has long been trying to lower energy consumption and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, for two main reasons: 

1. Environmental Issues (such as global warming, health effects of pollution & the damage that pollution causes to ecosystems) 
2. Energy Dependency (most of the Union's fossil fuels are imported, resulting in a resource dependency). 

Regarding the Environmental concerns, most of the EU member states had signed the Kyoto protocol, back in 1997, and many (15) have actually carried out the necessary cuts and measures which they promised they would, with Latvia ranking on top, cutting emissions to 48% lower than the Kyoto target. As you can see in the first graph, many countries didn't quite make the cut. Of course Malta is down at the bottom of the list alongside Cyprus for not having actually signed the protocol! 

As for the dependency concern, Malta of course imports 100% of it's energy in the form of fossil fuels and is on the top of the list in the second chart, again alongside our friends Cyprus. 

The EU aims to solve the problem of emissions and dependency with a two-pronged approach: reducing consumption and investing in renewable energy sources. The general public seems to have certain reservations on renewable energy in their homes, mainly because a lot of the choices (such as Photovoltaic cells and Wind Turbines) are pretty expensive! But, there are practical and easy ways to reduce your energy consumption in the home and also use more renewable forms of energy.

In the coming blog posts we'll give some simple hints and tips as to how to lower your energy bill and help save the enviornment at the same time and also share some ideas and experiences with you. 

Check out the powerpoint presentation, prepared by members of 5elemento (www.5elemento.org), about the state of energy in the EU. 

Energy in the World

September Scavenging

Maybe the rain is still scarce for spring but in Students’ House cleaning has been the order of the day in the past few days. As some organizations switch offices, others plan to enter their first one but whatever the case the lower storey of the building has been buzzing with activity.

JEF- an organization that will be moving to a new office in the next scholastic year- thought of an innovative yet brilliant idea. Offices would be ceiling-full of stuff gathered from last year’s activities and events. While most of this stuff is only worthy of recycling, some is most definitely in a good enough condition to be reused. And JEF proposed to organizations cleaning up their offices to put their unwanted stuff in the corridor while other organizations scavenge for things that might be useful for them this coming year.

And lo and behold! Boxes filled with all sorts of crazy stuff filled the narrow corridors while the offices breathed a sigh of fresh air as their empty spaces were re-found.

Greenhouse members visited the activity and, being an organization with its first office, found a plethora of stuff that where considered handy. Throughout the time Greenhouse members spent going through the boxes of unwanted stuff, JEF and MUSC were clearing out their offices.

Greenhousers were scratching their heads (and washing their hands) handling all the brimful boxes.

Among the things that were recovered by Greenhousers were cutlery, banners, ropes, crayons, a cupboard, a fridge and much more. We had more capital than we ever had throughout the organization’s history! And all this would have ended up being thrown away in a skip!

Greenhouse members also gave a helping hand sorting out the materials in the waste boxes and separating them into paper, plastic, metal and other waste. The former three were disposed of in the bring-in site containers while the other waste was thrown away in a skip brought over for this clean-up event. One sided paper was placed in WINK/Greenhouse’s rough paper stand in front of canteen.

And thus we sorted all our newly acquired items in our new office satisfied that we reduced the amount of waste that would have been generated and content that we now had some useful stuff that might come in handy come next October. We commend JEF for the initiative and all organizations that participated.