biodiversity - Our Green Health

How Air Pollution Affects our Health and Destroys Flora and Fauna

04/02/2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

Air pollution affects our health in a very direct way. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that air pollution kills “an estimated seven million people worldwide every year”.

The toxic agents causing this disaster are particulate matter, carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. These toxic agents are released by household combustion devices, motor vehicles, industrial facilities, and forest fires.

At this very moment, we all breathe air that exceeds the guidelines of the WHO. Low and middle-income countries suffer the most.

Why we Desperately Need Sustainable Citizens’ Initiatives

28/01/2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

We desperately need more sustainable citizens’ initiatives, because we cannot trust politicians to take the effort. I explain my lack of trust in politicians by expressing my amazement about some peculiar political beliefs.

I do this to introduce a project that tries to change devastating agricultural practices for the better: GO Agrodiverso.

It’s an amazing project because it’s aimed at the conservation of as great a variety of national fruits and vegetables as possible. The participants want more biodiversity in agriculture.

Global Biodiversity Dictates the Quality of Our Life

24/01/2022 by Tom van Oosterhout

Global biodiversity dictates the quality of our life. You might compare it with our personal health. It’s one of our most important assets. The reason of course is that it makes us feel good. Yet, there is more. We perform better when we are healthy. Physically and mentally. We measure our well-being by our health. Our quality of life is measured by our health.

There are a lot of pines where we live. All the neighbours in our street spray poison against the pine processionary caterpillar. This spraying is totally nonsense and goes against every biodiversity logic. All the natural enemies of this caterpillar live here: the praying mantis, dozens of bats, cuckoos, and the great tit. Our neighbours consciously destroy the habitat of these animals and are a threat to the biodiversity in this area.

What Are the Best Ways to Control Garden Pests without Chemicals?

17/12/2021 by Hannie Mommers

It’s December at the moment and back in the Netherlands, I would never have to worry about pest control at this time. But over here in Spain, my second crop is in the kitchen garden. And the grasshoppers have a field day on my plants.

Whenever possible I try to avoid killing insects. I prefer them to move over to the woods behind our house or to the campo (the Spanish countryside). But I also want to eat my harvest so if they are very persistent, I take bigger measures.

What are the best ways to control garden pests without using chemicals or artificial toxins? I have listed 10 methods in this article.

How to Attract Insects to our Garden and Support Biodiversity?

29/10/2021 by Hannie Mommers

Do you like spiders? Flies? Mosquitoes? Most people don’t. Sometimes for good reasons, sometimes because of ancient-old ingrained fears.

Would we want to attract insects to our garden?

It turns out that people hate invertebrates. Bad news for those poor creatures, because they make up 98% of the animal species. And all humans do is try to destroy them.

In the movies, invertebrates come off badly, and in the Bible, too, they are portrayed solely as pests and exterminators. Small children usually have an intuitive fear of anything that has more than 2 legs – spiders, crabs – or less, such as snakes.

Is Biodiversity Important to the Survival of Humans and the Planet?

10/09/202110/09/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

During the past 200 years, humans had a substantial and not very positive impact on biodiversity. Our modern lifestyle, with sprawling cities and infrastructure, with our lighthearted production and consumption attitudes, pushed biodiversity to the brink.

With this, we produced substantial risks. Even our and the planets’ survival is at risk. Burning fossil fuels and spreading around millions of tonnes of chemical poisons jeopardize our existence as a species.

19 Reasons Why Trees are Vital to the World, including Us

18/08/202118/08/2021 by Hannie Mommers

Even though I don’t want too many or big trees in our garden, I am well aware that trees are vital to the world. The only reason that I don’t want too many of them in our garden is that they wouldn’t have room to grow.

It’s kind of a luxury decision. After all, we live at the foot of a nature park that covers the mountains in front of our house. And behind the house is a little terrain covered with trees and shrubs. Plenty of trees in my environment to enjoy.

Poverty in the World and Sustainability, a Tense Relation

26/05/202126/05/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

Poverty in the world and sustainability are not on par. Sustainability plans are usually designed to manage the long-term environmental impacts of human activities. What we tend to forget is that these plans can have devastating effects on world poverty.

Economic growth, financial stability, and jobs are often believed to be essential to sustainability plans. These plans are usually aligned with the protection of ecosystems, biodiversity, and water resources on which the poorest of the world depend.