The ever-green moss that grows around glaciers. Photo: Gunnlaugur B. Ólafsson.

Green drinks is an international way of net-working in the sphere of environmental issues and will be held in Reykjavik for the second time on the 1 of april. Here’s the invitation from the organiser of the event, Charlotte Ólöf:

Dear All
The second ever Green Drinks in Reykjavík will be held at Norænna Húsið on April 1st, beginning at 17.30. We hope to see some new faces and hear some new ideas.

Green Drinks is an international, informal networking event where environmentally minded people can connect over drinks. It started in London in 1989, it is now active in 448 cities worldwide; from Johannesburg to Manila, Hyderabad to Istanbul. At Green Drinks you will find an interesting mixture of people from academia, NGOs, government and businesses.

Other cities have found the event a catalyst for connectivity, community, collaboration and change in the environmental sector. Although Green Drinks is an organic, self-organising network, many people have found employment, made connections and friends, and developed new ideas.

Please forward this invite on to anyone you think may be interested. www.greendrinks.org

Charlotte Ólöf

–
http://charlotteismostly.blogspot.com

CoolPlanet2009: the new website of the UN’s European public information campaign on climate change (UNRIC) is live!

Here is a letter from our man at Unric:

CoolPlanet, was formally launched at a meeting of five Nordic prime ministers on 26 February 2009 at the Nordic Globalization Forum at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland.

Help the UN-lead negotiations on the new Climate Treaty to be finalized in December 2009 in Copenhagen by getting involved on our inter-active website.

Tell us about your projects, innovations, events and projects and see what others in Europe are doing.

And please, could you link to our website (we will publish your link too!)  www.CoolPlanet2009.org and ask everyone to get involved?

Best regards from UNRIC, Árni Snævarr.

The house of the National Museum, recently renovated

Today at 12.00 there is a lecture in english on green opportunities and local possibilities, at the National Museum of Iceland (beside the University), in the lecture-room on first flour. The lecturer is the danish Leo Christensen that has for the last ten years lead an evolution towards sustainable local communities in Danmark: On how they transformed the crisis situation into a growing process. He’s got an international attention for his work, for ex. in the New York times recently. It’s theLocal Agenda 21 in Iceland (from the Rio convention) and the Association of Environmentalists in Iceland that organise this lunch-lecture.

the research center is specialised in limnology

The University of Iceland Research Station in Hveragerdi, which has now recently been closed, has published great stuff on water researches and environmental researches, see for example, a report on the Aquatic fauna in Iceland, and pictures archives on the river Varma, which is a unique river of hot spring water and cold water.

The Nordic House designed by Alvar Alto

Friday 6th of March at six: time for green networking at the Nordic House, situated close to the University of Iceland. For this occasion, Náttura.info is working on a visualisation, a kind of mapping of the grass-root: of environmental associations and conservation institutions.

Green Drinks is an international, informal networking event where environmentally minded people can connect over drinks. It started in London in 1989, it is now active in 448 cities worldwide; from Johannesburg to Manila, Hyderabad to Istanbul. At Green Drinks you will find an interesting mixture of people from academia, NGOs, government and businesses.

Other cities have found the event a catalyst for connectivity, community, collaboration and change in the environmental sector. Although Green Drinks is an organic, self-organising network, many people have found employment, made connections and friends, and developed new ideas.

March 6th 2009 will be Reykjavík’s first Green Drinks. Norænna Húsið will host the event at 18.00 and will have a selection of organic wine and beer for sale. Please check Reykjavík’s page on www.greendrinks.org for details on future events.

Volunteers’ work is not very common in Iceland, but now times are changing in all regards. In Timesonline they list a volunteer work in Iceland on top ten for environmental work and VAKTIN, an Icelandic NGO asks for local volonteers:

From Timesonline: If olive harvest from the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers sounds like an excuse for a week of subsidised gluttony, its Iceland adventure is more ascetic. Living, working and sleeping (in your own tent) in the heart of the Skaftafell Vatnajokull National Park, you’ll spend a fortnight building and repairing hiking trails alongside volunteers from the Icelandic environment ministry.
From Charlotte Ólof Jónsdóttir Ferrier: VAKTIN is an Icelandic, Non-Governmental Organisation - working at grassroots level to enhance the look & feel of Reykjavík and surrounding area. Using community volunteers, as well as manpower from WorldWide Friends and the Green Army we aim to enhance and maintain the appearance of our immediate environment. In coming months, we aim to focus on the cleanliness of Reykjavík, and by the summer we look forward to spreading the volunteer initiative all over the country. We will initially focus on 101 Reykjavík, improving the appearance of the buildings and streets. During the summer we will work on a broader scale, planting trees, preparing fields for planting, cleaning the shoreline and endless other tasks! We hope to encourage people not take what we have for granted, to live more sustainably and realise the importance of living within the limits of the natural world, so we can preserve the future of our country, and the planet for future generations.

Energy windmills. Could be a solution for the Westfjords of Iceland where there is enough of wind

The Green days of Gaia in the University of Iceland continue throughout the week. Tomorrow the program is exciting, with a confrontation with the biggest energy companies of Iceland:

11:00 - 14:00
Energy Companies, Háskólatorg

Various energy companies will be visiting Háskolatorg: Landsvirkun, Nýorka, Geysir Green Energy and Metan.

Energy and human wellbeing are inextricably linked. Energy affects all aspects of development, the social, the economic, and the environmental, including livelihoods, access to water, agricultural productivity, health, population levels, education, and gender-related issues.

(meira …)

Students in Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Iceland, more precisely by the student association Gaia, with the help of the Nordic House and Institute for Sustainability Studies. are organizing Green days in next week, from the 2nd of March to the 7th, they will end with a green drink; which is an attempt to make sphere for networing of grassroots-organisations and other organisations that aim at an environmental conscience in Iceland. Náttura.info will keep you updated, day to day, of the program, which starts at 10 on monday at Háskólatorg, the coffee-house of the University. Professor and specialist in sustainable developement, Kristin Vala Ragnarsdóttir, Dean of the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, will be speaking first and then, Taru Lehtinen, President of Gaia and Þuriður Helga Kristjánsdóttir, Nordic House. Followed up by a conference on recyclability. For more info see the GAIA web.

The House of Lögberg, nest to the main building of the University of Iceland. photo: Bergþór.

Tonight at eight fifteen in the University of Iceland, house of Lögberg, room 101, gives Anita Rønne, professor in the university of Copenhagen specialist in natural resourches’ rights… a lecture named “Climate change and energy - The role of renewable energy and how law can advance or impede developments”. Admission is free.

From the Náttúra concert in Reykjavík last summer

An article and a sound-sample on Björk’s Spark work-shop and her aim at innovation and nature conservation in the Netherland’s Radio: http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/region/europe/090213-bjork-iceland