Hello again and welcome to today’s edition of the Green Gazette where I scour the internet so you don’t have to and seek eco-tales of hope, interest and innovation. As ever I’ve a few things that I hope you will enjoy and ideally lead to more research on your part.

Today being Dec 4th marks the 64th anniversary of the United States joining the United Nations. I’ve noticed in recent years that the UN gets maligned by many people seeking to make political capital from the organization but I don’t think for one minute we should as collective citizens of whichever nation we’re from ignore just how much has been accomplished by what was always (and still remains) a noble concept. I also wonder if you realise that the UN also has a very active environmental body which is as it should be. The reality is that the UN Environment Programme is a large, active and industrious piece of the UN charter and is progressive in a truly global sense. Above and beyond the initiatives and action required to make inroads in terms of agriculture, emissions standards, rain forest concerns and so much more is the huge umbrella of unity that the UN brings to world leaders. So many UN backed principles will get foreign heads of state to participate as part of their obligation to the charter where otherwise these projects might be derailed, underfunded or worse still ignored. If you have time take a few minutes to visit the Environmental Programme homepage where you’ll learn in great detail just how powerful the UN remain in matters that are genuinely global. Equally exciting for qualified candidates just beginning their careers or perhaps looking to branch out into something more global are the employment opportunities around the world with this division of the UN. A friend of mine in London works in a department funded by his local borough that looks at river cleanliness and conservation and his board works directly with the UN to share results and practices.

Have you ever spent time (played with) Google Earth? It’s amazing once you get the hang of the navigation but also has the ability to consume your free time in a truly unacceptable manner. Google Earth since its inception has added so many new features that it serves as entertainment, research, navigation or education all bundled into one tool. Earlier this year Google added the ‘path to green energy’ add-on that allows you to mine even more information from the program with relevancy to climate, land use and renewable energy possibilities. The tool was co-developed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Audubon Society and sponsored by Google.org’s Geo Challenge Grants. For example you can zoom into a region, a state or even a county and see who essentially owns an area of land – to what use it is currently being put to – and what potential the land has for geothermal, wind farms, irrigation and more. While much of this is beyond my sophistication to fully comprehend it remains an interesting device to learn more about the direction the region you live in may potentially be able to head. Just this week the Governor of California (you know who….) released this video which features the Google mapping tool incorporating many  of the ‘path to green energy’ features Google have added. For much more information you can read this CNET post, but please explore Google Earth when you can. Incidentally should I capitalise the G on Google? Somehow that seems appropriate to me. I’ll be back soon with iceberg updates and more…..