Design Line Fast Lane

Sunday, April 19, 2009

SOME U. S. PAPER MILLS GOING "UNGREEN" ?

In this global recession many lofty ideals get compromised. Traditionally, mills get energy

from burning "black liquid" which is a by-product of the pulp-making process[ pulp is the raw material to make paper]. Recently the U.S. government initiated a tax-rebate for using less fossil fuels. Instead of coal or other fossils , diesel is encouraged. So millions of dollars are given out to companies that add some diesel into the "black liquid". Some companies' entire profit is made more or less of this rebate. In fact the total pay out is 6 billion USD. It is controversial ! . One can argue this act will retain jobs, feed family, lessen the crime rate and suicides ....The counter argument is you are keeping the letter of the law but not the spirit.

Read more here http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=abDjfGgdumh4&refer=home

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A must watch documentary

I have just watched the movie" Home "which was stunning. Excellent videos from the air narrated by award- winning actress Glenn Close with a heart piercing message. This non-profit movie is made by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and financed by many good people and companies. This is what Yann has to say;

We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate. The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being. For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film. HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.

Indiscriminate cutting down of trees is obviously one of the issues in this film and that reminded me the importance of NGOs like FSC, PEFC, SFI and so on.

click this link to watch it for free

http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

Stephen

"Above is paradise;below is Suzhou and Hangzhou"

The above popular saying traces back 1000 years to Tang Dynasty [618-907AD].

Hangzhou, located in the southeast of China, is a beautiful scenic city . The famous West Lake, the profound tea culture and as the "City of Silk" make it a must for visitors to China. It is one of the seven ancient capitals of China and dates back to 8,000 years ago in the Neolithic Age.

Visitors like Marco Polo in the 13th century wrote of it as the "City of Heaven". Apparently of all the places in China Mao Ze Dong loved Hangzhou the most.

Yes......I know ,this is not a travel blog. But I just want to brag that I was there. And for a paper seminar. It was a wonderful presentation by the paper mill. But more about that later.

I had one of those moments. Traveling along two-laned clean roads from the outskirts to the city you are greeted with rows of houses with European facade only to be awakened as you enter the town to realise one is still in China ; signboards ominously proclaiming its oriental heritage. But this is a far cry from the image in the early nineties. I remember then in Beijing everything looked like an adaptation from the Red Army ; men and women dressed unmistakably similar just almost like the buildings , uniform dull and faded green.

But back to the present. Our paper seminar ran for two days 17th July and 18th July. On the 19th a local Chinese paper merchant offered to take us to the famous wetlands. So that Sunday this nice gentlleman in his early forties arrived at the hotel in his German automobile. We soon found out that though he and his wife own the business he is actually an active interior designer. As the car wove our way through the city we were flanked on both sides many commercial shops with glaring Chinese signs [otherwise hieroglyphics to me] and Chinese advertisements. I was reminded that I was still in mainland China. I slumped into the soft plush leathery rear seat of the latest BMW530. I was just soaking in the comforts of capitalism when the music played a lady voice singing jazz in French. Twenty minutes of lovely unrecognisable songs the CD player switched into the music of the Carpenters, one of my favourites[ Richard and Karen of the seventies]. Here as we were gliding through the Communist terrain in the sleek German machine drowned in the familiar soothing American sounds of "We've only just begun" I went into in cloud nine.

It was the moment. I could not believe it. Flashes of delightful nostalgic moments of my idealistic youth almost forty years ago thrusted against a background of an authoritarian Comminiust regime of the 21st century. East meets West, Capitalism marries Communism . Evolution. Destiny. Change.

Possibly, as the song goes it has only just begun.