While searching for the culprits and analysing the scope of the damage on marine life, cleaning up the coast is posing itself as a huge challenge due to the unstable weather Dubai has been experience of late. Unpredictable sandstorms and strong sea currents have made it hard to contain the trail of dead fish and many have reportedly been swept off the coast to outside the Arabian Gulf entirely.

BuildGreen

Dubai Municipality has rolled out a scheme designed to encourage residents to recycle more, and to keep recyclable materials out of landfills.

The initiative, called My City My Environment, will see over 3500 waste recycle bins provided to households in the emirate to encourage them to contribute to Dubai’s zero waste by 2030 goal.

A trial will target houses in Al Mizhar 1, Al Mizhar 2 and Nad Al Hamar before the municipality extends the initiative across other locations in Dubai.

Director of Dubai Municipality’s Waste Management Department, Abdul Majeed Abdul Aziz Saifaie explained that almost 70% of waste generated by each household in Dubai consists of plastic, glass and other recyclables. Encouragement to segregate at source would help the emirate achieve its zero waste to landfill goal much more quickly.

Imdaad, Averda and Dulsco have been appointed by the civic body to distribute the waste bins and collect waste directly from houses in the three areas.

ConstructionWeekOnline

Global Warming. Berlin, art installation: Melting Men by Nele Azevedo.

1,000 mini ice sculptures in Berlin, highlighting the impact of climate change: a very clever and powerful way in which to get the message across. Melting Men is a series of art installations from the Minimum Monument project created by Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo.

Since 2005, Azevedo has been setting up her Melting Men in various countries around the world. Although originally intended as a critic of the role of monuments in cities, environmentalists around the world are adopting her work as climate change art.

The project started with solitary figures, later a multitude of small sculptures of ice were placed in public spaces of several cities. The memory is inscribed in the photographic image and shared by everyone. It is not reserved to great heroes nor to great monuments. It loses its static condition to gain fluidity in the urban displacement and in the change of state of the water. It concentrates on small sculptures of small men, the common men.

The amount of sculptures depends on the place. The place where the intervention happens has always an historical meaning to the town. For instance, the Dom Joao I Plaza, in Porto – Portugal, or the medieval plaza with the bronze lion, in Braunschweig.

In Sao Paulo there were 300 sculptures in April 2005. Later that year, 400 ice figures melted on the L’Opera Stairs and Mairie du Novienne, in Paris. In June 2006 more than 500 melting man were placed in Braunschweig Plaza and in September there were 1000 sculptures melting in the city of Porto. In Firenze, Italy, 1200 ice sculptures were placed in the stairs of Instituti delle Inocenti at the Piazza della Santíssima Annunziata, built by the renaissance architect Brunelleschi! As it always happens, the people who were there were invited to help build the monument, placing the ice figures.

When there are more sculptures, the bigger the impact, and it reaches a monumental scale, but with the sculptures starting to melt in 30 minutes you need to be quick to see them… If you think about it, it is scary!

These installations were done in collaboration with the WWF to highlight global warming.

Greenmuze.com

For the first time, Earth Hour, being held on 31 March, is taking a giant leap from its annual lights out event to offer a further opportunity for its communities to be part of the world’s environmental solution.

Earth Hour began as a one city initiative in 2007, and has since grown to be a 5,251 city strong global movement, reaching 1.8 billion people in 135 countries across all seven continents.

The “I Will If You Will” digital platform created by global ad agency Leo Burnett, is the result of a collaboration with YouTube, therefore bringing together the world’s biggest social video platform with the ‘world’s largest action for the environment’.

The “I Will If You Will” campaign uses the YouTube video platform to empower people to share a personal dare with the world by asking, “What are you willing to do to save the planet?”

Earth Hour Co-Founder and Executive Director, Andy Ridley says “I Will If You Will” is the obvious next stage in the environmental campaign’s evolution.

“I Will If You Will gives every individual the opportunity to inspire their friends, colleagues and neighbors to take sustainability actions not just on the hour but beyond the hour,” said Ridley.

The concept of “I Will If You Will” centers around providing a social contract for two parties – connecting one person, business or organization to a promise and their friends, family, customers or members to a challenge – uniting them behind the common goal of creating a positive environmental outcome. The simple promise can range from recycling, to switching to energy efficient light bulbs, turning off your mobile charger, or signing up for paperless banking.

In the UAE, participation in Earth Hour began in 2009 and the popularity of the campaign has increased year on year with landmark after landmark across the emirates switching off lights and residential areas plunging into darkness for Earth Hour. In 2011, all 7 emirates saw official participation from key landmarks including; Sheikh Zayed Mosque, Burj Khalifa, Al Qasba and Fujairah Fort. Committed partners facilitated the organisation of many events across the emirates partners, galvanizing with the support of the UAE community.

Earth Hour 2011 also saw tremendous participation from businesses, government authorities and individuals. More than 400 businesses officially signed up for Earth Hour reaching out to their employees and customers, media covered the campaign extensively, and communication through social media alone was estimated to reach over 100,000 people.

This year, Emirates Wildlife Society in association with WWF (EWS-WWF), plans to make Earth Hour the biggest it has ever been in the UAE by getting even more people involved in the global movement. Ida Tillisch, Acting Director General of EWS-WWF said “We call on all UAE residents to participate in Earth Hour and in the I Will If You Will Challenge. We all have the power to make a change. It is only through the collective action of every individual, business and government throughout the world, that we can make an impact. ”

Several partners and ambassadors in the UAE have confirmed their participation, and EWS-WWF hopes that the list grows. Earth Hour 2012 will take place at 8.30pm – 9.30pm on Saturday 31 March

Visit the Earth Hour UAE website here: www.ewswwf.ae/earthhour

Visit the Earth Hour YouTube platform here www.youtube.com/earthhour

The 14th Water, Energy, Technology and Environment Exhibition (WETEX) 2012, the global leading exhibition in Water, Energy, Environment, Oil and Gas will present for the third year the SmarTech – the only B2B and B2C marketing platform dedicated to encouraging the responsible use of resources in all sectors of the community.

Organized by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) for the past 13 years in accordance to the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, and under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Finance Minister of the UAE and President of DEWA, WETEX 2012 will take place from the 13^th to 15^th of March in Zabeel Hall and Halls 1,2,3 and 4, at The Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre with SmarTech taking place in Halls 3 and 4.

“We drive our environmental strategy with the aim of establishing the principle of sustainable development in all sectors of the community. By raising the level of environmental awareness and by encouraging the adoption of eco-friendly behaviours in the community, we will preserve our natural resources for future generations. To facilitate this change, Smartech is supported by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s marketing campaign; targeting businesses, consumers and an international road show,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of DEWA.

“SmarTech at WETEX will showcase the future of green commerce. Energy conservation must be part of everyone’s daily lives and by facilitating best practices in both the commercial and residential sectors through supporting the development of strategies, marketing platforms and opportunities where people can exchange ideas, innovations and information we will begin to drive environmental change and help to combat global warming and build a sustainable future for planet earth,” added His Excellency.

SmarTech is the only trade platform in the Middle East dedicated to help showcase, promote and market green-centric technologies, goods and services to both B2B and B2C customers. In line with the SmarTech slogan – Think Green. Live Green. For our planet’s well being, the 2012 event will see brand owners, manufacturers, dealers, distributors and retailers from around the world come together to introduce their energy-efficient and water-efficient technologies to customers through product demonstrations, high quality industry seminars and lectures during WETEX 2012.

Exhibitors at SmarTech will benefit from being part of the fast growing industry for new environmentally-friendly technologies and gain access to global leaders, policy and decision makers who visit the event.

Backed by over 30 high-profile sponsors, the WETEX exhibition attracts some 12,000-plus visitors each year to the 33,000sqm, three-day spectacle and brings together more than 1,000 companies from over 32 countries around the globe to participate in vital economic activities for the energy sector.

For further information about DEWA, WETEX and SmarTech please visit www.WETEX.ae