In response to Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak:

Anyone who thinks in ways to separate and rule the world, and put some groups of people above others is someone working against life, against his own life, his children, all the living creatures on this planet, all the plants everything that will and is directly affected and vulnerable to climate change. Such behavior is against human rights, it's against civilization and evolution, and by law punishable!

I think we should stop putting the power in the hands of the few. This planet is not ours we belong to the planet, nature is not to enrich us, we are born from nature, she is our mother, we owe it to our children, and grand children, we owe it to the future of our race. This is not about making a profit now!
NATURE DOESN'T GIVE BAILOUTS!
NATURE DOESN'T GIVE BAILOUTS!
NATURE DOESN'T GIVE BAILOUTS!
NATURE DOESN'T GIVE BAILOUTS!
NATURE DOESN'T GIVE BAILOUTS!
NATURE DOESN'T GIVE BAILOUTS!
NATURE DOESN'T GIVE BAILOUTS!
NATURE DOESN'T GIVE BAILOUTS!
NATURE DOESN'T GIVE BAILOUTS!

A confidential analysis of the text by developing countries also seen by the Guardian shows deep unease over details of the text. In particular, it is understood to:

• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;

• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called "the most vulnerable";

• Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance;

• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes.

Developing countries that have seen the text are understood to be furious that it is being promoted by rich countries without their knowledge and without discussion in the negotiations.

"It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the UN process," said one diplomat, who asked to remain nameless.

One article about Zac Goldsmith - that I reluctantly share ...

This is the excerpt I find mostly disturbing:

But if the author is the multi-millionaire son of Britain's most notorious buccaneering playboy, with the nation fascinated to see if he will turn out like his father...

Here's a link to the article.

In any case, his book is promising some thought provoking!

Great Resource for Business Ideas (especially if based in US) and Inspiration (around the world)

Thought I'd share. To view click on the image above!

London's Farmer's Markets

I never like to throw some useful information - I just found a leaflet for the London's Farmers Market Association. The New market was in Brixton.

Local markets are an important addition to sustainable living, and a very delicious one too!

Here is a link to London's markets.

And a few words about another eco warrior - Tamsin Omond

Tamsin has been - according to my observation a very active and inspirational figure among the environmentalists. I first heard of her at Climate Camp 2008 - near Kings North. It was at the 100th anniversary of the suffragettes in October 2008 (also marking my first face-to-face encounter with the Police outside the Parliament), when I first met her in person. Even now, Tamsin hasn't stopped to inspire and achieve - her actions with Climate Rush has managed to create a proper buzz around the issues of climate change.
I am now happy to announce that her Book Rush! has just came out:

Cornwall's eco chic boutique retreat

http://issue.stylist.co.uk/c4196eb6f72e1289f3380d67ff7f06b9.s2f

Seems like paradise to me! Off season is GBP 180 per room.

Finally someone is thinking bacteria...

I am fascinated by bacteria, and particularly interested in how bacteria contributes toand influences the human body. I will not go into much detail how I got interested in the subject but I am excited that a lot of research is happening on bacteria and human health.

It was when I lived in Germany that I first had my eyes opened to good bacteria. I do come from the country of natural yoghurt, full of healthy bacteria, but still it was in Deutschland that I got truly interested in the subject.
The first book I read was in German - The Microbiological Therapy (Leitfaden - der Microbiologischen Therapie) by Michael Martin. I find it a very interesting Subject: babies born through cesarean section are fed additionally bacteria.

13 years Later (I actually read the book in 2003) I finally see this topic being discussed in public - of course I might have missed a lot of publication - being quite busy working on my cleaning business.

So here it is an article on bacteria - it's what is inside that counts - by Mark Henderson

Bacteria in your intestines say as much about your health as your DNA: The consequences for medical science are huge: personalised treatment, safer drugs, even advances in understanding autism and schizophrenia.

The most shocking scientific fact of all and that I often use to convince my cleaning clients that antibacterial cleaners that not all bacteria is bad is that:

Count up our cells, however, and a more nuanced picture emerges. A typical adult boasts about 10 trillion cells in solid tissues and another 25 trillion red blood cells that supply the others with oxygen. But large as these numbers may seem, they are but minority players in the rich ecosystems that are our bodies. Our own cells are outnumbered at least ten to one by others that do not even belong to the same branch of the tree of life as we do. From a cellular perspective all of us are mostly bacteria. The adult human body is home to more than 100 trillion bacteria.

It's simply ASTONISHING.
It's also a great shame that no one Biology Textbook - in the average school contains this information. We are living in utter oblivion for who we really are.
100 trillion of bacteria in an adult body, 100 trillion, 100 trillion with a tri!


I have always had this big mind with all this big ideas - I once read a book, a science fiction book - that's where I got the basics for my personal take on conscious human evolution. The book was Slant, by Greg Bear (my most favourite writer of all time). Here is THE quote that completely blew me away:

So it all begins in bed.... Sex is often confused with reproduction. but bacteria engage with sex for the sheer desperate necessary joy of it - sex is their visit to the community library, the communal cookbook. They wriggle themselves through seas of recipes, little circular bits of DNA called plasmids. When they absorb a plasmid they don't necessarily reproduce, but they still swap genetic material, that's what bacteriologists call sex. Unlike us, however, bacterial sex - this kind of swap - can even occur between totally different kinds, what we once regarded as different species. But there are no true species in bacteria. We know now that bacteria are not grouped into species, as such, but evanescent communities we call microgens, or even more currently, ecobacters.

This is from a Sci-Fi book...

and then few pages later...

What makes us special? Like Bacteria, as social animals, we engage in communal sharing of information. We call it education, and the result is culture. The shape of our society relies on spoken and written language, the language of signs, the next level of language above the molecular. Some insert another level between these two, that of instinctual behaviour, but I believe that's just another kind of language of signs.

It's about several pages long thesis - it's a fascinating read, but as short of time I would only highly recommend you to read Slant by Greg Bear.

But before I conclude this article - here is what really did my head in:

Evolution is a kind of thought, a making of hypotheses to solve the problems posed by a changing environment. Bacteria operate as an immense community, not so much evolving as exchanging recipes, both competing and cooperating. We are comprised of alliances of cells that are made up of old alliances between different sorts of bacteria. We are, in effect, colonies of colonies of bacteria that have learnt many new tricks, including slavish cooperation.
.....

All separation is a convenient illusion, all competition is the churning of the engines of sex. Our social conventions give our culture shape, just as cell wall holds in the protoplasm; but we are soon approaching a time when education will overcome convention, when logic and knowledge must replace rote and automatism. This century can be characterized as a time of conflicts between old errors, old patterns of thinking, and new discoveries about ourselves. We have no big father in the sky, at least none that is willing to talk with us on any consistent basis.


...If we all think alike, if we all become uniform and bland, we shrivel up and die, and the great process shudders to an end. Uniformity is death, in the economics or in biology. Diversity within communication and cooperation is life. Everything your forebears, your ancestors, everything you have ever done, will have been for naught, if we ignore these basic bacterial lessons.

I hope this to at least intrigue a few of us.

I will probably have to come back to this post as the subject is of immense importance to me and I actually believe - our evolution, conscious human evolution must be on everyone's mind and th example with bacteria - just gives answer to the too many questions for the future, for living in a sustainable world, in creating a sustainable culture.

I will appreciate any comments and if you could share some of your related ideas - that will be great.

26 December 2009
Further to the above reading please read about the Human Microbiome Project.

otal microbial cells found in association with humans may exceed the total number of cells making up the human body by a factor of ten-to-one. The total number of genes associated with the human microbiome could exceed the total number of human genes by a factor of 100-to-one.

Green Your office

Since I have decided to start a cleaning business, I have been planning this day, when I will be creating our own green your office campaign.

Now finally at this stage, I was checking out the competition, proud to say just one position above us in the google search for #greenofficecleaning - Green Your Office. They have the best articles on their blog.

My favourite is about the electrocuted(%-) salty water as a cleaning solution- how amazing is that! But to find out more read the comment in the NYtimes

Here is another american article about electrolyzing salty water.

From the above article - Here is how it actually work:
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!

"Here's how it works. Electrolyzed water is produced by applying a low-voltage electrical charge to saltwater. Sodium ions form sodium hydroxide (NaOH), a strong base that cleans much like a detergent. Chloride ions form hypochlorous acid (HClO), which is a powerful disinfectant. The potent compounds are rendered harmless either by doing their job cleaning and disinfecting or they are simply rendered inactive over time."

Lift Off- Best Viewed Large

Lift Off- Best Viewed Large
Originally uploaded by aussiegall

I wanted to send this to my brother but then I better blog about bees.

My latest account of London city bee was last Friday when a giant black bee was flirting with my housemates sunflowers.

I love bees and for some reason i am partiularly fond of wasps too.

There are so many good things to say about bees.

Here is a link to an eye openning article about the danger of loosing our UK bees - if this happens that will be a total disaster.

@Aussiegall - thanks for the beautiful image.

Here it is: well i couldnt find the article but here is a video about a new urban beehive.

a link to the British Beekeepers' Association: http://www.britishbee.org.uk/

say NO to dirt!

Lush Hair

The first time I ever died my hair was with henna, and quite along time ago. Instinctively I have always avoided artificial chemicals and products full of them - specifically make up and hair products, and I have experimented with various natural materials and methods.

My favourite is the clay facial mask, bath and of course henna.

Here is one of my favourite brands - Lush - their henna is called poo but it contains a bunch of natural, lovely and safe ingredients -100%.

They make your hair look shiny, feel healthy with absolutely no risk at all.

Here are some more about it:
LUSH Henna Hair Coloring Products

What Is Henna?
Henna or ‘Lawsonia inermis’ is a privet type bush that grows abundantly throughout the eastern countries. It has a natural, vibrant red color that also coats hair to add loads of shine.

Henna quality depends on which country it is grown in. For instance, Egyptian and Pakistan henna gives a weak orange. Lush uses the finest henna in the world, which is grown in Iran (Persia) and gives a vibrant red color. Obtaining Iranian henna is not simple, but we are lucky enough to have a supply line into the UK. We purchase it by the container load (a few tons at a time) to offer the finest possible henna to our customers.

History
Hennas have been used since 3400 BC and is are well documented safe methods for dying hair (and skin). Hennas offer a safe alternative to coloring with commercial hair dyes. A henna can be modified with other ingredients like chamomile, rhubarb, coffee, and indigo.

OUCH: Originally, common commercial hair dyes were a product of the carpet dying industry in France. Such dyes were fatal substances and resulted in the deaths of many people.

Click here to go the Lush website and read more.

And that reminds me of a very important issue... The Codex Alimentarius.

Our top client hair and beauty salon Gielly Green is famous for their... sofas

We've been working with Gielly Green right from the start and it has been an great pleasure to look after this amazing space.

I couldn't resist blogging about their beautiful interior design, which the owners Fred Gielly and Shai Greenberg have designed themsleves.

Here is an exract from one of the articles on their designs from the ESMagazine:

Dentists use them, but every household should own one (it turns from an armchair into a bed/massage table in seconds).

I had the great pleasure to have sat on one, while I had the best ever hairwash/massage. Heavenly! ...and highly recommended - www.giellygreen.co.uk; t:02070243060...


The salon opened in Ocotber 2008 and it is a spa, beauty and hair paradise right in the heart of London.



Fred Gielly and the Reception area Shai Greenberg and him designed themselves.

My Carbon Karma

At the one life live show in March (where just a year ago I met lovely Katie Keegan, with whom we cofounded Green sisters) I spoke with the psychologies's editor in chief - Maureen Rice. She advised that I get in touch with Catherine Jones, who runs Psychologies' eco blog - Carbon Karma.

So in the last Carbon Karma blog post you can read about an eco warrior, who happens to be me... and I am very proud:

=

Let's hope this will be just a beginning of a successful and effective media journey!

Best Kate
Eco warrior and cleaning specialist!

Ultimately Spring time

Spring Greetings to everyone,

As Jonathan Ross announced last Friday - we have the hottest ever April - I must agree with him, it is too early to start sweating. No wonder some pretty deadly stuff is flying in the air. It is a scientific fact that flu viruses become more active, or was it the sci fact that people are more predisposed to viruses in Spring, due to our ehausted (from the winter) immune system and the sudden change of weahter conditions that are typical for the Spring season.

Swine flu is pretty serious, so as much as I have been promoting non-antibacterial products I must say - don't listen to me!

However I did my little research and I found those lovely eco and human friendly anti-bacterial soaps:
with tea tree:

Tea tree and calendula soap is similar to Lavender soap except that Tea tree is a more powerful antiseptic, anti fungal, and anti bacterial, and hence is a good soap to take travelling. Suitable for all skin types.

This 100% natural soap is made by Simply Soaps in the wild woods in Norfolk. All products are 100% Vegetarian, and most are Vegan too.(From Nigel's eco store)

Liquid tea tree soap:

This lemon tea tree soap is perfect to use in the kitchen and bathroom to reduce the spread of germs. Aloe vera and sugar beet make it gentle on the hands.
(From Eco Monkey)

Also please check out my website - I have managed to update few of the pages:
1. About Us
2. Our UECO shop
I have added some new brands: Natural Home, ENJO... Have a look! Anything that you fancy?

Enjoy the warmest April and please please, be clean and healthy - wash your hands!

Ecover answers questions in the Guardian

I have been using ecover for as long as I have known the brand.
May be nearly 4 years now. Ecover gives me security that it is biodegradable and will not harm my health and will not damage the environment, while it is doing what it is made to do - clean.
But since this big scandal with the water fleas, and I continue to hear some concerns about the eco credentials of a massive company that it seems ecover has become.
I have lived long enough to know not only about green wash, but about health wash, safe wash, honest wash and efficiency wash and since the trend to slash ecover continues I wonder how long my trust in Ecover will last!?

My favourite is the Lime scale remover. It does what is say on the tin and has saved me some good amount of elbow greese.


I am still investigating the quality of BioD and Method:
The one thing that turns me into an absolutely cleaning softy - if there is such thing is the design of the Method bottles... so funky!



What I put special attention on with my team is to make sure they have the know-how of how to use every brand and how to clean any surface regardless of the materials.
Ecover answers readers questions in the Guardian

By a Futerra Intern (and Doug Stewart):
Optimism isn’t just a belief that things can get better without knowing how. True optimists are the people who are actually searching for and creating solutions. Unless you have thought about and tried absolutely everything, it is very hard to prove that a better future doesn’t exist. So the main reason to be optimistic, then, is quite simple. If you really take it to heart it improves your odds of being right.

Since we started Green Sisters, or even as I was plotting my Ultimately Eco cleaning agency, I have been thinking about wrong and right solution to climate change - is there such thing as right or wrong answer to a global crisis. this idea flashes back a memory of when my little cousin(age 1, I must have been 21) got his first febrile fit. He had high fever and his mother had noticed some convulsions, we were just beginning to read what to do if he gets a fit, we haven't even read the first 2 sentences and he got it, his body twisted in the typical bow position, he turned pale and was convulsing. I took him and did what I knew, put my fingers in his mouth and pressed his tongue, I even slaped his face. It was so scary, and I did all the worng things, because I didn't have 30 more seconds to finish the home doctor instructions...

There are 2 points I want to make:
1. we should get educated, what is happening with the cliamte right now, what's the worse polluter, the worst contributor. I hope that when knowledge causes a reaction, that the first step is to know...then the solution or the desire to resolve will come naturally.
2. eventhough I didn't know what to do, I attempted to deal with the situation, the best way I could possibly do in this particular moment.
So to finish at an optimistic note:
My cousin is a lovely happy 11 year old. He is healthy and doing well. I took him skiing for a weekend. It was nice, he got better at the pizza/frenchfries and he came down some owesome slopes, covered in gorgeous thick white powder and I think we have a champion here!

Here he is at first 2008/09 school day, with his mother Elena Ilieva, Dramaturge of the Blagoevgrad Drama Theater.

Guardian Environment Blog .... Mechka Blog

Just added some text to my guardian profile: Bulgarian, but feel more inclined to say that I am born on this planet as the rest of us and am very considered about earth's future. Most of my life I have been searching for the meaning of life, who am I and have pondered many sleepless nights on what makes us happy. Now this seems almost irrelevant. We are talking basic Maslow hierarchy of needs here - climate change means not necessarily death but pain, suffering, injustice, loss, hopelessness, slavery and torture, it means, hunger, chaos and devastation - all the opposites of the purpose of our existence, what we have been striving for.
Last year I finaly managed to secure several bigger cleaning contracts using an eco friendly cleaning concept, trained several people how to use eco cleaning products and I was off on the road of green entrepreneurship. That's my bit. If you need a cleaner for your home or your office, or you simply need an advice about eco cleaning - just get in touch: kate@ultimatelyeco.com

Why is it so difficult to show some bravity to communicate my thoughts with the world.

I have been on a very focused journey dating from about the time I started reading books. Something switched, a little mechanism. May be one of the most influential books has been the Celestine Prophecy... or may be there was something earlier. Now, that got me thinking...
Where did it all start ... may be because I had a normal upbringing?
or may be it was this one sci-fi short story that my aunty read to me whan I was 10
or may be it all started while star-gazing lying in the grazing land near my grandparents microfarm in selo Mechka.

My mum just skyped me. She will send some recent pictures of that little microfarm where it all started...

Hadn't I had this experience, so close to the land, the earth, the plants, animals, wilderness or cultivated land. Wood chopping, constructing huts, I haven't allowed myself to think about this palce for a very long time. My family sold it in 1995 as we couldn't cope with maintaining it. We "invested" the money in tv set and some other household necessities, like a fridge freezer!
Sad.

Here how it looks today. Of course you can imagine that it has changed a lot.

The part on the right hand side, didn't existed. There was an outdoor tab with a large basin. The Bit on the leftb my grandfather had made it into warehouse, but it is now only a roof. There was a separate yard for the free range chickens and there were some apple trees, asma, a cherry tree, a 3 or 4 massive walnut trees.

I had a hiding or rather a reading place in one of the cherry trees. It was right in the centre of the plot high in the brunches of the tree. I spent quite a lot of lazy afternoons reading hidden in the brances of the tree. We had chickens, rubbits, goats and sheep, a dog and several cats.

All of us had to help in the farm and with the household, there was no escape. I have miles of hand digged and hand picked corn on my books! I did it, I moaned at the time but it always felt good at the end of the day.

Wondering why do we all need to bother about Climate change!?

Well, I cried today. Because I looked at some stunning pictures and I realised how much I miss it all - the real wildness!Photographs of sky high mountain tops and birds.
Images of real nature, unspoiled, genuine, harmonius, ....alive!




I watched recently Into the wild (see my njoyed bar bellow left). It reminded me how far away I am in London from real nature, from the real world! What we have here in this concrete world is detachment, departure, separation from what makes us human, what makes us part of the planet. I see that as the main reason for our ignorance and our shortsightedness...



And have you seen how beautiful it is outside right now... everything covered with white powder!