So which is the most eco friendly pet to keep and which pets should come with an environmental hazard warning? I am looking at which pets are more environmentally friendly than others as well as investigating whether green options exist for pet owners.

As you might expect keeping a pet horse or cow is a little more carbon intensive than sharing your home with a hamster or a gerbil. Indeed keeping a hamster or gerbil is probably about as eco-friendly as a pet can be; they eat little; they are low maintenance and generally seem happiest exploring their cage for the zillionth time. Unfortunately other animals are far more environmentally damaging; horses take up too much space, dogs and cats consume large quantities of meat, and more unusual pets such as snakes, exotic fish and budgeries are often illegally trapped, removed from their natural habitats and transported long distances. Not environmentally sound.

Now I can take some moral high ground here, I am not a pet owner since my two gerbils departed earlier this year. To be honest I am generally not a fan of having pets in my home; don’t get me wrong I like animals but having them dependent on me… perhaps not. The gerbils were great though, minimal effort and great entertainment, usually much better than the slim offerings served up by my television.

In the UK by far the most popular pets are the dog (estimated at 31% of UK households) and the cat (26% of UK households) (BBC News 06/02/2010). According to Brenda Vale’s recent book “Time to Eat the Dog” keeping a cat was equivalent to driving a Volkswagen Golf 6000 miles a year, whilst the family dog could be even worse – similar to running a couple of gas guzzling 4×4’s (The Times Online 06/04/2010). I suspect that this statistic probably varies between a Chihuahua and a Great Dane however.

So how can the environmentally aware pet owner ensure that their favourite pet is not an ecological drain and what can they do about it? Most owners probably won’t consider eating said pet but they might want to try creating an environmentally friendly diet.  Many of the large pet food companies are now tapping into the ecological guilt of pet owners and are producing sustainable pet foods, so owners can be safe in the knowledge that their furry friend is not causing excessive damage to the natural world. Also on the market are eco friendly dog beds, pet septic tanks and durable toys.

I guess the current environmental awareness asks us to review every aspect of life to see where we can improve our environmental performance. I don’t suppose that anyone would realistically ask someone to give up their pet for the sake of reducing their carbon footprint, after all there are much worse things we can do for the environment. It does seem that it is now an option that pet owners can now choose from an increasing amount of greener options when it comes to buying pet supplies. This does of course open up another whole can of worms regarding the validity of eco branding but that can wait for another time.

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Landfill sites have a number of associated problems including high emissions, ground and water contamination as well as being unsightly and smelly. One problem that an innovative landfill in Beijing is looking to solve is the bad odours created by landfill following a barrage of complaints from local residents bemoaning the unsavoury stench.

Beijing has a population of 17 million which is developing a more and more westernised throw away attitude, the city generates 18,000 tonnes of waste every day. This has led to a number (reports suggest around 200) of poorly managed tips on the city outskirts, many of which are illegally operated.

The landfill in question which is adopting a new strategy to reduce bad odours is the Asuwai dump site; they are set to install 100 large deodorant guns on the site. The giant deodorant guns can spray dozens of litres of deodorant each minute over a 50 metre radius. There are also plans to add more plastic covers over the landfill site to reduce the number of bad odours from becoming airborne.

Now local residents will be able to wake up to the smell of a combination of garbage and l’eau de toilette. Let’s just hope that the Beijing residents approve of the choice of deodorant, maybe a poll could be undertaken to determine a favourite fragrance.

Of course this can only be a temporary fix (if indeed it can be called that), China is developing a massive consumer economy and the statistics above tell us that longer term solutions are required. Less than 4% of rubbish in Beijing is recycled compared to 35% in the UK. Further to this only 2% is burned and the remainder is sent to landfill.

China faces a big challenge in order to ensure that its economic growth and success does not come at the cost of society and the environment. Consumer growth over the last 10-20 years has meant that the problem of waste has emerged too quickly to deal with effectively. The Chinese Government now realises this is an issue that will need to be actively addressed with plans to invest in a number of new incinerators, although this has been met by some strong local opposition as concerns have been raised regarding the safety of these. I assume that strangely they do not have similar concerns over the safety of the giant deodorant guns?

Source – The Guardian

At 8.30pm (local time) on Saturday the 27th March 2010, 4000 cities in more than 120 countries across the world turned their lights off as part of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) organised demonstration to raise awareness about climate change and the need for an ambitious global climate deal. This was the fourth time that “Earth Hour” has taken place in an attempt to increase awareness and has been described by the organisers as “both a warning and a beacon of hope”.

Millions turned their lights off for “Earth Hour” beginning at 8.30pm local time in the Chatham Islands off the coast of New Zealand. Over the course of the day lights continued to switch off as local times reached 8.30pm plunging many famous landmarks into darkness including the Sydney Opera House, The Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and The Empire State Building.

Whilst the singe hour will do little to nothing to reduce carbon emissions, the symbolic display was to raise awareness for a longer term climate solution. Whilst critics have been quick to point out that the short term switch off would create an upsurge when lights were turned back on after a relatively quick period of time. This could in fact lead to an increase in carbon emissions for the event.

The event has received backing from Gordon Brown and the UN as well as a number of other global leaders. Let’s hope that “Earth Hour” will have demonstrated that there is support for action and the need for a climate deal is of the utmost urgency.