An inexcusable lack

Listeners rebel against the decision to stop the BBC in Bulgaria, following spats with UK media and increased competition for local air space

COLUMNISTS: GREEN LIGHT: Into the wild

Out of all the environmental logos and certifications, the FSC logo has got to be one of my favourites. I own just one FSC-certified item bought in Bulgaria and that's my German-made Gardena hedge clippers. The wooden handles proudly display the FSC sign. This sign guarantees a few things to which I am not indifferent. I know that the wood on my hedge clippers comes from a certified forest in one of 82 countries around the world that participate in the FSC programme, the standards for which were set in California back in the 1990s.

Being healthy in Bulgaria

Natural & Organic, a young Bulgaria company that aims to "promote green living, the organic market and optimum nutrition" in the country, is holding a seminar entitled How to Be Healthy, or what healthy eating and a healthy way of life means, on June 16 to 18 2008. It is to take place at Mag Studio, number 13 of 20 April Street in Sofia, from 6.30pm to 9pm.

OPINION: GREEN LIGHT: Bookworm

I was in London recently and picked up a few paperbacks… as one tends to do. The connection between paper and trees has been on my mind quite a bit lately and although I have cut down on most paper products (to this end I don't own a printer and have consistently refused business cards), books have never entered the equation. However, the reality of the book publishing business is grim. Greenpeace has campaigned vigorously for greener standards in the industry and, to be fair, judging by the paperbacks in my backpack, the organisation has done well. At least half of the books I now own are printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. As I pick up the books and decide whether to purchase them, I find myself looking for this reassuring information more and more. The Rose of Sebastopol, the best selling novel by Katharine McMahon, almost doesn't make it because Phoenix Fiction has not bothered to take into account the sensibility of us, environmentalists. It's hard to boycott art though, and I compromise.

COLUMNISTS: GREEN LIGHT: Political animals

I don't live on another planet - I do know that the environment is not high on the agenda of Bulgarian politicians right now. But how do we change that? This year I went back to school, sort of. I am taking part in the School of Politics run by New Bulgarian University. It's really geared towards young politicians, but there is the odd journalist or representative of an

COLUMNISTS: GREEN LIGHT: Outside, inside

This month of March finds me in London. It's not my first time here, far from it. But it's the first time I am noticing how green the city is. Literally and metaphorically speaking. The contrast with Sofia is far too great to be ignored. I have never understood why green spaces in Sofia have to be so run down. It doesn't cost much to plant a tree, a bush, a flower, and it doesn't cost much to maintain that. It can't be a money thing for

COLUMNISTS: GREEN LIGHT: Sun and wind

Two thousand and eight is off to a flying start. I can't complain. Two days into the new year I got my first solar gadget. It's a PDA-sized solar charger that can be used for charging, well, PDAs, mobiles, digital cameras, mp3 players and the like. I felt strange using it for the first time. I have been writing about renewable energy for quite a while, but have never actually owned anything that plugs directly into the sun,

MAKE YOUR WEEK GREENER: This week - Make your office green

A recent edition of the daily newspaper Dnevnik had a free pocket guide to a greener office. The guide is a collaboration between the teams behind Gorichka and Dnevnik. We have put together an in-depth, informative guide to the endless ways you can save energy and resources while at work. There are chapters on energy, recycling, transport, becoming CO2 neutral, water, furniture, cleaning

MAKE YOUR WEEK GREENER: This week - Plant trees

This weekend you can go up to Vitosha for something other than hiking. On Saturday October 13, from 10am, you can join Gorichka and a team of volunteers planting conifer trees in the area of Momina Skala (signposted from Zlatnite Mostove). This is an area of about 1.2ha that Gorichka planted in the spring. However, due to the hot summer, some trees dried out and need replacing. On Sunday October 14, also from

This week: See "The Earth From Above"

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Yann Arthus-Bertrand's photos are not easily forgotten. If you have stumbled across the Frenchman's open air exhibition in one of the 100 cities it has already toured, you will remember the encounter. His images of the earth from above - from lavender fields in France to coral reefs in Australia - are unique in telling a story. Rather than just "shoot and run", Arthus-Bertrand documents our amazing environment through

This week: See "The Earth From Above"

Yann Arthus-Bertrand's photos are not easily forgotten. If you have stumbled across the Frenchman's open air exhibition in one of the 100 cities it has already toured, you will remember the encounter. His images of the earth from above - from lavender fields in France to coral reefs in Australia - are unique in telling a story. Rather than just "shoot and run", Arthus-Bertrand documents our amazing environment through

MAKE YOUR WEEK GREENER: This week: Recycle toner cartridges

This year, more than 350 million laser and inkjet cartridges will end up in America's landfills. That's equivalent to more than 90 000 truckloads and worth a recycling value of more than $1 billion. Toner cartridges don't have to go out with the rubbish. Ninty-seven per cent of the components are recyclable. They can be remanufactured into new ones, which saves raw materials, landfill space and other important

MAKE YOUR WEEK GREENER: This week - Choose organic cotton

I would be lying if I said that wearing organic cotton feels different from wearing non-organic. But the issue lies elsewhere. Cotton may well be the most sprayed and, therefore, polluting crop known to man. Twenty-five per cent of insecticides and 10 per cent of pesticides in the world are used on cotton. If we genuinely care about the land - soil, water, biodiversity -- this is serious stuff. This may be the reason the organic

This week - Watch the Monster Tomato Tour

This summer Friends of the Earth is sending its Monster Tomato on tour around Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania to raise awareness of GMOs (genetically modified organisms). While 70 per cent of Europeans are firmly against GMOs in their food, fields and countries, few Bulgarians know about the problems that GMOs can cause. Having said that, Bulgaria already has five GMO-free municipalities. The tour will pass

This week: Watch Live Earth

If you thought that Live Aid or Live 8, the 1985 and 2005 concerts in support of Africa, were huge and truly global, you may need to think again. This weekend's Live Earth concert, the music feast that aims to raise awareness of global warming and climate change, is expected to be watched by 2 billion people. Now, that's one third of the world's population. According to organisers Al Gore and Kevin Wall, the latter

This week: Calculate your CO2 emissions

Calculating our CO2 footprint is a very powerful tool in terms of building environmental awareness. A great number of organisations offer to calculate the extent to which each and every one of us, as individuals or businesses, pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. There's nothing quite like measuring a car journey, weekend break or gas bill in terms of carbon dioxide to teach us about the dos and don'ts of our low-

This week: Recycle your batteries

Batteries are among the most toxic waste we produce. Nickel, lead, mercury, cadmium, alkaline/zinc - these heavy metals have no place in a landfill, because these active ingredients leak into our soil, water supplies and eventually end up in the food chain. Yet in Bulgaria, batteries regularly go in the rubbish bin, just like ordinary domestic waste. The Environment Ministry has appointed Bateria AD - once the

This week: Don't leave appliances on stand-by

It's common sense to switch off the telly before leaving the house, but not all of us know that leaving appliances on stand-by will still consume electricity. I've read various estimates as to how much a TV draws from the grid in this idle mode, and the figure seem to vary between eight and 12 per cent of the total consumption. The exact number is not that important. The idea is that appliances left on stand-by consume

This week - plant trees

Earth Day may be gone, but it's still tree planting season. On Sunday May 5, Gorichka joined forces with Project Vitosha to plant three acres of wood around Momina Skala, close to Zlatnite Mostove on Vitosha Mountain. Hundreds of trees had to be cut down because of severe infestation in 2001 and it's taken a while for the area to be replanted. Project Vitosha works with companies and organisations that wish to

This week-jump on the train

Guardian journalist Leo Hickman, author of green-living bible/bestseller A Life Stripped Bare, was trying to make a point about sustainable transport when he jumped on the train to Italy for his annual holiday. Travelling along were his wife and one-year-old daughter. This made a lot of people think "if they can do it, I can do it", which of course was the whole point. Currently, trains (and ships, but let's leave those aside

This week-beware of air miles

Last week saw Michael O'Leary, head of no-frills airline Ryanair, proclaim that he will start flying people from London to New York for under a tenner within a few years. Environmentalists were outraged. Air miles are a major contributor to CO2 emissions and all talk about reducing green house gases is rendered meaningless when someone announces that he or she is planning to fly yet more planes.

This week - start composting

I don't compost as such, I just collect organic waste from my kitchen and give it to someone who has a compost heap. The size of domestic waste in my home has since gone down dramatically. I read somewhere that close to a third of our waste can go straight into the compost pile. I second that. If sent to landfill it will not biodegrade because of lack of oxygen. And our gardens will lose valuable nutrients that no chemical

MAKE YOUR WEEK GREENER: This week save water

After a winter of very little snow, it's easy to see how saving water may turn into one of the most important green-living issues. Water shortages and the need to stop wasting this valuable resource were highlighted during last summer in the "house-pipe ban" Britain. But water levels are dropping all over the world and the problem is global. In some places in China, farmers dig wells that are up to 300 metres

Get energy-saving bulbs

I suppose it's a well known fact that incandescent bulbs use 90 per cent of the energy to heat up and only 10 per cent to light up. This is probably why the quest for electricity did not stop with Edison and we are on the brink of mass producing the next "bulb" - the light-emitting diod, or LED. While we wait for this wonderful invention to make the world 50 per cent more energy efficient, we can turn to another worthy

MAKE YOUR WEEK GREENER: Go see An Inconvenient Truth

What a great choice for a closing gala for the Sofia International Film Festival on Sunday March 11. When the organisers picked An Inconvenient Truth, they couldn't have known they were choosing to see off the event with an Oscar winner. In late February, Hollywood voted Al Gore's global warming film Best Documentary of 2006. Yet, although last year may have been the year of An Inconvenient Truth in

MAKE YOUR WEEK GREENER: This week - reduce food miles

Food miles is a relatively new concept in Bulgaria. At the market I always ask for the origin of what I am buying and I often hear "Argentina" or "Brazil" being spoken with pride. The farther, the better, it seems, as if the far-away origin is a guarantee of quality. However, food miles are a huge problem and statistics show that 30 per cent of transport in the world exists to support the food industry. It

Make your week greener: This week - reduce, reuse, recycle

Reduce, reuse, recycle is of course the golden rule of saving valuable natural resources. We have too many "things" in our lives, and whereas Bulgaria was once safe from consumerism, it now seems to be making up for lost time. I always ask myself if I really need something before parting with my money. If reducing is not an option, buying reusable stuff should do the trick. Glass is better than plastic because chances

MAKE YOUR WEEK GREENER: This week - recycling

If you were to go by the number of recycling bins on our cities' streets, you'd think that Bulgaria was the recycling capital of the world, making New Zealand with its exceptionally successful zero-waste policy look somewhat provincial. Not so of course, but we are trying. Over the past few weeks, we've been enjoying a cute ad on national television, the first ever about recycling. A bunch of cool-looking people dance around

More than 10 senses in Sofia

To step inside the Ten Senses shop in Sofia is to cross the ethical shopping threshold that you didn't think existed in Bulgaria. All sorts of souvenir-type goodies look out from the shelves. You could spend hours going through the personal histories of the people who made the goods - hand-made jewellery, artistic hats, home decorations, natural cosmetics. Every object has its ethical story, like the pots made by a

READING ROOM: Pesticides need not apply

Though in its nascent stages, Bulgaria's organic food industry does indeed exist. Olga Apostolova and Magdalena Rahn tell you the who, what and where to find it

Considering that elsewhere in the world consumers can do their daily shopping in stores devoted entirely to organic food, should we be talking about Bulgaria's organic market at all? After all, it is virtually non-existent and the list of organic products on offer in the country can fit onto this page alone. However, things are looking up and today it is possible to shop organic more than you think. Even for chocolate! Here