Some lights were dimmed, but not completely out, on both sides of Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, one of the most illuminated cities in the world. This has been the metropolis’ first publicly advertised and participated Earth Hour event since its inception in Sydney in 2007.

Profound changes take more than ceremonial gestures. Are there changes in your part of the world for a greener planet?

>J’étais au Hong Kong Museum of Art 香港藝術館 pour une exposition sur les cheveux (voir les photos qui suivent), je me suis posé la question, ‘Est-ce que un gouvernement peut planifier un quartier culturel pour une ville de presque sept millions d’habitants?’

Tout dépend de votre définition de l’art et de la culture. Hong Kong, malgré son succès comme centre financier et comme ancienne porte principale de la République populaire de Chine, est assez anémique culturellement selon certains critiques.



The vast landmass reclaimed from sea in Kowloon, what in the future would be the West Kowloon Cultural District, is still undergoing quasi public consultation. Many people asked if arts and culture can be “planned” or “engineered”. Hong Kong is quite eager to shake off the image as a cultural dessert, which has been depicted in various local and international media. If art and culture document human experience, a city of close to seven million should be overflowed with culture. After all, that’s similar in size to Québec, and the latter has plenty of water, physically and culturally! (Un)sustainable development, environment, economy, non-business interest, creativity, cultivation and toruism and internaitonal statue are just some of the issues on people’s lips. What would you do if you are the Hong Kong government bureaucrats running the show? Yes, they want the cake and have it too! It will interesting to come back five, and ten years down the road to see the changes.

Finally hope, Jiansong Chen, China

What do artists, galleries, curators, corporate and individual sponsors, art collectors, the average Joe and Jane, non-profit organizations, etc. have in common? They are all stakeholders of Common Ground - mixing new media, art, philanthropy and environmental projects. Its world touring collection opened on 9 Nov 2008 at Huan Tie Times Art in Beijing.

Ce regroupement des personnes concernées nous fournit un milieu sur place autant que virtuel, pour sensibiliser le public les enjeux envrionnementaux en soutenant des organismes sans but lucratif. If one could link some of the exhibits in one line: As we can’t really reset the clock, it is perhaps time to reflect upon our flowing thoughts to stop the circle of sorrow .

For more of the digital artwork organized in four online galleries, including all the works mentioned in this post, point to commonground2008.cn or commonground2008.com.

Greenpeace has been promoting the message that kangaroos are greener than you’d think. In a release touting the Australian icon as the perfect protein for the environmentally conscious meat eater.

At home in Australia, the Rural Industries Research and Development Corp. have funded a strategic plan to improve the image of kangaroo meat worldwide by publicizing its health benefits: low fat (under 2%), most of which is polyunsaturated, and only 98 calories per 100 gram (3.5 ounce) serving.

The controversial Greenpeace report is claiming the main reason kangaroo meat is ‘green’ is because the animals don’t ‘break wind’ as much as other farmed animals. Cows and sheep release higher quantities of methane through belching and flatulence, which means if only 20% of beef consumption was cut in favour of kangaroo, it would reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by an astonishing 15 megatons by 2020. They need less food than sheep or cattle, are better adapted to drought and are far less damaging to the fragile topsoil than their sharply-hooved bovine counterparts

Personally I think this is going to be one of my one million acts of green… (See Donnelly’s post from Oct 23rd) http://green.cbc.ca

Read more and see what you think http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/skippysizeme