Weekly green review: WWF sees red, models go green

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A recap of this week's environmental and household developments.

Amateur filmmakers are being given a chance to show world leaders what they think about climate change in the ongoing competition 1 Minute to Save the World. The competition closes to under 18s on November 12 and the winning film in this category will be shown to world leaders at the climate change summit COP16 in Mexico. The deadline for entrants over 18 is December 12.

Ahead of next month's global Tiger Summit in St. Petersburg (November 21), the WWF attacked the Russian logging industry's proposed 'harvesting' of trees on the Middle Ussuri nature reserve. In an October 22 release the environmental group criticized the forestry commission of Primorsky province for allowing loggers to enter the nature reserve which is home to the endangered Amur Tiger.  

News of Amazon's newly patented delivery service caused a stir amongst environmental bloggers the world over; the internet retail company is proposing a system whereby customers can choose to have their goods delivered by an environmentally friendly, but possibly slower, means of transport.

China's announcement that it will reduce its exports of rare earth metals by 72 percent caused anger amongst the alternative energy community. The declining availability of rare earth metals such as scandium and cerium could impact heavily on the alternative energy sector which uses them to make wind turbines and EV magnets amongst other products.

In Copenhagen architecture firm BIG announced the opening of 8 Tallet, a groundbreaking building which incorporates a "green roof," a pedestrian walkway and cycle path which crosses through the entire building. The green roof is designed so that it provides all 146 apartments in the building with sunlight and aims to create a green community under a single roof.  

Budding environmentally conscious models began auditioning for the second series of Project Green Search, a worldwide talent contest to find the next face to promote environmental awareness.  The competition closes to entrants on December 31, 2010; clips of last year's show can be watched here.