Green is Great - Part 1

Green issues are really important to Great Britain. The people here work really hard to protect the environment.

The nation is trying to reduce the impact their daily lives have on the planet, which in turn means reducing their carbon footprint. Let’s find out how…

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Britain has the largest indoor rainforest in the world, which is used for environmental research. It’s also a world leader in wind energy at sea and on land.

And the London 2012 Olympics are the first truly sustainable ever, which means the environmental benefit of the Games will last for a very long time.

This is the Eden Project in Cornwall. It’s a place where green ideas are explored and built to try and reduce the impact on the environment and it’s been so successful that tourists visit from around the world.

The Eden Project started life over ten years ago as an old china clay pit; it was just a hole in the ground. The big bubble shaped area, or biome, is twice as high as Big Ben and works as a greenhouse home for some of the world's most important plants.

The Eden Project features a number of different biomes. These ecosystems are maintained to simulate different climatic conditions that are found in different parts of the world. I met up with Hetty Ninnis, who works here.

Richard: Hetty, what’s the idea behind the Eden Project?

Hetty: So, the Eden Project is here to show people how we can live with the planet without destroying it.

Richard: And tell me about this biome.

Hetty: So, this is the tropical rainforest biome. It's a garden and it's here to show people sort of where everyday products they might find in the supermarket come from, so they can see where bananas come from, where chocolate comes from.  

Richard: And you recycle water here?

Hetty: Yes, we do. We collect water up the top of the pit and then we use that to water our plants 3 days a week in here. So do you fancy coming along and pollinating some plants?

Richard: Why not? Lead the way.

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Richard: So, Hetty, what are we doing?

Hetty: We're going to be pollinating the jade vine, a very rare plant from the Philippines.

Richard: So, how are we going to pollinate it?

Hetty: OK, out in the wild it's fruit bats that do the pollinating, so today we're going to pretend to be fruit bats.

Richard: We're going to pretend to be a fruit bat? O... kay. How do we do that?

Hetty: We're going to do that by, if you can see here on these little flowers, when a fruit bat comes down, it hangs upside down from up here, and he pushes his face into that flower, and as he does, the pollen gets pushed out of here, so we take a little bit of pollen on the paintbrush and then move on to the second flower, taking that pollen with us and then hopefully it will set fruit in a few months' time.

Richard: And this is a very green and efficient way of doing things?

Hetty: Well, it's a really important job because this plant is so rare in the wild now that we need to make sure we've got seeds so we can keep it going in the future.

Richard: Well, since I'm up here, I'd better have a go, so can I pollinate it?

Hetty: OK, if you feel confident, please have a go.

Richard: I wouldn't say confident. It's a rare plant, right, alright? Let's be very careful.

Hetty: Be gentle.

Richard: I'll give it a go. Just dab that in there and pop that in there. Yes, yes. That's pollinated.

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The Eden Project tries to be as self-sufficient with energy as possible. They are world leaders in green technology.

This is WEEE man and he’s a monster! He’s made entirely of the rubbish that one person will throw away in their lifetime; that's a lot of waste!

Much of the energy at the Eden Project comes from green sources, but there are also exciting developments in creating energy from sources of power that won't run out. Renewable energy.