Carbon-conscious travelers will love the small island of Hideensee, a car-free island in Germany’s Baltic Sea close to Rügen. Leave your car in Schaprode and take a water cab or ferry to Hiddensee, then explore the solitude and natural beauty of the rugged island by foot, bike or horse drawn carriage. There are rustic cabins and cottages on the island and restaurants serving local food. Don’t leave Hiddensee without trying its local treat: Sanddorn (sea-buckthorns), little orange berries that grow on shrubs all over the dunes of Hiddensee. Sanddorn contains 15 times more Vitamin C than an orange, and the berries come in such tasty forms like jams, honey, juices, liquors, and oils.

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• Earn miles for all the travel you plan to do in the new year. Here’s a handy cheat sheet for racking up frequent flier points, fast. [Fodor's]

• Ten tips for traveling green on your next trip. [Gecko's Adventures]

Got Radar? Follow us on Twitter @NatGeoTraveler and tag your favorite travel stories from the Web #ngtradar. Check back in the morning for our daily roundup.

Photo: Anuchit Sundarakiti/My Shot

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The soft spoken and handsome 44-year-old Nasheed has risen onto the world stage by calling for urgent global action to address climate change through bold moves to embrace renewable energy–now. If he succeeds in making the Maldives a carbon-neutral country by 2020, as he has declared, this tiny island nation and its big thinking leader (who was jailed and banished to a remote island by the previous autocratic ruler for leading a democracy campaign) may go down in history as the country that signaled the turning point when the world finally began to move away from a near total dependence on pumping crude for energy.

Perhaps it is fitting that Nasheed–subject of the upcoming documentary The Green President–comes from one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The Maldives consists of more than 1,000 postage stamp-sized islands spread across a stunning blue marine-scape in the middle of the tropical Indian Ocean. Beneath the waves lies an underwater Serengeti of coral and fish species, including whale sharks, giant manta rays, and pods of dolphins that number in the hundreds at a time (some of the finest surf breaks are also found here). Surrounded by this natural bounty, it is no surprise that Nasheed sees an oil-addicted resource-hungry world and climate change as serious threats to his country’s future–the Maldives’ economy depends heavily on tourism. Already the Maldives are experiencing the salination of very limited fresh water sources on some islands, attributed to an increase in sea level linked to global warming.

As I sit with President Nasheed on Soneva Fushi just a few feet from a sheltered lagoon, I count nearly a dozen young black tip reef sharks, where I saw none a year before–the population appears to be on the rebound (he banned shark-finning after taking office). I ask him about the progress he has made in the last 12 months toward his ambitious goal of becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral country within eight years, and how he feels about being called the planet’s first “Green President.”

“If you measure the Maldives’ coral reefs in terms of surface area, we have more reefs combined than the entire Great Barrier Reef of Australia. Climate change is now threatening our reef ecosystems through coral bleaching and ocean acidification. The science is clear. There is no point in countries bickering about who is to blame for climate change. That is not the issue. Whether developed countries or developing countries, we must all reduce our carbon emissions into the atmosphere or life on Earth as we know it will perish,” he said.

In the past year, Nasheed has managed to galvanize international momentum to support the creation of a “carbon neutral club” of countries. He’s also launched a community-based renewable energy “feed in tariff” program in the Maldives where his government will pay a profit to villagers to generate solar energy while providing them with support for making the switch and he’s promoting the introduction of electric cars through a government import incentive program that makes them one third of the price of conventional gas-powered cars.

“What we really need are many green presidents to lead the world into a renewable energy future. If we cannot reach an international agreement to take action fast to reduce our global carbon footprint, one idea I would like to propose is the establishment of an international environmental court, similar to how the International Court of the Hague addresses humanitarian crisis issues. In this case, countries could be taken to court if they refuse to stop emitting large-scale carbon into the atmosphere. Renewable energy is financially and economically viable for us, and even if we are only a small country, if the Maldives can be a sustainable country, we can make a contribution to the world,” Nasheed added.

Mark Lynas, President Nasheed’s special advisor on climate change and author of the new book, The God Species: How the Planet Can Survive the Age of Humans, put it in more stark terms: “When slavery was abolished, we did not measure progress in yearly percentages of reduction (i.e., there was no ‘let’s start by having 20 percent less slavery in the first year’). Rather, the aim was to end slavery as an economic model altogether. We need to completely get rid of the fossil fuel-based economy that is destroying the planet.”

As I leave the Maldives and the SLOWLIFE Symposium, I find myself energized and feeling positive from the discussions that took place over three days among business, conservation, and political leaders gathered on Soneva Fushi to address climate change, sustainability, and travel, while charting a path of action ahead. Does getting rid of the fossil-fuel based global economy sound too idealistic? Maybe living by our ideals–as President Nasheed is doing–is something we can all try to do.

Editor at large Costas Christ writes about sustainability and tourism issues for National Geographic Traveler magazine.

[Slow Life in the Maldives]

[Flying Green Class?]

[Save the Ocean: Plant A Fish]

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What does Florida’s Green Lodging Program mean to you when you stay at a certified property? Some “green” practices may be easier to spot than others, but you may feel the difference when you shower.

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The Green Magic Nature Resort in the Wayanad district of Kerala was recently mentioned in Lonely Planet’s list of Top 10 Eco Lodges around the world. What’s so special about it? Tree houses!

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Did you know that annually more than 30 tons of fruits and vegetables grown at The Land pavilion at Epcot are served in Disney World restaurants? Many, like the Mickey Cucumber Salad pictured here that is served at The Land’s Garden Grill restaurant, are unique to Disney.

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The 1,500 Christmas trees at Disney World Resort won’t be the only “green” holiday delights this season. Disney World resort hotels will glow with new “conservation” lighting — more than 700,000 LED lights in all. In fact, if you were to string the bulbs end to end, the strand would stretch for 95 miles lighting the path from Jacksonville to Orlando. And, they will only use 1/10th of the power of traditional incandescent bulbs.

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So you can imagine my excitement this morning when I stumbled across this:

The lovely Hotel Marivaux, in Brussels, Belgium, located walking distance from Grand Place in a former cinema, is currently creating a flower display on the facade of their hotel, based on their vintage Breakfast at Tiffany’s cinema poster. Celebrating the 2010 Brussels Flower Carpet and Belgium’s role as the world’s largest begonia producer, all of the fresh flowers in Marivaux’s display were grown in Belgium. After oohing and ahhing at the 200 square meter display, hotel guests and Audrey Hepburn enthusiasts can shake off the mean reds with a divinely and utterly happy brunch, followed by a showing of the 1961 movie in Marivaux’s stylish theatre.

So what exactly is a flower carpet? Every two years, the city of Brussels stretches 2,000 square meters of fresh flowers, begonia by begonia, across their central square, Grand Place. No soil is used to hold the flowers down, and they are packed so tightly that they create their own microclimate, staying bright and colorful for days. Past flower carpets have replicated the design of Chinese Sinkiang carpets, Versailles gardens (with actual fountains), Art Nouveau stained glass and, in 2000, a stunning ancient inlaid table covered with a table runner in Brussels’ lace.

This year’s theme commemorates the Belgian Presidency of the European
Union. The design and layout of each flower carpet takes months to
prepare, but the final product is assembled by 100 expert gardeners in
just four hours – actually they should be finishing up right about…
now.

And if you can get to Belgium within the next five hours, you’ll
make it in time for the fireworks and concert that celebrate the Flower
Carpet’s grand opening. Flower Carpet 2010 will remain open to the public for the next three days, August 13th to the 15th, with sound and light shows every eveninge (see below). The Town Hall will also be open to visitors these three days, 9 a.m. till 11 p.m. for panoramic views from its balcony.

Belgium – Brussels – Emory University – Dalai Lama – Professor

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[Solar 1 Lodge]

Photo: KOA

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It’s part of the reality of living in a world fueled by hydrocarbons, and some of the fuel made here is destined for U.S. gas tanks. However, its good to know that both islands are also taking steps toward a greener future.

The Tera Kora and Playa Kanoa wind farms in Curacao, for example, will soon put out a combined 30 megawatts of clean power, and Aruba also is building a 30 megawatt wind farm — a great legacy for future generations of residents of two islands where Dutch heritage and steady trade winds makes alternative energy projects like these a natural fit.

Learn More About Wind Power

Aruba, Curacao Look Beyond Oil, Seek Green Energy originally appeared on About.com Caribbean Travel on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 10:44:52.

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• When: January 15 – 24, 2010
• Where: Messe (Fair Grounds), Berlin
• Website: International Green Week 2010

More Events and Festivals in January 2010

Berlin Becomes Green – The International Green Week 2010 originally appeared on About.com Germany Travel on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 00:03:01.

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