This is the start of a public beta test vlog that I am trialling, utilising worldwide news sources that make available embeddable video reports on environmental/business themes. With Green Day having taken place on Tuesday, this seems as good a time as any to start.

To kick it off, a report from Reuters dated April 18. I know that the hoi polloi with their harbourside mansions in Sydney hate mangroves because they spoil those investment-hungry "harbour views", and that they attract the mozzies, but mangroves serve an extremely valuable role in the ecosystem, especially as protection against erosion. And it's believed that many thousands of lives could have been spared in the 2004 tsunami if mangroves hadn't been removed on the coasts of India, Sri Lanka and Sumatra.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reports that up to a third of the world's mangroves have disappeared. In the Republic of Congo Reuters Television meets a man who has taken up the challenge of saving his country's mangroves.

News sources will include, via Youtube: AlJazeera English, CBS, Deutsche Welle, France 24, NDTV and Russia Today. NGO's including Greenpeace, FOE, WWF, Oxfam, OneWorld may also be included. (BBC items on YouTube are not available for embedding.) News sources offering embeddable video reports directly include Reuters, NBC/MSNBC, CNN-IBN.