THE GROWTH OF DEGROWTH

At the beginning of September 2014 I participated in the Degrowth 2014 conference that took place in Leipzig, Germany. This became possible due to the support from IÖW, a Berlin-based research institution, where I am currently doing research on the Maker Movement and its connection to sustainable development.
Degrowth is a global movement based on environmental economics and anti-consumption ideas that promote decoupling of human development, happiness, and sustainability from economic growth. Supporters of the degrowth concept argue that environmental issues can be resolved and social welfare can be achieved by downscaling production and consumption and shifting our behavior to non-consumptive means, such as collaboration, co-creation, sharing, creativity, art, music, etc. Of course, this concept meets certain criticism and disbelief in the “degrowth utopia”. And this is exactly what the Degrowth conference was all about.

The goal of my participation there was to find out about the latest developments on the Maker Movement scene in Germany, as well as determine its relation to the degrowth concept. And that goal was achieved. So, here are the most interesting outputs from Degrowth 2014 in relation to open-source eco-innovation and collaborative sustainable development:
#1. Nowadays the means of manufacturing become more and more accessible to individuals, meaning that one is potentially less dependent on consuming products from large capitalist companies. If you want a piece of hardware, you can just produce one at home (this approach is called DIY, Do-It-Yourself). And if you cannot do it alone, you can use the collaborative power of the community, both virtual and real, to co-create the thing you need (this is what is called DIT, Do-It-Together). There is an increasing number of co-working spaces and open workshops popping up all around. There you can use the tools and machines available to create individually or with peers the things you need. In this way you produce them locally, thus avoiding transportation of stuff and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with it. Besides, as you are the one, who created the thing, it is likely that you will put more value on it and therefore will keep and use it as long as possible, minimizing waste in this way.
#2. However, you may argue that more accessible manufacturing means can lead to more production and consumption, and thus more waste, GHG emissions, and other environmental damage. Indeed, this is a valid point to consider. And the conference provided part of the response for it. Certain open workshops with professional machines, so-called Fab Labs, have started to apply principles of circular / closed-loop flow of materials. This is how the concept of “Green Fab Lab”, an open workshop with complete resource sustainability and zero waste outputs, has been born. And there is technology allowing it to happen already. For instance, with an open-source device called FilaMaker you can shred plastic things and waste from your 3D printer into a new filament input for it. The device is still far from perfect, but you can imagine where this is going. Ideally we would be able to 3D print the things we need and then, at the end of their life cycle, recycle them into material for new things. Furthermore, you can expect no extra waste from this process, as the 3D printer software is already designed to calculate how to print an object with the least amount of material needed.
#3. Such accessibility of manufacturing means combined with the power of collaboration and sharing allow the appearance of “degrowth businesses” – companies that rely on community engagement, collaboration, and open source rather than closed innovation and profit maximization. An example presented at the Degrowth 2014 conference was Premium Cola. Its business model is based on an open sharing of all product developments and collaborative construction of its business. The company does little marketing, allowing the community members to decide on whether to purchase and promote the product or not. Such businesses are extremely difficult to launch and run, but, as shown by Premium Cola, it is possible. However, they still need to prove whether they really contribute to the “degrowth utopia”.

The concept of degrowth and its connection to sustainability and environment protection is still full of knowledge gaps, like Swiss cheese is full of holes. This has been proven by the outcomes of the Degrowth 2014 conference. Still, there is also more and more research in this field happening nowadays. It should help closing the gaps and support the decision-making regarding the concept of degrowth. And I am excited to contribute to this research with my own study of the Maker Movement in Berlin. So, you can expect more interesting posts and articles on this topic coming soon from my side.

CLASH OF THE GEOENGINEERING TITANS

“…The planet is no longer a patient observer and victim of human intervention. It is now a raging beast that we continue to poke. And geoengineering might well be regarded as poking it even more…” – That was one of the conclusions of the first international Climate Engineering Conference (CEC 2014) that took place on October, 18 – 21, 2014, in Berlin under the topic “Critical Global Discussions”. The speakers and participants of the conference included such prominent scientists, economists, politicians, and writers, as Prof. Dr. Mark Lawrence, Dr. Georg Schütte, Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Klaus Töpfer, Dr. Harry Lehmann, Mr. Jamais Casico, Mr. Rene Röspel, Mr. Oliver Morton, and others. I managed to participate in it as ELP alumni with the generous support of IASS Potsdam.

The discussions at CEC 2014 were indeed critical considering the controversy around the topic of geoengineering. As the conference website explains, geoengineering, also known as climate engineering, is a combination of “technologies and techniques for intentionally manipulating the global climate, in order to moderate or forestall the (most severe) effects of climate change”. These technologies can be organized into two categories:

1. Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) that aims to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and includes Carbon Capture and Storage underground facilities, aforestation, ocean fertilization, etc.

2. Solar Radiation Management, or Sunlight Reflection Methods (SRM) are methods of minimizing the amount of solar energy and heat reaching the Earth atmosphere by either reflecting sunrays away from the planet by large space mirrors, or dispersing them in the planet’s atmosphere by creating artificial clouds or spreading sulfur dioxide particles in the atmosphere.
As one can see, there are rather drastic methods that require enormous investments and influence the climate and hence life all over the globe. Moreover, we still know very little about such technologies and the climatic system they should have effect upon. So, there is much anxiety regarding the potential unforeseen negative consequences and risks associated with geoengineering. And last but not least, it raises a multitude of questions and heated discussions about ethics and equity of experimenting with these technologies, not to mention deploying them.
And this is exactly what happened at CEC 2014. The questions discussed ranged from “What is so special about geoengineering and why should we put so much attention to it?” to “Will the global society be prepared for sudden rise of support for geoengineering due to governmental approval or, let’s say, Rupert Murdoch’s supportive tweet? And what consequences it will bring to the environment and society?”

Certainly, the participants of the conference included both active supporters of geoengineering and its active opponents. The “clashes of the geoengineering titans” happened mostly around three topics: the possible military use of climate engineering technologies; the potential of experiments with such technologies and their deployment to redirect attention from actual climate change mitigation (that is, prioritizing “treating symptoms” over “fighting the disease”); and the possible and currently unknown consequences of geoengineering on the developing countries (climate equity issue) and the planet as a whole.

Right from the beginning of the conference there was even a document, the so-called Berlin Declaration, proposed for participants’ support and signature. This document called upon governments, research funding organizations and scientific and professional bodies to give approval or endorsement of any experiments on geoengineering (especially on SRM) ONLY in case of these experiments having open and transparent review process and the “social licence” necessary for them to operate. However, the conference organizers immediately communicated that the Berlin Declaration is not and will never be an official output of CEC 2014 and that its signing is the personal decision of each participant. During the conference the document had been renamed into A Framework for More Democratic Governance of Climate Engineering, also known as the Scandic Principles, and enriched with the list of risks the geoengineering experiments ought to take account of and a more detailed description of transparency, open governance and other principles to regulate geoengineering technologies. Still, the document remained as an unofficial individual initiative and not the official public output of the event.

All in all, the 5-days conference, including its open-for-public panel “The Anthropocene – An Engineered Age?” on October, 22, 2014, at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, concluded that geoengineering must not be a substitute for climate change mitigation and that much care and regulation is needed before we can move forward to large-scale experiments and implementation of these technologies. Still, many questions remained to be discussed and answered. And thus the true “clashes of geoengineering titans” are yet to come.

GAMIFICATION IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Gamification is a concept of applying game design and mechanics to a non-game context. This is a psychology- and motivation-based approach used in many areas (education, entrepreneurship, innovation, research, etc.) to increase the motivation, engagement and contribution of the target audience, as well as achievement of the necessary results through their active involvement. For instance, in this article you can read about how gamification is applied to research in various domains of science.

In the Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy (MEGA) we use the concept of gamification in education and research on environmental management and sustainable development. In details, we apply the game design and tools – principles of behavioral economics, PBL (points, badges and leaderboards), storyline, engagement and progression loops, etc. – to motivate young people to participate in learning about the environment and contribute to research on how to make our country, Moldova, a green, clean and sustainable place. Nowadays we test their application in environmental education for pupils in Moldovan schools within the project G.R.E.E.N. (Garbage Recycling and Environmental Education Nationwide). The first stage of this “education and learning experiment” has been completed in the capital city of Moldova, Chisinau. You can see how it was performed in the following video (in Romanian):

The inputs and feedback from the tests within G.R.E.E.N. are going to be used to create the unique on-line experience in education and research on the topic of environmental management and sustainable development. This Game with Impact will be designed as a learning, connecting and impact-creating platform that offers “players” to complete special “missions” representing concrete case studies and research work offered by public and private institutions in need for research and impact results. The platform will also feature tools and opportunities for its users to learn about environmental entrepreneurship and launch their own green startups. You can see the initial draft design of the Game with Impact HERE.

In order to make this initiative happen, we have engaged in collaboration with UC Berkeley within its Master of Development Practice (MDP) program. Within this collaboration MEGA provides internships in Moldova for 4 MDP graduate students this year for them to contribute to creating and releasing the Game with Impact and in this way learning about gamification in sustainable development in a developing country in practice.
If you are one of the MDP students interested in this opportunity, then do check the conditions and Job Description for each internship position HERE.
And if you are just interested to apply the concept of gamification in your environmental management and sustainable development, then you are always welcome to contact us at mega.moldova@gmail.com.
Let’s move towards sustainability! And let’s do it in a fun way!

Sources:
1. Mashable, 2014. Topics: Gamification.
2. The Guardian, 2014. How online gamers are solving science's biggest problems.

THE BEST WAY TO LEARN AND PLAY

The basis of all great initiatives, projects, organizations and their achievements is the sharing of knowledge, building up of skills and accumulation of experience. This is realized through education and learning, be it theoretical or practical, formal or informal. Such well-known relation is valid for all areas of human activity, including environmental science and management: before engaging into the elaboration and implementation of environmental policies, conducting environmental research work, establishment of environmental organization, starting of “green” business, etc. one needs to understand how ecosystems function, how the human activity affects them, what are the consequences of this influence now and in the future, and how can we mitigate them.

The ways to educate people are different. You can organize series of lectures with teacher reading the material from a book and students writing it down word by word. You can invite experienced speakers to present their research results and project achievements and share how they obtained them. You can organize excursions and internships to various environmental projects and organizations. Or you can provide the on-line or off-line platform for peer-to-peer education and self-learning.
These ways differentiate on the basis of objectives of education and effectiveness of learning.

I am interested in the approaches to learning and ways of environmental education, because currently I contribute to the establishment of an environmental education institution called Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy, or briefly MEGA. This unique organization offers a hands-on learning experience – the MEGA Experience – in a form of a real-time game with creation of positive impact in society and environment during the whole “play”. In this way MEGA is the first educational institution on Environmental Management, Economics and Governance with the practical and gamified education and learning process.

In order to make it happen in the way we, the MEGA Team, envision it, I joined the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program offered by the University of California, Berkeley. Here I was able not only to receive valuable knowledge on Environmental Management, Economics and Leadership, but also observe the environmental education process in action and study how it is done in one of the top 10 universities in the world.

I also managed to interview a number of program participants to identify what kind of methods, tools and approaches to environmental education are needed in order to make it successful. Each interviewee was offered to answer two questions:
1) What session / method / approach did you particularly like within the Environmental Leadership Program?
2) What educational method, tool or approach would you like to be introduced in the Program?
The interviews are presented in the following video:

 Judging by the responses, we can see that an effective and successful environmental learning experience can be achieved, if we incorporate the following elements in it:
+ Diversity of participants, professors and trainers;
+ Space and opportunities for networking and collaboration;
+ Interactive trainings with practical methods and exercises;
+ Time for common discussions, brainstorming, reflection, peer-to-peer learning and sharing of personal experiences of participants;
+ Updated and practically applicable information;
+ Knowledge related to personality, personal capabilities of participants and leadership;
+ Real case studies adapted to the participants’ places of origin and communities;
+ Good case practices from all over the world that are inspiring and useful for participants;
+ Excursions to explore different projects and organizations that work both with high-tech and low-tech solutions;
+ Multidisciplinary and holistic approach to learning;
+ Various types of sessions organized in an integrated manner;
+ Combination of theory, recent and relevant research results, examples and practice.
All these inputs will be integrated in the MEGA Experience when MEGA is fully established and running.
What do you think about the inputs? Do you agree with them?
And how would YOU like to see environmental education taking place in your country and worldwide?

Note: I thank all the ELP participants, who agreed to be interviewed and filmed for this study.
Sources:
1. Times Higher Education: World University Rankings 2012-2013.
2. Townsend, J. 2000. The Trainer’s Pocketbook.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…

… having sex multiple times increases the viability of your children?

At least this is what the observations on the fertility of insects and other animals and viability of their posterity tell us. Scientists have noticed that the denser is the population of insects on a given area, the more times they mate with each other, which leads to the lower amount of eggs laid per individual, but the higher is the viability and adaptability of these eggs, larvae and imago hatched and developed from them. Sometimes this interesting phenomenon can be observed not only in the first, but also in the second generation. And vice versa, the scarcer is the insects’ population, the less copulation they have. It results in weaker posterity, but the larger amount of it.
So, there seems to be a certain natural mechanism of regulating populations. Scarce population with fewer opportunities of mating tends to have relatively weak posterity. In order to survive organisms there need to lay more eggs / give birth to more children. Dense population, on the contrary, offers more opportunities for copulating, which increases the viability of future generations. So, its members do not need to have high fertility to survive. And in fact it should be reduced to prevent overgrowth of the population beyond certain limits.
But, of course, the Nature always has a number of exceptions to make life more diverse and interesting. For example, the fly Rhagoletis likes to have it all at once: to be in large numbers, to have “sex” many times, to lay highly viable eggs and in very large quantities. Basically, it lives by the principle “If to do anything, then do it a lot”.
And we, humans, are subject to the same regulatory mechanism with some exceptions in our communities, aren’t we?

Note: The post is based on the book by Marikovskii, P. I. “Insects Defending”.

FROM CLEAN TO GREEN

In the post “LA GRANDE FINALE” I wrote about my research project “Non-state Cooperation in Environment Protection Area in Developed and Developing Countries: The Case of Waste Management in Moldova” and the collaboration with the national cleanup campaign “Hai, Moldova!” in the Republic of Moldova. The collaboration appeared to be quite fruitful: nowadays there is the updated information on the state of the waste issue in Moldova, description of about 20 good case practices in waste prevention and management and the practically applicable model of non-state cooperation available for public. And “Hai, Moldova!” itself was successful in removing about 2,800 t of illegally disposed waste, recycling approximately 31 t of plastic waste and organizing the first Eco Fashion Show in the country.
However, you can easily understand that this is not enough to solve the problems with waste in Moldova described HERE. This is why together with the NGO “Medium” that organizes “Hai, Moldova!” and some interested and very capable people - Daniela, Alexei and Anastasia - we have decided to go further from the simple cleanup activity to the education of young people about waste pollution and proper waste management, installation of waste sorting equipment in some schools in different regions of Moldova and offering the citizens of this country open access to the latest information on the waste issue here.
Thus, the environmental project GREEN (Garbage Recycling and Environmental Education Nationwide) was born. Although it officially starts in January – February 2013, we have already made the first video explaining the reasons behind its organization and its concept. You can watch it HERE:

Of course, this video is only our first piece of news about the project. More updates will be coming. So, stay tuned about the project GREEN in Moldova!
And really, let’s make Moldova both clean and GREEN!

LONGER THAN THE BODY

Date: August 2012
Place: Lahemaa, Estonia

This little fellow with antennae longer than its body exploring my hands is the flat-faced longhorn beetle (Lamiinae) from the Cerambycidae (Cipricornia) family within the Coleoptera order of insects. It came to me to see the amateur beach ball match we had been playing at the summer camp in the North-Eastern Estonia. As you see, I was quite happy about that surprise meeting.
The longhorn beetles, or longicorns, as their name suggests, can be easily identified by the very long antennae. Some representatives, for instance the male of the timberman beetle (Acanthocinus aedilis), flaunt the antennae, which are four or five times longer than their body. However, not all longhorn beetles possess such distinguishing feature; some of them, like the blackspotted pliers support beetle (Rhagium mordax) have the antennae twice as short as their body length. In general, Cerambycidae is a quite large (more than 17000 species) and cosmopolitan family. This is why there are still some controversial opinions about certain members of it.

But what is known for sure is that certain species of longhorn beetles, for example Parandra caspia, are serious pests of forests and wooden objects: their larvae feed on wood, causing extensive damage to living trees and lumber. Still, there are other insects, reptiles and birds, who find the beetles and their larvae very tasty, in this way keeping their population at the acceptable level. This is how the natural balance is maintained… and it is better not to disturb it.

UNFRIEND HUMAN?

A lot of people know what social network is. A lot of people use such applications as Facebook. Nowadays one can even track the life of a person by using it.
But what if our Earth had its own Facebook – the “Earthbook”? How would the past and present events on the planet look in such social network? And what would the Earth write us, Humans, there?
These were the questions the makers of the video “Earthbook – Project Earth: Our Future 2.0” asked themselves. And here is what they came up with:

What do you think, will the Earth “unfriend” us?
Or it is possible to build up the economy that our planet will “like”?
And if you used this “Earthbook”, what would you write and post to the Earth?

LA GRANDE FINALE

Waste and pollution by it are one of the most important environmental issues in a large number of developing countries, including the Republic of Moldova. They cause a variety of negative effects there ranging from local soil and water contamination and increase of morbidity to emissions of greenhouse gases and contribution to the global climate change. In addition, waste is an indicator of resource use inefficiency and high economic losses for the country.

In spite of these negative effects of the waste issue, the performance of waste management in Moldova is rather low. More than 90% of all waste is disposed to landfill sites, which in most cases are not managed properly and do not meet the basic environmental standards. Waste separation at the source and recycling are present only occasionally, and their efficiency is not at the desired level. The reasons of such inefficiency in waste management in the country include conservative top-down waste governance style, low administrative capacity to deal with the waste issue effectively, inefficient waste policies and legislation, weak monitoring and control over waste management, lack of source separation, small waste management market size, problem of free-riding by waste management entities, low stakeholder involvement and participation, insufficient awareness about the waste issue among the society, low demand for better waste management policies and practices, and others.

One of the ways to address the problem of inefficient waste management in such a country, as Moldova, is the involvement and synergetic cooperation of non-state actors – private companies, large CSR-oriented corporations and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Certain research literature (for example, Coskeran et al., 2006; Falkner, 2003; Joseph, 2005) shows significant gains of such solution from the economic, social, and environmental points of view. However, it does not thoroughly explain how to manage non-state cooperation in an efficient manner and thus ensure its success in improving waste management in a developing state. Closing this gap of knowledge and elaborating a practically applicable model for organizations in Moldova to use became the focus of my research project entitled “Non-state Cooperation in Environment Protection Area in Developed and Developing Countries: The Case of Waste Management in Moldova”, which was introduced and described in the post “LET’S CLEAN UP MOLDOVA… IN A SCIENTIFIC WAY!”.

After a year (June 2011 – May 2012) of intense research, expeditions, field work, interviews, etc. the main modeling and key findings of the project were compiled in Master thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark on the 27th of May, 2012. The thesis gave answer to the main research question, which was “How can one model the process of non-state cooperation development in waste management and apply the elaborated theoretic model in practice in order to improve waste management and governance in the Republic of Moldova?”, through analysis and discussions around the following seven questions:
1) Why is waste an important issue to be addressed?
2) How can waste be managed efficiently?
3) Why is waste management and governance a problem in Moldova?
4) Why should private companies and NGOs be involved in waste management?
5) How can non-state actors work together to address the waste issue?
6) How can the waste issue in Moldova be solved through non-state cooperation?
7) What are the applications and limitations of the present work?
All these questions were answered with the help of a large number of economic, business and political literature sources, different theories and research methods, existing good case practices of non-state cooperation in waste management in different countries and other resources that can be found in the specially created LinkedIn group "TripleR: Join the Waste Management Evolution!". The practical part of the thesis included the data from two expeditions and field work in Moldova, which were supported financially by the Explorers Club Exploration Fund. The model elaborated and described in the thesis was empirically applied to the 2012 edition of the national cleanup campaign “Hai, Moldova!”, thus identifying its successes and drawbacks and coming up with suggestions for capitalizing on the former and reducing the latter.
Nowadays the complete Master thesis is publicly available and can be accessed and downloaded HERE:

Still, that was not all. “La Grande Finale” of this research work took place at the University of Copenhagen on the 19th of June, 2012, when I successfully defended my Master thesis. An episode from its presentation can be viewed HERE:

Unfortunately, due to technical issues it was not possible to record the whole defence. Nevertheless, you have probably noticed that I tried to present my findings in the form of a poem. This was done in order to challenge myself in delivering a creative and innovative presentation and combining research work with one of my interests and hobbies, which is writing poetry. If you want to see how successful (or not) this idea was, you can watch the full version of the presentation HERE:

Although the Master thesis has been defended, the research project is not finished yet. Some more work consisting of preparing summary reports for project beneficiaries, publishing the obtained results in articles and presenting them at various scientific conferences should still be done. Further updates about the progress here will be published in the LinkedIn group "TripleR: Join the Waste Management Evolution!" and on this blog.

Hopefully the results of this research project will be a useful contribution in mitigating waste pollution and improving waste management and governance in the Republic of Moldova and other developing countries.

Note: There is still much research work needs to be done on the topic of non-state cooperation in environment protection area. If you are interested in cooperation within further research here, I would be glad if you contact me by e-mail: bsrcentre@gmail.com.

SOME HOT & HAIRY BABES

You probably expect to see here a number of photos of young Ladies in bikini or even without. Although female representatives of Homo sapiens are all indeed beautiful and truly masterpieces of the Nature, they are not the stars of this article. The “babes” I present here have eight hairy legs, eight dark eyes and a couple of poisonous fangs. You might have already guessed that these are spiders – really beautiful and amazing invertebrate creatures representing the Araneae order within the Arachnida class of animals.

 The reason for these “hot & hairy babes” being the focus here is that in June 2012 I managed to visit an interesting exhibition “Spiders” at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was aimed at showing people how beautiful and fascinating spiders really are. And indeed they are.
For example, these creatures do not have movement (extensor) muscles in their limbs and instead perform all movements by using hydraulic pressure of their inner liquids. This feature does not impede them from moving quite fast and even jumping several times their own body length. The latter ability is the characteristic of the cute jumping spiders (Salticidae), which are easily identified by four very large eyes.

A more well-known characteristic of spiders is the ability to produce silk from their spinnerets and to create wonderful, resilient and durable webs of different forms and sizes within a very short time (usually several hours). You might have heard that due to their resilience and durability spider silk and webs were used in producing clothes and tents. The exposition “Spiders” featured some examples of clothing and the golden shawl made from silk from 41000 spiders. Still, it may be a surprise for you to know that not all spiders make use of their silk-producing ability to weave webs. Some thrilled-for-hunt species use it as bolas, others, more patient ones – as fishing rods, while the most romantic “gentlemen” create a nice wrapping for gifts to their “girlfriends” from it (or even wrap the “girlfriends” themselves, if they misbehave).

Focusing on the spiders' romantic and sexual life in particular, there are some interesting features here also. For instance, their world is mostly a matriarchal one: here females are more powerful and larger than males. In some cases a male can be smaller than the cephalothorax of his “girlfriend” (such difference is called sexual dimorphism). This is why many males do not survive after copulation – they become eaten by their hungry partner, thus sacrificing themselves for organic material necessary for the development of eggs. In such circumstances spider males need to be real “gentlemen” if they wish to satisfy their “girlfriend” and stay alive after that. And in some species they are just that – always ready with a gift in form of a delicious meal or a gentle massage to make a Lady happy and relaxed. This is the spiders’ way of having a truly safe sex.

Of course, these amazing creatures have many more characteristics and features to be fascinated about. But you are probably waiting to see the photos of real living spiders to admire their beauty. So, here you have them – some “hot & hairy babes”:

To tell the truth, I have a “babe” of my own, which is shown on the photo below. This is Mashka, a cellar spider from the Pholcidae family. She lives in my bathroom and protects it from any mosquitoes or other unwanted visitors.

So, are you fascinated about spiders now? Do you want to see them with your own eyes? You still have the opportunity to do it by visiting the exhibition “Spiders”, as it is open until the 23rd of December, 2012. There you will be able to read more about these arachnids, watch some interesting videos about them, see some colourful glass sculptures of spiders, give a hug to a giant leather tarantula, and, of course, meet the “hot & hairy babes” in person. Thus, I wish you a pleasant date with them!

Note: If you still wish to see some hot & sexy human Ladies, you can check my post about the Copenhagen Carnival “BEAUTIFUL, SEXY, FUN, COLORFUL…”.