There are no two ways about it, flying is bad for the environment, as explained by Ru Hartwell, project director of Treeflights.com:
When we travel in an aeroplane we use loads of aviation fuel. In a few
hours we each burn up hundreds of litres of a non-renewable resource that it
took the earth (and the sun) millions of years to make. On top of this we
are producing a lot of CO2 which we all know is the main culprit for
global warming.
Friends of the Earth have launched a competition for schools and youth groups to win a wind turbine worth over £1500. The “Shout About Climate Change Solutions 2006” competition is open to schools and youth groups taking part in the FOEs “Shout about climate change solutions” week from November 6 – 10 2006.
“Shout About Climate Change Solutions” week is an annual nationwide week of activity to raise awareness and encourage action on climate change. Pupils taking part in the competition will be asked to investigate what individuals or organisations in their communities are doing to tackle climate change. They will record the achievements of community climate heroes through film, photography, audio or the written word.
Sir Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat leader, has branded the move by the UK government towards a new generation of nuclear power stations unaffordable, unecessary and a bad deal for taxpayers.
“Taxpayers are already liable to pay up to £90bn to clean up after the existing generation of nuclear power stations.
“The taxpayers are picking up the tab because when the last government privatised British Nuclear Fuels, investors refused to shoulder the risk.
“There is no indication that they are any more willing to take on that risk this time.
African leaders are hoping to spur a “Green Revolution” in their countries, similar to that of Asia and Latin America in the 1950’s and 1960’s. They have proposed to eliminate taxes on fertilizer and have introduced a funding mechanism to make fertilizer more affordable to farmers who are often forced to abandon their lands and clear natural vegetation elsewhere because of soil depletion.
“Population pressure now compels farmers to grow crop after crop thereby mining the soil of nutrients,” Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told heads of state and farming ministers from across Africa at a summit to address the crisis… [I]n Africa, where many farmers cannot afford fertiliser, yields per person have fallen over the last 40 years and experts warn that if soil depletion continues unabated, they will decline by up to 30 percent over the next 15 years. To avoid this, the heads of state pledged to reduce the cost of fertiliser by harmonising taxes and tariffs across the continent by mid-2007…
Read More »African countries make strides toward “Green Revolution”
The Guardian reports that Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet president, has written to Tony Blair in an attempt to stop him pursuing nuclear power in the United Kingdom, telling him that it is not viable solution either socially, environmentally or economically,… Read More »Gorbachev Urges Tony to Forget Nuclear
Tonight is the start of the BBC’s Climate Chaos series of programmes, and first up is David Attenborough’s Are We Changing Planet Earth? It will air tonight on BBC One at 9pm. Talking to Michael McCarthy for The Independent, Attenborough… Read More »Attenborough’s Thoughts On Global Warming
Friends of the Earth International have launched their first ever photo competition, with the theme of Climate Justice. FOEI are looking for striking photographs that will illustrate the impact that the changing climate is having on the environment and show… Read More »FOEI Photo Competition: Climate Justice
REM are singing along to the BBC Climate Chaos television ads, and seeing those apolcalyptic images whizzing across the screen makes for worrying watching. I will be sure to see as many of the series of programmes as possible, and… Read More »It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
We’ve all heard about global warming, and it is a real concern for many of us. But how much do you really know about it? Enviromental Defense has put together a 10-question quiz about global warming for you to test… Read More »How Much Do You Know About Global Warming?