Having missed the EcoRadar last week, here’s an update on news that caught my eye in the past 2 weeks.
Nuclear power: who is thinking what?
Not so much news as a handy primer, AlterNet’s Rebecca Solnit has put together an article about What to Say to Those Who Think Nuclear Power Will Save Us. She points out that “nuclear power is often nothing more than a way to avoid changing anything”, and suggests that you “derail the conversation by asking whether they’d like to have a nuclear power plant or waste repository in their backyard, which mostly they would rather not, though they’d happily have it in your backyard.” Rebecca’s friend Chip Ward (from nuclear-waste-threatened Utah) makes an interesting point: “Wall Street won’t invest in nuclear power because it is too risky. … The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island taught investment bankers how a two-billion-dollar investment can turn into a billion-dollar clean-up in under two hours.” If it’s a risk that Wall Street won’t take with their dollars, should it be a risk that we are forced to take with our health and even with our lives.
On the other hand, The Guardian’s Jim Al-Khalili feels that nuclear waste is hardly a worry when the climate change threat is so urgent.
Businesses going green: which of the big boys is towing the green line?
The National Trust intends to become “the largest green movement in the world”. The Guardian calculates that “it controls 900-square miles of land and 710 miles of coastline and has far more members than the armed services, the teaching profession, the prison population, environmental groups and political parties combined”. Director-general of the Trust, Fiona Reynolds said: “If we think that public policy is not right, then we will say so. The biggest challenge of our time is climate change, we are like a miner’s canary anticipating the effects that others will feel. Our practical experience ranges from coastal erosion and 18th century drainpipes being overwhelmed by heavier rainfall, through to book collections damaged by pests now surviving warmer winters.”
Discovery throws down some green for TreeHugger.com, reports BloggingStocks on the recent $10million acquisition of the lovely Treehugger.com by Discovery Communications. Discovery hopes to bring green to the masses.
Which green products aren’t as green as they say they are?
At EcoStreet, we strongly recommend that you buy recycled toilet paper. But ethiscore.org have labelled Nouvelle recycled toilet tissue as a major climate change criminal. Crikey! So what toilet paper should we be buying? ethiscore.org recommends Natural Collection toilet paper and Suma Eco-soft toilet tissue, both available online.
Is the government doing enough?
MPs don’t think so, and have criticised UK climate targets. If you agree, you can let Gordon know how you feel via the I-Count website.
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That’s the news for this week folks. Keep on living green.