From BBC News website: Britain will not be able to meet its goals on climate change without curbing the demand for air travel, according to an Oxford University report.
The government is targeting a 60% cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
But the report authors say the UK is becoming “air dependent” and government policies on increasing air travel contradict that stated aim.
The government said it wanted aviation included in the next round of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
Carbon dioxide emissions from aviation doubled during the 1990s while those from the rest of the economy fell. Continue Reading »
From Scotsman.com
CONSUMERS are increasingly allowing their consciences to do the shopping - to the tune of £2 billion a year.
Spending on ethically produced food, such as Fairtrade, organic and free-range produce, has risen by 62 per cent in four years, a report shows today.
Analysts Mintel say sales of Fairtrade goods are expected to soar this year by nearly one-fifth from £195 million last year.
And there seems no prospect of a halt in sales. Over the next five years, a further 138 per cent growth is predicted, to £547 million. Continue Reading »
This appeared in the VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) magazine and was brought to our attention by Nigel. It is easy for us, sitting here in relative luxury to be judgemental about people in far away places and say they ’shouldn’t’ be doing this or that, but these people believe that there are no alternatives but to carry on what they have been doing for hundreds if not thousands of years. Whilst the end result is not 100% veggie, it shows people that there are alternatives to fishing to the point of extinction without being dictated to.
In the small coastal town of Hernani on the island of Samar in the Philippines, seven VSO volunteers are working with the local government to find alternatives to over-fishing in Matarunao Bay. Continue Reading »
John Jeavons’ farming methods contain lessons for backyard gardeners too.
On a visit to the University of California Santa Cruz’s Farm and Garden a few years ago, I met an apprentice who was trying to grow an entire year’s food supply in one small corner of the farm. He planted wheat, corn, beans, potatoes and a variety of salad crops.
Although it would be several months before the first harvest, he had already put himself on a diet consisting only of the food growing in his garden. He looked skinny, but not malnourished, on his diet of bread made from wheat he ground himself, dried beans and canned tomatoes.
“The only thing this diet lacks,” he told me, “is a good source of vitamin B12. It’s hard to get enough B12 from vegetables.”
I pointed out that his diet was also deficient in chocolate, decaf lattes and fettuccine alfredo, three items I considered essential to my own health and well-being. He just laughed, shrugged his shoulders, and went back to sowing beans. Continue Reading »
From The Guardian
- Damage forecast to cost 8% of global GDP by 2100
- UK ‘faces droughts and floods costing billions’
Larry Elliott, economics editor
Friday October 13, 2006
The Guardian
Failure to take action to combat climate change will cause environmental catastrophe and cost the global economy $20 trillion (£10.8 trillion) a year by the end of the century, the pressure group Friends of the Earth says today.
In a report based on research from more than 100 scientific and economic papers, the group says allowing global warming to continue unchecked will mean a temperature rise of 4C by 2100, causing economic damage worth up to 8% of global GDP.
The study coincides with research from the oil group Shell yesterday, which said the need to find solutions to climate change could create a £30bn market for British business over the coming decade. Continue Reading »
From the BBC website:
Number 128 is a jersey cow, she has beautiful brown eyes and cannot resist having a nibble of my microphone. As she stares at me she is constantly chewing… and burping. She could be producing as much as 500 litres of methane per day.
There are more than two million more like her across the UK. They are the UK’s biggest single source of methane - a gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to global warming.
In fact cattle are responsible for about 3% of all Britain’s greenhouse gases. Reduce that and experts say you not only make farming greener and more efficient, it could help Britain achieve its commitments under the Kyoto agreement. Continue Reading »
As a car, I have always found the Smart fortwo appealing, although I would have thought such a small car would get even more miles per gallon than it actually does.
Smart have just announced that they have developed an all-electric version, called the Smart EV. Initially available only to corporate users who buy their electricity through renewable sources (hence in operation, the Smart EV will not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions), Smart have said they hope to make it generally available later.
Continue Reading »