Government invests in eco-car research
by David Masters
The British government has announced plans to encourage its citizens to use greener forms of transport. Plans include a £100 million investment into green car research, and a programme of eco-vehicle trials around the UK. As part of the plans, transport secretary Geoff Hoon has invited car manufacturers to bid to take part in a £10 million trial of electric cars. The trial, to be overseen by the Technology Strategy Board, will allow ...
Environmental impact of electronics improving
by David Masters
The consumer electronics industry is taking note of environmental issues, but must do more to improve its eco-credentials, according to a new study. Released this week by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the report outlines what the industry has been doing to improve environmental sustainability, and offer suggestions for further improvements. Independent research company, Technology Forecasters, conducted the study on behalf of the CEA. The study found that energy consumption of consumer electronics ...
UN, Humans Causing Ice Caps to Melt
by Alan Harten
With funding from the UN's climate change body, sciences have been plugging holes in present scientific knowledge regarding the variations in temperature at both the Arctic and Antarctic poles. The team of researchers made multiple temperature measurements in many polar areas. They then fed their results into two very different computer simulated climate models. One set of climate models assumed that there were no people on the planet and therefore no human ...
Credit Crunch is Nothing, Ecological Crunch Coming
by Alan Harten
Over the past few months, we have been bombarded with facts and figures about the world economic crisis and the credit crunch. Now a study called the Living Planet report says that the world is heading for a far more devastating crisis with what they call an "ecological credit crunch". According to the report, people are using natural resources much faster than they can possibly be replenished and pushing the world ...
Eco-towns threaten UK’s environment
by David Masters
Eco-towns are a threat to the UK's wildlife and landscape according to the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). The British government wants to build ten environmentally friendly eco-towns on brownfield and greenfield sites across the UK. However, CPRE has accused the government of ignoring the concerns of its own advisory body on eco-towns and the environment, Natural England. CPRE raised questions about whether eco-towns will genuinely be green. According to Tom Oliver, head ...
National Trust vows to protect green space
by David Masters
The National Trust has pledged that it will start taking a more aggressive stance on helping the environment, by protecting green spaces in urban and rural areas. An in depth consultation with its membership and the public found that 94% of Brits want the trust to get more involved in protecting the UK's green spaces. The trust's new no nonsense approach will bring it into conflict with the government as it starts ...
Manchester Transport Website Totally Wind Powered
by Alan Harten
Manchester-based design company Corporation Pop has created a new micro-site 21centurytransport.com. There is nothing that unusual in the creation of the new site, but what is unusual is the idea that the site will be truly “green “by making use of a wind powered server. The new Flash-based micro-site will be powered by wind turbines located near the server. On the site itself there will be a short film developed by ...
The Green new MINI E
by Jan Harris
Powered by an electric motor that can produce over 200bhp the electric Mini has arrived in style, and although it looks very similar to the current car it is an altogether different breed that has taken BMW years to put together. Following previews at the Los Angeles Motor Show next month, 500 Mini E’s are planned to be built for the US market. The Mini plant in Oxford will be fitted ...
Climate change scientists research Pacific clouds
by David Masters
A team of over 200 scientists from around the world is going on a cloud-hopping mission across the Pacific Ocean to work out the effects of cloud cover on climate change. Researchers from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) and other institutions around the world, will use research aircraft drafted in from the UK Met Office to fly across the Pacific from their base in Chile. The research, part of a ...
Electric Picnic wins eco-festival award
by David Masters
If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise. No, it's not the teddy bear's picnic, but Irish festival Electric Picnic, the first music-and-tents fiesta in the country to win a prize for being eco-friendly. Greener Festival, an award scheme that recognises environmentally friendly festivals, presented Electric Picnic with the Greener International Festival Award for 2008. John Reynolds, from the festival's organising committee, said he was 'delighted' to ...
Flat Screen TVs More Damaging Than CO2
by Alan Harten
The concept has been around for some time that carbon dioxide is probably not the most atmosphere destroying gas we are pumping out of our cars and factories. A new study believes that other gases are doing far more damage than CO2. A Californian research team has made use of analytical techniques to discover that the atmosphere contains dangerous levels of the gas known as nitrogen trifluoride. The study showed that there ...
Fish-eaters warned of mercury pollution dangers
by David Masters
Mercury pollution may be damaging the immune system of seals in the North Sea according to scientists at a Belgian university. The study also raised concerns that the immune systems of people who eat lots of fish could be affected. Researchers from the University of Liege wanted to find out the effects of methylmercury, the form of mercury most frequently found in marine mammals and people who consume fish on a regular ...
Pond Slime Jet Propulsion
by Alan Harten
When I was eight years old, I could never have imagined that while looking for frogs and newts and wading up to my thighs green pond slime, I was slipping and sliding through the fuel of the future. But jump forward a few decades and that is exactly what the Carbon Trust is proposing with its biofuels challenge, which aims to make use of pond slime in the production of algae-based ...
UN: Green economics will tackle financial turmoil
by David Masters
A new report from the UN has said that a commitment to environmental sustainability must be placed at the heart of any plan to recover the world's economies after the financial crisis. The green 'New Deal' proposed by the UN said economies in both the developing and industrial world must be weaned off their dependency on oil and encouraged to invest in clean and sustainable energy sources. The 'Green Economy Initiative' published ...
London is world’s biggest Fairtrade city
by David Masters
London has been awarded the status of the world's biggest fairtrade city after over a thousand businesses in the capital agreed to sell fairly traded goods. It is the 400th of the UK's towns and cities to be awarded the status, which demonstrates an area's commitment to promote and provide fair trade products. Close to 1,000 retailers and 600 cafes and restaurants now sell product ranges that carry the fair trade mark. Businesses ...
Six UK ‘Zero Waste Places’ announced
by David Masters
Six areas in the UK have been designated as 'zero waste places' by environment minister Jane Kennedy. Local councils and community groups in the six areas have agreed to take all measures necessary to reduce the impact of business and community waste on the environment. The impact of waste will be reduced using guidelines issued by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Kennedy said the scheme demonstrates a determination among ...
UK leads the world in offshore wind farms
by David Masters
The UK is now the world's leading producer of offshore wind power, ousting Denmark from the top spot. The completion of an offshore wind farm on the coast of Lincolnshire puts the UK's total offshore wind capacity to three gigawatts, up from just one gigawatt in 2005. Gordon Brown announced the news in a video message to the British Wind Energy Association's (BWEA's) conference this week. In the message he told delegates at ...
Fly-tipping in England down 7.5%
by David Masters
Government figures show that flytipping on public land in England has fallen 7.5% in the last year. The report from Defra also revealed that enforcement action and successful prosecution have both increased in the last year. Enforcement actions issued by local authorities increased 26%, whilst 95% of the 1,871 prosecutions for flytipping in 2007-2008 were successful. Despite the improvements, local authorities still had to clean up 1.28 million piles of illegally dumped rubbish, ...
Please Save the Planet, Shower with a Friend
by Alan Harten
Do you remember “Save water, bath with a friend”? Well its back, sort of, as this is no longer the eighties, this is the naughties, and there’s a new twist at least for us Brits. Our new slogan should be “Save energy, bath with a friend’ and I feel that this is one very important area of energy conservation that we can all get fully involved in. According to research released ...
Government promises big on climate change action
by David Masters
The British Government has pledged to cut the UK's carbon emissions 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. This replaces the former target of reducing carbon output 60% by the middle of the century. Ed Miliband, recently appointed as the new energy and climate change secretary, announced the new targets this week to MPs in Westminster. Miliband said that turmoil on the world's financial market should not be an excuse for Britain to ...