: A fine blog indeed! I was tempted to scribble EP woz ere but I it would lower the standard.
Pete Smith @ May 11, 2008 # 4 Comments
There’s been much rejoicing and back-slapping recently in the London Borough of Merton, satellite state of the People’s Republic of Suburbia. The Wimbledon Park area of Merton is set to be the first part of London to go plastic bag free with the launch of Sustainable Merton’s Bags for Better Lives initiative.
As part of the [...]
Pete Smith @ April 21, 2008 # One Comment
Photo: zappers
Plastic’s been getting a pretty bad press for quite a while now. Bloggers like my erstwhile colleague Matt over at The Coffee House (’The Dead Zone - plastic fcuktastic‘) have been covering the problem comprehensively, and quite right too. There can’t be too many people left who aren’t at least aware that plastic [...]
Pete Smith @ March 25, 2008 # No Comment Yet
Black carbon particulate pollution, or soot, may be making a much greater contribution to global warming than previously thought, according to a study published this week in Nature Geoscience. In “Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon”, atmospheric scientist V. Ramanathan and chemical engineer Greg Carmichael conclude that the atmospheric warming effect [...]
Pete Smith @ March 17, 2008 # No Comment Yet
I promised myself I’d ignore it, but I failed. The grotesque circus that is Formula 1 motor racing is on the move again. The 2008 season has kicked off in Australia, with Britain’s golden boy Lewis Hamilton winning the Melbourne Grand Prix. Now everyone’s off to Malaysia for Round 2, the juggernauts and executive [...]
Pete Smith @ January 17, 2008 # One Comment
A court in Paris has found oil giant Total responsible for the sinking of the tanker Erika. The world’s fourth-largest oil company must pay a fine of €375,000 for negligence, plus €200 million in damages.
The incident, in December 1999, caused a 20,000 tonne slick of heavy oil which polluted 250 miles of the French Atlantic [...]
Pete Smith @ November 30, 2007 # 2 Comments
Last week the government launched its consultation into plans for a third runway and sixth terminal at London Heathrow. Greenpeace has been in touch with The Coffee House, asking us to support their ‘Stop Heathrow Expansion’ campaign. As in most issues nowadays, the prime arguments against the expansion are climate change and economics. To quote [...]
Pete Smith @ November 26, 2007 # 3 Comments
Photo: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
The New York Times has been running a series of in-depth articles ‘Choking For Growth’, exploring the extent of the pollution crisis in China. In the latest instalment, ‘Far From Beijing’s Reach, Officials Bend Energy Rules’, Howard W. French shows how China’s campaign to cut energy use is having [...]
Pete Smith @ November 20, 2007 # One Comment
Talking of green cars … as you’d expect from an event taking place in California, the greenest place on the planet, the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show is packed with models that would be powered by various combinations of alternative fuels or hybrid drive-trains, if only the motoring masses could get their hands on them.
Volkswagen [...]
Pete Smith @ November 16, 2007 # 3 Comments
Twelve Chinese companies reported for environmental violations have had crucial bank loans recalled, suspended or rejected. The first list of thirty offending companies was submitted to the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) in July this year. China’s new ‘Green Credit’ policy is intended [...]
Pete Smith @ October 28, 2007 # 4 Comments
Presenters Billy Bragg and Mark Viduka show their emotional involvement in the issues
Well I’ve ploughed through the first part of CNN’s much-vaunted eco-documentary ‘Planet In Peril’, and I wasn’t that impressed. A series of episodes filmed around the world, loosely linked by a cobbled-together ‘theme’ of interlinked ecosystems under threat from human exploitation, it kicked [...]