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Notes

2009-12-14

The BBC Wildlife Finder is a portal to all the amazing iBBC wildlife documentaries.

2009-08-21

Bryan Walsh writes in Time magazine about the high price of cheap food.

2009-07-26

The Police and Mendip District Council applied for a High Court injunction to stop the Big Green Gathering going ahead, despite the fact that it was granted a licence in June. See comments on this Indymedia posting for discussion and rumour. I was planning to be at the gathering with the Bicycology crew and I don't know what I will do instead. I suspect the cancellation may have something to do with the fact that Camp for Climate Action would have been promoting their London Climate Camp, so it would be nice if lots of people could turn up to that instead (on August 27th). Otherwise, here is an Earth First list of gatherings.

2009-07-01

Curly cucumbers, crooked carrots and mottled mushrooms - odd-looking fruit and vegetables are making a comeback as 20-year-old EU rules are lifted.

2009-06-23

A UK-wide trial of low carbon and electric cars has been launched.

2009-06-22

Stanford University has a project called microdocs which presents some short videos about sustainability.

2009-05-13

The Belgian city of Ghent is about to become the first in the world to go vegetarian at least once a week.

2009-05-07

Someone was just telling me about a film they had recently watched called "Who Killed the Electric Car". It sounded interesting so I read about it on Wikipedia.

2009-04-13

The broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has become a patron of a group seeking to cut the growth in human population.

2009-02-18

Is having more than two children selfish? The future of the planet rarely plays a part when planning a family, but that's got to change, say environmental campaigners.

2009-01-13

The European Parliament has voted to tighten rules on pesticide use and ban at least 22 chemicals deemed harmful to human health.

2008-11-26

Conservationists claim building a reef across the Severn Estuary would be cheaper, less damaging and generate more power than a proposed barrage.

2008-10-06

A third runway at Heathrow Airport would be "very detrimental" to Londoners' health, according to the new head of the Environment Agency (EA).

2008-10-04

Alexis Madrigal interviewed Clay Shirky on Open Source Environmentalism. In answer to one question Clay made it clear that he is a fan of Critical Mass.

2008-07-11

The Mayor of Kamikatsu, a small community in the hills of eastern Japan, has urged politicians around the world to follow his lead and make their towns "Zero Waste".

2008-06-11

Marine conservationists are calling for a ban on mass balloon releases because of the problems the balloons can eventually cause for wildlife.

2008-03-26

On the coral atoll of Midway in the central Pacific - famous for America's first victory over the Japanese fleet in World War Two - wildlife experts are facing a new battle against a rising tide of plastic waste.

2008-02-14

Only about 4% of the world's oceans remain undamaged by human activity, according to the first detailed global map of human impacts on the seas.

2008-01-15

Sierra Leone has re-imposed a timber export ban because of what it says is indiscriminate plundering of forests by Chinese and other foreign companies.

An Australian court has ruled that the activities of the Japanese whaling fleet are illegal and ordered it to halt its operations.

2007-12-24

Plans are in the pipeline for beavers to be released into the Scottish wild for the first time in 500 years.

2007-11-20

Fisheries Minister Jonathan Shaw has agreed that dumping thousands of tonnes of dead fish back into the sea because of EU fishing quotas is "immoral".

2007-10-12

One Percent for the Planet is an alliance of companies that recognize the true cost of doing business and donate 1% of their sales to environmental organizations worldwide.

2007-10-01

The Big Green Gathering is in financial difficulty again. I have been to the BGG about half a dozen times (for the past two years as part of the Bicycology collective) and not only is it a lot of fun but it it is great for networking, skill sharing, and environmental education. It would be a great shame if it were to go under, so please consider finding some way to help it survive.

2007-09-24

On the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Montreal Protocol, nearly 200 governments have agreed a faster timetable for phasing out chemicals that deplete the ozone layer and contribute to global warming.

2007-08-21

Patagonia (makers of outdoor clothing and gear) give 1% of sales or 10% of pre-tax profits (whichever is greater) to grassroots environmental groups. Check out the page on their website about their environmental grants.

2007-07-10

A return to the use of wind power for ocean travel could save a lot of CO2 emmissions. A german company called SkySails has a new take on the sail.

2007-06-04

Construction firms are being invited to bid for the right to build five new villages in England made up of environmentally friendly homes.

2007-05-26

Food flown into the UK may be stripped of organic status in a move being considered by the Soil Association.

2007-05-08

A quarter of the world's oceans will be protected from fishing boats which drag heavy nets across the sea floor, South Pacific nations have agreed.

2007-04-22

An Icelandic businessman's fight to save Atlantic wild salmon from being wiped out by overfishing has been awarded a top environmental prize.

2007-03-28

The UK government should conserve peat bogs as a way of curbing climate change, the National Trust is urging.

2007-02-22

Keith Parkins has posted an excellent article on Indymedia titled Do we need industrial agriculture?.

2007-02-14

Save Radley Lakes is a campaign to try to prevent NPower destroying the lakes by dumping half a million tonnes of waste fuel ash.

2007-02-09

Plans to turn environmental offences over to the criminal courts across the EU are set to be unveiled by the European Commission.

2007-02-06

In april last year, anti-pylon protesters celebrated the rejection by Highland councillors of controversial plans for a new power line through the Cairngorms National Park. The public inquiry that they wanted is now starting.

2007-01-26

The UK is stepping up attempts to secure an anti-whaling majority on the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

2007-01-22

Canada has pledged to spend millions of dollars to help protect the world's largest temperate rainforest.

2006-12-13

The European Parliament has backed a deal, reached with EU governments, on wide-ranging legislation to control the use of toxic chemicals in industry.

2006-12-11

Following on from my recent entry about Vermont Research, someone has pointed out an interesting page about masonary stoves based on old Eastern European designs.

2006-12-10

Circle Community have occupied a 100 acre farm near Bath and Bristol to set up a climate action zone, eco project and get up and running the organic farm again.

2006-12-08

Stephen Redmond (Vermont Heat Research) has built an interesting Experimental Wood Chip Furnace.

2006-11-25

United Nations negotiations on fisheries have ended without a global ban on trawling methods which destroy coral reefs and fish nurseries.

2006-11-13

Leaked documents suggest the government may perform a U-turn on its promise to safeguard marine species in a network of protected reserves.

2006-11-08

Could 'wild laws' protecting all the Earth's community - including animals, plants, rivers and ecosystems - save our natural world?

2006-10-25

A national park four times as big as Yellowstone has just been created in Canada.

2006-09-11

Matthew, sailing on Greenpeace ship the Esperanza, is trawling the surface of the Pacific ocean and finding plastic everytime he empties the net.

2006-07-07

Hundreds of amphibian species will become extinct unless a global action plan is put into practice very soon, conservationists warn.

2006-06-29

A global switch to efficient lighting systems would trim the world's electricity bill by nearly one-tenth. That is the conclusion of a study from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which it says is the first global survey of lighting uses and costs.

2006-06-15

Stop press! President Bush has actually done something sensible for once, and created the world's largest marine sanctuary around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

2006-05-19

Fish stocks in international waters are being plundered to the point of extinction, a leading conservationist group has said.

2006-05-17

Green.tv is a broadband TV channel for environmental films. My old G3 iBook does not have enough oomph to play the title sequence even after it has downloaded but you may have better luck.

2006-05-15

Banksy has done some great artwork, including a saveordelete.com sticker for Greenpeace. It features the Jungle Book characters and was apparently withdrawn due to threats of legal action from Disney. A friend of mine has one on the wall in his toilet and one has just sold for £21 on eBay - here is the photo that the seller posted.

2006-05-12

KillingIceland.org now redirects to www.savingiceland.org - same campaign, more positive name:-) On June 2nd there will be a Saving Iceland fundraiser at Matilda with food, film and music.

2006-05-10

Pascua-Lama is a project aiming at exploitation of a very rich field of gold and silver in the high mountains south of Atacama, at the border between Chile and Argentina, in an area approximately 150 kilometers southeast of Vallenar and 300 kilometers northwest of San Juan. If the project is allowed to proceed it will cause environmental destruction on a huge scale. A letter asking for the cancellation of the Pascua Lama project - with over 18,000 signatures - was presented to the President of Chile on 2005-11-11 but was met with police violence. I just signed the Say "No" to the project "Pascua-Lama" petition at PetitionSite.com for what it's worth.

2006-05-02

Environmental advisers to the UK government are urging more radical action to promote green lifestyles.

2006-04-24

A campaigner who risked his own safety to expose illegal logging operations in Liberia has been recognised with a prestigious environmental award.

2006-04-14

Green Futures Festivals aim to share their many years experience as green event organisers.

A study by the New Economics Foundation (Nef) and the Open University says 16 April is the day when the nation goes into "ecological debt" this year. It warns if annual global consumption levels matched the UK's, it would take 3.1 Earths to meet the demand.

2006-03-28

The crew of the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza have just been involved in an operation to arrest an unlicenced Chinese fishing vessel off the coast of Guinea. None of the crew of the pirate vesseal had any documents and they were also using illegal nets.

The Linux Ecology-HOWTO discussed ways of minimising the environmental cost of your computer use, and how Linux can be used to promote environmental responsibility.

2006-03-11

An oil spill discovered at Prudhoe Bay field is the largest ever on Alaska's North Slope region, US officials say.

2006-02-26

I was surprised to learn that somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean there is an area the size of Texas covered in floating plastic debris. There are many worrying implications detailed in this article by Charles Moore.

2006-01-06

Solving the Earth's environmental problems means addressing the size of its human population, says the head of the UK's Antarctic research agency.

2005-12-12

Killer whales have become the most contaminated mammals in the Arctic, new research indicates.

2005-12-09

The UK Government seems is blindly following a ludicrous policy of allowing unlimited airport expansion to satisfy whatever demand projections are touted by the aviation industry. Even the current level of air transport is clearly unsustainable so we should all be doing what we can to oppose this madness. One thing you can do is sign the Pledge Against Airport Expansion. Another is to avoid all inessential flying. Check out The Man in Seat Sixty-One... if you want to know how you can get there by train or ship instead.

2005-12-06

From the Greenpeace weblog, a post about Tony Blair's Nuclear charm offensive.

2005-10-21

Scientists from Brazil and the US say new research suggests deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has been underestimated by at least 60%.

2005-10-04

Fisheries negotiations begin Wednesday at the UN in New York, and will continue to the end of November. Conservation groups are calling for a moratorium on bottom trawling.

2005-09-05

Spectacular deep-water corals off the south-west coast of Ireland are in urgent need of protection, a conference in Dublin will hear on Monday.

2005-08-25

A coalition of environmental and development agencies has launched a new programme which aims to stem the loss of fish stocks worldwide.

2005-08-11

In its first report, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority estimates that it will cost £56bn to decommission the UK's ageing nuclear power stations.

2005-08-02

EcoTort are making a film.

2005-07-28

Plans for a new £140m hydro-electric power station in the Highlands able to generate enough energy for 37,000 homes have been given the go-ahead.

2005-07-26

Greenpeace have pointed out an article in Morgunbladid (the main Icelandic newspaper) which clearly questions Government policy on whaling.

The Big Green Gathering has a new website.

2005-06-07

Cairngorms Revolt Against Pylons (CRAP) has urged the Scottish Executive not to "rubber stamp" plans to blight the face on the National Park by erecting new 67m electricity pylons.

2005-04-28

A study of Atlantic bluefin tuna has shown that tighter fishing restrictions are needed to protect the animal, Nature magazine reports this week.

2005-04-20

Greenpeace are having some success keeping tankers at a safe distance from the sensitive arctic coast of Lofoten.

2005-04-16

Rethinking urban car journeys with the Zipcar.

2005-04-14

Around one third of food grown for human consumption in the UK ends up in the rubbish bin, new figures reveal.

2005-03-30

The most comprehensive survey ever into the state of the planet concludes that human activities threaten the Earth's ability to sustain future generations. Of course this has been "known" for ages but our leaders have had their heads buried firmly in the sand.

2005-03-25

Cameron and Moira Thompson have been battling to prove that rock dust (a quarrying by-product) can replace the minerals that have been lost to the Earth, rejuvenating the land and helping to combat climate change.

2005-01-25

The Norwegian government has decided to kill five of the country's grey wolves - a quarter of the entire population.

2005-01-10

Greenpeace are using their ship, the Rainbow Warrior, to help Medecins Sans Frontiers get relief supplies to parts of Indonesia devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Central Asia's tiny surviving group of snow leopards may soon loose a lifeline that is helping them cling to survival.

2005-01-02

I have just signed this Pledge Against Airport Expansion

2004-12-20

The UK's fishing policy in European waters is mistaken, a Conservative former fisheries minister believes.

2004-12-16

A friend has invited me to take part in a cross-country skiing adventure in Iceland this winter, hauling pulks across the icecap and camping in sub-zero temperatures no doubt. Appealing as this sounds I have declined the offer and will miss out experiencing the Icelandic wilderness - a wilderness which according to KillingIceland.org is under serious threat.

2004-12-13

Campaigners against the expansion of Britain's airports are challenging the government's plans in the High Court.

2004-12-12

I was just reading about how the yes men fooled the BBC into running an television interview with someone claiming to represent Dow. The impostor announced that Dow was accepting full responsibility for the Bhopal disaster and had a 12 billion dollar plan to compensate the victims and remediate the site - see full story.

2004-12-10

Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai has been presented with the Nobel Peace Prize for 2004 at a ceremony in Oslo.

2004-12-04

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo has suspended logging and vowed punishment for law-breakers as the country reels from four deadly storms in two weeks.

2004-12-03

A day of commemoration is underway in Bhopal.

2004-12-02

A contamination survey is to be carried out at the site of the world's worst industrial accident, Bhopal, in India, a local minister says.

2004-11-23

Early this morning activists blocked Stancliffe Stone a subsidiary of Marshall's PLC for three and a half hours using two tripods. The action was done to show that regardless of the camp being evicted from 9 Ladies site, that Marshall's or Stancliffe Stone are still very easy to shut down and that activists can cause economic damage in a peaceful non violent way.

2004-10-26

The Worldwide Freecycle Network is made up of many individuals and groups across the globe - changing the world one gift at a time. There are already a couple of dozen UK groups including the FreeCycle London Yahoo! Group which I just joined (subscription required moderator approval).

A somewhat related website is ScavengeUK which caters for those who prefer skips to shops!

A Joseph Rowntree Foundation study claims to show that poor families would be hit hardest by "green" taxes.

2004-10-25

A WWF report says that insects, plants, birds and mammals are all suffering because of an increasing tendency to remove decaying timber from European forests.

2004-10-19

Fisheries scientists say no cod should be caught in the North Sea, the Irish Sea and west of Scotland in 2005.

2004-10-10

Depleted Uranium has a half life of 4.5 billion years, and about 400 tons of the stuff have been scattered around the planet by US armed forces, mostly in Iraq. The effects are extremely disturbing, as shown in this Flash presentation. November the sixth is an International Day of Action to Ban Uranium Weapons - see ICBUW for details.

Heritage Action is an organisation working to protect ancient sites in Britain and Ireland.

2004-10-03

An international conference on wildlife trade has has opened in Thailand with calls for stronger curbs on illegal trafficking in rare animals and plants.

Greenpeace protesters are still waiting in the English Channel to try to intercept two ships carrying plutonium from the US to France.

Rex Weyler has written a book about Greenpeace which is to be published soon - according to this blog entry it promises to be a good read.

2004-09-02

The European Commission is expected to launch formal legal proceedings against the UK over nuclear safety at Sellafield plant.

2004-08-26

Nigeria's Senate is reportedly asking Shell to pay $1.5bn compensation for environmental damage.

2004-08-19

The UK's Royal Society has launched an investigation into the rising acidity of the world's oceans.

2004-08-16

Someone recently recommended Good Energy as a UK supplier of 100% renewable energy so I just took a look at the FOE Choose Green Energy page, and sure enough, the Good Energy tariff is one of their five current recommendations.

2004-08-09

The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior left Aukland, New Zealand in June on a voyage to highlight the irreversible damage caused to deep sea life by bottom trawling.

An Environment Agency report suggests that so many people in the UK are taking Prozac that it is building up in rivers and groundwater.

2004-07-16

Last weekend the Space Hijackers went on safari in Chelsea to highlight the increasing problem of monstrous gas-guzzling SUVs needlessly clogging up our city streets and polluting our planet. Speaking of which, there is an active campaign in the US where people are "tagging" a certain subset of SUVs with bumper stickers which read I'M CHANGING THE CLIMATE! Ask me how!.

2004-07-06

A University of York report says that the rise in demand for air travel is one of the most serious environmental threats facing the world.

2004-06-15

A team of UK scientists has estimated that a global network of marine "parks" with 30% coverage of the oceans would cost $14bn per year to run.

2004-06-01

For the last few years I have been going to the Kingston Green Fair, and was sorry to miss it this time around. I was tormented by an inexplicable headache and stayed at home, but at least I managed to do some gardening.

2004-05-20

Victory! In a stunning setback to the Bush administration's attempt to shut down Greenpeace, a Federal Judge in Miami has dismissed the sailormongering case.

2004-05-14

John Ashcroft has not backed off and is still trying to bring a ridiculous charge of sailormongering against Greenpeace. The trial is due to start in just 3 days. Over 50,000 people have sent letters asking Bush and Ashcroft to prosecute illegal loggers, not Greenpeace - why not join them?

2004-04-20

I was just looking at the website for the Goldman Environmental Prize.

2004-04-07

Amit Asaravala reports on how a group of students paid for the right to pollute the environment with 9 tons of sulphur dioxide. They have no intention of doing so, but are using it as a way of learning about market based environmental regulation.

2004-03-28

Opponents of a gas pipeline project in Peru's Amazon have leaked government documents to show the damage caused to the rainforest and tribes.

2004-03-26

Under the Montreal Protocol, the use of methyl bromide was to be phased out by 2005, but at a meeting in Canada a group of developed nations are pleading to be allowed to continue using this ozone destroying gas.

2004-03-23

Protesters have now sadly been evicted from St. David's Wood, but at least it made the BBC news.

2004-03-12

Apparently the UK Green Party is attempting to ditch its "beards and sandals" image ahead of this year's local and European elections. The new sharper image was unveiled at the Spring Conference in Hove. If it results in the Green Party winning more seats then I guess that is a good thing, but what is wrong with beards and sandals?

2004-03-01

In a Wired article today, Drake Bennet examines the view that Patrick Moore (the co-founder of Greenpeace on whom I passed comment in January) is an Eco-Traitor.

2004-02-16

Scientists call for ban on "bottom trawling" to protect deep sea coral from destruction.

2004-02-14

The Seventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 7) is taking place as we speak in Kuala Lumpur.

2004-02-13

It looks like it might be too late save St. David's Wood from the developers. Here is the (out of date) St. David's Wood Campaign website for background information. Check out this Indymedia report for the latest news, and get there to help if possible.

At the other end of the scale, I just read a wired article about the destruction of Borneo's forests.

2004-01-23

Did you know that Greenpeace is facing a federal grand jury indictment for sailormongering? Do you even know what sailormongering is? TomPaine.com has a feature asking Why Target Greenpeace?

2004-01-21

If you see any articles about a co-founder of Greenpeace criticising the "global green movement" it is more than likely that they are referring to a certain Patrick Moore, who's infamy has earned him a personal entry in the disinfopedia.

2004-01-16

See this Wired article about how a coalition of environmental groups in the US have accused the EPA of colluding with chemical and pesticide companies to weaken the Endangered Species Protection Act.

2004-01-13

On 2003-11-14 I took part in a Greenpeace cyberaction to help save Tasmania's Styx Forest. This action has resulted in nearly 6000 emails being sent to three Japanese companies which import woodchips sourced from Tasmanian Forests, and I just received an email from one of these companies referring me to their 2003-12-11 response.

2003-12-22

The use of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) to artificially force cows to produce more milk has been banned in the European Union and Canada but has been approved by the FDA in the United States. Many dairy farmers in the US are producing milk without using rBST and there is clearly a demand but Monsanto, who manufacture rBST under the brand name Posilac, would like to deny consumers the choice - see this Wired article for references.

As if Global Warming is not enough to worry about, I recently read in The Guardian about a phenomenon called Global Dimming.

2003-11-21

What is The Meatrix?

2003-10-10

I took a day off work today to join the Climate Trashers' Critical Mass, targeting the proposed Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline. I arrived in London early and took the opportunity to visit Tony's Holistic Centre and then the "Radiant Transmission" exhibition at the October Gallery featuring some amazing pieces of contemporary Tibetan Buddhist art - well worth a visit (ends 2003-10-18).

2003-10-09

In issue 37 of Positive News I noticed an article entitled "End to End on Pure Veg" about a guy called Daniel Blackburn who has driven from Lands End to John o' Groats in a car powered by vegetable oil - see www.vegoilmotoring.com.

2003-08-10

I have just added this new section of my site to consolidate information about environmental issues.

www.zenatode.org.uk Ian Gregory 2010