Home/Posts Tagged ‘European’
Posts Tagged ‘European’
Politics, Nov 29th, 2011,
The UK is bracing itself for the largest public sector strike in over 30 years, prompted by the frozen and cut wages of state employees. The Conservatives sell these cuts as ‘necessary austerities’, but many aren’t buying that. And in light of a constant rise in income inequality and unfair EU subsides towards the wealthy, it’s not hard to see why. Case in point: George Monbiot writes in the Guardian on the outrageous Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies, which take up 43% of the European budget (totalling £47bn per year). And the more land you own, the more money you…
Tags: Dominic, elite, European, farm, George, Lawson, Monbiot, nurses, private sector, public sector, strike, subsidies, teachers, UK, workers
Green living, Politics, Sep 22nd, 2010,
European Mobility Week ends today and how many of us have even heard of it? I only did by the time it was more than half way over. Shame on me. The week is dedicated to promoting ‘eco-friendly ways of traveling’, according to a European Parliament press release. Members of European Parliament (MEPs) are using the opportunity to advocate walking, cycling, using public transport and electric bikes when powered by renewable sources, as well as highlighting the amount of global greenhouse gas emissions which come from transport (80%). The slogan for European Mobility Week is ‘travel smarter, live better’, a…
Tags: emissions, European, gas, greenhouse, MEP, mobility, parliament, transport, week
Politics, Pollution, Recycling, Sep 13th, 2010,
Old computers and other e-waste from British government departments have been discovered at dumpsites in African countries and in containers headed for the continent, according to the UK’s environment agency. The chairman of the agency, Lord Smith, warned that the amount of illegally exported e-waste is rising and that in addition to health and environmental concerns, it is also a threat to British national security, due to the risk that sensitive information could still be stored in the computers’ hardware. He said that waste from the UK, which includes computers, monitors, televisions and DVD players, is sent to countries in…
Tags: Africa, British, computers, e-waste, Europe, European, government, Greenpeace, illegal, Nigeria, UK
Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Aug 28th, 2010,
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), aka the widespread disappearance of honeybees, is a worrying and mysterious threat to the European honeybee population, which we are dependent on for much of our food supply. Honeybee colonies pollinate many monoculture crops such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, flowers, seeds, beans and spices. If we lose them, the farming economy suffers, as does our food production. Though the cause of CCD are not certain, studies have linked the decline in honeybee populations to certain pesticides and even climate change. The main suspect for killing the bees, however, is the varroa mite, a bee parasite that…
Tags: beekeeper, bees, Britain, CCD, European, honeybee, Hoskins, mite, UK, Varroa
Pollution, Science & Technology, Aug 24th, 2010,
Space is not the sterile expanse of nothingness we might picture it to be. In fact, the space around Earth, much like the Earth itself, is littered with our junk. NASA estimates that there are some 18,000 pieces of space trash, each 10cm wide or larger, orbiting the Earth. Honestly, to me that doesn’t sound like that much, but there are a lot more smaller bits of space debris and the amount is ever-increasing. Ad that to the face that its all orbiting at a speed of 18,000 mph (coincidence??) or 21,000 km per hr, which poses a significant danger…
Tags: agency, debris, Earth, ESA, European, junk, Military, orbit, orbiting, satellites, space
Conservation, Politics, Wildlife & Flora, Aug 21st, 2010,
To Canadian disappointment, a ban on the importation of seal products into the European Union was enacted yesterday. However, the European Commission stated that the ban does not apply to groups that have already filed court appeals, including 16 Inuit groups from Canada. According to a report by the Associated Press, indigenous peoples of Greenland and Canada have argued that the European Union seal import ban disproportionately affects their traditional way of life, yet the same reports cite EU data stating that only one percent of Canadian seal imports into the EU were from Inuit sources. Canadian hunters killed an…
Tags: ban, Canada, Canadian, EU, European, exceptions, harp, hunt, ice, import, indigenous, Inuit, products, seal, seals, Union
Health, Aug 17th, 2010,
The diet of the West, high in animal products, fat, salt and sugar, is increasingly associated with wealth and development. The growing middle and upper classes in China are causing meat consumption to skyrocket in that country. Those with more disposable income in characteristically poor places buy more imported, packaged and processed foods, which all tend to be higher in salt, sugar and fat. Meat becomes more of a staple than a luxury. In contrast, the poor of the developing world generally eat traditional diets that are high in fruit and vegetables. In the West it’s the opposite. The cheapest…
Tags: Africa, allergies, bacteria, children, developing, diet, disease, European, fat, food, guy, heath, meat, microbial, poor, rich, salt, study, sugar, vegetables, Western
Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Aug 8th, 2010,
Poor bees. We steal their honey, enslave them in order to pollinate apple orchards and then have the audacity to go berserk if one of them lands in our Frappuccino. Oh yeah, it also turns out we’re probably poisoning them with pesticides, causing their numbers to drop dramatically. The decline of the European honeybee – known as Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD – could in turn spell disaster for the future of monoculture crops, such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, flowers, seeds, beans and spices. A new study has linked common pesticides with CCD, spurring environmental groups into a new effort…
Tags: air, bees, CCD, control, European, Germany, honey, honeybees, monoculture, neonicotinoids, pesticides, quality, study
Climate Change, Politics, Jul 28th, 2010,
Cap and trade or emissions trading schemes can be confusing. They have been touted as the chief market-based solution for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, preserving valuable natural resources like forests, while making money for rich and poor countries alike. The far right and climate change skeptics hate them for obvious – and sometimes less obvious – reasons: they hate government meddling in the free market and regulating business and industry to the point that they believe in a vast ‘socialist’ conspiracy involving all prominent climate scientists. Or is it just a simple question of which class and which industries will…
Tags: activist, cap and trade, carbon, change, China, climate, copenhagen, Decodcidio, emissions, environmentalist, European, exchange, hacked, justice, market, scheme, social, trading
Green living, Politics, ,
On Friday London begins its well-publicized bicycle rental scheme, introduced by mayor Boris Johnson, run by London Transport and sponsored by Barclays plc. Over the past few years London has become more cycle-friendly with more bike lanes and cycle paths, reducing stress on public and private transport – which have both become more costly, thereby encouraging more people to travel by bike. But despite recent growth in cycle traffic, London still trails other British cities and lags astronomically behind the European bicycle Meccas of Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Enter Barclays Cycle Hire, which resembles bike rental schemes in other European and world cities,…
Tags: Barclays, bicycle, bike, Boris, cycle, cyclists, European, hire, Johnson, london, private, public, rental, scheme, UK
Science & Technology, Jul 27th, 2010,
Latin America has huge potential for wind and solar power. Brazil already has large and long-established hydropower and biofuel industries, but along with Mexico, Colombia and other Latin American countries, they are increasingly looking towards European models of renewable energy. From an article in Scientific American: European wind farms dwarf Latin American efforts in terms of production today, but this will change dramatically if Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and other countries in the region continue their wind energy efforts. Whereas Spain generates 20,000 megawatts from wind energy and plans to double that capacity by 2020, Brazil has a capacity to produce…
Tags: America, Brazil, Chile, energy, EU, European, industries, Latin, Mexico, Peru, power, renewable, Solar, Solarpack, Spain, T-Solar, wind
Climate Change, Pollution, ,
Here are some pictures of the large bloom of blue-green algae currently covering 377,000 sq km of the Baltic Sea. The satellite picture comes from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the aerial photos are from the Swedish Coast Guard. Large carpets of algae create dead zones in marine environments and are a human health hazard because they spread cynanobacteria. Swimming in affected areas should therefore be avoided. From a BBC News report: This accelerated growth also reduces the amount of oxygen available to other plant and animal species in the affected area; raising fears that it could destabilise fragile…
Tags: aerial, algae, algal, Baltic, Bloom, Coast Guard, ESA, European, photo, satellite, sea, Swedish
Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Jul 17th, 2010,
Video footage taken by researchers at five different European zoos shows gorillas tapping each other on the shoulder and then running away while the gorilla who has been tapped gives chase. The young gorillas appear to be playing a game of tag, just like human children. A group of scientists from European universities has published research in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters exploring how gorillas play and test what is socially acceptable behavior. From an article in the Telegraph: By playing both chaser and the chased, the apes develop a better understanding of fleeing and pursuit and greater levels…
Tags: European, gorillas, play, tag, video
Conservation, Nature, Politics, Jul 14th, 2010,
Economist Pavan Sukhdev is the independent study leader of a European Union research project, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) hosted by the UN Environment Program (UNEP). Sukhdev has argued that current economic models do not sufficiently address the true value of nature and natural resources outside of commerce. He is a proponent of the concept of ‘natural capital’, in which a value is placed on food, clean water, clean air, forests, etc, but without commodifying nature. Poor rural populations who live outside of consumption-based economies value nature because they depend on it to survive rather than because they…
Tags: biodiversity, Business, corporation, economic, ecosystem, Europe, European, forestry, forests, government, natural, Nature, resources, UN, value
Climate Change, Conservation, Politics, Jul 11th, 2010,
European Parliament has voted in favor of new regulations to insure that timber imported into the EU comes from legal sources. Similar legislation was adopted in the US in 2008, though in the case of Europe, enforcing the new regulations will be the responsibility of individual member states. If properly implemented, the rules could have a significant effect in reducing deforestation. From a piece in The Ecologist: While the EU has spoken out against illegal timber, a major driver of deforestation worldwide, it has up until now remained one of the trade’s biggest markets. Europe currently consumes around 12 per…
Tags: deforestation, EU, Europe, European, illegal, parliament, regulations, rules, timber, vote, WWF
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Jul 9th, 2010,
Germany’s Federal Environment Agency claims that the European nation could get all its power from renewables by 2050. At the moment Germany derives 16% of its electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind – a threefold increase from 1995. Some 300,000 jobs in the renewable energy field have been created since 2000 and Germany trails only the US in wind energy production. From a Reuters report: The government has set goals of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 to 2020, and by 80 to 85 percent by 2050. That goal could be achieved if Germany…
Tags: 2050, electricity, emissions, energy, EU, European, Germany, power, renewables, Solar, sources, wind
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, ,
Due in part to the popularity of the environmental documentary film Gasland, the practice of natural gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing, alternately known as ‘fracking’ or ‘fracing’, has been the subject of much debate. The process of hydraulic fracturing involves drilling into shale reservoirs and creating fractures by pumping in water. The principle environmental concerns regarding fracking are the contamination of wells and aquifers with chemicals used in the drilling process, air quality issues and the mismanagement of solid waste. The spread of fracking for shale gas in the United States has already partially revolutionized the natural gas industry there…
Tags: environmental, Europe, European, frack, fracking, fracturing, gas, hydraulic, natural, oil, Poland, shale, United States
Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, Jul 5th, 2010,
A telescope aboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Planck satellite has captured the image of the ‘ghost of the Big Bang’. The image is of the afterglow of the birth of the universe, which happened around 14 billion years ago. Cosmic microwaves are detected in order to form the picture of the very young universe. From an article in the Independent: The radiation was released as the first atoms were forming, just 400,000 years after the Big Bang brought matter, space and time into existence. The image depicts the Milky Way, lots of cosmic dust and a ‘galactic web’ where…
Tags: agency, Big Bang, ESA, European, image, picture, Planck, space, telescope, universe
Climate Change, Politics, Science & Technology, ,
Ny Ålesund, Norway. Population: 30-40. Home to the most northerly post office in the world and a growing community of scientists from across the globe. The former coalmining village is now an international Arctic research station with centers operated by several European countries as well as Asian heavyweight nations China, India, South Korea and Japan. This Norwegian Arctic outpost is 1,000 miles (1,600 km) further north than Oulu, Finland, which is the furthest north I’ve ever been. When I was in Oulu one spring, it was far below freezing while southern Sweden was experiencing temperatures in the 20s C (70s…
Tags: arctic, Asian, Climate change, Earth, European, north, Norway, Ny Ålesund, research, symposium
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Jun 28th, 2010,
With fossil fuels running out, not to mention polluting the earth and heating up the planet, the largest energy consuming countries are constantly looking for new sources of power. One vast renewable and obviously inexhaustible source is sunlight. As technology for capturing solar energy and converting it to usable power continually develops – making solar power an increasingly viable and affordable source – Europe is setting its sights on the African Sahara. The European energy commissioner claims that within 5 years the EU will be importing hundreds of megawatts of solar energy from North Africa. But that’s just the beginning….
Tags: commissioner, energy, EU, Europe, European, North Africa, power, renewable, Sahara, Solar, source, sun
