Home/Posts Tagged ‘government’
Posts Tagged ‘government’
Animals, Nature, Politics, Wildlife & Flora, May 31st, 2012,
The UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has dropped its controversial plan to capture buzzards and destroy their nests in order to protect pheasants. Of course the pheasants wouldn’t be safe for long as the plan was to leave the pheasants to be killed by hunters instead of buzzards. A bit of meddling on the part of Defra so rich hunters can have more of a day out. Not really ‘Department for Environment’ concern, you’d think. It gets weirder. From the Independent: The Environment Department (Defra) planned to spend up to £375,000 researching ways to keep the…
Tags: buzzard, Defra, government, nest, pheasants, UK
Conservation, Politics, Mar 12th, 2012,
A fast track approach by the US government towards certain renewable energy projects has drawn lawsuits and protests from some Native American groups and environmentalists in California. US President Barack Obama has set a goal of sourcing 80% of the country’s electricity from clean projects, but some of the projects are on lands considered sacred to Native American tribes. Environmental groups are also concerned that the projects could hard sensitive desert ecology. Government officials claim to have consulted tribal organizations and have determined that the works, such as a massive solar energy farm in Blythe, California, will not harm historical…
Tags: California, desert, government, native american, sacred, solar energy
Politics, Pollution, Nov 14th, 2011,
The ‘Greenest government ever’ strikes again. According to official figures pollution contributed to some 200,000 premature deaths in the UK in 2008, a number with disproportionate victims in poor, urban communities. Furthermore, health care costs total £20bn per year for pollution-related ailments. And now the UK’s Conservative-led government wants to relax air quality standards and shift responsibility from national to local authorities. Standard Tory stuff, right? From the Independent: Poor air quality is caused by three main pollutants – nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and ozone. The UK is failing to meet EU limits for both nitrogen dioxide and PM. A…
Tags: air, government, Pollution, UK
Politics, Wildlife & Flora, May 16th, 2011,
Despite 70% of the British public supporting a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses, the UK government has failed to enact such a ban, opting for stiffer regulations instead. The circus animal debate heated up last month when undercover footage was released of an elephant in a British circus being beaten with a pitchfork. One the one side are animal welfare groups and most UK voters. On the other stand circus owners who reap great financial benefit from training, parading and often abusing exotic animals, including keeping them in inadequate conditions. From BBC News: In 2009, the…
Tags: animals, ban, circus, elephant, government, UK, wild
Politics, Mar 25th, 2011,
The UK’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government’s plan to cut social programs as part of a decision to reduce spending by £95bn (€108bn) over 5 years will start to take effect in one week’s time. From a piece in the Guardian: Their disappearance may not be noticed by anyone with a good income, in secure employment, in sound health, without caring responsibilities – anyone who does not look to the state for support with life’s problems. For the more vulnerable, the decision to close these bodies and cut these jobs will be sharply felt. They will be more acutely obvious beyond…
Tags: coalition, cuts, DIY UK, government, protest, Saci Lloyd, UK, university fees
Politics, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 11th, 2011,
The UK government has put its plans to sell off vast tracts of publicly owned forestland on hold. The scheme to privatize 258,000 hectares or 1,000 square miles of forest is part of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government’s harsh program of spending cuts, tax hikes and other actions with the expressed aim of lowering the UK’s large budget deficit. According to a BBC report, the British government is currently allowed to sell of 15% of public forests per public spending period – a “small scale” privatization scheme that has been in practice for years: What the government is saying is…
Tags: 38 Degrees, forests, government, public, sell off, UK
Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 7th, 2011,
A backlash against the UK government’s plans to privatize vast amounts of national forest has resulted in a softening of language concerning the proposed measure by the ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. Part of the austerity measures of “greenest government ever”, the plan has sparked a widespread public outcry. The selling off of 258,000 hectares of Britain’s publicly owned woodland is now being presented by the government as an option that is being considered, rather than a done deal. UK Environment Secretary Caroline Spellman is quoted in a BBC report: Unlike some of the consultations we saw in the past, like…
Tags: forest, government, public, UK
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Oct 2nd, 2010,
The aborted 10:10 campaign film ‘No Pressure’ has elicited a lot of hate, anger – or at least pretend outrage – because of its questionable attempt at satire. Meanwhile, some actual, dangerous behavior is happening off the UK coast, near the Shetland Islands, in the form of deep sea oil drilling. Where is the outrage and vitriol about that? The Gulf of Mexico recently got fouled and workers died – actual people rather than pretend characters in a short film. Billions of dollars in livelihoods, an ecological catastrophe, blah blah blah… What? Oh yeah sure, go ahead and ‘drill baby…
Tags: Chevron, deep sea, drilling, government, Greenpeace, Gulf of Mexico, oil, Shetland Islands, UK
Climate Change, Politics, Wildlife & Flora, Sep 18th, 2010,
Ireland industrialized and urbanized both later and to a lesser extent than many other European countries. It is known for its beautiful green countryside and pastoral villages and is considered to have low pollution levels in terms of water and air quality. Yet Ireland lost most of its forestland long ago due to the widespread establishment of agriculture. This put stresses on the survival native species, but hedgerows, riverbanks and other ‘green corridors’ still enable vestiges of Ireland’s native ecosystems to survive. The scale of Ireland’s forests have grown in recent years to cover around 10% of the island, yet…
Tags: Climate change, Comhar, ecosystems, government, green infrastructure, Ireland, Irish, Maguire, report
Health, Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Sep 17th, 2010,
India: a country of nearly 1.2 billion people with over 28% living under the official poverty line, as defined by Indian government in 2004-2005. Some 400 million of these poor depend on government food handouts, which fall short of meeting demands. Yet experts say that there are over a billion tons of grain rotting away in government warehouses, an amount that could feed over 600,000 people for 10 years. And though feeding the poor can be seen as an expense, the consequences of not feeding them are much greater – economically as well as morally. The antipoverty group ActionAid calculates…
Tags: government, grain, hunger, India, Indian, poor, starve
Conservation, Politics, Sep 13th, 2010,
The Chagos Islands, aka British Indian Ocean Territory, is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom containing many small islands, the largest being Diego Garcia. Diego Garcia was famously – and forcibly – evacuated by the UK government in the 1960s to make way for a US military base. After several court cases, the islanders have still not been allowed to resettle their homeland. The Chagos’ only inhabitants are currently US military living on Diego Garcia. Furthermore, last April a 250,000 square mile (650,000 sq km) Marine Protected Area (MPA) was established around the archipelago prohibiting commercial fishing. From an…
Tags: billionaire, British, Chagos, Diego Garcia, government, Indian, islands, marine, Military, MPA, ocean, overseas territory, Swiss, UK, US
Politics, Pollution, Recycling, ,
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
Politics, Pollution, Uncategorized, Sep 7th, 2010,
The European Union (EU) established the REACH system (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) and the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) an integrated system for Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals and establishing a European agency for these products. This system requires companies that manufacture and import chemicals to assess the risks arising from their use and take the necessary measures to manage any risk to be identified. The burden of proof with regard to the safety of chemicals manufactured or sold is on the industry. The regulation aims to ensure a high level of protection of human health…
Tags: alogen, bfr, environment, Europe, government, Pollution, research, TOXIC
Nature, Politics, Pollution, Wildlife & Flora, Sep 1st, 2010,
Many think that the environmentalists are overstating the case, and that golf is hardly in the same league as the other pollutions strangling Japan.
Tags: environment, golf, government, japan, Nature, Pollution, water
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Aug 16th, 2010,
The ‘greenest government ever’ is at it again. The UK’s coalition government headed by Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy PM Nick Clegg has been cutting a lot of green programs and departments in the name of efficiency and belt-tightening. Now they are shelving one of their own environmental plans to regulate coal and gas power plants, a measure they claimed could be implemented upon taking office. From a report in the Guardian: Introducing a so-called “environmental performance standard” (EPS) for power companies would have restricted greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas plants and encouraged companies wishing to build…
Tags: Cameron, Clegg, coal, coalition, EPS, gas, government, greenest, plants, power
Politics, Aug 14th, 2010,
Workers in China don’t just have to fight ruthless parent corporations, oppressive subcontractors and draconian labor laws. They also have our insatiable desire for newer, cheaper and more cutting edge goods to contend with. Chinese factory workers, who build our mobile phones, laptop computers and plastic knickknacks, have long worked in conditions tantamount to slave labor. They often live in dormitories located on the factory grounds, which sleep ten to a room, where they are forbidden to cook, to have sex, listen to music or take showers. Talking is not allowed while working and breaks are non-existent. Shifts are around…
Tags: China, computers, corporations, factory, government, Hari, Independent, Johann, labor, phones, slave, Western, workers
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Aug 10th, 2010,
Britain’s energy secretary Chris Huhne has lifted the ban on local authorities selling back surplus electricity into the national power grid. The plan is to encourage local councils to generate their own renewable energy by installing solar panels and wind turbines on council owned property, including both homes and public buildings. Any extra electricity can be sold back to the grid and provide much needed income to local authorities. From an article in the Guardian: At present only 0.01% of electricity in England is generated by local authority-owned renewables. In Germany the equivalent figure is 100 times higher. The hope…
Tags: authorities, Britain, British, buildings, carbon, council, developers, energy, government, Green, grid, homes, local, plant, power, renewable, Solar, UK, wind
Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 7th, 2010,
As estimates of the oil spilling from the busted well in the Gulf of Mexico shot up like a post-Perestroika stock market on an almost daily basis, so plummeted the credibility of BP and the US government’s estimates regarding the volume of leaking oil. Accuracy apparently is not their strong suit. Won’t get fooled again. Or will we? What choice do we have without our own personal oil spill experts replete with super submarines? Even James Cameron wasn’t allowed to look – and he made Avatar, Aliens and Terminator. Surely that’s gotta open some doors? None of this means the…
Tags: BP, credibility, estimates, government, Gulf, Maddow, oil, Rachel, spill, spin
Politics, Pollution, Aug 5th, 2010,
Despite low public opinion on deep sea drilling and an overall global shift away from the practice, including the Obama administration’s moratorium in the US, the UK government – the ‘greenest government eva’ – has decided to go against the grain and allow exploratory drilling in the North Sea. A spokeswoman for the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change was quoted in an article in the Independent: We will not consent to the drilling of any well unless we are convinced that it is designed to the very highest standards, that the equipment used is fully tested and that…
Tags: ban, BP, coalition, deep, Deepwater, drilling, government, Greenpeace, Gulf, Italian, Libya, Mediterranean, Mexico, moratorium, North Sea, oil, sea, spill, UK
Politics, Pollution, Wildlife & Flora, Aug 4th, 2010,
BP has successfully stopped the oil flowing out of the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico by filling the well with a special kind of mud. It could be necessary to pump more mud into the well and workers may seal the top with concrete to assist in the proposed lasting solution of the two relief wells currently being drilled. From a BBC News report: The US government says the well leaked 4.9 million barrels of oil before being capped last month, with only 800,000 barrels being captured. The US government is expected to announce today that the remaining…
Tags: BP, chemical, cleanup, Deepwater Horizon, dispersants, government, Gulf, Mexico, mud, oil, static kill, US, well
