Home/Posts Tagged ‘Guardian’
Posts Tagged ‘Guardian’
Climate Change, Green living, Pollution, Jun 19th, 2012,
Where do you think the world is heading? Are things getting better or going downhill? Obviously, the state of the Earth is no utopian fantasy, but it’s not quite the post-apocalyptic landscape of ‘The Road’ yet either. But The Road not yet traveled is perhaps more likely than some sort of new Eden. Why or why not? Over the past 20 years: World population is growing to unsustainable numbers, though it is expected to stabilize this century. Life expectancy is on the rise, though it’s still around 50 in some very poor countries. This connects with a falling global infant…
Tags: Guardian, Pollution, Rio+20
Green living, Jul 14th, 2011,
On an episode of the UK comedy quiz show QI it was once mentioned that the worst thing you could do for the environment was own a pet. The show claimed that a large dog, for example, creates more greenhouse gases than an SUV (from its meat consumption presumably, rather than its biological functions). I’m assuming the numbers referenced in QI were crunched based on averages, and did not account for individual lifestyle choices of pet owners, like becoming vegetarian, not having kids, feeding their pets home grown organic mealworms, keeping their cats locked inside or whatever. There is no…
Tags: cats, dogs, environment, Guardian, pets, QI
Climate Change, Politics, Aug 4th, 2010,
You might think you can do a better job than the UK government at cutting CO2, becoming more energy efficient and deciding how Britain should move towards a low carbon economy. Well the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change let’s you try it out – in a computer simulation, of course. The Independent’s environment editor loves it, as he explains in a recent article: Doing it yourself gives an unusual and vivid insight into the difficulties faced by real policymakers in grappling with our energy future. The software tool that makes it possible is called the 2050 Pathways Calculator…
Tags: Britain, carbon, Climate change, cuts, DECC, Department, emissions, energy, environmental, government, Green, Guardian, Independent, McCarthy, policy, power, schemes, UK, wind
Climate Change, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 10th, 2010,
Last week I posted Bill Maher’s recent rant on climate change denial. Now it’s comedian, occasional columnist and star of Peep Show David Mitchell’s turn to vent on climate change, which he does so in his regular Guardian video feature ‘David Mitchell’s Soap Box’. As usual with anything related to climate change in the Guardian, there is a full complement of argumentative statements in the comment section following the video. I like the suggestion by one commenter that we should stop ironing to cut CO2 and save energy because it’s pointless and fun not to do. Of course, then we’d…
Tags: Climate change, David, fun, Guardian, Mitchell, Peep Show
Climate Change, Green living, Jul 5th, 2010,
Since I eat a banana almost every day I admit I’ve dreaded cutting down or giving them up based on the fact that they are not a local food and therefore not environmentally right-on. I naturally assumed they were not energy efficient due to their having to be shipped from Costa Rica or some such far-off tropical place, but at the same time I didn’t really know. A new book by Mike Berners-Lee entitled ‘How Bad are Bananas?’ attempts to measure the carbon footprint of, yes, bananas, but pretty much everything else too. Both the Guardian and The Ecologist have…
Tags: bananas, Berners-Lee, book, carbon, co2, ecologist, footprint, Guardian, Mike
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Jun 26th, 2010,
The Guardian recently featured an opinion piece on the commodification of water, by Nestle bigwig and former CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. The article basically questions the assumption that all water use should be considered a basic human right and argues that water use which goes ‘beyond basic sanitation, cooking and drinking’ should be charged for. The era of water at throwaway prices is coming to an end. I have long argued that we need to set a price that more accurately values our most precious commodity; the OECD and the World Bank are also moving in this direction, and have recently…
Tags: Brabeck-Letmathe, commodity, crisis, freshwater, global, Guardian, Nestle, Peter, resource, South Africa, water
Green living, Videos & Documentaries, Jun 22nd, 2010,
Anti-consumerism activist and DIY filmmaker Annie Leonard spent 10 years looking into the lifecycle of consumer goods. Her short, web-based film, ‘The Story of Stuff’ has been watched over 10 million times and has recently been made into a book, further detailing Annie’s extensive research into the cycle of production, consumption and disposal that has become intrinsic to American-style capitalism. Here is an excerpt from the book (via asiaone.com): Currently we have this great illusion of choice in this country – but it is almost entirely limited to the consumer realm. Walk into any supermarket these days, and what do…
Tags: Annie, book, capitalism, consumer, consumerism, film, Guardian, Leonard, story, story of stuff, stuff
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Jun 19th, 2010,
Writer and activist Naomi Klein describes in a piece for the Guardian how an overconfident BP recklessly endangered the environment and human culture of the Gulf of Mexico, believing there to be ‘little risk’ of disaster. Even if a spill will to occur, BP believed, it would be minor and easily manageable. Now that a real – and plainly unmanageable – disaster has actually happened, promises from BP boss Tony Hayward and US President Barack Obama that the Gulf will fully recover are unrealistic and being met with skepticism by Gulf residents. It all sounded great. But for people whose…
Tags: BP, disaster, Fault Lines, Guardian, Gulf, Klein, Naomi, oil, spill
Green living, Videos & Documentaries, Weird Stuff, Jun 17th, 2010,
Mark Boyle, aka No Money Man, has been living out of an old donated caravan on an organic farm outside of Bristol, England for over a year and a half. He eats well, keeps fit, grows vegetables and forages for necessities. He also keeps up a blog and occasionally writes for the Guardian. He’s even written a book while he’s at it. Oh, and he’s lived without money the entire time. From a CNN Eco Solutions report: Although it hasn’t always been easy, and there have been many challenges and sacrifices, 18 months later, Mark is still living this way….
Tags: Boyle, caravan, CNN, free, Guardian, Mark, money, No Money Man
Climate Change, Politics, Jun 16th, 2010,
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama addressed the American people on national television, live from the Oval Office, in an attempt to inform and assure the nation about efforts to deal with the United States’ largest environmental disaster ever. He also urged support for a move away from fossil fuels and towards a reliance on renewable energy. On the former – regarding both BP’s responsibility for and government efforts to assist in the stopping and cleaning up of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as aid those whose lives have been damaged – President Obama was…
Tags: Barack, BBC, BP, Climate change, Guardian, Gulf, Mexico, Obama, Oval Office, President, speech, spill
Climate Change, Politics, Jun 13th, 2010,
A new survey of UK residents conducted by the University of Cardiff shows that public acceptance of climate change is alive and well in Britain. From an article in the Guardian: The survey showed that almost three-quarters (71%) of Britons are concerned about climate change. Some 78% think the climate is changing, which is down from 91% who said it was in a similar poll in 2005. In recent months, a considerable amount of fanfare has been given to a decline in public opinion regarding the veracity of climate change or global warming in both the US and UK. But…
Tags: American, belief, Britons, Cardiff, climate, Climate change, faith, global warming, Guardian, New York Times, poll, polls, science, survey, UK, University, US
Climate Change, Politics, Jun 4th, 2010,
Christopher Monckton, aka Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, is a loud critical voice in the highly politicized publicity war against mainstream climate science in the UK. A former journalist who worked in Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government during the 1980s, Monckton also favored compulsory AIDS testing for the entire population and lifetime quarantine for those with the disease. He later gave up that crackpot cause and took up climate science denial during the last decade, joining the likes of other right wing British journalists like James Delingpole and Dominic Lawson, brother to the lovely Nigella and son of another prominent climate…
Tags: Abraham, climate, Climate change, denial, Guardian, Lawson, Minnesota, Monckton, professor, science, skeptic, UK
Climate Change, Videos & Documentaries, ,
The Guardian reports that BP has placed a cap on the broken end of the leaking wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico in order to capture escaping oil and collect it on ships above the shattered well: The placement of the containment cap is another positive development in BP’s most recent attempt to contain the leak, however, it will be some time before we can confirm that this method will work and to what extent it will mitigate the release of oil into the environment. Even if successful, this is only a temporary and partial fix and we must continue…
Tags: BP, cap, environment, Guardian, Gulf, leak, oil
Climate Change, Politics, May 30th, 2010,
Belief in global warming plummeted amongst the British public after the climate change conference in Copenhagen last December, according to a BBC poll early this year. A similar poll commissioned by the London Times also showed increased skepticism regarding climate amongst those surveyed. Belief in climate change amongst scientists has not changed, but in the war of the press, the climate skeptics – often called climate deniers – did gain significant ground in Copenhagen’s wake. From a May 24th article in the New York Times: Two independent reviews later found no evidence that the East Anglia researchers had actively distorted…
Tags: climate, Climate change, copenhagen, environment, global, Guardian, Independent, poll, press, skepticism, skeptics, Telegraph, Times, UK, war, warming
Climate Change, Nature, Politics, May 27th, 2010,
The Chinese government is adopting an incentives scheme to preserve the Asian giant’s fragile forests and biodiversity. According to the new legislation, wealthy urbanized regions in China will be obliged to compensate areas that preserve their natural riches, notably forests that sequester carbon. This figure – which takes into account carbon sequestration, water conservation, biodiversity protection and biomass production – suggests the administration is seeking not just a new set of values, but a new role for itself now that the nation’s forests are logged out and 2,000 species reportedly threatened with extinction. –Jonathan Watts in the Guardian Putting a…
Tags: Beijing, biodiversity, China, forests, Guardian, Hippopotamus, preserve, Western, zoo
Climate Change, Politics, May 26th, 2010,
Yesterday the Queen gave her speech to formally open Parliament. The Queen’s Speech sets out the UK government’s proposals for new laws and policies. Included in the Queen’s Speech was the new government’s energy bill, known as the Energy Security and Green Economy Bill, from the Department for Energy and Climate Change. It is credited to the Liberal Democrat part of the UK’s coalition government, which is headed by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. From a report in the Telegraph: A big win for the Liberal Democrats and Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, this will seek to improve energy efficiency…
Tags: adopt, bill, climate, Climate change, energy, government, Green, Guardian, MP, parliament, Queen, speech, UK, UKYCC, young, youth
Politics, May 18th, 2010,
Earlier this month Caroline Lucas made history by becoming the Green Party’s first Member of Parliament (MP) in the UK House of Commons. Lucas represents the constituency of Brighton Pavilion, on the south coast of England. She is also the head of the Green Party of England and Wales and was a Member of the European Parliament, representing South East England, from 1999-2010. Saturday’s Guardian features an interview and profile of the groundbreaking British politician, her activist background, UK Green Party policies and her impressions of the House of Commons vs. the European Parliament. The Green party is a party…
Tags: Caroline, England, Green, Green Party, Guardian, House of Commons, Lucas, new deal, parliament, UK
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Apr 30th, 2010,
Arctic temperatures have risen twice as fast in recent decades as temps in the rest of the world. Melting sea ice – considered part of a positive feedback loop – as well as wind, cloud and ocean current changes have been suspected of driving this rapid warming, known as Arctic amplification. A positive feedback loop is a system where the cause and effect perpetuate one another, like a vicious circle. A new study shows that Arctic warming from melting sea ice may be driving a positive feedback loop between rising temperatures and disappearing ice. From an article in the Guardian:…
Tags: Antarctica, arctic, feedback, floating, Guardian, ice, loop, melt, ozone, positive, sea, temperatures, warming
Climate Change, Politics, Apr 26th, 2010,
In terms of development and environment, global capitalism can be compared to a dinner where a rich few eat all the food and leave the bill with their poor, unwilling hosts after tossing a stingy tip and some dinner notes onto the table. The colonized, indigenous and poorest peoples of the world are the ones who suffer most from climate change, do the least to cause it and hold the least power to stop it. The UNFCCC in Copenhagen last December may have called attention to the lower tier of the developing world, but it did not give them much…
Tags: alternative, Bolivia, climate, Climate change, conference, copenhagen, Earth, environment, environmental, Evo, Guardian, indigenous, Morales, poor, President, talks, WPCCC
Climate Change, Politics, Apr 22nd, 2010,
Bolivia has been hosting an international summit, named the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, in the city of Cochabamba. The talks began on the 19th and finish today. From a report by the Environmental News Service: More than 20,000 indigenous, environmental and civil society delegates from 129 countries were in attendance as President Morales welcomed them to the conference at a soccer stadium in the village of Tiquipaya on the outskirts of the city of Cochabamba. The tone in Bolivia is decidedly political, with an emphasis on nature, poor and indigenous peoples and…
Tags: Bolivia, Bolivian, capitalism, climate, Climate change, Cochabamba, conference, environmental, Guardian, indigenous, justice, mine, Morales, people, President, rights, talks, water
