Archive for February, 2008
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Offsetting Democracy
by Kevin Smith from Carbon Trade Watch
Carbon trading and offsets distract attention from the wider, systemic changes and collective political action that needs to be taken in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Promoting more effective and empowering approaches to climate change involves moving away from the blinkered reductionism of free-market dogma, the false-economy of […]
No Comments » - Posted in Carbon Market, Industry by Kevin Smith
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Fairtrade, Right or Wrong?
It is Fairtrade Fortnight in the UK and the movement is enduring a bit of a kicking.
To explain my interest, I have been involved in the Fairtrade movement most of my adult life. When I was a teenager, the anger stoked when I visited tea plantations in Southern India. It led me to wholeheartedly support the radical solutions suggested by those involved in trade and development.
Fairtrade - the concept that farmers should be paid a sensible price in a climate where the price of raw materials was reducing year-on-year - struck me as being about the only way to change the unfair system that keeps a lot of people in poverty. Over the years, we have been involved in letter writing campaigns, boycotts and marches. All of this on a voluntary basis. In addition, we have made changes in our lifestyle to eat and promote fairtrade food over the alternatives. So I would characterise myself as not only a user of Fairtrade products, but a passionate believer.
6 Comments » - Posted in Consumerism, Industry by Joe Turner
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Friday Linkfest - Edition 33
A Houston Refinery
Texas has been described as “The CO2 State”
Welcome to the 33rd edition of the Friday Linkfest, the weekly round up of environmental news that affect us all. Let’s see what happened around the World this week:
Good News:
New research finds that applying organic fertilizers such as compost to agricultural land could increase the amount […]
No Comments » - Posted in Friday Linkfest by Alina Beloussova
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Tennessee Placates Georgia Militia with Truckload of Water
Atlanta is still under water stress. In fact, the dropping levels in Lake Lanier over the last year or so recently prompted Atlanta officials to revive an historic Georgia/Tennessee border fued. It seems Georgia has a newfound appreciation for the Tennessee River, and wouldn’t mind moving the Georgia border outwards a little to take […]
No Comments » - Posted in Politics, Water by Craig Mackintosh
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Doreen the Downer
After the recent animal cruelty video that prompted the recall of 143 million pounds of beef by Hallmark Meats/Westland Meat Co, the affair skillfully dubbed “Downergate” by the Ethicurean team, we have another video for you.
The following is an editorial cartoon by Mark Fiore, “The Omnivore’s Nightmare”, a hilariously sardonic critique of industrial beef reminiscent of the Meatrix. Meet Doreen the Downer (please excuse the short commercial at the start of the clip):
No Comments » - Posted in Agriculture & Food, Consumerism, Environment & Wildlife, Industry, Health by Alina Beloussova
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
South Africa to Permit the Killing of Elephants
In a dangerous move by the South African government, the 1995 ban on culling elephants has been reversed to combat the growing population in the region. Upon the news of the reversal, animal rights activists immediately went to battle – Johannesburg-based Animal Rights Africa in particular threatened the tourist-friendly nation with international boycotts and legal […]
3 Comments » - Posted in Environment & Wildlife, Population by Elissa Vallano
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
The 2008 Unenvironmental Awards
In honour of the Oscars, we present 10 awards for dodgy environmental performance:
1. The Duff Statistics of the Year award goes to… the Local Government Association of the United Kingdom for claiming that 98.4% of collected recyclables are correctly sorted by consumers. Which is obviously nonsense.
2. The Cynical Greenwash Award goes to… Cadbury Schweppes for […]
1 Comment » - Posted in Industry by Joe Turner
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Five Key Moments in the History of Oil
Undoing oil dependency: Five key moments in the history of oil
“The world expects several decades of growing supplies of generally affordable oil,” writes oil-man turned solar entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett in Sublime magazine. “Every corporate and ministerial plan is geared to this assumption,” he notes, but the opposite is a more realistic likelihood: “Beyond the peak of global oil production the world faces shrinking supplies of increasingly expensive oil.” Celsias readers will be no strangers to the idea of Peak Oil, and while we slowly wake up - even George W. Bush recognizes that we are “addicted to oil” — the consequences of our petroleum dependence are accelerating towards us.
As we contemplate a life without cheap oil, it might be a good idea to look back at how we got into this mess in the first place. By understanding the rise of oil and its associated products, perhaps we can see a way back to life without it. Without attempting a complete history, I want to look at five key dependency-creating moments in the history of oil.
1 Comment » - Posted in Coal & Oil, Industry, Peak Oil by Jeremy Williams
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
New Anti-Runway Campaign Aims to ‘Keep It Up’
by James Botham, Friends of the Earth
Birmingham Friends of the Earth kicks off 2008 with a new campaign to fight the expansion of Birmingham International Airport (BIA).
Birmingham FoE has teamed up with Birmingham Airport anti-Noise Group (BANG) to create a tongue-in-cheek website, flyagra.co.uk, satirising the proposal to extend the airport’s runway. A spoof spam e-mail […]
No Comments » - Posted in Transport by Friends of the Earth
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Sugar - Sick or Sweet?
Sugar multinational Tate and Lyle has announced that many of its consumer products will soon be fair trade. British Fairtrade regulator Fairtrade Foundation could barely contain their glee when reporting that this would mean £2 million extra for sugar farmers. The Foundation takes a percentage of each sale, so this would also be good for them.
Tate and Lyle are one of the original greedy multinationals, with massive profits being made in the aftermath of the transatlantic slave trade. Buying cheap cane sugar was essential for a business which sought to compete with European sugar beet. In the process Tate became a wealthy magnate and benefactor to the arts. Despite being free, plantation workers toiled in disgusting conditions in order to produce wealth in Europe.
No Comments » - Posted in Industry by Joe Turner
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Between the Lines: U.S. to Accept “Binding” Climate Goals?
 Will the greatest historical polluter finally lead the way? |
This week, what looks like great news emerged from Paris. Daniel Price, President Bush’s Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs, announced that the U.S. is prepared to commit to “binding international obligations” to reduce greenhouse gases. Finally, right? After years of shirking responsibility on climate change and steadfastly refusing to join the international agreement that includes every other developed country on Earth, the U.S. will finally commit to binding emissions reductions.
At least, that’s what I thought at first. The headlines floating around, like “US to set ‘binding’ climate goals” and “US ready for ‘binding’ reductions of greenhouse gases: official” imply that Price announced a major change in White House policy that will finally allow international negotiations to move forward in a meaningful way. However, reading between the lines of Price’s speech, you can see the sad truth that there has been no change in policy whatsoever.
1 Comment » - Posted in Carbon Market, Politics by Shayle Kann
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Transition Towns - Towards a Sustainable Future
Editor’s Note: Those that were inspired by our recent A Town Begins to Get Ready post will find further encouragement here. We all need to put some thought into how to transition to, and prepare for, a low-carbon future — and learning from communities that are already making a start is a way to […]
1 Comment » - Posted in Global Warming Action by Prof. Chris Turney
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
BC Introduces Second Canadian Carbon Tax
On February 19th the BC Liberal government introduced their budget for the new fiscal year. Since unveiling a cascading array of Green Plans and announcements, starting with last year’s Throne Speech, and book-ended by this year’s on Feb. 13th, the pressure to deliver a spending plan that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and builds a sustainable […]
No Comments » - Posted in Carbon Market, Politics by Randyn Seibold
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Climate Change - the New Slavery
This is the first of a regular digest of global warming news published in the main academic journals.
The journal Climatic Change recently published a devastating review by Marc D Davison of the University of Amsterdam. Parallels in reactionary argumentation in the US congressional debates on the abolition of slavery and the Kyoto Protocol […]
