Run, Kids, the Carbon Monster is Coming!

How do you get adults to care about the environment? How about scaring their kids shitless with the specter of a ‘carbon monster’ in the sky that’s going to get them if their parents don’t act against global warming? That’s the tact the British government has chosen to take with an ad that seeks to change skeptics’ minds about climate change, but has only angered viewers who saw it during prime-time television broadcasts.

The intentions behind the ad are understandable. It’s a response to a recent survey in Britain showing that 52% of people don’t think they’ll be personally affected by climate change, but 74% would change their lifestyles if they knew that climate change would have a serious affect on the lives of their children.

From the Times Online:

Ministers sanctioned the campaign because of concern that scepticism about climate change was making it harder to introduce carbon-reducing policies such as higher energy bills.

The advertisement attempts to make adults feel guilty about their legacy to their children. It features a father telling his daughter a bedtime story of “a very very strange” world with “horrible consequences” for today’s children.

The storybook shows a British town deep under water, with people and animals drowning.

Carbon dioxide is depicted as rising in clouds of black soot from cars and homes, including from a woman’s hairdryer. The soot gathers into a jagged-toothed monster menacing the town.

Watch the ad over at the Times Online.

Predictably, global warming skeptics are having a field day with this one, calling it propaganda. People in Britain who saw it on TV were so angry about it that the ad has been pulled and is currently being investigated.

But one fumbled ad doesn’t mean that people should forget or ignore the harsh reality. Children will, indeed, be the victims of climate change if we don’t act – in fact, the Telegraph reports that 250,000 children could die due to climate change next year and that number could rise to more than 400,000 annually by 2030.

Climate change is a real and pressing problem, and far too many people across the world are covering their eyes and plugging up their ears so they don’t have to deal with it.

Link [Times Online]

UK Getting its Toxic Waste Back from Brazil

Last week, it was discovered that British companies had been dumping toxic waste in Brazil and Ghana, polluting poor communities and endangering the health of the people who live there. The waste included syringes, condoms and bags of blood along with other hazardous substances. Brazil, for one, isn’t going to take it any more – the country is demanding that the UK take it all back.

Britain’s Head of Waste, Liz Parks, says taking back the waste – which has been found in about 90 shipping containers – could take weeks. Two British companies have been identified as the culprits.

From BBC News:

She also warned the British courts took the dumping of hazardous waste very seriously.

“We do prosecute people. We’ve had a number of successful prosecutions in recent years.

“And in fact in the crown court, people can be fined unlimited amounts and prison sentences are imposed.”

Roberto Messias, president of the Brazilian environment agency, Ibama, declared that Brazil was “not a big rubbish dump of the world”.

The agency also said the arrival of the toxic cargo had violated the Basel Convention on the movement of hazardous waste, of which both the UK and Brazil are signatories, which came into force in 1992.

Even worse than the fact that Western countries think it’s cool to unload their toxic waste on other countries is the fact that the guy that owns the two companies is Brazilian himself. The director of one of the companies claims that the containers should have contained only plastics for recycling and that any other contents were the responsibility of their suppliers – but there’s no way they didn’t know that their shipping containers were full of rotting, maggot-infested medical waste.

We’ve got to find better ways to deal with all of the waste we’re producing as we multiply across the face of this planet. Things are getting out of hand.

Link [BBC News]
Photo credit: Flickr user Totoro!

Sheep Poo Canoe Headed for France… If it Doesn’t Sink First

A pair of intrepid Welsh entrepreneurs will be paddling across the English Channel in a canoe they made from a mixture of recycled paper and sheep poo. Lez Paylor and Lawrence Toms covered a canoe frame in the sheep poo paper and a paste made from flour and water, and waterproofed it using beeswax and soya bean extract resin.

Though the two Welshmen, whose paper company Creative Paper Wales makes the sheep poo paper, tested the canoe recently, Toms isn’t confident that it’ll make it to France.

From BBC News:

“I’m not even confident it will operate in a bath!” he said.

“It was my business partner [Lez Paylor] who built it. I’ve been training in a swimming pool so I can swim 15 miles in cold water!”

The Bala maiden voyage supported some of Mr Toms’ concerns. Despite managing about five miles (8km), a small leak had caused a soggy patch about the size and shape of a sheep, he said.

The pair will attempt to cross anyway in the hopes of raising money for the Wales Air Ambulance.

“Rural Wales really depends on the air ambulance and if we can do something entirely preposterous and raise them a few quid, it would be a nice way to give something back,” he said.

Link [BBC News]
Photo credit: BBC News

Britain Gets Caught Dumping Toxic Waste

It’s been going on for decades, and nobody has ever called them out on it. Perhaps that’s what gave British companies the balls to continue dumping toxic hazardous waste in countries like Brazil and Ghana for all these years, despite the fact that it’s clearly harmful to the environment and human health. But two companies have finally been formally accused of dumping, which may help call attention to the problem.

Not that Britain is alone – companies in the United States and other Western countries do it too, and government has looked the other way. Our toxic waste has long been somebody else’s problem – namely, poor people who have no way to protect themselves from the onslaught of chemicals.

From Times Online:

Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, ordered an investigation into two British companies linked to 90 shipping containers containing 1,400 tonnes of waste. They included syringes, condoms and nappies. The companies that received the waste — sent from Felixstowe to three Brazilian ports — said that they had been expecting recyclable plastic.

In a separate case, the Ministry of Defence was unable to explain how one of its computers was found by The Times on a notorious dump on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana. Children as young as 5 extract scrap metal from electrical items there and are exposed to potentially lethal chemicals.

Inspectors from Brazil’s environment agency, Ibama, found hospital waste in several containers, reportedly including bags of blood. Another container was full of dirty toys with a note in Portuguese saying they should be washed before being given to “poor Brazilian children”.

Ingrid Oberg, an Ibama official, who opened containers found in the port of Santos on national television news, said: “Whoever put this rubbish into the containers in the UK knew what they were doing and knew where they were going, so it is a criminal act. England needs to assume responsibility.”

Worldwide Biorecyclables Ltd and UK Multiplas Recycling Ltd are the companies being investigated. They’re hardly the only ones that do it, but forcing these companies to take responsibility for their actions may make others think twice before continuing the despicable practice.

Unfortunately, they’ll probably just find sneakier ways to do it. The European Union tightened toxic shipment rules in 2007 and dumping still happens all the time.

PBS Frontline has been conducting an investigation into e-waste dumping in Ghana – check out the video in our recent post, ‘Ghana, an E-Waste Graveyard’.

Link [Times Online]
Photo credit: BBC News

Eco Towns Get Green Light from British Government

The British government has granted permission for four ‘eco towns’, with six more planned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The government claims that it is playing a leading role in promoting carbon neutral communities, but the projects have met with criticism from people who question how sustainable they really are.

From Yahoo News:

“The revolutionary concept of eco towns is a unique opportunity for us to confront two of the most urgent priorities” facing Britain, namely providing more cheaper housing and fighting climate change.

Housing Minister John Healey added: “We are leading the way on the world stage with these developments by radically rethinking how we design, plan and build our homes.”

The towns chosen are in Whitehill-Bordon in Hampshire; Rackheath in Norfolk; Bicester in Oxfordshire, and a development near St. Austell in Cornwall.

The main opposition Conservatives, which hopes to oust Brown’s Labour government next year, have slammed the projects.

“Underneath the thick layers of greenwash, many of these schemes are unsustainable, unviable and unpopular, but Gordon Brown wants to impose them… irrespective of local opinion,” said Conservative housing spokesman Grant Shapps.

The complaints against such eco settlements usually center around the un-greenness of plopping a housing community onto green fields – a valid point, but then, the same people have no qualms with unsustainable housing like apartment complexes going up on what used to be natural spaces.

These eco communities have a far smaller carbon footprint than conventional housing – they include charging points for electric cars, solar and wind power infrastructure, smart meters to track energy use and dedicate 40% of their land to parks, playgrounds and gardens.

Sure, urban living in vertical communities is greener in most cases, but we’ve got a lot of people on this planet and they all have to live somewhere. Putting them in eco-friendly towns is certainly a better option than continuing suburban sprawl in its current form.

Link [Yahoo News]
Photo credit: bdonline

Solar Blimp Created by French Students to Fly Over English Channel

A solar-powered, emissions-free blimp designed by engineers and built by French students will soon begin a journey across the English Channel. The helium blimp is 22 meters long and is made up of an aluminum frame covered in an outer wrap made from nylon and polyethelene. Semi-flexible solar panels affixed to the blimp are capable of providing 2.4 kilowatts of power.

From Wired:

“Right now we use a surprisingly small motor which powers two big red propellers,” Felix Hildenbrand, one of the people involved in the project, told Wired.com. The propellers can push the blimp, which is 5.5 meters or about 18 feet in diameter, along at as much as 25 mph.

“All the work was done by students of engineering schools or technical high schools,” Hildenbrand said. “We want to cross the channel with this prototype by the end of the summer.” At the Strait of Dover, it should take a little less than an hour.

After a year and half of work, the team just wrapped up a successful display of their final creation at the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget.

The team is preparing for a test flight in two weeks before sending the blimp, which has been dubbed ‘Nephelios’, out over the channel. Hildenbrand says they don’t have military ambitions for the blimp – they just want to show that it’s possible.

It may seem strange to mix new tech – solar power – with the old tech of blimps, but it’s an interesting mashup and if this project is successful, it could inspire all kinds of solar-powered aviation creativity.

Link [Wired]

Organized Criminals Stealing Bees in the UK

Organized networks of thieves are sneaking around under cover of night, stealing something very valuable by the millions. So what else is new, right? Well, what they’re taking isn’t exactly your run-of-the-mill loot. Beekeepers in Britain are waking up to find entire colonies stolen, and the culprits are more than likely not your average criminals, either.

From The Guardian, via Treehugger:

The sharp decline in Britain’s honeybee population following the arrival of varroa mites and two consecutive harsh winters has led to premium prices for top-quality bees and a black market trade in stolen hives. In the latest incident, more than a million were taken from a strawberry farm near Telford, Shropshire. Thefts of 12 hives in Whitby, North Yorkshire, and three from the New Forest in Hampshire have also been reported, as well as cases in Norfolk and the West ­Country.

David Sutton, the National Bee Unit inspector for western England, said: “You used to get the odd one or two, but not like this. People are realising the value of bees now because they are very scarce.”

And the culprits may be in the beekeeping community. Tim Lovett, president of the British Beekeepers Association, said: “To steal bees, you have to know what you are doing. Beekeepers are now on the lookout. It’s a vicious circle. You lose more bees, the price of bees goes up and the risk of them being stolen goes up.”

So, basically, Britain has a Beekeeping Mafia? An image springs to mind of mobsters in suits and mesh beekeeper veils, opening suitcases full of beeswax-covered frames abuzz with stolen bees for the boss to scrutinize.

This problem isn’t limited to Britain. Some beekeepers have resorted to using alarm systems to keep their hives safe from thieves, including gadgets equipped with Bluetooth that wirelessly notify the hive owner via cell phone if the hive is moved.

But, hey, bees are extremely valuable. Most of us didn’t begin to realize that until populations around the globe were threatened. We need those little buggers to pollinate our crops so we can eat. Practical things like bees, in the long run, are more valuable than any jewels in the world.

Link [The Guardian]

Photo credit: Flickr user hoyasmeg

Global Warming Activists Super Glue Themselves Around Statue

Four climate change protesters were arrested in London this week after super gluing their hands together around a statue in the Houses of Parliament. The activists from Climate Rush, a global warming campaign group inspired by the suffragettes, chanted “deeds not words” in protest against the British government’s plans for new coal-fired power stations.

From the Times Online:

They wore red sashes and superglued their hands together around a statue of Viscount Falkland, which still bears a broken spur where the suffragette Margery Humes chained herself in the same place 100 years ago today.

Police and medics freed the protesters using a solvent solution before arresting them on suspicion of public order offences and criminal damage. Police were unable to give details of any damage caused.

A statement on the group’s website said: “Climate Rush is inspired by the actions of the suffragettes 100 years ago, who showed that peaceful civil disobedience could inspire positive change.

“We are a diverse group of women and men who are determined to raise awareness of the biggest threat facing humanity today, that of climate change. Our Government acknowledges the huge problems we face from climate change, but carries on with business as usual.”

Well, that’s certainly one way to get attention.  Some activist groups, who prefer the more shocking method of vandalism to get their point across, might see this method as ineffective, but there’s something to be said about peaceful protest. At least the cops used solvent and didn’t just rip their hands apart – we’ve got plenty of power-crazed dick cops in the U.S. that wouldn’t have been as pleasant.

Link [The Times Online]

Tesco Greenwash: Turn Lights into Flights!

A British supermarket seems to have failed to grasp the concept of going green. You see, Tesco has unveiled a new program that rewards shoppers for purchasing compact fluorescent light bulbs – wiTesco Greenwash: Turn Lights into Flights!th airline miles.  The ‘Every little helps’ promotion is meant to urge shoppers to cut back on energy at home, and then hop on an airplane and rack up a huge carbon footprint to make up for it.

From The Guardian, via Eden Bee

Tesco chief executive Terry Leahy is now offering air miles when you buy a low energy lightbulb. What next? Free packet of 20 Benson & Hedges with every Nicorette patch? A dozen king-size Mars bars with each box of Ryvita? Talk about counter-productive. It’s like being lost in the desert, miles from anywhere and eating your own legs to sustain yourself during your search for help.

Granted, the promotion actually allows shoppers to earn airline miles for all purchases – it’s just that some schmuck in the advertising department needed to find a word that rhymes with ‘flights’. LIGHTS! Genius!

But, as The Guardian’s Ed Gillespie points out, the real problem is that ads like this help feed into the notion that you can make a few small changes and still go about your very non-green daily routine – and call yourself ‘green’. It’s like taking a reusable bag to Wal-Mart and filling it with plastic crap from China. Not exactly helping things, is it?

Link [The Guardian] via [Eden Bee]

British Business Secretary Beaned with Green Custard by Protester

British business secretary Peter Mandelson got ‘slimed’ with a cup full of green custard on Friday by a protester associated with Plane Stupid, the UK direct action group that’s seeking to stop a new runway from being built at London’s Heathrow airport. Mandelson has been accused of putting business before the planet in Britain, drawing the ire of environmental groups.

From Yahoo News:

Mandelson was arriving for a London summit on carbon strategy when protester Leila Deen approached him and hurled a large cupful of custard straight in the former European Union trade commissioner’s face, at close range.

Mandelson bent over, turned away and hurried inside, while the protester picked up papers she had dropped and calmly walked off.

“Mandelson is trying to make political capital out of climate change,” said serial campaigner Deen, a member of the group Plane Stupid, which has staged several protests over plans to build a third runway at Heathrow.

“The only thing green about Peter Mandelson is the slime coursing through his veins.

“We can’t let the ‘Prince of Darkness’ cast his shadow over west London” — a reference to Mandelson’s nickname earned for his media spinning skills.

Mandelson was unfazed, telling reporters that he’s glad people are speaking their minds but would rather they “said it to my face rather than threw it in my face.”

Green custard? That’s a new one. Creative. Not quite as messy or wasteful as pies. But, don’t expect it to become the new in thing to throw at people you don’t agree with – bookmaker William Hill is taking bets on which popular dessert will next be thrown at a government minister, and spotted dick is the odds-on favorite. I don’t know what spotted dick is, exactly, but it sounds like something that should be thrown and not eaten.

Link [Yahoo News]

Britain Attempts to Give Cauliflower an Eco-Friendly Makeover

Cauliflower: it’s bland, has a less-than-appetizing appearance and doesn’t pack quite the same nutritional punch as its cousin broccoli. But, British farmers hope to help bring this vegetable into vogue in the UK by branding it as a homegrown, eco-friendly alternative to imported veggies. Vegetable production has fallen by almost a third in Britain over the last decade as consumers have turned to more ‘fashionable’ vegetables.

From The Telegraph:

The Brassica Growers Association point out that cauliflower grows all year round in Britain and is therefore a constant source of locally-produced, low carbon food.

The organisation are hoping to take advantage of recent campaigns led by celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver to get people eating less processed food and more fresh fruit and vegetables. Cauliflower is not only good in traditional dishes like cauliflower cheese but works well in more modern food like stir fries and curries.

Phillip Effingham, chairman of the BGA, said it was time to reinstate cauliflower to its rightful place in British cuisine.

He said: “Britain seems to have fallen out of love with the cauliflower over the last 10 years and sales have been declining steadily. We want to encourage people to rediscover this hugely versatile and healthy vegetable and help stop its decline.”

Poor, overlooked cauliflower. Will this campaign work? Maybe, if it’s marketed to consumers as a way to save money during the global recession. It probably won’t become the star of Britain’s best culinary dishes (do they even have any of those?) but perhaps the allure of eating local and fresh will give it a bit of a boost.

Link [The Telegraph]
Photo credit: Slash Food

Weird British Recycling Ad Campaign

Those Brits, they have such a strange sense of humor. This ad campaign, featuring a talking trash bag, has just two words in it: “please” and “no”. Its aim is to get Londoners to recycle, but is it really hitting the mark? Judge for yourself.

I mean, can you even tell that this ad is about recycling? It’s sort of funny, sure, but it seems unlikely that after viewing this, people will really say, “Hmm, I should start recycling!”

Link [GreenPacks]

Turning Airport Travelers’ Breath into Fuel

Passengers flying out of and into the Liverpool John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, England will be a part of a new effort to harness an unusual energy source: their breath. An intriguing piece of green technology made by Origo Industries, the Eco-Box, will capture the CO2 exhaled by travelers and transform it to fuel for use in the airport’s diesel vehicles and heating systems.

From LiveScience:

The Eco-box was originally designed to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles. It works by capturing carbon emissions through a photo-bioreactor as a feedstock for algae, producing biomass that is then refined and converted to green fuel.

“The project at the airport is an early trial of a system which we believe could have a significant impact on the way companies today can obtain fuel and manage carbon emissions,” said Iain Houston, Origo’s CEO and founder.

Installation of the carbon recycling system began in January, with a goal of harnessing 24,000 gallons of fuel from the pilot program, as well as providing heating and hot water to the airport. The company hopes to expand to a 289,000 gallon system following the trial, providing approximately 800 gallons of biofuel each day.

Origo may also look into using this technology to produce aviation-grade biofuel in the future, which could revolutionize the airline industry. Airlines have been struggling with the wildly fluctuating price of gas in recent times.

Yet another wonderful example of how alternative fuel sources are all around us, some in the most unexpected of places. We CAN move beyond fossil fuels, and will.

Link [LiveScience]

Polar Bears Float Past Houses of Parliament in London

Londoners got quite a shock yesterday as polar bears floated down the Thames River on icebergs, past the Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. They didn’t make some kind of bizarre, epic journey down from the Arctic, though – they’re sculptures launched in the river to raise global warming awareness, as part of the launch of new British television channel ‘Eden’.

From The Times Online:

A total of 15 artists spent two months constructing the 20ft by 20ft square structure, which was launched at 6:30am before travelling up the Thames, stopping besideTower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. The structure weighing, 1.5 tonnes, was winched into place.

The event coincides with the Eden Channel’s Fragile Earth series, presented by Sir David Attenborough.

Melting ice caps threaten the existence of polar bears as their habitat disappears. There will also be serious consequences for the two billion people who depend on glacial meltwater to feed rivers.

Sir David said: “The melting of the polar bears’ sea ice habitat is one of the most pressing environmental concerns of our time. I commend Eden for highlighting the issue; we need to do what we can to protect the world’s largest land carnivores from extinction.”

The polar bear will also be touring other cities, including Glasgow and Birmingham.

That’s certainly a good way to grab people’s attention. The sculptures are pretty lifelike, but a close-up on the Times Online website shows that no fur was involved. (UPDATE: See video above!)

Link [Times Online]
Photo credit: The Daily Mail

UK Wind Turbine Destroyed, Locals Claim UFO Did It

A 290-foot turbine was mysteriously mangled overnight on Sunday near Louth in Linconshire, United Kingdom with local residents claiming to have seen an octopus-like UFO. Experts have ruled out most of the more believable explanations, like a meteor or lightning strike.

Dozens of people in the area say they saw bright flashing spheres in the sky that night, with one woman claiming that she saw an object fly near the wind farm. Others described the lights as being linked to ‘tentacles’.

From The Telegraph:

Dorothy Willows, who lives a mile and a half from the crash site, said: “The lights were moving across the sky towards the wind farm. Then I saw a low flying object. It was skimming across the sky towards the turbines.”

Later on Sunday night, one of a turbine’s 65ft blades was ripped off and another severely damaged.

The Health and Safety Executive described the damage as a “unique incident”, and the energy firm Ecotricity which owns the 20-turbine site say it has no explanation.

“We are struggling to find an answer, yes, and it has been quite interesting to read the reports in the press about what people have seen,” Dale Vince from the company told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme..

“It sounds unbelievable but actually we don’t have any explanation at the moment. Give us a few days and if there is a rational explanation we will find it.”

UFO enthusiasts are calling for testing on the damaged parts to uncover the cause of the collision, hoping to find evidence of an alien encounter. Others suspect that the turbine was damaged due to a buildup of ice on the blades.

Well, I think it’s obvious what happened here. Extraterrestrials are getting impatient that we haven’t destroyed ourselves yet, and wind turbines are evidence that we might be sticking around a while longer. So, they’re trying the nonviolent approach by helping us along. Bye bye wind turbines, bye bye human race.

Link [The Telegraph]
Photo credit: The Telegraph + The Daily Mail

Secret Eco Village in Wales Finally Earns Government Approval

A ‘lost, secret’ middle-class eco village had their privacy and dreams for a simple, off-grid life threatened when their community was spotted in an aerial photograph taken in 1998.  In the photo, sunlight was seen glinting off a solar panel on the main building, which was constructed of straw bales, timber and recycled glass.  The community, located in the Preseli mountains of west Wales, was set up in 1993 on a 180-acre farm owned by Julian and Emma Orbach.

The pilot of the survey plane reported his findings and when the government couldn’t find records of the community or planning permission, they insisted that the hobbit-like grass-covered buildings be demolished.

From Mail Online:

The eco-community endured a decade of inquiries, court cases and planning hearings.

The 22 villagers fought planners even when they were within hours of the bulldozers moving in to demolish their eight homes.

Now, however, they can celebrate, thanks to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority’s ’sustainability’ policy.

With green issues now getting a more sympathetic hearing, the commune has been given planning approval for its roundhouses along with lavatories, agricultural buildings and workshops.

Community founder Emma Orbach, a 52-year-old mother of three, said yesterday: ‘We are really excited and happy as it has been a very long battle.

‘Even when planning inquiries and court hearings went against us we were determined to fight on.

‘The villagers are pioneering a new lifestyle and are determined to prove it’s possible for people to live more simply.’

The community had to prove to planners that they were improving the biodiversity of the area and conserving the woodlands.  They’ve claimed a huge green victory here, showing authorities that a community can be built sustainably from local renewable resources and be entirely self-sufficient.  Hopefully authorities in America, where structures like these are rarely granted building permits, will take note – if the world had more homes and communities like this, we’d all be better off.  They use resources in a really smart way, are off-grid and respectful to the ecology of the areas they live in.

Link [Mail Online]

UK Court Decides Threat of Global Warming Justifies Breaking the Law

Talk about a precedent: a UK court ruled last week that the threat of global warming is such a pressing issue, that Greenpeace activists were right to cause more than $62,000 dollars in damage to a coal-fired power station.  Last October, the six protesters had scaled the chimney at the Kingsnorth power plant in Kent and painted Prime Minster Gordon Brown’s name on it.  The activists were upset about a plan to build another coal-fired power plant, which they said would be ‘a disastrous setback in the battle against global warming’.

From The Independent:

Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a “lawful excuse” to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of “lawful excuse” under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.

During the eight-day trial, the world’s leading climate scientist, Professor James Hansen of Nasa, who had flown from American to give evidence, appealed to the Prime Minister personally to “take a leadership role” in cancelling the plan and scrapping the idea of a coal-fired future for Britain. Last December he wrote to Mr Brown with a similar appeal. At the trial, he called for an moratorium on all coal-fired power stations, and his hour-long testimony about the gravity of the climate danger, which painted a bleak picture, was listened to intently by the jury of nine women and three men.

The activists said they acted lawfully, believing that their attempt to stop emissions from Kingsnorth would prevent further damage to properties worldwide caused by global warming.  They said that their actions were designed to cause only the amount of damage necessary to close the plant down.

It’s pretty amazing that Johnny Law came down on the side of the earth – especially given the fact that the jury was made up of ordinary people, not necessarily environmentalists.  It’s a good sign that people are starting to take the threat of global warming seriously, and yet another wake-up call to turn away from coal and start using cleaner technology.

Link [The Independent]
Photo credit: Greenpeace

UK Fishermen Dump Catch Overboard to Make More Money

The European Union put fishing quotas in place for a reason: to prevent the kind of overfishing that experts warn could lead to mass extinction of marine life in the coming decades. But, European fishermen aren’t pleased with the quotas because they limit profit possibilities. So to get around that, they’re doing something pretty horrifying: dumping tons of perfectly good dead fish back into the water. Fish that should never have been caught in the first place.

Recently, the Norwegian Coast Guard shot video of UK fishermen doing just this, and the sight of such wastefulness (a whopping 5 tons of dead fish) has shocked many people who didn’t realize the extent of what was going on. Check it out at The Guardian.

From The Guardian’s Environment blog:

The practice is legal, as the EU only sets quotas for fish landed at ports, not what is actually caught at sea. In this case, it appears the fishermen were discarding low-value small (but legal) fish in order to fill their quota with higher-value big fish.

But the wasteful consequences of Europe’s fisheries policies, though well-known, are rather abstract to most people – it all happens a long way out at sea. And that’s the power of the video. At the start, a stream of dead, silvery fish slip down a chute and into the water. It goes on. And on. Seagulls gather to snap up a free lunch.

But this is apparently not rapid enough. So the men start dumping whole boxfuls of their catch over the side. And then another load comes up from the hold, and so on.

What an incredible waste, and a slap in the face to conservationists who are working so hard to maintain sustainable numbers of fish in our oceans. WTF. This is incredible disrespect and disregard not just for the fish but the future of humanity. What’s going to happen when our oceans are overfished to the point of irreparably damaging the delicately balanced ocean ecosystems?

Learn more about the problem of overfishing by reading the article ‘More Species Considered Overfished’ at the Florida Museum of Natural History website.

Link [The Guardian]

Meet the King of All Squatters: Harry Halowes Turns 21 Years of Squatting into $8,000,000 in Land

This is Harry Halowes:

Harry has been living in a discarded junk tent camp right down the hill from a vacant London estate for the past 21 years. A big fat cat billionaire bought the estate, dumped over a hundred million dollars into fixin’ it up, and was shocked when his attempt to boot Squatter Harry from the land was turned away by the courts whose ruling gave Harry rights to his plot of land.

Harry’s lot is now worth nearly $8,000,000. We hope he sells out and gets himself setup with a nice apartment in some swanky part of town. He should have enough left over for a butler and 20 or 30 years of eeeeasy livin’. Not a bad upgrade from a dingy squat lot. Huzzah for Harry.

Link [Daily Mail]