Each Friday we’ll bring you a round-up of the week’s green news from around the web. Please drop us a line if you know of a story we should include in the next round-up.
How Britons fuel destruction of the rainforest
From The Independent on 01 May 2009
A cooking oil that is driving the destruction of the rainforests, displacing native people and threatening the survival of the orangutan is present in dozens of Britain’s leading grocery brands, an investigation has found. Palm oil – blamed for a tree-felling rampage in south-east Asia – is present or suspected in 43 of 100 best-selling brands in UK, far more than the one in 10 products estimated by Friends of the Earth four years ago. Palm oil is present in Hovis and Kingsmill bread, the country’s best-selling margarine Flora, KitKat and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bars, as well as Dove soap, Comfort fabric conditioner and Persil washing powder. [full article]
UK government to fathom depth of marine energy potential
From The Guardian on 01 May 2009
A new government-commissioned study is to examine the full energy potential of English and Welsh waters, as part of ongoing efforts to accelerate the development and deployment of wave and tidal generation technologies. The new study, which will be carried out by environmental consultancies AEA and Hartley Anderson, will seek input from developers, utilities and small businesses about how and where they plan to install marine renewable energy projects. Speaking at the British Wind Energy Agency (BWEA) tidal and wave conference earlier today, energy minister Lord Hunt said the study marked a “significant step forward” in the government’s plans. [full article]
Fertilisers ‘reducing diversity’
From BBC News on 01 May 2009
Scientists have identified why excessive fertilisation of soils is resulting in a loss of plant diversity. Extra nutrients allow fast growing plants to dominate a habitat, blocking smaller species’ access to vital sunlight, researchers have found. As a result, many species are disappearing from affected areas. A team from the University of Zurich, writing in Science, warned that tighter controls were needed in order to prevent widespread biodiversity loss. Estimates suggest that the global level of nitrogen and phosphorous available to plants has doubled in the past 50 years. [full article]
London kitchen waste to be turned into electricity
From Edie on 01 May 2009
Food waste from a quarter of a million west London homes is to be turned into electricity instead of going to landfill. Kitchen waste from Ealing, Hounslow and Richmond will be collected from the doorstep and taken away to be turned into electricity through anaerobic digestion. The West London Waste Authority struck the deal with BiogenGreenfinch who will send the power to the national grid from their Northamptonshire plant. The deal will mean food that would have been sent to landfill, and produce methane, will be recycled. [full article]
RSPB embraces wind of change with its very own turbine
From Business Green on 30 April 2009
After years of barely concealed antipathy, the RSPB and the wind energy industry have today put the symbolic seal on their recent cessation of hostilities with the installation of the first RSPB wind turbine. The small-scale 15kW turbine has been installed at the RSPB’s Rainham Marshes visitor centre in Purfleet, Essex, and together with a solar array already located at the site is expected to provide enough energy to meet the centre’s requirements, cutting its carbon footprint by 9,000kg a year. [full article]
Canada aims to end traditional coal power
From Reuters on 29 April 2009
The Canadian government plans new regulations that will effectively phase out traditional coal-fired power stations, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said in an interview published on Wednesday. He told the Globe and Mail newspaper that new coal plants would have to include technology to capture greenhouse gas emissions and inject them underground for permanent storage. Ottawa also plans to impose absolute emission caps on utilities’ existing coal-fired power plants and establish a market-based system to allow them to buy credits to meet those targets, he said. [full article]
Recycling at Government departments below national average
From The Telegraph on 29 April 2009
Recycling rates in some Government departments are well below the national average, according to watchdogs. The National Audit Office found the Government has made “very poor progress” in meeting its own high standards on becoming more environmentally friendly. For example by improving energy efficiency, reducing water consumption and boosting recycling. Despite a commitment in 2005 to “sustainable procurement” by meeting or going beyond EU environmental standards, the report found that just one of 22 departments – the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency -had managed to meet the target by 2009. [full article]
‘Super Reefs’ fend off climate change, study says
From ScienceDaily on 27 April 2009
The Wildlife Conservation Society announced today a study showing that some coral reefs off East Africa are unusually resilient to climate change due to improved fisheries management and a combination of geophysical factors. The study, published in the online journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, provides additional evidence that globally important “super reefs” exist in the triangle from Northern Madagascar across to northern Mozambique to southern Kenya and, thus, should be a high priority for future conservation action. [full article]
Death knell sounds for Europe’s beekeepers
From Reuters on 27 April 2009
Europe’s beekeeping industry could be wiped out in less than a decade as bees fall victim to disease, insecticides and intensive farming, international beekeeping body Apimondia said on Monday. “With this level of mortality, European beekeepers can only survive another 8 to 10 years,” Gilles Ratia, president of Apimondia, told Reuters. “We have had big problems in southwest France for many years, but also now in Italy and Germany.” Last year, about 30 percent of Europe’s 13.6 million hives died, according to Apimondia figures. Losses reached 50 percent in Slovenia and as high as 80 percent in southwest Germany. [full article]
Boris Johnson unveils blueprint for London’s ‘cycling revolution’
From The Guardian on 27 April 2009
Londoners will soon be able to hire bikes in the centre of town for short journeys, under plans announced today by the mayor, Boris Johnson. From 2010, the capital’s cycle hire scheme should be open with around 6,000 bikes in central locations. Today, Transport for London (TfL) began applying for planning permission for the 400 docking stations, where people will be able to pick up and drop off bikes around central London. The docking stations will be built around 300m apart so that potential cyclists are never too far from being able to borrow and lock-up hired bikes. “There is now a growing excitement about our cycle hire scheme,” said Johnson. [full article]
Don’t forget to drop us a line if you know of a story we should include in the next round-up of green news.
