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.
Engineering Earth “is feasible”
From the BBC on 1st September 2009
A UK Royal Society study has concluded that many engineering proposals to reduce the impact of climate change are “technically possible”. Such approaches could be effective, the authors said in their report. But they also stressed that the potential of geo-engineering should not divert governments away from their efforts to reduce carbon emissions. [full article]
“Natural systems our biggest allies”: TEEB study
From Reuters on 02 September 2009
Governments can help combat climate change by investing more in natural areas, including forests and mangroves, a European study said on Wednesday. The paper pointed out that nations have natural assets worth trillions of dollars which could help fight global warming and save investment in industrial schemes for carbon capture. [full article]
Academics set the pace in cycling to work groups
From The Guardian Environment Blog on 02 September 2009
Last month we published a news story about a scheme encouraging novice cycle commuters in London to ride to work in guided groups, calling it “a first for a British city”. Michael Bane wrote to the paper to say that this was not the case. Here, he explains how he helped to set up a similar system at the University of Manchester – and how you can do the same. [full article]
365 ways to go green
From Mike Lieberman on 01 September 2009
New blog launched offering “simple green acts that you can also do without rearranging your daily lives”. New Yorker and avid eco-warrior Mike Lieberman sets off on a self-imposed challenge to become a little greener every day. “I was doing a lot of talking about going green, but what was I doing? So I posed a challenge to myself to perform one simple green act a day for a year and to document them to hold myself accountable.” [visit blog]
Scotland winning waste battle
Scotland is producing less municipal waste than in previous years, and recycling more as well. Figures released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), show that Scotland’s recycling and composting rate for the last quarter of the 2008/09 financial year increased to 33.2%, an improvement on 30.1% for the same quarter of 2007/08. [full article]
Sita to appeal Cornwall EfW refusal
From MRW on 02 September 2009
Recycling and waste management contractor Sita Cornwall is to lodge an appeal this month against refused planning permission to build an energy-from-waste facility. The Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre was to manage residual household waste in the county and generate enough electricity to power 21,000 homes. [full article]
EPA draft greenhouse gas rule focuses on large emitters
From Scientific American on 01 September 2009
US EPA has sent a draft rule to the White House that could limit regulations on greenhouse gas emissions to cover only very large industrial sources. The agency submitted a rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget that experts say will likely limit strict permitting requirements to industrial sources of more than 25,000 tons a year of carbon dioxide equivalent. [full article]
Google trick tracks extinctions
From the BBC on 04 September 2009
Google’s algorithm for ranking web pages can be adapted to determine which species are critical for sustaining ecosystems, say researchers. According to a paper in PLoS Computational Biology, “PageRank” can be applied to the study of food webs. These are the complex networks of who eats whom in an ecosystem. The scientists say their version of PageRank could be a simple way of working out which extinctions would lead to ecosystem collapse. [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.
