Friday 25 February 2011

Real Climate faces libel suit

Seems like you cannot speak out without fear of litigation...

The Guardian 26 Feb 2011:
Prominent blog run by climate scientists could be sued by E&E after accusing the journal of 'shoddy' peer review

Thursday 24 February 2011

There goes the price of oil

Saudis hold talks with refiners amid warnings of oil crisis and rationing

25 Feb 2011:
Opec oil producers look at pumping more to European refineries as Libyan rebels claim to have seized oilfields and terminals

Student faces ten years for taking action

Fired for teaching climate issues

Seems teachers today face dismissal for teaching students about the world around them.

No rain in China

China's weather forecasters reluctant to confirm rumours of rain

24 Feb 2011:
Jonathan Watts: As China is gripped by its worst drought for 60 years, stakes are high for meterologists, who are reticent about the forecast

And it's not just the rain that's failing. Polluted water containing chromium (how the hell did that get into the water?) are contaminating crops.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

TC Boyle

The Silence:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/08/the-silence/8040

English self-assessment test online

Test your English skills here:

http://www.ifaar.rwth-aachen.de/selfassessment/

America's automobile mania

America's automobile mania

22 Feb 2011, Linh Dinh:

Car dependency, covering the US in suburban sprawl, distances us from human realities. But the system is running out of gas

Driving her kids to school, a South Carolina woman, Amy Lynn Stewart, encountered a group of teens walking in the middle of the road. She honked but they would not get out of the way, so she plowed into them, hitting four. They were 12, 13, 13 and 14 years old.


"The woman who slammed into those teens in Summerville was reportedly taking, among other pills, Ativan, to calm her down, and Prozac, to nudge her up a bit."

This resonantes with Bill Bryson's account of the USA. No wonder they are so fucked up in America. And to think that many people follow the "American Dream"...

My comment about this in the Guardian today:

Welcome to America, the Land Of The Free.

I can imagine the chaos when the oil crisis really starts to squeeze. First the price of fuel will make it impossible for increasing numbers to run their cars, then they will lose their jobs and reach for those pills.

Cycling around in circles on a mixture of uppers and downers will be the result. But hey! this is America, the Land Of The Free. Enjoy that dizzy feeling.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Middle East unrest adds to pressure on world food prices

Middle East unrest adds to pressure on world food prices

22 Feb 2011:
Jonathan Watts: If the revolts in Egypt and Libya spread further, we can expect spikes not just in oil prices – but in the cost of food as well

Friday 18 February 2011

Weng Chun kung fu

When fighting becomes a passion,
The art of the peaceful warrior
Is awoken.

Weng Chun

Lumbering into the 21st Century

Lumbering into the 21st Century

Monday 14 February 2011

Mexico goes back to the land

14 Feb 2011, The Guardian:

A steady dismantling of support for peasant farmers left Mexico importing half its grain supply. Now they are fighting back

A poem for the dying CCC

Bonfire of the quangos:

Burn the books
We don't read them anymore.
Smash the glass
Our Kristalnacht.

These Quangos are the real thieves,
Their vision makes us ill at ease.
When you sniff their breeze
You smell burning.

Oh great Cameron
Your Big Society
Your Brave New World
Has come to save us
From the insanity of reality.

Sunday 13 February 2011

Food, Inc.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food,_Inc.

Pigs

Pig farmers warn of pork price rise as their feed costs soar

13 Feb 2011:
Two thirds of British pig farms could be on the brink of collapse within two years

Saturday 12 February 2011

More on land grabs

Stop the global land grab

12 Feb 2011:
Gisele Henriques: Land is now one of the hottest commodities in the world market. Time to stand up for small farmers dismissed as 'inefficient'

Friday 11 February 2011

Drought in China

China bids to ease drought with $1bn emergency water aid

11 Feb 2011:
World's biggest wheat producer resorts to desperate measures in attempt to protect harvest from worst drought in 60 years

Wednesday 9 February 2011

China

The price of success: China blighted by industrial pollution – in pictures

A Greenpeace report has called on the Chinese textile industry to clean up its processes after finding high levels of pollution in the southern industrial towns of Xintang – the "jeans capital of the world" – and Gurao, a manufacturing town 80% of whose economy is devoted to bras, underwear, and other clothing articles.

The report said the pollution is emblematic of textile manufacturing in China and the industry must review its practices

More info here:

http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/news/textile-pollution-xintang-gurao

Tuesday 8 February 2011

That's it, we really are in trouble now

The Guardian, Wednesday 9th Feb 2011

WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices

US diplomat convinced by Saudi expert that reserves of world's biggest oil exporter have been overstated by nearly 40%


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/08/saudi-oil-reserves-overstated-wikileaks

Monday 7 February 2011

Food

Salad slaves: Who really provides our vegetables - video

The Costa del Sol is famous for its tourists and beaches but just behind them is a hidden world of industrial greenhouses where African migrants work in extreme conditions

# Felicity Lawrence, Matt Haan, Christian Bennett, Cecy Bullard and Jacqui Timberlake
# guardian.co.uk,
# Monday 7 February 2011

Saturday 5 February 2011

Thursday 3 February 2011

EU Parliament to vote on e-waste today

The EU Parliament will vote today on updated rules to improve collection and recycling and stop the illegal export of such waste:

Mobile phones, computers, TVs - we like them but where do they go when we are finished with them? In the worst case they can be dismantled by hand for scrap by children in developing countries. This can expose them to potentially fatal chemicals. New legislation, scheduled to be voted this Thursday (3 Feb 2011) at around 1100 CET, aims to toughen existing rules on collection and treatment so that within six years 85% of all waste will be recovered and treated.

The proposals for this legislation, drafted by Karl-Heinz Florenz (EPP, Germany), were backed by the Environment Committee on 22 June 2010. Political groups are expected to agree on the bulk of the proposals in the report.

Karl-Heinz Florenz told us, "we lose a lot of raw material because a lot of electronic waste is illegally shipped out of Europe. For example, 1 million mobiles contain: 250 kg silver, 24 kg gold, 9 kg palladium, and 9 tonnes of copper".

Over 8 million tonnes of e-waste

This type of waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the EU (over 8 million tonnes and growing) and poses a series of challenges such as health problems if the waste is not properly treated and a loss of raw materials if there is no recycling.

According to national reports, only 33% of the waste is currently collected and properly treated.

Setting ambitious and fair targets

The current collection target is 4 kg per year per person, but it doesn't reflect the different circumstances of each country. Some states already exceeded this amount, others fell short of it.

The EP Environment Committee has recommended that Member States should collect 85% of WEEE by 2016 and recycle 50-75% (depending on the category).

Mr. Florenz said, "we suggested collecting 85% of the waste that arises in the Member State. It is a challenging but realistic and important target."

In the meanwhile, an interim target (4 kg or the amount collected in 2010, whichever is greater) will be set, to facilitate gradual improvement towards the final target.

"Another change will be the establishment of European-wide standards for collection, treatment and recycling of waste. The current situation shows a quite different quality of these operations in Europe," said Mr Florenz.

Illegal shipment

Karl-Heinz Florenz was clear about the present situation: "At the moment a very big amount of waste is illegally shipped out of Europe. Every Member State, specifically the customs officers have to prove that the exported product is not functioning and therefore not allowed to be shipped".

He added: "we will shift the burden of proof: now it is on the exporter. Furthermore, we established clear criteria to distinguish between waste and used but functioning products. This will help the custom services to control the exporters".

Consumer responsibility

Consumers can already turn their electronic waste in to dedicated facilities, but things will be easier now: "consumers will now be able to deposit very small appliances like mobile phones, shavers etc at any retail shop, without the requirement to buy a new product. These small products often end up in the waste bin, because consumers are not willing to go to a collection point just for an MP3 Player," Mr Florenz said.

Source: EU Parliament


E-waste report here

The adopted EU parliament text is available here:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P7-TA-2011-0037&format=XML&language=EN