thegreenginger's story links

With much of the world bemoaning rising prices and much of the complaint being about the price of fuel, this is bad news indeed. But for the environment, surely, it's the best news. Certainly for those of us who avoid driving it means much less or does it?

Today I saw this article reporting on a study clearly linking declining fish stocks to algal blooms (so-called 'toxic tides'). For me this situation drives home three things about sustainability.

In less than 20 years, the Grand Banks - a marine region off the coast of Canada - went from one of the richest fishing grounds in the world to a marine wasteland as overfishing destroyed the natural abundance (more).

Another week, another cringing episode of the Apprentice and another slightly pointless task for the devotees. This week, they were asked to create a greetings card and a reason to send it.

Untreated sewage flowing into the sea from Gaza as we still cannot seem to rise above our differences and tackle the common environmental threat!

Do we / should we take organic and natural health and beauty products at face value?

The amazing thing about LED bulbs is that you can feel the energy being saved - they don't get hot!

With a major review looming (see RFA for more info), I've taken a little look at the biofuels debate. Biofuels are marred by uncertainty and debate. The only inevitability seems to be that the decision made will be bad!

When someone thought of paying farmers not to produce something, people must have thought it was bad idea.

Today the Bank of England joined the race to the bottom on the interest rate scale - a 0.25% rate cut - not quite as dramatic as the Fed but then the BoE doesn't have to care about people - only inflation.

A planning application for wind turbines in the Humber Gateway has recently been objected to by the Ministry of Defence because it may interfere with a radar installation!

Looking backwards while moving forwards is the way I like to think of the home power station.

The question on my mind today is if the world is over-populated, under-resourced and bursting at the seams, is the most ethical way to live not to live at all?

The first barrier to jump is of course "eco". Firstly, what is "eco"? Secondly, how can this standard be achieved? Then you've got to ask the question - would the homes be built anyway - eco or not? Then you have to consider why the homes are being built. Finally, you come to the question why are they branded as "eco".

Energy saving is becoming more and more financially viable. Indeed, you could go so far as to say it's becoming a financial imperative - either from new taxes or price rises. I'm going to have a look at the available savings from various forms of energy saving devices.