This week: The fallout from Copenhagen, the last word on the blooming weather, blackwashing and more...
OFT BUS INQUIRY TO ALSO LOOK AT PUBLIC FUNDING
The Office of Fair Trading says that its investigation into Bath and Bristol bus services will look at fares, competition and also value for money for the tax payer. Fancy that – ask for one inquiry into buses and three come along at once!
http://tinyurl.com/OFT-busses-in
LOCAL NO TO LASTEST SPATIAL STRATEGY HOMES PLAN
Where to build new houses in the district continues to exercise people. Not on green belt land around Sulis Meadows at Odd Down or alongside the A4 between Bath and Newton St Loe, say local protestors. MOD land could provide one alternative answer.
http://tinyurl.com/spatial-spat
CHINA SACKS CHIEF COPENHAGEN NEGOTIATOR
News from further afield. As a tawdry game of blame ping pongs between Beijing and the West, China has sacked its main man at the talks.
http://tinyurl.com/copenhagen-farce-latest
This account in the Guardian of what went on inside the talks makes one think the pantomime season must have arrived early.
http://tinyurl.com/pantocrime
Where does Copenhagen leave us? With the USA still bound by its Senate, China still bound by its pride and the UN on the sidelines, says the BBC’s environment Roger Harrabin.
“ARCTIC OSCILLATION” TO BLAME FOR BIG CHILL
Idiots like Jeremy Clarkson will no doubt use the current weather to rubbish global warming, but it is actually the result of a well known but hard-to-predict phenomenon – a swing between high and low pressures over the Arctic. High pressure over the Arctic equals cold for the UK...
http://tinyurl.com/brrrrrritain
MEET THE DIRTIEST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD...
The US produces four times more emissions per capita than China does and 18 times more than India, according to the latest emissions statistics compiled by the World Resources Institute. Kyoto- flouting, tar sands-digging Canada also fairs badly. The less said about oil producing Gulf sates the better.
http://tinyurl.com/you-DIRTY-old
RENEWABLEs SUPERGRID TO HELP POWER EUROPE WHATEVER THE WEATHER
The UK has signed up to be part of a huge supergrid that will tap Scottish wind, Belgian and Danish waves, Norwegian hydro-electric dams and vast potential solar farms in North Africa.
http://tinyurl.com/superb-grid
Meanwhile, Gordon Brown is launching a £100bn programme to build thousands of wind turbines in the North Sea which would power the majority of British homes when it blows...
http://tinyurl.com/blow-ahead
CABBAGE PATCH BRITAIN
The Government wants to ease our reliance on food imports by setting up temporary allotments on sites earmarked for development. It’s not nearly enough for Jeanette Longfield of the alliance for better food and farming, Sustain, who calls the UK’s food vision “hardly worthy of the name”.
http://tinyurl.com/brownfield-allotments
HOW GREEN ARE WOOD BURNING STOVES?
The new middles class fashion for burning stuff on the fire may not be as ungreen as you might think. But not everyone can do it, surely.
http://tinyurl.com/wood-for-the-trees
BLACKWASH OF THE WEEK
A report published recently in the Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation analysing the publicity tactics used by both NGOs and palm oil companied has accused Friends of the Earth and the Rainforest Action Network of “blackwashing”, a term used to describe environmental scaremongering and propaganda.
http://tinyurl.com/blackwashing
GREEN INVENTION OF THE WEEK
The world's first hydrogen fuel cell canal boat is touring Amsterdam's waterways. And no, alas, it’s not the magnificent-looking ship in the background.
http://www.fuelcellboat.nl/efcbhome.html
The weekly Green Bath News digest is compiled by Gideon Kibblewhite. Let Gideon know if you've seen a story you think he should cover. To subscribe visit greenbath.org/og, create a user id if you don't already have one and subscribe to Bath Green News.
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