This week: Guerillas in Bath, trouble north and south, Shell to be tarred and feathered, the Environment Agency flies into criticism, plus a novel way to wrap sandwiches.
GUERILLA GARDENERS WANTED
Just the beginning of Transition Bath’s plans plant edible goodies on spare sites in and around Bath for anyone to harvest, a team of guerilla gardeners have been clearing land for herbs and fruit bushes on Park Street. The gardeners will be out working again on Sunday 24 January and all are welcome to join in. For details, email Lyn at lynbarham@btinternet.com or call 01225 428039.
CYCLISTS WANTED
Bath Cycling Campaign is staging a Critical Mass bike ride through the city on Saturday 27 March, meeting at 1pm in Kingsmead Square. It's meant to be a celebration of cycling, so participants are invited to dress up in silly outfits, decorate their bikes and bring bells, horns and whistles. Spread the word.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Green Bath News reader Richard Daniel has created a website asking us to pledge to eat only locally sourced, naturally reared meat – a maximum of three times a week.
http://www.feastarian.org
GREAT WESTERN FINE
Great Western Wine has been fined £35,000 for failing to comply with recycling regulations between 2004 to 2008. Afterwards Great Western’s managing director Philip Addis said he was “understandably concerned regarding the severity of the fine” and could appeal.
http://tinyurl.com/fine-whine
GREAT MELT GRIPPING ANTARCTICA
News from further afield. One myth pedalled by climate change deniers is that Antarctica is not melting. However, the latest data from NASA reveals that it’s not only melting but losing ice at an accelerating rate...
http://tinyurl.com/drip-drop-drip
NEW ARCTIC METHANE WARNING
Meanwhile, emissions of the super-potent greenhouse gas methane from the Arctic seabed have increased dramatically. Scientists fear the approach of a tipping point when billions of tonnes of methane are released suddenly.
http://tinyurl.com/bubbling-menace
SHELL FACES SHAREHOLDER REVOLT OVER TAR SANDS
A coalition of institutional shareholders is forcing Shell to undertake a review of the environmental damage being done by its mining in Athabasca, Alberta. Catherine Howarth, chief executive of FairPensions, which has coordinated the revolt: “We expect that Shell's 2010 AGM could prove a watershed in the history of corporate accountability."
http://tinyurl.com/tar-but-no-tar
NUCLEAR POWER DANGERS “EXAGGERATED” SAYS PHYSICIST
In a plea for rational risk assessment, Prof Wade Allen of Oxford University: "The radiation that a patient gets in one day from a course of radiotherapy treatment – it would take a million hours of exposure for someone standing in the radioactive waste hall of Sellafield...” Wouldn’t want to try it though.
http://tinyurl.com/radiation-risks
GLOBAL GREED “UNSUSTAINABLE”
The environmental research organisation the Worldwatch Institute says US-style consumption is now global and threatens efforts to arrest climate change.
http://tinyurl.com/global-greed
CIA SHARING SPY SATELLITE PICS WITH CLIMATE SCIENTISTS
The CIA has released classified images of the polar ice caps to environmental scientists.
http://tinyurl.com/cold-thaw
GREENWASH OF THE WEEK
The Sun has been given the excuse to give the Environment Agency a bashing after it was revealed that the "green quango" sent its staff on 120 short-haul flights last year including two from Bristol to Plymouth. Well t certainly doesn’t make great reading.
http://tinyurl.com/open-goal
GREEN INVENTION OF THE WEEK
Instead of wrapping your tasty treats in plastic, why not wrap them in... bacteria.
http://tinyurl.com/bacs-magic
BREAKTHROUGH OR CRIME SCENE
Obama has called Copenhagen a “breakthrough”. Greenpeace has called it “a crime scene”. Now, says the Times’ Giles Whittell, hope of any real progress depends on the world’s largest police sate submitting to international scrutiny and “the whim of an old war hero from Arizona”...
http://tinyurl.com/copenhagenwash
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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