This week: Bradford on Avon going for carbon neutrality! Plus... Offshore wind could power every UK home, green banks, no tanks and Shell over a barrel...
BRADFORD ON AVON AIMING TO BE CARBON NEUTRAL
Bradford on Avon’s climate action group, Climate Change Bradford on Avon, is working on an ambitious plan to commit BoA to working towards becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The group is currently inviting the town’s people and organisations to join them in developing a declaration and plan of action. There'll be a grand signing in December to coincide with the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen. You may not live in the town, but their online survey reveals the scale of their thinking...
http://climatefriendlybradfordonavon.co.uk
NEW SAINSBURYS “THREATENS MOORLAND ROAD SHOPS”
Sainsburys is looking at taking over the old Woolworth store on Moorland road. The comments at the foot of the Chronicle story range from welcoming cheaper competition to despair at a Bath “sponsored by Tesco Express and Sainsburys Local".
http://tinyurl.com/try-something-old
GREEN CLEANER
Green Bath News has leaned of the newly established Green Cleaning Company, which offers domestic cleaning in Bath and
the surrounding area from £9.50 per hour, eschewing harsh chemicals in favour of “environmentally friendly and natural ways of cleaning”
. If you need a cleaner, that does sound fair enough. Anyone
interested should call Annabel Wynne on 07917 125378.
POLITICIANS MAKE CASE AHEAD OF BRT MEETING
The planned Bus Rapid Transit comes before planning councillors next Wednesday. Perhaps the scheme would have more support if it had a less rubbish name.
http://tinyurl.com/crunch-meeting
BROWN’S £60 BILLION PLAN TO BREAK CLIMATE DEADLOCK
News from further afield. Gordon Brown is attempting to break the deadlock in the climate talks by proposing a £60 billion international fund to help developing nations adapt. Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace: “At last a G8 leader is talking about the right order of magnitude, billions instead of millions.” Go Gordon.
http://tinyurl.com/60bn-plan
MORE OFFSHORE WIND FARMS COULD POWER EVERY BRITISH HOME
A strategic environmental assessment carried out for the Government has reported that a further 25 gigawatt expansion on top of the 8 gigawatts already built or planned could also provide the UK with 700,000 new jobs and £8 billion in annual revenue.
http://tinyurl.com/the-breeze-knees
ROYAL BANK OF SUSTAINABILITY?
The now largely publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland should be transformed into 'bank of sustainability' with a brief to back renewable energy, improve public transport and housing, says the Sustainable Development Commission, the Government's independent watchdog on sustainable development. Bring it on!
http://tinyurl.com/green-banking
US CLIMATE BILL PASSED
Though after all the horse trading, compromises, gifts and concessions, it’s somewhat watered down....
http://tinyurl.com/bill-passes
NUCLEAR TRYING TO ‘MUSCLE IN’ ON RENEWABLE AGENCY
France, a major user and exporter of nuclear technologies, has been accused of trying to steer the International Renewable Energy Agency, the new intergovernmental organisation for promoting the adoption of renewable energy, towards promoting atomic power.
http://tinyurl.com/atomic-battle
BIOFUELS COULD CLEANSE CHERNOBYL BADLANDS
Land contaminated by radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl disaster could be cleaned up by growing biofuel crops that suck contaminants out of the ground. But can this be safe?
http://tinyurl.com/biofuel-treatment
WOODLAND BIRD POPULATION DECIMATED
Bird census data gathered between 1967 and 1999 has revealed that changes in winter habitats has caused a massive collapse in woodland bird numbers. The nightingale, whose population fell by 95 per cent over the study period, is the biggest victim...
http://tinyurl.com/birds-in-trouble
GREENWASH OF THE WEEK
A new report by Friends of the Earth International has condemned arch-greenwashers Shell over its expanding fossil fuel investment and continued poisonous gas flaring in Nigeria and for dragging its feet in carbon reduction talks. Paul de Clerck of FoE International: “Shell attempts to paint itself as a sustainable company when in reality it is the dirtiest oil producer of all.”
http://www.foeeurope.org
Meanwhile, a separate report by Amnesty International has said Shell’s oil operation in Nigeria has created a “human rights tragedy” by depriving tens of millions of people of their basic rights to safe food and clean water.
http://tinyurl.com/amnesty-anger
GREEN INVENTION OF THE WEEK
We’ve featured kite turbines before but these ones, tapping into high- jet streams that apparently hold roughly 100 times more energy than all the electricity being consumed on Earth, fly so high that cruising airliners would have to steer around them...
http://tinyurl.com/jet-stream-energy
NINETY-NINE PER CENT OF EARTH MAPPED
The first pictures from the Global Digital Elevation Model, created using nearly 1.3 million images collected by a Japanese camera on board Nasa's Terra spacecraft, have been released.
http://tinyurl.com/earth-shots
TURBINES NOT TANKS
We should be spending tens of billions a year to prevent climate breakdown, but how? Mmm. Defense snaffles 12 per sent of state spending – a bigger budget than any department has except health and schools. Of the £38bn the MoD spends every year, almost all of it is wasted, George Monbiot suggests...
http://tinyurl.com/tanks-into-turbines
This week's Green Digest was compiled by Gideon Kibblewhite. Let Gideon know if you've seen a story you think he should cover. This digest appears every Tuesday, except when it's a bit late. 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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