Posts from — July 2008

The European official who drafted the legislation accused Britain of “obstructing” EU efforts on renewables and said UK officials wanted to protect traditional energy suppliers and their coal, gas and nuclear power stations.

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The only good thing from soaring oil prices is the start of an energy revolution. From Texas to Tel Aviv inventors and investors are putting their mind and money into clean energy solutions. Shai Agassi for example is making Israel a model of how an entire country can get off gasoline and onto solar powered electric cars.

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Air pollution is substantially harming every major ecosystem type in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. Pollutants ranging from mercury to ground-level ozone are degrading the services nature provides us.

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England’s biggest colony of puffins has seen the birds’ numbers fall by a third in just five years, a survey shows. Experts had expected to see a slight increase in the population on the Farne Islands, owned by the National Trust.

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I loved this short video about a restaurant in Australia offering free veggie food. Its great to see people taking action for a better world rather than just talking.

The town of Rock Port, in Missouri, is another of the growing number of towns and cities laying claim to be powered entirely by a renewable energy. And though the small town only boasts a population of 1,300, it is the first community in the United States to be powered entirely by wind power.

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As much as 75 percent of a home’s heat escapes through the roof and walls. A new European initiative plans to design homes that are much smarter about energy use. A number of building designs have been put forward that cut this and other home energy use to nearly zero, but only a few of the houses have been built.

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Vast farms of solar panels in the Sahara desert could provide clean electricity for the whole of Europe, according to EU scientists working on a plan to pool the region’s renewable energy. Harnessing the power of the desert sun is at the centre of ambitious scheme to build a €45bn European supergrid to share electricity across the continent.

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A British company may have the answer to soaring petrol prices after it claimed yesterday to have become the first to have found a way to make fuel from rubbish. Ineos, the chemicals company, said that it had patented a method of producing fuel from municipal solid waste, agricultural waste and organic commercial waste.

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India plans to introduce yoga in schools to fight rising obesity among middle-class youngsters, even as the country continues to battle widespread malnutrition and “shameful” infant and maternal mortality.

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