EcoWorldly

They go by the boisterous acronym MEND, or the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, and they are lethal. As political students of Niccolò Machiavelli, they have crafted Machiavellian tactics to a fault, and boast about shutting oil pipelines in their motherland to get the ears of their sullen government and the rest of the capitalist world which is driven by its lust for oil.

But they don’t just boast, they actually engage in hostage taking and abduction of foreign oil workers working in Nigeria’s oil rich but socio-economically poor Delta region for ransom (they call it pollution reparation); sometimes killing them and even bombing oil pipelines for effect.

MEND said in an email circulated to news media in January 2006: “It must be clear that the Nigerian government cannot protect your workers or assets. Leave our land while you can or die in it…. Our aim is to totally destroy the capacity of the Nigerian government to export oil.”

Read the rest of this entry »

As the price of oil continues to climb, we are beginning to get a glimpse of what the post peak-oil world may  look like, and it’s not entirely pretty.

Protests in Europe have been widespread, as Europeans who already pay twice that of our US cousins for fuel begin to feel the financial consequences of consistent price increases.

Truck drivers in Spain and France have blockaded major roadways and paralysed traffic on major city arteries. Meanwhile in the UK, similar protests by truck drivers - who claim they are rapidly being forced out of business by high fuel prices - have taken place across the country.

Adding to the chaos, Shell tanker drivers chose the same weekend to strike over pay disputes, causing many petrol (gas) stations to run out of fuel. Government calls to avoid panic buying have predictably caused a peak-oil dress rehearsal, with long queues forming on many petrol station forecourts.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: this article is part of this week’s EcoWorldly cycling series: Cycling and its importance in countries around the world.

Slimy

Actions speak louder than words. I can write no more scathing an attack on the leader of the opposition than he can achieve merely by being him. So it was that the man who instinctively knows where the camera is cycled to work whilst his chauffer followed just out of site driving a pair of shoes.

Fatuous, slimy, ultimately laughable. A joy to read. Silly boy.

So, now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s ponder on cycling here in the UK.

Read the rest of this entry »

“An armor-plated alien invader is eating its way through wildlife in Britain’s waterways”

So reads The Daily Telegraph this week. Who said that environmental journalism can be dull?

The invader in question is the American Signal Crayfish (pictured), described as a six inch long killing machine and voracious predator that has already annihilated the native White Claw species, and now threatens to completely overwhelm many fragile aquatic eco-systems.

The problems started during the 1970’s when Signal crayfish bread in farms for the restaurant trade managed to escape. So successful have they been, with their lack of natural predators, rapid breeding rate, and willingness to eat absolutely everything including plants, insects, fish, snails, detritus and their own young, that they have quickly grown into an aquatic army of almost plague proportions.

Read the rest of this entry »

The case for homemade renewable energy (micro-generation) seems to get stronger and stronger. A new report commissioned by the British Government provides a series of compelling reasons to put a wind-turbine in your garden, solar panels on your roof, and a combined heat and power boiler in your basement.

Lauded as “one of the most professionally conducted and robust pieces of consumer research into the micro-generation market”, the principle reasons for Britain to make a big push for micro-generation outlined by the report are:

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m quite the dreadful snob when it comes to the consumption of alcohol. Whereas the less intellectual types may sit on verandas, sipping red wine, discussing Voltaire, I’m indoors, crate of cheap lager at my side, football on the telly.

Whereas they may swill the grape juice, inhale the aroma and swoon over the subtleties cascading o’er the taste buds, I’m already on my third can and the match yet to start.

But my, how I jolted when I came across a story suggesting that English vineyards may, in decades to come, suffer because our summers are set to become too hot.

Read the rest of this entry »

I found it interesting – in a report published by the BBC – that the scientist who originally coined the phrase “global warming” is backing a radical solution to stem further damage to the planet caused by CO2.

Speaking at the Hay Literary Festival in Powys, Wales, Wallace Broecker suggests the way forward must surely lie with the construction of millions of “carbon scrubbers.”

These carbon scrubbers would be giant artificial trees that would pull CO2 from the atmosphere via a specially designed plastic and the gas would either be liquefied under pressure to be pumped underground or converted to mineral.

Read the rest of this entry »

British prime minister, Gordon Brown’s credentials as a climate change advocate seemed to get a meditated jerk last week as he went all gaga about a new online climate change tracking tool powered by Google Earth, in a collaboration between Google Earth and the UK government.

Call it green spin or not but apart from giving all the applauds to the geeks at Google Earth, he said this about the new tool designed to let users view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, and 3D buildings, or take a journey across the globe:

“I think this will be a huge tool for making everybody aware of the huge climate changes of our time.” Well expressed for now, at least. I can imagine the hushed silence before the clapping in that room that day.

“Climate Change In Our World”, or so the tool is called, is where you get to see and hear the stories of people, living in some of the world’s poorest countries, who are already being affected by changing weather patterns.

Read the rest of this entry »

I remember vividly the sight of my dad running for cover, making slow groaning sounds, thrashing wildly at the air like some madman from a B-movie.

I was a mere toddler, blanket in one hand, thumb in mouth (think Linus) - wondering what all the fuss was about.

It was dusk and the bats were out, darting this way and that, catching insects as the summer’s sun slid from view, leaving that beautiful blue light before darkness descends.

I shrugged in an awfully precocious manner, looked at mummy, then turned my eyes back to the bats.

And today, Defra (the UK’s Department for Environment, Food And Rural Affairs) have announced that bats are to be used to help measure the biodiversity of the UK.

Read the rest of this entry »

SAS flies slower to save fuel and lower carbon emissions.

Well, when I read this headline, conflicting views sprang to mind.

Firstly of course, being an Englishman with no sense of irony, I immediately leapt to my feet and saluted my queen and her armed forces.

Then I faltered slightly, and thought, if a crack team of SAS marines were being air dropped into some war-torn despotic state, surely, speed is of the essence, to ensure that the paras can be in and out again with time for a cup of tea a mere hours later.

Read the rest of this entry »