The BBC reports on the Environmental Audit Committee’s scepticism over plans to increase road tax for more polluting vehicles bought since 2001. However, the government report doesn’t go far enough in condemning the plan. Despite their conclusions, it’s a retrospective tax which penalises drivers who have previously bought more polluting cars, rather than aiming to [...]

As the Olympics near, converns over the effects of pollution in China’s capital are growing. Air pollution has been on the agenda for some time, with the authoritarian government resorting to drastic measures and mobilising armies of farmers to seed clouds, and planning emergency factory closures at a moment’s notice. But the New York Times [...]

“The environmental movement has never been short on noble goals … But today, one ecological problem outweighs all others: global warming … Just one problem. Winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering some of environmentalism’s sacred cows.”
Wired has a great bunch of articles looking at the sacrifices environmentalists may need to accept in order [...]

Time reports on increasing evidence that biofuels may not be the eco-friendly solution to oil dependence that they are made out to be. Not only do they result in land being used to grow fuel rather than food, but the planting of these crops causes large-scale destruction of vegetation. While good land management practices can [...]

“Government officials have secretly briefed ministers that Britain has no hope of getting remotely near the new European Union renewable energy target that Tony Blair signed up to in the spring - and have suggested that they find ways of wriggling out of it.”
For Britain to be trying to go back on promises it made [...]

The Olympic stadium in Beijing won’t be the only thing covered in a cloud of smog next year. Chinese authorities also seem to be doing their best to create a smokescreen over other issues in the country, ranging from spitting in public to major human rights abuses. While lifting the cloud of smog which hangs [...]

“By effectively doubling the working life of every PC, re-use provides a simple and practical way for companies to reduce their environmental footprint and successfully re-distribute such valuable learning tools.”
The BCS Ethics Forum argues that we should preferentially re-use the 125 million PCs that we get rid of each year, rather than recycling them. As [...]

“Blame the 1970s. One of the problems holding back the uptake of energy-saving light bulbs has been that many people have still not forgotten the poor-quality versions they used then.”
Matt Prescott, founder of the Ban The Bulb campaign, takes a look at the performance of some of the many energy-saving bulbs on the market today. [...]

“It is a misconception that recycling costs less. The current production is so geared towards quantity and subsidised for this type of production that, when you make it by hand and recycle the products, you are actually fighting against a lot of economic forces in the market that make you more expensive.”
PingMag has an interesting [...]

“That such a constraining and technical ‘line-by-line’ process is accepted by so many as a useful or necessary approach speaks volumes about how neutered politics has become – apparently everyone must sign up to an agreed version of the latest ’science’ before any debate or discussion can begin.”
Tony Gilland asks some very valid questions about [...]

“Sydney in Australia has become the first city to stage a Live Earth concert, a global event intended to raise awareness of climate change … Eight other cities, including London and Washington, are holding gigs. “
While the cause is vitally important, I’m not sure that holding yet another set of concerts for a worldwide campaign [...]

“China has the right to development, and the right, too, to truck for oil with sovereign governments in the Third World. But China is easily important enough, in 2007, for its growth and development to be in the whole world’s interest.”
James Woudhuysen writes on Spiked about China’s right to develop. As I’ve said before, it’s [...]

“China is now building about two power stations every week, the top climate change official at the UK Foreign Office, John Ashton, has said … His statement came as a Dutch think tank reported that China had already overtaken the US as the world’s biggest emitter of CO2 … [But] It is estimated that the [...]

“Carson is both idolised by environmentalists and demonised by those concerned about the continuing devastation caused by malaria in the developing world.”
James Woudhuysen writes an interesting article about Silent Spring author Rachel Carson, asking whether her landmark book on pesticides did more harm than good - a point of view not often publicised. From Spiked, [...]

“The Economist magazine has an article on Flying [sic] wind farms. Mind you, we’re not talking about ordinary, terrestrial windmills here. We’re talking about actual airborne — up to 10km in the sky — wind farms intended to harvest the immense supply of energy in the jet stream.”
Quote from Slashdot, here. The full Economist article [...]

“Air pollution in major cities is potentially more damaging to health than being exposed to the radioactive fallout of an atomic bomb … urban air pollution cut life expectancy by more than the radiation exposure of emergency workers sent into the 19-mile exclusion zone around the [...]

“Australia is to ban incandescent lightbulbs in an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions, with the government saying yesterday they would be phased out within three years … Fluorescent bulbs are currently more expensive than incandescent bulbs, but use only about 20% of the power to produce the same amount of light and last longer”
There’s [...]

Spiked has an article on Greenpeace in Germany, and how it may lose its charitable status. I can see the problems associated with the state supporting a group which takes part in illegal direct action. However, the author’s reasoning that a charity which “stands as a barrier to scientific progress” doesn’t deserve state funding is [...]

“Not since Hamelin has the discovery of a rat provoked so much alarm. It was only a single creature, but it had no business being on the island of Santa Fe in the isolated Galápagos archipelago, where conservationists now strive to keep foreign wildlife at bay as effectively as hundreds of miles of open ocean [...]

Environment Minister Ian Pearson has launched a strongly-worded attack on the airline industry, saying that they do not take climate change seriously enough. He has especially criticised RyanAir and its Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary, over their record. Whether or not this attack is all bark and no bite remains to be seen.
The Times article on [...]