'Travelling food' causes environmental headaches

'Travelling food' causes environmental headaches

Europeans' taste for processed food imported at low cost from developing countries has far-reaching environmental consequences, argues a study which aims to provoke discussion on the issue.

See study: European Food Systems in a Changing World:
http://www.esf.org/fileadmin/be_user/research_areas/LESC/Documents/FOODfinal2.pdf

Greenpeace in Portugal

It seems that Greenpeace soon will start a 3 year long campaign in Portugal!

Yippiee!

global rich list

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Stop the traffik

STOP THE TRAFFIK is a campaign working to combat the fastest growing global crime, people trafficking—the buying & selling of people around the world today

* Exposing people trafficking
* Leading governments to action
* Unlocking freedom


http://www.stopthetraffik.org/default.aspx.

Be sure to sign their petition!

Ban the bulb, in Ireland

taken from recent email from greenpeace:

" Ireland's Environment Minister announced a law yesterday to ban energy-wasting lightbulbs by January 2009. We did it!

The Irish Government's 2009 ban is the most progressive in Europe by far. They still need to really pass the law of course, and we still want at least one more country in the EU to follow suit -- setting the standards for EU legislation on energy efficiency."

Sorry out of gas

cut and paste from Treehugger:

"In 1979, Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House to heat water and save energy; a few years later Ronald Reagan removed them, insisting that there was energy enough for all. Reagan then presided over the start of what architecture critic Chris Hume calls "America's collective descent into amnesia."

We have forgotten how bad it was when OPEC turned off the taps in October, 1973. Hume reminds us that oil shot from $ 2.59 a barrel to a shocking $11.65. "The result was pandemonium: In Europe, driving was banned on Sundays; in North America, long lineups at filling stations degenerated into free-for-alls. Leaders went on television to address nervous nations alarmed that their very way of life was at stake."

Now the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal has mounted a provocative exhibition that revisits that period of panic. "

http://www.sorryoutofgas.org/

Ecological footprint in your mobile

European Commission scientists launch first mobile application that uses your mobile phone to track your carbon footprint
mobGAS©® is a new mobile phone application available in 21 European languages that allows users to see how their daily choices impact on climate change. This smart technology, developed by scientists working at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, allows users to see the implications of the choices they make every day, in terms of the three major greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Information about everyday activities – cooking, transport, lighting, electronic appliances etc. - is put into the application, and calculations made of individual emissions. A user diary of daily, weekly and yearly emissions can be registered on a secure website, allowing a comparison with national and world averages. The application also includes an animation reflecting the user's contribution to the Kyoto Protocol target.

Individuals can have a significant impact on reducing emissions. According to recent Eurostat figures, 21% of emissions are related to industrial and associated processes, while 31% are from energy production, 20% from transport, 9% from agriculture and 3% from waste, and the remainder from other sources. All of this shows that individual behaviour, such as how we travel, the appliances we use or the food we eat, can make a real different to emissions. Lifestyle and consumer choices are a key factor, so it is important that people are aware of the implications of their personal choices.

By downloading the application to a mobile phone – something people carry with them almost all the time – it is possible to make use of quieter moments – travelling on a bus, or waiting for an appointment, for example – to input the data for that day. This could include the means of transport they took, how they heated their house, how long they watched television and what they ate.

From today, mobGAS is being made available free of charge to anyone who is interested. Communication networks and mobile phone producers will also be involved in rolling-out the technology at national level.

This technology will be demonstrated by scientists of the JRC at the EU pavilion during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali from 3 December.
To download the application:

http://mobgas.jrc.ec.europa.eu