Lorry-Powered Windmills Could Provide Roadside Energy

Long-distance lorries might not seem the most envirnmentally-friendly vehicles on the roads but they could soon be powering an ingenious green-power project in France. Engineers have designed a roadside windmill which runs thanks to the air set in motion by hundreds of trucks rushing past.
If successful, the idea could be rolling out next to key motorways around France.

German Tanker Carrying Acid Capsizes

A tanker loaded with sulphuric acid capsized on the Rhine river in Germany and two crew members were missing, authorities said.

Cancun Climate Deal Struck

More than 190 countries have struck an agreement at the latest round of UN climate talks putting efforts to secure a new international deal to tackle global warming back on track.
The talks in Cancun, Mexico, are the latest attempt to make progress towards a new global deal on tackling climate change, after last year's meeting in Copenhagen failed amid chaotic scenes, to secure a new legally-binding treaty on cutting emissions, instead delivering only a weak voluntary accord.

At the end of two weeks of talks in Mexico, government ministers and officials agreed a deal which Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne described as a "serious package" of measures.
He acknowledged the agreement did not give everybody everything they wanted and would still require work towards a final deal at a meeting next year in Durban, South Africa.

Environmental campaigners said it threw a lifeline to efforts to get a deal to tackle climate change but there was still much work to do, in particular to close the "gigatonne gap" between the greenhouse emissions cuts countries have pledged and the reductions needed to limit temperature rises to no more than 2C.

Friends of the Earth's international climate campaigner Asad Rehman described the Cancun agreement as weak and ineffective - but said it gave the world a "small and fragile lifeline".
And he warned: ""The emissions cuts on the table could still lead to a global temperature increase of up to five degrees which would be catastrophic for hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people."

The agreement acknowledges the need to keep temperature rises to 2C and brings non-binding emissions cuts pledges made under the voluntary Copenhagen Accord, hammered out in the dying hours of last year's conference, into the UN process.
Representatives from country after country acknowledged the agreement was not perfect, but that they supported it as progress towards a final deal - although Bolivia hit out at the proposals, likening them to genocide.

Greenpeace Website
Friends of the Earth International Website

Oil Pollution 'A Catastrophe' In Southern Sudan

A German NGO says it has proved a link between the highly polluted water found at water pumps in Unity State in southern Sudan, and the bad practices at several nearby oil facilities.
The state's new environment minister says he will take action to stop the pollution continuing. Along with an independent scientist, he saw for himself the damage being done.

Fishermen On Lake Chad Face Precarious Existence

Lake Chad has shrunk by 90 percent in the last 25 years. And as its depth has fallen from more than 160 metres to less than 10, new islands have begun to emerge, attracting families from the scorched lands of the Sahel.

Bluefin Tuna Gets Scant Relief

At an international conference in Paris, fishing nations have opted to leave catch limits for eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna virtually unchanged despite concerns that the species is perilously close to collapse.

Climate Change: UN In The Last Chance Saloon

Global talks on climate change resume in the Mexican resort of Cancun on Monday, facing a clamour for results or the prospect of limbo. The 12-day meeting climaxes an 11-month effort to focus global attention on the environment after last December's trauma in Copenhagen

Leaking Siberian Ice Prompts Methane Warning

As Siberia's thawing permafrost leaks methane, some scientists are warning of another emerging climate threat.

Fishermen, Environmentalists Clash Over Tuna

Countries were discussing the future of prized Atlantic bluefin tuna at an international conference in Paris Friday. Environmentalists warn the fish faces extinction while fishermen were concerned with their livelihood.

London Based Plumen Light Bulb Revolution

A bright idea: Low energy lightbulb with a twist - the Plumen 001.
Plumen is the antithesis of low energy light bulbs as we know them. Rather than hide the unappealing traditional compact fluorescent light behind boring utility, Plumen 001 is a bulb you’ll want on show.
The Plumen bulb uses 80% less energy and lasts 8 times longer than incandescent bulbs, giving you the opportunity to purchase an ecological product with style. It works just like any low energy bulb but it has a lot more presence.
“It’s strange that the bulb, an object so synonymous with ideas, is almost entirely absent of imagination.”
The name Plumen comes from ‘plume’ – the bird’s decorative feather, designed to attract attention to its’ prowess and beauty.

Scientists Lower Gulf Health Grade

Six months after the rig explosion that led to the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, damage to the Gulf of Mexico can be measured more in increments than extinctions, say scientists polled by The Associated Press.

Climate Protest Closes Road To Oil Refinery

Demonstrators set up blockades in front of the entrances to Shell Haven Oil and the Coryton Oil Refinery.

WHO Helps Hungary Evaluate Toxic Sludge Threat

The World Health Organisation sent a team of experts to Hungary to help authorities evaluate health threats from the deadly spill of toxic sludge from an alumina factory.

Hungary In Danger Of New Sludge Leak

The cracking wall of an industrial plant reservoir could collapse at any moment and send a new wave of caustic red sludge into towns devastated by a deluge this week, Hungary's prime minister said.

Hungary: Toxic Sludge Reaches Danube

Hungary acknowledged that contamination from a spill of toxic sludge has reached the Danube River, prompting countries downstream to test their water Thursday. The prime minister visited residents devastated by the spill.

Toxic Sludge Floods Hungarian Towns

Emergency workers sweep through the Hungarian towns hardest hit by a flood of toxic sludge, trying to clear roads and homes of deep red mud and caustic water.

Pedals Power Copenhagen Hotel

An up-market hotel in Copenhagen is asking guests to help produce the building's electricity by climbing onto stationary bikes. The energy produced by pedalling guests is stocked in a battery before being fed into the hotel's power supply.

World's Biggest Wind Farm

It's the world's largest wind farm, and it's located just off the coast of Kent.

Miller Backs Green Campaign

Fashion designer Savannah Miller has thrown her weight behind the environmental campaign www.futurefriendly.co.uk

Blown-Out BP Well Finally Killed In Gulf

BP's blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has finally been killed once and for all, five months after an explosion sank a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. History.

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