Greeny News

Commons notifies the European Commission plans to impose a "one size fits all" regime across continents

proposed new EU rules on agriculture to be more "green" will reduce food production, increase bureaucracy and may even harm the environment, a parliamentary report has guard.

The House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee warned that the plans of the European Commission - due to be implemented in 2014 - are too rigid and impose a "one size fits all "diet farmers from Finland to Sicily.

farmers could lose 30% of direct payments under the common agricultural policy does not comply with the requirements of three new "green" products.

The report also speculation that the fine could double by any additional sanctions are being considered by the commission.

The party committee supported the ambition of the Commission to make the CAP greener, but stated that differences in local practices of climate, landscape and agriculture should be taken into account .

The committee chair Anne McIntosh said. "In its current form, the Commission's proposals for the green cap on UK farmers, consumers and our fields

"They reduce food security by taking land out of production and is likely to harm the environment.

"It's silly to think that farmers in Finland to Sicily should be linked to the same narrow prescriptive rules. One size fits all regulation can not work the full range of environments found in Europe.

"To enhance biodiversity and protect the environment for EU farmers must be able to manage their landscapes based farming methods and environmental concerns. Commission approach could damage the environment and agriculture. "

Under the proposals, farmers are forced to comply with new European rules for the diversity of cultures and permanent grassland conservation, and the cancellation of 7% of their land as fallow zones ecological interest.

The Committee calls on the EU to put in place the high level objectives for the CAP to give Member States the option of applying adequate protection of the environment to local conditions.
"Our report highlights the enormous advantage that agri-environment schemes in the UK" gave food production biodiversity and on the ground, "said McIntosh.

European

Guardian

organizations awarded urge world leaders to focus on renewable energy and to stop subsidizing fossil fuels

governments should eliminate subsidies to fossil fuels and focus on support of renewable energy, the CEO of a microfinance organization said this week awarded.

Speaking to the Guardian Manjunath, LH, Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project for (SKDRDP) in southern India, which offers consumer loans for energy projects, he said. "Fossil fuels are subsidized most of the [Indian] government spends millions of dollars in subsidies. Must stop all subsidies to fossil fuels and increase the amount of clean energy. "

His comments came as the organization was awarded the Ashden gold at a ceremony in London on Wednesday night. Five organizations received a total of 120,000 pounds of Ashden, which each year recognizes the work "champions green energy" ideas that are using local sustainable energy to the fight against climate change and fight against poverty. The prize money is used to help increase the work of the winners. SKDRDP, which contributed approximately 20,000 loans for renewable energy projects in the state of Karnataka, was this year's winner, winning a prize of £ 40,000.

SKDRDP usually pays $ 300-400 (£ 190-250), which has a longer payback period of approximately three years. This can be extended to 10 years, depending on what the loan is used. Types of weekly payments are $ 3. Before obtaining loans for energy projects - which could be, for example, the creation of a biogas from livestock manure to provide power to reduce methane emissions - people have prove an income and are members of a "self-help" group. The organization lends money to those groups who, in turn, provide loans to members. Each member must submit a five-year plan on how it will spend the money. Interest rates are at 18%. So far, the organization has a history of 100% loan repayment energy.

However, although local solutions are important, Manjunath believes that drastic changes are needed at national and global levels to protect the environment and improve the living conditions of the poor. "He has the strength of will of governments to account," he said.

Mumpuni organization helped set up 61 hydroelectric systems in Indonesia, which supplied electricity to 54,000 people and save 7400 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Richenda

Manjunath

Rural

Kshetra

Shri

This meditation on the tracks leading into the human heart always

"A journey on foot," says the subtitle, but it is the story of his travels. Fifteen of them are manufactured by Macfarlane himself along the roads of the islands UK and also in Spain, Palestine and Tibet. Convocation, as you go, hundreds of hikers earlier and hundreds of ways - through silt, sand, granite, water, snow - each with its different rhythms and secrets. way, the book is a tribute to the variety and complexity of the "old ways" that are often forgotten as we turn off the car, but they were marked by the passage of generations. And it is a statement of your connection through an extensive network that connects travelers and forms of all kinds. After numerous trips Macfarlane reveals why he thinks his project as a "trip" in the singular, not plural. In this complex, sensual book, haunted, every trip is part of other trips and no clear divisions perform. "Leys, dikes, drongs, SARNS, Snicket ... bostles firm, driftways, lichways walks ..." Macfarlane will be many players dream language on the track during the summer. Some images continues to shine in the dark when I close my eyes, clay fragments of porcelain spread like wildfire through the swamps points of interest Dartmoor, Bodmin guiding an infallible remedy in his messages over the parish Water in the mirror monochrome-world flooded Doggerland where the narrow "Broomway" made Foulness.

first two books mountains of the mind

(2003) wilderness (2007) was published with great success and huge achieved the status of modern classics. old ways

joins them to form what Macfarlane calls "a loose trilogy on the landscape and the human heart." This definition is incredible. It takes some courage for a writer to say that its purpose is "the heart of man." It's a little dated, a little out of step with modern detachment. But that's part of what makes the voice Macfarlane significant. Declares his love happy things. He brings his powerful intellect to influence the need to express feelings and sensations.

keeps asking, "What does it feel like?" Walking barefoot on Lewis: "The crowd was slippery and cold, and when I entered he rose and moss around my foot, humidity as a poultice." Or, Hampshire: "I was walking in a Stormlight is the pulse of hot linseed schools ... dark green towers in the forests, and waves of rain fall like candles bitumen in water. " Ironically on his own romanticism ("what I thought was the first star turned out to be the light of the night for a Luton flights"), but he wants to make up for it.

One of the most fascinating chapters refers to a path through the island of Lewis Shielings stone buildings built by small farmers near their summer grazing areas. The road is only detectable by learning to read the rocky landscape. "Find out what should not be there," said Macfarlane therefore seeks minor changes to the terrain, the points that are visible when you are connected. At the time of the search path is a revelation, similar to the end of time To the Lighthouse

when Lily suddenly sees where it should paint a line on the canvas. ". Alightment Click" Macfarlane writes simply: "Blur resolve to understand the pattern of clear floor: A historical sequence .. subtle but clear running near the shore of Loch Dubh"

Each chapter

old ways consists of several short passages constructed as mounds and scattered fragments of earthenware. In memory continue to form new alignments. The development of new cards - both narrative and earth - is one of the fascinations sustainable Macfarlane. Your project wilderness be explained in part by the realization that for most of us the map of Britain is the roadmap. He took to map the islands if different from AA atlas was almost unrecognizable. In old ways

geological studies, exploration of the relationship between peat and gneiss, limestone and sand, wondering how we can learn to understand the countries differently.

Macfarlane is delighted to discover that the word "learning" etymologically goes back to Proto-Germanic

another elegy old ways
- for grandfather Macfarlane. And there are many new teachers a rating qualified enough to cross the Minch to the islands Shiant, a sculptor and Tibetologist, a friend who knows the danger and importance of walking in Ramallah "discover stories than murder and hostility. " They become important characters in a book about how they get to know the area.

ways

Roger

Lily

Lewis

Macfarlane

United Nations Environment says global trend towards low-carbon economy means that millions could be lifted out of poverty

tens of millions of new jobs could be created in the world over the next twenty years if environmental policies are put in place to change the high carbon low carbon economy, the UN said.

Between 15m and 60m are likely, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). These are net job gains for the world economy, taking into account job losses in industries of high consumption of carbon that turn.

Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, said. "The results indicate that [the green economy] may include millions more in the fight against poverty and providing better livelihoods for present and future generations, is a positive message in a world of opportunity agitated challenges. "

In addition to generating new gains in the number of jobs, the transition to a green economy could help millions of people out of poverty.

United States, there are approximately three million "green jobs" in sectors such as wind energy and energy efficiency, according to the study. In the UK, the number is close to one million, and was one of the few areas of the economy that creates jobs. There are about 500,000 people working in green jobs in Spain. In the developed world, as the number is growing fast -. Approximately 7% of employees in Brazil, amounting to three million people are now in the green economy

However, realizing the full potential of green jobs depends on which states are taking steps to develop the green economy, the implementation of policies that encourage investment, the report said.

Some regions are more vulnerable to losses - the fishing fleets of the world, for example, will probably be reduced if overfishing is discussed, and the fishermen will have to find a new job. However, the report indicates that the long-term sustainable management could prevent job losses. For example, an estimated one million people in Asia may have lost their jobs in the forestry sector due to the mismanagement of resources which could have been avoided with better policies and their implementation.

United

Programme

Environment

Nations

United Nations Environment says global trend towards low-carbon economy means that millions could be lifted out of poverty

tens of millions of new jobs could be created in the world over the next twenty years if environmental policies are put in place to change the high carbon low carbon economy, the UN said.

Between 15m and 60m are likely, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). These are net job gains for the world economy, taking into account job losses in industries of high consumption of carbon that turn.

Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, said. "The results indicate that [the green economy] may include millions more in the fight against poverty and providing better livelihoods for present and future generations, is a positive message in a world of opportunity agitated challenges. "

In addition to generating new gains in the number of jobs, the transition to a green economy could help millions of people out of poverty.

United States, there are approximately three million "green jobs" in sectors such as wind energy and energy efficiency, according to the study. In the UK, the number is close to one million, and was one of the few areas of the economy that creates jobs. There are about 500,000 people working in green jobs in Spain. In the developed world, as the number is growing fast -. Approximately 7% of employees in Brazil, amounting to three million people are now in the green economy

However, realizing the full potential of green jobs depends on which states are taking steps to develop the green economy, the implementation of policies that encourage investment, the report said.

Some regions are more vulnerable to losses - the fishing fleets of the world, for example, will probably be reduced if overfishing is discussed, and the fishermen will have to find a new job. However, the report indicates that the long-term sustainable management could prevent job losses. For example, an estimated one million people in Asia may have lost their jobs in the forestry sector due to the mismanagement of resources which could have been avoided with better policies and their implementation.

United

Programme

Environment

Nations

Fifty years after the publication of the book that formed the basis of the environmental movement, what we have learned from biologist who saw the need for science to nature?

near a stream in southern England, ornithologist JA Baker, met a little dark scene in 1961. "A heron was frozen stubble. Their wings were glued to the ground by frost. His eyes were open and life, the rest had died. As I approached, I could see the whole body at will in flight . But he could not fly. gave me peace and saw the eyes of the sun dying of curable with the cloud. "

the situation of the bird was very natural. Was not his only goal. That year, a large number of dead birds were found scattered on the ground. Real Estate at Sandringham, for example, the number of thrushes, larks included, moorhens, goldfinches, finches, hawks, ravens, hooded, partridges, pheasants and pigeons. Nationally, more than 6,000 dead birds were reported to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a huge jump in the previous years. "We are overwhelmed," said RSPB conservation director Martin Harper.

The UK is not alone. For years, reports in the U.S. suggest that the number of birds, including the American national bird, the bald eagle, were down dramatically. Ornithologists also noted eggs are often not sitting while many of those who were dismissed have not hatched. Something was happening to the birds of the Western world. proposed several causes - poisons, viruses or other pathogens - but nobody has a definitive answer or seemed sure of the cause - with one exception: the biologist Rachel Carson. During most of 1961, had locked himself in his country home in Colesville, Maryland, to complete his book,

Silent Spring . They provide a clear identification of the murderers of birds. Powerful synthetic insecticides such as DDT were chains of food poisoning bugs on the rise.

"sprays, dusts and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes - nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the" good " and "bad", which is still the song of birds and jumping fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly movie and persist in soil - all this though his goal may be just a little evil weeds and insects, "he wrote. One or two authors had already suggested modern pesticides are dangerous. written eloquently No Carson. serialized in New Yorker

the summer of 1962, Silent Spring

published September of the same year. It remains one of the most effective against malpractice complaints industrial written and is credited with activation popular awareness of the environment in the United States and Europe. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have their origin directly

Silent Spring . "In the '60s, we were just waking up he had the power to harm nature," says Jonathon Porritt, a former director of Friends of the Earth. "Rachel Carson was the first to voice concerns how that came through loud and clear to society. " Or, as Doris Lessing said: "Carson was the creator of environmental concerns."

We have much to thank Carson: a powerful green movement, the awareness that we can not punish indiscriminately our wildlife and an understanding of the fragility of the food chain in nature. But the environment is in better shape today? We saved the planet? Or is in more danger than ever before? Fifty years after Silent Spring

was published in the planet is warming, sea level rise and collapse of coral reefs, these issues have acquired a new importance and urgency.

Rachel Carson had a rare combination of gifts. It was a brilliant marine biologist and writer whose prose was beautiful in its precision and exquisite lyricism. In 1952, he won a National Book Award in the USA

The Sea Around Us

. However, his most famous work,

Silent Spring

is surprisingly difficult to pass. "It is dense and technical, and not a book for the beach," says Conor ornithologist Mark Jameson, author of the book

, an examination of the legacy of Carson. "According to the current standards of scientific writing is awkward."

literary fashions have changed, of course, but other factors, intriguing give

Silent Spring

resonance strange to modern ears. In particular, relentless style Carson is surprising and unexpected because it is full of stories of misuse of pesticides, which often have a slight variation in hue. He slaughtered in Clear Lake, California, grebes and gulls, poisoned by a pesticide used to eradicate mosquitoes danger. There are cases of spraying DDT to kill - spongy, and fire ants - which ended with blackbirds and meadows. There are links between pesticides and genetic damage in humans. And the list goes on. If she is not a talented writer, the effect could be soporific.

His relentless approach was deliberate, however. Carson tried to do more than to end an unfair practice. I decided to write "a book that challenges the paradigm of scientific progress that defined postwar American culture," says his biographer Mark Hamilton Lytle. She kneaded his testimony anyway.

was a valiant effort. Despite the legitimate criticism of government policy is a risky business in the United States then. "The science and technology and those who have worked in these areas were revered as saviors of the free world and the trustees of prosperity," said another biographer Linda Lear. "In

Silent Spring , Rachel Carson exposes these experts for public review and said that maybe they had not done their homework and, at worst, had hidden truth. "

From this point of view, the book is not only a cry for the environment. This is an attack against the paternalism of the post-war science, but to be fair to those who practice, many provide the background control and manuscripts Carson pending the expected response of the industry U.S.. furious. Giants Chemistry And America did not disappoint. They tried to continue

New Yorker and his publisher, Houghton Mifflin. When this approach failed, has launched a $ 250,000 advertising campaign far Carson and science. She was ridiculed for being hysterical, unscientific and being a single woman. "It was alarming, according to them," said Lear. "I kept the cats and birds loved. Even a former agriculture secretary was known publicly ask" why a single woman without children was so interested in genetics . "His unpardonable is that it had exceeded its place as a woman. "

Carson suffered from breast cancer and the effects of radiotherapy. However, she defended herself. In women, the National Press Club, spoke links have been established between science and industry. "When a scientific organization speaks:" I asked, "whose voice we hear - the science industry or service" The question remains as relevant today as it did in 1962 .

The scandal has had a beneficial effect for Carson. Sales Silent Spring skyrocketed, reaching one million by his death in April 1964. Under the pressure of their opinions, President John F. Kennedy recognized the value and then asked its Scientific Advisory Board to investigate the allegations. Your report justified Carson. The widespread use of pesticides has been to allow poisons that accumulate in the food chain, which poses a real risk to humans. Ten years and two presidents later, the production and use of DDT in agriculture was banned in the United States. Officially Britain forbidden to use a few years later.

Carson opponents have long memories, however. Websites, many institutions established by the U.S. industry law supported that it was a serial killer who has killed more people than the Nazis, for example. The ban on DDT was responsible for these sites argue for the death of countless malaria in Africa which have been audited had not ceased to western pesticide.

have not improved matters on earth. The neonicotinoid insecticides used in seed treatment, have been associated with the syndrome of bee colony collapse, a condition that 800,000 hives were destroyed in the United States only in 2007, while the vultures in Asia have been eliminated by chemical methods used on farms diclofenac. As Carson wrote: "Chemical warfare is never won, and all life is caught between his violent."
is a lesson that seems to have been lost for decades, however. "Carson believed that we should have a balance between ourselves and nature, but the need for a male domination of the planet seems as strong as it was in 1962," says Porritt. "We came much less than I expected that. "

Silent

Spring

Festival

Bristol

ideas

Louise

RSPB

Harper

Callum

Mann

Michael

Erik

Oreskes

Naomi

Houghton

Carson

Rachel