Penguin Island

Will the food run out

2008-04-29T09:25:00.004Z

Food prices are seemingly in the news constantly at the moment. So here is an article i wrote for the New Statesman in January.

THE weekly shop and the morning loaf of bread are becoming more expensive, but while most of us may barely have noticed, rising food prices are hitting the world's developing nations hard.

Global reserves of cereals are at an all-time low, mounting food costs have sparked riots in Mexico and there are hunger warnings across sub-Saharan Africa. A seldom-mentioned casualty of the price surge, though, has been the aid agencies, which are struggling to buy in food aid. With prices predicted to remain high, they are increasingly seeking new ways to feed the world's hungry.

The boom in global food prices, in part driven by demand for biofuels, is stretching resources at the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). Over the past five years, the agency's food procurement bill has rocketed by 50 per cent, according to Robin Lodge, spokesman for the organisation.

"There has been a cost increase across the board in major grains and pulses, such as maize, wheat and rice," he says. The escalating price of grains, described as agri-inflation among economists, has been rapid. The price of wheat, for example, doubled in 2007.

Paul Horsnell, head of commodities research at Barclays Capital, blames increased use of land for biofuels, reduced supply and an insatiable demand for food and animal feed from the world's emerging markets. "Biofuels, China and some poor harvests have been a recipe for a very sharp rise in grain prices," he says.

The WFP's finances are further hit by record oil prices. This impacts on grain prices by pushing up the cost of fertiliser and also adding to the agency's food-aid distribution expenses.

"Transport costs have soared over the past few years, adding enormously to our costs; also the rates shipping companies charge have increased. We are being hit all round," says Lodge.

The WFP's problems are unlikely to diminish since, in the long term, global warming will push up food prices, predicts John Ingram of Global Environmental Change and Food Systems, an organisation which monitors environmental change and food security. "Climate change is going to make things more difficult," he says.

The influences of climate change are already evident; as the US and Europe search for alternative carbon-neutral energy sources, land is diverted from food to fuel crops. "It's not rocket science to say that if you take land out of food production, the price of food will go up," says Ingram.

Another impact of global warming on the cost of food is the projected increase in extreme weather events, such as Australia's continuing drought and the serious floods of 2007 across Africa. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that by 2100 we will experience heavier rainstorms, causing soil erosion and crop damage; droughts producing lower crop yields; and widespread soil salination from rising sea levels.

Responding to the growing crisis, Jacques Diouf, director general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, is demanding urgent steps to boost crop production. The UN agency is also seeking to address the problem from the other direction - by seeking means to prevent shortages, rather than simply managing them. "We look at ways of mitigation," says Lodge. "We are trying to increase farmers' yields by providing a ready market."

Handing out vouchers or small amounts of cash to stimulate local trade, rather than shipping in and distributing food aid, is one method increasingly used by the WFP. It has also started to buy directly from farmers, creating a stable market price that encourages production.

"World commodity prices are high, but this is not reflected at the farm gates. By being on the spot, we can guarantee a price," explains Lodge.

Nonetheless, the WFP is warning governments that if official development assistance doesn't keep up with rising food prices, the agency will be unable to maintain current levels.

"The bottom line is that if the donations remain static, we cannot feed all the people we are feeding at the moment. And unless donations go up, we may have to cut programmes," says Lodge.

Review: control

2007-12-20T23:29:00.000Z

Drugs and drink didn’t kill Ian Curtis. It was guilt. That is the implication from Anton Corbijn’s new film about the Joy Division front man.

For Curtis, born in Maccasfield in the late 50s, Joy Division was a tool to express his loneliness and depression, allowing him to pursue his fascination with self-abrogation in the most dramatic of ways when he committed suicide at the height of his, and the band’s fame in 1980.

For people who have never heard of Joy Division, simply by listening to Curtis’ dark, broody and isolationist lyrics in Love Will Tear Us Apart – the most famous song in the band’s two album repertoire – will explain the man’s cult following for generations of lost romantics.

Control is a depressingly grave biopic of Curtis. It is a cheerless arresting 2 hours, portraying a troubled genius, whose deep baritone voice reverberates in the film’s ample performance scenes and which underscores the feeling of impeding tragedy from the very start.

For Joy Division fans, Sam Riley (24 Hour Party People) as Ian Curtis won’t be up to the job, but the superb performance of Samantha Morton (Elizabeth: The Golden Age) as his homely and naïve wife, Deborah, will go some way to make up for the disappointment.

In Deborah Curtis’ book, Touching From A Distance written before the film came out, she hints the singer always harboured desires to commit suicide. And this is skilfully evident with Matt Greenhalgh's screenplay which occasionally inter-splices images of the couple’s drying rack - the eventual modus operandi of his death.

Despite the film’s annihilist nature, there are points of humour, injecting relief; particularly when the charismatic Manchester impresario Tony Wilson signs a contract with Joy Division in his own blood. This amusing nod to history, backed by the scene of the Sex Pistols’ legendary gig at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall, will go down well with die-hard fans.

Control is Corbijn’s first feature film, and its stylish finish is clearly due in part to his background directing music videos for U2, Nirvana and alike, as well as his work as an acclaimed black and white photographer of musicians which has spaned three decades.

In Control’s case filming in black and white was perhaps the obvious choice for Corbijn, considering the sad nature of the movie. But at times colour, particularly with the rare landscapes, or for a flavour of Deborah’s floral dresses would have been appreciated.

The film, possibly overly sympathetic to Curtis, avoids pandering too much however, and is a gripping interpretation of his sorry and romantic life. One that will be watched by Joy Division’s fans and new-comers alike; who will all tap their fingers lachrymosely to its fantastic score, from start to finish.

UK: MP's facebook closed down

2007-12-20T16:13:00.000Z

Steve Webb, Lib Dem MP, had his facebook account closed because the social networking site thought it was a fraud.

His profile with 2500 friends was deemed a fake and only reinstated after he contacted the host and a group - Steve Webb is real - was set up.

Read Odds and Sods
Steve Webb’s website

End

US: States reject - safe-sex is no sex

2007-12-18T17:25:00.000Z

Sex education relying on preaching the virtues of abstinence is being shunned by states, amid growing realisation that it doesn’t work.

The news from the Washington Post proves the US isn’t falling headlong into Christian fundamentalism quite as quickly as sections of the Euro press would have us believe.

END

Review: Cloud Nine

2007-12-06T11:49:00.000Z

Watching Cloud Nine I was reminded about what Noam Chomsky said about nonsense, he called it “colourless green ideas sleep furiously”.

By using this set of incomprehensible words, the great linguist was trying to show how language can be grammatically correct but meaningless.

Nonsense, is in fact, an established genre of writing. It deliberately fuses order and chaos to present a confusing world that is humorous precisely because it appears to make no sense. Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is a prime example, as is Dr Seuss and countless other pieces of children’s literature.

Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine certainly isn’t for children but it is nonsense all the same. The play’s two acts are set in Victorian colonial Africa and 1970s London, between the two periods the actors change roles but the characters remain the same, having aged little over the intervening 100 years.

In act 1, men play women, women play boys and white men play black men. It is a deliberate attempt by Churchill to highlight the constraints of Victorian society through confusion. The result is undeniably funny, but disturbing, especially when the play points a comical finger at the issue of paedophilia.

Churchill has been writing plays since the 1950s but it was Cloud Nine, first performed in 1979 that really established her. She has since gone on to write numerous radio and television plays for the BBC and is now considered one of Britain’s foremost dramatists.

The Almedia’s adaptation of Cloud Nine is well acted, particularly James Fleet (Four Weddings and a Funeral) who plays Clive, a colonial old boy in act 1, and Cathy, a 5-year-old girl in act 2. Joanna Scanlan (Girl with a Pearl Earring) is also as Clive’s mother in law, and then in the later act, his daughter.

As the play canters into act 2 it becomes less confusing and more approachable, adopting a rhythm that eases the audience out of mysterious colonial Africa into the recognisable settings of a London park. This is in part testament to the director, Thea Sharrock - returning from her much applauded direction of Peter Shaffer’s Equus at the Gielgud Theatre. Throughout, she keeps the dialogue tight and the scenes seamless; getting the best out of the difficult cross gender roles that work well in making us question our assumptions on relationships and sex. Even the issue of colonialisation, sitting uneasily among the other themes is provokingly explored.

Good acting, directing and script, why then was Cloud Nine such a let down? Perhaps the set, which is basic, could have been better put together. Or the play itself could have spent more time bedding in the context. Or simply, because it is nonsense.

Cloud Nine, Almeida Theatre, until 8 December.

Review: Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo

2007-11-25T18:53:00.000Z

After a string of dull commissions in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, the new Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo is a welcome breath of fresh air.

On first impressions, Shibboleth, which starts as a hairline crack in the floor, does little to fill the vast space of the Turbine Hall like previous pieces such as Holler’s slides or Kapoor’s red PVC Marsyas. But that is just the impression it is meant to give.

Shibboleth is a Hebrew term by origin and means a word or phrase that distinguishes a group of people from another. Salcedo has used the name to highlight the differences between Colombia, where she was born, and the prosperous countries of the west.

Running the length of the Turbine hall, the crack, like a bolt of lightening, splits and widens to become a growing chasm, big enough for children to play in. Walking along it, the installation purposely concentrates the eye on the floor, allowing the viewer to forget the enormity of the space they are in.

Salcedo’s most famous work to date, is a tower of 1550 chairs between two Istanbul buildings for the city’s biennale. The eighth artist to be shown as part of the hall’s Unilever Series she has succeeds where many of her predecessors failed. Producing both a visually interesting and contemplative piece, leaving viewers, as they follow the crack’s 167m path, wondering just how it was made.

Like 1550 Chairs, which was built to draw attention to the anonymity of economic migrants, Shibboleth is also a political piece. By fracturing the hall it symbolises a world divided by racism and colonialisation. The deliberate use of steel mesh inside the fissure adds to the feeling of tension, by seemingly holding the sides of the crack apart, preventing it from healing.

Salcedo is the first artist outside Europe and North America to take on the challenge of filling the immense hall; following the drab aural collage of Nauman’s Raw Materials and the unoriginal plastic boxes of Whitehead’s Embankment, lets hope Salcedo is not the last.

Review: call of the wild

2007-11-16T13:05:00.000Z

Jack London wrote in White Fang: “One cannot violate the promptings of one's nature without having that nature recoil upon itself.” It is lesson in self-destruction depressingly played out in the short life of Christopher McCandless - the subject of a new Sean Penn film: Into The Wild.

Sean Penn’s fifth film as director doesn’t disappoint but it also doesn’t excite. Taking on the form of a road movie it follows the troubled McCandless, whose naivety and obsession with wilderness leaves a trial of sadness the length and breadth of America.

It is based on the true story of McCandless, who, as a 22-year-old college graduate disturbed by the fake bliss of his parent’s lives, gave away his entire savings to embark on an anonymous life tramping around America.

From start to finish it is filmed in superb cinematography as McCandless - played sympathetically by Emile Hirsh - walks or hitches from the South Dakotan grain fields, through the alien rock formations of Arizona, to the white wilderness of Alaska.

Into The Wild is also a literary film. Penn applies a Byron poem at the start to underscore the grand American landscapes with powerful prose. And with voiceover narration from both McCandless and his sister (Jena Malone), uses Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago, Tolstoy and Thoreau to romanticise McCandless naïve dismay at 1990’s American life.

At one point the cheerless subject quotes directly from Thoreau: “Rather than love, than money, than fairness, give me truth.”

Penn, himself, is renown for playing intense, bitter characters and he has done well to bring this out in Hirsh, whose good looks where always in danger of making the self-obsessed McCandless seem too likable.

With the film focusing almost entirely on McCandless, periphery characters are nonetheless memorable and strong -particularly the reformed drunk Ron Franz, played admirably by Hal Holbrook (Deepthroat in All the President’s Men) who tries to adopt McCandless toward the end of the film.

Yet despite the great acting, innovative camera work and realistic dialogue, the film fails. It is long and slow, rarely changing pace or suggesting to viewers an ending of anything other than the predictable.

In perhaps film’s only light point, McCandless finds out he must wait 12 years for permission to paddle down the Colorado River. It is a scene used to underline the hopelessness of leading a life outside the bureaucratic white picket fence norm of 20th century America. But this is a theme we saw decades before in Easy Rider and Penn has nothing more to add.

Overall, Into the Wild has been received well and it should get the recognition it deserves - that of being a beautiful and poetic film - but we should stop short of labelling the film a masterpiece of American introspection.

Film's official site here.

Review: millais delights

2007-10-09T16:49:00.000Z

Commercial sell-out is an accusation often levied at the painter John Everett Millais - by curating a varied range of his landscapes, portraits, illustrations and historical works, it is a view the Tate has impressively dispelled.

Born in Southampton in 1829, it didn’t take long for Millais to be recognised. Accepted into the Royal Academy at 11, by 19 he had founded the Pre-Raphaelites - a movement based on the fashionable painting style before the emergence of renaissance artist Raphael.

Characterised by vivid colours Millais’ Pre-Raphaelitism feels medieval and dreamy. Only the intriguing detail of the subject’s natural surroundings stops him crossing into the symbolism of Gustave Moreau, who was painting at the same time.

The exhibition’s first room contains some of Millais’ finest pieces and is worth the ticket price alone. Aside from his famous Ophelia it holds Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru; painted when Millais was 16, its shows a classical training through a pyramidal composition, where plain faces convey pain strikingly through the eyes.

The gold picture frames throughout the show accentuate Millais’ expertise, in room 1 these are arched, window like, ensuring the viewer looks in on the painted scene. As the exhibition continues the frames straighten and the painted subjects begin to look directly at the viewer, drawing you into the image. It is a masterful skill particularly accomplished in the thought provoking The Vale of Rest.

There are times, particularly in his early work, when Millais’ technique fails; depth can be flat, proportion unsettling and space unnatural. Note for example Isabella, in which a dog seems to float above the ground.

The exhibition cleverly guides you through Millais’ artistic repertoire. Lighting is sensitive, and walking through the rooms the paintings get noticeably larger until you are treated to a finale of Millais’ rare Perthshire landscapes. Sadly, their overbearing horizons and naïve rural images disappoint.

The photograph of Millais’ spatial studio in room 6 shows the obvious commercial success he enjoyed while alive. The room’s large portraits by which he made his money, strike artistic poses, rarely facing the viewer directly. The sad image of Disraeli, arms crossed looking helpless to the events unfurling outside the picture, is particularly memorable.

Outside the Tate Britain, a large statue of Millais is draped with a plastic wreath. The tired garland is hardly fitting for the master. The exhibition however, is an impressive tribute by which the great British painter could be proud.

Millais, Tate Britain, Milbank, until January 13

END

UK: Mail rumbled

2007-10-04T19:26:00.000Z

Trust in the British media dealt further blow.

It’s not just the television media lying to us, now the newspapers are at it as well.

The Daily Mail, shock horror, have been caught out in their attempt to bribe a Polish man to drive to England and flout British driving laws.

The plan was to pay £800 to a Pole, get them to drive around the south of England, braking the speed limit, parking illegally and not paying London’s congestion charge while being followed by a Daily Mail photographer.

An article was then to appear about Poles flouting British law.

The offending Mail journalist amazingly decided to contact a prominent Polish blogger to do the dirty deed and even more amazingly, then confirmed it be email.

END

UK: No protest please, we're sitting

2007-10-02T18:42:00.000Z

New rollback in civil liberties, prevents demonstration.

The Met have told anti-war demonstrators they cannot hold a protest next Monday because parliament will be in session.

The new excuse is a worrying development in our right to protest.

Stop the war coalition, in accordance with the law had been seeking permission to march. According to a statement by the group, all had been going well until the police suddenly denied permission.

Restrictions on the right to protest have been subject to a 1 mile exclusion zone around Parliament since August 2005. Critics say the zone is too big and an over reaction to Brian Haws “eye-sore” encampment.

END

Read BBC article on Brian Haw
Read Tony Benn writing in Comment is free

Sudan: When the dust settles

2007-08-02T11:44:00.000Z

One of the greatest fallouts from the Iraq war has been Darfur. Now it seems the world’s attention has finally turned into action on this dusty corner of Sudan.

Seems is the operative word here. The new security resolution to back a 26,000 strong hybrid peace-force (if ever there was such an obvious oxymoron), for many, is toothless. Similar to a previous resolution which failed to get off the ground last year, it doesn’t threaten sanctions for non-cooperation or allow disarming of fighters.

By relying on cooperation from Khartoum - dab hands at stalling the international community – the jury is still out on peace and we will have to wait and see. All the time remembering that we are actually talking about real and desperate lives here.

Pathetically it seems that the only reason China got on board was due to threats of an Olympic boycott, has it really come to this? Thousands of lives hanging upon a sporting event.

Meanwhile the Security Council’s connections with the Khartoum government continue to come to light.

China with its obvious oil interests (it’s accused, here, of swapping arms for oil). Russia also likes to make money from selling the country weapons. British companies, including Barclays and even the Church of England continue to invest in oil operations (source) and the US are using Kharhtoum for its activities in Somalia and Iraq (source). With friends like these…

Oh and has anyone mentioned the Janjaweed? Surely we don’t expect them to simply ride off into the sunset and take up office jobs.

END

Detailed critique of resolution, here
Slightly over-the-top comment in Guardian
how about a German point of view?

Biofuels and climate change mean food price increase

2007-08-01T12:01:00.000Z

Pigs, strawberries, cocoa, coffees, corn and wheat, are all flying high; their prices that is. The world is in the grip of rising food prices and it is having serious impacts.

In a reverse to the long-term trend of declining food prices, Merrill Lynch has termed this recent phenominum, agflation.

The impact of the global inflation of food prices is double edged. Some aid organisations such as the World Food Programme are finding it more and more expensive to carry on donating food but at the same time it has been predicted that small farmers in developing countries may benefit by utilising unused land for crop production.

It is thought that a combination of climate change, biofuel crops being grown on farming land, oil prices efffecting transport costs and greater demand for animal feed are causing the inflation.

The long-term affects are unknown, but worrying if you’re against GM crops.

END
WFP
Read FT debate on rising food prices
UPDATE: IPPR comment on UK food prices

“The worst epidemic of the decade"

2007-07-31T18:15:00.001Z

Haemorrhaging blood from the nose, mouth, and gums is one of the symptoms of Dengue fever, a mosquito borne disease that is sweeping through South East Asia.

According to the article in the Guardian, “no country has been left untouched in the region”.

The disease is carried by Aedes mosquitoes which are thought to be on the increase because of rapid globalisation and urbanisation. Building sites are seemingly the focus of outbreaks.

Well at least it isn't due to climate change.

END

Read the Guardian article
WHO

Sudan: Water-borne peace in Darfur

2007-07-18T14:20:00.001Z

A natural underground reservoir has been found in Darfur. The remnants of an ancient lake which is laying hidden, is about the size of Massachusetts. Spotted from space by satellites, it’s thought that the water will help stabalise the region.

Mentioned in MSNBC, it’s a nice story and certainly gives a little hope to the war-torn area.

But to suggest that the violence meted out by the Janjaweed is due to lack of water, neglects the issue of oil and Arab vs African racism.

If anything, with the Janjaweed’s natural lands from the North being gradually encroached on by the Sahara, the offer of irrigated pasture land in Darfur is likely to increase their eagerness to drive the Darfurians out.

For an idea of what’s going on in Sudan, read my interview with Nick Clooney

END

UK: Gotta get out of this place

2007-07-16T16:15:00.000Z

Westminster’s new buzz phrase is social mobility. Or how much an adult’s life is determined by their childhood surroundings.

A nation with high social mobility means that the poorest have the potential to achieve success. Growing up in a crappy area doesn’t mean that you’ll always have to stay there.

The IPPR have said that in deprived areas: death rates are 1.7% higher; teenage pregnancy is higher; you are 2.5 times more likely to be mugged or burgled and there is a higher fear of crime (then in nicer parts of the UK).

There are initiatives to improve areas, such as the single regeneration budget, the new deal for communities and neighbourhood renewal but they have had a small and slow impact.

The IPPR suggests that there needs to be a better mix of rich and poor in areas and are looking into the fact that strong growth in house prices has increased social polarisation.

Meanwhile Britain’s low and declining social mobility is set against a growing income inequality proving wrong the dominant ‘80s and 90s idea that growth would redistribute itself.

END

UK: Mayor; is he serious?

2007-07-16T15:34:00.001Z

UK: Hi ho, it's off to war we go

2007-06-28T13:50:00.000Z

Photo credit
So when’s the earliest plans were drawn up for the UK to invade Iraq?

Penguin Island has found evidence that it was as early as December 4, 2001.

2 ½ months after 9/11, the US army were plotting the invasion of Iraq, in which it was assumed the UK would give bases, allow flights over British air space and troop support.

If you want the proof, it’s out on the web. If you can’t find it, comment with an email address and PI'll send it over.

End

Want a good timeline of events? Click here

UK: Blair goes, am i bothered

2007-06-27T10:50:00.000Z

One last time.....

END

"Rampant Kidnapping"

2007-06-27T09:42:00.000Z

"The world's worst humanitarian crisis" in Darfur, Western Sudan is well known, less so that the conflict is spilling over into the neighbouring Chad.

Now news is coming out of another unfolding disaster in neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR).

In CAR’s lawless Northern territories, bordering Sudan and Chad, gangs of armed bandits are kidnapping and looting from local villages with little risk of capture.

The bandits or Zaraguinas are able to operate due to the CAR army concentrating on battling APRD rebels who are angry at what they see as the present government’s corruption and its annulling of a legitimate government in 2003.

Compounding the terror, Amnesty reports that the government is killing civilians they suspect of aiding the bandits; and reminiscent of Janjaweed tactics in Darfur are burning down entire villages during reprisal attacks.

It is thought that some of the Zaraguinas are coming from Chad and Cameroon.

Hello UN, is there anyone there?

END

Read Washington Post article

An artificial world

2007-06-26T15:32:00.001Z

A robot zoo has opened in Portugal. A robotarium complete with 45 robots including 14 different species are living together in a glass structure. Interacting with each other and the public the robots crawl, roll, slither around their cage under solar power. Proving that robots are only human some even have a vicious streak attacking their smaller counterparts.

But that's not all. While the robots in the robotarium may look like something a two year old might draw in crayon, there is a more sinister side to robot animals. As nanotechnology advances Cornell University is injecting "microfluidic devices" into larvae, which when hatched become insects with a machine component that can then be used for monitoring and security surveillance. It's working the other way too, scientists are putting insects inside robots so the wee beastie can control a machine.

So next time you see a moth in your room better think twice about killing it.

End

Back end of June

2007-06-04T20:39:00.000Z

Gone to work at the New Statesman for a while.

RIP Doha

2007-04-29T16:40:00.001Z

Above: Definitely not Beavis and Butt-head: “money, money, trade, herher, more money, hehe herher”

Monday will mean a further blow to the WTO’s Doha Development Round as trade giants the EU and US meet for their annual summit in Washington.

In a pre-summit speech Commission President Barroso (pictured) has stated "the summit will sign up to a transatlantic economic integration framework" (source). PI translates this as supporting and enhancing bilateral trade between the US and EU - the meeting will formally ratify the Open Skies Agreement, for example (source).

According to the WTO DG, Pascal Lamy, bilateral trade agreements are counterproductive to the WTO's mission (source) and shouldn’t replace multilateral agreements (source).

But with Doha at an impasse, Monday’s meeting is clearly treading the bilateral path.

PI notes the Washington meeting, which lasts all of 2 hours is also meant to address climate change and the Middle East.

Yeah who are they trying to kid?

END

WTO
Read why Mandy says bilaterals are ok.
Read about the Doha Round.

The green gold rush.

2007-04-27T10:30:00.000Z

Above: Not for the faint hearted, boffins Schneider and Heller discuss CC and CTS. Yawn, ooops sorry, no this is serious stuff (Google Tech Talks 27/01/07).

The European systems of carbon credits and offsetting are in danger of becoming more climate headache than climate antidote.

A FT investigation suggests: organisations are paying for phantom emission reductions, huge profits are going to credit trading companies and polluters are getting paid to reduce emissions, which they where going to do anyway (source).

In another piece, the UK environment department (Defra) has come under criticism for promoting an EU emission trading scheme (ETS) which effectively, offers “permits to pollute” (source).

Permits to pollute, because far too many credits were given at the start of the ETS, making them too cheap and not a representation of the true cost of cleaning up a tonne of carbon.

PI will be down B&Q buying its own trees from now on.

END

Lowdown on EU ETS
Carbon offsetting a misguided philosophy?

UK: Rubbish news

2007-04-26T10:19:00.000Z

There is a lot of rubbish in the news, most of it coming from the Daily Mail.

Headlines screaming “outrageous fortnightly pick-ups,” forget to tell us that actually it’s still weekly but the types of bins emptied, alternate each week.

Critics stating that alternate collections won’t increase recycling back up their argument with the whopping 4% of LGAs that have high recycling and weekly pick-ups.

But the biggest distortion is that this poorly researched and reactionary reporting completely misses the point.

The important thing about alternate collections is that it makes us think about when and what we throw away. So we start to reduce our rubbish, reuse our rubbish and as a last resort recycle it.

Today’s issue of the Mail is laughably hypocritical. On one page they want us to keep weekly collections, maintaining a vehicle for our throw away culture, on the other page they're campaigning against too much packaging.

Umm, if it’s harder to throw away, than we won’t buy products with excess packaging, and the retailers will stop stocking them.

PI wonders if the Mail is printed on mahogany paper?

END

Read this, then you decide.

Read the Guardian article

UK: Intelligence leak

2007-04-25T17:57:00.000Z

Who's been "putting lives at risk"?

At a guess Steve Bates, Reid's special adviser.

Naughty naughty, Mr Reid.

PI may be wrong of course and certainly can't prove it!

END

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