Search

The article discusses changes regarding student movements in Great Britain. A campaign can no longer be judged on its effectiveness simply according to the number of individuals turning out on the streets to protest, but instead by its ability effectively to engage with its target. Involvement of students in direct action campaigns such as those against climate change is increasing. People & Planet is the Great Britain's largest and longest-running forum for student pressure group. Reflecting changing attitudes in society as a whole, the environment is now playing a leading role in sculpting student attitudes both inside and outside the lecture halls.

The article features activist conceptual artists Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison. The Harrisons think that the current modern art scene in Great Britain is too self-referential and has not enough activism. The Harrisons are an inspirational response to the fatalism that paralyses many artists. The Harrisons have articulated the problem with the timeless precision of poets. On the issue of climate change, Newton suggest that people better prepare for an elegant retreat than wait for a panic. They suggest that existing plans for greenhouse emissions control will be insufficient to keep the temperature rise at 2°C or less.

The article reveals that the earth's reserves of fossil fuels and uranium are coming to an end faster than forecast, threatening both a climate and economic meltdown. The profligate use of fossil fuels by the people is the cause of climate change, and unless they take urgent action to reverse this trend they will face climate catastrophe. Great Britain is the recognised world leader on the issue of climate change -- a position it secured by virtue of being the first to articulate the threat posed by climate change and announce its intention to act to bring it under control.

The article focuses on the status of the pollution at Brofiscin Quarry in Groesfaen, South Wales. Documents obtained by "Ecologist" revealed that the British Environment Agency has lied about the conclusions of the long-awaited Atkins report into pollution at Brofiscin Quarry. It was also revealed that the Rhondda Cynon Taf Borough Council (RCT) has suppressed vital documents, as they did in the Eighties when they granted planning permission for residential development adjacent to the Quarry. The body of evidence linking the chemicals known to be in the quarry to neurological breakdown, autism, cancer and heart failure grows. Such chemicals bio-accumulate and cross the placenta, which means that future generations become increasingly at risk.

The article reports on the status of Douglas Gowan after a story about the mysterious animal deaths in the vicinity of Brofiscin and Maendy quarries in South Wales was published in "The Ecologist." Gowan was the lead investigator of the animal deaths. According to the author, police have launched an investigation into the activities of the British Environment Agency. The author stated that several electronic mails of Gowan were intercepted illegally author asserted that the Agency failed Gowan and is failing to protect public health. Tony Morgan has denied allegations that he threatened Gowan.

The article reports on the evidence presented by retired corporate finance director Douglas Gowan to the Great Britain Environment Agency regarding the Brofiscin Quarry, the most polluted place in Great Britain. For 40 years the story of Brofiscin Quarry has been suppressed. Documents have been mysteriously lost, witnesses silenced and scientific data ignored. Since volunteering his evidence to the agency in early 2006, this retired corporate finance director has been subject to death threats, threatening callers to his door and numerous attempted breakins.

The author reflects on the tactics and people employed by ExxonMobil to create uncertainty over the science of climate change. Exxon has made a concerted effort to mislead and deceive and convey a false impression to the world about the truth of climate change. The author says that its underhand activities have been exposed in a damning investigation undertaken by journalist Seth Shulman on behalf of the Union of Concerned Scientist.

The article focuses on the use of non-food-crop biomass to produce energy in Sweden. The government of Sweden is concentrating on non-food-crop biomass for energy production and fuel, in the form of biogas, for cars, both of which have far greater potential to play a long and lasting role in providing green fuel and green energy. Rather than sow new plants that compete for space with food crops, they are using the waste products of their society, anything from woodchip to slaughterhouse slurry, and turning them into fuel.

This article interviews Sir David King, Chief Scientific Adviser to the British Government, about his career, climate change, and other scientific issues. King describes his responsibilities as Chief Scientific Adviser. He talks about his control of funds for certain research and development. He discusses his support for genetically modified technology.

This article discusses the ecological impact of the bacon, lettuce and tomato (BLT) sandwich. The Danish swineherd produces nine billion liters of manure a year. A sow producing an average 22 pigs for slaughter at 90 kilograms liveweight can excrete around 100 kilograms of nitrogen and 18 to 20 kilograms of phosphorous a year. Most of this washes away from under the pig pens into rivers and aquifers. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said impacts on the environment include the degradation of aquatic ecosystems, air pollution from odors and ammonia emissions, as well as impacts on soil quality and biodiversity. It is illegal to use growth promoters except for health reasons. As industrial pig farming causes stress and anxiety through premature weaning and over-crowding it is easy to see how this loophole is open to abuse.

The article recounts the problems encountered by physician Aubrey Blumsohn with Procter & Gamble (P&G), Sheffield University, the union, and British agencies during the P&G-funded university research on its osteoporosis drug Actonel. In 2002, Blumsohn was asked to undertake the final phase of a study into the treatment of osteoporosis begun by his department head Professor Richard Eastell in 2000. Eastell is trying to prove that Actonel was as good as the market-leading osteoporosis drug Fosamax. The intention was to induce a paradigm shift in the way these drugs are understood to operate and used as part of a marketing strategy to get more doctors to use Actonel. Blumsohn's efforts to acquire the data withheld by the company led to his separation from the university. INSET: NOT AN ISOLATED CASE.

The article addresses the problems facing the British insurance industry. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) warned that home premiums in the country could soar. It is not simply weather events hitting Britain that could force up the cost of insurance, it is the nature of the industry's global structure, the author says. Eighty per cent of the losses accruing from Katrina fell on foreign reinsurers. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) estimates that today, 2.1 million properties are at risk from coastal and river flooding. The value of weather-related claims reached £6 billion between 1998 and 2003.

The author reflects on issues related to a protest by around 1,200 people at Heathrow Airport in London, England on August 19, 2007 regarding the government policy in relation to the converging crises of climate change and peak oil. According to the author, the British government is actively promoting the need for a third runway at Heathrow while also saying that the country is going to cut emissions of carbon dioxide by 60 percent over the next 43 years. He comments on the use of anti-terrorism laws against the protestors.

This article explains that London, England is in the grip of a turf war between the U.K.'s heavyweight newspaper publishers. In the red corner is Rupert Murdoch's News International; and in the blue corner, Lord Rothermere's Daily Mail group, Associated Newspapers. Ordinarily this would be a joy to watch, in the hope that one would deliver a fatal blow to the other. Soon to be added to this is a free afternoon paper to be distributed, like Metro,But this time the stakes are too high to get any enjoyment from the dingdong. At risk is the future of the British press, which for all its wrongs has been a mainstay of our system of democracy for centuries. But the rise of free newspapers means that hundreds of thousands of trees are pulped each week to provide us with disposable paper.

The article examines the political activities of bio-technology investor and British science minister David Sainsbury. It presents a background on his family, career and how he got involved in politics. It provides information on Gatsby, the charitable foundation set up by Sainsbury. Also, it provides information on the firms, Innotech Investments and Diatech, which he launched to capitalize his research.

The article reviews the music release "Working Man's Caf&eacute," by Ray Davies.

The article discusses issues related to a proposed investigation to determine if the Brofiscin Quarry in South Wales poses a threat to public health. The investigation, which will test quarry vapours to identify possible linkages to human receptors, will take two years to complete. On provision of proofs, dioxins and acrylonitrile, will be sought for in the forthcoming investigation, and soil, tree bark and house dust samples may be used to determine the vapour trail. Growing anxiety about the way chemical wastes were being dumped and the potential threat to the environment and farmers' livelihoods led the National Farmers Union to send environmentalist Douglas Gowan to Brofiscin, to investigate a succession of cattle deaths below the now notorious landfill site.

The article reports on the plan of the British Environment Agency to raise the issue of Brofiscin quarry in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (USBC), where Monsanto's environmental legacy liabilities are being determined. Report says that if intervention on the issue fails the cost of any remediation will fall on the government. The Agency said that it anticipates filing an objection to Solutia's disclosure statement and reorganization plan in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court by June 28, 2007. At a disclosure hearing, a company lists its assets and liabilities as the basis on which to progress its plan of reorganization and exit from administration. According to the Agency, it was waiting on its own consultant's report into Brofiscin from Atkins before identifying who to pursue for remediation costs.

The author shares his experience with football. He says that at primary and junior school they were obsessed about football. As a teenager, he states that football took him across the country, to see places and meet people. He notes that funding local football clubs to win hearts and minds is a tactic used by Tesco to win planning permission. Now, because of football's worldwide marketing potential, English dubs are being used to win hearts and minds on a grander scale.