In the news posts
Andrew Lahde bows out in style
Posted in: In the news by Will Watt , November 25, 2008 – 12:15 pm
The link below is a letter from hedge fund manager Andrew Lahde shutting down his fund. It got quite a lot of attention on the internet and in blogs for his candid assessment of the state of US banking. You may well wonder what the hell this has to do with Green issues.
In his…
The ethics of killing
Posted in: Burning issues, In the news by Lily Barclay , October 28, 2008 – 3:27 pm
A 19-year-old gamekeeper, at the Kempton estate in south Shropshire, received a six-month suspended prison sentence last month for killing legally protected species, including badgers and buzzards.
Kyle Burden’s actions came to light when two other gamekeepers witnessed him clubbing badgers that were still caught in a snare and shooting buzzards with a shotgun. They reported…
The penguins and the bees
Posted in: In the news by Lily Barclay , October 15, 2008 – 3:34 pm
The animal world is becoming worryingly out of sync. In recent weeks we’ve had reports on disappearing honeybees, starving guillemots killing chicks in neighbouring nests, and the decline of the common toad. Sadly, all these situations seem to be linked to man-made problems, such as climate change, the threat of overfishing and habitat destruction.
But one…
The credit crunch and planet crunch
Posted in: Burning issues, In the news by Will Watt , October 10, 2008 – 10:12 am
On 15 September Evan Davis hosted a live debate on Radio 4, ‘The Credit Crunch Mess – What’s Next?’ An expert panel tackled three key questions: whether banks should be reined in, whether consumers should be spending less and saving more, and whether the era of American dominance is over.
While talk of de-leveraging, liquidity and…
Greenpeace and the Kingsnorth trial
Posted in: In the news by Lily Barclay , October 7, 2008 – 10:37 am
Environmentalists everywhere might have been pleasantly surprised by the recent acquittal of the Greenpeace activists. After all, no matter what you think of the verdict, it certainly sent out a powerful message about the public’s changing attitude to climate change.
The six climate change activists were cleared of causing more than £30,000 of damage at Kingsnorth…
A luxury we can’t afford?
Posted in: In the news by Will Watt , October 6, 2008 – 10:05 am
In some ways, a huge sense of relief seems to have come over the country and its media. All those difficult questions posed by the unsustainable lifestyles we lead can all be forgotten in the face of a good old-fashioned recession.
Neil Tweedie in the Telegraph (30 August) urges us to “Forget about carbon offsetting and…
Will the Green Party ever be taken seriously?
Posted in: In the news by Ruth Harwood , September 29, 2008 – 1:23 pm
Electing their first ever solo leader was an important moment in the Green Party’s history. But despite Caroline Lucas’s appointment, it’s hard to see how the Greens can become part of mainstream politics.
The Greens’ biggest problem is that too many people consider them a single issue pressure group, not a proper political party. If they…
Calling all weirdos and poshos
Posted in: In the news by Will Watt , September 26, 2008 – 12:25 pm
Following the Greenpeace protesters’ acquittal a week or so ago for criminal damage, Jeremy Clarkson’s column in the Sun newspaper last Saturday carried the headline: ‘The weirdos have got a green light for chaos’. The week before, Julie Burchill accused the green movement of being run by “the posh” who want to stop working class…
