‘Make it pay to go green’, is the Tory way
July 7, 2008
Schemes under which people would get paid to recycle will be rewarded by a Tory government, shadow chancellor George Osborne is due to announce. The Shadow chancellor, George Osborne, is likely to make an announcement in this regard. Mr Osborne, arguing that current government policies are rather unpopular, will suggest that ‘instead of using sticks, we can sure use carrots’ to boost recycling drive.
He will point out that companies in the US have displayed how to ‘make it pay to go green’. According to a BBC News report, he will also state in a speech to pressure group ‘Green Alliance’ that landfill tax rates would not be cut under the Tories. “This will send a very powerful signal to councils and businesses that innovative approaches are possible,” he will state.
Environmental campaigners state that British recycling rates are rather low compared with most other European countries. Mr Osborne is expected to highlight examples of some US companies that offer to cut the landfill tax bill by increasing up recycling rates.
Plan for eco-towns met with opposition
June 29, 2008
Campaigners from nearly 15 sites in England, which have been earmarked for ‘eco-towns’, are to raise their voice of protest outside Parliament. The groups include local authorities and some pressure groups. They will hand in their feedback to the first round of heated public consultation. The developments come as environmental campaigners are set to call on ministers to ‘return to the drawing board’ on the plans.
Meanwhile, the government is to begin the next round of consultation. It hopes to build 10 of the 15 planned eco-towns by 2020. They are meant to mark new, exemplary green standards in house building. The 15 shortlisted schemes comprise sites in Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire and South Yorkshire.
The concerns that the conservation charity has raised about the proposed developments are:
1. The schemes risk becoming ‘car-dependent’ housing estates.
2. Most are in greenfield sites; two are in the Green Belt.
3. Most schemes go against local plans that have been agreed with communities
4. Lack of evidence to believe that schemes will provide really sustainable models of working and living.
Fewer breeding puffins at the UK’s largest colony of the species this year
June 6, 2008
Fewer puffins will be breeding on the Isle of May, the UK’s largest colony of the species, scientists report. Numbers have fallen by roughly 30 per cent - from almost 70,000 breeding pairs in 2003 to just about 41,000 pairs this year.
Mike Harris from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has been studying and monitoring the Isle of May population for close to four decades. He tags individual birds with rings to track their progress. After decades of impressive growth, he now feels that the colony is in sharp decline.
Professor Harris’s team just completed the five-yearly count of nesting pairs that revealed the 30 per cent decline. It also found some (birds) were coming back later than scheduled and others were underweight. Professor Harris told BBC News: “A lot that we knew were alive have not turned up at all this year, so we assume they are dead, although it is possible they were aware it was going to a bad year for food, so decided not to come back at all.” Puffins spend the winter season at sea, swimming, floating and diving for food. They come to land only in the nesting period.
