Networks of recycled smartphones are powering a crack down on illegal logging and poaching, writes Alex Kirby. The technology will help combat devastation of trees and wildlife in threatened habitats worldwide - beginning with Africa.
Recycled phones drive new wildlife protection technology Alex Kirby | 7th July 2014 News Forests Technology Hunting smartphones-tree-cut.jpg Networks of recycled smartphones are powering a crack down …
Paris has been awash with hype about 'CO2 recycling' and 'carbon neutral' or even 'carbon negative' technologies based on burning millions of trees, writes Rachel Smolker. But the alchemical notion that waste carbon can be spun into corporate gold is hitting serious reality checks. It's time to ditch the fantasies and progress the real solutions: like caring for land, soils, forests and grasslands.
… Paris has been awash with hype about 'CO2 recycling' and 'carbon neutral' or even … competition for CCS. Now what? Ah yes: 'CO 2 recycling' The idea that we can somehow remove … way, we bear witness the latest fad: 'CO 2 recycling'. Instead of putting serious …
As economists and policymakers scramble to put a price on the stored carbon of rainforests, they could be missing the bigger (wetter) picture...
Forget trees and carbon: trees and rain is the real problem Peter Bunyard | 24th August 2009 Comment Forests Amazon Rainforest Natural World Climate Change Copenhagen amazon-rainforest.jpg As …
Which of hand dryers or paper towels have the greatest impact on the environment? asks Simon Lockrey. Are your paper towels recycled or tree-pulped, your dryers power-hungry and long-blowing or short-blast and power-saving. Only full Life-Cycle Analysis can reveal the true punches these seemingly harmless items can deliver to our environment.
The great bathroom debate: paper towel or hand dryer? Simon Lockrey | 6th January 2016 Ethical Living Energy Forests Water handdryer_cut.jpg Which of hand dryers or paper towels have the greatest …
The Cork Oak forests in southern Europe play a huge role in maintaining biodiversity, regulating water cycles, as well as preventing the spread of desertification.
… a hugely unnecessary environmental cost onto recycling a bottle of wine. In the UK alone we …
It's the logo we all look for when buying furniture and wood products. But the Forest Stewardship Council has come in for some serious criticism. Matilda Lee looks at both sides of the argument
Can we trust the FSC? Matilda Lee | 22nd September 2009 News Investigation FSC Forestry Stewardship Council Forests Ethical Consumerism Labelling Ran Greenpeace Friends Of The Earth Forestry …
Economist Herman E Daly argues that our future depends on a new economic model, one that needs to be defined by the dynamic balance – the steady state – of the natural world upon which it depends.
… in technologies, such as energyefficiency and recycling, are so easy that it will make the …
Coming so soon after the Magna Carta celebrations, the eviction and destruction of the Runnymede Eco-village is a parable of our times, writes Nicholas Sebley: a violent assertion of the power of capital over people and community, and part of a deliberate, systematic closure of alternative ways of living outside the mainstream economy.
The cause of the Runnymede eco-villagers is a righteous one Nicholas Sebley | 22nd September 2015 Comment UK Law Politics Human Rights Forests 7-cut.jpg Coming so soon after the Magna Carta …
Could your fashion style be destroying forests and driving orang-utans towards extinction? Nicole Rycroft shows how cellulose fibres used in textiles are a major cause of biodiversity loss worldwide. But your choices can make all the difference ...
Forest-friendly fashion Nicole Rycroft | 3rd December 2013 Activism Forests Fashion Fibre canopy-forest-floor.png Could your fashion style be destroying forests and driving orang-utans towards …
It's not just people, animals and trees that suffer from radiation at Chernobyl, writes Rachel Nuwer, but also decomposer fungi and microbes. And with the buildup of dead wood comes the risk of catastrophic fire - which could spread radiation far and wide.
… for an essential component of any ecosystem: recycling organic matter back into the soil. …
HSBC, the UK's largest bank, is helping the Malaysian logging giant Samling list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, despite HSBC's claim to be the "first green bank".
… energy consumption in its 10,000 offices, recycling and offsetting. The offsetting had …
An encounter with a Colombian shaman led Peter Bunyard on a spiritual journey into and beyond the living, breathing, transpiring Amazon rainforest, providing key insights into the essential role of the great tropical forests in the workings of Gaia. He emerged re-energised from his visions - and inspired to redouble his efforts to save our wondrous planet.
… before we have disrupted for good the recycling of rain that keeps the forest …
The world's two largest clothing brands are among those that have just commited to eliminate pulp from ancient and endangered forests from all of their rayon and viscose clothing.
World's two biggest clothiers go deforestation-free The Ecologist | 4th April 2014 News Forests Fashion Corporations handm-poster.png The world's two largest clothing brands are among those that have …
The Food Forest Project provides healthy, organic food for local communities and habitats for wildlife.
Food forests Joe St Clair | 19th July 2019 News Food And Farming Forests Resurgence & Ecologist screenshot_2019-07-19_at_01.12.00.png The Food Forest Project provides healthy, organic food for local …
Forest fires raging near the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear disaster site in north Ukraine are releasing a surge of airborne plutonium particles as radioactive twigs, branches and leaf litter burn.
… for an essential component of any ecosystem: recycling organic matter back into the soil. …
The tree-clad hills of Spain's Sierra de Huelva retain their beauty, wildlife and traditions, writes Jan Nimmo, who has speant a decade exploring the area on horseback. Just one thing is missing: the throngs of people that once inhabited and managed the land.
Travels with Chaparro - a letter from the Sierra Jan Nimmo | 22nd March 2014 Ethical Living Spain Farming Forests jan_chaparro_ribera_jan_nimmo.png The tree-clad hills of Spain's Sierra de Huelva …
Alana Husby has sawdust in her blood. A fifth generation log and lumber person from Canada, she was ‘flipping wood' as a teenager, and now she's in Panama running the region's biggest underwater logging company, employing local Kuna Indians to fish tree trunks out of flooded forests. Kate Monson met Alana in Oxford while negotiating a 'green' timber deal ...
Logging the flooded forests of Panama: Alana Husby Kate Monson | 9th January 2015 Comment Forests Panama Indigenous Peoples alana-indian-women-cut.jpg Alana Husby has sawdust in her blood. A fifth …
A Sussex-based forest gardening project has overcome adversity to celebrate its 20th anniversary, writes Jan Goodey. And now it features one of the most eco of eco-builds in Britain, using all local timber, clay, straw ... and wine bottles.
A green building in a green forest shade Jan Goodey | 28th June 2014 Ethical Living Building Forests Society UK hauling-timber.jpg A Sussex-based forest gardening project has overcome adversity to …
Talis Kalnars was a pioneer of 'continuous cover' forestry in Britain, writes Phil Morgan. His woodlands were not only beautiful but profitable, as he nurtured the 'natural capital' of the forest ecosystem, and only harvested the dividend of high value timber.
… and increase the moisture in the air by recycling it through the leaves." A forest is …
The UK imports millions of tons of American wood pellets every year to be burned in power stations for 'climate friendly' electricity, writes Matt Williams. But his recent visit to the southern US showed him that this practice is devastating beautiful, natural forests rich in wildlife - while the UK government's own research shows that it's worse for the climate than the coal it replaces.
… economy and optimum use (i.e. reuse and recycling need to be prioritised over energy …
The practical evidence suggests agroforestry in the UK has got something to offer both commercial farmers and smallholders alike. The challenge now, says Ed Hamer, is how to encourage sceptical farmers that planting trees across farmland is a good idea
Agroforestry comes of age, but will UK farmers embrace it? Ed Hamer | 2nd March 2012 News Forests Agroforestry Food And Farming Investigations istock_000002151884large.jpg The practical evidence …
An ecological project has taken root on an abandoned olive grove outside Ramallah. As well as restoring the land itself, its deeper aim is to nurture the ancient links between the Palestinian people and nature, and rebuild a culture of steadfastness in the soil of their native country.
… we use rain water harvesting. Our grey water recycling system allows us to water gardens …
Mainstream climatologists predict a 15% fall in rainfall over the Amazon if it is stripped of its rainforest. But the 'biotic pump' theory, rooted in conventional physics and recently confirmed by experiment, shows that the interior of a forest-free Amazon will be as dry as the Negev desert. We must save the Amazon before it enters a permanent and irreversible dessication.
… reaches of the Amazon. No-one doubts that the recycling of precipitated water through …