Biofuels: the methadone fix for civilised oil junkies?
All petrol and diesel sold at UK pumps now has to include at least 2.5% biofuels. Erroneously termed renewable fuels—because they’re not, they’re not even recycled fuels for the most part—biofuels are made from crops such as sugar cane or maize. The types of plants most commonly used do not grow in the UK, or when they are found growing in the UK, they are not grown in significant volume. The biofuel percentage requirement will rise to 5% by 2010. The government claims the enforced change will make vehicles more environmentally friendly.
tags: biofuels, deforestation, environment, fossil fuelsEarth Hour
Earth Hour starts in Sydney, Australia, at 20.00 (0900GMT) today. Lights will be turned off for an hour to highlight the threat of climate change. Other participants around the world including London, Chicago, and Bangkok, will follow suit when their clocks reach 20.00 local time.
Despite being a keen news-hawk, I’ve only just found out about this, although apparently Google will be marking the day by putting a dark background on its home page. That’s nice.
I’m not sure how a change of CSS styling is going to help, but hey—it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it? If only. While lights on major landmark buildings will go out, participation by individuals is entirely voluntary and precious few ordinary citizens will be aware of Earth Hour because, in the UK at least, there’s been very little coverage of the event in advance of it happening, in TV and radio news slots and newspaper columns that actually matter—in so far as they are read, listened to, or watched.
tags: climate change, Earth Hour, electricity, fossil fuels, global warming, Google, lights
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