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Former Ukip candidate George Eustice appointed as PM's adviser on Energy and Climate Change issues

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:28:56 +0100

David Cameron has appointed George Eustice, his former press secretary and former Ukip candidate, as his new adviser on Energy and Climate Change issues, it was announced today.

Waste not, want not: Britain has become a nation of recyclers - but is it making a difference?

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Have you ever wondered what happens to your recycling? You've cleaned all the gloop out of your tins and plastic cartons, tried to muffle the guilty clinking of all those wine bottles and scrunched up the weekend supplements to create one of the densest objects in the universe.

Reinventing two wheels: Bike-safety technology is getting as technical as a Dave Brailsford team-talk

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:00:00 +0100

As technology goes, cycling is pretty lo-fi. The same cannot be said, however, for the recent string of inventions hoping to make cyclists safer on the roads. Cycle Alert, which officially launches in August, is one such example.

Fido strikes gold with Britain’s most noxious biofuel: dog excrement

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:05:39 +0100

Dog mess: to most of the population, it is a bio-hazard about as welcome and useful as syphilis. Even those required to collect it approach it with a plastic bag and a grimace. But for one former banker, it is the key to a tantalising civic and eco-energy revolution.

Ministers 'not totally committed' on carbon

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100

A parliamentary advisory committee has accused the Government of being only "half-committed" to low-carbon energy generation, warning that the UK is likely to miss emissions reduction targets as a result.

Fracking 'unlikely to give UK cheap gas', report says

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:11:44 +0100

George Osborne's plan to deliver cheap energy by fostering a fracking revolution has been dealt a severe blow after an influential cross-party group of experts said any boom in shale gas production would be "unlikely to give the UK cheap gas".

Motoring: Everton's Phil Jagielka scores a nice little green number

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:03:27 +0100

What sort of tasteless motor would you expect a top footballer to be cruising around in? A camouflage Bentley Continental GT like Mario Balotelli maybe, or perhaps a gold-plated Cadillac Escalade like El-Hadji Diouf? One thing is certain; you wouldn’t expect a top-flight star to be seen dead pootling around in an ultra-low emissions Vauxhall Ampera electric car.

1.2m Chinese killed by air pollution in 2010

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:04:58 +0100

Air pollution contributed to the deaths of 1.2 million people in China in 2010, according to data presented at a summit in Beijing this week.

Costly renewable energy 'will damage UK's economy'

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100

The energy Bill will be slammed this week by a group of business owners and consumer groups as "absurd" and potentially leading to the UK "sleepwalking into blackouts".

Change of gear: Confessions of a cycling snob

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

There is an increasingly good chance that if the man described below isn't you, you know someone like him (perhaps you're his eye-rolling partner or contemptuous colleague). He is romantic, vain, masochistic, nerdy, snobbish, spendthrift. He squeezes his skinny legs, possibly hairless, into skintight garments that cost him way more than his regular clothes but, depending on the richness of his chamois gusset, may also reveal as much about his, er, person as his peculiar pastime.

Earmarked for demolition: eco-home which doesn’t have ‘rural character’

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:18:32 +0000

With its higgledy-piggledy walls and turf roof it looks like the cosy home of a friendly hobbit. But an eco-dwelling in rural Pembrokeshire could become a test of the Welsh Government's grand designs on sustainable living.

Earth Hour 'switch-off' darkens monuments around globe

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The seventh annual Earth Hour saw many parts of the world plunged into darkness for an hour yesterday evening to mark environmental concern over climate change and fossil fuel emissions.

Return to the trees: growing electricity

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The secluded village of Ironbridge in Shropshire has found itself at the forefront of a second industrial revolution – this time in renewable energy. Nestling in the Severn Gorge, Ironbridge's first claim to industrial fame came in 1709 when Abraham Darby, a local ironmaker, invented a way of smelting iron ore with coke rather than using the traditional charcoal method. Replacing relatively scarce wood with abundant coke paved the way for the iron-made building blocks of the Industrial Revolution to be produced on a mass scale.

Budget 2013: Energy - Cash for fracking: George Osborne's offer to local communities

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:01:42 +0000

Local communities whose lives are disrupted by the coming new industry of fracking – the extraction of shale gas – may be compensated with substantial financial grants, Mr Osborne indicated.

Build your own bike with the Bamboo Bicycle Club

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:30:00 +0000

It's 8am on a Saturday morning and I'm standing in a freezing cold warehouse in Hackney Wick, London holding a hacksaw. In front of me is a sheet of paper covered in angles and equations. Piled around the room are stacks of bamboo. By the end of the weekend, I'm meant to have turned some of it into a bicycle frame. I think of the last time I did woodwork and my fingers go numb.

Britain opposes EU pesticide ban on neonicotinoid pesticides blamed for bee deaths around the world.

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 01:20:42 +0000

Extraordinary steps were taken by the British Government last night to head off a proposed EU ban on neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been widely blamed for bee deaths around the world.

Saving Yasuni: Can a revolutionary plan protect the rainforest from commercial exploitation?

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The flight from Quito to Coca, a small oil town in the Ecuadorian Amazon, takes off a couple of hours late, so we don't reach Coca until around noon. Then we have to take a helicopter up the Napo river to reach Añangu, in the heart of Yasuni, the extraordinary national park that is among the most biodiverse places on the planet.

UK incinerator plans? They're just rubbish

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A wave of new publicly-funded incinerators being built to burn rubbish could be mothballed before they are even turned on, amid claims there will not be enough waste to fuel them.

Cycling review: Eastway TR1.0

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Price: £749
Frame: Aluminium
Forks: Carbon
Chainset: SRAM
Stockists: www.eastwaybikes.co.uk

Chinese farmer beaten for daring official to swim in filthy river

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:42:12 +0000

A Chinese farmer who dared a local environment official to swim in his province’s polluted rivers has been badly beaten in an attack his family says was linked to his activism.

Government to ignore European ban on neonicotinoid pesticides

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:36:41 +0000

The British Government is completely free to ignore recommendations from European safety regulators that controversial nerve-agent pesticides should not be used on crops visited by bees, MPs were told.

Budget cuts may trigger 'perfect storm' of threats to UK wildlife

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 19:16:57 +0000

Britain's countryside and wildlife face a looming "perfect storm" of threats to environmental protection, conservationists warned tonight.

Beijing is left fighting for breath as pollution goes off the scale

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:38:15 +0000

My kids can tell when it is a bad day for smog in Beijing. It seeps into the hall of our apartment building and they can taste it in the air – it’s tangy, like an airborne mixture of oil and gas. Usually, we take a quick look out of our front window on to Jianguo Avenue, the thoroughfare that traverses central Beijing and is permanently full of cars, to test whether the air is clean enough for us to see the skyscrapers across the street. Today – when pollution readings were at such hazardous levels that they had risen above the scale used to measure them – all we could see were clouds of pollution.

How the energy Green Deal can help you stay in the black

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

In households all over the UK the heating has been cranked up to full as we brace ourselves against the cold snap. Keeping warm is a costly business and energy bills are through the – poorly insulated – roof, so it is welcome news that tomorrow sees the timely launch of Green Deal, the Government's flagship energy-efficiency scheme.

Wheels, Etc: Boardman MX Race

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 20:00:00 +0000

Price: £499.99
Frame: Lightweight alloy
Forks: Suntour suspension with hydraulic lockout
Brakes: Avid BB5 Mechanical Disc Brakes
Gearing: Sram X5