The Great Barrier Reef scandal | World news | The Guardian

The Great Barrier Reef is threatened by the worst environmental disaster in Australia's history after a ship ran aground. So why are giant coal carriers allowed to use this well-known shipping hazard as a shortcut?

The Great Barrier Reef scandal | World news | The Guardian

BBC report

100 Ways to Save the Environment

 

100 Ways to Save the Environment

UK goes into ecological debt on Easter Sunday

 

Britain is living beyond its environmental means and is increasingly dependent on the rest of the world for its natural resources, a thinktank study has revealed.The recession may have slowed consumption but the New Economics Foundation (Nef) says we are now drawing deep on the cropland, pasture, forests and fisheries of other countries. The research also shows that by tomorrow the country will have used the levels of resources it should consume in an entire year if it were to be ecologically self-sufficient.

 

UK goes into ecological debt on Easter Sunday | Environment | The Guardian

Zerofootprint: Footprint Calculator

Zerofootprint: Footprint Calculator

footprint_mx_2005.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

INTERACTIVE site with calculator

footprint_mx_2005.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

With help from you, we can reduce CO2 | ACT ON C02

All cars on the road today contribute to climate change because their engines burn fuel and therefore produce carbon dioxide (CO₂) every time we drive. Yet you can easily reduce these emissions and save money too. By following a few simple tips and suggestions you can reduce your engine's workload, which means it will burn less fuel and produce less CO₂.

With help from you, we can reduce CO2 | ACT ON C02

Go green this C******** (C-word)

A guide to a greener C__________

Decorations

Perhaps the most heinous Christmas crime against the environment (and good taste) is the fad for draping every square inch of the outside of your home in lights. Sales of external lights have rocketed by more than 500 per cent over the past five years, and households that go to town with extravagant outdoor displays are adding an extra £75 to the cost of their Christmas festivities, and producing CO2 emissions equivalent to a 2,000km car journey. "Indoor lights use less energy than outdoor ones so try to keep outdoor lights to a minimum," says McLaren. Opt for LED lights which last ten times longer, produce virtually no heat and dramatically reduce power consumption. Also, fit your lights with a timer so that they go off by midnight."

Tree About seven million Christmas trees are grown in the UK each year, but only one in six is recycled. Real trees are a much greener choice than artificial ones, with Christmas trees absorbing five million tons of CO2 every year in the UK. And since artificial trees are only used for an average of six years, the most carbon-neutral option is to plant an evergreen in your garden that you can pot and bring indoors every year.

"Artificial trees consume significant energy during their manufacture, and are usually made in China, requiring them to travel thousands of miles to get to the UK, resulting in yet more carbon emissions," says Roger Hay, secretary of the British Christmas Tree Growers Association. "In addition, artificial trees are non bio-degradable, so buying a real tree is a much more environmentally friendly option."

Cards and wrapping

A terrifying one billion cards end up in bins across the UK after Christmas, alongside 83km sq of wrapping paper. "Open wrapped gifts carefully so you can re-use the paper, or try using imaginative alternatives to wrapping paper, like newspaper or magazine pages," says McLaren. "Buy recycled cards from your favourite charity or make your own cards and gift tags from the ones you received last year, and save your envelopes and recycle them with re-use labels, available for £2 for a pack of 50 from www.foe.co.uk," he says. E-cards, Christmas cards sent via e-mail, are useful if you hate hassle, and they're free and eco-friendly. Type "e-cards" into a search engine and take your pick. If you receive cards from others, cut the stamps from the envelopes leaving a 3mm margin, and send them to Save the Children, The Stamp Department, 17 Grove Lane, London, SE5 8RD to be recycled.

Food and drink

With around 4,000 million Brussels sprouts bought in the week before Christmas, we are more likely to over-buy food at Christmas than at any other time of the year. The average family will throw away around one-third of the festive food they purchase, so plan your Christmas menu carefully to avoid waste. If anything does remain, you can put your vegetable leftovers in a compost bin, available for £4 (www.recyclenow.com).

When you're stocking up, buy loose rather than pre-packed vegetables, which will help cut down on waste packaging, and steer clear of goods which involve complicated mixed-material packaging such as card and cellophane, which can make recycling difficult. If you're having a party, avoid serving food and drink on disposable plates and cups. Borrow extra crockery from neighbours and hire boxes of glasses from your local wine shop. Oddbins offer a free glass-hire service when you buy your wine or Champagne from them (0800 917 4093, www.oddbins.com).

"The traditional Christmas dinner is relatively eco-friendly as it uses seasonal British produce like sprouts, carrots and potatoes," says Hugh Raven, director of the Soil Association Scotland. "However, your Christmas meal could have travelled 49,000 miles to reach your plate, releasing around 37kg of CO2, so try to reduce your food miles by buying from local suppliers, a move that will also help your local economy. Where possible, you should also look out for fair trade and local organic produce. A bar of Green & Black's chocolate is organic, fair trade and delicious, and you can't get much better than that!" Visit www.soilassociationscotland.org for organic farmers and growers near you.

Travel

Nearly two million Britons will go abroad this Christmas, creating millions of tons of CO2 in the process. Millions more will drive hundreds of miles to visit relatives and friends. If you do want to get away, try consulting Organic Places to Stay in the UK (£10.95) from www.greenbooks.co.uk, which lists small hotels and B&Bs that are dedicated to using organic, locally grown produce.

Presents

Remember that buying products that have recycled contents is just as important as actually recycling. The Recycled Products Guide is a directory of products made from recycled materials (www.recycledproducts.org.uk). To ensure that you don't give your hard-earned cash to unethical brands, you can also check www.thegoodshoppingguide.co.uk

"I save money and reduce consumption by mutually agreeing with my family to set a price limit of £10 on all Christmas gifts," says Green MSP Shiona Baird. "I then buy most of my gifts in charity shops, but eBay, flea markets, and antique shops are also great for finding unique presents. Oxfam have lovely fair trade wooden toys and games and I'll be snapping some up for my grandchildren. You can also give gifts that require little or no wrapping, like theatre tokens, membership of a museum or a day at a spa."

Recycle

More than half of the waste produced by households at Christmas could easily be recycled, but around 90 per cent will end up in the dustbin. Nearly three million extra tons of waste are dumped in the UK over the Christmas period, and our bins overflow with an extra 750 million bottles and 500 million drinks cans. We also throw out 80,000 tons of old clothes each Christmas, as we update our wardrobes. Tackle this problem head on by remembering the three "Rs": reduce, reuse, recycle. For your nearest recycling facilities, visit www.sort-it.org.ukAs for unwanted gifts, that adds up to an annual £1.2 billion. So instead of binning the naff jersey your granny bought you, donate it to a charity shop. Oxfam accepts clothing, music, books and bric-a-brac. You can drop items off in one of their 700 shops during opening hours, or you can post them into one of their donation banks (0870 333 2700, www.oxfam.org.uk).

Link to Scotsman.com Living - Go green this C________

Chinadependence

Chinadependence: the second UK Interdependence report, published in association with the Open University, released to mark the day that the world as a whole goes into ecological debt, reveals the many ways in which Britain is becoming increasingly dependent on the rest of the world to fuel our high-consuming lifestyles. In particular, Chinadependence reveals a striking rise in our dependence on a wide range of Chinese imports. And, because the greenhouse gas pollution that results from their manufacture is blamed on China, not the consumers in the UK, we are turning China into our 'environmental laundry' with devastating consequences for the planet.

Link to Search Results

Footprint Network News - Global Footprint Network

Ecological Footprint accounts estimate how many Earths were needed to meet the resource requirements of humanity for each year since 1961, when complete UN statistics became available. Resource demand (Ecological Footprint) for the world as a whole is the product of population times per capita consumption, and reflects both the level of consumption and the efficiency with which resources are turned into consumption products. Resource supply (biocapacity) varies each year with ecosystem management, agricultural practices (such as fertilizer use and irrigation), ecosystem degradation, and weather.

Get National Ecological footprint data

Link to Footprint Network News - Global Footprint Network - Advancing the Science of Sustainability

Your CO2 Calculater..... from DEFRA

The Act on CO2 calculator is currently seeing an overwhelming response and we're working to fix the problems you may be experiencing. Please bear with us and visit again later today. Thank you for your interest and patience.

Use the Act on CO2 calculator to find out what your carbon footprint is. You'll also get a personalised action plan with recommendations about how you can help tackle climate change - including links to further information on Directgov and the Energy Saving Trust website.

Link to Are you ready to act on CO2? : Directgov - Environment and greener living

Ecological Footprints

Britain starts eating the planet on Sunday 15 April

Latest figures reveal Britain’s rising global interdependence as the nation goes into ecological debt on 15 AprilResearch from nef (the new economics foundation) reveals that on Sunday 15 April this year, the UK in effect stops relying on its own natural resources to support itself and starts to ‘live off’ the rest of the world.

At current UK levels of consumption our ‘ecological debt day’ – the day we begin living beyond our environmental means – falls only a third of the way through the year and has crept ever earlier over the last four decades. These latest findings build on a report, released by nef last year which exposed, for the first time, the sharp rise in how the UK depends on the rest of world, and how the burden of the Britain’s high-consuming lifestyle is exported internationally.

Source: Britain starts eating the planet on Sunday 15 April

Ecological Global Footprints

What's a global footprint?

The Earth has a limited number of resources and we're using them up more quickly than they can be replaced - if they can be replaced at all.At school you use resources when you eat food and drink water. The school uses energy to make the lights and computers work and to keep the rooms warm. The clothes you wear and the building itself are made from nature's resources.We all use these resources in different amounts. The amount we use is called our Ecological Footprint - that is the impact that we have on planet Earth.

The Schools' Global Footprint has a Global Footprint Calculator to help you to work out the quantity of resources that you and your school use, compared with what is available in the world. You can see if this is sustainable for the future and you'll get suggestions on how to reduce your impact on the planet.

Source: Resources for learners

Human Footprint from Channel4.com

Simple Footprint Calculator

Link to Human Footprint from Channel4.com

Eating the Planet- ECOLOGICAL DEBT

16th April is the date at which Britain goes into Ecological Debt.
The WORLD goes into Ecological debt on the 9th October.


The information for this was generated by the New Economics Foundation who have created the Ecological Debt Day Calender.

Ecological Footprints

Year 9 will need the CALCULATOR that is here. An alternative simpler version can be downloaded HERE.

The WWF has produced a Living Planet report. This is a large PDF that contains country statistics, graphs and world maps.

The WWF has a good DEFINITION of a Ecological Footprint.

Comparative graphs are available from Footprintnetwork.org., and a series of MAPS, that include footprints over time, Ecological debtors and creditors and a world consumption cartogram.

A very detailed GLOSSARY of ecological terms.

The RPPROGRESS site is suitable for A-Level candidates.

NATIONAL FOOTPRINT graphs can be found using the drop down menu on the right.

Ecological Footprints

Links to Ecological Footprint sites and calculators