Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica is the new leader of the UN efforts to fight climate change

The United Nations Framework Convention on climate change has appointed Christiana Figueres as its new Executive Secretary by Mr Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations.

In defence of bloggers

I have been reading more and more criticism by journalists of bloggers. They usually claim that bloggers undertake little or poor research, and have the ability to pass opinions on matters without taking responsibility for them because there is no editor to sack them and no readership to point out the errors of their ways.

BP Union Carbide and how we permit disasters to happen

More than twenty five years ago in Bhopal in India more than ten thousand people were killed when tons of methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide factory and settled over the city of Bhopal, like an unwanted poisonous Christmas present. The effect of the poison on the people in the area still is apparent [...]

Illinois Scientists’ Research will lead to Better Photovoltaic Panels

Today’post is by Shannon Coombs, who writes about solar technology in her own blog. She has kindly agreed to write about the latest developments in making photovoltaic more efficient. This is an important topic as photovoltaic cells need a great deal of energy to be made and if their present rates of conversion of light energy into [...]

How nature degrades oil in the sea

I have been writing about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and mentioned that eventually nature would degrade the oil currently floating on the ocean and washing up on the Gulf shores. Eventually the marine environment will by chemical and biological processes transform the excess hydrocarbons into safer inert material.

London’s air quality a “fine” problem

These are times of great financial difficulty. Most nations have spent more than was prudent and in this field the United Kingdom has been one of the leaders. It will face a few years of severe cutbacks, many of which will be deserved and necessary because they related to matters which have drained the public [...]

What will be the long term effects of the oil spillage?

 No one knows (or no one will tell) us precisely how much oil has leaked from the Deepwater Horizon a mile below the sea in the Gulf of México. Current estimates to date are that around a million barrels have so far been pushed into the sea since 20th April 2010. BP has so far [...]

Solar powered desalination

Last winter there were terrible floods in the North West of England. One policeman lost his life, bridges collapsed and generally there was water everywhere. Today the North West runs the risk of running out of water, as a dry spring has left reservoirs with only 60% of their capacity. Water is so important to [...]

Kudzu – a greenhouse gas producing weed

If you do not live in southern Japan, southeast China or the South Eastern States of the United States of America, you might not have heard of kudzu. Kudzu (pueraria lobata) sounds like a character Captain may ,meet but in fact is an oriental vine which has found (for it) a very satisfactory home in [...]

Hurricanes in Central America – a taste of things to come?

In the small Central American nations that make a patchwork quilt between Mexico and Columbia they have two seasons, winter and summer. Winter is a few months from May to August, so called not because it is colder than normal, but because it rains more than normal.