SchNEWS looks at how corporations and governments are limiting and controlling the varieties of crops grown... Last week, in France, the independent seed-saving and selling Association Kokopelli were fined €35,000 after being taken to court by corporate seed merchant Baumaux. Their crime was selling traditional and rare seed varieties which weren’t on the official EU-approved list – and, therefore, illegal to sell – thus giving them an ...

By Richard Black The US is ready to accept "binding international obligations" on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, officials say, if other nations do the same. The comments came in a news conference in Paris given by James Connaughton and Daniel Price, environmental and economics advisers to President Bush. The US hopes the world's major economies will conclude ...

Steven Swinford and Jon Ungoed-Thomas BRITAIN’S biggest energy companies have stifled competition to raise prices and make record profits of more than £4.5 billion, a Sunday Times investigation has found. The six companies that control Britain’s gas and electricity are now facing demands that they be referred to the Competition Commission. Executives in charge of the six major companies were last week confirmed to be holding confidential meetings at ...

By Matt Sullivan India’s largest automaker is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to ...

£25 million in grants issued for micro wind turbines and solar panels Small scale renewable energy grants worth some £25 million have now been claimed from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP). The news came as Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks called for more homes and business to follow his lead by adopting a ‘go green’ new year’s resolution. His call comes as more and more homes, schools and ...

This page is all about a rather silly, quick project where in about 1 day I built a small wind generator using the following items, and nothing else.... (1) Wood (2) Copper wire (3) Surplus Neodymium magnets (4) Dirt (5) 10" piece of 3/8" steel shaft (6) Two bolts, but these are optional. ...and that's all, unless we count glue, and linseed oil which I used for finishing. Initially the project started out to simply be an ...

The Environment Agency has called for more information to be made available on the health and environmental risks posed by low-energy light bulbs. It says because the bulbs contain small amounts of mercury, more information about safe recycling is needed. It also wants health warnings printed on packaging and information on how to clear up smashed bulbs in the home. But a toxicologist has played down the risks, saying several bulbs ...

CLAYTON SANDELL House Democrats and Republicans traded rhetoric Monday over a new report claiming White House officials sought to suppress scientific views of global warming that clashed with Bush administration policies. The report -- originally undertaken as a bipartisan effort -- leads to what the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee calls an "inescapable" conclusion that "the Bush administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science ...

HE is the spy who came in from the cold, endured the heat, experienced the chill and was burned in the process. Little wonder Lance Collins is pushing the cause of climate change. Lt-Col Collins, head of intelligence operations for General Peter Cosgrove during the East Timor conflict, triggered a series of high-level Government inquiries three years ago with explosive claims about a series of failures by Australia's spy agencies. Now ...

Hemp helps with green movement Lucas Coppes As environmental consciousness increases, a plant with great potential to accommodate our generation’s awareness has re-emerged, but its negative associations leave some obstacles to overcome. Hemp, which is too often associated with marijuana, does come from the same family of plants, but yields a fraction of the active ingredient, THC. Hemp has the uncanny ability to help in solving many of the world’s major ...

By TODD SPANGLER Among them are an electronic barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to block the spread of an invasive species of Asian carp into the Great Lakes, a new shipping lock at Sault Ste. Marie and millions of dollars for sewer projects in Michigan. It also would authorize $3 million for the Detroit riverfront and $20 million for a management plan to clean up Lake ...

Brazil has discovered huge new petroleum reserves in its south that could turn the country into one of the biggest oil producers in the world, the government and its state-controlled oil company announced Thursday.If one of the deposits turns out to be as vast as it appears, Brazil will be in the same league “as the Arab countries, Venezuela and others,” the senior minister in charge of the cabinet, Dilma ...

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has strengthened warnings of severe flooding over the next 48 hours from a tidal surge expected to hit the coast of England. The Environment Agency warned of a "major" tidal surge - rising from a combination of gale force winds and a high tide - to hit the east coast of England. ...

Elizabeth Judge The British launch of the Apple iPhone is set to be overshadowed by pressure from environmentalists who want the gadget to be made greener. Green groups are demanding that the UK version of the phone, which goes on sale on Friday, should be free of the toxic chemicals, such as brominated flame retardants, that Greenpeace alleges are contained in its American counterpart. Zeina Alhajj, campaign co-ordinator ...

I mention Lindsey Williams' revelations in a few articles on the phony "Peak Oil" scam promoted by CIA agent Michael Ruppert and the Highway Robber Barrons known as American Oil companies. Lindsey discovered from top oil company executives in the early 1970s, that there is enough oil under Gull Island alone (Prudhoe Bay, Alasaka) to meet all of the energy needs of the United States for the next 200 ...