Greenpeace

I'm so glad to see that there are courageous, influential people speaking out about the appalling waste and destruction that meat-production entails:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?ex=1202360400&en=b4f83161708b3b4d&ei=5070&emc=eta1

It is perfectly obvious that a planet of 6 billion people, which is growing at a phenomenal rate every hour, cannot sustain itself on a meat diet. Something has to give and the obvious target is meat.

Personally, I advocate giving up meat for purely humanitarian reasons. But even if you're an adamant anti-compassionate, the fact that meat is wasteful of land, energy and food crops, as well as the primary reason for the devastation of hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable, irreplaceable natural habitat, is undeniable.

It's time to break our addiction to meat and dairy - there are simply no grounds for justifying it. It is quite clear that humans are designed to live well and healthily without it.

I just found this website:

http://www.efficientlight.co.uk/shop/

which stocks a number of newly-released low-energy bulbs with a higher light output, like LED GU10's, LED MR16's and 2/4 pin spirals for new-build homes.

Yep, that's all I have to say when I read stuff like this (For those who want a quick precis: some filthy airline was found to have been deliberately flying an entirely empty plane back and forth between London Heathrow and Cardiff, six days a week since October 2006, just to keep hold of their landing slots!)

I've been toying with the idea of changing careers for some time now and I'm excited about the prospect of going into nanotechnology, with a view to finding solutions to a number of environmental problems, global warming being the obvious main focus. Is this just a pipe dream? Does anyone out there have any advice for me? :)

(my sci-fi-fuelled imagination runs wild!)

I am so glad to hear this: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/20022007/323/bright-idea-australia-pulls-plug-light-bulbs.html

I definitely think this is the way to go - governments should be responsible for strongly encouraging people to change. Expecting the general public to move on their own is ridiculous. Maybe I'm just a cynic, but based on my experience, there are few people around who actually care enough to take action, about most environmental issues. I've spoken to a number of my friends/colleagues about changing their light bulbs and have heard quite a number of fairly lame excuses as to why they shouldn't change their bulbs today, ranging from outright laziness to "oh, I'd rather wait until the bulbs I currently have burn out". So I'd say government-backed bans are the way to go. Well done, Aus!