Monday News Round-Up

The first phase of London's Low Emissions Zone comes into force today. All lorries over 12 tonnes entering London will need to meet EU exhaust limits or pay a £200 fine per day. Buses and coaches will be the second phase (July 2008). By 2010, it will also cover some vans and smaller lorries. Cars and motorcycles will be exempt.

An interesting article on the culture of thrift/make-do-and-mend in the 1950's and 1960's:

When petrol reaches £5 a litre and goods no longer move around so freely, when we put our foot through the last Egyptian cotton sheets, or shortages remind us that plastic too is made from petrochemicals, we're all going to have to be a lot more like my mother.

An odd ally, but the ex-chair of Shell, and currently the chair of Anglo American, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, is calling for a total ban on the sale of cars which don't make 35 miles to the gallon.

The MOD could always invent a new type of radar. That way, clean energy that won't cook the planet would come first, rather than military priorities.

The greening of music festivals: PaleoFest (Switzerland) was entirely powered by sustainable energy and recycled 41% of its waste. Roskilde (Denmark) had 90% of its drink containers returned for recycling and festival-goers got free beer in return for handing in their rubbish. Meanwhile, Michael Eavis is going potato for tent pegs at Glastonbury 2008.

Red Pepper reports on the continuing legal struggle of the Peace Tax Seven.

Sir Jonathon Porritt is interviewed in the Independent, among other things, on nuclear power:

It is the view of the Sustainable Development Commission that this Government has got it completely wrong on nuclear power. Despite the fact that it's going to cost UK taxpayers at least £75bn to clean up the legacy of our current nuclear programme, that we still have no solution to the problems of nuclear waste, that nuclear power remains very expensive, that the risks of proliferation and threats to national security remain high, and that the contribution from a new nuclear programme (if it ever materialises) to total energy needs and CO2 abatement will remain relatively low, ministers are now putting more effort into encouraging nuclear power than they have devoted to the entire field of renewables over the last 10 years. As they see it, this is the only manageable mega-fix available to them, the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card. But this is a sad and extraordinarily ill-judged illusion.