But not everyone’s joining up the dots...

The Independent reports overhearing Anya Hindmarch (the designer of the super-cool ‘I’m not a plastic bag’ eco-totes) at the opening of Whole Foods moaning that she hoped they got their parking sorted out soon. Surely she’s not missing the point of all that lovely eco-friendly provender and wanting to collect it in a nasty big car in central London?

Gearing up for a big switch off

Plans to switch off millions of lights during the forthcoming Live Earth concerts have been squashed by the National Grid, who feared it would disrupt electricity supplies. Surely that’s the point?!

But there’s still a chance for people in the capital to make a statement with their bulbs: Lights Out London will encourage London’s three million households to switch off non-essential lights and appliances from 9 to 10pm on 21st June, joining Buckingham Palace, the BT Tower, Canary Wharf and many other London landmarks in dimming down to raise awareness of global warming. Apparently if London’s 3 million households switch their lights off for just one hour, they could save 380 tonnes of CO2 – enough to fill more than 2,000 double-decker buses.

If we can save that in just an hour, why not chill out without the lights blazing for an hour every evening?

I’ll miss the candle-lit picnics (and dinners at the Ritz) being planned for the night as I’ll be on holiday in France (travelling by train of course) but I’ll make sure I turn off the nearest light switch wherever I am.

Solar panels get some big coverage abroad...

Every single hour of the day the sun delivers enough energy to the earth to meet the planet’s power demands for two years.  Solar panels convert this energy into power without emitting greenhouse gases. But they’re still a rarity in most places. So it’s encouraging to see widespread media coverage of two bold plans to use them on a big scale:

The solar Pope

I recently wrote about the Pope’s commitment to sustainability, and now he’s putting words into action, approving plans to put solar panels on the roof of one of the Vatican’s modern buildings.  The huge hall, which needs a roof repair anyway, will have each of its 4,800 tiles replaced with a photovoltaic solar panel, supplying all the building’s energy needs with plenty to spare.

Shame the Catholic Church is less forthcoming about limiting population growth to help reduce our impact on the environment, but that’s another story…

Spain’s solar- (and wind-) powered region

Thinking even bigger, whole regions can become climate friendly.  The Spanish region of Navarre, on the border with France, hopes to get all its electricity from non-polluting ‘clean’ sources over the next few years.   At the moment, it gets nearly 70% of its energy from renewables, and with new solar panels and wind turbines that’s due to increase rapidly, making it a great example of what can be achieved.  Good to know that sunbathing in the park isn’t the only way the summer’s rays are being used!

Recycling by barcode is booming

One of my favourite media stories this week has been about rubbish. Naples in Italy has a terrible time with waste, and its recycling rate of 0.4% makes ours (about 23%) look angelic. Huge problems with rubbish collection had left the nearby town of Mercato San Marino in a stinking state - until the Mayor decided to take action. 

He introduced weekly rather than daily collections, and gave each household and business collection bags and stickers with special barcodes so the amount of rubbish and recycling they produced could be recorded. Rather than putting their rubbish in the street, people now keep it indoors until it’s collected (so they see exactly how much they produce), and pay lower tax the more they recycle. That way their waste becomes a useful resource.

The town has now been transformed: no more stinking rubbish on the streets, a 60% recycling rate, and happy residents who are now keen to extend their eco activism to home energy generation schemes.  I think we should look and learn!

Listen to the buzz on the street – it’s frightening...

I read a scary statistic this week: 90% of the wild bee population in the US has now died out, and bees worldwide are in crisis. This story has been popping up across the media – from scientific journals to the daily papers.

No-one seems to know exactly what’s causing the current huge wave of afflictions in bee colonies across the world. Bees often get struck down by viruses or parasites, but they now seem to be simultaneously affected by an unprecedented number of afflictions, and in some cases are simply disappearing.

It’s suggested that the insects may be affected by a range of factors, including modern farming methods and climate change. We tend to forget that bees are crucial to the web of life we depend on – without them around to pollinate plants the whole system would grind to a halt very fast, and it’s estimated that without these fuzzy creatures, humans would only last about 60 years.

Yet another reminder of the urgent need to take better care of the planet we depend on...

Green glossies

But it’s not all doom and gloom! If you want to make a difference you no longer have to look far for help. A quick glance at the magazine racks today revealed a huge array of features on green living – including Grand Designs Magazine’s special eco supplement packed with information on everything from geothermal underfloor heating to lushly planted green roofs. And if you haven’t got time for a home refurbishment right now, Red magazine suggests ways to make a difference in under 15 minutes, including Katharine Hamnett’s suggestion that you save energy by doing it with the lights off!