The 6th International Conference on Walking in the 21st Century will take place in Switzerland where walking is an established and significant part of everyday life.
EVERYDAY WALKING CULTURE will focus on the planned implementation of walking into daily life by technical, political and structural means
Category: Environment
Oiling the Squeaky Wheel
Venezuela has ordered Royal Dutch/Shell to pay almost $131 million in back taxes. The government is cracking down on tax evasions by oil companies and so they also confiscated financial data form Chevron. Hugo Chavez, the current president of Venezuela, is trying to tighten the government’s control over the lucrative and strategic oil industry. The government has said that they are going to alert two more oil companies in the coming weeks if they owe back taxes or not.
Parliament wants the government to stop supporting destructive mining projects overseas
Parliament has called on the Government of Canada to take action to end the devastating social and environmental impacts of Canadian mining operations overseas.
A recent Parliamentary report calls on the Government to: (i) stop using taxpayer money to support destructive Canadian mining projects abroad; (ii) hold Canadian mining companies legally accountable for environmental and human rights violations in other countries, and; (iii) force the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to respect international human rights standards.
The Government has about 60 days left to respond and, not surprisingly, it would like nothing more than to sweep the report under the carpet. So, like most of the good things that happen, the changes demanded will only take place as the result of many people’s efforts. Our participation is needed, as always, to pressure the Government to adopt Parliament’s recommendations and to address ongoing international scandals associated with the Canadian mining industry.
What can we do to help make this happen? The websites of Friends of the Earth Canada and Mining Watch have a lot of info on these issues and ways to take action.
Yellow = Green
New York City yellow cabs are going green. They were having some problems with government red tape, but that seems all cleared up now. The cabs will be converted into hybrid cars to ensure much better fuel efficiency. Apparently 7 out 10 New York state citizens support a switch to hybrid vehicles.
Hopefully this will pave the way for more and more cars turning into green machines.
My lightbulb is almost as efficient as a car!
A British gas company has created a very efficient auto. Using hydrogen it needs only 25 watts to travel 25,000 miles (in theory). This car may put the Swiss car previously discussed here to shame. This car, however, will be piloted by a 13 year old for weight and space concerns.
After reading many arguments that hydrogen is a false hope it is good to see that really efficient vehicles can be made.