Green news & views

I stumbled across this extraordinary story in The Times yesterday as I trawled the Internet in my day job...

Scientists in Silicon Valley have genetically engineered bacteria to produce "renewable petroleum".

Because petroleum is apparently just a few molecular stages away from the fatty acids excreted by yeast or E.Coli the scientists have found it easy to genetically modify the bacteria to excrete a by-product close to petrol.

It's been a long time coming but yesterday we switched our home electricity provider to ecotricity.

After thinking long and hard about the pros & cons and debating is ecotricity really that green we switched from our old provider, Southern Electric, to our new green energy generator.

It was only a couple of weeks back when we reported on the speculation about the end of the road for the SUV. Today GM announced the closure of 4 truck & SUV plants in Canada, Mexico and the US. (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada; Moraine, Ohio; Janesville, Wisconsin; and Toluca in Mexico.)

GM, the world's largest car manufacturer, is quoted as saying the sudden move is

Howies. I don't think I mention these people enough on this site; they're a company with a big heart, so much soul and a range of the most excellent ethical outdoor clothing.

I've been a fan and customer of Howies for a number of years now and, being a keen biker and walker, I love their t-shirts, jeans, jackets etc. all aimed at people who enjoy the great outdoors.

No, that's not a brand name or a model name, this is a mountain bike with a bamboo frame!

My own mountain bike is a full-suspension alloy number I bought a few years back (at a considerable discount) as an ex-demo from my local bike shop, but I have to admit this little beauty is quite an eye-opener.

Whilst my girlfriend is back in the USA news comes in that the Americans are suffering gas, or rather $4 a gallon gas I should say. Some of them are praying for gas!

Farmers Markets are a great way for people to find local producers and cut down on the usually unseen environmental costs that globalisation brings.

Whenever there's a local farmers market on we go down to see what we can do to assist with "localisation". Afterall, if there is an oil crash and we all end up being unable to travel, we're not going to be able to get our flowers from Kenya and beef from Argentina, so it makes sense to rely on local producers.

Farmers Markets also boost the local economy and stimulate the sense of local community.

Back in December we brought you news on the advertising campaign by energy supplier E.ON called Reduce your Carbon Footyprint. To summarise, it's all about getting English football fans to do their bit to reduce their carbon footprint by taking the coach and car-sharing to football matches, specifically the FA Cup. Football & energy suppliers? That's a strange mix. So what's in it for E.ON then? Well, E.ON sponsor the FA Cup which is next weekend.

The rumour mill has been rumbling on about oil reaching $200 a barrel by the end of the year, I forget where the stories have come from. But when the someone from Goldman Sachs reports that $200 a barrel oil is likely then you just have to sit up and take notice.

Only last week I was looking for somewhere to recycle credit cards, old bank cards and expired store cards & membership cards. I searched the Internet but found nothing. Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough.

Today it dawned on me, whilst looking for a plectrum/pick to play my guitar... why don't I make guitar plectrums by recycling my old cards?

Using a plectrum (I eventually found one) as a template, I marked up an old store card and cut out each plectrum one-by-one with a pair of suitably sharp, heavy duty scissors. I managed to squeeze 6 plectrums from one card.