Tuesday's round-up

Here's a nice, simple story about a pensioner from Oxford who's just won an award for transforming her house into Britain's most eco-friendly home. She's planning a website too to guide others who might want to follow in her footsteps more easily.

This story appeared today. It doesn't tell us a great deal we didn't already know, but it's quite well reported. It discusses whether we are more of a burden to our environment living in the countryside or the city. The answer is (perhaps disappointingly) the city. It's no great surprise, surely? And, this appears after it has been in the news recently that for the first time, more people in Britain live in cities than the countryside. Good news, then. There is a really interesting and related report here, using information from New Scientist about what an eco city actaully is and how it would operate.

Postive story from Reuters, South Africa here. Equitorial Guinea have set aside more than 500,000 hectares of land to help protect and preserve some of the continent's rarest species, especially in forests. Despite past declarations of dedication to the green cause, there appears to have been little official progress thus far, so this is a major step. Whilst some remain sceptical and await results before feeling too positiv,e it is surely a step in the right direction.

And, there's a sensible-sounding conference in Leeds at the moment about business and ecology. It emphasises that business must be actively involved in the fight against climate change, and highlights the opportunities rather than the downsides that come with a more green approach. The Yorkshire Post covers it here.

And, finally... Although it's from the Telegraph, this report is about being green whe you drive. If you really must drive at all! They are simple mechanisms that would give drivers an immediate sense of the damage they were doing and the amount of fuel they were consuming. They could well form part of future plans in cities to reward the carbon neutral and to punish the carbon wasters.