I felt tremendously disheartened and somewhat shocked last year when I reported on the European Commission’s approval of BASF’s GM Amflora potato (aka the ‘Frankentstein potato’), the first authorization of a GM crop in 12 years and the second overall.
How Perugia, Italy Said Goodbye to Traffic, Hello to Improved Quality of Life
If you want to see an idyllic, small Italian city, Perugia may be the place for you. It fits all the characteristics of those beautiful Italian towns from the movies. However, it hasn’t forever. It took visionaries with a green…
Organic Milk is Better for You, European Study Finds
New study out of the UK finds that organic milk is considerably better for you than non-organic milk, & actually recommends going organic.
European Cities Limiting the Car, Improving Quality of Life
Europe, as we know, has a much different urban fabric — because most of its cities were developed long before cars arrived. They have narrower streets, are more walkable, more bike-friendly, and more pleasant. Nonetheless, Europe went the same route…
Global Food Supply Issues & Chance of Food Riots
These days, living in a global village of sorts, we can easily take for granted the wide variety of foods we have access to and relatively low food prices. However, as the United States Agricultural & Food Law and Policy Blog (USAFLPB) notes, global food supply may be approaching its limit, we are currently seeing considerable price increases, and we could see much more in the future.
High-Speed Trains in Russia and Turkey
Turkey got its first high-speed trains back in November 2007. It’s state railway company (TCDD) was the 8th in the world to operate high-speed trains (and the 6th in Europe). News now is that the country has just started testing…
October Top News: Giant Penguins, Solar Planes that Fly for Years, Europe’s Clean Energy Progress, Obama’s Clean Energy Push, Peak Oil/Peak Coal/Peak Etc.
Wow, it’s harder to pick out the “must-share” news stories than I realized. Well, here are the news stories I wrote about in the past week or so that I thought it would be a crime not to mention here…
Largest Offshore Wind Farm in World Completed in UK
Since I’m on a renewable energy in Europe kick this week, thought I’d share one more piece of good news. The largest offshore wind farm in the world was launched in the UK last week. This $1.2 billion wind farm,…
Denmark & Germany Next to Announce Big Renewable Energy Targets & Possibilities
Yes, more European countries are showing that they are very serious about addressing climate change, while the U.S. does,.. well,.. not much. It was just the other I wrote about Northern Ireland and Scotland‘s big renewable energy targets. I’ve got…
3 Green Hostels in Europe
Yesterday, we had a good post on 3 green hostels in the Americas. As I promised, here is one on green hostels in Europe as well. I have lived in Europe, in total, for about 2 and a half years…