Gadgets 'threaten energy savings'

The growing popularity of hi-tech devices, such as flat-screen TVs and digital radios, threaten to undermine efforts to save energy, a report says.
UK consumers spend £12bn a year on electronics, much of which is less efficient than older technology, a study by the Energy Saving Trust found.

By 2020, the gadgets will account for about 45% of electricity used in UK households, the organisation projected.

It said flat-screen TVs and digital radios were among the worst offenders.

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Brazilian ethanol 'slaves' freed in raid on plantation

By Daniel Howden
Published: 04 July 2007

More than 1,000 "enslaved" workers have been released from a sugar cane plantation in the Amazon following a raid that has highlighted the dark side of the current ethanol boom.

Brazilian authorities said that the workers in the northern state of Para were being forced to work 14-hour days in horrendous conditions cutting cane for ethanol production.

Police said the raid was Brazil's biggest to date against debt slavery, a practice reminiscent of indentured labour where poor workers are lured to remote rural areas, then pushed into debt to plantation owners who charge exorbitant prices for everything from food to transportation.

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Wind farm 'is threat to eagles'

Golden eagles are gravely threatened by a £200m wind farm scheme proposed for the Hebridean island of Lewis, campaigners have warned.

Three of the predatory birds a year could be killed in collisions with turbine blades - the highest mortality from any wind power project in the UK.


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McDonald's puts oil to green use

McDonald's is to convert all its UK delivery vehicles to run on biodiesel, using the firm's supply of cooking oil.
The fast-food chain has pledged to convert all its 155 vehicles by next year, starting with 45 lorries based at its distribution centre in Hampshire.
By using the fuel - made by combining cooking oil and rapeseed oil - the firm said it would save more than 1,650 tonnes of carbon every year.
The move follows a successful trial last year.
'Environmental example'
McDonald's has long faced criticism over its environmental record.
The firm said it was "delighted" to be putting its large stock of cooking oil to a "practical, efficient use" within its own business.
"This is a great example of how businesses can work together to help the environment," said its senior vice president Matthew Howe.
The retailer added that it was working on a range of other initiatives spanning recycling and packaging to reduce its carbon emissions.
It said it was committed to working with its suppliers to reduce the use of pure rapeseed oil in its manufacturing process.


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