Rhondda Records Home Page

One Wales;- Welsh apprenticeships for the Valleys

A new apprenticeship scheme is being introduced
in some of Wales' poorest areas, with 14,000 training places.

£70m will be spent on improving the skills of the workforce.

The three-year project will target parts of Wales
which already receive money from the European social fund.

Deputy Minister for Skills, John Griffiths says
the scheme will "equip many thousands of people
with the skills they need to progress in employment,
meet the skills needs of employers and drive forward Wales' economy."

He adds: "One Wales makes a strong commitment to
increasing the number of apprenticeships in Wales.
This new Modern Apprenticeship project will help to
achieve our goals of ensuring 70% of working age
adults in Wales have qualifications equivalent to
level two or above and 80% have basic literacy skills by 2010."

In total, £40m of European cash will be targeted,
with the assembly government matching most of that.

The scheme, called Modern Apprenticeship World Class Skills,
will help raise skill levels for 22,500 people,
and provide 14,000 training places.

A further £3.5m will be spent on developing a Modern
Skills diploma offering more than a 1,000 people
the chance to improve vocational and managerial talents.

The Education Minister, Jane Hutt says:
"This is wonderful news for Wales -
investment in skills is investment in our future.
As a government we are committed to improving skill levels
and our 'Skills that Work for Wales' strategy sets out
our vision for raising the skill levels of Wales' workforce."

The Royal Welsh Show had its worst year for decades recently -
Welsh agriculture (especially in the valleys)
has been underperforming for over a hundred years.
Yet orchards are flourishing in North East Wales !
Time for new thinking for a brighter future ?

If you'd like to know more about apprenticeships in AGRICULTURE;- please paste this in your browser:

http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/list/apprenticeshipsdirectory
/agriculture/agriculturecropsandlivestock.htm

What would YOU do,
to demonstrate love of life ?

THE STORY of STUFF

An excellent video - The Story Of Stuff -
explores with humour, our planet and "our" "culture"... will you laugh?
To find out....
WATCH "THE STORY OF STUFF" ...
PRESS THE LINK ABOVE


**************************************


Pontypridd & District Friends of the Earth
are a locally based voluntary group
who work on local and national environmental issues...
They meet at:

Clwb y Bont,
85a Taff Street,
Pontypridd

time: 7.30pm
Free entry



**********************************


CONFIDENCE IN BIOFUELS? OOPS !

A "confidential" World Bank report flatly contradicts
the USUK claim that plant-derived fuels contribute
less than 3% to food-price rises, and puts huge
pressure on them to stop using biofuels in any
attempts to reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Sources believe the report is not being published
because "It would put the World Bank in a
political hot-spot with the White House."

This puts the onus on the UK government, which
has commissioned its own "Gallagher" Report.
The British study states that plant fuels are
"significant" in pushing up food prices to record levels.
The report was due out last week, but has not been released.

Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam:
"Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and
ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a
major factor in recent food price rises.
It is imperative that we have the full picture.
While politicians concentrate on keeping industrial
lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford to eat."

Bush says higher food prices are due to higher demand
from India and China, but the World Bank study states:
"Rapid income growth in developing countries has not
led to large increases in global grain consumption and
was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases."
Biofuels, it says, have "by far" the biggest impact.

Since April, all petrol and diesel in Britain
must include 2.5% from biofuels, and the EU
was considering raising that target to 10% by 2020,
but both face mounting evidence that that will
only push food prices higher.

"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat
and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably
and price increases due to other factors would
have been moderate," says the report.
The basket of food prices examined in the study
rose by 140% between 2002 and this February.

The report estimates that higher energy and
fertiliser prices account for an increase of 15%,
while biofuels have been responsible for 75%.

It argues that production of biofuels distorts
food markets in three main ways:

First, it diverts grain away from food for fuel,
with a third of US corn now producing ethanol,
and half the vegetable oils in the EU producing biodiesel.

Second, farmers are being encouraged to set land
aside for biofuel production.

Third, it's causing financial speculation in grains.

The report's author, Don Mitchell, a senior economist
at the World Bank, has completed a detailed,
month-by-month analysis, which exposes the true
link between biofuels and food supply.

The report says biofuels derived from sugarcane,
which Brazil specializes in, don't impact as much on food.
G8 leaders meet NOW in Japan, where they are
discussing the food crisis and coming under
intense pressure from campaigners.



******************************

GOING UP !!!

The planet's temperature has climbed to levels
not seen in thousands of years, and warming
has begun to affect plants and animals, researchers
report in the journal, "Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences".

The Earth has been warming at a rate of 0.36 degrees
Fahrenheit per decade for the last 30 years,
according to the research team led by James Hansen.

Temperatures are now the warmest in the current
interglacial period, which began about 12,000 years ago,
says James Hansen, the research team leader.

He insists; "If further global warming reaches
2 or 3 degrees Celsius, we will likely see changes
that make Earth a different planet than the one we know.
The last time it was that warm was in the middle Pliocene,
about 3 million years ago, when sea level was estimated
to have been about 25 meters (80 feet) higher than today."

1,700 plant and animal species have moved toward
the poles at about 4 miles per decade in the last 50 years.

Hanson says this migration rate is not fast enough
to keep up with the current rate of movement of
a given temperature zone, which has reached about
25 miles per decade in the period 1975 to 2005.


*********************


"ALLIGATOR SHOES" STOP DEMOCRACY


James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists,
calls for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies
to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature,
accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming
in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links
between smoking and cancer.

Hansen - the first to sound the alarm over global warming -
says radical steps need to be taken immediately
if the "perfect storm" of irreversible climate change
is not to become inevitable.

Speaking before Congress, he accuses the chief executive officers
of companies of being fully aware of the disinformation
about climate change they are spreading.

He will campaign against members of Congress
to have several of them unseated.

He says he is now 99% certain that CO2 in the atmosphere
has already risen beyond the safe level.

He wants a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants,
with the creation of a huge grid of low-loss electric power lines
buried under ground and spread across America,
in order to give wind and solar power a chance of competing.
"The new US president would have to take the initiative
analogous to Kennedy's decision to go to the moon."

"The problem is not political will, it's the alligator shoes
- the lobbyists. It's the fact that money talks in Washington,
and that democracy is not working the way it's intended to work."


***********************


SOLAR PANELS TO BE COMPULSARY ON NEW BUILDINGS


In Marburg, Germany, owners of all new or renovated buildings
MUST include solar panels now.

The coalition of Social Democrats and Greens
passes the law to fight climate change and
high energy costs. Anyone failing to comply
will pay a €1,000 (£790) fine.

The law says a 1 sq metre panel must be built
for every 20 sq metres of surface area.
It applies to new homes or existing buildings
undergoing renovations to heating systems or roofs.



*********************



PUBLIC CYNICAL . . . ESPECIALLY WORKING CLASS !

A majority of the British public is not convinced
that climate change is caused by humans - and
many believe scientists are exaggerating the problem,
according to an exclusive poll for The Observer.

The results shock campaigners - who probably
believe everything they read in The Observer -
and come just before the release of the
government's renewable energy strategy,
which aims to cut UK greenhouse gas emissions
by 20% over the next 12 years.

The poll, by Ipsos MORI, finds contradictions -
some people saying politicians are not doing enough
even as they express cynicism about government.
And many people saying they don't want to restrict
their lifestyles with only a minority believing
they need to make "significant and radical" changes.

Jonathon Porritt, chair of the government's
Sustainable Development Commission;
"It's disappointing and the government will be really worried.
They need the context in which they're developing new policies
to be a lot stronger and more positive.
Otherwise the potential for backlash and unpopularity is considerable."

Those least concerned are most likely to not have a degree,
be in social classes C, D or E, (or even lower,
such as Sun readers) and have a very low income.

"People are broadly concerned, but not entirely convinced," says Downing.
"Despite many attempts to broaden the environment movement,
it doesn't seem to have become fully embedded
as a mainstream concern."

Over half of those polled do not have confidence
in political leaders to tackle climate change,
and just over a quarter think it's too late to stop it.
Two thirds want the government to do more but
nearly as many say they are cynical about government policies,
like "green" taxes, which are seen as "stealth" taxes.



*************************



CHEAP SOLAR ENERGY COLLECTOR MELTS STEEL, CREATES STEAM.

A new type of solar energy collector made from
inexpensive aluminum tubing and mirror strips
can concentrate sunlight by a factor of 1,000
and melt steel or produce steam.

Doug Wood, an inventor based in Washington state
who has patented key parts of the dish's design
— and signed over the rights to students at MIT -
says;
"This is actually the most efficient solar collector in existence.
They really have simplified this and made it user-friendly,
so anybody can build it."

A company set up by the team, RawSolar, will
now mass produce the dishes. They can be set up
in huge arrays to provide steam for industrial
processing, or for heating or cooling buildings,
as well as hooking up to steam turbines and generating electricity.
Once in mass production, the students estimate
the arrays should pay for themselves within two years.

David Pelly, MIT Sloan School of Management lecturer;
"I've looked for years at a variety of solar approaches,
and this is the cheapest I've seen. And the key thing
in scaling it globally is that all of the materials
are inexpensive and accessible anywhere in the world."



***********************************



CHINA AND GERMANY POWER AHEAD -
UK's SOLAR PANEL MARKET "NON-EXISTENT"

At the solar industry trade fair in Munich
there is growing confidence that "grid parity",
when electricity from the sun can be produced
as cheaply as from the grid, is just "a few years away".

Solar photovoltaics (PV) have long been dismissed
as too expensive to make a meaningful contribution:
but costs are falling as PV production booms,
and with electricity prices rising, demand for
solar panels is quickly increasing.

Germany installed 1.1 gigawatts of capacity last year.
It has nearly half a million houses with PV panels.
Its "feed-in tariff" pays people with solar panels
above-market rates for selling power to the grid.

Carsten Körnig, of the German solar industry association,
says his previous forecast that grid parity
would be reached in 5 - 7 years, now looks very
conservative since it assumed a 3% rise in
electricity prices each year. In many countries
increases of 20% a year are now "normal".

China-based Suntech, the world's biggest maker of PV panels,
plans to double production to 1GW in 2009.

Jerry Stokes, head of Suntech Europe, thinks grid parity
in Germany can be reached within five years.
In California and Italy, grid parity for PV
systems is already a fact.

PV costs are falling rapidly and this will continue
as panel efficiency improves and installation costs drop.

Nitol, a Russian company, is building a new
silicon production plant in Siberia that will
boost its output from 300 tonnes this year to
3,700 by 2009. Dmitry Kotenko, chief executive,
says: "We expect to build five times that
capacity in the coming years."

The Norwegian company REC, which produces silicon cells
and solar panels, plans a 10-fold rise in production.

Demand is particularly high in Spain, Germany and Greece
but Britain's PV market remains non-existent
in the absence of a feed-in tariff.




******************************



DRAX ATTACKS

Campaigners hijacked a train carrying coal to
Britain's biggest power station, holding on to
the roof of its massive containers.
Some disguised themselves as railway workers
with yellow warning jackets and red flags.

They erected a huge banner reading
'Leave it in the Ground' – referring to the coal.

As the driver of the EWS train radioed for advice,
a second group emptied coal on to the track.
Police then sealed off the area.
Ropes were fixed to the train's wheels and
the girders of a bridge.

Climate Camp, are the group behind this action.

The rooftop group included one female protester
dressed as a canary – the traditional warning
of danger in a coal mine. She said:
"The government and the country needs a warning."

Supplies were disrupted for a few days, as track was cleared.


**********************


A Japanese company has invented an electric-
powered, and environmentally friendly, car that
it says runs solely on water.

Genepax unveiled the car, saying that a litre (2.1 pints)
of any kind of water - rain, river or sea - is
all you need to get the engine going for about an
hour at a speed of 80km (50mph).



*****************************


HONG KONG BANS "HIGHLY PATHOGENIC" UK POULTRY

Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety announces
the suspension of poultry imports from the UK
following an outbreak of bird flu on a British farm.

The decision to immediately suspend applications
for importing poultry and poultry products from the UK
"was taken following confirmation of an outbreak of
highly pathogenic avian influenza H7 on a farm in Oxfordshire,"
the HKSAR government says in a news bulletin.



**************



WORLD FOOD SUMMIT ENDS

The Cuban delegation notes that the declaration
adopted is the result of a lack of political will
on the part of the countries of the North to promote
a just and lasting solution to the world food crisis.

The U S, the only country opposed to the right to food,
is chiefly responsible for the frustration of expectations
that the international community had pinned on
this high-level summit, expectations confirmed
by speeches of the overwhelming majority of the
dignitaries present, the Cuban statement says.

It also notes that the Summit declaration lacks a
moderately objective analysis of the essential
causes of hunger in the world. There is no
reference in it, to issues such as the impact
of agricultural subsidies and the monopolistic
control of food distribution, in terms of the
ruination of many farmers in the South; the
sinister strategy of converting grains and
cereals into fuel; the effect of unsustainable
patterns of production and consumption in the
North in relation to climate change; and the
consequences of financial speculation, in relation
to the increase in food prices.



************



A major UN conference on biodiversity ends in Bonn
with new measures to protect diverse species on Earth.

Indonesia, Malaysia, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Bosnia and Brazil earmark tens of millions of hectares as nature preserves.
Norway also announces plans to spend 600 million euros
on forest conservation annually for the next three years.
Germany also pledges more financial support -
500 million euro over the next four years for forest protection -
with another 500 million euro each year after that.

The 191 participating countries also agree to ban
"seeding" the ocean with nutrients to encourage growth of algae.



*******************



SAVE WALES' PLAYING FIELDS

People in Wales are called on to join in the fight
to save their local playing fields from disappearing.

At least 19 open areas across the country
are currently under threat from development
say Plaid Cymru AM Dai Lloyd and MEP colleague Jill Evans.

Mr Lloyd is trying to introduce a law placing a duty
on local authorities to consult people in local communities
before selling any playing fields for development.

His proposal is now open for public consultation.


Threatened playing fields
Aberystwyth - Llety Parc
Cardiff - Llanishen RFC training area,
LPA Llanishen Reservoir,
SCW Rumney Recreation Ground,
Snowden Road Playing Field
and Western Leisure Centre
Cwmbran - Brookfield Primary School
and Land near Burtons Factory
Dinas Powys - St Cyres Lower School
Flintshire - Willow Park
Merthyr Tydfil - County Field
Monmouthshire - Caldicot Comp School
Newtown - Newtown High School
and Town Hall Park
Swansea - Swansea Recreation Ground
Talbot Green - Lanelay Hall Playing Field
Penarth - St Cyres School
Pontypool - Trevethin Comprehensive School
Wrexham - Groves School

Dai Lloyd;
"Plaid recognises that playing fields
are a valuable community resource.
In an age when we are being encouraged to do
more sport and physical exercise, playing fields
offer a free and easy access to physical activity.
I have been overwhelmed by the passion and determination
shown by the people and communities
fighting to save their local playing fields."

Ms Evans, Plaid's deputy president, says
while national parks are of great importance,
we should never ignore the positive impact
local green play areas can have on people's lives.

"As a nation, we have to fight to keep these playing fields
which are becoming more and more rare.
One of the greatest threats to these areas is from development
and often, we realise how valuable they are only once they're gone.
I would urge everyone to take part in the consultation
that is being held regarding Dai Lloyd's measure
as it's something that we have to act upon now
before it's too late."

********************



TO BEE - OR NOT

The food and farming minister, Lord Rooker,
says that without emergency measures
the honeybee is likely to disappear from Britain.

The government says investigation of bee colony losses
will have a higher priority, and keepers
should contact their local inspector.
In Wales, where a breed native to the area is
stronger, workers are hoping to save bees worldwide...


*************


SLIP-SLIDING AWAY - Ice may DISAPPEAR
from the North Pole THIS summer !

Arctic sea ice is melting "significantly faster" than predicted
and is "approaching a point of no return."

That's the new warning from the World Wildlife Fund.

The volumes of the Greenland Ice Sheet and ice in the Arctic Ocean
were 2.9 million and 4.4 million cubic metres respectively
in September 2007 - the lowest levels ever recorded.

The ice has shrunk to 39% below the average thickness
of the last 30 years, their report says.


*********


FRENCH AGRICULTURE MINISTER
TELLS TRUTH ABOUT FOOD !

"We must not leave the feeding of the people,
a vital issue, to the mercy of the whims of
market forces and international speculation alone."

Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram
urges ACTION to counter the food crisis;
"Unless we act fast for a global consensus on the price spiral,
the social unrest induced by food prices in several countries
will conflagrate into a global contagion,
leaving no country - developed or otherwise - unscathed."


Premier Wen of China assures the people of the world
that China has enough grain reserves and that
it can feed its own population.
Wen says that countries can make the biggest contribution to the world
by feeding their own populations by their own efforts.

Against a backdrop of soaring food prices worldwide
and warnings by the UN and World Bank of a looming food crisis,
the need to keep farmland from being eroded by
construction projects and urban expansion cannot be overestimated.

Stricter penalties are needed for those officials
who dare to convert farmland without approval.
"We should not sacrifice self-sufficiency in food supply
for urbanization and business growth".



*******************



IF YOU WISH TO PRESERVE THE PLANET . . .

James Hansen, head of Nasa Goddard Inst. for Space Studies,
and one of the world's leading climate experts,
warns that the world must rethink targets
for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
because the problem IS underestimated.

Hansen says the EU target of 550 parts per million of C02
should be slashed to 350ppm, if "humanity wishes to
preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed."

"What we have found is that the target we have
all been aiming for is a disaster - a guaranteed disaster.
If we follow business as usual.....
we are talking about a sea-level rise of
at least a couple of metres this century."

The good news, he says, is that fossil fuel reserves
have been exaggerated, so alternative energy sources
wil HAVE to be rapidly put in place.
A moratorium on coal power stations,
he suggests, could achieve the safer CO2 levels.

Hansen's report puts further pressure on Britain
to NOT build a new generation of coal power stations.



********************


WALES DESERVES "BETTER TREATMENT".

Merthyr Tydfil people call for a 500m (1,640ft) buffer zone
between their homes and the Ffos-y-fran open-cast site.
People are angered the site has been allowed to go ahead
with a buffer of only 40m (130ft) to the nearest homes.

Members of Residents Against Ffos-y-fran (RAFF)
are so angry about the development being that close to homes
they marched to the town centre ahead of a rally and concert.
The march started at Twyn y Rodyn nursery school,
which is less than 400m from the mine.

Alyson Austin of RAAF says approximately 100 people
joined the march and describes support as
"absolutely fabulous."

Explaining residents objections, she says;
"This opencast mine will come within 36m of houses.
In England and Scotland, mines have to be
at least 500m from the nearest residents.
Wales deserves the same treatment.

This event will show we are still determined to fight the scheme
which will be with us six days a week, 16 hours a day
for at least the next 17 years if it is allowed to continue."

Last month AMs debated plans for a 500m buffer zone
between houses and new opencast mining developments.

Now opponents of the scheme are chaining
themselves to excavation machinery.




*****************


Climate change protesters chain themselves together
and block roads into Aberthaw power station.

It is part of a campaign of protests
to highlight the environmental impact of fossil fuel.

Gordon James, director of Friends of the Earth Cymru,
describes the power station as a "dirty dinosaur"
which should not be allowed to stay open in its present form.

South Wales Police say they spoke to the protesters
and resolved the issue "quickly and peacefully".
Thirteen people are arrested for aggravated trespass.


* * *


PROTEST STOPS OPENCAST MINE NEAR MERTHYR

Demonstrators chained to excavation machinery
at an opencast coal mine near Merthyr Tydfil
say they are highlighting the "hypocrisy"
of government claims it is tackling climate change.

Residents protest because the Ffos-y-Fran site is very near homes.

Protestors say coal has the biggest impact
on climate change of any fuel
and the government is "supporting an outdated
and dangerous technology that has no future".

Residents claim there will not be enough protection
from noise, dust and pollution from the site.
There are two arrests.


************


U.K. CHEATS AND TRIES TO CHANGE THE RULES.


U.K. Ministers agreed to increase renewable energy fivefold;
but at a closed session of EU energy ministers,
the business minister, "Lady" Vadera, proposes
that British investments in renewable energy
ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD should count as a UK effort.
She also argues for allowing EU countries
to count electricity generated by "clean coal".

Dale Vince, chief of Ecotricity;
"This would kill renewable energy in Britain.
It makes a mockery of any attempts to address climate change.
The idea that we can build wind farms or
other renewable energy projects abroad
and then offset them against the UK target is outrageous.
If it were possible to build projects anywhere in the world
where planning is lax, nothing would be done in the UK."

John Sauven, director of Greenpeace:
"This would allow a UK minister to lay the foundation stone
of a power station in China and say it counts
as our contribution to European renewable energy targets."

Spokesperson for the environment group WWF;
"Yet again Britain is found trying to evade
its environmental responsibilities."

The energy secretary, John Hutton, argues this week
that Britain should not just replace existing nuclear plants
but greatly expand the nuclear and coal industries.

French nuclear industry will be encouraged
to develop at least four but possibly more
nuclear power stations in Britain.

Carlo de Riva, chief of French nuclear company EDF,
says if the British back renewable energy sources,
this will "undermine" nuclear power.

"If you provide incentives for renewables ...
you depress the returns (profits)
for all other low-carbon technologies."


****************


LIES, DAMN LIES... AND UK STATISTICS !

According to a National Audit Office investigation
there have been "no reductions in UK Carbon emissions".

"There are two different government reports;
the one required for the UN,
and one for the Office of National Statistics"
- which includes aviation and shipping emissions.

The report says there are "no reductions in UK emissions"
if measured by the national accounts method.

The figures expose as untrue government claims
that it is reducing emissions.

Environment minister, Phil Woolas;-
"UK greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 16.4% since 1990.
We remain on course to nearly double our
Kyoto Protocol target over the 2008-12 period."

The government stands accused of misleading the public
as the UK claims to be leading the world in achieving reductions.

"Labour's claim that Britain's carbon footprint is shrinking is a scam.
The figures on aviation are being fiddled,
meaning the government can give the green light
to airport expansion without most of the
subsequent rise in emissions being counted",
says Robin Oakley, of Greenpeace.

The 40-page NAO report finds that government departments
interpret data in different contexts and for different purposes,
"in one case within the same document on successive pages".



******************



GLACIERS FEEDING RIVERS SHRINKING FASTER

They're shrinking at record rates and could disappear,
the U.N. Environment Program reports.

Scientists find that ice loss is reaching record levels,
and warn further loss could have dramatic consequences
in India, whose rivers are fed by Himalayan glaciers,
and the west coast of North America.

"There are many canaries emerging in the climate change coal mine,"
UNEP's executive director Achim Steiner, states;
"The glaciers are perhaps among those making the most noise
and it is absolutely essential that everyone
sits up and takes notice."

Steiner urges governments to agree on
stricter targets for emissions reductions
at their meeting next year in Copenhagen.

Wilfried Haeberli, director, World Glacier Monitoring Service;
"The latest figures are part of what appears to be
an accelerating trend with no apparent end in sight."


***********************


CHINA OUTLAWS FREE PLASTIC BAGS.
Several other countries now ban them.

The Chinese government bans the production and free
distribution of plastic bags to stem a growing tide of waste.

Since June 1st, all supermarkets, department stores and shops
are prohibited from handing out free plastic bags to customers.

The regulations call for;
"a return to cloth bags and shopping baskets
to reduce the use of plastic bags".

The ruling also bans production of easily breakable
ultra-thin bags, which many people throw away
after one use, and prohibits supermarkets and shops
from handing them out freely.

The State Council, China's cabinet, says people
are using too many plastic bags and are not
disposing of them properly, wasting valuable oil
and littering the country.

Tax adjustments will discourage the production
and sale of plastic bags, and encourage the
recycling industry. Rubbish collectors are urged
to separate plastic for reprocessing.

The new regulation comes 15 years after shopkeepers
started handing out cheap, flimsy plastic bags.

Some governments, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Zanzibar,
have decided to ban them: Plastic bags are surcharged
in Germany, South Africa, Ireland and Israel.

WHAT ARE WE DOING?
The government says it might legislate - if, if, if.



**************************



CANADA BANS BABY BOTTLES

Canada is the first nation in the world
to ban plastic polycarbonate baby bottles,
Health Minister Tony Clement says.

Clement says the ban only applies to bottles
used by newborns and infants, as evidence is strong
that developing infants are the most at risk.

Canadian retail chains have started removing
bottles and containers containing bisphenol A.

"We have concluded it is better to be safe than sorry," Clement says.
He also urges parents never to pour boiling water
into baby bottles containing bisphenol A.

The U.S. government says bisphenol A
could be tied to early puberty, and to
prostate and breast cancer.

Environmental groups say it is a dangerous chemical,
while the industry says its use in plastic is safe.




*********



UK SEA MOST POLLUTED AREA IN THE WORLD


Human impact on the seas is mapped for the first time.
Scientists find that almost no area is left unpolluted
and half of the world's oceans are heavily affected.

Halpern;
"Our results show that ... the big picture
looks much worse than I imagine most people expected.
It was certainly a surprise to me."

Scientists now collect global data
on the impact of 17 human activities
including fishing, coastal development,
fertiliser runoff and pollution from shipping traffic.

Human impact is most severe
around Britain, in the North Sea.

The map is a WAKE-UP call !


* * *


RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS OF
THE BENEFITS OF WETLANDS.

Most deep sea fish stocks
are born or nurtured in wetlands.
Wetlands also clean and recycle the world's water.

One major wetland in Wales - is the Gwent levels.
These are about to be destroyed by a motorway bypass.
... unless we WAKE UP !

For more information about World Wetlands
visit www.ramsar.org

Over half the world's wetlands
have now been destroyed.



************!**************!**********


Newport Wetlands Open Day

Come and explore this wonderful wetland nature reserve
and the new RSPB centre. There will be guided walks
to see some of the stunning wildlife and habitats,
children's activities, stalls and refreshments.

Newport Wetlands,
West Nash Road,
Newport

date: Sunday 13th July

times: 11am-4pm
cost: Free

WEBSITE:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/newportwetlands

Email:
newport-wetlands@rspb.org.uk



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