Ethan Greenhart may just be the greenest man on the planet.

He makes our own Green Environment Minister John Gormley look like a carbonspewing oil baron who runs a toxic dump.

Ethan Greenhart (alias Brendan O'Neill) is destined to become the greenest man on the planet.

The eco-activist has taken the imperilled world by storm "with his new book of extreme environmental tips, Can I Recycle My Granny?

No detail of eco-fussiness is left untouched as he rails against the evils of modern consumerism, including DVD players, iPods and life support machines

In a book that should be in every Green Party Christmas stocking, the environmentalist advocates a "zero-carbon, no-driving, faeces-recycling lifestyle".

// Read More //

THE eco-warriors of Irish politics will strenuously argue that the most awful day in government is still better than the most sublime day in opposition.

Commendable as that stiff resolve and stubborn determination to succeed in government may be, the party which once cast itself as the Dail's paragons of virtue kowtowed to their superiors in Fianna Fail when the medical card proposal first came before cabinet.

This week's belated threats to pull out of government, the belated statements of concern, the belated apologies and the belated attempts to label the Opposition as "hypocrites" has shown the new principle of the Green Party: survive at all costs.

// Read More //

GOVERNMENTS struggle to prevent the global financial crisis turning into a deep worldwide recession, attention is also turning to the longer-term problem: how to avoid a similar crisis happening again. When politicians meet in Washington DC in December they are likely to agree that the "loose touch" approach to financial regulation of the past two decades will have to give way to tighter controls. But the global financial system now operates at a level of complexity no one has ever tried to tame. How do we re-engineer it so breakdowns don't happen again?

// Read More //

So, no carbon levy; kicked into touch once again, this time for 2010 - maybe. A round about now, G reen ministers John Gormley and Eamon Ryan must be wondering whether their Fianna Fail cabinet colleagues will ever permit any major environmental initiatives - something the two of them can point to and say, "yes, we went into government and achieved that'.

For while the budget showed some tinkering around the edges, there was nothing to boost an eco-worrier's hopes for major change. Oisin Coghlan of Friends of the Earth recalls that it was Noel Dempsey who first floated the idea of a carbon levy ten years ago, yet successive Fianna Fail governments have since put off introducing one.

// Read More //

// Read More //

Imagine an industry that runs out of raw materials. Companies go bust, workers are laid off, families suffer and associated organisations are thrown into turmoil. Eventually governments are forced to take drastic action. Welcome to global banking, brought to its knees by the interruption of its lifeblood - the flow of cash.

In this case we seem to have been fortunate. In the nick of time, governments released reserves that should with luck get cash circulating again. But what if they hadn't been there? There are no reserves of fish, tropical hardwoods, fresh water or metals such as indium, so what are we going to do when supplies of these vital materials dry up?

// Read More //

THE price of a cup of coffee. That's one estimate of what it will cost each American every day for the next 20 years to break the fossil fuel habit of generations and turn to renewables instead. A daily outlay of a shade under a couple of dollars does add up to trillions over the decades, but is it really that much to ask?

To prevent dangerous climate change, levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere need to be cut by 80 per cent by the middle of the century - and that's relative to 1990 levels. It will be a huge undertaking, but both candidates in next month's US presidential election acknowledge that the world's biggest polluter will have to change its tune if others are going to play their part.

// Read More //

THE more sanctimonious arms of the environmental movement have been in need of this book for a long time. In a no-holds-barred insider account, Christine MacDonald tells the story of how the biggest perpetrators of public relations "greenwash" are often the greens themselves. At their worst, she argues, conservationists sell themselves as willing dupes and apologists for some of the most environmentally unfriendly corporations on the planet.

// Read More //

The traditional way of life on England's hillsides and moorlands is in danger of dying out unless action is taken, an expert has warned.

The National Trust has called on the government to develop a strategy to protect the UK's uplands, including keeping farmers on the hills

Dr Stuart Burgess, Chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC), said disease outbreaks like foot and mouth, flooding, a lack of young people and lack of affordable housing has brought hill farming to the edge of extinction.

// Read More //

Our conflict of interests

IRELAND having to reduce its cattle herd, although world consumption of meat and dairy products may double by 2050, was the prospect raised by Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith last week.

He told Council of Agriculture ministers in Brussels how Ireland's target of a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions - a high proportion of the gases comes from livestock - clashes with our role in food production.

How different his ministerial style is from that of his predecessor, Mary Coughlan.

// Read More //

MUCH BETTER LATE than never, the autumn sun spills over the ridge at breakfast time, dissolving the rim of the mountain in an incandescent blaze.

It sets each grazing ewe in a golden penumbra and picks out long-forgotten lazy beds in the fields running up to the commonage fence. They are like wrinkles in an unkind photograph - a reminder, if we needed it, of the hillside's bleaker past.

I've been wondering how the sun will shine through the blades of the 10 wind turbines now proposed for these sloping fields - whether, like sufferers from epilepsy who must avoid flashlight photography lighting on television, I shall want to look away from the morning show of stroboscopy (is that a word?).

// Read More //

// Read More //

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion headed west today after unveiling a Liberal platform that includes $16.3 billion in new spending over four years but which he vows will come with balanced budgets.

Speaking in Ottawa before leaving for a brief visit to the Liberal-unfriendly turf of Calgary, Dion said the Liberal plan is "extremely prudent ... we are not asking for a blank cheque."

The party argues it will not need to go into deficit to find the cash because the current Conservative government's own figures predict an operating surplus of $17.64 billion over four years.

// Read More //

// Read More //

OPINION: Out-of-town superstores would mean walking 20 miles for a pint of milk. A recent Competition Authority report on the subject should be binned, writes SEAN KELLY

IRELAND, PLANNING and success are not words you often see in the one sentence. After all, this is a country where huge swathes of the countryside are being depopulated.

In north Mayo, the only endangered species is man, while the commuter-belt car parks disguised as roads pretend to be a transport network. It is a country where massive housing estates are built without creches, community centres or anything resembling public transport. And we then wonder why people are increasingly stressed out.

// Read More //

// Read More //

// Read More //

Opinion: Sammy Wilson, DUP MLA - For the first time, Environment Minister Sammy Wilson spells out his scepticism about man-made climate change, in an exclusive article for the News Letter.

At the height of the floods recently, when those whose homes had been destroyed were trying to clean up the mess, the councils were trying to get emergency payments processed and departments were assessing what lessons could be learned from the events, all the Green Party could do was prattle on about climate change.

It seems that there is a branch of the environmental movement which almost rejoices in every environmental disaster be it local or international. The bigger the disaster the better because it helps reinforce their demands for more government regulation, restrictions on individual economic freedom and their anti-business agenda.

// Read More //

Seen from the air, Sarah Palin's state is an environmental wonderland. From Anchorage to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, there is a vast landscape of snow-capped peaks, fjords, crystal glaciers, coastal lagoons, wide river deltas and tundra. The guardian of this wilderness - and Governor of Alaska - has, this week, become one of the most recognisable faces in the world. But behind her beaming smile and wholesome family values is a woman aligned with the big oil and coal firms that are racing to exploit Alaska's vast energy reserves.

// Read More //

IRELAND'S MEDIA have become more Eurosceptic and more tabloid in their reporting in the years between the second Nice Treaty referendum and the Lisbon campaign, the European Commission has warned.

In a private briefing document circulated by the commission in Brussels, it warned that Ireland's "changing media landscape" between 2002 and 2008 has implications for public opinion about the European Union.

// Read More //