Green Creation 

According to an article in The Independent, the total number of deaths from swine flu in the UK so far is 154. Though these are tragedies for the affected families, let's keep it in perspective: road traffic FATALITIES in the UK in 2008: 2,530; all road traffic casualties in the UK in 2008: 212,733. But do we stop driving? No, we focus on the MANY less affected by swine flu (and private corporate companies heat up swine flu PANIC).

On food: more than £12bn worth of food and drink that could have been consumed is thrown out every year by householders in the UK alone, according to new figures today that reveal the scale of the UK's food waste mountain.

According to an article in The Guardian, the world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit (according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying). But going for nuclear is NO alternative in my view: for starters the UK is thinking of just burying the nuclear waste... out of sight, out of mind (just small matter of £18 bn price tag and morality of dumping consequences of our choices onto generations after us).

However, to not make you (and myself) too depressed to stay hopeful and take action (as is our God-given duty to look after Creation):
When thinking of Spain, do we have images of a country full of wind turbines? No, but, according to an article in The Times, Spain was yesterday celebrating its commitment to renewable energy after wind turbines dotted across the country produced more than half of all its electricity for the first time. If they can do it, why not others?

Some may think that sense has finally come to the bureaucrats in Brussels who adopted the rules some years ago (at the behest of major food producers/ traders so when they spoke about e.g. cucumber they wouldn't have to spend time explaining what they were talking about), but that does not mean the days of immoral amounts of food waste are over, as an article in The Independent shows. The thing is: the internal rules of supermarkets are much stricter because only uniform fruit and veg can be put through the washing and packing machines...

So hurray the rules have been abolished (well, for 36 of the 46 anyways), but with the conglomerates power in the food market, do not expect to see them any time soon (unless you enjoy a nutrition & taste-wise superior version from your back garden, allotment or local organic veg box).

Bad news is that research showsthat a majority of Americans, contrary to scientific consensus, do not believe humans are to blame for climate change.

But congratulations to Bundanoonin Australia for banning bottled water. Bundanoon's battle against the bottle has been brewing for years, ever since a Sydney-based beverage company was going to extract their water, truck it up to Sydney for processing and then selling it back to them. A reminder on the 'menace of bottled water', see a short clip from the Open University UK.