Recently in Green Machine Category

Last September, we featured a new campaign by Greenpeace aimed at compelling Steve Jobs and Apple into getting the finger out regarding toxic chemicals used in the production of their products and the waste chemicals released during their disposal. For months, there was almost no response from Apple and it seemed that the campaign was falling on deaf ears.

But lo! It would appears that the pressure has finally done something and produced some results...

Taken from an interview with Ted Turner in 1989.

Part 2 here

Oh and, you wanna know how to shut a Christian Fundamentalist up? Then read on.

From 'the man-machine and artificial intelligence' by Bruce Mazlish.

'King Mu of Chou made a tour of inspection in the west...and on his return journey, before reaching China, a certain artificer, Yen Shih by name, was presented to him. The king received him and asked him what he could do. He replied that he would do anything which the king commanded, but that he had a piece of work already finished which he would like to show him.

'Bring it with you tomorrow,' said the king, `and we will look at it together.' So next day Yen Shih appeared again and was admitted into the presence. `Who is that man accompanying you?' asked the king. `That, Sir,' replied Yen Shih, `is my own handiwork. He can sing and he can act.' The king stared at the figure in astonishment. It walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and down, so that anyone would have taken it for a live human being. '

iPhone? What iPhone?

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Green my apple

Never mind up north, it's about to get grim down south. And wet. Like seriously wet. The Telegraph reports:

'Dr Nassos Vafeidis of the University of the Aegean, Greece, and Prof Rob Nicholls of the University of Southampton and colleagues have weighed up the impact of rising levels on the Thames Estuary, where 1.25 million people currently live, 1.5 million commute and there are assets worth up to £100 billion.'

Apparently, the coming sea rises will leave Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Canary Wharf under a wall of water. Kind of puts those rain-water drought problems into perspective doesn't it?

*Laugh? I nearly Global Warmed myself*

And of course we wonder why, eh? Why? Of course, I'm sure it has nothing to do with the other ridiculous piece of news doing the rounds these last weeks which informs us that it is now cheaper to fly places than to use the train in England. From IC Liverpool:

'Plummeting air fares have left Merseyside rail passengers paying more for a weekend break to London than for a flight to a top European holiday destination...

...new prices will take effect from next week, meaning the cost of a return ticket for use on any service will pass through the £200 mark to £205 for the first time.'

So. That whole priviatisation of state assests has really worked out to be a charm, eh? EH?

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Telegraph

Charming to the last the oil industry is. From a report on Conscious Earth:

'The producers of An Inconvenient Truth have offered to supply American classrooms with 50,000 copies of the movie free of charge. That offer has been rejected by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the nation's leading science education teachers group, citing a risk to funding from key financial supporters. One of those supporters is Exxon-Mobil.'

According to, well whoever wrote it on Wikipedia, your 'Ecological Footprint' can be described (sharp intake of breath) as follows:

'The phrase "ecological footprint" is a metaphor used to depict the amount of land and water area a human population would hypothetically need to provide the resources required to support itself and to absorb its wastes, given prevailing technology. The term was first coined in 1992 by Canadian ecologist and professor at the University of British Columbia, William Rees'.

Man, is this a sign of the changing times. The chap who helped make the Hummer an American icon has carried-off a feat of political contortion worthy of a circus performer. Where once he would possibly have made fun of such 'girly-man' concerns, it would appear that the Climate Change issue is finally getting through to even the most hardened of hearts. Thank God.

He's signed into a law a bill which:

'...imposes a first-in-the-nation emissions cap on utilities, refineries and manufacturing plants in a bid to curb the gases that scientists blame for warming the Earth. Two years ago, a state board adopted tight regulations on automobile tailpipe emissions, an initiative that is being challenged in federal court by automakers.'

You may now feel free to post crap, Terminator-related comments and jokes below...