'ecology' - tagged features

Many people would say they hear a lot of garbage from politicians during election campaigns, but in Italy garbage is one of the hot issues in this election campaign - especially in the southern Campania region. Although the streets of Naples have finally been cleared of their huge piles of rubbish, the problem is as bad as ever on the city's outskirts. But what's even worse is the problem of toxic industrial waste, dumped in huge quantities by the local mafia - the comorra. Locals are falling ill, animals and crops are being poisoned - and yet no-one is being held accountable. 

According to a recent report, aeroplane noise may be driving people who live near airports into an early grave, by increasing their blood pressure. Even while they’re asleep. 

Are genetically modified crops good or bad? Some say they can make certain foods toxic, that they might make us resistant to anti-biotics and that they increase the numbers of things people are allergic to. Others point out that some GM crops in the developing world mean the difference between having a harvest or not – having food or going hungry. France recently imposed a ban on a strain of GM corn—effectively shutting down GM crops in the country, as it’s the only one allowed to be planted in Europe. As France is Europe's largest agricultural exporter this is significant. 

In Poland, climate change hasn’t taken off as it has in other European countries. Until now. As winters become warmer and summers see more erratic weather, more and more Poles believe global warming is taking grip. In the southern Polish city of Kraków Poles are adapting to the new orthodoxies of climate change thinking, and some are even making a living from going eco-warrior. 

We stay in France for some more serious news: last Wednesday The French oil company Total was ordered to pay it's a share of nearly 200 million in damages for a 1999 oil spill off the northwest coast of France. The Erika oil tanker broke in half in December of 1999, spilling almost 20-thousand tons of crude oil into the sea—which killed hundreds of thousands of birds along 400 kilometers of coastline. Radio France International's Sarah Elzas was at the courtroom in Paris for the verdict. 

Czechs are holding onto an inordinate number of unused mobile phones. One agency estimates that people could have up to eight million of them gathering dust at home. They keep them for sentimental reasons, perhaps, when they really ought to be recycled. 

In spite of all its beauty, the Czech Republic is turning into rather unpleasant place to live - at least in some respects. Two-thirds of Czechs are currently gasping for air as it gets more and more polluted. This and many other alarming facts have been highlighted in an annual report on the Czech environment, published by the Environment Ministry. 

Environmental awareness certainly got a big boost last week with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace prize. The Nobel prizes are described as the most coveted civil awards in the world. Since their inception in 1901, the academic world and the international community eagerly await the announcement of the winners each year. 

More than 2,500 delegates from over 140 nations gathered in Stockholm this week for the annual World Water conference. Every year, scientists, government officials, campaigners and representatives from private industry converge on the Swedish capital to discuss water-related issues. Radio Sweden’s Azariah Kiros attended the opening ceremony and has this report. 

The Polish government is currently at logger heads with the European Commission over a stretch of motorway it wants to build through the Rospuda Valley in the North-East of the country. This European nature reserve has unique wetlands and virgin forest, but the Polish insists this motorway is crucial as part of the Via Baltica linking Warsaw with Helsinki via the Baltic States. This week Poland decided to postpone the start of the construction as the case is now being examined by the European Court of Justice. But the dispute over the motorway's environmental impact is far from being resolved. 

EU-Polish relations have not been easy in the past few months. Poland clashed with the EU over voting rights, it also vetoed talks between the EU and Russia earlier on in the year. This latest dispute surrounding a stretch of motorway seems to be yet another bone of contention. True, the Polish government has this week agreed to back down from starting construction while the European Court of Justice is looking into the case. But the question is: what's next? 

Coastlines are threatened, deserts are advancing, and the effects of climate change are set to displace millions of people as resources are becoming more scarce. The World Future Council wants to stop that and gathered for its founding congress in Hamburg this week. This new council is the brainchild of Jacob von Uexkuell, who also founded the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the alternative Nobel prize. The goal of his international institution is an ambitious one: in a nutshell its aim is to save the planet. Deutsche Welle’s Barbara Gruber asked him how this can be done. 

For the first time in France, people accused of bearing responsibility for an oil spill, are being brought before a penal court. Seven years after the ecological disaster which devastated four hundred kilometres of France's western coast, the Erika trial started in Paris this week. In 1999, the Erika, a twenty five year old, single hulled, rusty oil tanker, was transporting thirty tons of heavy fuel when it sank off the coast of Brittany. Jail terms and fines worth hundreds of millions of Euros are at stake in this trial, which is expected to last four months. Radio France International's Nick Champeaux went to the first hearings, and he filed this report from Paris. 

The European Commission has warned Poland again against building an expressway running through the unique marshland nature reserve of Rospuda Valley in the north-west of the country. Agnieszka Bielawska reports. 

Recently, Romanian and Bulgarian authorities spotted an oil slick on the surface of the Danube River. It soon became apparent that the oil installations at Prahovo in Serbia were to be blamed for the release of an "undetermined quantity" of heating oil into the Danube, one of Europe's most important environmental and economic river-ways. In less than a week the Romanian authorities managed to clean the 50 km long oil slick of oil spending more than 300 thousand Euros in the process . Fortunately the damage to the environment was minimal. But now the question is: Who is foot the 300 thousand euro clean up bill? Radio Romania International's Iulian Muresan reports that the lack of trans-boundary environmental legislation in countries outside the EU renders these kinds of issues even thornier than they already are. 

Scandinavian media has been awash with reports lately pointing to doomsday scenarios about the Baltic Sea. With the ever growing problem of algae, mounting death of fish and risk of biological collapse - we're constantly reminded that it's simply a matter of time before the entire eco system falls apart. Last week the European Commission adopted a proposal to save cod stocks in the Baltic Sea and later this month the Baltic Sea Conference in will host talks to discuss the excessive use of fertilizers and the types of pollution confronting the Baltic Sea. 

Sweden gained headlines earlier this year - when it declared it would be oil-free by 2020.A special commission made up of industrialists, car makers, energy experts and the Prime Minister himself was set up to make recommendations on how to bring the vision about. Earlier this month the white paper was published - but it all turned out to be a bit more modest. Radio Sweden's Dave Russell was at the launch, and joins us in the studio.