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Some 183 organisations from 42 countries have come together to issue a plea to world leaders to impose a tax on financial transactions to help meet the costs of the economic crisis. The group is the largest coalition yet to demand that a tax is levied on international financial transactions. Members include Britain's Robin Hood Tax campaign, supported by the TUC, Friends of the Earth and ActionAid. Their plea comes ahead of the summit of leaders of G20 economic powers in the South Korean capital Seoul on November 11-12. The issue of measures needed to stabilise the world economy and...

A writer and environmental activist who was present at the final Copenhagen climate talks says China sabotaged the deal and ensured Barack Obama would shoulder the blame. While China's Premier Wen Jiabao insisted his government had played an "important and constructive" role, the talks in the Danish capital ended with a political accord rather than a binding agreement. Mark Lynas, who was attached to the Maldives delegation, described what he saw at the talks as "profoundly shocking". "I am certain that had the Chinese not been in the room, we would have left Copenhagen with a deal that had environmentalists...

Former Vice President Al Gore declared that the Congressional climate bill will help bring about “global governance.”“I bring you good news from the U.S., “Gore said on July 7, 2009 in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by UK Times.“Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill,” Gore said, noting it was “very much a step in the right direction.”Gore touted the climate bill, claiming it “will dramatically increase the prospects for success” in combating what he sees as the “crisis” of man-made global warming.“But it is the...

Food: Today's headlines are filled with Americans expressing their fears of food shortages and frustration with spiraling grocery prices. As part of the solution, it's time to give genetically modified crops a try.There's much resistance to overcome, however. In the fall of 2006, Friends of the Earth publicly asked governments in the hungry African countries of Ghana and Sierra Leone to recall American food aid that contained genetically modified rice. Four years earlier, when southern Africa was tormented by famine, the U.S. offered 540,000 tons of genetically modified grain. Though the World Health Organization estimated that nearly 14 million Africans,...

A major airline is under fire from environmentalists for flying an aircraft across the Atlantic with only five passengers on board. American Airlines has been accused of reckless behaviour It led to American Airlines being accused of reckless behaviour by green lobby groups. The latest “eco- scandal” flight took place on February 9 after American was forced to cancel one of its four daily services from Chicago to London. While it was able to find places for nearly all the passengers on the fully-booked flight, five still had to be accommodated. Those who did fly were upgraded to the business...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 29, 2005 Conservation Groups File Lawsuit to Protect National Parks From Harmful Off-Road Vehicle Use: Survey of Parks Reveals Extensive Damage from Off-Road Vehicles, Lack of Funding for Enforcement WASHINGTON, D.C. - Bluewater Network, a division of Friends of the Earth; the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA); and Wildlands CPR today filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service and theDepartment of Interior in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleging that those agencies have failed in numerous ways to protect the National Park System against the extensive damage caused by all-terrain vehicles and other off-road...

National Group Targets Senator Specter with Major Ad Campaign; Energy Bill a Payoff for Polluters 11/20/03 10:21:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk, Environment Reporter Contact: Sara Zdeb, 202-222-0728, or Erich Pica 202-222-0739, both of Friends of the Earth WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- As the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on an energy bill that hands out more than $50 billion to polluting industries, Friends of the Earth today unveiled an ad campaign urging Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to block passage of the legislation. The ad is part of a larger campaign targeting nine senators. The ads, in the...

LONDON - Critics of a U.S.-backed plan to build a pipeline transporting Caspian Sea oil to Western consumers are urging the World Bank (news - web sites)'s private investment arm to delay a decision on whether to help finance the $3.6 billion project. Environmentalists and human rights groups contend the pipeline, which would carry crude from Azerbaijan to Turkey's coast, endangers villages and wildlife in its path, and could spark conflict in a region already seething with ethnic tensions. The International Finance Corp., the World Bank's Washington-based private investment arm, was to have made a decision this week on lending...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 — In a novel legal action, the City Councils of Oakland, Calif., and Boulder, Colo., have voted to join Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace in a lawsuit charging two federal agencies with failing to conduct environmental reviews before financing projects that the cities say contribute to global warming. The lawsuit contends that the agencies — the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation — have provided $32 billion in financing and insurance over the last 10 years for fossil-fuel extraction projects overseas like oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired power plants without assessing the contribution those...

There is a growing consensus here among observers that the Earth Summit has "fallen dramatically short" of achieving any meaningful results. Also, President Bush is named as part of an "unholy trinity Behind Global Warming and Forest Destruction." The World Wildlife Fund declared over the weekend "Leadership is needed to save Johannesburg Earth Summit." The Fund accused the summit of reaching agreements on only two issues, marine ecology and the management of industrial chemicals. The group said the "economic interests of the rich [were] being put before poor people and the environment." Dr. Claude Martin, the director general of the...