Latest news & blogs

Climate change is "potentially the most serious threat there has ever been" to security and prosperity, according to Britain's new Climate Ambassador.

Police have arrested 28 people as demonstrators marched on Britain's biggest coal-fired power station, 'Drax the Destroyer', in a bid to shut it down. Reclaim Power is part of the Camp for Climate Action 26 August - 4 September.

California is ready to enact the toughest legislation in the United States to tackle global warming via a landmark bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions. The move is in sharp contrast to George Bush's inaction on climate change.

He is supporting the Palestinian Filmmakers, Artists and Cultural Workers and urges others to join their campaign.

The government is not doing enough to prevent the trafficking of young people into Britain, says a joint report by Unicef and Terre des Hommes, Action to Prevent Child Trafficking in South Eastern Europe (SEE).

Britain's horse chestnut trees, providers of conkers for generations of schoolboys, are dying in their thousands in the worst case of tree blight since Dutch elm disease 30 years ago. The Forestry Commission has details of the horse chestnut leaf miner, one of the multiple problems faced by the trees.

German company BASF has applied to the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for permission to run a four-year trial to establish whether the new potatoes can fight off late blight. But Friends of the Earth warn that if the trials went ahead they could contaminate the food chain.

The new Butterfly Handbook has been jointly funded by the Highways Agency and English Nature to provide a valuable reference manual for conservationists and highways engineers around the world. The guide shows engineers how approaching road design from an ecological point of view can protect and attract butterflies. The "Butterfly Conservation" organisation highlights threats to butterflies and…

making it obligatory for all non-EU citizens residing in Ireland to carry biometric identity cards containing details of their residence permits.

It is expected that the new policy on personal data sharing will say that "information will normally be shared in the public sector, provided it is in the public interest". See the "Public Service Guarantee For Data Handling" to check the government's current published position.