The Gaia Reports

By Theodora Filis Millennium Stadium is not satisfied with just playing host to football tournaments during the 2012 Olympics, it wants to become the UK’s first certifiably “green” venue as well. ( Millennium Stadium) Based in Cardiff, the stadium operators are looking to meet the requirements for British Standard accreditation, which is accepted as credentials throughout the events industry. Already earning the award are Earls Court and Olympia in London, but Millennium Stadium aims to be the first to receive the official green mark from the regulatory group. Rainwater harvesting in the pitch irrigation system, infra-red controls in the toilets to prevent unnecessary flushing, and meters installed to monitor energy and water consumption have started the ball rolling at the iconic multi-event venue. The body which awards the British Standard Green mark will monitor the stadium’s “sustainability journey” with a pre-assessment in December. The stadium’s manager, Gerry Toms said that...

By Theodora Filis  A unique project to test clean electricity generation from the tides off the West Wales coast is to receive a £1.4m EU funding boost said Environment Minister, Jane Davidson. “Earlier this year I launched our energy policy statement A Low Carbon Revolution which outlines that Wales has the potential to produce nearly twice the amount of electricity it currently uses, through wholly renewable sources by 2025.” Although not yet widely used, tidal power has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than wind energy and solar power. Among sources of renewable energy, tidal power has traditionally suffered from relatively high cost and limited availability of sites with sufficiently high tidal ranges or flow velocities, thus constricting its total availability. However, many recent technological developments and improvements, both in design (e.g. dynamic tidal power, tidal lagoons) and turbine technology (e.g. new axial turbines, cro...

By Theodora Filis Who is Joanne Branham and why is she involved in a complex and high stake environmental trial that began Monday in Philadelphia? The Branham case is the first of 31 related cases from picturesque McCollum Lake, in McHenry County, making their way through the Philadelphia court system. The US government passed the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) in 1970 to help protect the environment from public and private actions such as corporate pollution. The Environmental Quality Improvement Act as well as the Environmental Education Act and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are other measures taken by the federal government to ensure the protection of the environment and the quality of water and air. If all these agencies have been set up to protect our environment, and by association, us, why is Joanne in court? Her husband, Frank, was 63 when he died of a glioblastoma brain tumor in 2004. He was a longtime resident of McCollum Lake Villa...