Earlier this week, I blogged about the sad loss of Steve Jobs and my green guilt about whether or not to upgrade my iPhone to the iPhone 4S.

Oh dear: I cringed while writing the last half of that previous sentence! However I’m not the only one wedded to my gadgets. According to The Economist, sales of connected devices – specifically smartphones – will reach nearly 700 million by 2013. Continue Reading

Have you heard of the Anthropocene? It is a recent term, which serves to mark the evidence and extent of human activities and their effects on the environment and our planet. I hadn’t heard of it until recently and truthfully, I really should have. In fact, so should anybody who has even a passing interest in climate change and living a greener life.

Taken at its most literal, the term means “the recent age of man”. It was coined in 2000 by Paul Crutzen, an atmospheric chemist. His argument is that we have entered another age, shaped primarily by people. I think we have all known for quite some time that mankind has had a colossal impact on our planet. Continue Reading

Forests have been in the news a lot recently, with the Government halting its controversial plans to sell publicly-owned forests to timber companies. But did you know that deforestation is on the decline?

The Government’s U-turn has prompted plenty of headlines. However I think that the decline in deforestation is also worth shouting about. Recently, much of what I read about the environment seems to have a gloomy bent. Barely a day goes by without some apocryphal story about the planet’s depleted oceans, polluted atmosphere, melting glaciers or threatened wildlife.

The deluge can be overwhelming and a little depressing. So when some good news like this comes along, it is worth spreading. Continue Reading