February 2006

While the global suffering caused by climate change escalates every day, UK vehicles are pumping out more greenhouse gases than ever before.

CO₂ emissions from road transport are rising. Car manufacturers, unlike most other sectors, aren't legally bound to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Instead, when put under pressure to do something about their immense contribution to climate change, they agreed to voluntarily reduce emissions of the average new car by 2008.

Just one week after the excellent news about the Great Bear Rainforest comes another stunning victory with the announcement that a huge area of the Amazon rainforest will be protected from destructive logging.

On 12 February 2005, Sister Dorothy Strang was assassinated for defending the rights of rural workers in the Amazon. For more than 30 years, she had campaigned against the human rights abuses and environmental degradation that continue to plague Pará State as the interests of the forest-dwelling communities are disregarded in favour of land-grabbers, ranchers and loggers.

It's rare that success comes on such a scale so this is one worth celebrating. The provincial government of British Columbia in Canada has announced the protection of 2 million hectares of ancient forest with strict ecological management for the rest.