energy

Our energy expert Robin, delivers a giant, coal-filled postcard to Medway Council

A few months ago, I wrote that the UK could be facing a new coal rush; Medway Council was considering an application to build the UK’s first new coal-fired power plant in over 30 years.

The story had a huge response, with over 13,000 of you writing to Medway Council to ask them to turn down the application (thank you!).

This morning, a team from Greenpeace HQ hand delivered a huge batch of your postcards to Medway Council, adding a giant, coal-filled, perspex postcard of our own to the thousands of messages from people in Kent and around the country.

So far in our light bulb campaign, we've bashed companies like Woolworths for not being proactive enough in sweeping inefficient incandescent bulbs from their shelves, but we're also working on more positive angles to demonstrate the plus-points of energy saving light bulbs or compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). One of the frequent excuses used for not switching to CFLs is that they're unattractive/ungainly/ugly/inconvenient (delete as applicable), but that's not so. They now come in an exhaustive variety of shapes, sizes and colours and can be just as aesthetically pleasing as old-fashioned bulbs.

Jason Bruges certainly thinks so. One of the UK's top interactive installation designers, he’s currently working with us on a new work to demonstrate the versatility of CFLs. He's no stranger to low-carbon design projects - his recent installation at the South Bank in London, Wind to Light, featured mini-wind turbines powering hundreds of LEDs, and his studio's latest work will be the front of house feature at this year's 100% Design at Earls Court Exhibition Centre later this month.

After twenty years out of fashion, the term 'cold war' has become the hot favourite in Fleet Street once more. Not just because diplomatic relations between Russia and the UK distinctly frosty at the moment, but Russia's current Arctic adventures are lowering the temperature even further.

It's just after 3pm now and all of the main teams of volunteers have either been removed from or left their respective branches of Woolworths after clearing the shelves of inefficient light bulbs. The management at head office seems clearly rattled as their press officers have been telling our Light Brigaders (or is that Brigadiers?) that there'll be an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss their light bulb policy. We'll keep you posted on what, if anything, transpires next week. In the meantime, there's our cheap-as-chips video and photos from the day of action on Flickr to keep you entertained.

It's going to be a busy day at branches of Woolworths across the UK today as the Greenpeace Light Brigade pay them a visit to ask why they're still selling old-fashioned, power crazy light bulbs. Woolworths came bottom of our new league table, ranking light bulb retailers according to their commitments to phase out inefficient bulbs, so our volunteers have decided to take matters into their own hands.