IPCC reports, green packaging, and too many gaseous cows.

Business

• GreenBusiness writes about Virgin Games' green datacentre.
• Green employees - a great insight on a recent Ipsos MORI survey from Marketing Green. Article.
• Dennis Salazar reflects on how the packaging industry may be impacted by the green trend. Article.

Politics

• The Lib Dems have spoken out against GM crops, after a Defra survey showed the majority of members of the public are against commercial planting of GM varieties.
• The Independent publishes comments from Paul Bettison, chairman of the Local Government Association's Environment Board, on recent figures showing that we recycle or compost 30% of our waste. Bettison says: "Britain is still the dustbin of Europe, throwing more waste into landfill than any other country in the EU. While these figures are a move in the right direction, there is an inescapable need to do more."
• London Councils has annouced its intention to reduce plastic bag usage in the capital, through either an outright ban or a tax on the offending articles. But what of that favourite landmark, the shredded bag billowing in the trees? Alas...
• The government has announced a carbon offsetting fund to cover flights made by the royal household and central government departments.
• The Observer reports that three out of four councils in the UK have no plan in place to reduce and monitor carbon emissions. Read more...
• Parliament gets greener - at a cost of £20 million. Slight inconsitency with it's lack of foresight on a national scale, methinks...

Science

• The IPCC's synthesis report will be released later this week. A draft already indicates that a decline in GHG emissions must begin before 2015, and that a third of our species are threatened with extinction if temperatures continue to rise.
• Leo Hickman writes in the Guardian about climate change and the folly of crying wolf...
• Taking meat off the menu could be a positive course of action, suggests a report from the Food Climate Research Network. A new report is to warn that the livestock industry generates 8 per cent of all UK greenhouse gas emissions - and that means not only meat products but also dairy. Vegans may have something after all...
• The founder of the Weather Channel calls global warming a scam... read more...