Top news: Greenpeace calls for change to outdated Chinese protection law after oil spill; satellite pictures show giant ice island has travelled over 1,800 miles; a flamingo evades capture for five hours at Manchester airport; carbon neutral ice cream company leads the way towards Scotland’s ambitious energy targets.
#Oil Spill Chinese officials have finally been forced admit the full extent of an oil spill off the country’s coast. Nearly a month after the event and amid uproar from fishermen, local residents and environmental groups over being kept in the dark on the true extent of the spill, the Chinese government has admitted that oil spewing from an offshore rig has spread over 515 square kilometers. Greenpeace China campaigner Zhong Yu said it would take years to recover and called for massive improvements to China ’s “outdated” marine protection laws.
#Ice Island New satellite images show that a massive ice island that broke off from the Petermann glacier in Greenland 11 months ago has floated more than 3,000 kilometers to the island of Labrador. The ice island – named PII-A – is the largest iceberg to form in the Arctic for 50 years at 24 square miles and weighing between 3.5 and 4 billion tonnes. The size and speed of the drifting glacier poses a serious threat to oil platforms in the area and further highlights the dangerous madness of drilling for oil in such a pristine and transient environment. Check out some of the work Greenpeace did in the area a couple of years ago.
#Flamingos While some may consider Manchester in northern England to be as far away from a tropical paradise as it is possible to get, one wayward flamingo appeared to feel particularly at home at the city’s airport – to the consternation of airport staff. The renegade oversized fowl managed to evade capture for nearly five hours, forcing the closure of the airport’s runway two.
#Ice Cream A Scottish dairy farmer and ice cream maker is leading the way toward the newly elected Scottish government’s ambition plans to use 100% renewable energy by 2020. Mackee’s Ice Cream in Aberdeenshire produces 10 million litres of ice cream every year and is 100% carbon neutral. With three wind turbines in Europe’s windiest country, the company manages to power its entire operation by harnessing the wind, with even a little extra to sell back to the grid.