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The big palm-oil trading companies like Unilever and Cargill have formed a Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil. But an official report from their last meeting said talk of sustainability in the industry was currently "a pipe dream".

No wonder that green-minded retailers like Wal-Mart and Tesco don’t have much to say about where the palm oil in their products originates (though Tesco has joined the Round Table above).

Can I suggest a place to start? McDonald’s says it will no longer serve meat made from animals fed with soya beans from recently deforested land. So how about a similar rule for palm oil in our biscuits? The industry could begin by announcing a ban on palm oil from Indonesia’s new super-plantation.

Otherwise we will have saved the whales, only to finish off the jungles.

Fred Pearce, senior environment reporter, New Scientist International

Fred’s previous footprints: Furniture stolen from the rainforest, An ethical paper mill isn’t pulp fiction, Cans lost in the landfill, A can-load of energy, Where prawns meet the mafia, How fair is fair-trade coffee?, The cost of gold, Old phones offer new hope in Africa, A dollar a day for wrecked lungs, Green beans and old computers, Cottoning on to FairTrade.

Reference: “Zero Emissions UK Homes by 2016 – How long for Australia?”, 17 May 2007.
Other articles of interest: “The latest eco-houses – and why they’ll need no heating at all”. Website: http://money.independent.co.uk/property/homes/article2500115.ece “Government code for sustainable homes”. Website: http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/professionals/en/1115314116927.html “Kingspan – zero carbon house”. Website: http://www.offsite2007.com/page.jsp?id=15 “Government move gets off to better start than it might have hoped.” Website: http://www.residentiallandiord.co.uk/news995.htm” Contact: media@beyondzeroemissions.org

Erisk Net, 17/5/2007

Reference: Sylvia Hale, Member of the Legislative Council, NSW 30 May 2007

Erisk Net, 30/5/2007

The disappearance of the lake in Bernardo O’Higgins National Park was discovered in late May by park rangers, who were stunned to find a 130-foot-deep crater where a large lake had been just two months earlier, when they last visited the area.

Possible causes for the dam to be breached include a sudden input of water into the lake, an earthquake or avalanches of ice or rock. Casassa said the Chilean lake was fed by two glaciers, the Bernardo and the Tempano, "and both are receding."

The water level of the lake could have risen with the increasing flow from the melting glaciers. "At the same time, the increased amount of water opens a tunnel under the ice, emptying the lake," Casassa said.

Another glaciologist, Andres Rivera, said "most glaciers in the region are receding as a result of the global warming." This may both create new lakes or cause others to empty, he said. Casassa said glaciers can recede for other reasons than global warming. It can be the result of the natural dynamic of glaciers, which recede or grow.

"But I am convinced that in this case, it is the result of global warming," he said. The empty lake is about 4,921 feet above sea level. Romero, the head of the forest service, said another theory is that the water disappeared through huge cracks at the bottom of the crater. He said the cracks may have been caused by the strong quake that rocked the region on April 21.

The Australian, 23/6/2007, p. 14

Source: Erisk Net