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One Fewer SUV, via Treehugger, has the story of Ryan Mickle who wants to get rid of his inner city SUV in a way that makes sure it stops polluting for good:

Ryan wants your suggestions. Should he blow it up or convert it to biodiesel? Donate it to some organization? Convert it to electric? He’s looking for ideas that are both eco and attention-getting.

Russel and Trevor Mallard ‘debated‘ water quality yesterday:

Dr Russel Norman: What does the Minister think that Kiwi parents will make of his national policy statement, when its ultimate goal is that 17 kids per 1,000 will be made sick when they swim in their local river, and that this goal may never even be achieved, because there is no time line or deadline for achieving it?

Hon TREVOR MALLARD: Unlike that member, I do not aim to make kids sick.

Good witty thinking on your feet, Trevor.  Why not just say ‘Na-ah’ and blow a raspberry?

The European Union’ Food Safety Authority reckons cloned meat might be safe to eat. But the body with the final deciding power, the The European Commission, is not so sure:

…the final arbiter on the commercialisation of food from cloned animals, is under political pressure to give the go-ahead after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded that meat and milk from cloned cows, pigs and goats are safe to eat.

In an initial reaction the commission said the report “gives rise to increased concerns on aspects of animal health and welfare” and left open questions of food safety. Its ethical advisers said earlier this year they saw no convincing arguments to justify the production of cloned meat.

The Hand Mirror’s Anna McM has a nuanced debate about parents’ rights or otherwise to determine the fertility of their children.

Celias has the story of Dan Glass, the man who superglued himself to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in protest against the expansion of Heathrow and the effect that adding a third runway will have on climate change issues.

Treehugger also the story of Toronto’s concert pianist who helped steal over 2000 bikes, much to the anger of this Canadian journalist:

Horse thieves were among the very lowest, mangiest, least-­tolerated kinds of criminals. When they were caught, they were hanged.

Not to draw a parallel between a hunk of metal and a living animal, but we hold a similar disregard for bike thieves. Those who ride bikes to navigate the city are performing all kinds of social goods - they pollute less than motorists or transit users, they ease gridlock, they pose no real threat to anyone else on the road and, in a way, they even ease the price of gas by lowering the total pool of demand. It isn’t that all of them have chosen to be martyrs for the greater good - cyclists are also, very often, among the least affluent members of society, unable to afford to drive a car or hold a Metropass. Cyclists develop relationships with their bikes, tune them up and learn their quirks and - as we were reminded at the Toronto Cyclists Union’s recent screening of the epic film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure - become quite attached to them.

Photo Credit: Eye Weekly

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