The vote follows several years of wrangling over how stringent the legislation should be. Green campaigners say they are pleased that the issue is to be addressed at last. Incredibly, around 20% of timber coming into the EU is thought to be illegal.

The illegal timber trade plays a significant part in the deforestation of some tropical countries. It also helped sustain the recent Liberian civil conflict as armed factions used the revenue for arms.

Finland’s Green MEP Satu Hassi, who has led moves within the parliament commented “At last the link between the European market and the forests around the world ravaged by illegal logging has been weakened. For too long the EU has preached against such logging and the resulting massive deforestation while simultaneously providing one of the largest markets for illegal timber.”

“As such, this agreement on the illegally sourced timber represents a major international breakthrough.”

The new law will force companies operating in the EU to produce “chain of supply” documentation so that, in principle, each piece of timber can be traced right back to its source.

Oscar winning actress Marion Cotillard has been highlighting the illegal timber issue whilst companies that operate “responsible timber” policies have welcomed the move.

“It is good news that Europe has finally agreed to crack down on illegal timber, creating a level playing field for responsible retailers,” said Ian Cheshire, CEO of Kingfisher plc, the parent company of European DIY giants such as B&Q and Screwfix.

“This new regulation will mean that consumers can have even greater confidence that the wood products they buy are not contributing to deforestation and climate change.”

Campaign groups working on environmental and human rights issues were also pleased by the move.

“This law hangs up a ‘closed for business’ sign to a destructive market,” said Greenpeace EU forest policy director Sebastien Risso. “It promises to level the playing field so legitimate companies and customers are better able to act sustainably.”

However, they were disappointed that EU member states fought for and obtained exemptions for five years on printed materials. To a large extent, the new law replicates measures contained in the amendment to the Lacey Act passed in the US in 2008.

This new law is at least a step in the right direction and hopefully will help reduce the illegal logging of timber around the world. All the other remaining world leaders must now also make this law, effectively ending what has devastated many areas of the planet. Of course we must remember that this not only is a major cause of global warming but also kills thousands of animals in the process.

The world’s net rate of forest loss has slowed in the last decade, with less logging in the Amazon Jungle and China becoming eco-conscious and planting more trees.

Yet forests continue to be lost at “an alarming rate” in some countries, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Its Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 finds the loss of tree cover is most acute in Africa and South America. But Australia also suffered huge losses because of the recent drought.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to say that the deforestation rate is going down across the world, and certainly when you look at the net rate that is certainly down.

“But the situation in some countries is still alarming,”

The last decade saw forests being lost or converted at a rate of 13 million hectares per year, compared to 16 million hectares in the 1990s.

However, new forests were being planted to the tune of more than seven million hectares per year; so the net rate of loss since the year 2000 has been 5.2 million hectares per year, compared to 8.3 million in the 1990s.

Globally, forests now cover about 31% of the Earth’s land surface.

The biggest losses of forest occurred in Brazil, Indonesia and Australia. Australia’s reduction of half a million hectares per year is principally down to the drought conditions that have covered most of the country in recent years, thought to be a consequence of global climate change.

The Indonesian and Brazilian figures were not such a surprise, with both countries possessing vast tracts of forest and major logging industries. Both Brazil and Indonesia are reporting a significant drop in the loss of forests. In Brazil it’s spectacular, and that’s largely because there is a political goal to reduce deforestation by 80% by 2020 and that’s supported by the president.

As deforestation has fallen, there has also been an increase in the planting of new forests, particularly in China, leading to a net increase in national forest cover of three million hectares per year. Worryingly though, the programme – aimed at preventing desertification, reducing flooding and protecting farmland – is due to end in 2020, and if it does, the FAO points out, that will rapidly lead to an increase in the net loss of forest figure. India and Vietnam have also mounted significant forest-planting programmes, the FAO notes.

UN agencies hope the net rate of loss will be slowed further in coming years if the climate change-related initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) comes to fruition.

The FAO is conducting another survey using satellite observations that they hope will provide a much more detailed assessment, and should be published at the end of next year.

Hopefully with technology becoming so mainstream the need for paper will become less and less as the years go by. Think of only a few years ago when you used to write letters, send invoices etc on paper. These days we use email and pdfs which in theory should greatly reduce our need for paper. Maybe the Apple iPad will revolutionise magazines too in the way it did for cd albums. Time will tell.

Breaking Wind
Bad manners just got worse. Breaking news shows that the average person lets rip two to three shot glasses of carbon dioxide every 24 hours! However, if you’re a vegetarian you’re looking at a pint glass. Concerned? Scientists, stifling giggles, advise a diet low in baked beans, corn-on-the-cob, green peppers, cabbage, milk and raisins.

Forget the Space Holiday
Conscience clear for take-off? Intergalactic spring holidays sound like a blast – but the climate impact of space tourism is giving rocket scientists tropopause for thought. A single NASA shuttle’s climate impact can eclipse that of New York in a week – and a space tourism buggy still produces as much CO₂ as a business class flight from London to New York.

Plus, if star treks really take off, yearly emissions from space tourism could trump the weekly emissions of a 500MW power station. Given the gravity of the situation, the carbon conscious may want to limit their moon-walking to Friday nights. Here’s hoping a new anti-gravity alien-style space travel method will be found soon!

Composting Toilets
Remember when composting toilets were a conversational taboo, pooh-pooed by mainstream society? Getting rid of ‘humanure’ using a waterless toilet may not be just a fringe fad much longer as it reduces the climate impact of waste. How?

By composting it into humus. (Not to be confused for the stuff made out of chickpeas – that’s humous.)

One Less Child
Looking for an excuse to get out of having another child? Controversial research by the Optimum Population Trust suggests that the single most effective thing a person can do for climate change is to not have that extra baby.

More people means more carbon emissions. Simple as that. (In fact, a couple that has two kids instead of three could cut their family’s climate impact by the equivalent of 620 return flights a year between London and New York.)

Compost Your Corpse
Surprisingly, we continue producing CO₂, beyond the grave. Our corpses are burnt in furnaces up to five times hotter than an average oven, emitting greenhouse gases and carcinogenic air pollution. Our bodies are 80% carbon, producing around 215kg of CO₂ when cremated. Coffins are made from chipboard or tropical hardwood, decomposing slowly alongside a methane-producing corpse as it rots.

A more climate-friendly way to go is to opt for an ‘eco’ style ‘pod’ made from toughened recycled paper and be buried in a woodland or wilderness, with a planted commemorative tree.

“Global warming is not only the number one environmental challenge we face today, but one of the most important issues facing all of humanity … We all have to do our part to raise awareness about global warming and the problems we as a people face in promoting a sustainable environmental future for our planet.”
— Leonardo DiCaprio

Some of the biggest losses have occurred in the Alps and Pyrenees mountain ranges of Europe. Experts have called for “immediate action” to reverse the trend, which is seen as a key climate change indicator.

Achim Steiner, Under-Secretary General of the UN and executive director of its environment programme (UNEP), said: “Millions if not billions of people depend directly or indirectly on these natural water storage facilities for drinking water, agriculture, industry and power generation during key parts of the year. There are many canaries emerging in the climate change coal mine. The glaciers are perhaps among those making the most noise and it is absolutely essential that everyone sits up and takes notice.”

He said that action was already being taken and pointed out that the elements of a green economy were emerging from the more money being invested in renewable energies.

Mr Steiner went on: “The litmus test will come in late 2009 at the climate convention meeting in Copenhagen. Here governments must agree on a decisive new emissions reduction and adaptation-focused regime. Otherwise, and like the glaciers, our room for manoeuvre and the opportunity to act may simply melt away.”

Dr Ian Willis, of the Scott Polar Research Institute, said: “It is not too late to stop the shrinkage of these ice sheets but we need to take action immediately.”

The findings were compiled by the World Glacier Monitoring Service which is supported by UNEP. Thickening and thinning is calculated in terms of ‘water equivalent’. Glaciers across nine mountain ranges were analysed.

Dr. Wilfried Haeberli, director of the service, said: “The latest figures are part of what appears to be an accelerating trend with no apparent end in sight. This continues the trend in accelerated ice loss during the past two and a half decades and brings the total loss since 1980 to more than 10.5 metres of water equivalent.”

During 1980-1999, average loss rates had been 0.3 metres per year. Since the turn of the millennium, this rate had increased to about half a metre per year. The record annual loss during these two decades – 0.7 metres in 1998 – has now been exceeded by three out of the past six year (2003, 2004 and 2006).

On average, one metre water equivalent corresponds to 1.1 metres in ice thickness. That suggests a further shrinking in 2006 of 1.5 actual metres and since 1980 a total reduction in thickness of ice of just over 11.5 metres or almost 38 feet.

In its entirety, the research includes figures from around 100 glaciers, with data showing significant shrinkage taking place in European countries including Austria, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

This worrying trend must be stopped as soon as possible to avoid serious consequences to not only human and animal life but to the planet itself. The data presented here is black and white, not subjective – so why wait any longer before committing to some serious changes?