Welcome back to the Green Gazette where I scan for both the important and eclectic news that relates to the environment. You’ve caught me at a point where I’m more than a little chagrined and it concerts the UN Climate Summit taking place in Copenhagen.

I could go on for hours (but I won’t) about the tactics being used by the rich and powerful nations to adjust commitments, extend timelines and overtly seek wriggle room when it comes to making legitimate ‘ impact’ decisions. To experienced watchers of these events it comes as no great surprise as speculation has risen for months that the US and Europe (in particular) plus others in general would look for concessions that say ‘yes we know it’s an issue, but be patient we have corporations to consider’. What on earth are we waiting for? Delaying change that is required results in two things – costs will only go up  and negative impact in terms of climate change continues. What’s got me stirred up is many events so far this week from Copenhagen not least of all the clandestine revision of the text of the global climate change agreement (The Kyoto agreement) in a reworded document that changes the onus toward poor and developing nation to be ‘equally fiscally responsible’ for climate change initiatives. Needless to say the secret agreement was created by only G12 (wealthy) nations and create a huge imbalance in terms of a strategic global alliance. The leak has created a stir at the summit which was already anticipated to be tense and inflammatory. It will be fascinating to see what develops in the days ahead as the line between progress and complacency is becoming visibly blurred this week.

There are a number of great outlets to learn more about the summit online – I especially like the coverage of the event being offered by The Guardian newspaper in the UK.  As I write it seems that talks have broken down today and the meetings look to be in disarray – so stay tuned. Friends of The Earth are also providing daily blogging from Denmark along with video updates. I see this summit as a global barometer on what nations are prepared to do in the years ahead to positively combat climate change and the agreements made or nullified have tremendous  ramifications for the coming years.

On to something a little more positive then, news from China is that a chicken eco-farm has harnessed a method to turn the manure from the birds into energy. It sounds a little odd but this isn’t a small farm trying something radical but a large and positive step being taken in a creative manner. The organic  farm itself houses some 3 million chickens and they manage to create some 200 tons of chicken manure daily (sounds pretty fowl). The manure is then transformed into 20,000 cubic meters of biogas and 40,000 kilowatt hours of electricity — enough to meet the daily energy needs of 5,000 households. A nearby village is powered exclusively from the bird waste year round and the farm is being visited by groups throughout China to study the methods to see if they can be applied to other practices (I’m assuming in a farming sense). I find the innovation quite amazing and can’t see why this can’t be a global practice for similar operations. The reduction in emissions from the business due to this implementation is a staggering 95,000 tons per year. Hey Tyson - instead of losing $455 million in the 4th quarter – perhaps listening to the public and making positive changes such as this might give you a product that would be shown in a more positive light than the current ‘conditions’ to which you subject your animals.