Gary Neville's testimonial at Old Trafford on Tuesday night will be the greenest match in football history after the eco-conscious star insisted on the entire game being powered by wind.

The 36-year-old, who hung up his boots halfway through the season, is famous for his sensitivity to the plight of the environment, and recently won a court order allowing him to build a futuristic £8m Teletubbies-style home specially designed to have a zero carbon footprint. (TW*T)

And he will showcase his dedication to the environment in the clash against Juventus, which will feature Neville's former team-mate David Beckham and recently-shamed Ryan Giggs. All energy used at the 76,000-seater stadium - from the power for the floodlights to the heating elements in the pie machines - will be provided by 52 windmills across the UK that are operated by a firm called Ecotricity.

"I have recognised in the last two to three years the need to make personal changes in my life and reducing my environmental impact is going to be a five-year transition for me and my family," explained Neville.

"Sport crosses all boundaries and plays a significant role in many people's lives. From my perspective we have to look at the effect sport has had on other issues over the last 20 years to see that when sport comes together with society, positive actions can happen."

Neville is expected to make as much as £2 million from the match - but he has already said that he will plough all of it into building a supporters' club and hotel for Manchester United fans.
Eurosport

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/24052011/58/premier-league-neville-testimonial-wind-powered.html

52 windmills to power one 76,000 seater football stadium, the capacity of a small town!
So for each city of 200,000 population capacity there would need to be 137 windmills for power?
Population
London 7.2 Million
Birmingham 992000
Leeds 720000
Glasgow 560000
Sheffield 512000
Bradford 467000
Edinburgh 450000
Liverpool 440000
Manchester 420000
Bristol 380000
Wakefield 316000
Cardiff 310000
Coventry 305000
Nottingham 285000
Leicester 280000
Sunderland 280000
Belfast 280000
Newcastle upon Tyne 259000
Brighton 248000
Hull 240000
Plymouth 240000
Stoke-on-Trent 239000
Wolverhampton 239000
Derby 230000
Swansea 225000
Southampton 220000
Salford 215000
Aberdeen 215000
Westminster 190000
Portsmouth 186000
York 182000
Peterborough 157000
Dundee 145000
Lancaster 135000
Oxford 135000
Newport 135000
Preston 130000
St Albans 130000
Norwich 125000
Chester 118000
Cambridge 115000
Salisbury 115000
Exeter 111000
Gloucester 110000
Lisburn 110000
Chichester 108000
Winchester 108000
Londonderry 105000
Carlisle 101000
Worcester 93000
Bath 90000
Durham 87000
Lincoln 86000
Hereford 55000
Armagh 55000
Inverness 51000
Stirling 45000
Canterbury 42500
Lichfield 30000
Newry 30000
Ripon 24500
Bangor 20000
Truro 19000
Ely 14000
Wells 10000
St Davids 2000

Thats a lot of windmills!

Shale Gas:

David Nussbaum, head of the green group WWF, says this is complacent. WWF is calling for a moratorium on shale gas drilling in the UK until the US Environmental Protection Agency has carried out a major report into the practice - probably next year. They also want to see more studies on the climate effects of shale gas.

WWF wants the EPA to provide it's 'unbiased' view on the subject before the UK commits to shale!

Sorry boys the UK has done its own research, shame you weren't included but this is how opinion is changing.

This is encouraging, even seen thru the Harrabin prism:

A Commons committee has urged ministers to support plans for controversial shale gas drilling in the UK.

The energy select committee said environmental problems associated with it in the US could be overcome by tight regulation and good industry practice.

But the MPs said the UK government would need to be vigilant to ensure the technology did not pollute water or produce excessive greenhouse emissions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13507126

How about assisting Chris Huhne in his time of need:

This new RIBA Competition invites architects, engineers, designers and students of these disciplines to come up with proposals for a new generation of electricity pylon. As well as exploring the design of the ‘object’, this competition also seeks to explore the relationship between our energy infrastructure and the environment within which it needs to be located. The challenge is to design a pylon that has the potential to deliver for future generations, whilst balancing the needs of our communities and preserving the beauty of our countryside.

He (Chris Huhne) said: "There are limits to what we can do with undergrounding and that means we have got to get the overground cables looking as attractive, as beautiful and having as little impact on our natural environment as we possibly can."

The competition is a "blank canvas" according to Mr Huhne, who will chair the judging panel. He says ideas are welcome from everyone.

http://www.ribapylondesign.com/

Calling Josh, any chance of knocking up a design of a fist with the index and ring fingures erect with overhead cables attached, in an inverse victory sign, indicating a national response to this plonker.

Just had my lunch and read the paper. Page 3 of the Telegraph - headline; "Warmest, driest spring is about to get hotter". I don't want to get into an argument about warmest or driest, but what I wondered about was the "The Met Office said the average temperature across Britain since the start of March has been just over 48.6F (9.2C) - the warmest since records began in 1910."

1910?

Eh? Does anyone have any idea where this date came from? I thought we had records going back far earlier than that. What about CET?

It doesn't feel that warm today with this wind blowing all my flowers to ribbons. I've got a thick jumper on and a scarf.

Turning Tide: I am sure you noticed that that scaremongering about us being 9th on the list came from National Trust. Another group hijacked by greenie, left-wing, anti-hunting activists jumping on the back of the AGW bandwagon. They own a tiny piece of land of no significance near me that the local parish council are trying to get their hands on to turn into allotments for the village and the prevaricating and obstruction that is going on defies belief. And this despite all their publicity about helping local people to use their land for that purpose.

Couple of interesting stories.

Just look at what can happen across Europe when Germany has a power cut:

Power cuts in Germany spark wave of blackouts across Europe

And lookee here at what energy companies are forecasting for a post-nuclear Germany:

Germany nuclear shutdown by 2022 may mean blackouts, Merkel warned

I really think this is what will finally kick all the AGW nonsense into touch: when people start experiencing regular blackouts, they'll begin to ask awkward questions about why all this lovely clean energy we have is not keeping the lights on.

I hope it happens sooner rather than later, before all of our beautiful countryside is desecrated with useless turbines.

My son is due to start primary school and we have been on a visit to the school, this I found pretty alarming as it appears to be total systematic indoctrination into the green agenda.
http://www.ecoschoolsscotland.org/documents/CurriculumForExcellenceOutcomeMapsEarlyLevel.pdf
The head teacher was pretty proud of how the children answered the Eco auditors when they came to visit.

MWP was in South America too, Incas increased food production using Llama dung and a warm spell of weather. But predicably the Guardian concentrates on the dung.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/22/incas-llama-manure-crops

Climate change, in the form of warmer temperatures, also helped Inca society to evolve by making it easier to cultivate corn at high altitudes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/8530242/David-Cameron-Chris-Huhne-has-my-total-confidence.html

So Huhne'll be gone by the end of the week then.....

Britain comes in at number 9 in a list of places most affected by global warming, according to the New Zealand Herald:

Global warming: 9 most affected areas

Why a "top 9", I wonder? Isn't "top 10" more traditional? Maybe they couldn't think of a 10th place.

But don't worry too much: the effects we're likely to suffer are "threats to historic properties and estates from flooding and storm surges".