Some of you may not be aware of the intricacies of the British parliamentary system, but one of its stranger quirks is something called the House of Lords - an amalgam of hereditary aristocrats, ageing bishops and a range of other assorted oddballs.

Over the years (centuries), this ‘upper house’ has cultivated something of a reputation for eccentricity - but the latest outburst from Conservative Lord McColl takes the biscuit. In order to tackle the safety risk posed to pedestrians by quiet electric cars he suggested the following proposal:

“My Lords, does the Minister accept that there might be a simpler solution? When I purchased one of these cars a few years ago, my wife, being very practical, said that the answer would be to put on the front of the car a small Swiss cowbell….”

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Cops based near Oxford in the UK have revealed that they are unable to to use flashing blue lights on their new electric car - in case it drains too much power from the battery.

The Thames Valley police force is testing out the £20,000 ($33,000) Mitsubishi iMiev in an effort to improve its environmental credentials. Apart from this quite obvious setback, they have been pleased with the silent, emission-free car, capable of travelling 100 miles on a single charge (with the lights off).

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A UK company has launched a new device that allows users to cut-off their water supply at the flick of a switch, drastically reducing wasteage and giving a significant boost to water conservation efforts.

Instead of scrabbling around looking for the stopcock, the new Surestop device allows users cut supply instantly, saving water loss, and consequent damage, whilst giving householders direct control over water consumption.

Now the company hopes to expand into areas crippled by drought, where water conservation is a pressing priority.

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Rowan still offers their organic cotton yarn in DK weight that is naturally dyed using plants. New this season is their 4 ply organic cotton yarn, also dyed with natural plant dyes. The shades of this yarn are soft, subtle and sweet, perfect for summer knitting.

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A team of British designers have created a new racing car made entirely of vegetables and powered by … chocolate.

The car, named the ecoF3, has a steering wheel made of carrots, a body made of potatoes and a seat made of soybeans. The team, from World First Racing, hope that environmentally-friendly technology used in their car will be adopted by Formula 1 teams such as McLaren and world champions Ferrari.

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A Swedish town announced last month that it will use cremated bodies to provide heat, and now the British town of Reepham has decided to heat many of its buildings by burning oil made from melted cow and pig carcasses. Are dead bodies— human or otherwise— the next big thing in heating?

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Environmentalists are organizing a protest against the arrival of a ship in Hartlepool, England from France next week because the ship is loaded with 700 tons of toxic asbestos.

A Hartlepool company has been contracted to dismantle the ship, but environmental groups worry that they do not have the proper equipment or expertise to properly dismantle the ship. Asbestos can cause severe respiratory problems and has been banned in many countries.

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Needless to say, I find it unlikely that in a recession and with tight CO2 emissions goals to meet we can justify expanding Heathrow.

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Several residents of a remote English village have reported sightings of a bizarre tentacle-shaped UFO above a local wind farm, on the night before a wind turbine was mysteriously destroyed.

Engineers from energy suppier Ecotricity are investigating why a blade more than 20 meters (66 ft) long fell off the turbine at a wind farm in Conisholme Fen, Lincolnshire, early on Sunday morning. In the meantime, locals are coming to their own conclusions after many of them saw strange flashing tentacle shaped lights above the wind farm on the night before the damage occurred.

John Harrison, a resident of nearby Saltfleetby, said he looked out of his window on Saturday night to see “a massive ball of light,” and “tentacles going right down to the ground” over the site. “It was huge” he said “At first I thought it must have been a hole where the moon was shining through but then I saw the tentacles – it looked just like an octopus.

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The huge handout comes as a result of the over allocation of carbon permits to some of the biggest names in world business, including Ford, Toyota and pharmaceuticals giant Astra Zeneca.

Under the European Union’s flagship carbon trading scheme, permits are distributed to companies by the government, and are intended to account for their carbon emissions over the following five year period. However, figures published by the European Commission reveal that many recipients have been allocated far too many permits, which they can sell for cash. The total over-allocation runs to nine million permits across 200 companies. At the current price of £21, these could be sold for a total of £189 million (around $340 million).

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Comedian Ed Byrne on card recycling, mincemeat, and his father’s annual holiday fart joke…

(via Ecostreet)