The Welsh town of Chepstow is the most recent to declare itself 'plastic free'. PAUL MILES reflects on the subsequent media frenzy, the community's unwavering enthusiasm, and their long-term goals
The controversy involving a Sheffield City Council contractor chopping down almost half of the city's street trees shows no sign of abating. PAUL MILES argues it could prove to be a serious vote loser for the sitting councillors in the forthcoming local elections...
Sheffield City Council signed a 25-year PFI highways’ maintenance contract with Amey, owned by Ferrovial, for £2.1bn in 2012. Now Amey is chopping down almost half of the city's street trees. Is this to cut costs, or are these trees 'dangerous, dead, diseased, dying, damaging or discriminatory'? PAUL MILES investigates
Before taking to a low impact lifestyle aboard his narrowboat, PAUL MILES imagined foraging - especially in springtime - would keep his galley larder well stocked but learns the reality is very different ...
We should resurrect the 1940s plans for a Grand Contour Canal - a 100ft-wide waterway that would have followed the 300ft contour line around England from Newcastle to London to Southampton and many places in-between - and then we could all travel more pleasurably, writes PAUL MILES
In the first of his new Ecologist columns on the ups and downs of trying to live a Greener, low-impact lifestyle, writer PAUL MILES debates the eco pros and cons of getting his first dog
The idea has yet to catch on in the UK but in Scandinavia, where the very first 'nature house' was built in the 1970s, the idea of surrounding your existing home with what is essentially a 'greenhouse' to create a living home is one that is catching on. PAUL MILES explores the eco benefits
As climate change speeds up, the question of how to adapt our homes to hotter temperatures is becoming increasingly important. Now, a pioneering project on the island of Tenerife has been set up to address those concerns. Paul Miles reports
Cement manufacturers are among the world’s biggest polluters and produce more emissions per capita than aviation. So how can you ensure that the cement you use isn’t wrecking the planet?
The Gates Foundation has just announced a $42 million project over several years to develop a toilet that doesn't need water, mains power or sewerage and that will cost next to nothing
Habitat loss doesn’t just affect rainforest dwellers, says Paul Miles. New builds and carbon reducing measures have been tough on the species that share our homes. Here's how to bring them back
A pioneering community-based hydroelectric energy project in the Brecon Beacons is a blueprint for how green energy can provide more than just low-carbon power...
As the price of oil increases again, Canada's tar sands once more look like a giant cash cow to the industry. Now, the only thing standing between the 400 ton bulldozers and rampant environmental destruction may be a small group of First Nations people...
When the Cornish village of Boscastle was devastated by flooding in 2004, few hoped to do any more than salvage the town. Today, it is flourishing, thanks to a new found awareness - and respect - for the power of Nature
In the final instalment from Britain’s historic waterways, the Ecologist’s narrowboat correspondent finds a literal and metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel on the Grand Union canal
In the second communiqué from the canals of Britain, a narrowboat newbie finds the pace of life slowing to the speed of the water, offering time for reflection and a deeper appreciation of the great outdoors
In the first of a three-part series, a repentant travel writer trades in his longhaul flights and luxury holidays for three months living on a narrowboat
As adventure tourism exhausts its possibilities, what next?… A look at why we travel, its environmental impact, and where our final destination might be
Does the Aral Sea, the biggest environmental disaster of the 90s, offer us cause for hope? Paul Miles reports, and sees parallels with a bigger man-made disaster – climate change