Switching on to light-bulb recycling

by Yvonne Cook The old-fashioned tungsten lightbulb is set to disappear from our shops, in favour of energy-efficient bulbs, also known as CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps). Good news for the environment, surely, but there could be a downside when CFLs reach the end of their life.   We’re all accustomed to chucking our used lightbulbs [...]

Nuclear power – yes please?

Written by Dr Joe Smith, Senior Lecturer in Environment OK – I’m sorry – more of an essay than a blog post, but I’ve got to get all this off my chest in one go. In the 1980s across Europe you would see stickers with a sparky little cartoon atom character shouting ‘nuclear power – [...]

China, Africa, and Oil

The Open University’s Dr Giles Mohan, reader in the politics of International Development, gives a 90-second lecture on China’s involvement with Africa and why it may or may not be a good thing for the region.

Is the world running out of oil?

Godfrey Boyle, director of the Open University’s Energy & Environment Research Unit, is co-author of one of the technical reports that provided the background to the Global Oil Depletion report which was announced recently. Is the world running out of oil? Are supplies just about to reach a peak, followed by a steep decline, as oil [...]

Open University in pioneering electric car project

The OU is helping to develop a network for recharging electric and hybrid cars.