energy

stop investing in fossil fuel extraction and consumption. The sustainable application of renewable energy technologies must be a part of any realistic attempt to reduce the strain industrialization has put on the atmosphere.

Building more large hydroelectric dams will increase vulnerability to climate change

Read more on page 5 of Twelve Reasons to Exclude Large Hydro from Renewables Initiatives (pdf, 409 kb)

Fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas emit gases which trap heat in the atmosphere. The amount of 'greenhouse gases' in the atmosphere has increased by 30% in the last 200 years . Forcing climate change in this way has unpredictable and potentially hazardous consequences, especially for the world's most vulnerable people.

* Find out more about the Friends of the Earth International campaign to get International Financial Institutions out of oil, mining and gas .

* Find out about what measures have been taken to combat the climate-changers through the Kyoto Protocol

* Friends of the Earth International discussion paper - Biomass: the need, the risks and the opportunities

is nuclear power the answer?

Nuclear power is not the answer to this environmental problem. Although there are no greenhouse gas emissions there are many other risks that people across the world have rejected:

Behind the shine: The other Shell Report 2003 Read the full report

• small scale radioactive leakages
• catastrophic failures with major long terms consequences, such as Three-Mile Island (1979) or Chernobyl (1986)
• health risks linked to exposure to radioactivity
• the emissions to polluted coolant water
• damage to valuable coastal sites where nuclear power stations must be located
• damage to the environment through continued extraction of uranium ore
• the spread of nuclear technology to unstable political areas

  *Friends of the Earth groups in Europe , Germany and Korea have been active in resisting the the growth of nuclear power.