Environment

Your Healthy Living Show is returning to Edinburgh this summer to help consumers eat well, feel great and look healthier, naturally - without costing the earth.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome's Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

It may not feel like Spring, but for gardeners the growing season is almost upon us. It means that garden waste collections become fortnightly from March. To mark the occasion the City of Edinburgh Council has been giving away free bags of compost made from recycled garden waste. The first giveaway was yesterday at Fox Covert Primary School in Corstorphine, with further compost give-aways planned today and later.

This year’s International Science Festival (3-17 April) will include 46 events at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, with many events taking place at the Real Life Science Studio and other facilities at the Botanics’ new John Hope Gateway visitor and interpretation centre.

The University of Edinburgh returns to the Edinburgh Science Festival with free events, workshops and shows aimed at children and families. Discover Science 2010, running for the duration of the Science Festival (8th-17th April), takes place at the National Museum of Scotland, and Adam House, Chambers Street.

The City of Edinburgh Council is drafting a plan for open space in the city, the first such plan in 40 years, and it wants your view.

The City of Edinburgh Council is to take samples at three sites in Edinburgh as part of a long-running inspection programme in former industrial areas. They include the site of the old Portobello power station, the former Northfield chemical works and a former chemical works at Abbeyhill.

Around 200 educational and interactive activities for the wee ones and lectures and talks for older heads in various venues across town.

Scotland's largest showcase for gardening and outdoors lifestyles gets under way as we enter the Summer months.

The Fairtrade Fortnight is designed to raise awareness of the Fairtrade Movement. It takes place at venues and shops across Edinburgh and throughout the UK. The theme of the 2010 Fairtrade Fortnight is "The Big Swap", encouraging people to use a Fairtrade alternative to their normal product where possible.

Talk by Patrick Holden, a part-time farmer, who has been involved in the organic movement since 1973.

The ancestor of the only survivor of a historic tragedy at the Isle of May lighthouse recently paid a visit to her family's home.

The City of Edinburgh Council has become the 100th Council to sign up to the 10:10 Climate Change campaign. Council Leader, Councillor Jenny Dawe signed the pledge at 10:10am on Wednesday morning at Edinburgh City Chambers. It was 100th day of the 10:10 campaign.

Rail journey times between Edinburgh and Glasgow via Shotts will be slashed by up to 33 minutes when a new winter timetable starts in ten days time.

Pentland Regional Park hoisted a Green Flag in a ceremony at Flotterstone Visitor Centre on Friday for the second consecutive year. The Green Flag Awards Scheme, which has run in Scotland since 1997, recognises urban green spaces using several criteria including how welcoming it is, maintenance and cleanliness, sustainability, conservation and heritage, community involvement and management.

About 150 people in Edinburgh joined in yesterday's International Day of Climate Action by forming a human "350" outside the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood.

The 7th Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival returns to the Capital from 15-18 October, with controversial American climber Timmy O'Neill topping the bill. O'Neill, 40, hails from Boulder, Colorado and has made his name in the extreme climbing discipline of ‘buildering' which involves climbing city centre buildings and structures without a rope. ‘Slacklining' - walking along a rope strung between rock towers - is another of this extreme climber's favourite pastimes.

World leaders meet in Copenhagen in December to agree on a climate action plan to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Climate scientists tell us that this is probably the last chance mankind has to avert catastrophic climate change - do too little and the future will be characterised by floods, droughts, fires, mass human migrations, wars, desertification, and such like on an ever-increasing scale.

The City of Edinburgh Council has won two Green Apple Awards for environmental projects. The awards will be presented at a ceremony at the House of Commons, Westminster on 17 November, when top winners will also have their chance to go to the next round and represent the UK in an event in Brussels - the European Business Awards for the Environment.

A new study outlines a vision of a UK High Speed Rail network that would cut journey times between Edinburgh and London to 2 hours 40 minutes.

Greengauge 21's "Fast Forward: A high-speed Rail Strategy for Britain" recommends a network of mainly new railways operating at up to 200mph