World environment day: European journalists ‘green up’ Europe’s cities

From Copenhagen to Kyoto we are repeating the same old trite, somewhere along the lines of ‘the last climate change conference was a failure’ or ‘the disastrous results of the united nations process shows the weakness of global climate policies…’ Back on the ground and in the tiny spaces of our own individual lives, we are recognising that the environment and sustainability are increasing parts of our daily routines. June saw European mothers calling up their expat children across the continent to warn them not to eat any salads or fruits and vegetables after the e-coli outbreak in (what was first rumoured to be) Spanish cucumbers. Citizens woke up to the prospect of nuclear strategies on their own turf after the Fukushima reactor accident in Japan, and governments (notably Germany) tightened up their own nuclear laws. In the framework of the ‘Green Europe on the ground’ editorial series between November 2010 and July 2011, pan-European teams of cafebabel.com reporters have been heading out to the cities of the continents to knock out their own understandings of green topics. We’ve danced ‘green’ in Berlin, illustrated ‘green comics’ in Brussels, planted ‘green products’ in Seville and designed ‘green’ in Budapest: read a pick of the articles for world environment day on 5 June (Image: (cc) NCM3/ Flickr/)