Frogsmoke

The little town of Vendargues in the south of France does what the big guys in Copenhagen couldn't: reduce their carbon footprint. Since last week household waste gets collected by a five year old horse named Quignon. At this moment only some 600 homes are served, but more horses will be drafted in the near [...]

Three years after the start of the smoking ban, the French start puffing again at work and just about everywhere else. The French anti-smoking lobby has just released a desperate report which shows that smoking is back at the workplace, where it was banned in 2007. One in five workers now complain about other people's [...]

French actor Jean Reno (of Leon fame) teamed up with a business that sells premium Hawaiian water to the Far East. Skip to 3:00 to listen how the man justifies this ocean-spanning, fuel-burning, carbon-spitting export activity:

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While the world debates to save the climate: Danes see bomb threat in French cooking oil A French group which advocates the use of cooking oil to run vehicles had its novel fuel confiscated by Danish police on the ground it could be used to make bombs during the Copenhagen climate talks. Members of the [...]

Another doomsday scenario on photoshop site FreakingNews (click for bigger):

Having solved all crime in the country, French police can afford to send in massive forces to unchain an activist from rail tracks: About 30 French police removed a Greenpeace activist who chained himself to railway tracks to block the export of uranium to Russia. But the train was able to travel from a factory [...]

He'll be gray, but was he green enough? Not according to these Greenpeace billboards at Copenhagen airport, on the eve of the crucial climate summit: Click for large size pic (1672px × 684px) Thousands of people will be streaming through Copenhagen airport as they arrive for the two weeks of international climate treaty talks that [...]

In France you can die without worrying too much about the environment. This table lists the current toxic emissions of French crematoria and their future targets. I found the picture in a slide show on the Le Monde site, dedicated to a recent business fair for funeral operators. Among the many novelties on show was [...]

Paris City Hall wants to call a halt to the nuisance and dangers of binge drinking. They invite young Parisians to create short horror movies based on the campaign theme "Trop boire c'est un cauchemar" (drinking too much is a nightmare). The six best entries win a cash prize between 250 and 1500 euros. (A [...]

If the zoo keepers in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, can be believed there's nothing better to keep the local monkeys safe from the H1N1 virus than French Cahors wine. Click for source Strange as it may sound, Cahors has a good reputation in Russia. Emperor Peter I drank Cahors (Russian: кагор) and the Russian Orthodox Church adopted [...]

It started out as a nice green idea but has turned out a nightmare. From the New York Times: Paris residents can rent a sturdy bicycle from hundreds of public stations and pedal to their destinations, an inexpensive, healthy and low-carbon alternative to hopping in a car or bus. But this latest French utopia has [...]

A controversial campaign for ADOT, the French association that wants to promote the donation of organs and human tissues. More videos here

Don't we all know the problem: French bears suffering from lack of females The population of brown bears in France has become so small that the species might become extinct in the near future, according a study, but introducing new females to the region could help reverse the decline. The brown bear population in France [...]

A French documentary uses emotion to argue for organic food. The French title "Nos Enfants Nous Accuseront" (literally, "Our Children Will Blame Us") has become "Food Beware" at its American release. This clip shows the stark contrast between organic and conventional farming of vegetables on two plots of land in the French countryside. Read here [...]