Greenpeace backs Apple's climate stance

Greenpeace is praising Jobs and his Apple cult for their stance on climate change, states The Register.

Apple flounced out of the US Chamber of Commerce after the chamber came out against a Congressional climate change bill, and Greenpeace is quite pleased.

"Apple has stormed out of the biggest lobby group in the US," reads a statement posted to the Greepeace Web site. "At issue is the US Chamber of Commerce's use of funds to oppose climate change legislation. Apple has done the right thing, and IBM and Microsoft should think different too."

Emerson Electric officials are looking to expand what they can offer data centre administrators by buying Avocent for $1.2 billion, reports eWeek.

Emerson offers products, from power and cooling supplies to racks and enclosures, designed to help businesses manage their IT infrastructure and reduce energy costs in their data centres. Buying Avocent will enable Emerson to enhance its data centre management and monitoring capabilities.

Avocent's technologies will complement those from the Emerson Network Power business, which includes power management, cooling and energy-saving products.

A UN protocol that requires large UK businesses to report annually on the release and handling of 86 different pollutants comes into force today, says Computing.co.uk.

The Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers to the Aarhus Convention was formally adopted in May 2003 by 20 EU countries including all the major economies and has now come into full effect.

It requires firms to report on what happens to pollutants they produce over a certain threshold, including greenhouse gases, dioxins, and heavy metals such as mercury. However, it does not require them to restrict emissions in any way.