Even beyond the news stories, environmental issues have entered the mainstream with soap operas espousing the virtues of recycling, Rogue Traders uncover fly-tippers and Gardeners World talks global warming and wildlife gardening.

Even Bob the Builder is an eco-warrior!

The range of environmental issues reported on now is huge compared with even 10 years ago.

In the mid 1990s when environmental consciousness really took off, you would be lucky if you heard any more than major environmental disasters in the media.

Oil tankers running aground, chemical spills or nuclear accidents were the sum total of environmental reporting on a national scale in years gone by, while local stories focused on new road schemes, buildings being demolished or campaigns against new facilities.

Yet, just for starters last week we heard that Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on raising awareness about global warming.

Interestingly, granting the award for such an issue has probably signalled a change of emphasis away from the war and peace issues that have dominated proceedings for the last few years.

We also learned that scientists are trying to obtain more conclusive evidence for climate change by studying the extent of ice coverage across the Arctic region for the last 1,000 years.

On the theme of climate and weather, we also remembered the effects of the hurricane of 1987, which devastated large areas of Sussex 20 years ago this week.

Elsewhere, we learned that feral pigs are destroying large areas of agricultural land in Australia, four million people are to be moved from their homes to accommodate the Three Gorges Dam in China and that cleaning up Britain's 20 nuclear power stations will cost £73 million when they close.

Meanwhile, the road pricing plan proposed by the government as a means of solving the congestion crisis has quietly been shelved.

It wasn't all bad news, though.

Apparently, South China tigers have been seen in the wild for the first time in more than 20 years and the ancient oak trees of Sherwood Forest are subject to a £50 million rescue plan.

Even here in the Herald and Gazette there were seven stories concerning environmental issues, from someone throwing a wheelie bin to Durrington High School sending their computers for reuse and recycling in Ghana.

Subconsciously we are all interested in our environment and awareness of "green" issues is far higher than perhaps it ever has been.

Yet, despite this, there is still a lot of disinformation about, which hampers real progress on many important issues.

I find this disappointing but I suppose even adverse publicity raises awareness!