Home/Posts Tagged ‘British’
Posts Tagged ‘British’
Conservation, Politics, Sep 13th, 2010,
The Chagos Islands, aka British Indian Ocean Territory, is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom containing many small islands, the largest being Diego Garcia. Diego Garcia was famously – and forcibly – evacuated by the UK government in the 1960s to make way for a US military base. After several court cases, the islanders have still not been allowed to resettle their homeland. The Chagos’ only inhabitants are currently US military living on Diego Garcia. Furthermore, last April a 250,000 square mile (650,000 sq km) Marine Protected Area (MPA) was established around the archipelago prohibiting commercial fishing. From an…
Tags: billionaire, British, Chagos, Diego Garcia, government, Indian, islands, marine, Military, MPA, ocean, overseas territory, Swiss, UK, US
Politics, Pollution, Recycling, ,
Old computers and other e-waste from British government departments have been discovered at dumpsites in African countries and in containers headed for the continent, according to the UK’s environment agency. The chairman of the agency, Lord Smith, warned that the amount of illegally exported e-waste is rising and that in addition to health and environmental concerns, it is also a threat to British national security, due to the risk that sensitive information could still be stored in the computers’ hardware. He said that waste from the UK, which includes computers, monitors, televisions and DVD players, is sent to countries in…
Tags: Africa, British, computers, e-waste, Europe, European, government, Greenpeace, illegal, Nigeria, UK
Conservation, Wildlife & Flora, Aug 25th, 2010,
The British animal welfare charity, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), has published a highly critical report on the treatment of elephants in UK animal parks. The RSPCA report – written by scientists at Bristol University in England – found that elephants at British zoos suffer from a host of health and psychological problems including obesity, obsessive behavior and an infant mortality higher than in the wild. From an article in the Telegraph: Putting them in a zoo makes them obese because they do not eat the right food – they are used to coarse,…
Tags: ban, British, elephants, import, report, RSPCA, UK, welfare, zoos
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Aug 10th, 2010,
Britain’s energy secretary Chris Huhne has lifted the ban on local authorities selling back surplus electricity into the national power grid. The plan is to encourage local councils to generate their own renewable energy by installing solar panels and wind turbines on council owned property, including both homes and public buildings. Any extra electricity can be sold back to the grid and provide much needed income to local authorities. From an article in the Guardian: At present only 0.01% of electricity in England is generated by local authority-owned renewables. In Germany the equivalent figure is 100 times higher. The hope…
Tags: authorities, Britain, British, buildings, carbon, council, developers, energy, government, Green, grid, homes, local, plant, power, renewable, Solar, UK, wind
Wildlife & Flora, Aug 7th, 2010,
A canal in Somerset, southwest England, has become infested with water ferns, which grow rapidly over the surface of water, blocking light and oxygen. This can kill fish and other wildlife. British Waterways, the organization which cares for the UK’s canals and rivers, will release weevils – herbivorous beetles – into the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal. The hope is that the weevils will eat the quickly spreading ferns, which are an invasive non-native species originally brought by the Victorians from North America to furnish their ornamental gardens. From a BBC News report: As the warm weather continues, there’s a danger…
Tags: Azolla, beetles, British, canal, England, fern, water, Waterways, weevils
Climate Change, Conservation, Jul 23rd, 2010,
Much of the feed for British livestock comes from soybeans imported from South America – mainly Brazil and Argentina. According to an article in the Telegraph, 350,000 hectares of rainforest is being cut down to grow soy for UK animal feed. Environmental group Friends of the Earth (FoE) has published a report entitled ‘Pastures New’ detailing how the British meat and dairy industry indirectly causes rainforest destruction in South America. The report incorporates new research by the Royal Agricultural College stating that only 8% of the UK’s agricultural land is used to grow animal feed. FOE urged the government to…
Tags: amazon, animal, beans, Brazil, British, dairy, deforestation, Earth, farmers, feed, FoE, Friends, meat, rainforest, South America, soy, UK
Climate Change, Green living, Pollution, Jul 22nd, 2010,
A new study from the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) reports that the state of British seas has improved since the last report in 2005. Coastal waters are getting cleaner, fish stocks are improving and species diversity in estuaries is increasing, according to the most authoritative examination ever carried out of UK seas. –Guardian Yet despite these improvements, climate change is raising sea levels, temperatures and ocean acidity; and British coasts are trashier than ever – and they’re talking about litter, not the tackiness levels of seaside ‘resorts’ like Blackpool. The changing climate, along with European…
Tags: acidity, British, climate, Defra, environment, fish, improving, marine, seas, UK
Green living, Health, Jul 16th, 2010,
A recent piece for The Ecologist, entitled ‘Biomass Britain: do fields of energy crops spell an end to grazing livestock’, explores the possibility of a revolution in the UK’s land use. 70-80% of land in the UK is used by the British livestock industry. The possibility of a near-complete shift from livestock farming to the growing of food crops and biomass for energy production may sound revolutionary to some and catastrophic to others. It would mean the de-industrialization of Britain’s meat industry and a 60-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, according to The Ecologist article. It’s a revolutionary vision that…
Tags: biomass, British, carbon, change, diet, emissions, energy, farming, forestry, industry, livestock, meat, Peel, plant, Scotland, Scottish, UK, wood
Pollution, Jul 12th, 2010,
Does deep sea oil drilling amongst Greenland’s icebergs sound a bit dicey to you? Probably any deep sea drilling does these days, what with the ongoing and unprecedented disaster in the Gulf of Mexico still dominating much of the news. So it’s no wonder that Greenpeace and the WWF are concerned about recent developments in the Arctic Ocean, where British oil exploration and extraction firm Cairn Energy has recently begun drilling in waters up to 500 meters deep. From an article in the Guardian: We think it is completely irresponsible for Cairn to proceed with these operations when the US,…
Tags: alley, arctic, British, Cairn, deep, drilling, greenland, Greenpeace, Gulf, iceberg, Mexico, oil, sea
Climate Change, Conservation, Health, Wildlife & Flora, Jul 3rd, 2010,
Joyce Kilmer’s 1913 poem ‘Trees’ was not only sickly-sweet, but also pretty darn apt regarding how important our woody friends truly are. The British conservation charity Woodland Trust has published a report detailing the important role of native trees in urban environments. The report, entitled, ‘Greening the concrete jungle’, claims that more trees and woods in urban areas are needed in order to improve general health and wellness, reduce the risk of surface water flooding, raise the quality of life, support wildlife and enhance conditions for inward investment. Trees are an inexpensive way to provide a diverse range of benefits…
Tags: British, concrete jungle, greening, Health, native, report, tree, trees, trust, UK, urban, woodland
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Jul 2nd, 2010,
Is there is just too much revenue in big oil to stop dangerous deep sea drilling? The oil industry, like the massive investment banks behind the financial crisis of 2008, is considered by some to be ‘too big to fail’. Yet also like financial crashes, disasters are calculated by those in charge as risks worth taking. Sure, a tragedy on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico wasn’t expected, but the industry and the government – and everybody – knew that spills happen. Also like the banks, the oil industry is largely self-regulating, so they…
Tags: blowout, BP, Brazil, British, dangerous, deep, Deepwater, disaster, government, Gulf, Horizon, industry, Mexico, north, oil, P-52, platform, rig, risk, risky, sea, spill, too big to fail, UK
Conservation, Jul 1st, 2010,
Primatologist Ymke Warren has been murdered in her home in the upscale neighborhood of Limbe, Cameroon. The murder took place on Tuesday morning when an assailant, who had presumably been hiding in Warren’s attic, attacked her with a machete. Warren lived together with partner Aaron Nicholas, also a primatologist and director of a gorilla project in Cameroon, who returned home minutes after the attack. Nicholas took Warren to the hospital, but her injuries were too severe. The couple were working on the Takamanda-Mone Landscape Project, run by the American Wildlife Conservation Society. They were studying Cross River gorillas, one of…
Tags: Africa, British, Cameroon, Cross River, Dian, Fossey, gorilla, gorillas, killed, Limbe, murdered, Nicholas, primatologist, Warren, Ymke
Climate Change, Jun 28th, 2010,
Ethical investment consultant firm Eiris has judged 300 of Europe’s top companies in terms of their contribution to global warming and found that more than half are UK-based. Eiris found that the number of British companies determined to have a ‘very high impact on global warming’ was double that of any other country. Of those companies in the top 300 dedicated to solving or mitigating the problems of climate change, only 3% were located in Britain. Eiris’s findings come at a time when BP, one of the UK’s best-known companies, has attracted bad publicity worldwide over the Gulf of Mexico…
Tags: 300, Britain, British, Climate change, companies, Eiris, Europe, firm, global warming, oil, survey, UK
Climate Change, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 27th, 2010,
A new major environmental book, entitled Silent Summer: The State of Wildlife in Britain and Ireland, offers up disturbing facts and figures about the human impact on nature in the British Isles. Celebrated naturalist, broadcaster and national treasure Sir David Attenborough has penned the forward to the book, a collaborative effort by 40 UK ecologists, which outlines the impacts of pesticides, population growth and intensive farming on British and Irish flora and fauna. The 600-page book, edited by Norman Maclean, emeritus professor of genetics at Southampton University, lays bare the grim reversal in the populations of many butterflies, bees, flies…
Tags: Attenborough, Britain, British, David, ecosystems, environmental, pesticide, Silent Spring, Silent Summer, Times, UK
Natural disasters, Science & Technology, Apr 15th, 2010,
The second eruption on Iceland during the span of just one month has spewed ash into the air over the British Isles, Sweden, Norway and parts of Denmark, Finland and Russia. The ash has disrupted flights in and through these countries, mainly due to the fact that it affects air traffic control radar, but ash can also damage engines and reduce visibility. Airports across Western Europe are affected, with all flights in and out of the UK currently grounded. The volcanic eruption in Iceland, which is occurring under the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier, is ongoing and could last as long as months…
Tags: air, ash, British, eruption, Eyjafjallajoekull, Eyjafjallajokull, flights, glacier, Iceland, UK, volcanic, volcano
Nature, Weird Stuff, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 6th, 2010,
Minks and grey squirrels from North America, muntjac deer from China, red-necked wallabies from Australia – all have established themselves to varying degrees in different parts of the UK. These and many more are detailed in a new report by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species entitled ‘The State of Britain’s Mammals’. Some of the UK’s invasive species have effectively ‘gone native’ and become part of local ecosystems. Others, like the American mink, are considered harmful to indigenous British wildlife. From an article in the London Times: Britain is facing a surge of invaders with scientists recording 3,800 alien species,…
Tags: American, animal, Britain, British, China, deer, grey, indigenous, invasive, london, mammals, mink, muntjac, native, parakeets, species, squirrels, UK, wallabies
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Apr 5th, 2010,
I recently posted about daylight savings time – summer time in Europe – and the difference of opinions between some groups regarding the possible benefits and drawbacks of switching the clocks forward. The United States Department of Energy and some environmental groups see longer days as effective energy measures, while some doctors associate significant health and safety risks with the initial sleep disruption. Another researcher sees it as a bit of a greenwash. The US starting DST three weeks earlier sounds minor when compared to the UK’s widely supported political proposal to create a new time zone for the British…
Tags: British, clocks, dark, darkness, David Mitchell, energy, farmers, GMT, GMT+2, Greenwich, Mean, summer, Time, UK, winter, zone
Climate Change, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Mar 27th, 2010,
A survey by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) – a British charity dedicated to making the UK’s beaches and seas sustainable, clean and safe – gives Britain bad marks for coastal litter. The good news is that overall garbage on UK beaches went down 16% in 2009 compared to 2008, though the percentage of trash that was plastic hit an all time high of 64%. From an article in the Guardian: The volunteers who conducted the survey, the UK’s biggest, found one piece for each step along the shore. The results showed litter levels along the coasts have increased dramatically…
Tags: beaches, Britain, British, litter, marine, MCS, Nature, plastic, seas, society, survey, turtles, UK
Climate Change, Wildlife & Flora, Mar 3rd, 2010,
A census on marine life in the Antarctic called The British Antarctic Survey seeks to shed some light on how the wide variety of animals that live on the Antarctic sea floor might react to climate change. According to the survey, which began in 2005, ‘the Polar Regions are amongst the fastest warming places on Earth’. Changes in winter sea ice levels, ocean acidification and rising temperatures are already reducing the population of krill, an important food source for Arctic penguins, seals and whales. Changes also favor an increase in the amount of jellyfish in the area. From a BAS…
Tags: Antarctic, BBC, British, change, climate, ecosystem, glacier, global, iceberg, life, marine, Mertz, ocean, polar, research, scientist, sea, survey, warming
Climate Change, Politics, Mar 1st, 2010,
British companies with financial ties to Canada’s controversial tar sands oil operations will face considerable pressure this week from UK environmental lobbies and investors with ethical concerns. The tar sands of Alberta, Canada are the world’s largest deposits of bitumen, a heavy, black form of crude oil extracted via surface mining. Generally considered to be of more harm to the environment than conventional oil drilling, tar sand mining has taken a heavy toll on Alberta’s air, land, water, wildlife and people. According to an article in the Guardian, ethical and environmental groups opposed to British investment in the tar sands…
Tags: Alberta, British, Canada, Co-operative, environmental, ethical, Fair Pensions, Guardian, mining, oil, tar sands, UK
