Home/Posts Tagged ‘UK’
Posts Tagged ‘UK’
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Jul 3rd, 2012,
The share of power supplied by renewable energy in the UK has gone up by 30% from last year. The first quarter of 2012 showed that power generated by wind, sea, solar, other hydro electricity and bioenergy provided 11% of Britain’s energy, compared to the first quarter of 2011′s 7.7%. In 2009 it was just 3%. The UK has pledged that by 2020 it will produce 15% of its power from ‘clean’ energy sources. Other big changes in energy production were seen in the areas of gas, coal and nuclear – and it’s not all good news. From the…
Tags: gas, renewable energy, UK, wind
Animals, Nature, Politics, Wildlife & Flora, May 31st, 2012,
The UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has dropped its controversial plan to capture buzzards and destroy their nests in order to protect pheasants. Of course the pheasants wouldn’t be safe for long as the plan was to leave the pheasants to be killed by hunters instead of buzzards. A bit of meddling on the part of Defra so rich hunters can have more of a day out. Not really ‘Department for Environment’ concern, you’d think. It gets weirder. From the Independent: The Environment Department (Defra) planned to spend up to £375,000 researching ways to keep the…
Tags: buzzard, Defra, government, nest, pheasants, UK
Green living, Science & Technology, Apr 11th, 2012,
Soon Wales will receive wind energy generated off the coast of Ireland via high voltage cables spanning the bottom of the Irish Sea. There is already a link between the UK and the Netherlands via the BritNed cable and by 2019 a 900km interconnector between Norway and the UK should be completed, supplying energy from a clever pump storage system powered by wind turbines. Another connector between the UK and France is already in existence, with two more proposed, although one involves nuclear power. The most interesting and by far longest cable proposed would link the UK power grid with…
Tags: cable, geothermal, green energy, Iceland, Norway, power, UK
Climate Change, Apr 9th, 2012,
Will the youth of China and Brazil lead the way in the new environmental ‘Great Leap Forward’ while British and American young people languish in egomaniacal tweets and preposterous dreams of stardom, not giving two cares about the future of the planet? A recent survey by the Carbon Trust attempts to measure concern about CO2 and climate change in young populations around the world – and the results may surprise you. The scope of the survey focuses on the awareness and consumer values of young adults in 6 different countries on 5 continents – The US, UK, China, South Korea,…
Tags: Brazil, Carbon Trust, China, Climate change, Korea, survey, UK, USA, young, youth
Pollution, Wildlife & Flora, Mar 29th, 2012,
The jury is in: common agricultural pesticides disrupt the navigation systems of honeybees and reduce the weight and number of queens in bumblebee hives. Two separate studies showed strong links between pesticides and the epidemic disappearance of honeybees in the US and UK, known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Experiments showed that honeybees died or failed to return to their hives in much greater numbers than expected. Bumblebees exposed to typical levels of pesticides saw their hives populations shrink by 10% versus hives not exposed. What’s worse is they almost lost their ability to produce new queens. Only queens live…
Tags: bumblebees, CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder, honeybees, pesticides, UK, US
Animals, Weird Stuff, Wildlife & Flora, Feb 8th, 2012,
A rare Chioninia lizard from Cape Verde climbed into a tourist’s luggage before she boarded her flight from the African islands to the UK. The lizard survived a 3,000-mile (5,000 km) flight in a cold luggage hold, followed by a machine wash cycle at the tourist’s home in Somerset, UK. Sue Banwell-Moore found the lizard after removing her washing from the machine. She assumed it was dead until it surprisingly recovered. From the Guardian: I was hanging out the washing on the clothes dryer and I looked down and there was this lizard there. I thought he was dead…
Tags: Cape Verde, Chioninia, flight, lizard, UK, washing machine
Climate Change, Feb 7th, 2012,
Though the economic recession caused UK greenhouse gas emissions to fall in 2009 (8.7% from 2008 levels), in 2010 they climbed back up by 3.1%, according to a new government report. This is the first rise in emissions since 2003 and can be attributed to the unusually cold winter of 2010. Power generation used more fossil fuels during the year. An article in the Guardian associates the rise in emissions with the economic recovery after the recession (has there been an ‘after the recession?’) though it also states that industries such as business, agriculture and transport, stayed ‘static’. The big…
Tags: 2010, emissions, fossil fuels, greenhouse gas, nuclear power, UK
Animals, Wildlife & Flora, Jan 19th, 2012,
The UK is now home to a host of non-native plant and animal species. So-called ‘invasive species’ were invariably imported to the UK as pets, introduced for farming and aquaculture or taken here for some other reason – by humans, of course. Now that their impact has (sometimes) proven negative or inconvenient, many people don’t want them around anymore. The Independent features an article on some of the more exotic and rare animals to establish themselves in the UK, including rumors of lions, pumas, panthers and cougars prowling the English countryside, but also wild boars, which used to be native…
Tags: big cat, invasive species, non-native, rhododentron, UK
Green living, Jan 11th, 2012,
Honey from Newcastle, vegetables grown in Nottingham and London cheese are just a few examples of urban produce now being grown and sold in British cities. All across the country, people are increasingly choosing to grow their own food for reasons of economics, health and in order to feel a connection to their food and the land. Sustain, a UK alliance for better food and farming, has launched an online project called City Harvest for ‘demonstrating and promoting the benefits of Urban Agriculture’. Sustain’s scheme Capital Growth, funded by the Mayor of London, includes some 1,500 growing spaces in London…
Tags: agriculture, farm, farming, food, london, sustain, UK, urban
Conservation, Wildlife & Flora, Jan 10th, 2012,
Ladybird, or ladybug as the Yanks call it, is a collective term for the family of beetles with the scientific name Coccinellidae. We know ladybirds as cute, round, flying insects that usually have a bright red shell with black polka dots. Harlequin ladybugs were introduced in North America from their native Asia to combat aphid infestations, but are now the most common ladybug species there. The same is now occurring in Europe, including the UK. Harlequin ladybirds eat all 46 of the UK’s native ladybird species. They also leave orange stains on curtains and wallpaper. This is a particular problem…
Tags: harlequin, invasive, ladybird, ladybug, species, UK
Climate Change, Wildlife & Flora, Dec 5th, 2011,
A new kind of immigrant is being spotted in British seas. Species of whales, dolphins and seals, which are customarily at home in more tropical waters, are making their way to the UK, perhaps due to rising sea temperatures. If climate change continues to warm British waters, as predicted by scientists, more aquatic mammals will follow their food sources from the warmer climes of Africa and the Pacific all the way to the UK. The widespread use of digital cameras is making it easier for scientists to confirm such sightings and collect more accurate data. Animals from the tropics, including…
Tags: dolphin, sea, seals, temperatures, UK, water, whales
Politics, Nov 29th, 2011,
The UK is bracing itself for the largest public sector strike in over 30 years, prompted by the frozen and cut wages of state employees. The Conservatives sell these cuts as ‘necessary austerities’, but many aren’t buying that. And in light of a constant rise in income inequality and unfair EU subsides towards the wealthy, it’s not hard to see why. Case in point: George Monbiot writes in the Guardian on the outrageous Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies, which take up 43% of the European budget (totalling £47bn per year). And the more land you own, the more money you…
Tags: Dominic, elite, European, farm, George, Lawson, Monbiot, nurses, private sector, public sector, strike, subsidies, teachers, UK, workers
Climate Change, Politics, Nov 18th, 2011,
Tanzanian villagers were promised much-needed infrastructure, water security, money, education and health benefits from UK Biofuel firm Sun Biofuels in return for their land. 1,000 inhabitants of Kisarawe villages in Tanzania gave up thousands of hectares of land in order that Sun Biofuels could grow jatropha, a biofuel plant. But Sun Biofuels did not follow through. The villagers have instead suffered health and safety violations, poor salaries, followed by redundancy and no improvements in infrastructure or water security. In fact, things have gotten much worse. From a press release by Greenstream TV: On top of all these unfulfilled pledges, the…
Tags: actionaid, biofuel, sun biofuels, Tanzania, UK, villagers, water
Politics, Pollution, Nov 14th, 2011,
The ‘Greenest government ever’ strikes again. According to official figures pollution contributed to some 200,000 premature deaths in the UK in 2008, a number with disproportionate victims in poor, urban communities. Furthermore, health care costs total £20bn per year for pollution-related ailments. And now the UK’s Conservative-led government wants to relax air quality standards and shift responsibility from national to local authorities. Standard Tory stuff, right? From the Independent: Poor air quality is caused by three main pollutants – nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and ozone. The UK is failing to meet EU limits for both nitrogen dioxide and PM. A…
Tags: air, government, Pollution, UK
Green living, Nov 1st, 2011,
How about a spot of good news for once? According to environment writer and UK Green Party Candidate Chris Goodall, people in the UK probably consume fewer resources and produce less waste than at any time since records began. This means Britons are progressively using less food, fuel, goods, etc. – in short: less ‘stuff’. The amount of stuff consumed in the UK per person, per year, began to be tallied in 1970 and consumption peaked in 2001 before it started declining. Blame 9/11, blame subsequent recessions, blame the revived Green movement, increased energy efficiency, better technology, recycling, low-flow showerheads,…
Tags: consume, consumption, economic, Goodall, growth, stuff, UK
Politics, Oct 13th, 2011,
A couple of days ago I posted about why the Occupy Wall Street action is Green, quoting various articles by luminaries of both the environmentalist and anti-globalization movements. Besides specific environmental issues being addressed at OWS and other similar protests around the world, the logic is plain: economic and political models based on unrestrained growth, consumerism and unregulated finance and industry are not only unfair and undemocratic, but clearly ecologically disastrous. From dirty tar sands in the North, to dams and deforestation in the South, it’s all connected. Political power in the hands of corporations, rather than people, spells bad…
Tags: Europe, Greece, Ireland, occupy wall street, Portugal, protest, Spain, UK
Wildlife & Flora, Oct 10th, 2011,
Growing up in suburban Washington, DC, I saw my fair share of wild animals; raccoons, grey squirrels, possum, muskrat, etc. Deer on the other hand, were a relatively rare site. That is until around the mid to late 90s, when the local population just exploded. Suddenly they were in the yard eating our flowers in the middle of the day. Car accidents involving deer went way up in my area. Once I almost hit a giant stag that had run straight into rush hour traffic on a busy road. Huge antlers swinging, he managed to cross the 6-lane parkway to…
Tags: deer, sprawl, suburban, UK, wild
Climate Change, Health, Sep 15th, 2011,
Over the next century, what kind of impact will climate change have on California’s coastlines? Though coastal properties are prized for their views, they are ultimately a temporary luxury. In the long run, the closer to the beachfront a building is, the more susceptible it is to erosion, storms and sea air. Add rising sea levels into the equation and you’ve got prime real estate that risks being damaged sooner and more severely than previously anticipated. Economists at San Francisco State University in California predict rising sea levels due to climate change will have disastrous impacts on tourism, recreation and…
Tags: Asian Tiger, California, Climate change, mosquitoes, rising sea levels, tropical disease, UK
Green living, Pollution, Sep 7th, 2011,
If you buy groceries in Los Angeles, California, you soon may have to bring your own reusable shopping bags with you. A Los Angeles city councilman has proposed the outright ban of both plastic and paper disposable shopping bags at LA grocery stores. Instead of polluting the oceans with billions of plastic bags and adding to litter with wasteful paper bags, LA shoppers will be expected to use their own bags or purchase reusable ones at the city’s supermarkets. From the LA Times: By including paper bags in the ban, the proposal goes beyond similar measures taken recently by other…
Tags: ban, LA, Los Angeles, paper bags, plastic bags, Tesco, UK
Politics, Wildlife & Flora, Jun 29th, 2011,
In May we ran a couple of posts on how Britons overwhelmingly support a ban on circus animals, yet the UK’s Conservative-led government was against any such ban. The Tory-Lib Dem coalition government, led by Prime Minister David Cameron (an avid hunter) instead proposed a licensing scheme for circuses. However, members of British parliament, including key Conservatives, have stood up to pressure from the Prime Minister and voted to ban wild animals in UK circuses. Though the motion voted on does not in itself enact a ban, but rather directs the government to do so, it is being hailed as…
Tags: animals, ban, Cameron, circus, Conservative, Mark Pritchard, MP, UK, vote, wild
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