If you were getting poorer and poorer, but last year you got poorer a bit more slowly than in previous years – would you be happy? The climate is warming – the 2000s were warmer than the 1990s (but not as much warmer as the 1990s were than the 1980s). This is the link to…
Tag: climate change
Support Greenpeace’s Arctic 30
It’s no fun, I guess, to be stuck in a Russian jail. The fact that you are there because you were carrying out a peaceful protest because of your beliefs about the environment won’t make it any more fun. Ralph Underhill and I bring you these Christmas cards on environmental themes and any profits from…
Silly biofools!
MEPs voted for a 6% cap on food-based biofuels yesterday. It could be worse (it always could) but it should be an awful lot better. Action Aid report. RSPB report. EEB report. BBC report. Business green report. Thomson Reuters report. EU Observer report. I am amazed that in this world when things are speeding up…
Moths – a bit more than just bird food?
I always look forward to reports from Butterfly Conservation – not because they are always full of good news but because they are always very professionally produced, always teach me something I didn’t know and always have the mixture of graphs, images and words that does it for me. Their latest report ‘The State of…
Biomass – dirtier than coal?
Last week I pointed out that every form of energy production has snags – and suggested that we should give a higher priority to reducing our energy needs. Here’s another example, and it’s rather similar to the situation regarding biofuels (described in Chapter 13 of Fighting for Birds). Using biomass to fuel power stations looks…
Turbulent turning turbines
Last week the coalition government came out with their energy policy proposals. It can be seen as a small victory for the Liberal Democrats in the government that the worst excesses of Conservative climate-scepticism were pushed aside. There will not be a new dash for climate-changing gas but a dash for renewables and nuclear. We…
Guest blog – BTO science by Andy Clements
Dr Andy Clements was trained as a scientist with a PhD in animal behaviour from the University of Wales, and has spent 30 years as a professional nature conservationist. He is currently the Chief Executive of the BTO. It was great to see science for nature conservation discussed in Mark’s blog last week, and…
Taking mud to Essex
Last week Environment Secretary Owen Paterson launched work on Europe’s largest man-made wetland nature reserve – at least so say the RSPB and Crossrail whereas Defra is noticeably silent on the matter. Luckily, there is photographic evidence of the event. In an amazingly complex and difficult project, for which the RSPB’s Chief Executive Mike Clarke…