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Another attempt is being made to move the world beyond EVs and onto hydrogen cars. Is this worthwhile? Who is trying to make this happen and why? Lets start by looking at the advantages and disadvantages of this technology. (I have named them electric and hydrogen cars, I know some hydrogen car makers will take issue with this, but an EV does not need a fuel to be pumped into the car, merely power)
Comparison subject
Electric car
Hydrogen car
Fuel
Electricty
Hydrogen
Fuel Cost
3p a mile charged at home, on the go varies but up to 15p
A full charge drives 300- over 400 in a modern electric car.
And where is most charging done? at home while you sleep
£10-15 per kg, 77 miles per kg.13p-19p. It has a capacity of 5.6kg (£56-£84 at those prices)
A full tank allows around 400 miles range
There are few refilling stations and even in the best parts of the world they are less common than chargers or petrol stations.
Fuel Carbon Cost
Carbon neutral up to UK grid 2021 of 265g per kwh (so around 85g per mile at top)
50-55kwh to make 1kg of hydrogen. So between zero and 14.575kg of carbon, or 189g per mile
So a hydrogen car is more expensive to fuel and worse for the environment. What is good?
It is true that a hydrogen car can refuel faster, taking 3-5 minutes, however, you have to stand by your car for this whole period. A tesla 3 can add 172 miles in 15 minutes.
According to a financial times article, the average motorway stop is for around 20 minutes. Now, it is generally suggested by highway codes and similar, to stop for 15 minutes every 2 hours. This means that while a hydrogen car can drive for longer in one go, the human inhabitants will need far more comfort breaks. A tesla 3 can be driving for 2.5 hours before needing that 15 minute break once again.
This is about the only advantage
Cost of vehicle: a Toyota Mirai starts at just under £50,000, while the tesla 3 starts at just under £40,000. Hydrogen cars also need more services.
So who benefits from a switch?
Toyota with its smooth-riding Mirai and Hyundai’s Nexo. Audi, Honda, BMW, and others have explored it as well, but generally the car is complex so who does well? Fossil fuel companies. If they cannot sell fossil fuels, perhaps they can simply split them for the hydrogen
Hydrogen is bad for the
The Greenland wolf, is known from remains, to have lived in Greenland for at least 7600 years, though, given Caribou have been there for 8900 years, it is quite possible that they have been there for longer.
It is a small population of around 200 individuals, so encountering them is rare. This video to the right is an incredible encounter a photographer had, when she realized that she had been surrounded by them. As you can see, wolves do not generally consider humans as food.
We have not been as kind in the past, and between 1920 and 1932, 35 wolves were killed in the core wolf range, forcing the population to decline rapidly to extinction.
It should be noted, that there is only a small population in Greenland, and it is a huge landmass, so it is quite possible that the population is larger.
Thomas Crowther was an ecologist whose work inspired many tree planting projects, the problem is that this is a more complex idea than it first seems, and more importantly, mass plantations do not help.
Forests take up vast quantities of carbon, but the whole ecosystem must benefit, otherwise while trees may get planted, they are likely to fall foul of pests, or similar.
One of the simple requirements, is to plant trees more like a rainforest would. We cannot plant monocultures of a single tree – this is simply the equivalent of rolling out a picnic rug for the specific pests which feed on the tree in question. Instead, we need hundreds of tree species in each acre. Amazingly, without this, the trees ability to do what we want and draw down carbon dioxide is severely limited, so will fail.
Interestingly, preserving remaining forests has a far bigger impact on carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere, so this is not only beneficial to the wildlife that lives there, it is also one of our most effective tools, to avoid climate change.
Think of all the primates, great apes and many other species that would be saved, if we just started to do what is best for ourselves.
The Greenland icesheet is vast, which can bee seen from this image, which had to be taken from space to show the scale.
Greenland is in fact only slightly bigger than Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom together. Looking at it another way, it is the size of the DRC in Africa, or is 71% of the size of India, and 80% of this vast landscape is covered in ice.
Now we realize the scale of the ice on Greenland, we need to recognize that it is melting. 0.17% of all water on earth is locked up in ice on Greenland. Now, while that does not sound much, remember that the Antarctic ice cap is also melting, though currently far slower, and this consists of 1.56% of global water. If all the ice on Greenland melted, is enough to raise global sea levels by 7 meters, which would be the end of countries like Bangladesh among quite a few more.
So, the Greenland Ice sheet is loosing 30 million tonnes of Ice every hour! How can we put that in perspective? Given that an Olympic swimming pool contains 2500 cubic meters of water, this is the same as 12,000 extra Olympic swimming pools of water in the worlds oceans ever hour or 10 extra swimming pools every 3 seconds. It is not going to run out of water, any time soon, given that it currently has over 2 million cubic kilometres on the island. Never-the-less, this quantity of water hour in, hour out (it is loosing 720 million tonnes of ice per day, or 3/4 of a cubic kilometre every single day.
This is 20% than even researchers had thought, and it is perhaps unsurprising that this vast amount of fresh water being deposited into the ocean every day is having an impact on things like currents – the North atlantic ocean current is the only reason that places like the UK have warmer climates than similar latitudes in Canada.
Greenland has lost 1 trillion tonnes of ice since 1985 since my birth – and this is just from glaciers.
Global warming is happening, and it is happening now. This is not something that you need to be aware that your children will have to face, it is something that we will all have to face in the next few decades.
This shows us: global warming is not something that we avoid and just leave to our children, this is our problem too.
Why are these birds having population collapse?
are all disappearing rapidly. Indeed, a study of 42 species, 90% had seen significant declines, with more than 2/3 (that is 28 species) showing evidence of becoming extinct.
Read more: Birds of prey populations across Africa are collapsing
The problem is that, this is not merely a case of the large raptors disappearing, and no longer being able to follow the circling vultures to find a kill. Instead, it has very serious consequences for human populations. The decline of the Indian vultures lead to a rise in rabies in the local human population in the early 1990s.
The African birds are very large, with some having the capability of hunting prey as large as jackals and antelopes. Encouragingly, this decline has been far less noticeable within reserves, and should we meet our target of setting aside 30% of land for conservation, it would allow more to thrive.
This has been worse in west Africa, where there are not enough protected areas, and those that exist do not have enough funding. In India, the lack of vultures has lead to an increase in the feral dog population, which has lead to an increase in rabies as these dogs bite humans that they interact with
Just bare in mind, with the video above, if you have problems with heights, the view when you start the video above will not be pleasant.
So, if you are a species who spends its days moving around on cliffs, which most species would spend their lives avoiding often even if the alternative choice is death, clearly it is extreme.
The fact of the matter, is that heights are not the only threat that animals like mountain goats face when living in the mountains: Bears, wolves, eagles, and wolverines and even animals like snow leopards that live in the mountains, will get the majority of their calories from meat. Animals like mountain goats, along with various deer species, will be the mainstay of these predators in the mountains.
What is, unfortunately a fact, is that mountain goats do not fly. As such they need to be able to see the cliff, so as to be able to step carefully and not loose their footing.
This means that goats cannot become nocturnal, as without enough light, they will fall to their deaths. As such mountain goats tend to be crepuscular – active in the early morning and late evening
Increasingly, scientists are coming up with simple ways to avoid wildlife pregnancies through medication in food. In the UK species needing this sort of thing include
These vary in the cost to the UK economy (as do the various invasive species elsewhere in the world). Below, you will find a list of many of these species in the UK, along with (where available) an estimate of the size of the population and the cost that they come with from the damage that they do. Click read more, to look at all of the different species we have talked about.
Read more: Should pest animals be put on the ‘pill’ rather than culling them?
Total damage from invasive animals, in the UK, is estimated at £5 billion over the last 40-50 years.
The problem of invasive species appears to be a problem around the world. Places like the Kruger national park in South Africa, while looking native, have 146 species alien species, and what will happen in the future.
The suggestion is, by stopping these species from being able to have young the population will disappear over time. Virtually every country on earth has invasive species, but we need to work on stopping these accidental or illegal introductions. There would have to be a range of different ways of to get the contraceptives into the animal, food which a red deer could consume would not be edible for a parakeet.
Oddly, one of the groups most at fault here, is so called animal rights groups. Regardless of where the species origin is, they are just set loose. This is foolish, as both the released animals, and the area into which they are released are likely to suffer horrifically – often through starvation, though the animal will often do much damage before they die. So called animal rights groups are foolish in the extreme if they think that this improves the life of any of the animals in question.
Apologies for those who think that this is covered too much on this website – I to would like to just write on wildlife and the threats that they face. Unfortunately, virtually all habitats on earth are threatened by climate change, and as such, politics in the USA has to be of interest to us all. Should any Americans be reading this – welcome. If this is just confirming what you believe, please spread the word (for much of the rest of the world, while Trump has many, many qualities which should rule him out as president (and even more so as a republican candidate) on this website, we are only interested in policies which result in changes to wildlife and issues with climate change.
The emissions of the USA are currently 13.49% of global population as of 2023. While that does not sound too bad, remember on 4.23% of global population lives in the USA, so in other words, the USA carbon emissions are 3 times the global average (never mind how much they need to drop if we are to avoid the worst of global warming). To put that in perspective, currently Europe emits around 8% of global emissions, but with 9.23%, as a block it emits less than its current fair share of emissions. The EU has agreed to cut emissions by 90% by 2040, relative to 1990 levels, and has currently cut emissions by 30%. In the USA, Biden has set an aim of cutting emission by around 50% by 2030, below 2005 levels, and so far, they have cut around 20% so have a way to go.
Read more: What is Trumps views on climate change, anyway, and where is the USA currently on its emissions reductionSo, having laid out where they are, what does Trump think. Well, one thing to bare in mind, is that Trump is terrible in keeping his word. He says whatever occurs to him in the moment. However, what is clear is he has little to no regard for scientists, and believes that whatever occurs to him is probably right. He is also adamant that whatever cuts are made by the USA, must be made by countries like India, China and Brazil, despite their emerging economy status, or the vast historical emissions of the USA – currently, the USA has emitted roughly 25% of all historical emissions since 1750, while by contrast, China has emitted half of that.
Trumps first term in office, was characterized by a range of things, but they included, a heavy and sustained attempt to increase the extraction of fossil fuels, and it is estimated that should he be elected in November, the result will be a net gain of 4 billion extra tonnes of carbon as a result.
So what do we expect from a Trump presidency 2.0? The list is long, and mine will not include everything. Furthermore, given how willingly he breaks his word, it is impossible to know if he will do any of the things on this list, or indeed, if he would have the support in the other branches of government to even try. Still, this is what he is saying
Market gains: He spent much time touting his economy on the basis of stock, but this too, he did not do well in, lying in the bottom half of these presidents.
Not investing in climate change mitigation and reduction is insane – the falls in GDP and the market and peoples standard of living will not be known for a long time, however, without other presidents rapidly correcting the mistakes of Trump, the cost of his decisions on the environment could run into the many Trillions.
This is a subject which I have written about before, but as I have said before, if I change one mind, it is worth it. While I do not believe that there are any benefits on the other side, few can seriously argue that in the long-term it would be wise to give Trump a second go at breaking the world.
Some of us find politics fascinating, some do not, but you might quite reasonably ask why look at in on a wildlife and environment blog?
It is, unfortunately, a simple fact that not only is the USA still the biggest economy in the world, but it is the second biggest emitter. Currently the USA emits around 13.7% of the worlds carbon dioxide with a population of 4.23% of the world. In other words, the USA has a huge amount of cutting to do – if the USA cut its emissions by two thirds, then each individual would emit the worlds average amount of carbon dioxide, however, given the need to reach net zero as soon as possible, they have a long way to go.
Why is this relevent?
Last time, while Trump pulled out of the Paris agreement (it had no penalties, so pulling out did nothing) as well as encouraging drilling and deforestation and basically anything that would take us the wrong way in terms of climate change. Intentional? who knows, though it certainly went against many peoples interests, which only made Trump happier!
Currently 35% of Americans like trump, while 63% dislike him (an incredibly small percentage which has no opinion.
Currently, 47% of Americans support republicans, while 42% support democrats. That leaves 11% of Americans not in either camp. There is lots more analysis to be done on this, but what is clear, is that Donald Trump has a strong chance to return to the white house, and essentially the decision is largely in the hands of the people that do not support either major party.
So what would a second term contain?
What is clear, is that if Trump gets back into the white house, it is virtually certain that we cannot avoid 1.5 degree warming, as it will delay everything for a further 4 years. The clearest move is that he will work to undo all positive environmental moves, enacted by Biden during his term.
This the world cannot afford, but over 95% of the planet gets no vote. Readers in the USA, it seems unnecessary to spell out why he should not be in a position of power. The damage he will do to the environment worries people around the globe. His move to overturn treaties is likely to harm the rest of the world, but what does USA citizens have to look forwards to?
He finished his term, desperately trying to tear down democracy in the USA. Can he be trusted? I would not, but clearly there is still many who would.
I think any country who does not ban a man who did everything legal and illegal to overturn a fair election, and does not bar him from office is mad. I find it hard to believe that even the USA would be foolish enough to re-elect him, but the same was thought last time. We are slowly building progress and agreement on climate change, please dont throw that out.
Covering 1500 square miles, the iceberg grounded in 1986 on the ocean floor, but now it is free it is heading into the Southern ocean.
Carving like this, is quite natural. Unfortunately, though this is occurring far more often, and this is a sign of global warming.
It should be noted that as this was frozen sea water, it should not raise ocean levels, as the water was in the ocean before it froze and will return as it melts.