Through out his time in the white house, Donald Trump attacked climate change science foolishly mocked it by pointing out hot weather and generally undermined the long-term leading position that the American government has had in the climate change fight. It is of course true, that what ever words presidents have said about climate change, they have not invested enough in doing something about it. As such, despite having roughly 5% of the worlds population, the USA is the second biggest emitter, emitting roughly 15% of the world emissions each year.
Continue reading “Donald Trump spent his time in the White house saying America couldn’t afford climate mitigation – what a foolish position”Paris agreement for nature?
At the beginning of January an new agreement was signed by 50 countries who pledged to protect 30% of the earths land and oceans. The intention of this agreement is to stem the flow of extinctions that human activity has been causing for the last few centuries.
The hope is that this agreement can form the basis of a larger agreement at the UN, building on the early commitments from nations such as Nigeria Pakistan Costa Rica Canada and many more.
Continue reading “Paris agreement for nature?”While great progress has been made in greening much of the worlds industries, aviation is one of the few that has made little progress
How can we cut the carbon cost of aviation? There are several possibilities. It is unfortunately unlikely that battery power is ever going to be able to replace fossil fuels on long haul fights (I hope to be proved wrong). Easyjet is aiming to be flying a single isle battery powered plane on 80% of its routes by 2040, and is hoping to be flying routes under 500km on battery planes by 2027 (they are well on the way to this target).
Continue reading “While great progress has been made in greening much of the worlds industries, aviation is one of the few that has made little progress”Creating animal crossing of roads must improve
Roads help connect our world, however without carefully thought through plans a road can split one endangered but viable population of a species into 2 unconnected populations that are likely to disappear over the long term.
Genetic studies have shown that only one bear has managed to cross between these two Spanish bear populations. While there are only 3 major roads, there are plenty of large areas unfriendly to bears crossing through. What should put this in context, is that one bear has also managed to cross France unaided to join this population.
Sea grasses appear to have another use: they sieve microplastics from the sea
Sea grasses once carpeted much of the worlds oceans at depths that suit them. In many places such as the UK destructive fishing practices have been allowed, such as bottom sea dragging. This has also severely damaged the UK cold water coral reefs, but that is a story for another day.
This latest information, may well give us a reason to replant them (aside from the benefits to biodiversity and the huge amount of carbon they take up).
Continue reading “Sea grasses appear to have another use: they sieve microplastics from the sea”The number of wild deer in the UK is soaring because no one is eating them: bring back wolves?
Over the last half a century, the number of deer that live in the UK has climbed pretty much continually.
In many parts of the country, the number of deer are controlled by regular culls. However, during the pandemic these have not happened, and that now means that 2 culls in a row have been missed.
Continue reading “The number of wild deer in the UK is soaring because no one is eating them: bring back wolves?”China has stated that they will aim to hit peak emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060
These statements have been made before, however the Chinese president has reaffirmed them over video-link to the UN general assembly. Currently responsible for around 28% of world emissions this is highly encouraging.
In the past China has agreed to its peak emissions point, but not to its carbon neutral point.
Continue reading “China has stated that they will aim to hit peak emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060”HSBC is voting on stopping funding coal? about time, but not action for 19 years
Over the last few years it has become increasingly clear that conservationists approach to fossil fuel companies were not working.
The problem is that there is a great deal of money to be made from fossil fuels. Companies like tesla hint at a world where this ceases to be the case, and the speed that the electric car market is growing, is incredibly fast. Indeed many people have commented on the fact that the growth curve of electric cars is clearly following the curve of many other disruptions from computers to mobile phones.
Continue reading “HSBC is voting on stopping funding coal? about time, but not action for 19 years”It would appear the 8th great ape the Tapanuli Orangutan is closer to extinction than we thought
A study has been examining the range of the Tapanuli orangutan and has concluded that they are currently found in only 2.5% of their historic range, having lost the rest of their range to hunting and habitat loss.
The Rwandan president Paul Kagame intends to make conservation his countries next battle
In many parts of the world, conservation is an afterthought. After looking after your human population, if there is any money left then alright do conservation but not before. However, this does not work. There are many positive benefits of wildlife , and if these are not allowed to thrive it will damage the local people – by thinking of this last you end up damaging the local people.
Countries such as Rwanda are also heavily dependent on the money that tourism brings to their country.
This new aim, is to grow the economy and improve the lives of Rwandans while at the same time protecting the natural environment and keep as much forest standing as is possible.
Currently, Rwanda gets 15.1% percent of GDP from tourism, however back in the year 2000, this was just 4.7%. That gives an annual growth of this sector at more than 7%, far above all other areas. #
Importantly, tourism is a great leveller. Anyone who lives around wilderness can set up their own business. As a result, this can be a way to lift poorly served communities out of poverty.
I hope in the future that this site can assist in that process.