A group of tourists watching a polar bear in its natural habitat
Polar bears are wild creatures. They roam widely, with some having been tracked to a home range of over 6.000,000 square km. One individual was found more than 4000km from where it was before.
Its not even an issue of just giving them a large reserve, as they spend the cold winters roaming far and wide across the worlds oceans. Even in a country like Canada or Greenland, it is not possible to exclude humans from that much land.
Just under 500 permits have been granted for bear hunting, which would drop the countries population under 2000 across the whole country. This is 40% under the population that existed in 2008. This number of licenses gives the game away, it is a give away to the trophy hunting industry, and is not about controlling the population.
While many bear hunters are pleased, there are a significant number who are concerned. Anders Nilsson a hunter in north Sweden said “There are those within the hunting community that are concerned about too many bears being killed off”. This is well above the annual replacement rate, and it is predicted that if this level was sustained into next year, the number of bears would fall below the minimum level of 1400, that is thought that is needed to retain a healthy population within the country.
Bears are a protected species in Europe, and as such “deliberate hunting or killing of strictly protect species is prohibited” with this only being lifted as a “last resort” to protect public safety, crops or natural flora and fauna.
It is feared that the bear is heading in the same direction as the moose, with a population having fallen 60% in the 21st century – having killed too many moose, the hunters are now blaming the bears for killing too many of what is left, and leaving too small a share for trophy hunters in the country. Culls of both wolves (there are currently roughly 450 wolves in the country, considered above carrying capacity, but only because they compete with humans, there is little supported science in working out carrying capacity at this level) and lynx have been increasing (lynx have a population of around 1450, though this is also heavily depressed on what would occur naturally – lynx also rarely target domestic livestock, though in Sweden this is more complex, as reindeer in northern Sweden are semi domestic, being allowed to roam free but owned).
This cull is well above what should be allowed, and is clearly not in line with European rules. It is also highly dangerous, as it risks Sweden’s bear watching industry. 9.2% of the economy comes from tourism, and many of these will spend time in rural areas, trying to see the bears. While it is hard to find numbers for how much money the bear culling brings in, it is certainly lower than the ecotourism potential of each living bear.
I have been lucky enough to see both bear and wolf in Sweden, from a bear hide. Well worth a visit, though, you may feel it worth waiting till the country starts culling fewer. Having said this, visiting to see the bears may instead show the government the value of leaving more bears alive. We have a bear hide on our books in the country click here to see more, or to book your visit, which is likely to be a memory that stays with you for a long time.
Akio Toyoda is the chairman of Toyota ($10.2 million earnings in 2023) claims electric cars will never exceed 30%
So, when someone who is chairman of the car company which sells the most cars in the world says something, people listen. Toyota sold a total of 11.23 million cars in 2023, out of a market of around 92 million cars, or around 12% of global car sales. So perhaps he is right? Well a large number of people do not think so.
His arguments against electric cars include
access to electricity – 1 billion people worldwide do not have electricity. However, there are only 1.475 billion cars in the world, or 2 for every 11 people in the world. Further more, it seems likely that the 1 billion without electricity, probably also do not have a car.
Customer choice – he argues that customers should be able to choose the powertrain they want. However, the electric car has not been explored by Toyota, as they only have one fully electric model, the BZ4X and the UX400e (under the Lexus brand). The BZ4X is a premium car, but it only has an official efficiency of 2.9 miles per KWH, which is worse than the large tesla X gets (this car is over 34cm longer, and almost 9cm taller. This makes it more comparable to the tesla y (still 6cm longer, 2.4cm higher, slightly less ground clearance, but 34% more cargo space), however this car (which you can see is bigger) gets 4 miles per kwh, over 33% more efficient.
We all know what Donald Trump is like. On climate change, he changes what he says on each time. However, his beliefs become clear, when we look at his behaviour. He took the USA out of the Paris climate accord, and made every effort to reverse all improvements on this front.
There are many reasons not to vote for Trummp. While there is a baffling desire to support Donald Trump from the Christian right, consider the factsÂ
He is a thrice married man, who has cheated on all his wives
He does not have any idea on the bible, and while he tries to suggest he is a Christian, has no idea what the bible contains.Â
He has no idea what it is to be a Christian, what it means (see video below). Jesus turned himself over to be killed by the authorities, look at what it means, before voting for this man again. You may disagree with everything that Biden has done, but he is clearly a man who has a relationship with God, look at it rationally before voting for a man who has shown himself to be unsuitable for the role.
What is a Donald Trump second term going to mean for the environment, nature and climate change?
He is especially opposed to wind power and has promised to halt offshore wind development, which he claims harms marine life. Not only is impact on marine life not true, these are not only the cleanest, but also the cheapest ways to make power (wind and solar is currently around 50% less than coal power, and this is only getting better).
Trump greatly expanded the right to hunt on federal land. His changes increased hunting of wolves to such an extent that many years of progress was lost. Grizzly bears are in a similar position, as well as Jaguars and many other more common species.
While carbon emissions did fall under Trump, this was despite not because of him. He relaxed rules on carbon emissions from cars (despite the opposite direction that the market is going).
He has greatly expanded drilling for both oil and gas, and has no intention of curtailing this. We cannot afford to burn all the fossil fuels, but this is not Trumps position.
He rolled back over 100 major climate policies and rolled back many more rules governing clean air, water, wildlife and toxic chemicals, despite his mantra of clean air and clean water. Click here to view a new york times with all of these in detail.
This is just a quick list of some of the reasons why you should not vote for this man. Should you have children, or child relatives, it should be obvious why, and I would hope that even without descendants, you would want to leave the world in a better place.
Please share this, and other similar articles with friends who can vote. Lets help Americans to recognize the danger that Trump poses – analysis shows that should climate change continue, the USA falls in just third from the top, in terms of the amount they are likely to have to pay, should climate change continue.
CC by sa 2.0 climate change denial photo credit Edward Kimmel
Why is climate change denial still not over? Because the amount of money that can be made by denying climate change.
Has there been a change? Yes, but not necessarily for the better. For many people (generally with a financial motive) they have gone from outright climate denial, to climate doomism – we have already emitted too much carbon, we are going to see global warming, so there is nothing I can do (this has the advantage of allowing those people to continue to behave in the same way). Climate doomism says, I am too little, I cannot do anything.
Boki the bear (2 years old) was found to have a condition that I also have. It is known as hydrocephalus, and is caused when the liquid that is found around the brain does not drain away properly. This is often found in infants, but can also occur after a head injury.
When this liquid does not drain, rather than protecting the brain, this liquid squeezes the brain, which apart from being very painful (it usually causes insanity before death, if left untreated in babies) but can take decades to kill naturally.
It seems quite likely, that this bear would have died relatively quickly in the wild, as even if the illness did not kill, it would likely cause different behaviour which would likely have caused more problems.
While it is true that bears have a sweet tooth, which may have contributed to this bears like for it, they are also very intelligent, and may well have been able to connect the idea of feeling better with the medicine that he was taking.
For as long as we have emitted large quantities of carbon the world has absorbed the vast majority – no longer?
Pretty much all models that are trying to predict how much danger we are (on global warming) suggest that all current carbon syncs will continue to work, however, that does not appear to be the case.
We have emitted roughly 1500 giga tonnes of carbon dioxide since the industrial revolution, and the total amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 3200 giga tonnes. Before this point, there was roughly 2200 giga tonnes in the atmosphere. These numbers suggest that around 1 quarter has been absorbed by the planet (these numbers could well be wrong but are worked out from well known figures).
This suggests that at least 1 quarter of our emissions have been absorbed, which if this study is right, means 1 third more carbon being added each year, if we simply keep our emissions stable or conversely, we need to cut emissions by an extra third to meet our goals, if this holds true.
Given our difficultly cutting emissions so far, this is going to prove hard.
African penguins live in South African and Namibia, with a total population of around 18500 (13,200 in South Africa and the rest in Namibia). In south Africa, there are thought to be 2 colonies, with Boulders beach, near Cape town, has a population of around 3000 penguins.
In wilder places, one would think that penguins would be hunted by land mammals, and certainly these behaviours have been filmed, with me remembering footage of a brown hyena hunting penguins on the Namibian beach.
It has generally thought that penguins were relatively safe on Boulders beach, but it is becoming clear that the caracal, which is a smaller cat than a lion or leopard, are living in the area around boulders beach, and are likely the big predator of the penguins. It is true, that cape leopards live in small numbers in this area, and they have been known to take penguins, but being the apex predator, they do not live long-term in the reserve.
This is not the same with the Caracal. This documentary was done around the area of table mountain, but found throughout the cape.
One might argue that this is just natural behaviour, but the problem is that neither species is being able to live in a normal way. In 2016, 2 caracals were documented to have killed 130 penguins in just 2 months. It would not take much more than this, for the African penguin to disappear from South Africa, and indeed the world.
In 2023, the wolf population of France fell by 9%. This population was thought at 1003, down from over 1100.
It should be noted that France, as a large country, is likely to easily be able to support many more wolves than this. There are parts of the country, where wolves have not returned, with their main population lying in the Alps and surrounding areas, but also along the border to the East, and along the south of the country, with another population lying in the Pyrenees (it should be noted that this population is just started – thought to only be 16 individuals, though likely already increased). Should the wolf population in the Pyrenees become stable, wolves would be capable of using them as a staging area for repopulating both Spain and France.
In short? No, there is not too many wolves in France. This is patently absurd. It is true that many people believe that wolves have no place in France. In the UK, while I cannot see any UK government doing something sensible and returning them, there are many benefits. There are likely over 200,000 red deer, and 500,000 roe deer within the French nation. As such, predators are important, and with careful monitoring, the downsides are small.
With care, wolf watching could develop as a significant market within France
The last coal powered power plant in the UK is having its last day today, before it is closed down
The shrink in the electricity generation in the UK for coal, has been quite astounding. in 2006, coal produced 37% of the electricity for the UK, dropping to zero by 2024.
Holborn Viaduct was the first coal power plant, opened in 1882 (In the early 1800s, coal was used to make town gas for lighting and to fuel the expansion of Britain’s burgeoning railways, but not for electricity).
It is estimated that the UK has burnt 4.6 billion tonnes of coal since this time, emitting a little over 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Greece and the U.K. achieved the fastest coal power reductions — moving at a quicker pace than what’s needed globally but Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Romania, Germany, the United States and Chile are all not too far behind. However, there is still a huge amount of work to be done. Coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, supplied 36% of electricity generation in 2022. This must drop to 4% by 2030 and then 0% by 2040 if the world is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C and prevent the most catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis. This is frankly an astounding rate of decline, and there are many countries around the world, who will have to be supported, if we are to meet this requirement.
Paradoxically, the USA also appears on the list of countries furthest from phasing out coal, along with India and China. It is quite feasible for the USA to cut its way to coal at a surprising rate (though whether Trump returns to the White house, or Kamala moves from the vice presidents wing, to the presidents wing, is likely to have a big impact on whether coal is left behind in the USA or not)
It is true that coal is the most dirty fuel, but we still have a great deal of work to do as a species, if we are to avoid the worst of global warming. It is thought that we have just 6 years to stop burning gas, and this accounts for around 22% of global electricity generation. In much of the west, gas is also used for heating, and while there are alternative options (we had a heat pump installed this year, after it was clear that our boiler was failing). 73.8% of UK houses are heated in this way, and so there is clearing a big need for the transition to occur faster.
In the UK, all electricity generation is meant to be carbon neutral by 2035, so gas must disappear by then – though as the financial penalties for continuing to burn things and the cost of other electricity generation falls, the financial imperative to end gas power plant use, is only going to increase, so we may well get there far faster. It should be noted, that the government also has a 95% electricity generation target in 2030, so gas must reduce fast over the next 5-6 years.
Currently, wind power generation accounts for 30 gigawatt hours, but the 2030 target is 50, and solar generation is targeting a 5 fold increase in the amount of generation by 2035. These two alone, will greatly outweigh the loss of gas.
Of course, you can save money in almost any part of the world, but installing solar (we nearly have ours working) will not only help in cleaning up the grid, but our investment, is likely to be paid back from savings in around 3 years.
In the global south, it is even easier to make this work.
