Category: Europe

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Conservationists are looking to release a herd of European Bison into the UK, Blean woods near Canterbury – first in 6000 years

European Bison (or close relatives) were once an important part of the UK fauna, as the largest UK mammal, they had the strength to push down trees and therefore had an important role of ecosystem engineer.

The project is aimed at starting by reintroducing these animals into Blean woods near Canterbury. I have walked in Blean woods a number of times, as it is close to where my father works some of the year. Only a small herd will live in this wood (alongside iron age pigs, longhorn cattle and exmoor ponies) but these 4 species are likely to have a great deal of impact on the woodland.

For the time being, the Bison will live in a 150 hectare enclosure, with no footpaths, never the less the hope is that descendants of these pioneers could be released into truly wild parts of the UK.

Admittedly, the European Bison probably never lived in the UK, but the steppe bison an incredibly similar animal did.

A major part of the rangers job will be to take people on walks in the enclosure. This will help people get used to the idea. After all, there are currently no wild animals in the UK that weigh anywhere near the tonne that these animals would weigh.

These gentle giants would do wonders for the British ecosystem, and I for one look forwards to the time when seeing European Bison is like spotting highland ponies or wild horses in different parts of the country.

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If the UK covered all south facing roofs with solar panels, this could provide all our electricity – but

Currently, the weight of solar panels mean that (along with the cost) it is rare that companies have the money to cover large roofs with solar panels.

A new product developed by a firm in Sunderland may change this. They have developed a light weight alternative which can be stuck in the same place panels would usually go. This method is much cheaper and at least as effective as many flexible panels.

They still have tests to run, but if they are a success, the company aims to start selling it 0.3mm thick solar film in the middle of 2022. This would also easily go on cars and lorries as well. Although the initial aim will be to cover large building, a lorry has roughly 20 square meters of flat roof space – even with relatively poor panels, this should make 20-30kwh a day easily. While an electric lorry will use more than this, over the year, a system like this could make as much as 6megawatt hours, which is certainly not to be sniffed at.

Could this new product move us faster towards gaining significant amounts of our power from solar? I would hope so.

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Blue whales are returning to Spain’s Atlantic coast after a 40 year absence. What now

The first blue whale sighted in decades from this part of the world, was spotted off Spain’s coast in 2017, a different individual appeared in 2018 and a third in 2019. In 2020 2 returned.

At the end of September another was sighted off the coast of Spain.

It is unsure why they are back. Are they returning because they now feel safe? Or has climate change moved their food? Either way, it is quite something to see these huge animals returning to areas where they were hunted almost to extinction by humans.

Just before the whaling moratorium came into force, an entire generation of whales was wiped out. Now the descendants of the few who survived are returning. Some researchers are concerned that they are being forced north by global warming. Given that blue whales dont seem to cross the equator, if each population is pushed towards the poles, their habitat will be significantly reduced. Furthermore, their dung fertilizes ocean upper waters (areas with little nutrients) allowing phytoplankton to bloom, thereby capturing more carbon – and when I say more carbon, we are talking about 4 times the amount of carbon stored in the Amazon rainforest.

Whale recovery still has a long way to go. Before whaling started, there was estimated to be 4-5 million whales in the planets seas. At the current time, there are 1.3 million or roughly a quarter of pre whaling numbers. Importantly, the blue whale was so mercilessly hunted, that they have not recovered to anywhere near pre whaling numbers: their current population is only thought to be around 3% of historical numbers.

These animals are worth far more alive than dead. I realize that some communities have eaten whale for millennia. However there are several caveats to this. Firstly we have abandoned other environmentally damaging behaviours, why should we allow this. Secondly, few if any of the currently whaling countries rely on whaling to survive. In fact, with many of these communities, whaling is a recent activity. The Faroe islands kill thousands of dolphins and small whales each year, but they do not need all this meat, and this slaughter so colours peoples views that they loose far more in tourism revenue than they gain in the meat.

What ever is decided long-term to do with whale hunting, it is clear that blue whales should be left alone for a very long time more – many blue whale communities are flourishing with their population growing by 7-8% a year. However, given blue whales are at roughly 3% currently, it would take over half a century at current rates for the blue whale population to return to the numbers pre hunting.

Until the arrival of a blue whale off the coast is no longer memorable, there should not be any discussion about any harvesting. Furthermore, if the amount of carbon sequestration done by each whale is as high as it is thought, any meat should be priced high enough to pay for this (if this were to be done whale meat would be too expensive for almost anyone to afford)

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A trial of Silvopasture in Devon

I wrote about Silvopasture recently, there is now a trial going on down in Devon. A farmer is now planting huge numbers of trees sparsely across his land. Each row has trees roughly every 6m and each row is roughly 14m apart.

This will produce a patchwork of shade and sun.

Trees being planted are Oak Aspen and Alder – native British species.

Neighbours have suggested that he is mad, and concreting over his land would have the same benefit. Of course common sense would suggest that concreting over the land would leave far less grass than sparsely planted trees but there we are.

5600 trees will be planted across his 165 acre farm. He is taking part in a 12 year trail to see what benefit Silvopasture can have. The expectation is that the environment will benefit, but that there should also be increased productivity for the farmer.

If it can be shown that grazing sheep under sparse woodland increases yield, roughly 63% of agricultural land could have similar treatment. This could amount to hundreds of millions of trees across the country.

Studies elsewhere suggest benefits include reducing flooding increasing drought resilience, improving animal health and weight, as well as boosting biodiversity and sequestering vast quantities of carbon.

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So earlier this year the EU increased their target for 2030 carbon emissions from 40% to 55%, progress?

As with the UK, there is an alarming habit (at the moment) within the EU, to make grandiose targets for cuts. Is this one of those or does the EU actually stand a chance of meeting this?

Well between 1990 and 2019 the EU cut its emissions by roughly 24% – a not insignificant achievement.

If the EU is to meet its carbon goals, sites like this will have to become a thing of the past
Continue reading “So earlier this year the EU increased their target for 2030 carbon emissions from 40% to 55%, progress?”
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Ikea the Swedish flat pack giant has a green reputation but this may be less right than it should be

A large portion of Sweden is covered in forest. While native trees are grown, these vast plantations are actually cut down regularly. Given it may take a few decades for trees to grow to maturity, much of the country is left pretty wild.

Although much of Sweden looks wild, the forests are regularly cut down for timber. Still the forests support a healthy population of bears, and a growing population of wolves

While the Swedish people are quite keen hunters, there are significant numbers of bears, and even a small but growing population of wolves.

This is why it is so worrying to find that some of the wood in their products actually came from protected forests in Russia.

It was as much a surprise to Ikea as to us, and they have cut off deals with the company at fault.

This just highlights the incredible difficulty in making sure your products are completely clean. Never-the-less a similar mistake in the near future might have a bigger impact on their reputation, they must increase the level of their due diligence.

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Grizzly bears are rebounding in the USA, how can this success story continue?

Back in 1975, the American Grizzly bear was declared endangered. With only minor differences, the American Grizzly bear is the same species as the European bear, that lives from Western Spain, through Europe to the Kamchatka bear of far Eastern Russia.

In 1975 the USA lower 48 states grizzly bear population numbered somewhere between 136 animals and 312, so it was essential that it was protected. Nowerdays the same 48 states have a population of around 1500, but given that this number would have been as high as 50,000 when people started migrating to the USA in large number, this recovery is only just getting going.

Allowing bears to return is essential
Continue reading “Grizzly bears are rebounding in the USA, how can this success story continue?”
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Global warming is happening, and even with the cuts promised, we are likely to see significant sea level rises: what is this likely to cost

It is an unfortunate fact, all over the world, that people have chosen to live near the sea. There are many reasons for this, but the basic fact is that this is often the most productive land.

The problem now, though, is that all these peoples lives are liable to change. This is because small rises in sea levels could make them homeless. As much as 1 billion people live at low enough elevation to make this a threat.

Countries like Bangladesh are very flat, and it is estimated that as many as 20 million people within Bangladesh would become homeless by 2050 under current trends (this assumes that we meet our carbon cut targets. There would be many others that would be lost.

Forgetting the hundreds of millions of people in the developing world, there are famous buildings and places which should underline this issue in the west as well.

Buckingham palace would be under water up to the first floor if we fail to act. A temperature rise of 1.5 degrees C would merely bring the water level to the front door. Many other famous buildings such as the pentagon, the tower of London and Tokyo tower in Japan would all be lost.

This is all a long winded way of stating, that even with the dramatic cuts the world is hoping to make over the next few decades, many people on earth are still likely to loose their lives have their lives changed dramatically, in most cases for the worse.

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The former head of the British financial services authority has suggested population decline and smaller families are good for the Climate; and?…

According to Lord Adair Turner, population decline should not be feared. It is certainly true that if the population of the UK were to shrink, so would our carbon emissions. Of course, this suggestion might have come with more authority if it had been made while he was still in post.

We have, in the last couple of centuries, unfortunately set up the financial world in such a way as to need a growing population. An increasing size of financial market in each country is required (according to current expertise) yet while there are some gains to be had in efficiency by each person, it is not possible for people to become more efficient endlessly. Furthermore, by this metric, a falling population would be a bad thing, as this would necessitate a shrinking market – even if it were shrinking slower than the population.

Continue reading “The former head of the British financial services authority has suggested population decline and smaller families are good for the Climate; and?…”
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