Category: Europe

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Montpelier a city in France realized its error, and dropped an order for 51 hydrogen buses for electric instead

Montpelier had set aside $33 million for this project, over 2 years. This decision was made, after local officials realized that electric buses would be 6 times cheaper to run. This price included the building of a plant to make the hydrogen.

In terms of cost, it was estimated that the buses (for which the council was given help buying but not for running costs) would cost 3 million euros to run, yet only 500,000 for electric. The per mile price was 0.15 euro instead of 0.95.

Although they were going to be helped in purchasing, the hydrogen buses are also between 150000-200000 euros more to buy in the first place.

The myriad reasons that hydrogen is not a good idea have been obvious for some time. Green hydrogen (much of hydrogen is taken out of gas- obviously a nonstarter if your aim is reducing carbon emissions) requires a great deal of electricity to split water, and it would be far more efficient to just put that electricity in batteries and use them. Another issue is the compression of the gas. The only possible place where hydrogen might be useful is in aeroplanes.

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Has myxomatosis leapt species from rabbits to hares?

Rabbits are not native in the UK. They were introduced about 1000 years ago. the first Myxomatosis outbreak in the uk was in 1953. There have been various foolish uses of this disease (the Iberian Lynx is largely only threatened with extinction because it relied heavily on rabbits for food, and these disappeared when myxomatosis was introduced.

Hares are a native species, so it is of greater concern if they are being eradicated. More than 1100 hares have been identified as having died from this, over the last 4 years. Now, as they currently have a population of more than 800,000 individuals, this is not currently a big concern. However if the outbreak has a similar impact to rabbits, then hares could disappear from parts of the UK.

It is already thought to have lost 80% of its population over the last 100 years.

Unfortunately, with our modern habit of farming breeds of wild species, we are giving perfect conditions for new viruses to appear.

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Wrong assumption about red squirrel once again?

For years it has been assumed that it is a mixture of these two reasons that red squirrels survive but perhaps not

Food sources in conifer plantations tend to be smaller, limited to small cones and such like. As such, this suited the smaller red squirrel more than the invasive grey. However this has recently been thrown into doubt.

Where as, in broadleaf tree plantations there are a variety of food sources for pine martens and so red squirrels will not be exclusively predated, in conifer forests with less food to find red squirrels are hunted more often.

This research is based on 5 years of observations from the public and camera traps. It was carried out in northern Ireland, and looked at pine martens red and grey squirrels.

In natural woodlands there is a diverse range of prey and plenty of refuges for red squirrels, however in conifer plantations pine martens will eat far more squirrels because there is little else for it to find.

We therefore need to stop replacing large areas of natural wood with plantations.

If this is true, then the pine marten has even more pressure on it, as it must drive the grey squirrel out so reds can survive. A recent study of grey squirrels dna shows that the UK population relies far more on humans. Far from colonising the country they appear to have been moved by humans and installed in new parts of the country on many occasion. One example, showed this by the fact that the grey squirrels around Aberdeen appear to have originated with the population around the new forest.

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In 2020, for the first time the UK got more energy from renewable sources than from fossil fuels

In 2020, renewable electricity accounted for 43% of the UK electricity, while fossil fuels accounted for just 38%. The remaining generation came from nuclear. Unfortunately, that proportion was reversed in 2021.

Never-the-less the British prime minister announced in October at the Conservative conference, that the aim is to reach 100% renewable electricity by 2035 (I would suggest that they need to decide if nuclear is a green generation or not – I would suggest it is, but it should therefore be included in the figures, in the long-term it is not likely to be needed, we should be able to generate all our electricity from solar and wind).

It is encouraging to think that by 2035 all our electricity will come from green sources. In addition as no ICE cars should be sold after 2030, by 2035 the proportion of clean propulsion should be rapidly moving towards 100%

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If you have been lucky enough to have an encounter with wild Boar, like me you will have recognized them as like pigs but different – but …

Wild boar are the wild ancestors of the modern pig. This is why pigs and boar can interbreed – The domestication occurred in Europe, but started about 9,000 years ago, about 3000 years after we started farming crops. It appears to have happened slowly over time, not all at once as some other domestication moves have been. It is thought that this process started in Turkey, and a couple of millennia later in China. There is some evidence that it also occurred elsewhere in Europe.

The modern pig appears to be descended from a variety of different species of wild boar, suggesting a certain amount of mixing of the different domesticated pigs. It is also clear that human preference had a great impact, as very similar pig like animals appeared in several different parts of the world independently.

In the UK, wild boar populations have accidently been created. These have grown fast, and are currently requiring big culls most years. I would like to see some of these boar moved rather than being killed. Forests with wild boar in, are far more healthy with more young saplings naturally sprouting. I believe that we should accept that the boar is back and reintroduce it into every significant area of woodland in existence.

It is true, that they can be dangerous however so can deer. As with all wild animals, provided you do not get too close you should be fine. Now I would argue that natural predators would be the best control on numbers, but I think in the UK we are not there yet.

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In the UK the Advertising standards agency (ASA) has promised to crack down on green washing

It is disgusting, that despite the science being clear for decades now (and the urgency needed) there is still so many companies that are desperately trying to hang on to their business as normal way of life.

As the world, and customers in particularly are increasingly voting with their feet and moving if a supplier is not being green enough, a lot are continuing to push out false news to try to throw climate change into doubt.

There has been much success on this, however it has run its course. The ASA has announced a regulatory crackdown on ads which seek to mislead on climate change.

Currently, the ASA rules are loose enough to allow significant misleading claims and mistakes to be gotten away with.

Time will tell if they are successful, however it is work long overdue. Much of the incorrect ideas on climate change have been placed in peoples minds on purpose.

Past examples include oil companies bigging up tiny parts of their business in adverts (and failing to mention the vast emissions from the 99% or more of their core business, along with companies like Volkswagen who cheated on emission standards allowing them to get away with far more emissions than they admitted to. Others include Coke who had a big campaign about waste plastic in the oceans – failing to admit that most of this plastic was their fault.

We will have to watch this carefully. Thankfully, in this day and age, there are many different people watching to keep account of what is going on. We must not avert our eyes.

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Climate scientists have spotted warning signs of the Gulf stream collapse

For many years there has been concern about what will happen to the various ocean currents, as the earth and the oceans warm. One of the currents that has the biggest positive effect is the Gulf stream – and scientists warn that the loss of this current could have devastating effects on the world and must not be allowed to happen.

Unfortunately, we are not changing our habits very much at all, and certainly not fast enough.

Continue reading “Climate scientists have spotted warning signs of the Gulf stream collapse”
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Carbon footprint of ghost flights during the lockdown

One would think that during the height of lockdown. that no planes would fly. After all, few people wanted to travel, and many destinations were banned.

Unfortunately no such luck. Why do I say this? Well currently 2.1% of emissions come from aviation (in wealthy countries this is far higher as many poor countries have little or no aviation – in the USA aviation accounts for 3-4%).

So what happened in lockdown?

Continue reading “Carbon footprint of ghost flights during the lockdown”
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Pine martens are back in the new forest! for sure. How will they fare?

Pine martens are an important part of the UK ecosystem. Indeed, it is only through their absence that the grey squirrel was able to get a foothold. Might this pine marten group return to save the red squirrel and remove the grey?

This video was filmed a few months ago

Pine martens are very good for the UK. It is the reason that red squirrels are so acrobatic – it is the only way to avoid this arboreal predator.

It is not thought that this population can be large, but its size is being studied.

If they are given the space to survive and thrive (it is probably necessary to translocate a few more) they could be really good for the forest.

Grey squirrels only arrived in the new forest in 1940s, and if this arboreal predator gets fully re-established, it is likely that the grey squirrel will disappear once again. This would then allow the return of the red squirrel. There is a red squirrel colony on Brownsea island, which is likely to benefit from the pine martens return, as they will greatly reduce grey squirrels in the area.

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20 meat and dairy firms emit more greenhouse gas than Germany Britain or France

We know that meat eating is one of the activities that has a detrimental effect on the environment. Not only that, but we know that much of the meat is created in factory settings the pollution can be particularly high.

Livestock rearing is responsible for around 14.5% of human warming emissions. in 2020 almost half a trillion dollars was invested into global meat and dairy companies. Unfortunately with this much financial investment, an increase of about 40 million tonnes of meat is expected.

75% of agricultural land is used to raise livestock (or grow crops purely for their food. Brazil alone has as much land given over to raising cattle, as the whole of the EU has agricultural land including everything. Unfortunately there is an increasing level of big companies buying small ones – while this might sound like business as normal, small meat producers often worry more about their carbon footprint than big ones. This means that increasingly, sustainable meat creation gets pushed out of the market.

These sorts of practices must end if we are to meet our climate goals. Could meat grown in a lab meet take over? I suspect so, and probably sooner than one would think.

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