Category: News

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Saiga antelope making wonderful progress but is never likely to return to its former numbers

The Kazakstan population of these antelope has more than doubled in the last 2 years from 334,000 to 842,000. In 2015 there was a mass die-off and distressing images of the steppe strewn with bodies made the rounds. Thankfully, the mothers give birth to twins every year, so their ability to bounce back is impressive.

Back during the Soviet era there were many millions of these antelope, but with increasing development in their range a return to those days is highly unlikely.

With numbers like these of remaining individuals, one would be forgiven for thinking that these species is not critically endangered, or perhaps even endangered. However, these terms are applied based on percentage fall in the size of the population. Saiga antelope have suffered a 90% decline in their population at the end of the 20th century.

So long as there is not another mass die-off and poaching is kept under control, these animals are likely to recover, and continue to be the base of an extremely large food chain.

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The Tapanuli Orangutan is still threatened with extinction, despite only recently being discovered

The Tapanuli Orangutan lives on Sumatra but are thought to be more closely related to Bornean Orangutans. Numbering around 800 members, they had a far wider ranging habitat until recently. They are now restricted to about 1000 square km – about 2.5% of their former range.

While looking very similar to other orangutans, this sub species has not interbred with any other orangutans for over 1 million years and despite living in Sumatra, are more closely related to the Borneo Orangutan

What is harder, is that these Orangutans are not naturally mountainous animals, but have been driven there by the hunting that has so decimated their numbers.

Continue reading “The Tapanuli Orangutan is still threatened with extinction, despite only recently being discovered”
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Renewable energy could save more than $160 trillion in costs by 2050

There has been a constant argument that the cost of moving to renewable energy is too high. However, it is becoming clearer and clearer. Our descendants will quite rightly have a very low level of respect for us.

The idea of saving a small amount of investment now, and not worry about the trillions that this will cost in the future is quite disgusting. What is more foolish, is that while many of these clean technologies do cost now, they will save far more money in the future.

Throughout human history, the human race has fought to leave a better life for their children. Are we seriously saying that we are the first generation who is going to say we don’t care if we make life harder?

IRENA did the analysis, and the found that while global energy demands are likely to double by 2050, 86% of the 2050 demands could be met from renewable energy. The majority of this increase could be met through wind and solar. However, progress is not constant; Trumps foolish solar tariffs the USA lost 20,000 solar energy jobs – talk about America first!

The faster the transition, the greater the impact on the climate change fight. We dont just need to clean up our act, we are going to have to deal with all the damage from the last 2 centuries, and the quicker we make the change, the less clean up we will have to do.

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Placing small wind turbines on street lamps? interesting idea

Street lamps do not consume a great deal of electricity. Unfortunately, as there are many of them this rapidly builds up.

A new turbine that spins horizontally rather than vertically may make a big difference. Apart from anything, these turbines will be forced to turn as traffic passes, guaranteeing plenty of electricity each day. While these turbines are never going to make large amounts of power, given the large number of street lamps around the UK, it could generate a lot of power (it is estimated that it could create 6mw of power a day, enough to power a small village.

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Will the Vaquita survive much longer

The Vaquita is a small porpoise that is severely endangered. Up until now there has been a no take zone in the upper gulf of California, in order to avoid accidental bycatch, but unfortunately that has been eradicated.

With fewer than a dozen Vaquita left, this is likely to be the end, as bycatch of even just a couple a year will mean the little porpoise is no more very soon

Time will tell if conservationists are correct

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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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Harvard has $42 billion in investments, but still not divesting from fossil fuels

With an endowment, to rival a host of small countries, the clout that Harvard should have in terms of divesting from fossil fuels could be vast.

Unfortunately they are dragging their feet. Apart from the bad look that this give, it is also a highly dangerous way of working – there is an increasing concern that many fossil fuel companies will be left holding vast rights to drill will be worthless as they wont be able to sell the oil.

If all cars and lorries go electric (and it is looking increasingly like it will, and faster than expected) this will cut out the bottom of the oil market. Also with kites and sails, ships are increasingly going electric and renewable, and even planes are getting in on the act oil might become less and less useful.

It has already been shown, that it is cheaper to set up a solar or wind farm than it is to continue to burn coal or oil until the end of the powerplants life – as the numbers move even further, it is going to become impossible to ignore.

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