Category: Politics

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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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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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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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UK makes a lot of noise about its green spending, unfortunately we are spending more on polluting ones

£145 million was earmarked in the March 2021 British budget for environmental spending. Let almost 40 billion is spent on polluting ones. Tax breaks to companies, to encourage investment in projects (that will damage the environment ) along with £4.5 billion lost from the fuel duty freeze (it has been frozen for 11 years).

Continue reading “UK makes a lot of noise about its green spending, unfortunately we are spending more on polluting ones”
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UK ministers have once again delayed the point at which a ban on trophy hunting will come in

Despite to much fanfare, announcing that in 2019 during a queens speech their plan to ban trophy hunting, the government has once again delayed this law coming into effect.

Clearly endangered animals such as lions tigers elephants and many more are shot for sport around the world in numbers above 10,000 per year. While some of the meat is often given to local communities, the reason for the hunt was to provide a trophy for the hunter.

I find it disgusting that British politicians announced this policy 3 years ago but have not brought the rule into force. They are attempting to get the global clap on the back without actually having the bring in the law.

There are few to no predators that live in large enough numbers to be able to afford hunting. For me (as well as I suspect many of my readers) hunting is a rather distasteful experience. There are a few areas on the planet where hunting is temporarily justified such as the Selous – but these should be short lived. In the long run making money from wildlife should be done with a camera and not with a gun

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Academics fear that if Bolsonaro is re-elected in October, the Amazon rainforest will collapse during his second term

The signs of collapse are getting more and more clear. Fires droughts and land clearances are all pushing the Amazon towards collapse. Yet Jair Bolsonaro is not interested having put his head in the sand. Instead he is busy placating powerful agribusiness lobby and trying to get the global economy to reward his bad behaviour.

Could this become increasingly what Brazil looks like? If it does, how will it feed its growing population?

The blows to forest protection have come fast in the last year. It is unclear how much of the Brazilian population understands how big the threat is that Bolsonaro is ignoring.

Continue reading “Academics fear that if Bolsonaro is re-elected in October, the Amazon rainforest will collapse during his second term”
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Worlds 26 richest people own as much as the poorest 50%

The increase of wealth in a few people is shown by the number of people that it takes to reach 50% of humans wealth reducing over time. in 2016 61 people were needed to reach 50%, in 2017 43 were needed.

Why does this matter? well it means two things. Firstly a large proportion of humanity has few physical resources. When you are living hand to mouth, doing anything else is impossible. The second, is that those few with enormous resources have vastly bigger carbon footprints: this is not just thinking of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and their rocket rivalry (it is not hard to make an argument that space could help save us in the future), but 22,000 with private jets and the many millions more who are emitting tens of tonnes of carbon each year.

Those with extreme wealth therefore need to offset a great deal more than just their own carbon footprint. Billionaires should be throwing money at people sequestering carbon – it will protect their own future just as much as the poorest on planet earth

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Who has contributed the most to historic global emissions? Lets try to be fair

We are currently putting a great deal of pressure on emerging countries such as the BRICS (Brazil Russia India China South africa) and a whole host of other countries.

It certainly is true that these countries are emitting huge amounts of pollution, but perhaps a more fair way of looking at cuts is to see who has emitted the most carbon dioxide over history.

Continue reading “Who has contributed the most to historic global emissions? Lets try to be fair”
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The far right is now fear-mongering over extreme climate change, after letting go of climate denialism

Across much of the developed world, far right parties have gradually let go of their stupid climate change denialism and switched smoothly into waving it around as a way to increase peoples fear of immigration.

From Nigel Farage in the UK with a range of parties (so little success he has never managed to get elected to Westminster- though he scared the Conservatives enough to scare them into carrying out his suicidal plans of Brexit, also particularly odd his fear of immigration given his recent ancestry in Europe hence his name) as well as the BNP (who claimed to be the only green party as a result of their focus on immigration (no I dont follow this one either) Germanys Alternative for Germany (they have switched mockery of climate science to warning of harsh climatic conditions in Africa and the Middle east which will lead to a gigantic wave of immigration) Frances National Front (who has switched derisive climate change denial for a pledge to create the worlds “leading ecological civilization”).

This trend is not restricted to Europe but is repeated all over the place (including often in countries that are almost entirely descended from recent immigration in just the last few centuries).

In the UK, while we don’t have one of these far right parties in change Boris Johnson often seems far to comfortable stealing their policies.

Generally concern for the environment is considered a left wing thing, though it isn’t the first time that the far right has tried to appropriate something that is the cause of the left. Now care needs to be taken, as David Cameron is the person who is famous for saying “get rid of all that green crap”.

The changes that have to be made to the global economy will be far reaching. This is something that the extreme right often uses to scare people into voting for them. We need to educate those around us so they are not taken in by the empty words coming from all these parties.

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