Ivanka Trump the eldest daughter, and advisor of the president, has boasted about the emission reductions that have occurred under the Trump administration. It is certainly true that emissions this year have been 9.2% lower than the previous years, but of course this ignores the reason.
Trump has not done something to cause this drop, indeed anything that he has said on this topic has gone in the opposite direction.
The leuser ecosystem on the island of Sumatra, is home to a fascinating range of animals, not found together anywhere else. In particular, this ecosystem supports tigers orangutans elephants and rhino.
While these traps are sometimes set for trophy animals such as those above, they are more often set for smaller animals for bush meat. This means a piecemeal solution will not work. We need to improve the earning potential of people in this part of the world so that they can get their meat from sustainable places. This in theory can be done through tourism, though until the end of the epidemic this is likely to be hard to get off the ground.
A ban on combustion engine sales by 2030, with grants for electric cars, and funding for charge points. The sale of some hybrid cars and vans will continue until 2035.
A previously announced pledge to quadruple offshore wind power by 2030, to 40GW, enough to power every UK home.
Moves to boost hydrogen production, with the promise of a town heated entirely by hydrogen by the end of the decade.
Investment of £525m towards new nuclear power, based on “the next generation of small and advanced reactors”.
£1bn next year for funds to insulate homes and public buildings, using the existing green homes grant and public sector decarbonisation scheme.
An extra £200m invested in carbon capture initiatives.
Support for greener energies in the aviation and maritime sectors, with £20m committed to the latter.
30,000 hectares of trees planted every year, as part of nature conservation efforts.
Moves to promote public transport, cycling and walking, although no new schemes were announced.
A pledge to make London “the global center of green finance”.
The British government has once again brought forward the date at which UK companies will no longer be allowed to sell fossil fuel cars new. The new date is set to be 2030, by which time all new cars must be electric or some other green energy source.
The number of wild boar is increasing dramatically across much of Europe. From Spain which have areas supporting populations of hundreds of thousands of boar, to France and even in the UK where boar in the forest of Dean are already being culled regularly to keep their population under control.
Wild boar, important for our biodiversity, but in the wrong place can be dangerous
Italy has perhaps the worst problem, certainly one of the worst, then estimated 2 million boar roaming the country. It seems to be up for debate as to whether groups of boar can be territorial, nevertheless, when the young leave their parents they disperse into areas around. This has been an increasing problem in the outskirts of Rome, the ball has taken up residence.
In this instance, in the playground of Mario Moderni school (situated near the Vatican) a marksman turned up, shot them with a tranquilizer dart, and took them away to be killed.
The boar had been in the area for a while, indeed the pupils have started to feed it.
It is unclear why authorities felt the need to act in this way, it is more common to catch them in a humane trap. It is of course possible that they were thought to be too dangerous to the health of the students (though what this episode will do to them mental health is anyone’s guess). Allowing predators in Italy to recover would likely hugely reduce this problem – no admittedly if they have become comfortable living in towns humans may need to change how we behave to stop their ability to remain.
There is an increasing problem of sea-lions off the coast of California becoming epileptic as result of global warming.
It appears to be caused by domoic acid poisoning, which in the wrong circumstances builds up to dangerous levels in shellfish and other sea animals in the area.
Domoic acid can be released in large quantities during algae blooms, and due to global warming algae blooms are happening far more often.
Another animal this is prone to this problem are sea otters. Given the historical damage we did to the sea otter population, unfortunately lee6 could do substantial damage.
Scientists have found treatments that will allow them to deal with animals affected,however it may become necessary to find methods of making them affected instead as algae blooms will become more and more common as the temperature of the water’s increase.
In 2002 the Iberian lynx population fell to an estimated minimum of just 94 cats. In the latest count that number is now 844, and experts are now saying that if this climb continues the Iberian lynx could no longer be endangered by 2040 (it’s thought by this time there could be 3000 Iberian lynx living wild on the Iberian peninsula).
