Countries such as Brazil and the USA have recently elected leaders who have denied long understood science. This ranges from health such as pandemics, global warming and the continual lost of biodiversity.
Who in America wants to start getting fewer miles per litre in their car
Trump has continually tried to water down rules set to protect people. There has been a rule that cars had to get 5%more efficient each year. Trump’s law “safe” (the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule), was a misnomer- it scrapped much of the fuel efficiency rules, this supposedly in the name of safety, despite it being illogical. It was clear trump wanted zero, but settled for 1.5%improvement each year.
Trump’s argument runs along lines essentially saying that in order for companies to meet the 5% efficiency rule they would have to to put hundreds of millions of dollars into research which would allow them to build these more efficient cars, and it all this money would be tacked onto the price of creating the car thereby making the cars more expensive.
Impact of corona-virus-over fishing in the Philippines
There have been many catalogues issues with what has happened during the current virus Outbreak. Some of these have fascinated people, the the sudden re-emergence of wildlife back into spaces that humans have left. This ranges from deer seen in public to monkeys in Indian cities and animals such as leopards and tigers leaving the reserves that they are normally remain within.
Trump scrapping environmental check requirements
Trump has sold his latest assault on the EPA as a way to get the economy going. The environmental protection agency speaks out its aim in its name. However Andrew Wheeler the EPA head has failed to raise any objections.
Huge green turtle gathering
A gathering of more than 5000 green turtles has been recorded by drone from the air.
While green turtles nest on beaches and therefore can be seen in large numbers around this area, to see them in these numbers at sea is unusual. It seems to be particularly exciting that these sort of sightings are still occurring, particularly given what is going on in the rest of the world.
Ice (internal combustion engine)car producers have claimed electric cars are as dirty, recent fair analysis suggest full life emissions are 300% more in combustion engine cars
The UK transport and environment department have created a tool to help do the check for people. Unlike the ice assessment which calculates the carbon cost of making the electric car, but left out the cost of making the ice car (why such an unfair comparison wasn’t laughed out of existence, I don’t understand) this assessment looked at everything; from mining of materials to build the cars, batteries for the electric car, extraction of fossil fuels and end of life dismantling costs including reductions in the carbon cost of battery production by recycling materials; an area which if fully utilised could reduce manufacturing battery costs so much that electric and ice cars have similar building carbon costs in entirety.
Ice car producers have also pointed at the dirty nature of grid electricity, however the grid is rapidly cleaning. At the moment, running on the most polluting electricity in the world electric cars have 22% less pollution than diesel, and 28% less than petrol.
Furthermore, with improvements to the grid, planned by 2030, electric cars average co2 emissions per mile will be 4 times smaller, than fossil fuel cars- it’s carbon footprint per mile is already 3 times smaller right now.
In this assessment they also used real world fossil fuel emissions, as this are far higher than what is measured in the lab.
To be fair this assessment also counts the carbon cost of building the solar farms and wind turbines predicted to be built over the next decade.
So the next time a friend starts quoting studies that say different, you can point out the difference between a scientific calculation of the environmental cost and one done by industry who rely on halting or slowing the decarbonising of transport to survive.
how to discredit global warming science the yes Minister way
This clip is alarmingly accurate in its portrayal of the Australian government’s approach to climate change, and how phenomenally similar it has been to Humphrey Applebys outline as to how to discredit a report. When a government is behaving in this way it is time for their voters to get rid of them. In this instance Tony Abbott has been voted out, though no new direction of the Australian government has emerged since.
Another wild creature making a comeback during the coronavirus shutdown-leatherback Turtles
Leatherback Turtles have for millennia dig their nests to lay their eggs on beaches of the right latitude around the world.
New population of central African lions found surviving in Ethiopia
While this story is not exactly brand new news it is of high importance. Having recently read and written about elephant poaching within the Ethiopian borders (posted yesterday) I was curious to see what was happening with their lion population.
The EPA in America is rolling back emissions standards for Mercury and other dangerous chemicals for power plants
The EPA continues to work against its own name as an Environmental Protection Agency, by doing things that categorically do not protect the environment.
Under Obama there were many new rules that improved the Environmental standards in the USA. One of these was a substantial reduction in the amount of mercury other chemicals hazardous to human health.
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