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The clean energy transition is accelerating in some parts of the world. It is often cheaper to install solar or wind turbines, than to continue to buy coal to keep using the coal power plant, never-the-less this has not stopped developing countries from failing to make the change.
In order to succeed in our fight against climate change, we need all countries working together. We need to retain all current Carbon dioxide sinks, as well as getting our carbon emissions down to near zero.
This is why it is so encouraging, that now Brazil has come back to the table.
Continue reading ““Brazil is back” says Lula at COP27″One of the biggest arguments against electric cars is the length of time that they take to charge. This of course forgets that for virtually every journey in the year, the distance that the car can go without being charged is enough to do the return trip. For the majority of electric cars, you can drive 200-300 miles before having to stop to charge- short of a rare road trip this will do almost all drives. It of course also forgets the fact that a human driver needs to stop for refreshments, to use the toilet and to have a break.
When we trained in the Kruger, there were about 70 cheetah and about 350 wild dog. 15 years later there were over 400 cheetah, and nearer 500 wild dog.
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What happened?
Well wild dog and cheetah are the most successful hunters, but they are also smaller than lion leopard or hyena.
Another change is far more hyena with a Kruger population of about 5000 up from around 2500 when we were here last time. There seems to be a similar number of Lion.
It would be a fascinating problem to try to create a computer model for a savannah population, while including Cheetah and Wild dog.
We are hoping to put some videos together over the next few weeks. Do like and subscribe to our youtube channel as well (seeanimalswild) though any new videos are likely to be copied here.
There have been many big announcements about bringing back recently lost animals. In theory I applaud the effort.
Places like the Russian steppe would be much more healthy with thousands of mammoths roaming around. They would likely make the great Russian Taiga forests more productive, and it is thought that they would greatly increase these forests ability to absorb carbon – something the planet needs in the face of global warming.
However, I believe that at the current time, with so many species close to extinction, we need to concentrate on protecting what is left, and only when there are excess habitats should we consider bringing back recently (or long) dead species.
Animals such as the Mammoth would make a huge difference in Russia and north America. However, another serious problem is the fact that the animals that would have to play surrogate for the Mammoths to be born are also endangered.
Whatever science can do, it is wrong to bring species back just for human entertainment. As a result, if any species is to be resurrected, it must be good for the world and the ecosystem – indeed it must have a good ecosystem into which it can be reintroduced.
What do you think?
So for the second time in a short period, the Conservative party has decided to change their leadership – and as the biggest party in parliament it has meant a change in prime minister and potentially a change in direction.
And who got to vote, to decide who will lead the UK? Just Conservative party members, or about 1 in 325 of the population. For many countries this does not sound like a democracy- but in the UK we have a parliamentary democracy, which means we vote for our local MP not a leader of the country. The Prime minister is the leader of the party which has the most MPs and therefore can win votes in the houses of parliament.
Why is this a problem? Well for a very simple reason – the Conservative party is generally older upper or middle class (certainly far more wealthy than the average in the UK).
Why does it matter? Quite simply because Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak were making pledges and trying to win over minds in a part of the population that is not representative of the rest of the population. One of the big issues is that there are a great number of loud voices in the Conservative party who are arguing that climate change isn’t real (despite not being scientists) or perhaps that it doesn’t matter as much as allowing business to thrive.
So the question is, what will happen over global warming?
Continue reading “The UK has a new Prime minister, how will this impact our net zero policy?”Bison have been missing from the UK for at least 6000 years (some estimates suggest that the Bison disappeared 10,000-11,000 years ago).
Bison are a species that is strong enough to knock down trees, allowing them to shape wild ecosystems, in ways that few other species can do so.
Currently there is a trade in various hippopotamus body parts, but if the animal was listed as endangered, this would cease to be legal.
Currently there are between 115,000-130,000 (though other knowledgeable experts can put the estimate as low as 80,000) but it is not what is happening now, so much as the threat that hippos are believed to face over combined threats of climate change, poaching and habitat loss.
Certainly, of the large species of Africa: Elephant, Rhino and Hippo, only the Hippo is regularly found outside protected areas (the Congo basin rainforest is perhaps different, but this may not last).
Given the threats currently, along with changes that are likely in the next few decades, I believe it is certainly time to include Hippo as endangered , on CITES level 1. Hippos are currently listed under CITES level 2 which allows some trade.
From 2009-2018 77,579 hippo body parts were traded around the world, so it is clear that we should act now. Were the hippo to recover across its African range, this might be a decision that could be reviewed, but for now it seems prudent to stop the Hippo slide towards extinction.
Bulb is a UK energy supplier. Octopus does the same thing, but they are in a better financial position. They are suggesting that with 1 billion support from the UK government, they could take over.
Why is this a good thing? Well, firstly Octopus has a far higher green targets, and the ability for consumers to pay about £5 above to guarantee all electricity is from green sources (as well as offsetting gas emissions).
Given Octopus has 3.1 million customers, and Bulb has 1.6 million, Octupus would grow by 50% overnight with this merge. The government is already 2 billion in the hole for trying to help Bulb not go out of business, might a 1 billion loan to Octopus be a better bet, given the highly likely requirement for the government to put more money into Bulb?
Given the governments carbon reduction targets, and fines that might hit them should the UK fail to cut as promised, this could well prove to be a superb deal even without the money coming back.
It is small news in worldwide perspective, but it is symptomatic of a trend which seems to be continuing around the rest of the world.
I was talking about Orca predating great white sharks just a few days ago, but it would seem that they have also been showing their apex predator status in British waters.
Experts cannot see a reason for Pilot whales to come so close to the coast, if they were not scared there by something. More importantly, killer whales were seen in the area.