Category: Uncategorized

In 2008 the UK committed,  as part of a climate agreement,  to cutting climate emissions by 90% compared to 1990 emissions by 2050.

Partly due to the decline in coal powered power stations, UK emissions averaged a defile of 6% the last 3 years and our emissions are now at 1890 levels – pretty impressive. Continue reading “UK government considering aiming for net zero carbon emissions by 2050”

McDonald’s to stop using plastic straws – in UK

After a large campaign, McDonald’s has agreed to stop using plastic straws in the UK and instead use ones made of paper.

1.8 million straws are used every day in UK McDonald’s restaurants and as these can’t be properly broken down or reused the plastic hangs around in the environment for centuries or even millennia. While the plastics will get broken down into microplastics in time, and the tiny plastics won’t choke wildlife,  they can build up in wildlife, and it had already been shown that fish for human consumption containing these microplastics is being eaten around the world including in the UK. Continue reading “News in brief – McDonald’s to stop using plastic straws in UK, Biodegradable water bottles, and plants which won’t need pesticides”

The company Monsanto have created soybeans that can stand high doses of pesticides so that the crops can be protected from pests. However they have highly restrictive sales that prohibit farmers keeping some seed to replant for the next year. Continue reading “Monsanto and the problem with gene patents”

In many countries around the world, on the creation of protected reserves, the local indigenous population were given reserves of their own (bordering the new national parks). The intention of this was to allow these people to continue living as they have for millennia.

In countries where many tourists go to see animals in the wild, these human reserves often have high amounts of game, but falling outside the reserve, the restrictions on what can be done in them is far looser. Continue reading “Local people driven off their land on the edge of protected reserves by their own government”

The oil company BP is buying Chargemaster, a fast charging network designed to recharge cars.

Chargemaster has 6500 charging points, but having bought it, it will make it very easy for BP to add electric car charging points at its petrol stations. Continue reading “Bp buying a fast charging network”

Despite a number of European countries setting a date to end the sale of combustion engine cars (I have written about the UK date for this), there are many people who do not believe that this fight is over.

The argument goes, electric cars use more resources to manufacture them. Coupled with the fact that most electricity is made by burning fossil fuels you are creating less carbon emissions to just drive a gas guzzler (the arguers suggest the most carbon intensive means of creating electricity). Continue reading “Attacks on electric cars”

Canada nationalising kinder Morgan pipeline

Justin Trudeau has successfully made Canada look like an environmentally forward looking government,  but if this pipe gets nationalised all that is likely to go out the window. Continue reading “News in brief – Canada nationalising Kinder Morgan pipeline and Waitrose singled out for failing to reduce waste”

China is in the process of creating a huge panda reserve covering 10,476 square miles.  This reserve is three times the size of Yellowstone National Park in the USA.

With all of the work saving the panda in China, it is surprising that the first reintroduction attempt was only 2006. Since then seven more have been reintroduced,  but out of these eight only five survived. Continue reading “China’s plan for a huge panda reserve”

As with many other human crops, bananas are under attack. In the rainforest different species of tree are spread throughout the forest- this is because if there are several trees of the same species together,  then the fungus or other pests that specialise in that tree do particularly well and kill off those trees. Continue reading “Bananas under attack”

As with many rhino species the Sumatran rhino has had a tough period in the last 40 years (in 1976 it was thought there were still 800 Sumatran Rhinos left in the wild).  They were once found across Sumatra, Borneo, and other parts of Indonesia, all the way up into mainland Asia in places such as Cambodia and parts of Bhutan and China. The decline had been extraordinary, leaving a current population estimate of 100 on the optimistic side (thought more likely to be 30). This Rhino species it is thought to be the most prehistoric, being surprisingly similar to the woolly mammoth of Europe’s past, the sole remaining example of a species from the genus dicerorhinini.   Continue reading “Saving the Sumatran rhino”