Category: Uncategorized

Oral contraceptives for squirrels are working, a study has shown and so the UK government is keen to try to use this to reduce the grey squirrel population.

There have been many commentators over the years that have suggested that reducing one species to benefit another is somehow racist. Were both species native, this suggestion might have some justification, but they are not.

A recent study has shown that many farms could increase their yields while greatly reducing the quantity of chemical fertilizers that they have to buy. Given the dramatic increase in the price of fertilizers, this may well become something that many farmers are forced into.

CATL has created its first sodium-ion batteries and they can charge to 80% in 15 minutes. With a current usable charge of 160 watt hours per kg, they are targeting 200 in the near future. Another big advantage, is that these batteries can be used along lithium ion batteries.

This is not the sodium glass batteries that John Goddenough came up with, but may well still help in the moves we are making.

It is incredibly clear, that carbon reductions cannot stop when we have gone electric in cars, and greened out grid, along with are heating.

Unfortunately, it is clear that we need to cut the carbon footprint of our diets as well. Beef has a large carbon footprint – its plant based beef patties are responsibly for 120 grams of carbon, instead of 2.11kg.

Will lab-grown meat arrive to cut this down? possibly, but will it arrive soon enough to help us out? I dont know.

What is clear, is that those of us in the West need to dramatically cut our carbon footprint in the next few years, not in a few decades. As such some changes in diet will be needed.

While many people have found that electric cars are already more than capable of taking care of not only their daily needs, but also doing incredible road trips (I recently drove mine more than 1000 miles to watch the bears of north west Spain) it is still the regularly refrain that they cannot go far enough.

Lets forget for the moment the fact that unlike a combustion engine car you don’t have to stand and wait for the car to charge up – you plugin and then go have lunch/do what ever you want. For many people, they wish to replace their combustion engine with a car that is very similar (again even though, for almost every recharge they will plug it in at home in the evening, and in the morning be ready to go) and as such an extended range is something that will help with adoption. Now my experience with our car, is that we need to plan our stops a little better, but usually the car has the range to carry on, long before the family is ready to get back in. If you are doing a road trip on your own, this may not always be the case – and as such perhaps cars could do with more range.

Enter a new battery chemistry of Lithium-sulphur, which could triple battery capacity, and therefore the range of a car. Given that the longest range recent cars have ranges over 400 miles, this would give you a car with a range of 1200 or about 17 hours of non-stop driving at UK maximum allowed speeds.

Generally, when you encounter grass, or indeed sea grass, it appears to be many millions of individual plants all growing together.

Scientists discovered one single seagrass plant which has spread over 200 square km, and is thought to be 4500 years old.

This huge single plant now provides a place to live and feed for vast numbers of crabs, fish, turtles, dolphins and dugongs.

Electric cars appear to be accelerating in their adoption. The UK is close to having more than half a million electric cars on its roads (currently about 477,000). One could add to this the roughly 348,000 hybrid cars, but these are a half way step, and it entirely depends on how they are used, as to whether they end up being cleaner or not. Never-the-less the number of cars in the UK that can drive at least a little distance on zero emissions is approaching 1 million.

This study has found that if 44% of the worlds land surface was given increased protection, then we could save many of the current 1 million species threatened with extinction.

While this accounts for almost half of the world land surface, 1.8 billion people live on this land. While this is a large number of people, it is only 23% of the worlds population.

Much of this land is already protected in some way, but roughly 12.4 million square miles would need to be added (around 20% of the land that was identified). About 70% of the land needed to be preserved is in a largely untouched state – unfortunately though, this is not likely to be the case for long if something is not done.

How this is done, while allowing these people to raise their standard of living is a big issue, but it is one we need to solve, if we are to leave our world in a good state for future generations.

Cheetah are about to return to India, for the first time since 1952 – 70 years ago, when the last one was killed.

8 Cheetah from Namibia (where cheetah live in big numbers) are being moved to India. A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed (MoU).

The initial introductions will be into the Kuno reserve – an area where Asiatic lion should roam, were in not for the Gujarat government claiming exclusive ownership. I still believe that eventually Asiatic lion will move to Kuno, but lion and cheetah live side by side in many reserves, and the claim that this is why Gujarat cant move lions is as hollow as the many other excuses that they have claimed over the last 10 or so years.

The amount that the oil sector has made is incredible. The problem with these huge profits, is that it allows large amounts to be given to politicians, which are still relatively small percentages of the full profit.

When the Oil companies has so much money to through at keeping the taps on, is it any surprise that greenpeace and similar organisations have not been able to halt the damage?